The Comic-Con Marketing Hellscape Has Hit Critical Mass With KFC’s ‘Colonel’s Adventure Comics’

I think I speak for all of us when I say that the biggest problem facing the comics industry today is that there's a distinct lack of stories about fried chicken and the people who make it, but those days are finally over. Mark it on your calendars, folks: When Comic-Con International kicks off in San Diego on July 9, our national nightmare will come to an end with the release of The Colonel's Adventures, a promotional comic produced by KFC, starring string-tied advertising icon Colonel Harland Sanders.

Announced this week on Facebook, the convention exclusive is part of KFC's new advertising campaign featuring actor and comedian Darrell Hammond as the Colonel, and it is an actual real thing that a company is producing in order to let people at Comic-Con know that Kentucky Fried Chicken is a thing that exists.

That might make it the least necessary bit of advertising on the face of the planet, but as much as it might be tempting to scoff, I'm not gonna lie: I am kind of intrigued by the cover's image of a tiny little Colonel riding a skateboard:

As tempting as it might be to see this as just another sign of Comic-Con's rapid descent into being about literally everything in the world except comic books, I do have to respect that KFC is at least making an attempt to tie into the medium rather than just having Colonel Sanders cosplayers (Colplayers) sweltering in the heat outside of the building handing out gravy bowls to the Hall H line. Although, now that I've actually written that, it does seem like that might be a nice thing to do.

Sadly, the Facebook announcement does not list a creative team, but there's a rumor going around that it marks a reunion for the Watchmen team of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons --- and by "rumor" I mean "something I just made up that is definitely not true at all."

More on the story as it develops.