You know…when I wrote that open letter to Joe Quesada and Bill Jemas in CBG, it was a desperation ploy that I figured had a 50/50 chance of getting me fired off “Captain Marvel.” I never in my wildest imaginings thought it would evolve/mutate into the current status. There’s an update in Newsarama over on Comicon.com.
I set out to accomplish two things: Keep the price down and get attention for the book. Both of those have been accomplished. I took some hits doing so, but hey, I knew the job was dangerous when I took it. What amuses me most are the fans who seem to think that the success of CM in this three-way competition is somehow a given. I don’t assume that at all. Think of the average retailer placing his orders. Over here, you’ve got the solo writing debut of Bill Jemas, whose name is attached to some of Marvel’s hottest-selling titles in a decade. Then you’ve got the launch of a new “Ultimate” book, and those titles have been a thumping success. And lastly, you’ve got Peter David, whose titles sell in the bottom of the top 100 (if there) relaunching a series that got wildly positive reviews and *still* didn’t sell particularly well.
With those givens, where are *you* going to put your ordering dollars?
There’s a fine line between being pessimistic and being realistic. I endeavor to aim for the latter; it just comes out as the former.
Good news is, within the next week I’ll be shipping out the Captain Marvel sample script pages. With over 500 requests, it’s just taken some time to get them copied and signed and stuffed back into envelopes. God bless the post office for giving me a deadline: Postage goes up end of the month, so they’ve *got* to be shipped out by then.
PAD
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Hey Peter!
I’ve been buying & enjoying Captain Marvel right from the beginning and have *no* plans to stop buying the book (unless Marvel cancels it)!
I also have *no* plans of buying the other 2 books.
I’m not a fan of Jemas one bit. Couldn’t care less what he writes. His “business tactics” have turned me off so I’ll not bothering with any book he’ll write solo.
Pretty much the same goes for Ron Zimmerman. The only book he’s written that I enjoyed was Tangled Web # 13. But I’ve hated every other story he’s written, so I’ll definitely pass on his book.
I’ll continue to support Captain Marvel (and Supergirl and Young Justice and pretty much any other Marvel or DC books you write!) and hope you kick Jemas’ & Quesada’s butts! 🙂
Thanks for all the years of wonderful & imaginitive stories. They been a pleasure to read!
Darrell
Hey Peter!
I’ve been buying & enjoying Captain Marvel right from the beginning and have *no* plans to stop buying the book (unless Marvel cancels it)!
I also have *no* plans of buying the other 2 books.
I’m not a fan of Jemas one bit. Couldn’t care less what he writes. His “business tactics” have turned me off so I’m not bothering with any book he’ll write solo.
Pretty much the same goes for Ron Zimmerman. The only book he’s written that I enjoyed was Tangled Web # 13. But I’ve hated every other story he’s written, so I’ll definitely pass on his book.
I’ll continue to support Captain Marvel (and Supergirl and Young Justice and pretty much any other Marvel or DC books you write!) and hope you kick Jemas’ & Quesada’s butts! 🙂
Thanks for all the years of wonderful & imaginitive stories. They’ve been a pleasure to read!
Darrell
Sorry for the double post. This is my first post here and I was getting an “error” message and didn’t realize the messages were being posted anyway.
Again, my apologies.
Darrell
Okay, speaking as a retailer, I feel like this competition has given me two opportunities; a chance to help push Captain Marvel, and a chance to let Bill Jemas know with my money how I appreciate his retailer-unfriendly tactics. If Jemas and Quesada want to keep falling back on the argument that “the books sell” no matter what our complaints are, then how I order is really the only message I can give them that they’ll listen to.
I have to carry the other two books– it would be unfair to my customers if I didn’t carry Jemas’s book at all just because I personally don’t like him. But for every one copy of Jemas’s book ordered, I’ll be ordering two copies of Captain Marvel.
PAD’s exactly right that from a retailer standpoint it may not make sense to be ordering the most copies of a book that’s consistently in the lower ranking. But I can say that since PAD made his challenge to Marvel, our sales on Captain Marvel have gone up. The book has a buzz now. And if I’ve got more copies of the new Captain Marvel #1 coming in than business sense says I can sell, then that’s certainly motivation for me to promote it like crazy, right?
