I feel as though I should start off every one of these Newsletters with the phrase BLEEDING COOL SCOOP! given how often the contents of what I pound away at here on Saturday becomes multiple “news” articles on that site by Monday.
I would love to know how Imperial came to be, as it is my most-hyped comic book event of the year! There’s rumors that it started from a Krakoan-era Imperial Guard series pitch from Hickman, but how/why was it revisited and expanded into what it is now? What made now the right time to create a DnA-esque interconnected saga of cosmic books?
Seeing Human Cannonball's pink leggings reminded me of a thought I had about how a lot of Golden Age male character ran around bare-legged, like Black Condor. Is it fair to say that concepts about what constitutes "manly" have either evolved or were viewed differently when it comes to funnybook characters?
"We’ve always used a formal P & L process on our projects, Stefan, as far back as I’ve worked at Marvel and likely all the way back to the beginning to some degree."
When I say "formal P&L process", I didn't
mean to include Martin Goodman's penchant for instructing editors/talent to create books similar to whatever was selling well for other companies at the time. I can certainly imagine everyone since Jim Shooter having reports generated with detailed market analyses and month-by-month projections for any concept pitched, but I would think the smaller the line and the fewer people involved in making the decisions, the further away it gets from a process like that.
"Today, I’m more focused on what people are asking for right now, like the conglomeration of Betsy Braddock fans who have been vocal about wanting her to show up in another series."
That's so wonderful to hear! I hope that she (and her relationship, even if it's long distance, b/c Thorne wrote their love and devotion so beautifully) ends up in a book with some a-listers that have some market pull. Even as a huge Betsy/Retsy fan, I recognize that our ladies need a little extra support. But thank you for listening! I'd even be down for a Marvel Unlimited/Love Unlimited series that's just the Corps and Rachel... like Avengers Academy or Spider-Verse. You put that magical supercouple in a book, I'm buying!
But an actual question, though still related... with Marvel Rivals' new map bringing in lots of fun animal friends like Logan, Amazing Baby and Shogo (I feel weird calling him an animal friend, but... he is currently in animal form)... any chance of a new X-Pets for Marvel Unlimited? Jeff has been such a success, Lockheed is beloved, and Jubilee is surely missing her baby!
Also, I was wondering what the motivation was for publishing Claremont's limited Days of Future Past prologue in wide release? Is this going to tie into future plans that the office wants to explore with Phoenix, Askani or White Phoenix of the Crown? Bloody Bess is a favorite niche character of mine because of how she is mysteriously tied to Betsy Braddock, and is a love interest for Kurt... who is a love interest for Rachel... who is a love interest for Betsy, so y'all publishing a story where she is involved with Rachel is very exciting for me! I am absolutely picking that up.
Since Mark Gruenwald came up this week, did you ever talk to him about his continuity fanzine Omniverse? As someone devoted to that kind of thing as a kid in the Pre Crisis era, I wish I had known about it then and not found out about them as grizzled middle aged comics reader. I do wonder sometimes what he would think about how modern comics and most of popular culture center around multiverses and the like (maybe for the better, maybe for the worst).
Can I take this opportunity to plug my complete transcription of Gruenwald's dissertation-like "A Treatise on Reality in Comic Literature?" It's a dense tome, but I find myself thinking back to parts of it often when reading multiversal stories.
I also have had its sister publication, "Primer on Reality in Comic Books," prepped for transcription for months now, which I'll get around to doing sooner or later, god willing.
(I would have rather scanned both of them, since that'd be far less work for me, but they were both library copies and that wasn't allowed, so I was resigned to photographing the pages while at the library and recreating them later at home. C'est la vie!)
I think I read that parody first, which led me to reading Street Poet Ray. It was worth it solely to understand the parody, which is hilarious once you're familiar with the source material! I especially appreciate how Spider-Ham sent up SPR for how it frequently presented anodyne, mainstream views such as "crack is whack!" as controversial and brave while mostly sidestepping taking stances on anything actually divisive (illustrated by Ham holding a sign that says "kids are people too!" in front of animal rights and AIDS epidemic activists).
