It’s been a rough couple of days within the industry, with the passing of Ed Piskor and M.D. Bright (and outside of it, the loss of comedian Joe Flaherty). Piskor’s self-inflicted demise has in particular gotten all sort of people worked up, both in posthumous support for what he was going through and also upset that the zeitgeist of attention seems to be favoring him rather than the women he was reputedly inappropriate to. (And, of course, the screeching sound of so many who moved to try to monetize
Question: you said last year that there was a deficit of viable Black male characters in the X-line, and looking at the rosters of the three core X-Men books of From The Ashes, it doesn’t seem like much is being done to fix that. The Krakoan era gave such a major spotlight to so many Black male mutants, most notably Synch, Bishop, Sunspot and Manifold. Will we see any Black male mutants in the other announced books like X-Force and X-Factor? Are unannounced books in the works featuring them?
Great post about Ed Piskor today Tom - eloquent, heartfelt and full of empathy. I have been down about that whole story this week and your post made me feel more at peace with the sad situation. Well said.
I focus on Ed's love of the comics medium and discovering comic book gems in the back issue bins.
HI Tom, I know the answer to this is probably ‘you can’t say yet’ but does the x-office have any further plans for R.B Silva? I really think he’s one of Marvels best talents and I absolutely love his take on the characters.
Apologies for the many weeks that have passed since my last comment here, but I wanted to say, Tom, that I'm still enjoying and appreciating all of these newsletters. It's been a busy month for me, and I haven't had any terribly interesting questions to throw at you in any case, but I hope we'll have the chance to speak again as your projects unfold in the coming year.
I share your discomfort with having to fire someone on an answering machine. This story is more common than most fans might think. There is always a creator who thinks they can push around an editor and usually it's because the creator is a star. And sometimes a creator gives you no choice. It happens to the best of us. Speaking of the best of us...Mark Gruenwald fired Roger Stern on his answering machine. He couldn't reach him after some tense discussions regarding changes we needed on the Avengers. I was in absolute shock that he'd done that on the answering machine. As I gaped at Mark, he suddenly realized what he had done and could not undo. He was right to remove him from the book, but the firing on an answering machine...not good and it did a lot of damage to their previous great relationship. I fired a creator with a telegram. He'd blown every deadline and opportunity to NOT act like a complete jerk. I don't think anyone deserved to be fired more than this particular creator. I gave them way more chances than they deserved and they were new, and no one was going to miss them. But I tried. I tried to get them on the phone. I couldn't even get an answering machine. So I sent off a telegram. And the telegram wound up causing a very irate letter to be written to me and to Tom DeFalco. I had to explain myself to Tom, fearing that I'd stepped over a line. Thankfully Tom agreed with me 100%. So I definitely feel your pain regarding this.
Regarding this issue of Deathlok...As I took on doing the Punisher and Ghost Rider crossovers I felt that what Dwayne and I had begun with the original mini-series was drifting away. I regretted agreeing to do this crossovers instead of doing the CYBERWAR arc next. This just wasn't what we set out to do, and trying to figure out a story that did work was really difficult. I loved Denys' new direction here, but it was really difficult to figure out. And I was trying to do a story in which the reader would be tricked and pulled in the wrong direction so I could reveal the twist later...but alas...this sort of story did not sit well with Bob, so that part was...altered...Mike Manley and I would discuss it panel by panel so he could ink what it was supposed to be. Denys didn't start with the rivets in this issue, he saved those for Dwayne and issue 11. But yeah coming from Gruenwald's office of the continuity police, they drove me crazy. But they did indeed look cool.
what brought about the recently-accounced solo books for Storm and Phoenix? With the X-line usually focusing on team books aside from a select few characters who can carry a solo with a bit of longevity, I'm curious if Storm and Phoenix were something creators pitched or if you and your editorial team felt they were something the X-line was lacking maybe?
Observation: you list "New Avengers (2015) 1 - 18" and then write "15" to the right of it... did three issues not count? :) (giving you a hard time, of course, I cannot imagine how difficult and contentious trying to calculate legacy numbering is - as a fan, I appreciate it as I'm one of those that would never want a company to reboot the numbering on a book ever, but I definitely understand the business appeal of 'number one' issues.)
Question of the week: I saw on your blog that you were a fan of the 80s era (Wolfman/Perez) Teen Titans - I'm interested in your thoughts on what made the series work. And what you thought of the post Perez era, the Perez return era, and how long did you keep reading the title and why?
In response to an earlier discussion I find Perez' return to the series (baxter issue 50 led to some classic stories but was too short. Giffen's return to Legion 50 also was great in my opinion.
On the subject of great return runs: Not sure if it meets your criteria, but how about Chris Bachalo's multiple X-Men runs? I know he wasn't necessarily the main story teller. But heck, he really brought Magik to prominence with his redesign.
On that topic, has Bachalo done more mutant issues than anyone else? Seems to me that is worth an accolade.
"On the schedule already was an Annual, which the writer intended to use in part to retell the origin of the main character."
Let's see if I can guess right ; is it the late 90's annual (involving skrulls) that Rick Jones is making fun of in one of the first issues of Captain Mar(Genis)-Vell vol.4 (also edited by you as it turns out) ?
Great blog as usual, Tom. If nothing else, I find this place a decent place for comics news as I had no idea about the Wolverine thing. For regular comics news away from Marvel, where do you go for the latest/best coverage? Or do you just hear about things from internal chatter?
Neil Gaiman has said that early in his career one of his most exciting moments was writing lines for Batman. It was one thing to write assorted comics that got into press, but another thing to help write Batman, a character everyone knew. Did you have a similar moment early on in your career: "whoa, now I'm REALLY working at Marvel since I got to help make a SPIDER-MAN/HULK/SPEEDBALL comic!"
