I don't remember anything about pitching "The Many Worlds of Spider-Man" idea. Which doesn't mean it didn't happen, I just don't remember anything about it or my alleged involvement with it.
If it was my idea, I have no doubt it was brilliant. ;)
The breaking the fourth wall thing in comics is always interesting to me as it was such a mainstay of the British humour comics I grew up with in the 70s and 80s. The reader was always the ‘fifth Beatle’ in the strip with many stories in comics like the Beano and the Dandy even going so far as to include the ‘reader’s voice’, speech balloons coming from off-panel as if they were the readers interacting with the characters, sometimes having full conversations with the likes of the British Dennis the Menace or Minnie the Minx.
In many cases this was a smart way of helping with exposition, having the reader ask questions, but in some cases like Bananaman in Nutty and later the Dandy the reader would berate or plain insult the ‘Man of Peel’ for being the world’s worst superhero.
I was really disappointed that when I eventually wrote for the Beano that the reader’s voice balloons had been discontinued. I tried to reintroduce it when I was writing Bananaman but it was vetoed. It was something I always found really funny as a kid.
Somehow hearing about this Born Again follow up for the first time! Wowza! Although you’re right that this seems like a story better left to the imagination of the fans, that era of Daredevil (including the Nocenti/Romita run) seems perfect for one of the legacy “flashback”mini-series that you guys have been doing lately.
As I understand--and please correct me if I'm wrong--the (really fun) Leah Williams/Marco Castiello Giant-Man miniseries from "War of the Realms" came about because word had come down that Marvel should really publish something called "Giant-Man" to keep its trademark current! Are there some other examples of comics that have worked out nicely whose origin was "we need to publish something with this title"?
Is there an obstacle to collecting Peter David’s 1980s Spider-Man stories — many of which have never been collected or available on Marvel Unlimited?
I find his writing on those titles to be enduringly emotionally resonant; adept at comedy, tragedy, and everything in between; whose readability remains through the stylistic shifts in storytelling in the intervening years. Whereas most people know of “The Death of Jean DeWolfe” and “The Commuter Cometh,” so many people don’t know about the atypically great writing he gave the Wasp early in his run, the Blaze stories, that outstanding “Point of View” story where Spidey has it out with Jameson, that tragic “Ashcan” story, the entertaining Rashomon “Eye Witness” story, and so many more. I suspect that had all of PAD’s work appeared consecutively in Amazing, he would be regarded as highly among Spidey writers of this era as say, Roger Stern.
Regardless of whether new collections are in the offering or not, PAD fans might want to know he’s had some health scares lately and since he’s at the mercy of the US healthcare system, he could use some help. https://gofund.me/9bb4120f (Tom, I'm sorry if this is an inappropriate use of your question section. Though I am 100% genuine about how first-rate PAD’s original Spidey books are and how much I'd like to see his run collected in his lifetime).
I'm having a Mandela Effect moment. I swore I thought DC ended up printing a trade paperback of the Cancelled Comic Cavalcade books sometime in the last 20 years. Apparently, I'm wrong, unless someone knows something.
Would there be anything other than market demand that would keep DC from printing a collection of these stories? I realize the market wouldn't be huge despite the inclusion of top talent- Ditko, Kirby, Jim Aparo, Starlin, etc- but they could probably get enough orders in the Direct Market to justify the work, couldn't they? I'm assuming everyone got paid in the 70s and DC has the legal rights to publish the material. Just curious.
Thanks for another great newsletter! I’ve been curious about this for a while: I know you work very hard to make sure every Event is the best it can be, but is there anything you do to combat “event fatigue” in comics? I hear about that a lot from people who are hesitant to pick up Big Two superhero books and I wonder how that looks from your side. Thanks again for everything!
Tom, thanks for answering my query about the “gentleman’s agreement” with Frank Miller. It is a great opportunity to contact you directly with such questions - or even suggestions! Much appreciated.
Tom, was the original plan for Secret Invasion to end with the Skrulls winning and taking over Earth? At the time there was a series of house ads running the "Embrace Change" tag line showing Skrulls and humans together which seem to hint at that.
