Month: June 2003

People are congratulating me over the press release about TMNT #1 selling out.

Except I’m not happy about it. Once again, it’s the Santayana quote: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

When I first started writing “Captain Marvel,” what did I hear from fans? “I can’t find it in my store!” “It’s sold out!” Fans seemed to think this was a good thing. Month after month this continued, and then Marvel suddenly announced that the book was in trouble.

Supergirl #75 sold out. Supergirl #76 sold out. “Great!” quoth the fans. “Cancelled!” quoth DC.

Does everybody get it yet? When retailers don’t support my books (because I’m not, y’know, the New Hot Thing), they don’t order enough. When they don’t order enough, the books sell out. When the books sell out and the early issues are unobtainable, people won’t buy the subsequent issues, which causes orders to drop even more.

When you see future sellout announcements on–for example–“Fallen Angel”…don’t say “Hurrah!” Don’t say “Congrats!” Say “Uh oh.”

PAD

That’s the Hulk, kids. Up on the screen, big as life. Starting at a slow jog across the desert, picking up speed until he’s moving like a locomotive, then one or two short jumps, faster and faster, and then he’s gone over the mountains in a two mile vault.

More below (and, in the interest of full disclosure, yes, I wrote the novelization, so if some of you think that connection would render me unable to make unbiased commentary, you’re free to do so.)

Continue Reading “LIKE HÊLL HE’S “SHREK”” →

In case anyone is wondering what in hëll goes on with Newsarama lately–some stories can’t be read, and no response posts can be made–I asked Matt Brady about it and he said:

“We’re changing over to a better bulletin board system today, and will be moving to a new server tomorrow or the next day, but as of now, you can still read most of the articles on the front page – you just can’t post. The traffic just showed us where the weak spot was in regards to what our BB system could do, and the server we were on.”

So now you know.

PAD

Site master Glenn Hauman has started up a new auction site called LotAuctions.com. It’s a rather unique site, from my understanding, in that if you have a group of objects to sell, you can list them as both individual properties and as a single lot, and the bidding determines which way it will go. So for instance, if you have a four-issue comic series, and issue #3 was written by Stephen King, people can either bid on the entire set or for the single issue by King. Also the site is constructed in such a way that “sniping” (someone jumping in during the last ten seconds or so of an auction and snatching it away without you having a chance to counterbid) isn’t possible.

To help kick things off, there’s a set of my “New Frontier” novels, proceeds from which will go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. These will not only be signed, but I’ll personalize them to the winning bidder if he or she so desires.

So check it out.

PAD

UPDATE FROM GLENN: There’s a problem with accepting bids, and we’re working on fixing it. As soon as it’s resolved, we’ll let you know– but you can still register in the meantime and be ready to go when we are. We’ll also be extending the bidding time on Peter’s auctions to compensate.

SON OF UPDATE: All better now. Thanks for bearing with us. We’ve extended the auctions to compensate. Don’t forget, if the bidding gets to high for the set of my “New Frontier” novels, you can bid on just one of the items in the set.

RETURN OF UPDATE: Okay, new problems. Grumblegrumble…

For this week only, we decided to change the background color to green, for the obvious reason.

I’m slated to go to an advance screening of “Hulk” tomorrow. Check this site late tomorrow for my thoughts.

PAD

Well, I’ve read Marvel’s response to the Waid situation (which appears on Newsarama and is also posted way down in the thread just before this one.) What’s truly odd is that I read Mark’s comments, and Joe’s response, and not only are they NOT mutually exclusive, but they actually dovetail.

Joe states that Mark is “mixed up.” That “Honey I Shrunk the FF” was merely a proposed direction from a month ago, and is not the way they’re taking the book. That fans are getting upset over something that’s moot. Okay, I accept that. It happened with “Captain Marvel,” when word leaked of a “Return of Mar-Vell” storyline that we’d already discussed and dumped weeks earlier.

But Joe doesn’t deny that’s the direction Mark was told the series should go a few weeks back. And Mark never says that was the direction the book is now going. All he says it, in regards to his firing, “It would seem the decision to replace me was made the moment I failed to get with the program.” That’s not the same as saying it’s definitely the direction the book is going, although it’s certainly not an outrageous inference for fans to draw.

Joe also said that Bill Jemas is not going to be writing the book, whereas Mark had said he heard Bill would. Once again, evidence of confusion on Mark’s part…except, once again, not an absolute contradiction. Joe didn’t say that Bill was NEVER going to write the book. That there had been no plans for him to write it. Merely that he’s not going to do so now. Yes, it’s possible Mark was misinformed. On the other hand, it’s also possible, based on the phrasing, that Bill was planning to but backed off rather than take the PR hit…either on his own initiative, or at the strong suggestion of someone else.

What I did derive a chuckle from was: “Furthermore, this isn’t a cost saving measure nor is it some flight of fancy. This is a change in direction for a Marvel title requested by the man who schemed the Ultimate Universe, had the guts to tell Origin and turned Marvel’s publishing business around in less than two years. But hey, what does he know.”

Boy, does THAT not logically track. Trotting out Bill Jemas’ business decisions and implying it lends cred to Bill’s writing skills or creative instincts is like saying that because Flipper swims so well, you like his chances running the Kentucky Derby.

PAD

Word on Newsarama is that Mark Waid was fired off FF for refusing to take the series in the direction dictated by Marvel higher-ups: i.e., ditching the high adventure tone (which Mark’s been doing a great job with) in favor of, according to Waid, “making the FF a wacky suburban dramedy where Reed’s a nutty professor who creates amazing but impractical inventions, Sue’s the office-temp breadwinner, the cranky neighbor is their new “arch-enemy.”

Basically, it’s “Honey, I Shrunk the FF.”

It will be interesting to see if the book is being used as a rough draft for what the projected November 2004 FF movie may eventually become.

Me, I’m flashing back to when I shown the door from “Hulk” because the Marvel higher-ups knew the way to go was 22 pages of “Hulk smash.” And that version tanked, and the current book is about as far from 22 pages of “Hulk smash” as you can get…and everyone who made the decision leading to my departure is long-ago fired.

Is NO ONE at Marvel familiar with the writings of George Santayana?

PAD