Feels like this sort of a Monday, so I thought I'd share the following with everyone:

To all at Marvel,

On April 21^st at around 10.50am, my best friend Stuart John Walford passed away in Myton Hospice Warwick, England. He was just 39 years old.

Stuart had been suffering the last few years of his life with a cancerous brain tumor. He leaves behind his wife Nicola and his 2 young children Emily-Grace and Joe.

Stuart and I got to know each other when we found ourselves walking the same roads and streets to get to school – we were both 12 years old. Before long we were going round each others houses after school, playing on Stu’s Atari, talking about girls, having a laugh at our teachers expense (one in particular - our maths teacher Mr. Clark - we would do tape recordings of our less than complimentary impressions of him then play them back to ourselves. We’d laugh until we cried). We also discovered that we both loved comics, Marvel in particular. We’d both started reading them from about the age of 5 and started seriously collecting them from about 9 years old. We had diverse tastes and also shared ones. I can still see us both giggling with excitement at the ripe old age of 29 when we sat in the cinema watching the 1^st X-Men film! We never thought there’d be a truly great Marvel comic book film ever made! Through the years we had different partners, lived in different houses and had different jobs from when we’d first become friends, but comics were always there - always our main talking point, our main interest. I was looking forward to us both becoming grumpy old men, moaning about the world around us, but also chatting about the latest comic issues, the next Marvel film. Sadly that won’t happen. I now have the task of sorting through Stu’s vast collection of comics – keeping some back for Emily-Grace and Joe to hopefully take interest in over the coming years, the rest I need to find a buyer for on behalf of his widow Nicola. If any bulk comic-collection buyers can help with that it would be much appreciated.

My main reasons for writing this email are so that everyone will think about Stuart just as I and his family do. I really miss him. I also wrote this to say a big ‘thank you’ on behalf of myself and Stu to all at Marvel over the years for being such a big part of our lives, our friendship. If you ever feel that the job you do isn’t important or doesn’t have any significance, please read through these words again and understand how much the work you do and the comics you create mean to your readers. Thank you.

Best regards,

Jason Deeming

Nuneaton, Warwickshire

England

Still working out the kinks in the new blogging format, and have also been overwhelmed at Formspring with questions.

However, normal service should resume here shortly.

More later.

Tom B

Been answering a lot of questions through Formspring, so that's slowed me down here a little bit. But here's one more chunk of Reader Questions:

> Can you say how many Avengers titles there will be after Siege (so far we seem to have Avengers and Secret Avengers). >

Four, plus the high-end limited series AVENGERS PRIME.

> Will Danny Rand move back into the limelight? It seems such a waste to push such a good character and then let him disappear, notwithstanding the odd brief Avengers cameo.

Posted by Knight of Fury on 2010-02-08 17:30:06>

We'll be seeing a decent amount of Iron Fist as we head into Heroic Age and the post-SIEGE landscape.

>Are there any plans in the works to bring Songbird back?

Posted by MattWalker on 2010-02-08 18:22:03>

Yes.

>For decades now Alpha Flight has been poorly utilized in practically every title they've appeared, including their own. They've been written as villains, as incompetents, as insane, as anything but heroes. After they were killed the team and their fans have been mocked at Fan Expos, while in the comics the term: "being Alpha Flighted" has been used to describe being completely and succinctly defeated. Follow that up with more deaths and humiliation of the surviving members and I have to ask: how can Marvel, as a business, think this kind of behaviour, which so utterly ruins your own product and alienates your readers, be good for business? How can you expect fans like me to continue buying your products when employees of your company dump on us and the characters we love?

Posted by Legerd on 2010-02-08 18:29:18>

I think every reader has characters that they love that aren't embraced by the mainstream. And the more sensitive among these readers will on occasion equate the circumstances that happen to the characters within the stories to a personal attack on their fans. But that's not truly the case (and it's worth pointing out that these selfsame fans will also mock or belittle various other B- or C-list characters that don't appeal to them individually-it's a pretty universal trait.)

This is just my opinion, but I would argue that Alpha Flight hasn't been particularly good or particularly strong as an idea in twenty-five years. And I think this all ultimately stems from the fact that the initial characters weren't created to headline a book at all. They were just supposed to be a cool bunch of characters who'd fight the X-Men to regain control of Wolverine. But they were so cool and so interesting in those appearances that readers demanded more. But when more was forthcoming, there was so little foundation under most of these characters that they began to be pulled this way and that way, in directions that were ill-considered, and into storylines that did them some lasting damage.

