I think I’ve mentioned previously the weekly Reading Circle meetings that we hold, where the young editors and myself read a recent release and then dissect it in order to work out what went went well and what came together poorly as an instructional aid in making better books going forward. We’ve been holding them for more than a decade now. But we’ve also done a related thing once a year, and that’s the Reading Circle Secret Santa. The purpose of this yearly event is to give one another good comics material that we may not have ever come across on our own. So each year, every participant gets the name of another editor or production person or intern on the team for whom they’re expected to buy some good comics, and then to explain their selection when the packages are opened. These are always fun and festive gift exchanges, and we’re all exposed to some material that we haven’t seen on our own. For the past three years, editor Sarah Brunstad has been keeping a record of what was given to whom, and I’m going to share that listing with you now, as there are likely some cool books on this list that you’ve never heard of and may want to check out for yourselves.
2023
Mark Basso to Drew Baumgartner: AMERICAN RONIN by Peter Milligan & ACO; and BILL AND TED’S MOST TRIUMPHANT RETURN by Brian Lynch and Jerry Gaylord
Drew Baumgartner to Owen Keenan: PATIENCE by Daniel Clowes
Owen Keenan to Noah Sharma: SPY FAMILY vol 1 by Tatsuya Endo
Noah Sharma to Wil Moss: SCALES & SCOUNDRELS by Sebastian Girner
Wil Moss to Christian Madlansacay: TOP TEN by Alan Moore & Gene Ha
Christian Madlansacay to Danny Khazem: INVINCIBLE vol 1 by Robert Kirkman & Cory Walker
Danny Khazem to Rickey Purdin: SHUNA’S JOURNEY by Hayao Miyazaki
Rickey Purdin to Caitlin O’Connell: ROAMING by Mariko & Jillian Tamaki
Caitlin O’Connell to Devin Lewis: HOLLOW by Shannon Watters, Branden Boyer-White and Berenice Nelle
Devin Lewis to Mark Basso: RONIN by Frank Miller & Lynn Varley; and THE MASK comic adaptation by Doug Mahnke and John Arcudi
MR Daniel to Tom Groneman: THE DEAD LUCKY by Melissa Flores and French Carlomagno
Tom Groneman to Sarah Singer: THE THIEF AMONG THE TREES by Sabaa Tahir, Nicole Andelfinger & Sonia Liao; and REDWALL (adaptation) by Brian Jacques
Sarah Singer to Darren Shan: THE NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE by James Tynion IV & Alvaro Martinez Bueno
Darren Shan to Hernan Guarderas: DRAGONBALL Z OMNIBUS vol 1 by Akira Toriyama
Hernan Guarderas to Kat Gregorowicz: I KILL GIANTS by Joe Kelly & Ken Niimura
Kat Gregorowicz to Michelle Marchese: TEEN TITANS RAVEN and TEEN TITANS BEAST BOY by Kami Garcia & Gabriel Picolo
Michelle Marchese to MR Daniel: MIS(H)ADRA by Iasmin Omar Ata
Henry McCain to Lauren Bisom: TMNT: THE LAST RONIN by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Peter Laird & artists
Lauren Bisom to George Beliard: IN. by Will McPhail
George Beliard to Henry McCain: COWBOY WALLY and WHY I HATE SATURN by Kyle Baker
Tom Brevoort to Alanna Smith: WIMBLEDON GREEN by Seth
Alanna Smith to Sarah Brunstad: WITCH HAT ATELIER vol 1 & 2 by Kamome Shirahama
Sarah Brunstad to Nick Lowe: KITARO vol 1 by Shigeru Mizuki; and THE GIRL FROM THE OTHER SIDE: SIÚIL, A RÚN by Nagabe
Nick Lowe to Tom Brevoort: THE CREEPY CASE FILES OF MARGO MALOO vol 1 & 2
2022
Tom Brevoort to Mark Basso: RECKLESS and PULP, both by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips
Mark Basso to Danny Khazem: TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES Vol. 1 by Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird; and STRAY DOGS by Tony Fleecs & Trish Forstner
Danny Khazem to George Beliard: STORYTELLER by Barry Windsor Smith, IT WILL ALL HURT by Farel Dalrymple, and CASANOVA by Matt Fraction and Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba
George Beliard to Lauren Bisom: the entire run of 1980s ‘MAZING MAN
“Type neat, use words”
Lauren Bisom to Alanna Smith: WOMAN WORLD by Aminder Dhaliwal
Alanna Smith to Brian Crosby: SONIC THE HEDGEHOG IDW COLLECTION by Ian Flynn & multiple artists
Brian Crosby to Michelle Marchese: HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE by Tim Seeley & Dan Fraga; and PULP by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips
Michelle Marchese to Tom Groneman: THE LOW LOW WOODS by Carmen Maria Machado & Dani
Tom Groneman to Mike O’Sullivan: PROPHET (2012) by Brandon Graham, Giannis Milogiannis, Farel Dalrymple & Simon Roy
Mike O’Sullivan to Kaeden McGahey: DEATH: THE HIGH COST OF LIVING by Neil Gaiman, Chris Bachalo & Mark Buckingham. PLUS CHOCOLATE AND A STUFFED IRON MAN!!
