15 Comments

On the First Issue Special front: the premise of Tom King and Jorge Fornes' current Danger Street miniseries is that it involves all the characters who starred in First Issue Special!

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It wasn't just Steve in Coupling who was based on Moffat. It was Patrick and Geoff as well. He needed three characters to take in all his... issues and personal experiences.

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The mention of the initial Winter Soldier arc as well as Sleeper just reminded me how much I enjoy Ed Brubaker's work. Anything he writes is an automatic buy from me. Love his creator owned work but would also love to see the occasional return to Marvel (even though that is highly unlikely).

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Tom - what do you think goes into a successful anniversary issue? I really enjoy the oversize issues with back up stories from past creators (like the recent Cap solicits for issue 750 with stories by JM Dematteis and Dan Jurgens). Do you like for issues like this to look towards some pats creative highs? Do you lobby for certain past creators ?

Any examples of great anniversary issues (Cap 600, JLA 200, Detective comics 1000 and 1027 all come to mind) that you really enjoyed?

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Tom,

How much competition is there between editorial offices for getting creators assigned to books? While everyone is playing for the same team, I have to imagine that the desire to tell the best, and best-selling, stories possible must drive at least some amount of vying for the same high profile/hot creators’ time. Any past takes you can share about situations where creators were sniped by another office or certain offices having dibs on certain creators?

Thanks!

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Thanks for answering my question! I’m sure complaints about “event fatigue” are as frustrating as they are persistent and I appreciate your time and attention. 😊

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On a semi similar note, nothing pisses me off more than people who post on current comic sites "I don't read new comics but I hate this!" or the like. I can't think of one good reason for these people to follow these site other than to annoy themselves and others.

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/019/304/old.jpg

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Tom -- during your tenure, was there ever any discussion of doing away with the sliding timeline, and letting characters age up? For example, a middle-aged Peter Parker who isn't up for web-slinging anymore, so he trains Miles Morales. Franklin and Valeria replacing Reed and Sue. A Steve Rogers for whom the serum finally stops working. A geriatric Frank Castle nearing at the end of his days and for the first time terrified of what the legacy of his war might have actually been? Sort of what DC was reportedly planning with 5G? (And thanks in advance).

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The John Buscema I heard about wouldn't have used wingdings.

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Just gotta say that 'Man-Hole Of Death' had me snorting. It should have been one of the reprints in Giant Size Man Thing.

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Tom,

I just reread The Vision by Tom King and Gabriel Walta and I think it’s one of the best Marvel “evergreens” I can think of.

1. I know King signed his DC exclusive contract in the middle of this run. We’re there any other projects y’all were brainstorming before that? I’d love to see him tackle another Marvel character at some point.

2. What are some Marvel “evergreens” that you think belong on most fans’ bookshelves (such as Daredevil: Born Again)? DC seems to have a lot more that fit that bill, so I’m interested in your answer!

Thanks!

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"on a few occasions we’ve chosen to go a year without doing any big Event series—and unfailingly, whenever we take that approach, sales decline. So for all that there are seemingly a lot of fans who aren’t interested in Events and who resent their intrusion upon the titles they’re following, there is also apparently a large contingent of readers who are only driven to check titles out when there’s something large and noteworthy taking place within the stories. So it’s a bit of a Catch-22. The reality is, of course, that what everybody wants is a good, high-quality story. So long as you feel as though you can deliver that, an Event isn’t a detriment to sales, if anything it’s a boon to them, at least in aggregate."

Given that multi-title crossover events have dominated the Marvel & DC landscape almost continuously for nearly 40 years now, isn't it more likely that anyone who doesn't like them either stopped reading long ago, or never got into those publishing lines in the first place, precisely because that paradigm doesn't appeal to them? If so, then a sales drop whenever there is a brief lull in events would make sense, because the remaining audience would then be solely comprised of people who DO like crossover events. I do think many of those who complain the loudest are likely former readers who believe their gripes will be taken more seriously if they pose a "customer you might lose" scenario. And while there could be a point where diminishing returns make the "events + higher cover prices" formula no longer sufficient, it's probably far enough down the road to be a problem for the next round of decision makers.

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I recently learned Fraction wrote “Marvel style” with Aja on Hawkeye. Are there other modern examples of teams using Marvel style (or something close to it) so successfully that you’d like to highlight?

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Hi, Tom. As someone who used to be in the blog trenches, I've long admired your dedication to writing about the comics you've bought, read, and loved from the pre-professional part of your life. My question: how do you remember with such detail where you bought those comics, when stories were published, and who worked on them? were you the kind of fan who meticulously catalogued everything?

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