🙄 Your current writers don’t deserve to be given the chance to become “veteran” writers. That term is reserved for writers who got their start in the twentieth century.
Why do you value new readers so much more than veteran readers like me? Is there something wrong with my money? In the past fifteen-twenty years there’s been a noticeable trend to shove older readers aside for new ones, not just at Marvel but also DC. Removing The Marriage fired the first and deadliest shot against us. You use us older readers up and then put us out to pasture, same as you do the actual veteran writers. My generation has more disposable income than the Zoomers.
If you think your current crop of X writers are producing material that’s better than or on a par with Chris Claremont’s work, you’re out to lunch. Shame on you. Chris, Ann Nocenti, Louise Simonson, Larry Hama, Peter David, and so on deserve your reverence, not your contempt.
I will continue to not read your books. No need to respond. Unsubscribed.
I thought this was written as a parody comment until I got to the end.
No shame on any of those veteran writers listed above, but they have all had books at Marvel across a variety of franchises that they are known for writing and none of them especially lit the world on fire.
They were all new voices at some point in time and challenged the orthodoxy of what came before them, just as new writers will continue to do. New voices bring new ideas, new artists bring new styles, tools, and approaches, etc. a strong industry is one that makes room for all kinds, with experiences from all corners of the map.
I focus on the Spider-line, where Marvel has young talent working on titles like Miles Morales, ASM, and others; talent that’s been around for 10-20 years on ASM, Ultimate, etc., and even more senior talent like JMD, Peter David, and more doing books.
The same is true of the X-line, with Claremont, Nocenti and more doing things here and there. Creators who, amongst other things, have lived and creative endeavors of their own that shouldn’t be tied to reproducing stories for a limited set of characters. They likely have their own interests and desires that don’t pertain to pleasing the same aging audience.
"Your current writers don’t deserve to be given the chance to become 'veteran' writers. That term is reserved for writers who got their start in the twentieth century."
Speaking as someone who got his start in the twentieth century, this is really dumb.
And aside from that not being what "veteran" means, isn't Chris working on a KITTY PRYDE & WOLVERINE series right now?
"When that civility goes away, so does my interest in continuing to bang these pieces out every week."
The narcissism in this rant is off the charts. Literally no one is forcing you to respond to any of these silly questions. Everything you write here, you're writing for your own enjoyment. Which is fine, but to add a martyr complex on top of it is just... *mwah*
No-one is forcing him to respond to questions, but there a lot of us who appreciate the answers and the behind the scenes look at comics, especially from someone with a long history working for Marvel.
He's simply asking for people to act with kindness, something that you have failed to do here.
He created this space. I think it gives him the authority to ask that people act civilly. He doesn’t owe us his time. He’s asking that if we want him to continue that we act according to his comfort. It seems reasonable.
If I set up a “free lemonade” stand in my front yard and people lined up for it and then fought each other in the line, I think it’d be fine for me to say “hey, I didn’t set this up for you to fight. If you want to keep getting lemonade I am going to ask you to stop. If you can’t, it makes this less enjoyable for me and I’m going to take my lemons and go home.”
And yet week after week, he elevates those supposedly "uncivil" comments, inviting further discussion and debate. Again: he enjoys it. It helps promote his books. Which, again, is fine, but I have to giggle at the added dose of martyrdom.
He's said that many times before, but he continues to elevate those comments. After a while, it starts feeling like the cousin to superhero comics, professional wrestling.
Some people curse like "XXXXX," some like "$#@%," some like "****". Is that writers' preferences? And do some writers just write r-rated scripts, and it's edit's job to cut the ^%#& cursing down to a family-friendly audience?
I actually asked this on Bluesky a few months back, and the answer I got from a bunch of comic writers is...it depends. They all seem to have different rules for when and if they use actual swears or not
I LOVE that you have both Wieringo's original pencils and Kesel's final inks. This practice has become more commonplace these days. I have had discussions with inkers who truly HATE the process as it requires them to shell out more money on paper and printers that can actually print these blue lines. Plus, it's just not the same inking over a printed blue line and not the original pencils. Some inkers love it because they get to keep all the inks...inks that likely never even leave their studio as they will be scanned. Another discussion related to ownership of final pages...so pencillers felt that because their work was being inked, even though on a copy that they deserved a share of the final pages...while most inkers felt the pages were theirs since only THEY actual touched them. Some seemed to make a deal where they would exchange various pages so they, like you could have BOTH versions on a particular page. The other discussion I had was with COLLECTORS of comic art. What was more valuable? The original pencils or the final inks? Which was more desirable? Which was worth more? Should the inker share the proceeds of a page sold with the penciller? All very interesting, the the MOST desired purchase was to get BOTH the pencils and the inks. And some folks felt that final inks over blue lines were NOT as valuable as final inks over original pencils. The art is worth whatever it's worth to the person buying it. And today some artists are creating entirely DIGITAL which mean there is NO original art to be had. Thus...they make prints...sometimes draw a bit more on them to make them special. Interesting times for this sort of thing.
