REVIEWING BIDS ON MARVEL

Posted By: Glenn HaumanPosted On:

Just out of curiosity, I went over earlier columns to see what policies about Marvel I might have gone to Joe about. It was kind of interesting, actually.

1) The dumping of the CCA. I publicly commended them.

2) Marvel’s Silent Month. While fans howled and dissed it, I was the first creator to publicly support it.

3) The announcement that Captain Marvel was in danger of cancellation. News to me, although it was discussed with fans (who suggested the price hike). Announced publicly, so I responded in kind. The result? The launching of two other books, one of which is doing pretty okay, and Captain Marvel has garnered a near 50% increase overall in sales. Joe said specifically that if I’m unhappy with something and can’t change it, I should leave. But I was unhappy with something and *did* get it changed, with Joe and Bill’s eventual enthusiastic help.

4) No reorder/No return policy. Said publicly I didn’t agree with it, but that was well over a year ago. More recently, have commented that it’s been working very well for Marvel. Began a retailer poll in direct response to Marvel brass attacking Heidi Macdonald, and in doing so, stated repeatedly that it was merely an attempt to see whose perception of retailer beliefs was more accurate.

5) Starting billjemas.com. Direct response to his attack on me in “Marville,” depicting me as an unemployed alcoholic. A closed door discussion would have helped that…how?

I’m missing something somewhere.

PAD

20 comments on “REVIEWING BIDS ON MARVEL”

  1. Hey, have you added anything to BillJemas.com yet? BTW, what does that button do? I try to visit the site and hit it like 10 times a day.

    –Michael

  2. Peter-

    I am curious. Did he talk to any of this beforehand to you?

    I also think it would by hysterical if you replied in his forum as a way of “talking to him: about it- since that is how is his talking to you about it.

  4. PAD: “I’m missing something somewhere.”

    Perhaps you’re thinking Mr. Quesada is an adult? Rather than a petulant child who’s become so focussed on a single incident that he himself blew well out of proportion to reality that there’s little hope of trying to use reason with him at this point.

    Michael Smith: “BTW, what does that button do? I try to visit the site and hit it like 10 times a day.”

    I’d assumed that was sort of the joke. The button doesn’t do anything but drive the person who keeps clicking on it nuts.

  5. yeah, i think the button was supposed to be like those keychains that ask “how do you keep an idiot busy for hours? flip for answer->” on both sides.

  6. Ah, the smell of controversy! Come for the writing, stay for the pìššìņg match. Good luck with Jemas, but I think your Captain Marvel sales have already declared the winner in this argument.

    I don’t even know what the argument is, but I hope you get some mileage out of it!!

  7. Well this may be a bit off topic, but I just got a hold of two Peter David Books today at my local shop: Captain Marvel 4 and Young Justice 53. And wouldn’t you know it, both of them end with cliffhangers that are borderline cruel to the readers who have to wait a month for resolution. All I can say is that even with all the distractions that are currently surrounding you (new kid, dealing with what seems to be a lousy situation with marvel, having the majority of your dc titles yanked due mostly to bad luck and timing) you still manage to deliver with the goods.

  8. Oh! I forgot one! When Brian Hibbs launched his lawsuit, I wrote a column stating that Marvel should announce the books are all returnable.

    Marvel subsequently announced that a good portion of the books were all returnable.

    Not claiming cause and effect, but wondering how off-base I could have been with that statement.

    PAD

  9. I don’t see the big deal. Marville is, hands down, the worst comic book ever written. I mean, I’ve read more interesting public service announcement comics ( Remember the New Teen Titans’ anti-drug comic?). And Captain Marvel is one of the funniest, adventerous, and well-written comics that Marvel has. Mr. David, I guess you need to be on Donahue or even better Jerry Springer. Now is the time to reveal to the world you are actually a cross-dressing vegetarian with a penchant for Bollywood cinema. That’ll sell some comics. Like, who needs talent?

  10. Thanks for this post, PAD. When I read what was happening here and at Q’s website, I thought I was experiencing brain freeze, because I couldn’t figure out exactly what the guy’s upset about. Now I see I’m not the only one.

    Anyway, happy new year and congrats on the new child.

  12. I can’t find Quesada’s comments on his site — are they in the “you must register” section?

  15. That Tom Peters piece is brilliant. At a point where I’m banging my head against the wall and wondering if I’m nuts for feeling the way I do, it was a most uplifting article to read.