But in SPR's defense, "he" did manage to crank out a good poem or two, such as this ode to the follicularly challenged:
Thanks for answering my question Tom about WeaponXmen. It seems then from a commercial point of view that when a new comic is put out there it’s either about the characters, concept or creators whether it sells. Whether it attracts attention. So no long term development and gathering readership. It seems rather sad. My past loyalty to Uncanny Xmen speak of that, I bought it even when it was terrible out of loyalty and collector intent. I don’t do this anymore, especially as I buy on the Kindle. It seems that Geoff Johns is building a great Universe at present, slowly and with style.
I hated an issue of New Warriors? I don't even remember ever reading an issue of New Warriors! But your memory of these events is always better than mine, Tom, so if you say so then it must have happened. (Coincidentally, I was just explaining Sabra to a friend of mine a couple of days ago when he proposed that I should create a Jewish super hero with a star of David on his/her forehead. I told him someone had already done that.)
"And I don’t think that Rogue and Gambit need to be married in order to work—them being married is still a relatively new thing in terms of their history. By that same token, I’m also not really looking to break them up. Readers in general seem to be invested in them as a couple."
Thank you. After decades of on and off drama, it's very welcome and refreshing to see them have a stable relationship now. And readers are definitely invested in them. There's going to be an online Rogue and Gambit fan convention this summer (Romy Con)!! They are dear to so many of us.
Not everyone likes them together. I have hated the character of Gambit since his first appearance and would have preferred Magneto or even Joseph as Rogue's paramour.
I have no dog in the Rogue relationship fight and am weighing in only to say that the answer to this question is an emphatic NO, Seagal has famously bad taste.
What's the reasoning behind restarting Fantastic Four this summer with a new #1, yet still have the same writer? As a 40 year long reader I've finally gotten used to new #1's when the writer changes. But like Zdarsky's Daredevil run, the sudden ending of his first volume and restarting with a #1 in 2022 just seemed like a sales grab at this point. Is there going to be a big story change between volumes to justify this? For those of us amateur comic book historians multiple volumes by the same writer make talking about a run more difficult.
I would guess the reasoning for this is the movie and the ability to give potential new readers walking out of the film a perfect jump on point. North is killing it so a change of writer would be crazy IMO…
I agree with what you're saying, but doesn't the new volume spin out of One World Under Doom and deal directly with ramifications from Doom's machinations?
(Sorry, it felt too Stan-like not to write it that way.)
Absolutely! It just seems like a "tied up in recent continuity" start for a book that should appeal to new readers unaware of recent happenings in the books.
I have faith that North can fill them in quickly enough to make this a viable jump on point. A new number 1 also helps juice sales to regular readers. If more people pick it up and see how good his FF is it can only be a win IMO.
I imagine you can't comment on this publicly, but regarding the rules against editors serving as writers, but the perspective from outside Marvel is that in recent years an editor quite notoriously broke this rule and was rewarded with a promotion to editor-in-chief.
I’m aware of the controversy you’re talking about, and this is more an observation, but only in comics would something 20 years ago be considered a recent event…
I'm wondering if this new era is way fuller in leaks than previous one. Many sources before confirmations have said that X-Force and NYX are cancelled.
Now same sources say Laura Kinney: Wolverine is not selling at all and is decided to be first solo cancelled.
Is that true? With issue 5 just coming out this week how many issues are enough to put the decision?
Tom, does Emma’s introduction in Marvel Rivals have any impact on comic book sales? The game has brought her name back into popular culture — not that she wasn’t known before, but it was mostly among comic book readers. Now that her ship with Tony has gained popularity because of the game, is there a chance we’ll see them together again?
^^Ladies and Gentlemen, the Internet.
I would love to know how Imperial came to be, as it is my most-hyped comic book event of the year! There’s rumors that it started from a Krakoan-era Imperial Guard series pitch from Hickman, but how/why was it revisited and expanded into what it is now? What made now the right time to create a DnA-esque interconnected saga of cosmic books?
Seeing Human Cannonball's pink leggings reminded me of a thought I had about how a lot of Golden Age male character ran around bare-legged, like Black Condor. Is it fair to say that concepts about what constitutes "manly" have either evolved or were viewed differently when it comes to funnybook characters?
