Adrian Turnipseed
24.06.2003, 06:44
Rich hat diesmal in seiner Kolumne einen super Beitrag der sich mit Felicia und ihren Enthuellungen beschaeftigt:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/?column=13
MARVEL - STATE OF PLAY
This has been my life this week.
The following article is made up from talking to a large number of sources, from Felicia the fangirl who brought down imagecomics.com, to Marvel staff members, to a number of professionals who both work for Marvel and who work within the industry. I have also joined a number of dots between different jigsaw pieces and created a mixed metaphor of my very own. But it's surprising how things slot into place so easily,
Well, what a fun week that's been. For those joining late, I interviewed a fangirl who goes by the name of Felicia in this week's Waiting For Tommy, who scooped the net with her story about Mark Waid being fired off Fantastic Four, to be replaced by Bill Jemas, caused the Brian Bendis message board, where she posts, to crash under all the traffic. I like traffic, so clearly I wanted a bit of that.
In the interview, Felicia talked about Marvel, internal politics, the decision making process and the relationship between Joe Quesada and Bill Jemas.
Marvel's response was for various people to e-mail me as to how it didn't matter. To post on other Web sites how it didn't matter, and it's only six guys on the Internet talking about it (and crashing Newsarama). In fact quite a lot of Marvel execs told quite a lot of people how they weren't bothered, they didn't care and really, it wasn't an issue. At length.
As for the whole Bill Jemas-taking-over-"Fantastic Four" rumour, Marvel state that the new writer, Roberto Francisco Aguirre-Sacasa, was in place at the beginning of last week, before all the rumours kicked off. And that, the online fuss didn't change their online plans at all.
Other sources, within and without Marvel paint a different picture. One of X being recruited for FF, the work to be later co-written by Bill Jemas, and then Bill Jemas taking over - but that as a result of the online kerfuffle, that scenario is not the case, or it won't be credited as such.
Marvel also have put forward the explanation that this is people getting mixed up between a FF project Bill Jemas was writing, and the ongoing monthly series. However, since it seems Tom Brevoort, the editor of "Fantastic Four" was the one who told Mark Waid that he would be replaced by Bill Jemas, that doesn't make as much sense. After all, you'd expect the editor of the book to know who was going to be writing it. Mind you, this is Marvel.
I understand that Marvel's hunt to track down just who Felicia is, and what her relationship is to Marvel, is still underway. This includes using a mixture of IP addresses and requesting moderator access to a number of fan message boards where she has been known to post. Oh, and asking the staff at Dynamic Forces, after they published my interview.
Recently, Marvel have been inviting staff members into groups to tell them that they are family, they should be loyal like family, and why is all this leaking going on?
One editor was heard to comment that he remembers all the things that happened at Fleer before bankruptcy, and he knows exactly how far Marvel are along the same path. And the phones have been ringing across the city. Most Marvel editors are believed to have been in touch with DC of late, looking for job opportunities. One who hasn't, is Axel Alonso, although DC have been headhunting him back. A combination of an increased salary, keeping his separate office when other editors are having to share, the prospect of replacing Joe Quesada as Editor-In-Chief when Quesada decides to leave, and a lack of desire to work with certain individuals at his old company have seen Axel stay at Marvel.
When Joe Quesada was young and fresh, he made much mention of hiring the right creators for a title, then letting them do what he hired them to do with minimal interference. That really is pretty much history these days, with Bill Jemas especially taking a hands-on micro-management approach to many books. Some are exempt - Joe Michael Straczynski recently confirmed that he had a contractual agreement that his work would not be editorially altered. Neil Gaiman seems to have something similar. Mark Millar seems to avoid much editorialisation. Brian Bendis welcomes it, stating that he gets ideas from Joe and Bill, and that what wins through is a great story.
However, on the other hand, "Marvel Boy" II is not happening because Bill Jemas wants to change the script, and Grant Morrison doesn't.
And freelancers repeat the common accusation that not only do they get copious notes on changes to be made, but often those notes will then contradict each other.
One scenario is that books are being made to appear more like the upcoming films well in advance - and that the credit for the ideas in the film when they eventually emerge will then be taken by the comics side of the business - "Namor" is seen as a good example of this. It is also believed that Bill Jemas wants to improve his Hollywood links this way for a future career. This won't happen easily within Marvel, as Avi Arad has quite the beef with Bill over� well� pretty much everything. Bill wants Marvel to be bought by Sony, Avi wants Universal.
But what about the rest? It appears that this may be an advanced version of the Red Queen's Race, running as fast as you can so that you can stay in the same position. The micro-management may be a symptom of a far larger cause - self-survival. There are moves, it seems, to isolate the publishing side of Marvel. Despite recent increases in profitability, and indeed a history of profitability through the bad times, it's still a small part of the money coming in these days. And since so much time and energy is spent on the publishing side, with such small profit, is it really worth it when that attention could be spent elsewhere?
The ghost of "X-Men: Hidden Years" comes back to haunt new Marvel.
Joe and Bill are involved in arguments within Marvel to preserve the publishing wing, as the very lifeblood of the company. Internally, the argument has been made that the titles and properties could be licensed out to other publishers, but Bill argues that what Marvel would lose is control over their very bloodstream and future.
So control must be visibly demonstrated, and demonstrated to be financially beneficial if Marvel are to survive. After all, what good is it to show a very successful book, with little editorial input? What's the point of the editor then, why can't the book be licensed and a cut taken?
Could this be the trade off for fans? Accept a high degree of editorial involvement in your favourite titles, in return for having a Marvel in existence to publish them?
Auch das Interview das er mit ihr bei Waiting for Tommy gefuehrt hat sollte man sich nicht entgehen lassen: http://www.dynamicforces.com/htmlfiles/tommy43.html
LITG hat diese Woche nur geilen Marvelscheiss wie ich finde!
