So, the gauntlet was laid down last week by Nick Barrucci and the like. A 'Got Milk' style ad campaign, featuring comic-reading celebrities.

The 'Comics Are Cool' initial strapline was universally derided. Mark Millar's take was too foul-mouthed and my own 'Ban Comics' may have gone into areas best left untouched.

What it needed was something simple. Something that linked the celebrity to the comic reading process - hopefully without actually showing them reading comics which looked cheap, tacky and manipulative.

Equally, showing comics themselves, using the form, the stereotypes would just end up going down the Bam! Pow! Kerpoop! route. Some of the best media campaigns for entertainment products have not shown the product itself. Playstation dominated media with its 'conquered worlds' TV spot, or the 'excited nipples' poster. They need to be cool without saying they're cool. Something both unattainable, yet in reach.

What follows are a number of portrait posters I've written and art directed by David Dadekian of Soundsight. Consider them pitches, scamps, demos, parodies, whatever. A taste of the kind of thing we could do if we could get celebrity agreement and a budget.

I understand both are in hand.

I am sure there are more ideas, campaigns and executions out there. But I've just given you all something to beat.

And if anyone wanted to print out the large versions, hand them out and stick them up around the place, well, who are we to stop you?

P.S. No we haven't done Terry Gilliam, Joss Whedon, the Wachowski Brothers, Clive Barker, etc etc. We need recognisable faces for the mass American public. Individual campaigns targeted at niche markets, that, like the Got Milk campaign, comes later.

Rich Johnston writes Lying In The Gutters