Over the years we’ve argued endlessly about how comics publishers can take advantage of the popularity of comics media – all the movies and streamers based on that comics IP.
We’ve seen Marvel struggle with this over the years, while DC has had a direct line to the studio, with movie posters suggesting you buy the comics.
A rather modest comics-based movie is coming out next week, Clayface, a body-horror tinged film starring Tom Rhys Harries and Naomie Ackie. With a $30 million budget, it is a economical addition to the DCU that is already getting strong reviews. While it isn’t expected to set any records, it should be appropriate fare for the Halloween season.
Clayface the comics characters has a loooooong, confusing history, appropriately enough appearing in myriad guises and genders throughout various DC reboots and crises. All I know is the character debuted as a Batman villain back in the 40s, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. However he’s been a regular supporting character in animation for years.
To tie in with the movie, a Clayface mini-series came out ealrier this year, Clayface Celebrity Dirt, by Jude Ellison S. Doyle and Fran Galan.
I haven’t really been paying much attention to Clayface news (although I intend to see the movie) so I had a surprise when I popped by my local comics shop, Midtown Comics Grand Central, to pickup some comics supplies earlier this week.
Right next to the checkout there was a $1 Clayface #1 Special Edition.
At that price, I decided to pick it up. Inside there is an early story by Finger and Sheldon Moldoff, a later story by Steve Purcell and Mike Mignola (!) and a preview of Celebrity Dirt. All for $1 (although some shops are charging $1.99.)
This definitely seems like a smart way to tie-in to the movie release: a range of material at a dirt cheap price. While the Clayface movie doesn’t have any obvious comics antecedents, the preview gives a taste of the character. Clayface the movie seems like a quirky entry into theaters, so doing a big tie in as they did with Supergirl doesn’t make sense – but giving readers an easy entry point does.
And who knows, some people might see the movie, and want to know more about comics in general – this is what they might be looking for.
The checkout-stand placement at Midtown might be a little preaching to the converted, but it definitely caught my eye, and i now know more about Clayface comics than I ever did before!
BUT there is a bit MORE to the story, as I learned in researching this piece however: The story “If a Man Be Clay” by Purcell and Mignola has a curious history, as told by inker Kevin Nowlan himself.
It seems the story was commissioned for Secret Origins #44 in 1989, but DC canned it because of the “irreverent tone.” Mark Waid was the editor and I can only imagine how all that went down.
Years later, Mignola asked a current DC editor about the still unfinished story. Nowlan, who had originally been assigned the inks, was called in to finish the art and it was published in Batman Villains: Secret Files and Origins #1 in 2005.
If you have never heard of Steve Purcell, he is the creator of Sam & Max, and he is one of the funniest cartoonists who ever lived. At least to MY tastes! And you get a dose of it in this story. I mean LOOK AT THIS PANEL.
So not only does this low-key Clayface special offer a nice tie in for movie goers, at a modest price, but it offers a LOST WEIRD COMICS STORY BY THREE GENIUSES, Steve Purcell, Mike Mignola and Kevin Nowlan!
DC can really do no wrong these days.
For more on the history of Clayface in the comics, and recent appearances, this article at Screen Rant gives some information. And J. Caleb Mozzocco has a more detailed look here.