Ultimately, though, I feel that the true problem comes from Alpha Flight not possessing a workable core concept to support a series. They were designed to be Canada's answer to the Avengers, but that's not a good concept for an ongoing series-the Avengers are the Avengers of Canada, and of everywhere else. Geography is never enough to interest readers in a series long-term, or make them feel like it's relevant or that it matters. And every attempt to graft another concept onto Alpha Flight-making them the shadowy government conspiracy book, or the wacky JLI-style series, or focusing on supernatural threats-hasn't worked.

Eventually, somebody will show up with a brilliant take on Alpha Flight and its characters, a pitch that'll define the team and the series in a unique way and allow them to be successful and well-regarded. But we haven't come across that pitch yet. And there's no percentage in trying to force it. I'm sorry that you're unhappy that some of those characters got trashed, but that kind of thing also happens all the time. Imagine how Hawkeye fans felt, or Vision fans, or Jack of hearts fans, or, more recently, Wasp fans. But none of that is intended as a commentary on the people who love those particular characters. It's not that personal.

>I would like to know if there are long term plans for Marvel's Cosmic titles. >

Yes, significant plans. And you'll hear more about them as we get closer to go-time.

>I would also like to know why Marvel mainly promotes its top/more popular characters that arguably do not need as much pr as they are already well known -- while the lesser selling titles DO need that much needed attention as we are seeing more of them getting canceled when some are just as good or even better than the Marvel top tier books.

As a corporation I understand its a business, however my argument would be building a larger more popular character base would increase the bottom line (that point is more for the stock execs etc ;)).

Posted by stingermann on 2010-02-08 18:42:53>

There are a number of factors involved here, so let me outline a few of them.

First off, there's not a creator in the world on a title in the world that doesn't feel that his book doesn't get enough promotion. And that's because it's impossible to get too much promotion-can't be done. So this is a universal complaint.

Secondly, no amount of promotion is going to make the readership as a whole like something they do not like, or respond to something that does not interest them. "More promotion" is sometimes posited as a cure-all, but the reality is that, on the whole, the audience that goes into their local comic book shop every week is very informed as to what's coming out, probably better informed on a one-to-one basis than television watchers or moviegoers. This is a dedicated, hardcore audience. Which says to me that the problem isn't that nobody knows about fill-in-your-favorite-book-here, it's that people aren't interested in buying it. And while promotion can change some minds in the short term, it can't alter a failure of a particular property or creative team to click with the audience.

Finally, the question of what gets promoted most heavily is often a matter of dollars and cents. Let's assume for the moment that promoting a book at a certain level will increase its sales by 10%. If that's the case, then it makes a great deal of sense to promote, say, WOLVERINE rather than MOON KNIGHT, because 10% of WOLVERINE sales is going to be a greater number of hits, and a greater financial return on the promotional investment. That all having been said, we promote titles and projects all across the line. There's been plenty of push on the cosmic titles over the years (and there will be again for THANOS IMPERATIVE.) But those efforts haven't returned any sustained greater sales or particular growth. For all that people like those projects-and we do too-not as many people like them as like NEW AVENGERS, or UNCANNY X-MEN. And it's not because they don't know they exist, and aren't exposed to what's going on in them particularly.

>When will we see the conclusion to The Twelve, and are their any plans to integrate these Golden Age Greats into other MU books when the limited series wraps? >

We're working on getting the last issues of THE TWELVE finished, and likely won't solicit them until they're pretty much done, to avoid any further delays. And until that story reaches its conclusion, you probably won't see those characters showing up elsewhere-although the survivors certainly will after THE TWELVE concludes.

>Are they any plans for a new Invaders series, either a new modern version of the team or a series set in WWII (maybe with a more Brubaker spin on the team)?

Posted by MutantSentry on 2010-02-08 20:01:51>

Anything's possible.

More later.

Tom B

Taking a quick break from Reader Questions to share this hopefully-interesting artifact with you.

Back around 2005, we made a bit of a splash with a series titled YOUNG AVENGERS. Before the series launched, fearful fans decried it, expecting it to be terrible. But the proof was in teh pudding, and fandom as a whole quickly came around to embracing Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung's new young characters.

But this was not the first time that a YOUNG AVENGERS series had been pitched.