As a color artist, in the old days, Marvel provided my with my paints and copies of the art to color. If I wanted to use extra materials like MARKERS which are pricey, I had to pay for those myself, and as coloring got more complex, markers became an important tool. When things went digital, the costs of coloring comics went WAY up. At a minimum, we had to buy a computer, the software, portable digital storage devices and the expensive discs that would be sent to the office and an expensive printer for proofs. Over time, we all moved to buying digital tablets to color on with the computer as well. Now we don't need to print out proofs, or have portable digital storage as we can just upload it to a server. But it's all WAY more expensive just to operate than it was when I started. We DO get paid more, but it doesn't really cover the costs as well as we would like. And now we have no original to sell...there's a lot of things to consider with the art being produced today.
I picked up the Thor annual you mentioned in last week's letter (That Ladronn back up is out of this world!) as well as some issues from the concurrent Jurgens/JRJR run (lots of fun!)
I noticed the late great Dick Giordano was inking Thor at the time - as an old DC comic fan did you get a chance to chat/interact with this legend? He was editorial during a fertile period of creativity at DC - must have been interesting to pick his brain (any stories to share?)
Also cool that he continued to freelance after he no longer was part of editorial.
Hey Tom, hope you’re well. People need to stop complaining. I’m a long-time reader, but never of the X-titles until now, as this is a great jumping on point and I’ve enjoyed them.
There was a mention of Longshot, are we going to see him anytime soon?
I like the new “On The Spinner Rack” section. Was it at all inspired by Chris Ryall’s “Spinner Rack” section in his Tales of Syzpense Substack newsletters? https://chrisryall.substack.com
In a follow up to your answer to TD Mollusk's question: is there any professional heads up that editors give each other if they're hiring a writer for a large project elsewhere, like if Nick Lowe hired Ryan North to write Amazing Spider-Man would he check in with you? Not for permission, exactly, but as a courtesy?
I just want to counter the negativity of others. I always look forward to this substack each week and amazed how you fit it in. I publish one every week and I am now semi retired. So thanks again Tom. There does seem to be a large nostalgia comic group of older fans, I am 60 this week. I have passed on my love of comics to my son who is now 30, and he rings me every week to discuss this weeks comics and suggests things I might enjoy. I have cut down my consumption of new issues, but loving Uncanny at the moment - a great writer. And writers do have their day,I love my classic Claremont run of Xmen but don’t think he should come back. As I have said before, I would love more Captain Britain Alan Davis, but he’s probably had enough for the character. I am looking forward to Joe Casey’s new X related project. A question - what happened to Ladronn? I loved his Cable. Did you enjoy it?
When Spider-office does their regular Spider-Verse events, the first appearances of alternate realities and characters are usually accompanied by numeric designations formatted in the Handbook style. I always find them useful as a reader. They either tell me “Yes, this is the same one you’re familiar with and are emotionally attached to; not a new version.” or “This is a brand new version, stop guessing whether it had appeared anywhere else and enjoy the current story.”
Is there a reason this labeling hasn’t been as consistent across other titles? For example, the Avengers from X-Force #4-5 (2024) look very much like they came straight from the “Forever Yesterday” arc in New Warriors (1991), Horus and Captain Assyria in particular looking identical. However, Geoffrey Thorne clarified that they’re actually different versions – but only on his Patreon blog, and that is not made clear within X-Force #5 itself.
This confusion could have been avoided by placing a yellow box with caption “Avengers of Earth-12345” on the page. And some Marvel titles do that consistently, while others – sporadically or almost never. Is this up to the preferences of individual editors, an established practice in an office? Or is it something the writers themselves need to put into scripts, and the appearance of prevalence is mere coincidence? These yellow box captions have become such a staple that even “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” movie featured them, and I can think of a reason not to include them, unless to preserve a to-be-revealed mystery.
Clearly the only available option is a Wrestlemania 6 level main event, babyface vs babyface, Storm vs Phoenix in the cosmos, (presumably not marketed well enough for either fan base) for all the marbles retirement match. Obviously that will solve all your problems.
🙄 Your current writers don’t deserve to be given the chance to become “veteran” writers. That term is reserved for writers who got their start in the twentieth century.
Why do you value new readers so much more than veteran readers like me? Is there something wrong with my money? In the past fifteen-twenty years there’s been a noticeable trend to shove older readers aside for new ones, not just at Marvel but also DC. Removing The Marriage fired the first and deadliest shot against us. You use us older readers up and then put us out to pasture, same as you do the actual veteran writers. My generation has more disposable income than the Zoomers.