"We’ve always used a formal P & L process on our projects, Stefan, as far back as I’ve worked at Marvel and likely all the way back to the beginning to some degree."
When I say "formal P&L process", I didn't
mean to include Martin Goodman's penchant for instructing editors/talent to create books similar to whatever was selling well for other companies at the time. I can certainly imagine everyone since Jim Shooter having reports generated with detailed market analyses and month-by-month projections for any concept pitched, but I would think the smaller the line and the fewer people involved in making the decisions, the further away it gets from a process like that.
"Today, I’m more focused on what people are asking for right now, like the conglomeration of Betsy Braddock fans who have been vocal about wanting her to show up in another series."
That's so wonderful to hear! I hope that she (and her relationship, even if it's long distance, b/c Thorne wrote their love and devotion so beautifully) ends up in a book with some a-listers that have some market pull. Even as a huge Betsy/Retsy fan, I recognize that our ladies need a little extra support. But thank you for listening! I'd even be down for a Marvel Unlimited/Love Unlimited series that's just the Corps and Rachel... like Avengers Academy or Spider-Verse. You put that magical supercouple in a book, I'm buying!
But an actual question, though still related... with Marvel Rivals' new map bringing in lots of fun animal friends like Logan, Amazing Baby and Shogo (I feel weird calling him an animal friend, but... he is currently in animal form)... any chance of a new X-Pets for Marvel Unlimited? Jeff has been such a success, Lockheed is beloved, and Jubilee is surely missing her baby!
Also, I was wondering what the motivation was for publishing Claremont's limited Days of Future Past prologue in wide release? Is this going to tie into future plans that the office wants to explore with Phoenix, Askani or White Phoenix of the Crown? Bloody Bess is a favorite niche character of mine because of how she is mysteriously tied to Betsy Braddock, and is a love interest for Kurt... who is a love interest for Rachel... who is a love interest for Betsy, so y'all publishing a story where she is involved with Rachel is very exciting for me! I am absolutely picking that up.
Since Mark Gruenwald came up this week, did you ever talk to him about his continuity fanzine Omniverse? As someone devoted to that kind of thing as a kid in the Pre Crisis era, I wish I had known about it then and not found out about them as grizzled middle aged comics reader. I do wonder sometimes what he would think about how modern comics and most of popular culture center around multiverses and the like (maybe for the better, maybe for the worst).
Can I take this opportunity to plug my complete transcription of Gruenwald's dissertation-like "A Treatise on Reality in Comic Literature?" It's a dense tome, but I find myself thinking back to parts of it often when reading multiversal stories.
You can read and download it on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/a-treatise-on-reality-in-comic-literature
I also have had its sister publication, "Primer on Reality in Comic Books," prepped for transcription for months now, which I'll get around to doing sooner or later, god willing.
(I would have rather scanned both of them, since that'd be far less work for me, but they were both library copies and that wasn't allowed, so I was resigned to photographing the pages while at the library and recreating them later at home. C'est la vie!)
On the Street Poet Ray front, there is a very good parody of it in Marvel Tales #247, "Street Poet Spider-Ham"!
I think I read that parody first, which led me to reading Street Poet Ray. It was worth it solely to understand the parody, which is hilarious once you're familiar with the source material! I especially appreciate how Spider-Ham sent up SPR for how it frequently presented anodyne, mainstream views such as "crack is whack!" as controversial and brave while mostly sidestepping taking stances on anything actually divisive (illustrated by Ham holding a sign that says "kids are people too!" in front of animal rights and AIDS epidemic activists).
But in SPR's defense, "he" did manage to crank out a good poem or two, such as this ode to the follicularly challenged:
"Bald people / sensitive
Without hair / life tentative
Cut them breaks / stop the jokes
Tasteless words / hurt and provoke."
Way to tackle the real issues of the day, Ray!
