Great stuff, and a bunch of stuff I had no idea about. But... also Bill Jemas asked me to write Marville after he left. Which I thought was bizarre but I wasn't going to not step up to that. And it's not like I could write anything worse than Bill. I did write a script which would have seen the KalAOL kidnap Alan Moore, cage him and have him shaved like a sheep as an offering to Joe Quesada. It ended with the god Glycon attacking New York to free his disciple. I never heard back from Bill, thankfully - just wondered if it ever reached you!
"But there was no way that I could green light a story in which the Hulk, even a non-Bruce Banner Hulk, was a rapist and had conceived a child. I tried to find some reasonable alternative, but Harlan felt that it was crucial to what he had in mind that Rick had to have done the deed unknowingly as the Hulk"
I'm confused; why does Rick doing it unknowingly as the Hulk necessarily mean it had to be rape? We know that Marlo had consensual sex with the Hulk (before meeting Rick), for example. Plus, since then, the Hulk has gone on to father several children. Sounds like Harlan was ahead of his time.
Wow, fascinating stuff about the inking but even crazier -- MARVILLE!!! Thanks for giving your take on that one! I love how Bill Jemas was like "Ok, hmm... my slapstick sitcom jokes aren't really landing... I know! I'll just pivot to explaining the ENTIRE MEANING OF LIFE!!" Shoot for the moon, Bill. He weirdly lives in my town, or did.
Anyway, your post mentioned the "Marvel Method" and as a total outsider, that process has always seemed completely bonkers! Or at least counterintuitive in terms of how you'd make a comic. I'm surprised it lasted until the turn of the century, I thought it was much older than that. I assume that speed was the motivating factor, but it's not like it didn't produce a ton of great comics, so credit where it's due. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the pros and cons of the Marvel method, and/or any interesting anecdotes arising from its use.
Always interesting to hear at least some of the inside baseball... here is a question to consider for your next mailbag.
DC has seemed to be more interested in legacy characters, especially as a way to retain the spirit of a character idea when the character details no longer fit the times (e.g., multiple Green Lanterns, Flashes for successive generations). Marvel has appeared to me to try to retain the character and reframe the origin for the times (e.g., Iron Man, Punisher no longer explicitly linked to the Vietnam), with to my mind fewer explicit torch-passing decisions (Nick Fury comes to mind to no longer have to explain how he and the Commandos remain active from WW2). How does editorial decide when to refresh the backstory of an existing character vs. passing the torch to a new character when it appears that the existing character doesn't seem to fit with the times?
Great newsletter this week! The mention of Mark D. Bright got me thinking about the question of 'staying in' the comics industry (as opposed to the often asked 'breaking in') - would love to hear your thoughts on how some creators (like Peter David) are still getting work vs some who just fade away (aside from the obvious ones who go to another industry full time, retire, etc).
I subscribe to D.G. Chichester's newsletter - he was a prominent editor and writer in the 90s: a long run on DD (issue 300!), Wolverine with Sienkewicz, a Punisher/Cap mini with Klaus Janson, work with the great Jorge Zaffino, etc..at the very least some cult faves. And you can tell he misses it a bit. Some writers talk of editorial turning over and they have no more contacts at the big two. Creators like Roger Stern, Daniel Way, and more seen to have fallen off...your thoughts?
I just learned that I started reading Avengers the same time you started editing it. Just wanted to say Thank You for you role in a (mostly) great quarter century of Avengers comics.
A super-enjoyable newsletter as always, thank you!
As far as editorial tenures go, Matt Smith has only been editing 2000 AD since the beginning of 2002, but in terms of number of issues he's got everyone beat: as of this week, he's up to 1026 consecutive issues of the series.
Thanks for more of the history on Marville. I worked at a comic shop at the time and still have my copies of the book. (I read almost every new book Marvel released at that point.) It was such a bizarre release that I kept them. Even the covers were over the top. I still can’t believe there was a heavily pushed Marvel comic with a nude lead female on the cover dropping among other things a porn tape (video marked smut) and what appears to be a bottle of lube. From what I remember the books mostly sold to our customers who purchased special order books that we had to put in black bags. I figured at the time it was a test of the Dawn sex sells theory over at Marvel.
Peter’s run on Captain Marvel was excellent, head and shoulders better than those other two mentioned here. Am delighted Genis is back currently and am picking that book up, and also looking forward to the upcoming omnibus.
One thing though Tom, Millie ran to issue 207 in 1973, plus 12 queen sized specials which went on another couple of years I think. Just finished chapter three of the new digital book, an epic collection of those late 60’s early 70’s issues would be nice too.