Kaeden McGahey to Rickey Purdin: EAT THE RICH by Sarah Gailey & Pius Bak
Rickey Purdin to Carlos Lao: NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE by James Tynion IV & Alvaro Martinez Bueno, HAPPINESS WILL FOLLOW by Mike Hawthorne, and REUNION by Pascal Girard
Carlos Lao to Sarah Singer: SHUNA’S JOURNEY by Hayao Miyazaki
Sarah Singer to Sarah Brunstad: HOLLOW by Shannon Waters, Branden Boyer-White & Berenice Nelle
Sarah Brunstad to Drew Baumgartner: THE DRIFTING CLASSROOM by Kazuo Umezu
Drew Baumgartner to Ellie Pyle: OLYMPIA by Bastien Vives, Jérôme Mulot, and Florent Ruppert
Ellie Pyle to Kat Gregorowicz: MONSTRESS Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda
Kat Gregorowicz to C.B. Cebulski: FOOD WARS Yūto Tsukuda & Shun Saeki, and FUSHIGI YUUGI by Yuu Watase
CB to Wil Moss: PING PONG by Taiyō Matsumoto
Wil Moss to Dan Petraglia: HOW TO DRAW MANGA by Osamu Tezuka
Dan Petraglia to Darren Shan: ODE TO KIRIHITO by Osamu Tezuka
Darren Shan to Jill Du Boff: FABLES VOL. 1
Jill Du Boff to Tom Brevoort: A TIGER OF LAND AND DREAMS by Tiger Tateishi
Jacque Porte to MR Daniel: BUBBLE by Jordan Morris & Sarah Morgan
MR Daniel to Devin Lewis: FINE: A COMIC ABOUT GENDER by Rhea Ewing
Devin Lewis to Nick Lowe: THE TREEHOUSE OF HORROR and NEW WARRIORS: DARKNESS AND LIGHT
Nick Lowe to Jacque Porte: KAIJU MAX by Zander Cannon, and TOO COOL TO BE FORGOTTEN by Alex Robinson
2021
Tom Brevoort to George Beliard: WEAPON BROWN by Jason Yungbluth
George Beliard to Sarah Singer: LEAVE IT TO CHANCE by James Robinson & Paul Smith; and SHOCKROCKETS by Kurt Busiek & Stuart Immonen
Sarah Singer to Mark Basso: RIVERS OF LONDON based on Ben Aaronovich’s fantasy series; and THROUGH THE WOODS by Emily Carroll
Mark Basso to Wil Moss: FRANKENSTEIN ALIVE, ALIVE! by Steve Niles & Bernie Wrightson; STAN LEE’s biography drawn by Blackwell; and CYCLE OF THE WEREWOLF by Stephen King & Bernie Wrightson
Wil Moss to Sarah Brunstad: CLAN APIS by Jay Hosler
Sarah Brunstad to Rickey Purdin: PIZZA PUNKS by Cole Pauls
Rickey Purdin to David Gabriel: SANDCASTLE by Pierre Oscar Levy & Frederik Peeters; and NO ONE ELSE by R. Kikuo Johnson
David Gabriel to Jon-Michael Ennis: AGE OF BRONZE: A THOUSAND SHIPS by Eric Shanower
Jon-Michael Ennis to C.B. Cebulski: THROUGH THE WOODS by Emily Carroll
C.B. Cebulski to Kaitlyn Lindtvedt: USAGI YOJIMBO by Stan Sakai; and AKIRA by Katsuhiro Otomo
Kaitlyn Lindtvedt to Jay Bowen: THE SKY IS BLUE WITH A SINGLE CLOUD by Kuniko Tsurita
Jay Bowen to Sven Larsen: DEATH OR GLORY vols. 1 & 2 by Rick Remender & Bengal
Sven Larsen to Jacque Porte: HELLBLAZER: RAKE AT THE GATES OF HELL by Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon
Jacque Porte to Kaeden McGahey: SUPERMAN SMASHES THE KLAN by Gene Luen Yang & Gurihiru
Kaeden McGahey to Caitlin O’Connell: THE DREAMER by Lora Innes; and BAD GIRLS by Alex De Campi & Victor Santos
Caitlin O’Connell to Nick Lowe: BEETLE AND THE HOLLOWBONES by Aliza Layne; and THE DEEP AND DARK BLUE by Niki Smith
