I actually wrote to the franchise manager, the US brand team, and the web producer this morning, to discuss the fact that the comics and the web are going to need to carry more of the story ball in 2009, especially first half. (So if we do less than six issues of the comic again, I recommended we not drop the Jan. issue again, for example.)
Basically, the readers have an upside and a downside -- the upside is they will get into stores the chapter books don't, and they are a good recruiting tool. The downside is they can't tell main story and I don't know if, short term, they help set sales much since their target audience is not the kids who are buying BIONICLE sets.
As far as the movie novelization goes, that is kind of up in the air -- movie story is the second half story, so kind of hard to avoid it, but I would not want the book out before the movie comes out -- my editor kind of left it open whether we want to deal with full movie story or only part of it in the books.
I know it seems like a lot of details are still up in the air, but frankly, do you think that next year we're just going to have to make due with noticably less story than this year (not counting the movie itself)?
Remember that 2001 didn't have too much complex story. It's entirely possible we may be returning to more web-based story as we had then. Here's hoping for something MNOLG-quality.
Anyway, as long as the quality of the books remains good, I may not mind there being fewer.
That's impossible for me to say, JB. But we are talking two chapter books in 2009, down one from what we had this year. We will still have comics, still have BIONICLEstory.com, and have a movie on top of it, so we may actually have more ways to make story available than we have now. At the same time, given that it is a new universe, we will be more focused on introducing that universe rather than having to interconnect to past years' story as we have to now.
As long as the chapter books have different story with the movie,I'd say 2009 would be better than this year. It'd be a great way to increase the book sales since the story would only be exclusive to the novels.
I'm still throwing pennies into the wishing well hoping for a large Bionicle novel even though I know that the odds of that happening are about a billion-to-one (I must have thrown about 500 dollers worth of pennies into that well ). I am still amazed that anyone is able to create a story so interesting and complex that even though it is aimed toward a younger group I still love reading it and go nuts waiting for the next book. I would absolutly love to see what they could do with the same story re-designed for sixteen-seventeen year olds and with books as long as a proper novel.
I am really kind of sad to see that the books seem to be going in the other direction and some of the chapter books replaced by books for an even younger audience. Oh well, I'm still exited about 2009 and I really do think that it will be great (storyline-wise you have never dissapointed me so far).
BioHero -- Well, if people go out and buy books in 2009, hopefully there will be more books in 2010. The door is open for that, or so I have been told, but the sales have to be there to get stores interested in it.
Basically, the readers have an upside and a downside -- the upside is they will get into stores the chapter books don't, and they are a good recruiting tool. The downside is they can't tell main story and I don't know if, short term, they help set sales much since their target audience is not the kids who are buying BIONICLE sets.
As far as the movie novelization goes, that is kind of up in the air -- movie story is the second half story, so kind of hard to avoid it, but I would not want the book out before the movie comes out -- my editor kind of left it open whether we want to deal with full movie story or only part of it in the books.
Greg
Anyway, as long as the quality of the books remains good, I may not mind there being fewer.
Greg
Would it make sence to devote a Bioniclestory serial to introducing us to the new universe?
I am really kind of sad to see that the books seem to be going in the other direction and some of the chapter books replaced by books for an even younger audience. Oh well, I'm still exited about 2009 and I really do think that it will be great (storyline-wise you have never dissapointed me so far).
Greg