Over to the left you'll find a document that's been sitting in my files for decades, since the time I first inherited the editorship of NEW WARRIORS back around 1993. It's a pitch submitted by Jim Valentino and Rob Liefeld for a series to be called YOUNG AVENGERS. At the time this was written in 1989, while both of them had dabbled in doing Marvel work, neither creator had really had a break-out hit. Sharing a studio at the time, they hoped that YOUNG AVENGERS might be it, with Jim writing and Rob illustrating a series they would co-plot.

As it turned out, work was already underway on the book that eventually was entitled NEW WARRIORS, which prevented this incarnation of YOUNG AVENGERS from moving ahead. It's actually pretty extraordinary to see how close the line-up for what Jim and Rob proposed was to the eventual NEW WARRIORS team. Mark Gruenwald's internal memo to proposing editor Craig Anderson letting him know about this is also reproduced on the left.

Many of the ideas, characters and concepts that Jim and Rob conceived for this pitch eventually wound up in the assorted projects they later worked on--NEW MUTANTS, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, X-FORCE and even a couple of Imgae titles. So the conceptual work they had done here didn't exactly go to waste, even if this turned out to be the wrong pitch at the wrong time for reasons unbeknownst to them.

But it does show what a series pitch for a new Marvel title more-or-less looked like at around the time I started.

Special thanks to Rob Liefeld for allowing me to share this document with you.

(I also still have Warren Ellis's pitch to take over NEW WARRIORS circa 1993--I'll have to check with him and see if he';d have any objections to sharing that document with the world as well.)

More later.

Tom B

Another week of more answers to your questions. Almost wrapped up here.

>Is the Marvel universe sort of come back to normal in the heroic age, for example, with Dr. Strange, Black Panther, and Steve Rogers?

Posted by RCcarroll on 2010-02-08 09:27:43>

I don't think so, not in the way you mean. If you're looking for everybody to be back in their traditional places as though nothing has happened, and for everything to become staid and predictable and boring, guess again. The three characters you list, for example, are still outside of their traditional roles right this moment.

>Tom. For me the X-Men in the 90's were and probably always will be my favorite times in comics. They were when I started reading them, so for me at least, they're the bees knees and everything else is held to their standard. I know that the vox populi seems to be that this was the epitome of the worst about comic books, and I must be honest, I couldn't disagree more. But whatever. One day I'm sure someone will explain it to me so that I can understand, and then you know what, I'll disagree anyway. But, eventually, as I grew older I realized that there was more to the X-Men comics then the one's that I had read/was reading now. I learned about back issues, past stories that were more monumental then I could have ever imagined. Sagas of life and death, darkness and redemption were read by me, and while my fanboy-ism stayed firmly rooted in the late 80's/90's, my appreciation for the characters, not to mention writers/artists/everyone else, went up by many-a-fold. Now, until the day when I can realistically say, start with 1960's X-Men number one and go forward, I have a pretty good grasp on what X-Men stories from the past to offer and recommend to someone should they ever ask the question about back-issues, past-stories, or too long dead mythical firebirds. Let's face it, some stories from the past just HAVE to be read if you're a fan of those characters. Finally at the question part. I've read all (and will continue to read all) of Brubaker and the previous guys Captain America, and HoM/Civil War/Secret Invasion/Siege as well as all of JMS' Thor run, Fraction's Iron Man run, and Bendis' Avengers since the relaunch and the prison breakout on day One. Heck, I even try and keep up to date on my Daredevil. I've gotta say, wow, loving them all, especially now that Brubaker's e p i c (sorry) story has finally come to a magnificent close. But when it comes to those character's pasts (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Avengers) I'm, well, clueless. The online websites list hundreds of TOP (this persons') books, and that can be quite mind-boggling/overwhelming to figure out which one's are the best, and not just someone's personal favorites. So, I was hoping that you could give me the companies opinion, or your opinion of, "read these three stories/sagas/epics" for Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the Avengers please along the same lines as, "origin issues/The Phoenix Sagas/ Wolverine/ Mutant Massacre/ X-Tinction Agenda or Infernus or etc... etc..." >

Any list I'm going to give you is going to be just as subjective and personally biased as anybody else's. But let me quickly run down a few stories for each character, apart from the stuff you've already read.