Nick Lowe to Drew Baumgartner: MURDER FALCON by Daniel Warren Johnson; and BLACKSAD by Juan Díaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido
Drew Baumgartner to Lindsey Cohick: TUKI by Jeff Smith
Lindsey Cohick to Dan Petraglia: MONSTRESS vol. 1 by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda
Dan Petraglia to Lauren Bisom: KILL SIX BILLION DEMONS vols. 1-3 by Tom Parkinson-Morgan (under pseudonym “Abbadon”)
Lauren Bisom to Darren Shan: BUBBLE by Jordan Morris, Sarah Morgan & Tony Cliff
Darren Shan to Steve Wacker: FRIDAY by Ed Brubaker & Marcos Martin
Steve Wacker to Alanna Smith: THE IMPENDING BLINDNESS OF BILLIE SCOTT by Zoe Thorogood
Alanna Smith to Devin Lewis: THE MAGIC FISH by Trung Le Nguyen
Devin Lewis to Danny Khazem: RONIN by Frank Miller; BATMAN RETURNS adaptation by Dennis O'Neil & Steve Erwin; and ESSENTIAL GODZILLA
Danny Khazem to Carlos Lao: BAD WEEKEND by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips
Carlos Lao to Tom Groneman: OPUS by Satoshi Kon
Tom Groneman to Kat Gregorowicz: PLATINUM END by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata; and THE PROMISE NEVERLAND by Kaiu Shirai & Posuka Demizu
Kat Gregorowicz to Tom Brevoort: DEMON SLAYER vols. 1-2 by Koyoharu Gotouge; FIRE FORCE vols. 1-2 by Atsushi Ōkubo; and ATTACK ON TITAN vols. 1-2 by Hajime Isayama
I also have a secondary reason for sharing these lists with you. This past week, there’s been a bunch of chatter throughout the Internet about the difficulties facing our industry and the steps necessary in order to remedy them. And on a number of occasions (and always from people who have had no direct dealing with any of them), I have heard it expressed that one of the problems is that today’s comic book editors aren’t real fans of the medium or the characters, that they “don’t walk around with a list of back issues they need in their wallets.” And that’s crap. Take it from me, and take it from that list above, our editors have a strong love for a wide variety of comic book material, far more than they’re being given credit for. Nobody is doing this job simply for a paycheck, or as a stepping stone to something larger, or as a means to put forward some agenda. Those are the opinions of people who don’t know and don’t care, and who have other axes to grind. It’s reductive and belittling and just plain wrong. Find something else to blame your industry problems on, our staff of editors and creators bleed Marvel red.
Now, your turn. What’s been on your mind:
Jeff Ryan
Growing up, I’d sometimes get a sad trombone feeling when a comic has a great cover by a hotshot artist, and then subpar interiors done by a work-a-day illustrator. I understood it, though: there are only so many hotshots to go around.
But for a while now, we've had (mostly!) hotshot interiors but with different hotshot artists doing the covers. Is there still an assumption that the cover will match the interiors? Or are the cover and the interiors considered separate beasts, and artists hired to do interiors don't expect to also contribute the cover?
