The Vans Warped Tour and Valiant Entertainment today announced a new partnership to bring Valiant’s award-winning library of comic book superheroes on the road with America’s longest-running touring music festival for an immersive collaboration spanning the summer 2017 season. A deal that will see comic book characters adorn posters, websites, and merchandise through artwork designed by Valiant artist, Kano.
Additionally, Valiant will exhibit at select Vans Warped Tour dates across the summer with a mobile comic book art installation and appearances by major comics creators. It’s not the first time a music festival has tried to incorporate comics, plus a few comics have come from bands like Tsunami Bomb and The Vandals. This is, however, the most mainstream a partnership has the potential to reach. Vans Warped Tour has become one of the longest running music tours, along the way corporations such as retail giant Target noticed its influence and poured marketing dollars in the hopes of reaching Warped Tour’s young audience.
Valiant’s appearances on the 2017 Vans Warped Tour will benefit the publisher’s ongoing charitable partners at The Keep A Breast Foundation – a leading nonprofit organization with a mission to empower young people around the world with breast health education and support.
As much as Valiant plays the Diamond game, they’re one of the few publishers that spend marketing dollars in a way that actually aims to reach potential readers directly. It hasn’t always worked out, I saw them appear in the vendor wasteland that was Gamestop Expo last year, but this move has serious potential. The younger generation that’s inherited Warped Tour has never been more intertwined with pop culture. An audience more open to books outside of superhero movies and greatly influenced by an art scene.
The full lineup of bands for the Warped Tour will be announced on March 22nd. You can find all the info at Vanswarpedtour.com.