IRON MAN: The big storylines probably include "Demon In A Bottle", "Armor Wars", "War Machine" and "Extremis"

THOR: You can't go wrong with the Stan and Jack run, but also Walt Simonson's era (handily collected in a series of Thor: Walt Simonson Visionaries collections), Warren Ellis's brief run "Worldengine", the start of the Dan Jurgens/John Romita Jr sequence, and the "Avengers Disassembled: Thor" story of Ragnarok. As a stand-alone story, THOR: BLOOD OATH is pretty good too.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: Apart from Stan and Jack, the Steve Englehart era from the '70s is quite good. Also, Mark Waid's run (done mostly with Ron Garney), and the Roger Stern/John Byrne material.

AVENGERS: "The Kree/Skrull War", "The Avengers/Defenders War', "The Korvac Saga", "Operation: Galactic Storm", "The Morgan Conquests", "Ultron Unlimited" and "Avengers Forever". And the first "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" series by Joe Casey and Scott Kolins is an excellent summation of the early days of the team.

Fortunately, most or all of this material is readily available in collected editions.

>I was going to ask what would you write if you were ever given the opportunity to write, but it turns out a certain run of Fantastic Force exists so huh, go you... So instead I'll ask this, in the decades that you've been working here, if you had to pick one single page or double-page spread that you're either the most proud of, or like the most, or wish you could own, or anything like that, from ALL of the titles/anything really, you've been an actual part of, what would it be? If there's a page/double-page and a different page of dialogue that'd be fine too. More importantly, why. I'd like to tell you mine too. Pages 13 and 14 from Uncanny X-Men #307 written by Scott Lobdell has my favorite piece of dialogue ever, the Black Widow telling the General Assembly of the United Nations what the Avengers stand for has been, even to this day the one that always first comes to mind. My favorite art (apart from the Day a Superman died) has to be the eighth and the 9-10 double page splash pages of the Onslaught Marvel Universe pencilled (I'm learning, I didn't write drawn) by Kubert and Bennet (the finale one-shot) within the Onslaught GN. The top half shows the bodies of the X-Men flying through the air, and the bottom half shows (the "Marvel way" of doing things I'm sure,) parts of the individual heroes costumes before leading into a mighty splash page. The dialogue also helps; "Silence filled the air. All was lost. And yet... Through the haze of the dust... Xavier sensed a coming... Of hope... Of courage... (turn page to the next page which is the splash page of all the heroes, and wham!) ... Of Marvels." It has, and always will remain, to me at least, priceless. Oh yeah, and the issue where Illyana Rasputin dies as a child from the Legacy Virus always leaves a knot in the back of my throat too. >

I don't know if I have anything quite so specific as the examples you tossed out, Thomas. But one page I do own is from AVENGERS/JLA #1, Page 21, in which the Flash first vibrates his way into the Marvel Universe. That was a plot moment that I advocated for, and after that page arrived from George Perez, it became known around my offices as "Tom's page." So when George eventually put the artwork from AVENGERS/JLA up for sale, I went ahead and bought that page.

> If there was anyway that you could drag Axel Alonso from what must be a luxurious penthouse worthy of the editor of the X-Men within the office to the little Avengers room to answer a few fan questions such as these it'd be better then awesome, (I have to) it'd be Marvelous. Thanks T.

Posted by thomas more on 2010-02-08 12:31:33>

That's entirely up to Axel, I'm afraid. This sort of online interaction really doesn't seem to be his thing, at least not on any kind of regular basis.

>Will the debate about the Mimic being a super-human or a mutant be decided?
I'm for super-human. >

I didn't realize that there was any debate. His father gave him his powers with a big scientific machine-he's not a mutant.

> Marvel policy on submitting new character or story ideas, is this due to Marvel Comics have sole ownership to an in-house idea - preventing any legal problem to the company?

Posted by mimic616 on 2010-02-08 12:46:38>

Marvel does not accept unsolicited submissions of any kind, sorry. And that's to prevent any problems if an idea winds up being similar to something we've already got cooking somewhere (which happens all the time-fans figure out where we're going, write in to suggest that direction as an idea, then get upset and accuse Marvel of having stolen their concept.)

>Tom I really love all other timelines and I think it's great what Marvel did with Ultimate Universe (and Ultimatum - big event just for Ultimate Universe that is awesome) so I just wanted to ask if there are any plans for another timeline to get little bit of spotlight (like Marvel 2099 or Spider-Girl reality). I ask because it looks like Marvel is trying to remind us that this Universe still exist (for example mini serie like American Dream, Timestorm 2009/2099, Spider-Man 1602) Thank you for your answer and have a nice day.