I don’t know that there’s been an expectation that the interior artist will be doing the cover for decades now, Jeff. Certainly, that happens in certain instances. But not every great cover artist is an excellent interior artist, and vice versa. We try to put the best, most eye-catching images on our covers and that often means turning to artists who have proven themselves to be great at cover images. The cover should still represent the contents of the issue, in terms of story beats or general vibe. But there isn’t a huge importance placed on it being executed by the same artist.
Tim Britvich
"There was a forgettable sequel film, WANTED 2, as well."
was this a quick follow-up to the reader question concerning alternate Earth-B-Voort with a mention of a movie that only existed on that alt-Earth?
I tell you, Tim, when I was writing that up, I did a quick hit of IMDB and got a listing for WANTED 2, so I was under the impression that it was eventually finished and released. Didn’t look closely enough, I suppose. My bad.
Manqueman
Tom, you asked so this:
I’d bet it’s popular AF but monofocus doesn’t nothing for me. A book on sale whenever is touch and go for -- depends if there’s a good story behind it.
I like you intro/rant and the Q and As but some they go on a bit much.
I would be fine with a somewhat shorter newsletter.
Sounds like your favorite part of the enterprise is the sign-off, Manqueman!
Zach Rabiroff
So on that note, this week's question: have you encountered, over the course of your career, a creator whose creative ethos, or attitude in general, has proven so anathema to yours that you found yourself simply unable to work with them? Feel free to redact names to protect the guilty.
Well, yes, Zach, there are certainly some creators who are on my personal No-Fly list, with whom I will not work. And even one or two that I’ve been forced by circumstances and responsibility to work with even beyond that point. It’s also a sad comeuppance that some creators who screwed me in, say, 1996 have to now deal with the fact that they maybe backed the wrong horse, and that I’m not quick to forgive or forget. On the flip side, there are also creators who never want to work with me as well, so it’s a two-way street.
JV
Question for you: in regards to creators and social media - spurned by some creator trash talking a specific individual at Marvel editorial - does someone monitor and/or act on bad behaviour online?
I know freelancers are not technically employees but I do remember Dan Didio cutting assignments for a creator who trash talked DC online (and I felt he was in the right). Is this something you have had to deal with?
As a general rule, JV, our creators are all freelancers and free people who can express themselves however they may want to. There are certain behaviors that might get us to re-evaluate a relationship, typically revolving around issues of prejudice and bigotry and the like. But it really isn’t our place to be Mommy and Daddy. Our creators are all adults capable of making their own choices when it comes to proper behavior—and able to deal with any consequences that their actions and choices might lead to.
Evan “Cool Guy”
Do you have to personally like something to approve it? Are there artists and writers about whom you think “This is definitely not for me, but I’ll bet a bunch of readers will love it!”?
As an editor, Evan, you are inevitably going to be put in charge of projects that concern subject matter that you would never read yourself. In those instances, it’s endemic upon you to work out as best you are able what the audience for such material likes about it, what gets them to read and keep reading, and to be able to produce material that will scratch that itch. And there is a level of basic proficiency that a creator will have need to have achieved before you’ll take them on, regardless of whether their work clicks for you or not. I’ve certainly hired people over the years whose work was not to my tastes.
Julian Eme
On the creation of the Winter Soldier: I recently watched the pilot episode of The Six Million Dollar Man and was struck by the similarities to Bucky's transformation into the Winter Soldier. Tom, do you remember if that was one of Ed Brubaker's influences?
I don’t at all remember it coming up, Julian. Still, Ed is of the right age where he was probably watching the show during its original run, just as I was, so it may have been an unconscious influence.
Chip Zdarsky
I think a fun new addition to your newsletter would be if you interviewed comic creators and editors. Like, oh I don't know, me?
Well, whatever would we talk about, Chip? Back when I was briefly trying my hand at YouTube videos, I thought about doing a series of interviews with other editors in the field specifically about editing comic books and their assorted experiences. But that’s better done through a podcast or a video series than in a Newsletter like this one, I suspect.
Stephen Wacker
I would love a weekly segment where you don't interview Chip.
Then you must have been in heaven these past 90 weeks, Stephen!
Stuart Perks
In these days of multiple variant covers, how many is too many ? Also if you were to appear in a photo cover homage to Sex Criminals #1 featuring Matt Fraction and the other guy :) who would you want to appear with ?
