New York:
What do Jesus, Lady Gaga, J. K. Rowling, David Beckham and the cast of "Glee" have in common? They are each the subject of a biographical comic book from Bluewater Productions.
And there are more yet to come: Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (August), Meredith Vieira (September), Olivia Newton-John (October) and the cast of "Twilight" (November).
Set in that middle ground between fanzines and traditional biographies aimed at the younger reader, these publications are the latest chapter in the publishing industry's presentation of fact-based comics. The man behind them all is Bluewater's president, Darren G. Davis, and the true-story comics have been the company's salvation.
"Without these comics, we wouldn't be alive," Mr. Davis said in a telephone interview. Bluewater, like many smaller comic book companies, was struggling with a tougher, smaller market and the declining sales of comics featuring the 10th Muse, a character Mr. Davis created, which was introduced in 2000. A Michelle Obama comic book from the new series sold around 65,000 copies, Mr. Davis said. By contrast, copies of the 10th Muse sell between 5,000 and 10,000.
The turnaround for Bluewater began with the 2008 presidential campaign. Another comic book company, IDW Publishing, released biographies a few weeks before the election telling the stories of Senators John McCain and Barack Obama. Those issues sold nearly 30,000 copies to comic book stores in the first month of their release.
Mr. Davis was inspired to follow up those comics with ones devoted to Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sarah Palin. (The cover of the book featuring Mrs. Clinton even mimicked the look of the covers featuring the male senators.) Mr. Davis said he was frustrated that the women "were being treated really unfairly in the press." He thought that the Bluewater biographies, which were released in February 2009, would help get their stories out. "You might not like them, but you have to respect them and their career," he said.
Having such powerful women starring in comic books fits into Bluewater's slate of "female empowerment" books, which include the 10th Muse, about a long-lost daughter of the Greek god Zeus, and comics featuring the Egyptian goddess Isis. The biographies of Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Palin were published under a "Female Force" banner that went on to include Michelle Obama; Caroline Kennedy; Diana, Princess of Wales; Condoleezza Rice; Barbara Walters and others.
Putting out the comic biographies allowed Mr. Davis to tap skills from his earlier career in marketing, publicity and advertising. He had worked for E! Entertainment Television, USA Networks and Lionsgate. "I know how to utilize the press," he said. "People are going to publicize a Sarah Palin comic rather than a small independent comic."
Comic book biographies are not new, of course. "There have been an awful lot over the years," said Mark Evanier, a comic book historian. One of the first regular series, Mr. Evanier noted, was Real Fact Comics, from National Allied Publications, the forerunner of DC Comics. The series ran from 1946 to 1949 and told the stories of famous folks like the musician Glenn Miller, the writer Jack London and the actor Lon Chaney. More recent biographical comics have run the gamut from Marvel's take on Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II, in the 1980s, to the story of Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco from First Amendment Publishing, in the 1990s.
Mr. Davis has since twice broadened the focus of Bluewater's line. Enter the "Political Power" series with Colin Powell, Ted Kennedy, Al Franken and Joseph R. Biden Jr. The company's latest effort is its "Fame" series, which chronicles the likes of Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and the cast of "Twilight" (individually and as a group phenomenon).
The "Fame" series will no doubt help Bluewater's bottom line, and it will also help meet another of Mr. Davis's goals and the Holy Grail of the comic book industry: attracting new readers. The biographies are sold at comic book stores, amazon.com and even Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft stores nationally. Mr. David said that signings at comic stores have attracted women who "didn't even know comic book stores existed." Getting those women in can sometimes lead to additional sales of other comics -- for themselves or their children, he said.
The Bluewater books have had their share of mistakes and detractors. The first version of the cover of the Hillary Rodham Clinton comic depicted the American flag with 14 stripes. In a discussion with a caller on his show, Rush Limbaugh revealed that he did not have a cat named Banjo, as his comic book biography claimed. (His cat's name is Punkin.) Johanna Draper Carlson, who operates the Web site Comics Worth Reading, had concerns about the books' overall quality. "I'm afraid that anyone drawn in because, say, they're a fan of Lady Gaga would be so turned off by what they got that it wouldn't be a net benefit for comics," she told newsarama.com, a Web site that covers the comic book industry. "It could confirm the outdated stereotype of comics being sub-literate and for the uneducated."
"People say we get all our information from Wikipedia, but that's a total lie," Mr. Davis said. "We really go out there and do the research. We talked to Oprah's dad before Kitty Kelley did," he said.
And while some of the comics did not have the cooperation of their subjects, that may be changing. "We reach out to the celebrities and try to get them as involved as possible," he said. He offers to publish public service advertisements for causes the subjects support, or to donate a percentage of the proceeds. Olivia Newton-John and Charlaine Harris, the author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels on which the HBO series "True Blood" is based, have taken part in their coming biographies. "We've also heard from Taylor Swift's agent," Mr. Davis said. "There's a possibility we might be doing something with her."
While the bold-faced personalities for these books may seem infinite, Mr. Davis has drawn a line in the sand. "I'm not a big fan of the reality stars," he said. "You'll never see a comic book with Heidi Montag."