If you think your current crop of X writers are producing material that’s better than or on a par with Chris Claremont’s work, you’re out to lunch. Shame on you. Chris, Ann Nocenti, Louise Simonson, Larry Hama, Peter David, and so on deserve your reverence, not your contempt.
I will continue to not read your books. No need to respond. Unsubscribed.
Bore off, mate.
Lord, deliver me from old men who insist that children’s and young adult entertainment must be geared first and foremost toward them.
Claremont, Nocenti, et. al. were all new at one time, too. Where would we be now if the editors of the era hadn't given them a chance?
I thought this was written as a parody comment until I got to the end.
No shame on any of those veteran writers listed above, but they have all had books at Marvel across a variety of franchises that they are known for writing and none of them especially lit the world on fire.
They were all new voices at some point in time and challenged the orthodoxy of what came before them, just as new writers will continue to do. New voices bring new ideas, new artists bring new styles, tools, and approaches, etc. a strong industry is one that makes room for all kinds, with experiences from all corners of the map.
I focus on the Spider-line, where Marvel has young talent working on titles like Miles Morales, ASM, and others; talent that’s been around for 10-20 years on ASM, Ultimate, etc., and even more senior talent like JMD, Peter David, and more doing books.
The same is true of the X-line, with Claremont, Nocenti and more doing things here and there. Creators who, amongst other things, have lived and creative endeavors of their own that shouldn’t be tied to reproducing stories for a limited set of characters. They likely have their own interests and desires that don’t pertain to pleasing the same aging audience.
"Your current writers don’t deserve to be given the chance to become 'veteran' writers. That term is reserved for writers who got their start in the twentieth century."
Speaking as someone who got his start in the twentieth century, this is really dumb.
And aside from that not being what "veteran" means, isn't Chris working on a KITTY PRYDE & WOLVERINE series right now?
"When that civility goes away, so does my interest in continuing to bang these pieces out every week."
The narcissism in this rant is off the charts. Literally no one is forcing you to respond to any of these silly questions. Everything you write here, you're writing for your own enjoyment. Which is fine, but to add a martyr complex on top of it is just... *mwah*
No-one is forcing him to respond to questions, but there a lot of us who appreciate the answers and the behind the scenes look at comics, especially from someone with a long history working for Marvel.
He's simply asking for people to act with kindness, something that you have failed to do here.
He created this space. I think it gives him the authority to ask that people act civilly. He doesn’t owe us his time. He’s asking that if we want him to continue that we act according to his comfort. It seems reasonable.
If I set up a “free lemonade” stand in my front yard and people lined up for it and then fought each other in the line, I think it’d be fine for me to say “hey, I didn’t set this up for you to fight. If you want to keep getting lemonade I am going to ask you to stop. If you can’t, it makes this less enjoyable for me and I’m going to take my lemons and go home.”
And yet week after week, he elevates those supposedly "uncivil" comments, inviting further discussion and debate. Again: he enjoys it. It helps promote his books. Which, again, is fine, but I have to giggle at the added dose of martyrdom.
In the quote you pulled out, he says that he doesn't enjoy the uncivil comments.
And that the volume has gotten so loud that he’s forced to comment, lest he shut the whole thing down.
He's said that many times before, but he continues to elevate those comments. After a while, it starts feeling like the cousin to superhero comics, professional wrestling.
Some people curse like "XXXXX," some like "$#@%," some like "****". Is that writers' preferences? And do some writers just write r-rated scripts, and it's edit's job to cut the ^%#& cursing down to a family-friendly audience?
I actually asked this on Bluesky a few months back, and the answer I got from a bunch of comic writers is...it depends. They all seem to have different rules for when and if they use actual swears or not
Apropos of nothing, but Hindsight Lad used to really give me Danny Chase vibes.
I LOVE that you have both Wieringo's original pencils and Kesel's final inks. This practice has become more commonplace these days. I have had discussions with inkers who truly HATE the process as it requires them to shell out more money on paper and printers that can actually print these blue lines. Plus, it's just not the same inking over a printed blue line and not the original pencils. Some inkers love it because they get to keep all the inks...inks that likely never even leave their studio as they will be scanned. Another discussion related to ownership of final pages...so pencillers felt that because their work was being inked, even though on a copy that they deserved a share of the final pages...while most inkers felt the pages were theirs since only THEY actual touched them. Some seemed to make a deal where they would exchange various pages so they, like you could have BOTH versions on a particular page. The other discussion I had was with COLLECTORS of comic art. What was more valuable? The original pencils or the final inks? Which was more desirable? Which was worth more? Should the inker share the proceeds of a page sold with the penciller? All very interesting, the the MOST desired purchase was to get BOTH the pencils and the inks. And some folks felt that final inks over blue lines were NOT as valuable as final inks over original pencils. The art is worth whatever it's worth to the person buying it. And today some artists are creating entirely DIGITAL which mean there is NO original art to be had. Thus...they make prints...sometimes draw a bit more on them to make them special. Interesting times for this sort of thing.