Let’s be honest, Stuart, I would definitely have to appear with Chip, because I don’t have a prayer of holding my own standing next to Matt Fraction. In terms of variant covers, the reason we do as many of them as we do is that there’s clearly an audience for them that is buying them. So when that ceases to be the case, we’ll have realized we hit the point where there are too many of them. But we don’t appear to be there just yet.
Carlos
I know that I must have patient but in this pre Christmas, could be my Santa Claus and tell me if are there plans for Spider-Woman in the next year? Will be this crazy fan of Jessica Drew Happy in 2024?
SPIDER-WOMAN has a new series coming out, Carlos, so hopefully that will help to scratch this particular itch for a while. And there’s a Spider-Woman related link towards the end of this week’s Newsletter as well.
Michael
Are you reading the current Shazam! series? If so, I wondered what you thought of the recent issue, which makes "The Captain" more of a distinct entity from Billy, and more like the characters were in the Golden and Silver Ages.
I have been reading and enjoying Waid and Mora’s SHAZAM, Michael, though I haven’t yet read the issue in question. But from the way it sounds, yes, I’d be into that. The notion that the Captain is Billy in an adult body is a relatively new wrinkle on the character that came into fashion in the 1980s, in part influenced by the film BIG I expect, and a way to further separate him from Superman now that they both occupy the same fictional universe. But the classic Captain Marvel of the 1940s and 1950s was very clearly a distinct entity from Billy—they even met one another on at least one occasion!
Clonegeek
I think a big problem with comics these days are there just aren't really any must read titles anymore. Books that you just have to see what happens next or what that subplot is going to grow into. The greatest damage the 90's did to comics was that they made comics into something that needed to be collected rather than read.
The only raw excitement that I've seen about a Marvel comic in months is that new Ultimate Spider-Man book because it turns out people like Peter being married.
I don’t know if I’d go so far as you on this point, Clonegeek. I think there are always books that people are excited to read the next issue of, even if there isn’t such a consensus anymore on what titles those happen to be. But certainly stirring up more of that excitement among the audience would be a pretty good idea.
Chris Sutcliffe
My question for you is tangentially related to some YouTube drama that happened in the last couple of weeks. Basically, a Youtuber was discovered to have plagiarized a lot of their work or -- where they hadn't -- made up facts to suit their needs.
One of these made-up facts was that Allan Heinberg had to leak out the idea of Wiccan and Hulkling being gay, to give Marvel no choice but to accept two gay characters.
This was debunked well in a video, in part by interviews of Heinberg at the time, but I'm curious if you can offer any additional insight as the editor at the time. How did their sexuality come about? Was there ANY resistance to the idea?
There really wasn’t, Chris. As I’ve mentioned in the past, when Allan first pitched those characters, his conception of Hulkling was that he was a woman who took on the physique of a man using his shape-changing abilities. Allan, I think, thought that was perhaps as close as he’d be permitted to come to depicting a legitimate gay couple at Marvel at the time, but he clearly wasn’t all that in love with it. And so at some point, after having had the conversation ahead of time with people at Marvel, who agreed that it would be simpler and more straightforward and legitimate if Allan just wrote what he knew, on a phone conversation I suggested simply making Hulkling gay, and that was that. Given Allan’s pedigree, his own background and his skill level, it was a decision that everybody on the Marvel side was comfortable with, and we never really got any pushback to it.
Behind the Curtain
.Before the Pandemic, we used to try every year to bring special guests into the Marvel Bullpen to conduct seminars on comic book storytelling for our editors. Most often, the folks who delivered these instructional sessions were creators such as Howard Chaykin, Carl Potts, and Klaus Janson. With the pandemic and the lockdown, it’s been a while since we’ve done one—we need to get back to it.
Anyway, this quickie page was drawn up by me in answer to a challenge that Klaus put to a roomful of editors in one such session. He indicated that you could do a comic book page that would function and tell a story without words, but that it was impossible to do one without images. This was my solution to that challenge. Admittedly, I cheat a little bit here, using the word balloons and the typography as art as much as text, but the point stands. I maintain that you can envision the events of this simple little story perfectly with only the elements that are present above. Comics is a versatile medium.
Pimp My Wednesday
Before you head out for your holiday revelry, don’t forget to slip a few dollars to your local Retailer in exchange for these life-enhancing masterpieces!
