"Oddball"? Oi! Watch the Secret Stamp slander! My man Roddy Colt appeared in eighteen stories, which is a pretty good record for a minor hero during the Golden Age, I think.
Glad to see you mention Moonshadow. I still think it, along with Zot! and American Flagg, is one of the best series of the 80s and mostly forgotten today. Do you have any favorite books or runs that are mostly forgotten?
By the way, I'm the person that traded a complete run of the Bendis Secret Invasion for a copy of X-Factor 88 signed by you, Peter David, and Joe Quesada during your trade to get FF #1
In the 1990s there were rumors of DC and Marvel "trading" characters for a year -- the pair I heard was Storm for Wonder Woman. Even if unfounded this seems unfair, since Wonder Woman is one of DC's Trinity and Storm is part of team books. If there were such a proposition nowadays, how would you theoretically decide which two characters were equivalent? (Besides the obvious of "Daredevil is kinda like Nightwing" or 'Harley Quinn and Deadpool are both violent and make jokes.")
"At the end of the day, though, I don’t work with creators that I can’t trust—doesn’t mean that they can’t work up at Marvel, only that I’m not going to be hiring them in my office again."
I guess that ties in with this week's theme of "enemies" although I suppose it's practical as much as personal; I recall you have said you legitimately thought Steve Gerber's Howard the Duck stunt would get you fired.
"When I started at Marvel, it was common wisdom that, if you wanted to pop the numbers on a given title, you could always do one of a few can’t-fail things: a wedding, a death, a costume change, or a change of the lead character. Because these worked, they were used again and again."
The irony being that the more they're used, the less can't-fail they are!
The Last Galactus story anecdote sounds amazing - would love to have seen Ron Lim's take on the complete story.
Would you ever have another creator just complete a story for continuity's sake? Like the Favreau/Granov Iron Man story - say plot by Favreau (if you know it or can get it) and have the story finished off by a scripter and/or another penciller? Or not worth the headaches without the original creators?
Another quick question - as a fan of the Flash - are you reading Jeremy Adams run on the series? it is Wonderfull (just enough ties to DC mythos), fast paced and fun. I am happy to hear he is writing some upcoming Avengers unlimited comics soon. Would love to see more Marvel work from him.
It's been a while since I've last commented, but I'm still reading every week. Great work, as always. I've really loved seeing that document by Alanna Smith, I always crave for more about how everything works and these kind of documents are always cool.
Funnily enough I’ve always been quite fond of the various incarnations of Captain Comet, so good to see him pop up.
As monster / sci-fi omnibuses just came up, I’d love to see a volume collecting the black & white mag “Unknown Worlds of Sci-Fi”. Plus the colour “Worlds Unknown” and bits like Man Gods and UFO Connection from Marvel Preview.
An Epic Illustrated omnibus would also be most welcome, though I suspect multiple rights issues makes that an unlikely one?
So I've been reading "The Secret History of Marvel Comics" by Sean Howe, and I have two types of questions.
1. If you've read the book, what did you think? Does it get most of the time you've been there right? I know you're quoted a few times, so I'd hope that Howe got things right, but I'm just curious.
2. Having gotten to the end of the 90s, I've concluded that the Nineties were not a great time to be in editorial at Marvel. Between the pressure to outdo sales each year, the Image defection, the collapse of the direct market, the gut-wrenching layoffs, the bankruptcy...just not a lot of fun there. And yet, you stayed, so there must have been something you liked about the job. What are the best memories you have of working at Marvel during those crazy times?
Every week I look forward to sitting down and reading through this newsletter, so my heartfelt thank you for investing as much time as you do into this and congratulations on one year doing so!
With that, I wanted to throw you a question outside of comics for #52! I don’t know if you’re a big “movie guy,” but my question is this: What is your favorite film of all time that had a budget of less than one million dollars?
Thanks for your great explanation around the need for ad pages in the 32-page books. Everything you said makes perfect sense to me, and it's giving me a new appreciation for how books are put together.
As a follow-up: What's the decision-making process like when deciding where to place the ads? Double-page spreads are left alone, obviously, but are their other specific spacing or pacing considerations besides? Are certain types of beats/page transitions considered less interruptible than others? Or, do writers dictate a script saying they want a DPS, then a single page, then another DPS, counting on an ad to fill the extra middle page?
Or, in lieu of this sort of story-dependent placement, could the ad pages all be sent to the back of the book?
Thanks for another great newsletter! I loved seeing the Big Workflow Document, thank you and Alanna for sharing it. It reminded me of many of the schedules Shelly Bond shared in Filth & Grammar, a book I found invaluable. I’m sure plenty of people have shared F&G with you, I’d be curious if you have any thoughts on it. (Forgive me if you’ve posted them elsewhere!)