Posted by Zajdalen on 2010-02-08 12:50:22>

We don't tend to think about these projects in terms of universes, Zaj, so much as in terms of stories. So if we have a story we think is cool that features Spider-Man 2099 or American Dream or whomever, then we go ahead and do it. But we rarely sit around thinking "what other timelines or universes can we bring back now?" It all begins and ends with the stories.

>I think we're all dying for a report on the x-jammers, (and me as a monster havok fan) and we are just dying to know! Did their spaceship crash? When are we going to see them?

Posted by iplasmic77 on 2010-02-08 14:34:26>

I have no idea, I'm afraid-this is entirely in the world of the X-office, and I don't know what they've got planned, if anything. Oh, if only Axel Alonso answered questions online.

>My first one concerns the history of Spider-girl, and by history I mean of the universe that Spider-girl lives in and the heroes and villains that live in it.

You see before all this next-generation of heroes thing in Marvel, there was SPIDER-GIRL. I mean besides the fact that she is an alternative future for Spider-man, she also a part of an alternate future where we see the offsprings of many other Marvel heroes and villains. Offsprings who stories we have yet to hear from. I mean there even a son for the Hulk, before the events of Greg Pak's Skaar storyline, in this world.

So really my question is that when are we ever going to learn the true history and origins Spider-girl's world ? >

I'm not sure what you're asking precisely, but it seems like what you're after are more projects that tell about the events within Spider-Girl's world, revealing how some of the heroes and villains of her time came to be (or came to be descended from various modern day Marvel characters.) And I think the only answer I can give you is that we'll touch on that stuff in SPIDER-GIRL when it's germane to the story at hand. But there aren't any plans at the moment for a big "History of the Spider-Girl Universe" project of any kind.

> My other question sort of relates to my previous one and that is due to the relationships that Spider-girl has with other heroes. Like the Fantastic Four of her world and how they know each other very well.

Is there any chance taht there could be another mini-series detailing the relationship that Spider-girl has with the heroes of her world, especially when it comes to her current storyline ?

Posted by CAmbm on 2010-02-08 15:59:39>

This seems like very much the same question. And I think that, throughout the course of her adventures, we've seen the first time that Spider-Girl met the Fantastic Five, and the A-Next Avengers, and so forth. This has all been covered over the last ten years of her publishing history. So I'd guide you towards the collections of her past stories for the answers you're looking for in this regard.

>Which series will be concerned by the World War Hulks crossover ? Will it be more of a "Second Coming" kind of event (one big storyline which can be followed throughout all the titles), more like a "Fall Of The Hulks" one (no main storyline, just stories that are interconnected) or a "Siege"-type one (a major event and its tie-ins) ?

Posted by softverre on 2010-02-08 16:19:09>

I believe, of the options you mentioned, that it will follow the model of "Fall of the Hulks" most closely. As you might expect, given that it's being done by the same creators right on the heels of that storyline.

>Are you guys going to be doing any "The Heroic Age" Digital Comics Previews? >

We'll probably do something, but the specifics haven't been ironed out yet. More news as it becomes available.

>Are you going to do like a "day In The Life Of A Marvel ___"? In that blank...Artist, Editor, or Writer.Just wondering...:)

Posted by truebeliever789 on 2010-02-08 16:27:27>

Don't know if we'll do that necessarily. But along those lines, we've begun filming a couple of our regular editorial Reading circles, at which we analyze and dissect a recent comic. The first one can be found here:

http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.11589.watch_marvel_reading_circle~colon~_asm_%23620

More later.

Tom B

We'll get to some more of your Reader Questions in a minute, but first this musical interlude from assistant editor Rachel Pinnelas:

As sung to the tune of "OKLAHOMA"

Oklahoma, where Asgard floats above the plains

And that hoverin' rock is in for quite the shock

When Normy sends his cavalry to have all the gods slain

Oklahoma, Donald Blake is watchin' and heaves a sigh,

So his strikes his cane so Thor can once again

Make lazy circles in the sky...

La la la la (and so on and so forth)

Okay then...

> When a book's writer proposes a Really Big Idea regarding his or her own book, what triggers an editor's "I need to check with someone else before I can approve this new direction" response?