G.O.D.S. #3 by Jonathan Hickman and Valerio Schiti sees the entry of a familiar entity from the Marvel Universe into events, sporting a visually interesting new look. There’s also the first meeting between Dimitri and Mia as well as a clue to her situation, and the attempted murder of an A.I.M. scientist. As is typical, Jonathan’s stories sound like nonsense until you experience them in the manner in which he lays them out. And Valerio and color artist Marte Gracia continue to make this the most fully-realized book on the stands.
That cover copy is just a little bit of a cheat, as we exposed the true identity of Captain Krakoa at the end of last issue. But here, you’ll find out the how and the why and see him transformed into a new identity going forward. Plus a big old fight, a nuclear explosion, a bit of self-sacrifice, and a speech on the courtyard steps. It’s the final issue of UNCANNY AVENGERS, and it’s delivered by Gerry Duggan and Javier Garron.
And in the realm of AVENGERS UNITED, we move into the third chapter of our 25-part mega-epic, as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes travel to the stars in order to try to broker peace between the Gheshians and the people of their moon, Yun-To. It’s written by Derek Landy and illustrated by Sebastian Cabrol.
A Comic Book I Worked On That Came Out On This Date
FANTASTIC FOUR #508 came out on December 17, 2003 and was intended to be the final issue in the Mark Waid & Mike Wieringo run on the title that had begun a year or so before. But in practice, it was just another momentary stop-over in the midst of that run, which continued on the next month without interruption. Here’s how it happened. There was a point some time before this issue was produced where there was an initiative made to ship more issues of our core titles in a calendar year. The idea was, if readers love ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN or INCREDIBLE HULK or AVENGERS or whatever, why should we limit ourselves to 12 monthly releases? Why not do 14, or 16, or 18/ Surely those books would sell better than other limited series and one-shots. Wanting to be a good team player, I offered to produce a few extra issues of FANTASTIC FOUR. The idea was that it was apparent that Mike Wieringo was going to need a break after working his way up to the oversized #500, so we’d do the follow-up arc with a different artist and double-ship the issues, so that a six-part story would be done in three months, so that Ringo wouldn’t be away from the book that long. We lined up Howard Porter, late of DC’s JLA, to be the artist on this storyline, in which a scarred Reed Richards would begin to act erratically as the Fantastic Four worked to dismantle Doctor Doom’s dictatorship in Latveria. So we began work on it, and that’s when everything hit the fan. As recounted in other Newsletters, publisher Bill Jemas decided to fire Mark Waid in favor of his own concept for the series, Working Class Heroes, and Mike Wieringo went with Mark in solidarity. But then, a funny thing began to happen. Bill and his creative team couldn’t quite get a version of his Working Class Heroes idea together that he was happy with. So we were asked to split up our double-ships in order to buy that project more time. So three months’ worth of releases expanded back into six months. Before the end of that time, Bill was out of the picture, and Joe Quesada and myself worked to put Mark and Mike back into the seats, with Working Class heroes becoming instead Marvel Knights 4. And the ending to this story was modified when it was apparent that we’d be doing further stories, leaving it on a hell of a cliffhanger in which the Thing is dead and Reed intends to find a way to journey into the afterlife and resurrect him. Which was sort of a metaphor for what had happened to us on this run.
Another Comic I Worked On That Came Out On This Date
Can’t really miss commemorating this one, can I? Twenty-six years ago, on December 17. 1997, my very first issue of AVENGERS was published, the beginning of the Heroes Return sequence by Kurt Busiek and George Perez. AVENGERS had come back from Heroes Reborn as a top-selling title, but this run made it top-three or better, largely on the back of George’s incredible artwork as well as Kurt’s back-to-basics approach to the ethos of the series. As a massive fan of George’s, it was great fun to work with him, and Kurt and I had become a well-oiled partnership on earlie titles such as THUNDERBOLTS and UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN by this point,. So everything ran very smoothly. I wasn’t supposed to be editing AVENGERS initially, that was going to be Bobbie Chase. But it was Ralph Macchio who championed the idea of getting George back to draw AVENGERS, and it was George who wanted to work with either Kurt or Mark Waid, figuring that they’d be up on all of the Marvel Universe continuity that he’d missed over the years. I was going to be editing IRON MAN with Kurt Busiek and Sean Chen, but after discussing it among themselves, Kurt and George approached EIC Bob Harras and suggested that I’d be a better fit with them on AVENGERS. So Bobbie got IRON MAN instead and I wound up with the best-selling title of the four. Twenty-six years later, and I’m still there, an unprecedented run for a Marvel editor and one that only a very few editors have matched across the industry. I’m closing in on my final issue of the series now—Wil Moss, the new editor, sent me over the script to the first issue without me so that I could check some coordination at the end of this past week. I’ll admit, it felt a little bit weird. Anyway, I previously wrote a whole bunch more about this issue over at my blog, including lots of pencil artwork and a few pages of Kurt’s plot and so forth, so if you’re interested, feel free to check it out. It’s pretty good stuff, and set the course for a huge portion of my life.
