Hey, Tom. I have to say one of my most favorite characters to date has to be Paul Rabin from spider-man comics. He’s such a cool dude and he makes great chicken korma. My only complaint is that Paul only appears in the Spider-Man side of things but I’m an avid x-men reader. I’m not getting enough PAUL! So what if, hear me out, what if it’s revealed that Paul is a mutant! That way Paul can appear in spider-man AND the x-men side of things and we can have more Paul! Maybe we can even have a really awesome story where Paul and Jean Grey get stuck in space together and then Jean cheats on Cyclops and breaks up with him and then everybody acts like HE’S the bad guy for wanting to save her. Fans will love it. Maybe we can even have a team book lead by Paul. Here’s some names it can be called P-Men, P-Force, or maybe even P-treme P-Men.
I’d second Muppet Family Christmas. Truly hilarious. Sadly underseen (though, being that guy for a moment, it’s not the debut of the Muppet Babies as that was in Muppets Take Manhattan. It’s the second appearance of them as muppets though! Cartoon had already run or been running by the time the Christmas special aired)
Hi Tom, can you tell what happened with the Ultraverse? Did Marvel purchase it to ‘can’ it or was there a greater plan? I remember the Black Knight and Sersi travelling there after the superb Gatherers Saga in the Avengers. I liked many of the Ultraverse characters (although not Prime). Do Marvel still own them? Thanks as always.
I loved Evan's take on the Marvel Year in Review. Evan unleashed created a lot of interesting material that showed some new thinking at a time when NEW wasn't really wanted by the company. But one could even argue that digital lettering and coloring came to Marvel because Evan proved it could be done and done really well. I wish I still has the original painted color for this cover. I got to do a lot of blue line color on these magazines.
Hi, Tom. As someone who's gone to an LCS weekly (I'm on my 3rd) since walking past an issue of Spider-Man unmasking while walking by a Waldenbooks inside of a mall and NEEDING to know what was going on, I really appreciate the things you and your newsletter lets us, the readers, in on.
I know that sometimes 2 separate ideas thought of at different times can accidentally align somewhat, but I remember reading No Surrender as it came out and Valerie 'Voyager' Vector was rewritten into the Avengers past history and wondering how anyone could have possibly forgotten that Mark Waid had just done the same thing with Cressida as Avenger X at the beginning of his run. I know that there were subtle differences, but that story element still felt so recent that it always irked me and years later I still can't force my mind let it go. Was it just overlooked or was it consciously decided that No Surrender's idea stood on its own merits?
I have been meaning to ask this every time you mention Ryan North in this column but I always forget.
I have been a big fan of webcomics since way back in the pre-social media days where you had to go to each artist's site separately. At the time it felt to me like lots of these writers and artists would end up working for Marvel in some capacity but it seems Ryan is the only one who's made it on a regular basis, aside from odd gigs for Chris Hastings and the like. What do you think it is about Ryan's writing that allowed him to make the jump when so many other popular webcomics people didn't? Is he just a better writer or is there something about his style of writing specifically?
With Storm having a solo book, I recall you saying that you want her to be as big as, say, Spider-Man. Does that mean that Storm will now be Marvel’s leading lady moving forward instead of, say, someone like Carol Danvers or She-Hulk?
Have you been reading Kieron Gillen's The Power Fantasy? If so, what are your thoughts on it generally? And more specifically, it's the kind of book that could never work in the marvel universe, but do you think there's a place in the marvel universe for stories with that style of tension>action storytelling?
"I don’t know, Chris. It seems like there are plenty of them. But the one that I see the most often that I’m pretty well sick of is the idea that “Marvel” (or the people who work at Marvel) hate whatever character or development the reader is railing against. That’s so obviously not true that even saying it aloud feels foolish"
Yeah, where did fans get such stupid ideas?
Well, I don't know
maybe when Marvel employees publicly say how much they hate certain characters on their social media
that's not a writer. that's not an editor. that's no one in any shape or form in charge of coming up with story or character ideas for Marvel. You're complaining about a social media personality and trying to paint him as an example of someone who makes creative decisions and your point is coming across as misdirected while also kind of proving tom's point with your dramatization.
Love that Paul Ryan pin up - something about that 'clear line' style of classic comic art - Paul Ryan, Leonard Kirk, George Perez, Jerry Ordway etc. that just relaxes the eyes and makes for such an enjoyable reading experience. Especially on classic superhero books.
