By Brenda Waldrop, Media Editor
Business comics, a novel concept? (OK, it was a bad pun I admit it.) But really, turning highly successful business books into comics, who would have thought of it? Well, a company called SmarterComics has, and strangely the concept seems to work. Look at it this way, most of today’s business people and entrepreneurs grew up reading comics. It’s the era of the nerd, being a geek is cool and profitable. It’s also the era of IMs, texts and tweets, the era of the short attention span, so turning business books into short, to the point, 50ish page comics, complete with lots of great pictures, well you can see the appeal to the future Mark Zuckerberg’s of the world.
With titles like, Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life, Fortune Favors the Bold, and my personal favorite, The Art of War, 2nd Edition, I think this new “smarter comic” will catch the attention of its target audience. It’s not just twenty-something’s that I think will find these appealing either. I believe those of us who entered the workforce during the comic-boom of the 90’s will appreciate the “This isn’t your baby-boomer parent’s business book” approach as well. Each comic is done in graphic novel format, and they didn’t skimp on the art or the production.
The Art of War, 2nd Edition, Illustrated by Shane Clester, has been modernized using Sun Tzu’s 2,500 year old concepts and words, and applying them to modern-day situations; a would-be rapper waiting for his big break, a young woman out clubbing escaping a group of would-be attackers, and a politician who aims to “win without ever having to fight”. The lessons are short and to the point, and perhaps even more important, applicable to situations that the reader can relate to.
Fortune Favors the Bold, Written by Franco Arda and Illustrated by Anjin Anhut, stresses concepts like, “It’s Okay to Fail”, “Be Different or be Average”, and “Life is Risky”. It’s set in a James Bond style with fast cars, guns, sky diving, and beautiful scantily-clad women who need rescuing every few chapters. Least you get distracted by all the action, the lesson points are summarized at the end of the comic. Cliff Notes for life? Yet again, strangely it works.
SmarterComics features at least 7 titles at the moment, and they are available for download to your iPad, e-reader, or smartphone. You can find SmarterComics at www.smartercomics.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/smartercomics. So get out there and start taking over the world comic readers, this is our time!
ComicsOnline gives SmarterComics 3.5 out of 5 briefcases!
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