Powerade and DC Comics Launch King James Online Comic

Posted on April 22, 2005

Powerade and DC Comics have debuted a promotional effort that will include four online comics starring LeBron James as "King James," a superhero. Each Powerade online comic available at flava23.com features LeBron drawn by a DC Comics art team. The Powerade online comic translates still comic book pages into animated Flash pages that use LeBron's voice, audio clips and interactivity to create a serialized story. The first online comic, "The Offer," features new content written by Ron Perazza with art by comic book artist Rick Leonardi (Batgirl). The first 12-screen Webisode of "The Offer" premiered on April 13, with an additional Webisode rolling out each week for five weeks.

Powerade and DC Comics first created LeBron's King James superhero persona last summer in the DC Comic, King James. At 20 years old, LeBron James has already achieved many "firsts": first "prep to pro" player to score 25 points in his pro debut; youngest player to score 56 points in a game; youngest player to score 1,000 career points; the first superstar athlete to create his own sports drink flavor -- Powerade Flava23. Now he's the first superstar comic book hero to bring his game to the courts and the Web.

"LeBron James is one of the most popular and charismatic players in the league today. To satisfy demand for the "King James" comic book, DC Comics printed over three million copies for what was the most expansive sports- related custom comic book we have ever created," said David McKillips, Vice President, Advertising & Custom Publishing, DC Comics. "Now the Powerade online comics allow us to expand on that audience, while continuing the adventure and introducing King James' fans to the exciting DC Comics' storytelling of creators like Rick Leonardi, Shawn Martinborough, and Yanick Paquette."