Always loved Paul Ryan's work on the Avengers books.
Hi Tom! Just a quick note to say that writer Joshua Dysart's 2012-215 era on Valiant's 'Harbinger' is an exceptional run and an all-time great superhero series highly recommended to readers here: https://www.goodreads.com/series/107103-harbinger-2012
And thanks so much for the newsletter every week happy holidays :)
I got to sit next to Paul Ryan on the plane ride from Boston to San Diego in 2004 when I was headed to Comic-Con looking for my first job out of college (SPOILER: it worked out). He couldn’t have been kinder to a nervous, wide-eyed kid (and he was my childhood FF artist, so I considered him a pretty big deal).
The Justice cover you included had a full page of real text behind it. Do you think the editor wrote that themselves, or reached out to a writer to craft it?
Tom, there is a specific reason for why Stephanie is using so much of Thor/Asgardian mythology in PHOENIX instead of Phoenix own mythology? Like, we had Perrikus, Gorr, the asgardian zombies, the other dark gods and now the Warlock Eye
Might be of interest to some; you can read the Unity 2000 pitch/outline document that Shooter created for the series here: https://www.shooterswork.com/valiant/misc/u2kplot.pdf it gives the summary of all six issues. It's an interest read.
Hey, Tom. I have to say one of my most favorite characters to date has to be Paul Rabin from spider-man comics. He’s such a cool dude and he makes great chicken korma. My only complaint is that Paul only appears in the Spider-Man side of things but I’m an avid x-men reader. I’m not getting enough PAUL! So what if, hear me out, what if it’s revealed that Paul is a mutant! That way Paul can appear in spider-man AND the x-men side of things and we can have more Paul! Maybe we can even have a really awesome story where Paul and Jean Grey get stuck in space together and then Jean cheats on Cyclops and breaks up with him and then everybody acts like HE’S the bad guy for wanting to save her. Fans will love it. Maybe we can even have a team book lead by Paul. Here’s some names it can be called P-Men, P-Force, or maybe even P-treme P-Men.
Paul is Venom's problem now
We need an all Paul event. Secret Paul sounds great.
Paul War
World War Paul
Paul Invasion
House of P
Fear Paul
Avengers vs P-Men
Paul War II
Inhumans vs P-Men
Paul Empire
Paul in Black
Paul Day
Blood Paul
I’d second Muppet Family Christmas. Truly hilarious. Sadly underseen (though, being that guy for a moment, it’s not the debut of the Muppet Babies as that was in Muppets Take Manhattan. It’s the second appearance of them as muppets though! Cartoon had already run or been running by the time the Christmas special aired)
Hi Tom, can you tell what happened with the Ultraverse? Did Marvel purchase it to ‘can’ it or was there a greater plan? I remember the Black Knight and Sersi travelling there after the superb Gatherers Saga in the Avengers. I liked many of the Ultraverse characters (although not Prime). Do Marvel still own them? Thanks as always.
I loved Evan's take on the Marvel Year in Review. Evan unleashed created a lot of interesting material that showed some new thinking at a time when NEW wasn't really wanted by the company. But one could even argue that digital lettering and coloring came to Marvel because Evan proved it could be done and done really well. I wish I still has the original painted color for this cover. I got to do a lot of blue line color on these magazines.
Hi, Tom. As someone who's gone to an LCS weekly (I'm on my 3rd) since walking past an issue of Spider-Man unmasking while walking by a Waldenbooks inside of a mall and NEEDING to know what was going on, I really appreciate the things you and your newsletter lets us, the readers, in on.
I know that sometimes 2 separate ideas thought of at different times can accidentally align somewhat, but I remember reading No Surrender as it came out and Valerie 'Voyager' Vector was rewritten into the Avengers past history and wondering how anyone could have possibly forgotten that Mark Waid had just done the same thing with Cressida as Avenger X at the beginning of his run. I know that there were subtle differences, but that story element still felt so recent that it always irked me and years later I still can't force my mind let it go. Was it just overlooked or was it consciously decided that No Surrender's idea stood on its own merits?
Hey Tom!
I have been meaning to ask this every time you mention Ryan North in this column but I always forget.