Question: you said last year that there was a deficit of viable Black male characters in the X-line, and looking at the rosters of the three core X-Men books of From The Ashes, it doesn’t seem like much is being done to fix that. The Krakoan era gave such a major spotlight to so many Black male mutants, most notably Synch, Bishop, Sunspot and Manifold. Will we see any Black male mutants in the other announced books like X-Force and X-Factor? Are unannounced books in the works featuring them?
Great post about Ed Piskor today Tom - eloquent, heartfelt and full of empathy. I have been down about that whole story this week and your post made me feel more at peace with the sad situation. Well said.
I focus on Ed's love of the comics medium and discovering comic book gems in the back issue bins.
Matt Wagner on a Thor comic would be amazing - brilliant casting! Maybe try to wrangle a special mini or annual out of him Tom?
And thanks for that blind item this week - great reading ;)
HI Tom, I know the answer to this is probably ‘you can’t say yet’ but does the x-office have any further plans for R.B Silva? I really think he’s one of Marvels best talents and I absolutely love his take on the characters.
Cheers!
Nick
Apologies for the many weeks that have passed since my last comment here, but I wanted to say, Tom, that I'm still enjoying and appreciating all of these newsletters. It's been a busy month for me, and I haven't had any terribly interesting questions to throw at you in any case, but I hope we'll have the chance to speak again as your projects unfold in the coming year.
I share your discomfort with having to fire someone on an answering machine. This story is more common than most fans might think. There is always a creator who thinks they can push around an editor and usually it's because the creator is a star. And sometimes a creator gives you no choice. It happens to the best of us. Speaking of the best of us...Mark Gruenwald fired Roger Stern on his answering machine. He couldn't reach him after some tense discussions regarding changes we needed on the Avengers. I was in absolute shock that he'd done that on the answering machine. As I gaped at Mark, he suddenly realized what he had done and could not undo. He was right to remove him from the book, but the firing on an answering machine...not good and it did a lot of damage to their previous great relationship. I fired a creator with a telegram. He'd blown every deadline and opportunity to NOT act like a complete jerk. I don't think anyone deserved to be fired more than this particular creator. I gave them way more chances than they deserved and they were new, and no one was going to miss them. But I tried. I tried to get them on the phone. I couldn't even get an answering machine. So I sent off a telegram. And the telegram wound up causing a very irate letter to be written to me and to Tom DeFalco. I had to explain myself to Tom, fearing that I'd stepped over a line. Thankfully Tom agreed with me 100%. So I definitely feel your pain regarding this.
Regarding this issue of Deathlok...As I took on doing the Punisher and Ghost Rider crossovers I felt that what Dwayne and I had begun with the original mini-series was drifting away. I regretted agreeing to do this crossovers instead of doing the CYBERWAR arc next. This just wasn't what we set out to do, and trying to figure out a story that did work was really difficult. I loved Denys' new direction here, but it was really difficult to figure out. And I was trying to do a story in which the reader would be tricked and pulled in the wrong direction so I could reveal the twist later...but alas...this sort of story did not sit well with Bob, so that part was...altered...Mike Manley and I would discuss it panel by panel so he could ink what it was supposed to be. Denys didn't start with the rivets in this issue, he saved those for Dwayne and issue 11. But yeah coming from Gruenwald's office of the continuity police, they drove me crazy. But they did indeed look cool.
Hi Tom,
what brought about the recently-accounced solo books for Storm and Phoenix? With the X-line usually focusing on team books aside from a select few characters who can carry a solo with a bit of longevity, I'm curious if Storm and Phoenix were something creators pitched or if you and your editorial team felt they were something the X-line was lacking maybe?
Observation: you list "New Avengers (2015) 1 - 18" and then write "15" to the right of it... did three issues not count? :) (giving you a hard time, of course, I cannot imagine how difficult and contentious trying to calculate legacy numbering is - as a fan, I appreciate it as I'm one of those that would never want a company to reboot the numbering on a book ever, but I definitely understand the business appeal of 'number one' issues.)
I saw what you did there :}
Thank you for the BTS info
Question of the week: I saw on your blog that you were a fan of the 80s era (Wolfman/Perez) Teen Titans - I'm interested in your thoughts on what made the series work. And what you thought of the post Perez era, the Perez return era, and how long did you keep reading the title and why?
In response to an earlier discussion I find Perez' return to the series (baxter issue 50 led to some classic stories but was too short. Giffen's return to Legion 50 also was great in my opinion.
On the subject of great return runs: Not sure if it meets your criteria, but how about Chris Bachalo's multiple X-Men runs? I know he wasn't necessarily the main story teller. But heck, he really brought Magik to prominence with his redesign.
On that topic, has Bachalo done more mutant issues than anyone else? Seems to me that is worth an accolade.
"On the schedule already was an Annual, which the writer intended to use in part to retell the origin of the main character."
Let's see if I can guess right ; is it the late 90's annual (involving skrulls) that Rick Jones is making fun of in one of the first issues of Captain Mar(Genis)-Vell vol.4 (also edited by you as it turns out) ?
Great blog as usual, Tom. If nothing else, I find this place a decent place for comics news as I had no idea about the Wolverine thing. For regular comics news away from Marvel, where do you go for the latest/best coverage? Or do you just hear about things from internal chatter?
The cover for Fantastic Four #19 is really outside-the-box in all the right ways. I love it.
Neil Gaiman has said that early in his career one of his most exciting moments was writing lines for Batman. It was one thing to write assorted comics that got into press, but another thing to help write Batman, a character everyone knew. Did you have a similar moment early on in your career: "whoa, now I'm REALLY working at Marvel since I got to help make a SPIDER-MAN/HULK/SPEEDBALL comic!"
A mystery that only Brevoort can solve if anyone can 😉