I don't remember anything about pitching "The Many Worlds of Spider-Man" idea. Which doesn't mean it didn't happen, I just don't remember anything about it or my alleged involvement with it.
If it was my idea, I have no doubt it was brilliant. ;)
The breaking the fourth wall thing in comics is always interesting to me as it was such a mainstay of the British humour comics I grew up with in the 70s and 80s. The reader was always the ‘fifth Beatle’ in the strip with many stories in comics like the Beano and the Dandy even going so far as to include the ‘reader’s voice’, speech balloons coming from off-panel as if they were the readers interacting with the characters, sometimes having full conversations with the likes of the British Dennis the Menace or Minnie the Minx.
In many cases this was a smart way of helping with exposition, having the reader ask questions, but in some cases like Bananaman in Nutty and later the Dandy the reader would berate or plain insult the ‘Man of Peel’ for being the world’s worst superhero.
I was really disappointed that when I eventually wrote for the Beano that the reader’s voice balloons had been discontinued. I tried to reintroduce it when I was writing Bananaman but it was vetoed. It was something I always found really funny as a kid.
Somehow hearing about this Born Again follow up for the first time! Wowza! Although you’re right that this seems like a story better left to the imagination of the fans, that era of Daredevil (including the Nocenti/Romita run) seems perfect for one of the legacy “flashback”mini-series that you guys have been doing lately.
As I understand--and please correct me if I'm wrong--the (really fun) Leah Williams/Marco Castiello Giant-Man miniseries from "War of the Realms" came about because word had come down that Marvel should really publish something called "Giant-Man" to keep its trademark current! Are there some other examples of comics that have worked out nicely whose origin was "we need to publish something with this title"?
Is there an obstacle to collecting Peter David’s 1980s Spider-Man stories — many of which have never been collected or available on Marvel Unlimited?
I find his writing on those titles to be enduringly emotionally resonant; adept at comedy, tragedy, and everything in between; whose readability remains through the stylistic shifts in storytelling in the intervening years. Whereas most people know of “The Death of Jean DeWolfe” and “The Commuter Cometh,” so many people don’t know about the atypically great writing he gave the Wasp early in his run, the Blaze stories, that outstanding “Point of View” story where Spidey has it out with Jameson, that tragic “Ashcan” story, the entertaining Rashomon “Eye Witness” story, and so many more. I suspect that had all of PAD’s work appeared consecutively in Amazing, he would be regarded as highly among Spidey writers of this era as say, Roger Stern.
Regardless of whether new collections are in the offering or not, PAD fans might want to know he’s had some health scares lately and since he’s at the mercy of the US healthcare system, he could use some help. https://gofund.me/9bb4120f (Tom, I'm sorry if this is an inappropriate use of your question section. Though I am 100% genuine about how first-rate PAD’s original Spidey books are and how much I'd like to see his run collected in his lifetime).
I'm having a Mandela Effect moment. I swore I thought DC ended up printing a trade paperback of the Cancelled Comic Cavalcade books sometime in the last 20 years. Apparently, I'm wrong, unless someone knows something.
Would there be anything other than market demand that would keep DC from printing a collection of these stories? I realize the market wouldn't be huge despite the inclusion of top talent- Ditko, Kirby, Jim Aparo, Starlin, etc- but they could probably get enough orders in the Direct Market to justify the work, couldn't they? I'm assuming everyone got paid in the 70s and DC has the legal rights to publish the material. Just curious.
Thanks for another great newsletter! I’ve been curious about this for a while: I know you work very hard to make sure every Event is the best it can be, but is there anything you do to combat “event fatigue” in comics? I hear about that a lot from people who are hesitant to pick up Big Two superhero books and I wonder how that looks from your side. Thanks again for everything!
Tom, thanks for answering my query about the “gentleman’s agreement” with Frank Miller. It is a great opportunity to contact you directly with such questions - or even suggestions! Much appreciated.
Tom, was the original plan for Secret Invasion to end with the Skrulls winning and taking over Earth? At the time there was a series of house ads running the "Embrace Change" tag line showing Skrulls and humans together which seem to hint at that.