• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, February 20, 2007

Purists take heart. At a time when repurposed digital clips all but dominate popular culture, the state of the comic book is strong. That, at least, is the conclusion one might draw from recent efforts by various ad agencies, and now MySpace, to tap the seemingly antique art form.

MySpace late last week launched the MySpace.com Comic Books profile, which will be the official community for all manner of comics, including Japanese-based manga, graphic novels, and more classic American comic styles.

For the pre-launch of Jeep's new Patriot compact SUV, Omnicom Group's Organic earlier this month tapped Marvel Comics to help with a UGC initiative. Also, Marvel is currently partnering with Mazda on various out-of-home initiatives. And another Chrysler brand, Dodge, recently teamed up with Marvel for a large ad buy, which included product placement in Marvel comic story lines.

Visitors to, and "friends" of, MySpace's comic hub--located at myspace.com/comicbooks--can check out the community to find related news, interviews, special features, and drawing contests. MySpace Comic Books will also spotlight today's most promising artists, industry events, and user-generated comics by MySpace members.

As part of the launch, MySpace is hosting a "Buffy Changed My Life" contest running until March 14. Fans are being asked to write in, detailing how Buffy changed their life in 250 words or less. "Buffy" and "Angel" creator Joss Whedon himself will judge this contest and choose one winner to be written and drawn into the eighth series of the comic as a character.

To further ingratiate itself with the comic community, MySpace will be the title sponsor of the New York Comic Con event taking place at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City from Feb. 23 to 25.