I’ve got a fun story to tell this week, but it’s actually down below in one of the other categories. So I’m at something of a loss as to how to kick off this week’s madness. So maybe we just jump right in and get to it, hey? Thank heaven for the questions from you readers, or I’d be struggling to fill this space every week. So let’s see what we can do to dispense with some wisdom and/or some opinions about some stuff:
Another great newsletter. I was marveling at the images on the Christmas card when I read this:
"The text all comes from Walt Kelly’s great feature Pogo, a holiday poem that he’d run close to Christmas for a bunch of years."
And I was like, wait. The text is actually from Tom Lehrer's A Christmas Carol, a song I know very well. In fact, the image itself says "Lyrics copyright @ 1991 Tom Lehrer." Of course, you wouldn't even need to do that anymore, since Tom Lehrer released all of his songs into the public domain a few years ago.
Forgive me if I missed a previous installment on Count Duckula, Tom. I swear I try to keep close tabs on all of these newsletters, but I fear MWaH is beginning to accumulate its own continuity at this point, and there's nary a footnote in sight. Where's a Mark Gruenwald when you need one.
I was chatting the other day with a veteran creator who was ruefully remembering the challenges of working on one of Marvel's licensed books back in the day, and the particular pain of navigating the particularly demanding licensor in question. I imagine that process looks quite a bit different in the era of Disney, Lucasfilm, Fox, et. al., but that certain similar challenges remain the same.
So my question is: what shape does the approval process take for Marvel's licensed (or parent-company-affiliated) books these days? Does it look different for properties from one division versus those from others (e.g. is there a different process for Star Wars than there is for Planet of the Apes)? And what, in general, makes a successful pitch that can navigate the tricky obstacles of a licensed book?
Budiansky must have really loved the title “Cyberwar” - it would get used a little down the line for a Deathlok/Silver Sable crossover, then a couple years later for the concluding arc of the Scarlet Spider books!
I forgot you wrote some Count Duckula! I tried to put a whole set of that together and gave up at some point. The cartoon intro had a trumpet playing over the Thames Colour Production logo and that always contributed to my thinking I’d seen it and similarly British-dusted content as a kid when I lived overseas rather than on American tv.
And I didn’t know you had a break-in - however long ago it was! That’s awful and I hope they didn’t get much. Very sorry to hear it.
Is next week really your 100th newsletter? If so, congratulations on hitting the tripple digits. That's a big win.
For my question for the week. What are thoughts and experience with an anthology series of sequential stories? For example, Wolverine: Black, White, and Blood #1 has three short stories by Gerry Duggan, Matthew Rosenberg, and Declan Shalvey. Is there a world where all subsequent issues of the series have stories by these same three creators, and those stories are serialised?
Sorry for the overly elaborate question Tom (and thanks for your answer!) Here is a more continuity (sorta more straightforward) question: I have been rereading the early era Amazing Spiderman stories: what do you think Dikto's intent was for the Green Goblin's secret id?
He introduces Norman Osbourne a few issues earlier as a sinister figure (the Storm affair, shady business, etc)...but the rumour was he wanted the Goblin to be revealed as a 'nobody' - even though I feel that does not track as that was the crime master reveal just a little earlier.
What is your best guess/reserach indicate? Was it Norman or someone else?
I enjoyed that first year of Deathlok - I remember in that first arc how Deathlok could not get a cab in midtown New York because he looked 'like trouble' (the analogy seems pretty clear now) - especially if you hear how this happened to McDuffie in real life. Sad that this was still happening in the 90s !
You can also see the germ of a lot of ideas McDuffie would explore in great detail in his HARDWARE series.
Concrete was such a revelation for me as a kid. I think it served as a bridge between superhero comics and alternative comics. Tom, did any particular comic do that for you as a young reader—wake you up to the idea that comics were a medium with endless possibilities, and not just an adventure-delivery system?