EPIC vielleicht doch boese?
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/?column=13
MARVEL - STATE OF PLAY
This has been my life this week.
The following article is made up from talking to a large number of sources, from Felicia the fangirl who brought down imagecomics.com, to Marvel staff members, to a number of professionals who both work for Marvel and who work within the industry. I have also joined a number of dots between different jigsaw pieces and created a mixed metaphor of my very own. But it's surprising how things slot into place so easily,
Well, what a fun week that's been. For those joining late, I interviewed a fangirl who goes by the name of Felicia in this week's Waiting For Tommy, who scooped the net with her story about Mark Waid being fired off Fantastic Four, to be replaced by Bill Jemas, caused the Brian Bendis message board, where she posts, to crash under all the traffic. I like traffic, so clearly I wanted a bit of that.
In the interview, Felicia talked about Marvel, internal politics, the decision making process and the relationship between Joe Quesada and Bill Jemas.
Marvel's response was for various people to e-mail me as to how it didn't matter. To post on other Web sites how it didn't matter, and it's only six guys on the Internet talking about it (and crashing Newsarama). In fact quite a lot of Marvel execs told quite a lot of people how they weren't bothered, they didn't care and really, it wasn't an issue. At length.
As for the whole Bill Jemas-taking-over-"Fantastic Four" rumour, Marvel state that the new writer, Roberto Francisco Aguirre-Sacasa, was in place at the beginning of last week, before all the rumours kicked off. And that, the online fuss didn't change their online plans at all.
Other sources, within and without Marvel paint a different picture. One of X being recruited for FF, the work to be later co-written by Bill Jemas, and then Bill Jemas taking over - but that as a result of the online kerfuffle, that scenario is not the case, or it won't be credited as such.
Marvel also have put forward the explanation that this is people getting mixed up between a FF project Bill Jemas was writing, and the ongoing monthly series. However, since it seems Tom Brevoort, the editor of "Fantastic Four" was the one who told Mark Waid that he would be replaced by Bill Jemas, that doesn't make as much sense. After all, you'd expect the editor of the book to know who was going to be writing it. Mind you, this is Marvel.
I understand that Marvel's hunt to track down just who Felicia is, and what her relationship is to Marvel, is still underway. This includes using a mixture of IP addresses and requesting moderator access to a number of fan message boards where she has been known to post. Oh, and asking the staff at Dynamic Forces, after they published my interview.
Recently, Marvel have been inviting staff members into groups to tell them that they are family, they should be loyal like family, and why is all this leaking going on?
One editor was heard to comment that he remembers all the things that happened at Fleer before bankruptcy, and he knows exactly how far Marvel are along the same path. And the phones have been ringing across the city. Most Marvel editors are believed to have been in touch with DC of late, looking for job opportunities. One who hasn't, is Axel Alonso, although DC have been headhunting him back. A combination of an increased salary, keeping his separate office when other editors are having to share, the prospect of replacing Joe Quesada as Editor-In-Chief when Quesada decides to leave, and a lack of desire to work with certain individuals at his old company have seen Axel stay at Marvel.
When Joe Quesada was young and fresh, he made much mention of hiring the right creators for a title, then letting them do what he hired them to do with minimal interference. That really is pretty much history these days, with Bill Jemas especially taking a hands-on micro-management approach to many books. Some are exempt - Joe Michael Straczynski recently confirmed that he had a contractual agreement that his work would not be editorially altered. Neil Gaiman seems to have something similar. Mark Millar seems to avoid much editorialisation. Brian Bendis welcomes it, stating that he gets ideas from Joe and Bill, and that what wins through is a great story.
However, on the other hand, "Marvel Boy" II is not happening because Bill Jemas wants to change the script, and Grant Morrison doesn't.
And freelancers repeat the common accusation that not only do they get copious notes on changes to be made, but often those notes will then contradict each other.
One scenario is that books are being made to appear more like the upcoming films well in advance - and that the credit for the ideas in the film when they eventually emerge will then be taken by the comics side of the business - "Namor" is seen as a good example of this. It is also believed that Bill Jemas wants to improve his Hollywood links this way for a future career. This won't happen easily within Marvel, as Avi Arad has quite the beef with Bill over� well� pretty much everything. Bill wants Marvel to be bought by Sony, Avi wants Universal.
But what about the rest? It appears that this may be an advanced version of the Red Queen's Race, running as fast as you can so that you can stay in the same position. The micro-management may be a symptom of a far larger cause - self-survival. There are moves, it seems, to isolate the publishing side of Marvel. Despite recent increases in profitability, and indeed a history of profitability through the bad times, it's still a small part of the money coming in these days. And since so much time and energy is spent on the publishing side, with such small profit, is it really worth it when that attention could be spent elsewhere?
The ghost of "X-Men: Hidden Years" comes back to haunt new Marvel.
Joe and Bill are involved in arguments within Marvel to preserve the publishing wing, as the very lifeblood of the company. Internally, the argument has been made that the titles and properties could be licensed out to other publishers, but Bill argues that what Marvel would lose is control over their very bloodstream and future.
So control must be visibly demonstrated, and demonstrated to be financially beneficial if Marvel are to survive. After all, what good is it to show a very successful book, with little editorial input? What's the point of the editor then, why can't the book be licensed and a cut taken?
Could this be the trade off for fans? Accept a high degree of editorial involvement in your favourite titles, in return for having a Marvel in existence to publish them?
Auch das Interview das er mit ihr bei Waiting for Tommy gefuehrt hat sollte man sich nicht entgehen lassen: http://www.dynamicforces.com/htmlfiles/tommy43.html
LITG hat diese Woche nur geilen Marvelscheiss wie ich finde!
EPIC vielleicht doch boese?