I have no specific examples in mind...I'm just curious about how a publisher sometimes has to balance the desire to keep moving a character into new directions, versus (for example) the clutter and complication of establishing that the popular recurring character Captain Drywall, in each of his 30 years' worth of past appearances and in each of his future ones, has always been a team of four tiny aliens wearing a fully-functional and utterly-convincing Human suit, and that drywalling and skim-coating was never the real point to the character.

Posted by Ihnatko on 2010-02-07 16:12:49>

This tends to depend on the book and the character, and just what precisely is being proposed. In general, when it comes to day-in and day-out storytelling, the editors individually have the authority and the responsibility to approve or reject storylines for the characters. But if you're going to be doing anything that's going to make a radical and permanent change to a character of significance-death, marriage, childbirth, horrible maiming, turning a hero into a villain, making a costume change on a high-profile character-then you're going to want to get the buy-in of those higher up on the food chain, because those sorts of changes can have ramifications, not just for the publishing line, but for the rest of the business as well. Typically, though, as Marvel is such a lean organization, we're all in very steady contact with one another, so these sorts of ideas naturally come up and get vetted more often than not. Every once in a while there might be something that's a surprise, but that's typically due to the editor in question not realizing the impact of the storyline they were working on. If the change seems like a good idea, if it opens up new story possibilities, or is likely to attract some attention to the character, if it adds more than it detracts, then in all likelihood we'll go with it.

> What are your thoughts on having "multiple separate Universes" in the product line, so to speak (IE, mainstream Marvel Spidey, Ultimate Spidey, and Marvel Adventures Spidey"?

Posted by Ihnatko on 2010-02-07 16:16:59>

It honestly doesn't bother me for the most part. I do think that sometimes it can be difficult for people-readers and creators alike-to keep everything straight, and there are times where you might not be sure just where a particular project falls, which fictional cosmology it's a part of. But these are relatively insignificant problems to have to deal with. And there's precedent for this: none of the animated series or films or other media incarnations of the Marvel characters have matched the regular publishing line perfectly-they've all made changes and adjustments to the characters or the world in order to suit what worked best for them and their medium. But nobody really worries that the Spider-man on the old '60s cartoon isn't the same as Spidey on SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS, nor the SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN cartoon.

>What do you see as the future of comics? Obvious choices being those motion thingies, digital versions for book readers, more movies/TV shows, or do you think the backbone of Marvel will be physical comics for a long time? >

This is such a broad question that it's difficult to answer comprehensively in the space we've got here. I think you're certainly going to see an expansion into the digital realms, and more direct digital distribution of our content, but that will be in addition to the physical comics and TPBs, not in place of them. I don't think there's any true evidence that the expansion of the digital realm inevitably means the end of tangible print, at least not within my lifetime. The ratio of importance or overall audience will likely continue to shift more and more to that paradigm, since that's what the current and coming generations will be used to, but I don't expect I'll live to see a day when comics go all-digital exclusively (unless something catastrophic occurs to demolish the distribution systems we've got in place now.)

> If written comics disappeared, or dwindled to near nothing, could you see yourself editing something like a video game or TV show?

Posted by PseudoSherlock on 2010-02-07 20:29:40>

Well, hopefully my skills and experience would be able to translate into a different medium such as those you list. It's more a question, I think, of whether anybody else could see me editing one of those.

>What character created in the last ten years do you think has the best chance of becoming a mainstay of the Marvel Universe at the level of say "The Silver Surfer," or better? One of the Runaways? Amadeus Cho? Phantomex? A villain? >

The Sentry maybe. Certainly the Runaways, and the Young Avengers characters too.

> Any chance of seeing a few entries in the future in the style of your old blog where you give your opinions on individual comics from yesteryear?

Posted by cjmcaree on 2010-02-08 05:30:14>

That's always possible, if enough people are interested in it. I had started working up a sequence on the inter-company crossovers I had worked on, but got distracted and never finished it. I'm never quite sure whether that stuff is of any interest to anybody besides myself.

>How about having Mark Waid write the thunderbolts? He's proven with Kingdom come, Empire and unreedeemable that he's great at writing bad guys and getting in their heads. I say perfect match! >

This assumes that Mark would have any interest in writing Thunderbolts. I don't think I've ever spoken to him about it as a possibility, but my sense is that he probably wouldn't, not without some additional hook or story concept that got him excited and motivated. While he does it well, this doesn't tend to be the sort of thing that Mark most likes writing.

> What is Olivier Coipel's next project (his Siege art is just awesome) ?