Concrete was one of my favorites in my college days, an absolute joy. You may be interested in this podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/concrete-w-ted-anderson/id1534038239?i=1000632526795 - it comes from Why Is This Not a Movie and does a good job of explaining Concrete to newcomers and then tries to cast a notional movie based on the comic. Good fun, and a good podcast.
A question for you: it appears as though there are more writers today freelancing both for DC and Marvel (Chip Zdarsky, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Kelly Thompson, Gerry Duggan, Jason Aaron, Bryan Edward Hill, Steve Orlando, etc...). Are exclusive contracts for writers less common than they seemed to be in the past? And is there a different calculation on hiring writers to be exclusive vs. artists? And I am right on this, or only just noticing this now because I am aware of different talent.
Crazy to imagine Norman Osborn being Carrion! And coincidentally, a few days ago I read a forward by Marc Guggenheim from a Spectacular Spider-Man Marvel Masterworks volume (repurposed for the Spectacular Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 1 collection), and Marc said Mantlo planned for Carrion to be Spider-Man’s clone from the smokestack (aka Ben Reilly). But then he scrapped the idea because he didn’t think it made sense for Spider-Man’s clone to try to work with the Maggia (agreed). I’m guessing he was pushing for Carrion to be Norman right after and that’s the idea that couldn’t make it past editorial?
"That sounds about right, Taimur, at least in a general sense. Certainly John Byrne did use Misty Knight in his NAMOR run. But that wouldn’t necessarily mean that Dwayne couldn’t have continued to use her in DEATHLOK. Although, to be fair, Dwayne and John did have a bit of a dust-up over his SHE-HULK project, so they weren’t all that friendly at that time."
Lovely piece/section about Concrete one of my old favourites. I bought/followed as much as I could in the UK and have since completed the series via online auctions. Like you say it’s a ‘still’ piece of work but both joyous & melancholy at the same time.
Another great newsletter. I was marveling at the images on the Christmas card when I read this:
"The text all comes from Walt Kelly’s great feature Pogo, a holiday poem that he’d run close to Christmas for a bunch of years."
And I was like, wait. The text is actually from Tom Lehrer's A Christmas Carol, a song I know very well. In fact, the image itself says "Lyrics copyright @ 1991 Tom Lehrer." Of course, you wouldn't even need to do that anymore, since Tom Lehrer released all of his songs into the public domain a few years ago.
I would like for you to describe one of my comic stories as a "whamma-jamma" some day...
Forgive me if I missed a previous installment on Count Duckula, Tom. I swear I try to keep close tabs on all of these newsletters, but I fear MWaH is beginning to accumulate its own continuity at this point, and there's nary a footnote in sight. Where's a Mark Gruenwald when you need one.
I was chatting the other day with a veteran creator who was ruefully remembering the challenges of working on one of Marvel's licensed books back in the day, and the particular pain of navigating the particularly demanding licensor in question. I imagine that process looks quite a bit different in the era of Disney, Lucasfilm, Fox, et. al., but that certain similar challenges remain the same.
So my question is: what shape does the approval process take for Marvel's licensed (or parent-company-affiliated) books these days? Does it look different for properties from one division versus those from others (e.g. is there a different process for Star Wars than there is for Planet of the Apes)? And what, in general, makes a successful pitch that can navigate the tricky obstacles of a licensed book?
Budiansky must have really loved the title “Cyberwar” - it would get used a little down the line for a Deathlok/Silver Sable crossover, then a couple years later for the concluding arc of the Scarlet Spider books!
I forgot you wrote some Count Duckula! I tried to put a whole set of that together and gave up at some point. The cartoon intro had a trumpet playing over the Thames Colour Production logo and that always contributed to my thinking I’d seen it and similarly British-dusted content as a kid when I lived overseas rather than on American tv.
And I didn’t know you had a break-in - however long ago it was! That’s awful and I hope they didn’t get much. Very sorry to hear it.