You raise points that I would never have thought of!
As a color artist, in the old days, Marvel provided my with my paints and copies of the art to color. If I wanted to use extra materials like MARKERS which are pricey, I had to pay for those myself, and as coloring got more complex, markers became an important tool. When things went digital, the costs of coloring comics went WAY up. At a minimum, we had to buy a computer, the software, portable digital storage devices and the expensive discs that would be sent to the office and an expensive printer for proofs. Over time, we all moved to buying digital tablets to color on with the computer as well. Now we don't need to print out proofs, or have portable digital storage as we can just upload it to a server. But it's all WAY more expensive just to operate than it was when I started. We DO get paid more, but it doesn't really cover the costs as well as we would like. And now we have no original to sell...there's a lot of things to consider with the art being produced today.
I picked up the Thor annual you mentioned in last week's letter (That Ladronn back up is out of this world!) as well as some issues from the concurrent Jurgens/JRJR run (lots of fun!)
I noticed the late great Dick Giordano was inking Thor at the time - as an old DC comic fan did you get a chance to chat/interact with this legend? He was editorial during a fertile period of creativity at DC - must have been interesting to pick his brain (any stories to share?)
Also cool that he continued to freelance after he no longer was part of editorial.
Hey Tom, hope you’re well. People need to stop complaining. I’m a long-time reader, but never of the X-titles until now, as this is a great jumping on point and I’ve enjoyed them.
There was a mention of Longshot, are we going to see him anytime soon?
That comparison 🤦♂️
I like the new “On The Spinner Rack” section. Was it at all inspired by Chris Ryall’s “Spinner Rack” section in his Tales of Syzpense Substack newsletters? https://chrisryall.substack.com
I also really enjoyed the SNL 4-part documentary. The 3-hour musical retrospective was amazing. The intro segment was perfect.
In a follow up to your answer to TD Mollusk's question: is there any professional heads up that editors give each other if they're hiring a writer for a large project elsewhere, like if Nick Lowe hired Ryan North to write Amazing Spider-Man would he check in with you? Not for permission, exactly, but as a courtesy?
I just want to counter the negativity of others. I always look forward to this substack each week and amazed how you fit it in. I publish one every week and I am now semi retired. So thanks again Tom. There does seem to be a large nostalgia comic group of older fans, I am 60 this week. I have passed on my love of comics to my son who is now 30, and he rings me every week to discuss this weeks comics and suggests things I might enjoy. I have cut down my consumption of new issues, but loving Uncanny at the moment - a great writer. And writers do have their day,I love my classic Claremont run of Xmen but don’t think he should come back. As I have said before, I would love more Captain Britain Alan Davis, but he’s probably had enough for the character. I am looking forward to Joe Casey’s new X related project. A question - what happened to Ladronn? I loved his Cable. Did you enjoy it?
Thank you very much Tom. I look forward to reading more Phoenix. I've pre-ordered up to issue #10 and I hope we get to read many more issues of it.
Thank you for the plug Tom ❤️🙏🏼
When Spider-office does their regular Spider-Verse events, the first appearances of alternate realities and characters are usually accompanied by numeric designations formatted in the Handbook style. I always find them useful as a reader. They either tell me “Yes, this is the same one you’re familiar with and are emotionally attached to; not a new version.” or “This is a brand new version, stop guessing whether it had appeared anywhere else and enjoy the current story.”
Is there a reason this labeling hasn’t been as consistent across other titles? For example, the Avengers from X-Force #4-5 (2024) look very much like they came straight from the “Forever Yesterday” arc in New Warriors (1991), Horus and Captain Assyria in particular looking identical. However, Geoffrey Thorne clarified that they’re actually different versions – but only on his Patreon blog, and that is not made clear within X-Force #5 itself.
This confusion could have been avoided by placing a yellow box with caption “Avengers of Earth-12345” on the page. And some Marvel titles do that consistently, while others – sporadically or almost never. Is this up to the preferences of individual editors, an established practice in an office? Or is it something the writers themselves need to put into scripts, and the appearance of prevalence is mere coincidence? These yellow box captions have become such a staple that even “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” movie featured them, and I can think of a reason not to include them, unless to preserve a to-be-revealed mystery.
Clearly the only available option is a Wrestlemania 6 level main event, babyface vs babyface, Storm vs Phoenix in the cosmos, (presumably not marketed well enough for either fan base) for all the marbles retirement match. Obviously that will solve all your problems.