Monofocus
I kind of backed into watching the premiere episode of CAROL & THE END OF THE WORLD on Netflix. I was interested in the premise, but the art style of the animation left me a bit cold. But I was glad that I watched it, as it’s a strange little thing—not quite laugh-out-loud funny as suffused with a constant sense of dread and unease and foreboding. It’s a story concept that I’ve seen done before: a rogue asteroid has been discovered in space on a collision course with Earth, which it will hit in seven months’ time, causing an extinction event that will wipe out all of mankind. And there isn’t any possible Bruce Willis-led mission to divert or destroy it, humanity simply has to deal with the fact that they have no future and that much of what people have been spending their time doing is now utterly meaningless. At the start, our lead character Carol is in a state of almost denial, carrying on with her pedestrian and lonely life’s routine as a way of coping with this enormous sword that’s hanging over hers and everybody else’s heads. Along the way, she encounters a bevy of other characters, each of whom is dealing with the impending apocalypse in their own way. Some are partying frantically, desperate to make the most of every second, some are going through the motions of their old jobs, some are trying to keep society from collapsing in on itself as the structures that gave meaning to the manner in which people have lived all fall away, devoid of meaning. It’s a pretty interesting scenario. But it’s also a heavy premise, and so while I’m sure that I’ll sample the second episode, I find that I’m in no great rush to do so. There’s a bunch of emotional weight involved in watching this show. But that, I suspect, is what makes it so compelling.
Posted at TomBrevoort.com
Yesterday, I wrote about the first Spider Woman story from MAJOR VICTORY COMICS in the Golden Age.
And five years ago, I wrote about issue #14 of THE INVADERS, in which the World War II Marvel super heroes met thinly disguised versions of DC’s Freedom Fighters.
Still brainstorming on new features and new approaches for this Newsletter as we head into the new year. I’ve already got one concept in mind, but I need to hit on a few others. So I’ll keep thinking—and if there’s anything that you’d like to hear about, let me know! Otherwise, be careful out there and I’ll see you when I can. I have a family function next weekend for the holidays, so the Newsletter release may either be late or early, depending on how things go. We’ll see.
Hat’s All, folks!
Tom B
I'm curious how much thought, if any, goes into the time of year that certain types of comics get released. For example, in the world of movies, you have blockbusters in the summer and Oscar contenders in the winter, and movies you want to bury in February.
Are there similar rules for comics? Do the releases of events, or giant-sized issues, or new number ones, tend to fall on specific times of the year?
I'll beg to differ when it comes to the ideal format for those creator interviews: podcasts are all well and good, but for my money, a written Q&A is both more convenient for we literate types, and (vitally) a much bigger contribution to the historical record of this industry. So I'd love to see them, either here or on your blog.
I have a historical question this week. Late in 1969, Marvel abruptly announced (presumably at the instigation of publisher Martin Goodman) that they would henceforth put an end to continued stories in favor of one-and-done adventures. The policy forced multiple plots in progress to hastily and awkwardly wrap things up, and caused enough of an outcry from fans that two months later, the Bullpen Bulletins was already doing an apologetic backpedal.
Now, this came at a moment of visceral panic in the comics industry, as newsstand sales rapidly dropped toward the end of the decade, and this may have been as simple as a hail-Mary attempt to capture casual readers. But do you have any more inside info on what precisely motivated this move, and what allowed for its very swift reversal? Thanks as always for the delightful emails.