Question for you, Mr. Brevoort, that piggybacks on one from this week: how does being “behind the curtain” affect your enjoyment of Marvel comics, not in terms of separating an artist from their art, but more in terms of knowing many of the general long term plans and even details of many books that are being published there? Do you have to look to other companies’ work in order to have that sense of “what will happen next?!” Are there any Marvel books that you are able to read and enjoy, where you have no idea of what’s coming?
Maybe this question is too in the weeds, but was curious if there’s a larger reason why Marvel shifted limited series to five issues over 10/12-issue runs like DC’s done more of lately. Is that just a product of how trade paperbacks are produced now? Or how Marvel would prefer to story-tell outside of ongoing titles? (or both)
Unrelated: With the Guardians of the Galaxy not having an ongoing series for the last year-plus, was wondering is that because of timing relaunch sort of with the upcoming movie? Also, I’m assuming the Guardians are not on Marvel’s short list for characters that NEED an ongoing series at all times, but what does that list look like (if it exists)?
Thanks! And always enjoy the peek behind the industry curtain the newsletter provides.
Thanks one more week for the Newsletter. And thanks for answering my questions! I'll keep asking the questions that come to mind, then.
Fantastic Four by North & Coello, yes! I'm so ready for this series. I've loved Slott's time on the book. It felt classic and refreshing and made me love the family more than I used to. So I really wanna dig into the new volume. Its premise is different and exciting and very suggestive. I hope it ends up being as good as I feel it's gonna be.
The question Evan asked made me think of another. When we are talking about really good editors, people who were or still are great at their jobs, what are the names you immediately think of?
And another one, inspired by the Eden's Trail section. What are your thoughts on editing books that are outside the main Marvel Universe entirely? I don't just mean another continuity, but stuff like Conan, Star Wars, Alien, Predator, Planet of the Apes, Ultraman... Conan and Star Wars do fit at Marvel, maybe just because of historical reasons. And, sure, the barbarian had its time in the main Marvel continuity. But I have to confess that the other franchises feel weird next to a Marvel logo. Sure, Marvel is a comic book publisher and its business is to publish comic books. But nowadays its identity is so linked to superheroes and continuity that I feel that licensed properties never really end up finding its place. Does that affect how you tackle these books?
I agree about Card. The Ender series and the Bean companion series were one of my most loved sci fi. That fell by the wayside big time when I found out the man basically advocated people like me be rounded up and imprisoned at his mildest.
One question: Bendis gave continued life to characters from limited series like the updated Ares, teh Hood and the Sentry and I had hope (until he deserted us for my favorite modern run on Superman) that he would do the same for True Believers. I loved that series and even recenty read again its first issue. Was there ever a chance that could have happened? It wasn't just a great book but it showed the wold wha Cary Bates could have done without Bronze Age restrictions!
Oh and I hope Mister North keeps Alicia and Ben's kids around. At the very least, their presence could keep poor Franklin from going through puberty backwards again for at least the third time.
I'll pitch in three questions- you can answer these however you like.
1. I *love* the Marvel Unlimited service- the idea of getting to read all of the great Marvel comics for one low price is fantastic. However, there are some gaps in the comics offered on the service, as there still are some Marvel comics that haven't been digitized yet. Specifically, it seems like most of these undigitized comics were published in the early 90s. For example, one of my favorite runs, the JM DeMatteis/Sal Buscema run of Spectacular Spider-Man, isn't on the service at all.
As someone who was editing comics in the pre-digital age, do you have any insight as to why comics in the early 90s may be harder to digitize than, say, comics from the 70s or 80s? I know you don't do any work for Marvel Unlimited, but since you have pretty much done everything else for Marvel, I thought you might have some insight.
2. While I'm thinking of Sal Buscema, do you have any anecdotes of working with Sal? One of my favorite books about comics was TwoMorrows's biography of him. I think he's a fantastic artist; his work was so expressive.
3. And finally, since a lot of your recaps of old comics lately seem to involve Gil Kane, I was wondering if you ever worked with him or heard any interesting stories. There's some really interesting stories about him, and I've read parts of his interviews with Gary Groth in the Comics Journal and other books, so he certainly seems to have been a character.
"There has been a tendency over the past two decades or so for the Marvel Universe to turn into this insular world of Super Hero Soap Opera in which the Super Heroes talk about their Super Problems with their Super Friends and have their Super Affairs with their Super Colleagues in between fights with their Super Enemies, and no real human being is involved anywhere."
THIS, THIS, THIS!!! And it isn't isolated to Marvel- DC is every bit as bad. The foundation of all of the classic books that have given rise to today's super stars of media were their 'normal' supporting cast. To the extent the supporting characters still exist or 'live,' they are marginalized or as you note end up with some sort of powers. It is absolutely a 'last two decades' or maybe post-Image thing and it breaks my heart.
For however many months that everyone in the office was debating the best way to end The Clone Saga, how many time a week, on average, did someone use the phrase, "I have a clone to pick with you"?
Not a question but a comment in lieu of some previously featured newsletter highlights. I work in the inter library loan dept. of my library and recently shipped out a big “History of EC Comics” book from Taschen. It was incredibly gorgeous to flip through and look at the art and covers, and I came across some of the books you’ve mentioned here from time to time! I’ve got a few of the DC books from Taschen, really good stuff.
Question for you, Mr. Brevoort, that piggybacks on one from this week: how does being “behind the curtain” affect your enjoyment of Marvel comics, not in terms of separating an artist from their art, but more in terms of knowing many of the general long term plans and even details of many books that are being published there? Do you have to look to other companies’ work in order to have that sense of “what will happen next?!” Are there any Marvel books that you are able to read and enjoy, where you have no idea of what’s coming?
