This year, SXSW is premiering a new film, Kick-ass. If it sounds familiar, it's because it is based off a comic book of the same name.

This matters because it's another comic book in a long line of comic books that are being turned into artistically good and financially successful movies. There are so many of them, a whole community has formed around the comic book/movie duo.

Why are there so many, and why do they do so well in theaters? It's all about minimum viable products, and iterating.

In the lifecycle of a movie, the simplest thing is an idea. After that comes a story, then a script, then a storyboard, and finally a movie. Comic books are another iteration that come between story and movie script. It's a cheap way of building the story and visuals that can be used to get feedback from outsiders. If a story is interesting, and the comic book visuals are good, then it's an easy progression to step up to a movie.

This is exactly what Agile and the idea of Minimum Viable Product are all about. Start small, and expand slowly based on feedback from outsiders. Creating simple versions and building upon them is a straightforward way to prove an idea, as well as building your customer base cheaply. Plenty of people buy comic books, and the authors make money, the same way that you can get users for a simple version of a web app. Then, once the idea has been proven in the small scale, you can make bigger investments and move forward, knowing that the idea can be converted into dollars.

If you have any doubts about the value of simple steps forward, go look at the box office returns for comic book movies -- except for The Incredible Hulk :P

BTW: Check out the kickass trailer for Kick-Ass