I have been a big fan of webcomics since way back in the pre-social media days where you had to go to each artist's site separately. At the time it felt to me like lots of these writers and artists would end up working for Marvel in some capacity but it seems Ryan is the only one who's made it on a regular basis, aside from odd gigs for Chris Hastings and the like. What do you think it is about Ryan's writing that allowed him to make the jump when so many other popular webcomics people didn't? Is he just a better writer or is there something about his style of writing specifically?
With Storm having a solo book, I recall you saying that you want her to be as big as, say, Spider-Man. Does that mean that Storm will now be Marvel’s leading lady moving forward instead of, say, someone like Carol Danvers or She-Hulk?
Storm has the power and character to be a leading lady and would be a great one.
Have you been reading Kieron Gillen's The Power Fantasy? If so, what are your thoughts on it generally? And more specifically, it's the kind of book that could never work in the marvel universe, but do you think there's a place in the marvel universe for stories with that style of tension>action storytelling?
"I don’t know, Chris. It seems like there are plenty of them. But the one that I see the most often that I’m pretty well sick of is the idea that “Marvel” (or the people who work at Marvel) hate whatever character or development the reader is railing against. That’s so obviously not true that even saying it aloud feels foolish"
Yeah, where did fans get such stupid ideas?
Well, I don't know
maybe when Marvel employees publicly say how much they hate certain characters on their social media
(https://i.imgur.com/iL9hdQo.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/vjncqDv.jpeg)
or maybe when they insult the character during the anniversary celebration stream (twice)
(https://youtu.be/gUzb9wl0BEk?si=7RGZt5Frz7rhgNLp&t=1296)
(https://youtu.be/gUzb9wl0BEk?si=Gxw2lZDqJYR43hcx&t=9318)
or maybe when they make fun of the character during public events
(https://i.imgur.com/9OduxYa.jpeg)
or maybe when writers make the character a ridiculous laughingstock, without any plot purpose or justification
(https://i.imgur.com/blcJE48.jpeg)
For me it’s Mary Jane since OMD
Is this seriously about Gambit? You did all that work for Gambit?
By the way, you can add my local comic shop, whose manager regularly makes social media posts about how much Gambit sucks.
"By the way, you can add my local comic shop, whose manager regularly makes social media posts about how much Gambit sucks."
If the managers at your local comic book store aren't Marvel employees, I don't give a f
Gambit has survived and I'd say he is doing okay these days.
Pity
that's not a writer. that's not an editor. that's no one in any shape or form in charge of coming up with story or character ideas for Marvel. You're complaining about a social media personality and trying to paint him as an example of someone who makes creative decisions and your point is coming across as misdirected while also kind of proving tom's point with your dramatization.
Love that Paul Ryan pin up - something about that 'clear line' style of classic comic art - Paul Ryan, Leonard Kirk, George Perez, Jerry Ordway etc. that just relaxes the eyes and makes for such an enjoyable reading experience. Especially on classic superhero books.
Always loved Paul Ryan's work on the Avengers books.
Hi Tom! Just a quick note to say that writer Joshua Dysart's 2012-215 era on Valiant's 'Harbinger' is an exceptional run and an all-time great superhero series highly recommended to readers here: https://www.goodreads.com/series/107103-harbinger-2012
And thanks so much for the newsletter every week happy holidays :)
I loved the Marvel Year In Review and Swimsuit Specials magazines when they were coming out.
Just hit the sweet spot at that age.
I got to sit next to Paul Ryan on the plane ride from Boston to San Diego in 2004 when I was headed to Comic-Con looking for my first job out of college (SPOILER: it worked out). He couldn’t have been kinder to a nervous, wide-eyed kid (and he was my childhood FF artist, so I considered him a pretty big deal).
The Justice cover you included had a full page of real text behind it. Do you think the editor wrote that themselves, or reached out to a writer to craft it?
Tom, there is a specific reason for why Stephanie is using so much of Thor/Asgardian mythology in PHOENIX instead of Phoenix own mythology? Like, we had Perrikus, Gorr, the asgardian zombies, the other dark gods and now the Warlock Eye
Might be of interest to some; you can read the Unity 2000 pitch/outline document that Shooter created for the series here: https://www.shooterswork.com/valiant/misc/u2kplot.pdf it gives the summary of all six issues. It's an interest read.