Thursday 19 January 2017

How Grant Morrison sells comics


Circa 1995, Grant Morrison wrote a unique request to readers in the letters column of his Invisibles series (in issue #16 of Volume 1 we believe). To boost sales, he wanted readers to engage in the following "magical" action on Nov. 23, 1995:
  1. Masturbate
  2. At the point of orgasm, hold an image of a sigil he drew in mind  
  3. Tell at least one friend to read the next issue of the Invisibles


We were disappointed at how similar his magical method to boost sales was to the simpler, non-magical alternative:
  1. Masturbate
  2. At the point of orgasm, hold an image of a sigil he drew in mind  
  3. Tell at least one friend to read the next issue of the Invisibles

Is it magical if you still need to resort to common sense to get something to work? That being said, we are an open-minded and evidence-based people. Maybe masturbation makes people more convincing at sales? We'd propose to Mr. Morrison that we organize a randomized experiment to find out, but we're having trouble coming up with a good control condition.



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