Maybe this question is too in the weeds, but was curious if there’s a larger reason why Marvel shifted limited series to five issues over 10/12-issue runs like DC’s done more of lately. Is that just a product of how trade paperbacks are produced now? Or how Marvel would prefer to story-tell outside of ongoing titles? (or both)
Unrelated: With the Guardians of the Galaxy not having an ongoing series for the last year-plus, was wondering is that because of timing relaunch sort of with the upcoming movie? Also, I’m assuming the Guardians are not on Marvel’s short list for characters that NEED an ongoing series at all times, but what does that list look like (if it exists)?
Thanks! And always enjoy the peek behind the industry curtain the newsletter provides.
Thanks one more week for the Newsletter. And thanks for answering my questions! I'll keep asking the questions that come to mind, then.
Fantastic Four by North & Coello, yes! I'm so ready for this series. I've loved Slott's time on the book. It felt classic and refreshing and made me love the family more than I used to. So I really wanna dig into the new volume. Its premise is different and exciting and very suggestive. I hope it ends up being as good as I feel it's gonna be.
The question Evan asked made me think of another. When we are talking about really good editors, people who were or still are great at their jobs, what are the names you immediately think of?
And another one, inspired by the Eden's Trail section. What are your thoughts on editing books that are outside the main Marvel Universe entirely? I don't just mean another continuity, but stuff like Conan, Star Wars, Alien, Predator, Planet of the Apes, Ultraman... Conan and Star Wars do fit at Marvel, maybe just because of historical reasons. And, sure, the barbarian had its time in the main Marvel continuity. But I have to confess that the other franchises feel weird next to a Marvel logo. Sure, Marvel is a comic book publisher and its business is to publish comic books. But nowadays its identity is so linked to superheroes and continuity that I feel that licensed properties never really end up finding its place. Does that affect how you tackle these books?
Back then, comics didn't contain controlled substances, so the request didn't actually come from the FDA:
"Stan Lee, the editor of Spider‐Man, said he was impelled to proceed with a story containing a subplot on drug abuse by a letter he received from an official of the National Institute of Mental Health, a branch of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare." https://www.nytimes.com/1971/02/04/archives/a-comics-magazine-defies-code-ban-on-drug-stories-comics-magazine.html
I agree about Card. The Ender series and the Bean companion series were one of my most loved sci fi. That fell by the wayside big time when I found out the man basically advocated people like me be rounded up and imprisoned at his mildest.
One question: Bendis gave continued life to characters from limited series like the updated Ares, teh Hood and the Sentry and I had hope (until he deserted us for my favorite modern run on Superman) that he would do the same for True Believers. I loved that series and even recenty read again its first issue. Was there ever a chance that could have happened? It wasn't just a great book but it showed the wold wha Cary Bates could have done without Bronze Age restrictions!
Oh and I hope Mister North keeps Alicia and Ben's kids around. At the very least, their presence could keep poor Franklin from going through puberty backwards again for at least the third time.
I'll pitch in three questions- you can answer these however you like.
1. I *love* the Marvel Unlimited service- the idea of getting to read all of the great Marvel comics for one low price is fantastic. However, there are some gaps in the comics offered on the service, as there still are some Marvel comics that haven't been digitized yet. Specifically, it seems like most of these undigitized comics were published in the early 90s. For example, one of my favorite runs, the JM DeMatteis/Sal Buscema run of Spectacular Spider-Man, isn't on the service at all.
As someone who was editing comics in the pre-digital age, do you have any insight as to why comics in the early 90s may be harder to digitize than, say, comics from the 70s or 80s? I know you don't do any work for Marvel Unlimited, but since you have pretty much done everything else for Marvel, I thought you might have some insight.
2. While I'm thinking of Sal Buscema, do you have any anecdotes of working with Sal? One of my favorite books about comics was TwoMorrows's biography of him. I think he's a fantastic artist; his work was so expressive.
3. And finally, since a lot of your recaps of old comics lately seem to involve Gil Kane, I was wondering if you ever worked with him or heard any interesting stories. There's some really interesting stories about him, and I've read parts of his interviews with Gary Groth in the Comics Journal and other books, so he certainly seems to have been a character.
Thanks for all you do.
"There has been a tendency over the past two decades or so for the Marvel Universe to turn into this insular world of Super Hero Soap Opera in which the Super Heroes talk about their Super Problems with their Super Friends and have their Super Affairs with their Super Colleagues in between fights with their Super Enemies, and no real human being is involved anywhere."
THIS, THIS, THIS!!! And it isn't isolated to Marvel- DC is every bit as bad. The foundation of all of the classic books that have given rise to today's super stars of media were their 'normal' supporting cast. To the extent the supporting characters still exist or 'live,' they are marginalized or as you note end up with some sort of powers. It is absolutely a 'last two decades' or maybe post-Image thing and it breaks my heart.
For however many months that everyone in the office was debating the best way to end The Clone Saga, how many time a week, on average, did someone use the phrase, "I have a clone to pick with you"?
Not a question but a comment in lieu of some previously featured newsletter highlights. I work in the inter library loan dept. of my library and recently shipped out a big “History of EC Comics” book from Taschen. It was incredibly gorgeous to flip through and look at the art and covers, and I came across some of the books you’ve mentioned here from time to time! I’ve got a few of the DC books from Taschen, really good stuff.