"Oddball"? Oi! Watch the Secret Stamp slander! My man Roddy Colt appeared in eighteen stories, which is a pretty good record for a minor hero during the Golden Age, I think.
Glad to see you mention Moonshadow. I still think it, along with Zot! and American Flagg, is one of the best series of the 80s and mostly forgotten today. Do you have any favorite books or runs that are mostly forgotten?
By the way, I'm the person that traded a complete run of the Bendis Secret Invasion for a copy of X-Factor 88 signed by you, Peter David, and Joe Quesada during your trade to get FF #1
In the 1990s there were rumors of DC and Marvel "trading" characters for a year -- the pair I heard was Storm for Wonder Woman. Even if unfounded this seems unfair, since Wonder Woman is one of DC's Trinity and Storm is part of team books. If there were such a proposition nowadays, how would you theoretically decide which two characters were equivalent? (Besides the obvious of "Daredevil is kinda like Nightwing" or 'Harley Quinn and Deadpool are both violent and make jokes.")
"At the end of the day, though, I don’t work with creators that I can’t trust—doesn’t mean that they can’t work up at Marvel, only that I’m not going to be hiring them in my office again."
I guess that ties in with this week's theme of "enemies" although I suppose it's practical as much as personal; I recall you have said you legitimately thought Steve Gerber's Howard the Duck stunt would get you fired.
"When I started at Marvel, it was common wisdom that, if you wanted to pop the numbers on a given title, you could always do one of a few can’t-fail things: a wedding, a death, a costume change, or a change of the lead character. Because these worked, they were used again and again."
The irony being that the more they're used, the less can't-fail they are!
The Last Galactus story anecdote sounds amazing - would love to have seen Ron Lim's take on the complete story.
Would you ever have another creator just complete a story for continuity's sake? Like the Favreau/Granov Iron Man story - say plot by Favreau (if you know it or can get it) and have the story finished off by a scripter and/or another penciller? Or not worth the headaches without the original creators?
Another quick question - as a fan of the Flash - are you reading Jeremy Adams run on the series? it is Wonderfull (just enough ties to DC mythos), fast paced and fun. I am happy to hear he is writing some upcoming Avengers unlimited comics soon. Would love to see more Marvel work from him.
It's been a while since I've last commented, but I'm still reading every week. Great work, as always. I've really loved seeing that document by Alanna Smith, I always crave for more about how everything works and these kind of documents are always cool.
Funnily enough I’ve always been quite fond of the various incarnations of Captain Comet, so good to see him pop up.
As monster / sci-fi omnibuses just came up, I’d love to see a volume collecting the black & white mag “Unknown Worlds of Sci-Fi”. Plus the colour “Worlds Unknown” and bits like Man Gods and UFO Connection from Marvel Preview.
An Epic Illustrated omnibus would also be most welcome, though I suspect multiple rights issues makes that an unlikely one?
Yes to Last Galactus Story being finished though.
Tom, I just want to be clear: I consider you more of a "frenemy"
So I've been reading "The Secret History of Marvel Comics" by Sean Howe, and I have two types of questions.
1. If you've read the book, what did you think? Does it get most of the time you've been there right? I know you're quoted a few times, so I'd hope that Howe got things right, but I'm just curious.
2. Having gotten to the end of the 90s, I've concluded that the Nineties were not a great time to be in editorial at Marvel. Between the pressure to outdo sales each year, the Image defection, the collapse of the direct market, the gut-wrenching layoffs, the bankruptcy...just not a lot of fun there. And yet, you stayed, so there must have been something you liked about the job. What are the best memories you have of working at Marvel during those crazy times?
Every week I look forward to sitting down and reading through this newsletter, so my heartfelt thank you for investing as much time as you do into this and congratulations on one year doing so!
With that, I wanted to throw you a question outside of comics for #52! I don’t know if you’re a big “movie guy,” but my question is this: What is your favorite film of all time that had a budget of less than one million dollars?
If you have one, of course!
Thanks for your great explanation around the need for ad pages in the 32-page books. Everything you said makes perfect sense to me, and it's giving me a new appreciation for how books are put together.
As a follow-up: What's the decision-making process like when deciding where to place the ads? Double-page spreads are left alone, obviously, but are their other specific spacing or pacing considerations besides? Are certain types of beats/page transitions considered less interruptible than others? Or, do writers dictate a script saying they want a DPS, then a single page, then another DPS, counting on an ad to fill the extra middle page?
Or, in lieu of this sort of story-dependent placement, could the ad pages all be sent to the back of the book?
Thanks for another great newsletter! I loved seeing the Big Workflow Document, thank you and Alanna for sharing it. It reminded me of many of the schedules Shelly Bond shared in Filth & Grammar, a book I found invaluable. I’m sure plenty of people have shared F&G with you, I’d be curious if you have any thoughts on it. (Forgive me if you’ve posted them elsewhere!)