Great stuff, and a bunch of stuff I had no idea about. But... also Bill Jemas asked me to write Marville after he left. Which I thought was bizarre but I wasn't going to not step up to that. And it's not like I could write anything worse than Bill. I did write a script which would have seen the KalAOL kidnap Alan Moore, cage him and have him shaved like a sheep as an offering to Joe Quesada. It ended with the god Glycon attacking New York to free his disciple. I never heard back from Bill, thankfully - just wondered if it ever reached you!
"But there was no way that I could green light a story in which the Hulk, even a non-Bruce Banner Hulk, was a rapist and had conceived a child. I tried to find some reasonable alternative, but Harlan felt that it was crucial to what he had in mind that Rick had to have done the deed unknowingly as the Hulk"
I'm confused; why does Rick doing it unknowingly as the Hulk necessarily mean it had to be rape? We know that Marlo had consensual sex with the Hulk (before meeting Rick), for example. Plus, since then, the Hulk has gone on to father several children. Sounds like Harlan was ahead of his time.
Wow, fascinating stuff about the inking but even crazier -- MARVILLE!!! Thanks for giving your take on that one! I love how Bill Jemas was like "Ok, hmm... my slapstick sitcom jokes aren't really landing... I know! I'll just pivot to explaining the ENTIRE MEANING OF LIFE!!" Shoot for the moon, Bill. He weirdly lives in my town, or did.
Anyway, your post mentioned the "Marvel Method" and as a total outsider, that process has always seemed completely bonkers! Or at least counterintuitive in terms of how you'd make a comic. I'm surprised it lasted until the turn of the century, I thought it was much older than that. I assume that speed was the motivating factor, but it's not like it didn't produce a ton of great comics, so credit where it's due. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the pros and cons of the Marvel method, and/or any interesting anecdotes arising from its use.
Thanks and have a great week!
I really love reading this newsletter every Sunday, Tom!
That Millie cover makes me wonder if she's meeting the Spirit!
Always interesting to hear at least some of the inside baseball... here is a question to consider for your next mailbag.
DC has seemed to be more interested in legacy characters, especially as a way to retain the spirit of a character idea when the character details no longer fit the times (e.g., multiple Green Lanterns, Flashes for successive generations). Marvel has appeared to me to try to retain the character and reframe the origin for the times (e.g., Iron Man, Punisher no longer explicitly linked to the Vietnam), with to my mind fewer explicit torch-passing decisions (Nick Fury comes to mind to no longer have to explain how he and the Commandos remain active from WW2). How does editorial decide when to refresh the backstory of an existing character vs. passing the torch to a new character when it appears that the existing character doesn't seem to fit with the times?
Great newsletter this week! The mention of Mark D. Bright got me thinking about the question of 'staying in' the comics industry (as opposed to the often asked 'breaking in') - would love to hear your thoughts on how some creators (like Peter David) are still getting work vs some who just fade away (aside from the obvious ones who go to another industry full time, retire, etc).
I subscribe to D.G. Chichester's newsletter - he was a prominent editor and writer in the 90s: a long run on DD (issue 300!), Wolverine with Sienkewicz, a Punisher/Cap mini with Klaus Janson, work with the great Jorge Zaffino, etc..at the very least some cult faves. And you can tell he misses it a bit. Some writers talk of editorial turning over and they have no more contacts at the big two. Creators like Roger Stern, Daniel Way, and more seen to have fallen off...your thoughts?
I just learned that I started reading Avengers the same time you started editing it. Just wanted to say Thank You for you role in a (mostly) great quarter century of Avengers comics.
A super-enjoyable newsletter as always, thank you!
As far as editorial tenures go, Matt Smith has only been editing 2000 AD since the beginning of 2002, but in terms of number of issues he's got everyone beat: as of this week, he's up to 1026 consecutive issues of the series.
Thanks for more of the history on Marville. I worked at a comic shop at the time and still have my copies of the book. (I read almost every new book Marvel released at that point.) It was such a bizarre release that I kept them. Even the covers were over the top. I still can’t believe there was a heavily pushed Marvel comic with a nude lead female on the cover dropping among other things a porn tape (video marked smut) and what appears to be a bottle of lube. From what I remember the books mostly sold to our customers who purchased special order books that we had to put in black bags. I figured at the time it was a test of the Dawn sex sells theory over at Marvel.
Peter’s run on Captain Marvel was excellent, head and shoulders better than those other two mentioned here. Am delighted Genis is back currently and am picking that book up, and also looking forward to the upcoming omnibus.
One thing though Tom, Millie ran to issue 207 in 1973, plus 12 queen sized specials which went on another couple of years I think. Just finished chapter three of the new digital book, an epic collection of those late 60’s early 70’s issues would be nice too.
That U Decide saga was fucking *fascinating*, thank you as always for the great in depth history lesson!
Floored by the kind words for SECRET IDENTITY, Tom! Thank you so much!