• Ad Age, Tuesday, December 11, 2007 11 AM

As they try to reach young male consumers, advertisers and their agencies are increasingly turning to a once-scorned medium: comic books. Automaker Honda was one early adopter, having been in them since 2005 when buyer Sharon Enright happened upon the idea and took a chance.

Since then, Chrysler and GM have joined the party, while Honda has stayed in as well. Other big-budget marketers now pushing into the medium include Campbell Soup, the U.S. Army, AT&T and a host of movie studios and video-game makers. And the comic-book industry's paltry $32 million in annual ad sales is set to grow, says Gordon Hodge, an analyst with Thomas Wiesel Partners, as publishers start moving online.

Long just for kids, edgier -- and more gruesome -- stories now attract an older set, bringing in men in their 20s and 30s. "The culture has changed,' says Paul Levitz, head of DC Comics."Advertisers [have] realized that comic books were delivering a significantly older audience: adults and college kids."

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