Thanks for answering my question Tom about WeaponXmen. It seems then from a commercial point of view that when a new comic is put out there it’s either about the characters, concept or creators whether it sells. Whether it attracts attention. So no long term development and gathering readership. It seems rather sad. My past loyalty to Uncanny Xmen speak of that, I bought it even when it was terrible out of loyalty and collector intent. I don’t do this anymore, especially as I buy on the Kindle. It seems that Geoff Johns is building a great Universe at present, slowly and with style.
I hated an issue of New Warriors? I don't even remember ever reading an issue of New Warriors! But your memory of these events is always better than mine, Tom, so if you say so then it must have happened. (Coincidentally, I was just explaining Sabra to a friend of mine a couple of days ago when he proposed that I should create a Jewish super hero with a star of David on his/her forehead. I told him someone had already done that.)
"And I don’t think that Rogue and Gambit need to be married in order to work—them being married is still a relatively new thing in terms of their history. By that same token, I’m also not really looking to break them up. Readers in general seem to be invested in them as a couple."
Thank you. After decades of on and off drama, it's very welcome and refreshing to see them have a stable relationship now. And readers are definitely invested in them. There's going to be an online Rogue and Gambit fan convention this summer (Romy Con)!! They are dear to so many of us.
Not everyone likes them together. I have hated the character of Gambit since his first appearance and would have preferred Magneto or even Joseph as Rogue's paramour.
Steven Seagle, is that you?
He has good taste too? :D
I have no dog in the Rogue relationship fight and am weighing in only to say that the answer to this question is an emphatic NO, Seagal has famously bad taste.
I honestly only think of the actor when I hear that name.
Different people. Seagle was a writer for X-Men briefly, Seagal is the terrible actor.
Look, if you give me even the tiniest opening, I'm going to insult Seagal, there's just no way around it!
Have you played any Marvel Rivals? What are you're thoughts on the new Krakoa/Hellfire Gala season that's got everybody excited?
What's the reasoning behind restarting Fantastic Four this summer with a new #1, yet still have the same writer? As a 40 year long reader I've finally gotten used to new #1's when the writer changes. But like Zdarsky's Daredevil run, the sudden ending of his first volume and restarting with a #1 in 2022 just seemed like a sales grab at this point. Is there going to be a big story change between volumes to justify this? For those of us amateur comic book historians multiple volumes by the same writer make talking about a run more difficult.
I would guess the reasoning for this is the movie and the ability to give potential new readers walking out of the film a perfect jump on point. North is killing it so a change of writer would be crazy IMO…
I agree with what you're saying, but doesn't the new volume spin out of One World Under Doom and deal directly with ramifications from Doom's machinations?
(Sorry, it felt too Stan-like not to write it that way.)
We do have Avengers Doomday on the way so synergy?
Absolutely! It just seems like a "tied up in recent continuity" start for a book that should appeal to new readers unaware of recent happenings in the books.
I have faith that North can fill them in quickly enough to make this a viable jump on point. A new number 1 also helps juice sales to regular readers. If more people pick it up and see how good his FF is it can only be a win IMO.
I imagine you can't comment on this publicly, but regarding the rules against editors serving as writers, but the perspective from outside Marvel is that in recent years an editor quite notoriously broke this rule and was rewarded with a promotion to editor-in-chief.
I’m aware of the controversy you’re talking about, and this is more an observation, but only in comics would something 20 years ago be considered a recent event…
True, although the promotion to EIC is relatively recent.
I'm wondering if this new era is way fuller in leaks than previous one. Many sources before confirmations have said that X-Force and NYX are cancelled.
Now same sources say Laura Kinney: Wolverine is not selling at all and is decided to be first solo cancelled.
Is that true? With issue 5 just coming out this week how many issues are enough to put the decision?
Tom, does Emma’s introduction in Marvel Rivals have any impact on comic book sales? The game has brought her name back into popular culture — not that she wasn’t known before, but it was mostly among comic book readers. Now that her ship with Tony has gained popularity because of the game, is there a chance we’ll see them together again?
God I hope not. Let that ship die with FoX please.
I loved her and Iron Man!
Tom, will you be reading John Higg’s new Dr Who book? Higgs is a brilliant writer and I thoroughly recommend his books on William Blake and the KLF.