Unfortunately we’re a small store. We’re primarily an anime store and just started carrying mainstream comics about a year ago, so my orders probably aren’t big enough to make a huge impact. So I hope some of the bigger retailers will see this opportunity for what it is and do the same thing we’re doing.
-Fer
Have to say that the Alex Ross cover art of what is apparently Genis is intriguing. Is this the Kingdom Come version? 🙂
As for the other comics, I have zero interest in them. If I’m going to buy more Marvel books, I’d rather buy something like Daredevil. Never mind how I feel about Jemas – I just think that like is too short and money is too easily spent to waste on the flavor of the moment.
Still, congrats on getting the price down and the attention up. Let’s hope the plan works.
You know, looking at the covers of Jemas and Quesada’s books over at Newsarama makes me think that their books really are a joke (and not in the sense that the quality might be dreadful). I wouldn’t be surprised if the contents of those books actually turned out to be the pages of Peter and Company’s new Captain Marvel #1 with maybe a few pages by the solicited creative teams to satisfy legal requirements. We’ll see what happens in September.
My take as a retailer: I’m as unhappy with Jemas as most other retailers. I dislike having ONLY a misrepresentative cover in Previews on which to base my orders, and I still dislike the no re-orders policy. My dream is to order only one copy of “Marville” and show it to all my customers so they can look through it and make their own decision whether to request it or not. Of course, that would mean I’d have to reorder copies to fill any demand for it. I don’t have to do that with Captain Marvel, since those customers already know what to expect.
My take as realist/pessimist: All of us reading these messages are pretty much committed to Peter’s camp, so we probably don’t reflect the general public. But I believe the momentum genuinely favors Peter, certainly with those fans and retailers who keep up with the news.
Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if reorders for the Marville WERE available on short notice.
I expect a Mighty Marvel Must-Have featuring all three “U-Decide” and something else (is the B-Sides still due for September?) will be released as soon as Ultimate Adventures #1 mysteriously sells out.
I just read Bill Roseman’s press release on the U-DECIDE! titles (and Ugh, what a name? U-DECIDE? I decide that’s a crappy name for a promotion) and not only was I confused.. but I was.. REALLY dámņ confused.
Press release here, btw: http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/news/102451587248798.htm
For one, it says that Bill *coughhackcough* Jemas is going to be “creating” the DC Universe. Um. DC? Cheap copy of the Transformers on one cover — Dreamwave, sue, sue! — a hot girl (Greg Horn rocks the casbah) on another, and something resembling the X-Factor #1 cover (horrible series, btw). The series is gonna be called “The Marville”? What the hëll is a Marville? And why does it look like Batman is being squished by robots? Isn’t this supposed to be a Marvel title?
Ultimate titles do well, yes. And for a reason, PAD. You’re definitely right there. So far, they’ve been an excellent “re-imagining” of the universe we know and love. But how many people honestly give a dámņ about two sidekicks nobody’s ever heard of? Now, I’ve met Kaare Andrews — super swell guy — and that’s a nice cover ‘n all, but it somehow resembles Battle of the Planets.
Is that a rather odd trend I just noticed? Transformers wanna-be’s on one cover (the single hottest comic on the market right now), and Battle of the Planets on the other? Umm.
Ramble ramble. I had a point, let me find it. … Right. Captain Marvel is gonna kick both “The Marville” and “Ultimate Adventures”. Very, very hard.
I do the orders at the store (actually, it resembles the saying: “I’m the captain of this ship and I have my wife’s permission to say so” except I don’t have a wife.) and I will be ordering at least twice as much Captain Marvel as I do either of the other two titles.. combined.
Best of luck PAD, I look forward to all your future endeavedors, and I wish you the best of luck with this one.
Eep! Double post.
Peter,
As another retailer to chime in on this subject, I have to say that things are looking good for CM.
I printed out and showed the “previews” of J & Q’s books to the guys at the shop today, no one was interested in their books. By this, and it’s the way I order most books, I won’t be ordering more than 5 or so of each of the J & Q books.