    PAD

  16. I just finished Captain Marvel #4.

    Oh my God.

    Peter, you rock. I can’t believe what you, Chris Williams, Chris Sotomayor and Ivan Reiss have done to this comic in just four issues. It feels like it’s been so long since I actually read a comic book on the edge of my seat, sincerely wondering what would happen next, and actually feeling something akin to emotion when reading the last panel of the issue. Incredible.

    As for Jemas’ depicting you in Marville the way he did, well, putting aside the fact that it looked nothing like you (I guess M.D. Bright wasn’t given or couldn’t find any reference), I took it as a friendly jab by Jemas. But your bringing it up raises an interesting point. Joe Quesada doesn’t seem to have any problem with the head of Marvel Comics depicting one of his freelancers this way, but goes apoplectic at the very reasoned, objective, and fairly-written analyses and commentaries you write about Marvel Comics. Of course, Joe came up with a qualifying reason why Kevin Smith’s criticisms of Marvel (and Joe himself) were okay, so I suppose he might come up with one here for Bill.

    I also find it interesting that the only way some creators who’ve publicly disagreed with you seem to be able to reference you in a comic book is by depicting you in an insulting light that has nothing to do with the original point of disagreement. First Todd McFarlane depicts you and John Byrne as KKK Klansmen in Spawn, and now Bill Jemas shows you as an alcoholic in Marville. What strikes me about both instances is how both are such non-sequiturs: Neither riff has anything to do with what you said that ticked them off, or the debate you’ve had with either or them, or with any aspect of your public persona that one would tend to caricaturize. If Todd wanted to show his displeasure with the things you or said about Image, he could’ve incorporated those references into the story, much as Erik did with Byrne in that double-page spread of Savage Dragon, or the way you did with Erik’s “holding back” comments in the pages of The Incredible Hulk. (Interesting, btw, that Erik took umbrage with you for that, but didn’t have a problem satirizing Byrne, or with Todd depicting you two as members of the KKK.) Likewise, if Bill Jemas wanted to caricaturize you, he could’ve focused on something about your public image or writing style, like maybe depict you as a guy constantly telling jokes, or maybe make a joke about how no one showed up at a book signing, or something. Instead, he depicts you as an alcoholic. Huh?

  17. I am glad you liked the article. I hope it was useful

    I sent the link to Mr. Q also. I’m sure there are plenty of other comic pros who could benefit from it.

  18. The fact that Joe doesn’t want PAD’s comments aired publicly suggests to me that he hasn’t distinguished between what is an insult and what is criticism.

    There is of course a huge difference between insults and criticism.

    When one insults, one attempts to verbally devalue something for the sole sake of lowering peoples opinion of it.

    The act of criticism itself is an act of caring. To be critical is to perceive flaws in something. And only when the flaws in something are seen can they be repaired.

    The fact that Joe doesn’t want his company criticized automatically implies that he doesn’t want to fix the flaws or improve it in any way. And if these strategies lead to a loss of profitability he’ll soon find himself in trouble with the stockholders.

    Honestly in the long run there is only one corporate boss, they are the shareholders. They only care about one thing increase in stock price. That usually only means one thing, the company has to be profitable. Any CEO or person in management position relies on maintaining profitably to maintain their job. Sure the management in a great number of companies have forsaken this goal and abused their position. But in the business world they don’t last long, the stockholders always have the last say. Let’s remember that the former chief of Tyco is currently behind bars for his fraud and mismanagement of the company.

  19. When I asked Joe about talking to you beforehand, he said…

    ” Ask Peter about a conversation he had with Bill J, long before U-Decide, long before any of this. It might have even been in 2001. If I’m not mistaken it was about this very same thing, something he wrote in CBG and I believe Bill talked to him about criticizing Marvel in public. I could be wrong but I’ll ask Bill on Monday.”

    So I’m asking. Did this happen- or is he have the memory of Gary Groth (remembering things different then the others involved)

  20. Luigi Nova said he found it “interesting that the only way some creators who’ve publicly disagreed with you seem to be able to reference you in a comic book is by depicting you in an insulting light that has nothing to do with the original point of disagreement.”

    I’ve found it to often be true that whenever someone can’t make a valid counter to a point, they’ll stoop to personal insults. Maybe Jemas and the others realize that Peter might actually be right about these matters, but can’t admit it, since that means they “lose”. Hence the portryal in “Marville”, for example.

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