Is next week really your 100th newsletter? If so, congratulations on hitting the tripple digits. That's a big win.
For my question for the week. What are thoughts and experience with an anthology series of sequential stories? For example, Wolverine: Black, White, and Blood #1 has three short stories by Gerry Duggan, Matthew Rosenberg, and Declan Shalvey. Is there a world where all subsequent issues of the series have stories by these same three creators, and those stories are serialised?
Can that work? What might be the challenges?
Sorry for the overly elaborate question Tom (and thanks for your answer!) Here is a more continuity (sorta more straightforward) question: I have been rereading the early era Amazing Spiderman stories: what do you think Dikto's intent was for the Green Goblin's secret id?
He introduces Norman Osbourne a few issues earlier as a sinister figure (the Storm affair, shady business, etc)...but the rumour was he wanted the Goblin to be revealed as a 'nobody' - even though I feel that does not track as that was the crime master reveal just a little earlier.
What is your best guess/reserach indicate? Was it Norman or someone else?
I enjoyed that first year of Deathlok - I remember in that first arc how Deathlok could not get a cab in midtown New York because he looked 'like trouble' (the analogy seems pretty clear now) - especially if you hear how this happened to McDuffie in real life. Sad that this was still happening in the 90s !
You can also see the germ of a lot of ideas McDuffie would explore in great detail in his HARDWARE series.
BTW, Microsoft edge has your last name already in my spell check.
Concrete was such a revelation for me as a kid. I think it served as a bridge between superhero comics and alternative comics. Tom, did any particular comic do that for you as a young reader—wake you up to the idea that comics were a medium with endless possibilities, and not just an adventure-delivery system?
Concrete was one of my favorites in my college days, an absolute joy. You may be interested in this podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/concrete-w-ted-anderson/id1534038239?i=1000632526795 - it comes from Why Is This Not a Movie and does a good job of explaining Concrete to newcomers and then tries to cast a notional movie based on the comic. Good fun, and a good podcast.
A question for you: it appears as though there are more writers today freelancing both for DC and Marvel (Chip Zdarsky, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Kelly Thompson, Gerry Duggan, Jason Aaron, Bryan Edward Hill, Steve Orlando, etc...). Are exclusive contracts for writers less common than they seemed to be in the past? And is there a different calculation on hiring writers to be exclusive vs. artists? And I am right on this, or only just noticing this now because I am aware of different talent.
Crazy to imagine Norman Osborn being Carrion! And coincidentally, a few days ago I read a forward by Marc Guggenheim from a Spectacular Spider-Man Marvel Masterworks volume (repurposed for the Spectacular Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 1 collection), and Marc said Mantlo planned for Carrion to be Spider-Man’s clone from the smokestack (aka Ben Reilly). But then he scrapped the idea because he didn’t think it made sense for Spider-Man’s clone to try to work with the Maggia (agreed). I’m guessing he was pushing for Carrion to be Norman right after and that’s the idea that couldn’t make it past editorial?
Funny enough, I mentioned Dwayne having to write out MIsty Knight a few months back here: https://tombrevoort.substack.com/p/62-it-was-better-then
"That sounds about right, Taimur, at least in a general sense. Certainly John Byrne did use Misty Knight in his NAMOR run. But that wouldn’t necessarily mean that Dwayne couldn’t have continued to use her in DEATHLOK. Although, to be fair, Dwayne and John did have a bit of a dust-up over his SHE-HULK project, so they weren’t all that friendly at that time."
Lovely piece/section about Concrete one of my old favourites. I bought/followed as much as I could in the UK and have since completed the series via online auctions. Like you say it’s a ‘still’ piece of work but both joyous & melancholy at the same time.
In honor of your 100th newsletter, what would the Legacy numbering be, adding in all the pre-newsletter blog posts?
As a Doctor Who fan, what's your opinion about the spin-off Torchwood ?