On the other hand, our standing order list for Captain Marvel is now at 25 copies, for comparison, Ultimate Spider-Man is sitting at 40 copies. Yes, I’m a small store. 🙂 The fact that CM is over half of the order of USM is a positive in my book. (Xmen & Uncanny are 30 each)
Keep up the good work, I’m looking forward to getting the script in. I know that it wasn’t much, but I hope that the dollar helped out with the costs. (really hoping that others did the same)
jeff
The only thing i can say is that in mi mind & mi heart the one & only winner will be PAD i don
The only thing i can say is that in mi mind & mi heart the one & only winner will be PAD i don
Beh, I’ve been buying CM from the get-go. I gave it a try with issue 1 and loved it so much I’ve been postponing cancellation of the title off my pull-list every month for what, 3 years now? Not that I care about the witty, and sometimes straight-up funny dialogue and situations, or the wonderful pacing, Or the delightfully surreal ambience of the title, or Chris Chros’s amazing art one bit. No, I don’t even read the piece of crap, really – it’s that I figure us jews gotta stick together.
Now, generally I would check out both Jemas and Quesada’s books (even though so far I have to say this Zimmerman fellow is a whopping, overhyped disappointment), being a proud mainstream comics fan, except in this case, the purchase is a statement – and my statement will be Captain Marvel. You may, Mr. David, let Q&J know that there’s a guy who buys approx. 20 Marvel ongoing books a month, who WOULD have tried their books if they weren’t being shoved down his throat as an attempt to cancel my favorite Marvel title.
“There’s a fine line between being pessimistic and being realistic. I endeavor to aim for the latter; it just comes out as the former.”
That’s funny. My wife can’t tell the difference either when *I’m* trying to be realistic.
That cover of Marville #1 was supposed to be reminiscent of Clark strung up as the “scarecrow” from the pilot episode of Smallville. I’m also guessing that the title of the book is also supposed to be a knock-off of Smallville, you know: Smallville/Marville. This is just one of the reasons that all of those covers seem like a big joke.
Peter,
While I am concerned for the future of Captain Marvel as well, I do feel confident that it will prevail. Off of just the solicits and cover images, “Marville” seems to be more of a joke than a true story or series. “Ultimate Adventures” may well give CM a run initially, yet this series seems more suited to a mini-series rather than a continuing. Knowing that the Ultimate titles sell very well, this may be the strongest compitition.
However, I do feel that solid, creative, entertaining stories and art will win out: that being Captain Marvel!
Victor M
PAD,
I’ve been reading CM since day one, and I love it. I don’t think you have anything to fear, as Jemas’ book looks like it is going to absolutely suck and the Ultimate book is written by Ron Zimmerman.
The same Ron Zimmerman that has produced the worst comics Marvel has put out since Secret Wars II.
Long Live CM!
-Joe
Hi Peter,
I just wanted to thank you for writing such a wonderful book each month. Since Joe Quesada has taken over as Editor, he has run off most of my favorite artists and writers like Howard Mackie, Ron Lim, Al Williamson, Larry Hama, Rick Leonardi, and David Michelinie. I feel very little connection to the current writers and artists he has brought in. I also do not like the current trend in storyline that many of the books have taken. Most books rarely have super-heroes fighting super-villains anymore. What is up with that? Getting back to my point. Please continue to fight the good fight for us long time readers. I don
Peter, I wanna wish you well with your work on Captain Marvel. If it’s okay to say though, I think it’s very ludicrous that CM is being relaunched when there’s no need to do so. You know, I really wish that YOU could replace either Jemas or Quesada as the head of Marvel comics.
In regards to the comic that’s called Marville, well, there IS one good thing about it. That hot chick in the cab, she is so yummy! 🙂 Rowr! That Greg Horn is one great artist! 🙂
I’m getting in danger asking a silly question but I do it nevertheless.
What are these 500 copies of the Captain Marvel script sample you were writing about, PAD? Anything I could have as well?
I enjoy a good read. There comes a point that all the glitter and flash in the pan styles eventually run their course. Ulitmates is hot right now. That’s a given. Peter David however is a man who can write. Maybe it shows where this medium is headed that a great writer has to prove himslf agaianst the powers that be. Well then bring it on. Pretty art is fading if there is nothing backing it up. Writers who break it big eventually fade. Peter David is a proven work. He doesn’t need this competition to boost his ego or show anyone that he’s a great writer. Peter will simply survive doing what he does best. He’s a storyteller, and there are many stories left for him to tell. I’ll support CM, not because of Peter David, but out of spite for any editor who tries to take creativity into their hands.