Posted by baxtos on 2010-02-08 05:45:08>

Once we're ready to announce something, you'll hear about it. Right now, his focus is on completing SIEGE. (And glad you've been enjoying it.)

>I just do not get something in BND in the Amazing Spider-Man. Did he know he made the deal with Mephisto to erase everybody's memories, in exchange for his marrige? Or is Spidey being serious when he says that she actually left him at the altar? >

Not to just dodge the question, but you'll get all the answers as to what happened between Pete and MJ at the altar this summer in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, in a story long coming.

> Is John Romita Jr. going to be a regular for the Avengers series coming out in May, or is it just for the first few story arcs?

Posted by jc1569 on 2010-02-08 09:23:48>

When you say "first few story arcs", how many issues is that? John is the regular penciler on AVENGERS, which means he'll be on it until there's some other opportunity that we need him for or that he wants to do. But this is a good question to turn back around to the masses: what would you say constitutes a regular run these days? How many issues does an artist have to produce before he's the regular artist on the series?

More later.

Tom B

More answers to your questions:

>Its maybe a little too soon to do one of your longer "projects I nailed" segments on it, but I wish you'd tell us a little more about the gestation of Omega the Unknown. I absolutely loved it, think it was unsurprisingly the most complex thing marvel's published in a long time, and i see from your best of the decade list that you must have been proud of it too. I'm wondering things like,
1.What was the breakdown of labor between lethem and karl rusnak? >

First off, I'm really glad you enjoyed OMEGA THE UNKNOWN. It's definitely one of the most unique projects we've ever put out, and I love it to bits.

Karl is one of Jonathan's childhood friends, one of the people with whom he experienced the original OMEGA stories in the 70s, and who had a similar love and attachment to the character and the what-might-have-been of that series. As I understand it, though, Jonathan and Karl would discuss the story, but Jonathan was the one who did all of the actual writing.

>2.How much back and forth was there between you and lethem in terms of the general story idea. I'm not the first to say it, but it's a generally subversive comic, and parts of it contain interesting implications about the current state of superhero comics. >

Early on, Jonathan came in and did a lunch with Joe Q, myself and a few others, and verbally walked through the whole story with us before any of it was written. Any thoughts or feedback we gave him there was incorporated into his thinking as he built the story. But Lethem is so in command of his narrative that, as the scripts came in, I felt there was very little for me to do. He wrote the series structured almost like a novel, which is a place he's very comfortable. Consequently, if you pulled on any one seemingly-innocuous block, the whole structure could come tumbling down. My function became more akin to First Reader, pointing out places that might be confusing, or where the storytelling was going to be tricky.

>3.What was it like working with gary panter?

Posted by Davidroes on 2010-02-07 04:11:08>

Pretty innocuous. I believe Jonathan did the first reach-out to Gary, and it was simple to get him on board to do that one sequence and the cover. He did write somewhere about how shabby the Marvel offices looked to him when he came up to drop off the cover, but I can hardly hold that against him.

>4.I think the ever intelligent douglas wolk sensitized me to it, but lethem did about the best job of jumping into the comics medium of any big name writer in recent memory. Did that require some massaging on your part, or did he just come in with very clear notions of how the medium works.

Posted by Davidroes on 2010-02-07 04:17:33>

I'm sure that others might argue this assertion-there are certainly folks both around here and out in the larger world who didn't know quite what to make of OMEGA. But insofar as we accept your premise, I believe it was a combination of Jonathan having such a strong grasp on the structure of his story, and being able to interface one-on-one with Farel Dalrymple as they worked on the series. At one point, the two of them went on a walking tour of the area that most of the series takes place in, so that Farel could shoot some reference photos, and I'm sure those back-and-forths put them both very much onto the same page in terms of the story they were telling.

> In the return of the black cat arc Diablo was represented as being active in a time where if my continuity knowalge is right he should be in the well. I hate to just lable it an "error" when their maybe a very real continuty explination for it so my quesioin is. Was it a simple mistake or is their an explination? Not to get to hung up on it. I know mistakes happen the storys still the story and if the Diablo thing is an error then well it will simply fall in to the void with the other contuiuity mistakes.>

I don't have that issue of AMAZING in front of me, but my memory of it was that it turned around an incident that happened "ten years ago" when the building was built-which would still be within the necessary tolerances for Diablo to have been at liberty. If I'm misremembering and it was, say , twenty-five years, then you'll just have to chalk it up as an error.

