I just got off the phone with yet another creator absolutely fucked over by Marvel Comics, and I'm pissed off enough to write a column when I don't really even have to.
The thing is, I am not going to tell you who I just spent 30 minutes on the phone with. If you're really, really smart, you might be able to figure it out yourself. As of this writing, on Thursday, he or she is to my knowledge the very latest comics creator to get shafted, that is to say screwed, blewed and tattooed (as mom used to say) by the so-called House of Ideas.
You know, around the time Paul Smith stopped drawing <b>Uncanny X-Men</b> (no, not X-Men: Children of the Atom, nitwit, <b>X-Men</b>), I pretty much gave up on Marvel Comics. Certainly during the ghastly pre-Image era, when unreadable crap from Rob Liefeld and Todd McFarlane was all the rage, I wouldn't have given ten cents for the average Marvel Comic.
Along about the time that Heroes Return hit, I became interested again. It appeared the company was wising up a bit. They gave actual, talented, qualified writers and artists the opportunity to work on some of their most iconic characters. Kurt Busiek and George Perez on <b>Avengers</b>? I'm there. Mark Waid and Ron Garney given another chance to restore <b>Captain America</b> to glory? Well, I could never understand why they'd agree to a second go-round after being so thoroughly fucked over the first time, but I loved their first, interrupted run, so yep, I was back buying Cap again.
I should have seen the signs.
Peter David on Incredible Hulk. Waid and Garney on Cap. Joe Casey and Jose Ladronn on Cable. Hell, you could even go back as far as Chris Claremont's ignoble X-Men departure, or even grant that Rob Liefeld got fucked over on Captain America after Waid and Garney were fucked over when he took on the book!
It's mind boggling!
It's amazing to me that Avengers under Busiek and Perez lasted as long as it did. One has to assume that Tom Brevoort is simply the only competent, decent editor at the company. The fact that Busiek was persuaded to remain in the wake of Perez's (miraculously!) voluntary departure is testament to that theory.
The creator I just got off the phone with is literally one of the nicest comics professionals it has been my pleasure to know. Always willing to help out in any way, always friendly, always <i>nice</i>. And that person was just fucked over by Marvel.
How? Well, suffice it to say, in a way entirely consistent with the aforementioned David, Casey, Ladronn, Claremont, etc. mentioned above. Allowed to believe they were a valued creator, allowed to start a project, only to be unceremoniously screwed over because of the short-sighted, desperate, moronic policies that are the standard operating procedure at Marvel Comics. There are way too many examples of this in the past couple of years to think it's some sort of unusual scenario. It's the way they do business.
As a radio broadcaster who tries to line up interviews for my show, Marvel's policies have fucked me over. They had a very pleasant in-house publicist who helped set up some interviews I did (Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti, and John Ostrander) at the end of last year. Presumably because they're broke (you have to assume this is where ALL this desperation comes from), they fired the publicist, and I have been completely and utterly unable to even get anyone on the phone at Marvel since! Never mind actually set up interviews, get preview art for the web site, review copies, etc.
Marvel hired an outside PR firm, Bender Helper Impact, and while I have occasionally been able to get their alleged Marvel guy on the phone once or twice (out of dozens of attempts), I don't think they've ever returned a phone call or answered an e-mail inquiry.
Say what you will, I do the morning drive program on the only all-news radio station in the capital of New York state. You'd think if they wanted a little goddamned publicity, they'd return a phone call or help me set up an interview.
You'll notice, if you follow my "Ministry Interviews" series, that I have not talked to a Marvel creator all year long. The only exception is someone like Kurt Busiek, who also works outside Marvel, and in which case the interview was primarily about non-Marvel work.
So, it certainly appears to me that Marvel has little interest in promoting its stuff, and even less interest in consistently turning out quality product. How else to explain the continual, repeated fucking over of their best talent?
And it begs the question, why do folks like Peter David get fucked and then come back for more?
The creator I just spoke to explained it to me, although you can probably figure it out for yourself. They <i>love the characters</i>, simple as that. Sure, many of these guys could go to an independent company or even self-publish. But, raise your hands now, how many of you read Captain Marvel? How many of you read Spyboy? How many of you even knew Peter David wrote a comic called Spyboy I'm sure Peter David is aware of the sales difference between the two. Between wanting to work on characters you love, and wanting to find readers for your work, I am sure the temptation is great to go back to Marvel, even if your ass is still burning from the last go-round.
Marvel, for its part, is demonstrating the same sort of short-sighted, "how much can we make by next Friday?" attitude that results in brilliant decisions like, here in upstate New York, when Mario Cuomo decided a few years back that the interstate highways didn't need to be plowed on weekends. Anything to save a buck.
Another creator I know was shocked to discover a few months ago that his next project had been solicited in the April Previews for July release. He told me it was nowhere near done, and as of this writing it's expected to come out sometime around Christmas. It's like the companies think if they solicit a project, it will magically appear at the announced date. This, essentially, is what happened to the creator I just got off the phone with. He or she agreed to the project, then Marvel decided to jump the gun, and finally, of course, the creator and the readers get fucked in the end because of the ugly, stupid, solution Marvel has concocted to the problem they created!.
I guess it never occurs to them that the readers appreciate the books for the art form they represent, not the number of "units moved." I guess it never occurs to them how many trade paperback sales might be lost, say, on the X-Men: Children of the Atom trade paperback because the readers aren't interested in the sub-standard fill-in artist chosen to complete the book. I can say that without ever seeing the issue in question, because compared to Steve Rude, Christ, most everyone is sub-standard!
But of course, that's the problem, isn't it? Marvel will keep treating gifted artists and writers like replaceable parts, like "cogs in a machine" to quote John Byrne, because they're so goddamned blind to what is good, to what is worthwhile, to what is decent (in both comics and human relations), that they end up fucking over the creators, the readers, and in the ultimate, hilarious, ironic final analysis, themselves.