My real life job is in the marketing industry, so this particular information appeals to me on a professional level. Recently I came across an interview with Joe Quesada done by Jim McLauchlin from the Hero Initiative. There were several notable pieces of comic news, but the one highlight for me was the information Quesada dropped regarding the mixed media marketing for their big event this summer, Secret Invasion.

Marvel started a Myspace page and a video blog for Kinsey Walden, a character they have in their Secret Invasion web-exclusive comic, Secret Invasion: Home Invasion. The videos and the online comic feature a young teenager outlining and documenting her fears regarding her brother acting strangely, and continuing on Marvel.com with one new comic page by writer Ivan Brandon and artist Nick Postic every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

This is very interesting, and intelligent, because it allows Marvel to capitalize on the viral aspect of the internet and simultaneously garner even further attention from the news. While there are a lot of editorial decisions made by Quesada that many question, this move into the new forms of marketing available and embracing the scope of the internet is very impressive. Quesada has been doing an excellent job of helping comics to move into and become a mainstay in the mainstream.

After the jump ComicNerd has an excerpt from the Jim McLauchlin interview, with all of the juicy details related to Kinsey Walden and some props from Quesada to Marvel fans everywhere.

JM: Speaking of Skrulls, we’re in the throes of Secret Invasion. We’ll hit on some reader questions soon, but an interesting twist Marvel put on this story was bringing it all home with a real person in “Kinsey.” Who the heck is she, like for reals?

JQ: Wouldn’t ya like to know? The character of Kinsey Walden is your average 18-year-old girl who wants to get into college and hopes the boy she likes will ask her to prom. She also happens to have an annoying brother named Hank, who recently started acting very strange. As you learned in video blog on MySpace, Kinsey and company actually exist in the Marvel Universe, and Hank was replaced by Skrulls. During Secret Invasion, you can follow Kinsey and her brother—and find out exactly why her brother was chosen by the Skrulls to be replaced—in a webcomic on Marvel.com

JM: So the Secret Invasion: Home Invasion comic is…what? Marvel’s first ever book done specifically for the Web? True?

JQ: While we did a Secret Invasion Prologue exclusively for the web, this is the first serialized web comic Marvel has done. Everyone involved on the creative team has experience with webcomics and independent comics, from the editor John Barber, to the writer Ivan Brandon, and the artist Nick Postic. This was designed to keep the audience who followed Kinsey’s video blogs and introduce them to the wonderful world of comics. Each webcomic supports Secret Invasion and gives details on how to find a local comic shop to help these new readers seek out our books.

JM: Going forward, can you see Marvel doing more Web-only books? What’s the advantages and disadvantages of a format like this?

JQ: We saw a tremendous response to the Secret Invasion Prologue and reaction to Kinsey has been great, so we may do more like these, but they will always be used to support and promote the physical comics and direct people to the brick and mortar shops.

JM: I’d have to assume Secret Invasion: Home Invasion will be collected in an eventual Secret Invasion hardcover and paperback, but are there any other applications something like this could serve?

JQ: I’d say it already has. Kinsey’s MySpace page is still up and running and we are hearing from her “fans” who followed her video blogs that they are reading the comics online, and from what we’re hearing, many of these are brand new readers. So Kinsey rocks in my book.

JM: Ballpark it. All this doesn’t come without cost. Between a free Webcomic, sending Skrulls around Manhattan, advertising and all, now much dough does Marvel sink into a marketing campaign for something like Secret Invasion?

JQ: We don’t discuss dollar amounts in public. That would be like me asking you how much MySpace pays you to interview me on a weekly basis. But we do spend a considerable amount of time and money on our marketing. Also, a lot of what we do, we manage to do for less than one would expect as we have a lot of willing participants and so much of the stuff goes out virally and takes on a life of its own.

For example, our fans chip in in a very big way. Marvel fans are truly a force to be reckoned with when it comes to telling the world what’s coming. They’re legion and kick Colbert Nation’s ass when it comes to this stuff! [laughs] Kidding, Colbert Nation, kidding! Besides, I know you’re all Marvel fans too, and that’s why we love you. Now go back to sticking Peabody stickers on Doritos bags. Anyway, we’ve really been enjoying creating initiatives that allow Marvel fans to have some fun with our marketing and at the end of the day they come up with stuff that’s infinitely better than anything we could have concocted.

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