>kind of a same kinda question in erly 08 their is real docter strange delema. In new aveneres annual 2 I think he dispears after loosing his postion. This is clealry during back in black but then he reapears clearly post "one more day" in amazing spider man and in avengers/invaders in a sorccersupream role. so um before jumping to conclusions question like the last one. So what isup with Doc Strange during this time?

Posted by s-i-d-e-r-m-a-n on 2010-02-07 09:35:59>

I tend to leave working out the tiny intricacies of the character timelines to the Handbook writers for the most part, but I don't see a huge problem with any of this. Doc disappears from in front of the New Avengers in that Annual (with the intention of going on a sabbatical to reconnect with the magicks) but he doesn't need to have left on that quest (or to be completely unreachable) right away. It also seems apparent that Doc has good days and bad days as a sorcerer, almost like somebody coping with Alzheimer's-there are times when it's easier for him to wrangle mystic forces, and times when it's not. He doesn't actually lose the title of Sorcerer Supreme until NEW AVENGERS #51-54.

>Will Anti-Venom be appearing in any comics soon and if you're allowed to can you tell me which comic(s)? >

I'm sure we'll see Anti-Venom again before too long, but I don't have any specific issues to aim you at, I'm afraid.

> If Anti-Venom does reappear somewhere, will Dan Slott and John Romita Jr. be writing/drawing them? I loved New Ways To Die and I really hope that John Romita Jr. will draw Anti-Venom again. Anti-Venom looks so cool when he's drawn by John Romita Jr.

Posted by p0kemaster on 2010-02-07 10:43:54>

Glad you like his work. John's drawing AVENGERS right this second, so unless Anti-Venom shows up there, it's doubtful that he'll be drawn by JRJR.

> Any word on what Carlos Pacheco's next work is, after the Ultimate Avengers run with Millar is done? >

When we're ready to announce it, you'll hear all about it.

> Has their been talk of a Steve Rogers project post Siege, if in fact he's not in the Avengers? I work in a comic store and we've discussed the idea of a mini/maxi series with Steve Rogers "finding America", road trip style, ala Green Arrow/Green Lantern ? If I was choosing such a project, maybe Luke Ross on art, as I've become enamored with his Captain America work

Posted by davejamesoneill on 2010-02-07 15:52:58>

You'll definitely see Steve Rogers post-SIEGE, but I can't tell you quite where just yet. And while I can see the appeal, I don't personally feel like Steve needs to "find America" in any meaningful way-he knows where it is and what it's about, and that doesn't have any bearing on why he's not Captain America at the moment.

More later.

Tom B

Back on the horse finally, with more answers to your questions. I suppose I should also mention that I've started a Formspring.me account in the name TomBrevoort where I'll be fielding additional questions as the mood strikes me.

Also, I direct your attention to this important message from the Hero Initiaitive: http://heroinitiative.blogspot.com/2010/03/tom-brevoorts-take-my-trade-auctionsnow.html

>Now that the Millar/Hitch run on fantastic four is complete, how do you feel about it as a whole? It seemed to have a geat amount of initial hype based on their past work together, but by the end it had seemed to lose a lot of its steam. >

I quite enjoyed most of that run, to be honest. For whatever reason, it didn't strike the same chord with the broad readership, but it felt like the FF to me, and galvanized and energized that series. Right at the end, between Mark getting sick and Bryan's commitments overlapping one another, things got rocky, and the last two or three issues aren't as polished as I might have liked the finale to the run to be, but sometimes that happens-certainly, Mark's health is more important than any comic book (except for KICK-ASS, of course, soon to be a major motion picture!) And Mark and Bryan revealing that Val is super-intelligent completely flipped that character around, and made her a much more crucial part of the series and the family.

> Along those same lines, how does one deal continuity-wise with a character such as Dr. Doom? With him seemingly becoming the main villain in a variety of comics at the moment how difficult is to properly maintain his personality, motives, powers across a large line of books?

Posted by tmx117 on 2010-02-06 11:36:35>

It's that old chestnut about consistency rather than continuity. At the moment, Doom is appearing a a lot of places, largely because every book wants to put their guys up against big villains, and Doom's been off the table for awhile. That said, as long as there's a consistency when it comes to the depiction of Doom, I'm not all that worried about getting anal about which appearance comes first, except in a general way. I leave that sort of calculation to the fans and the Handbook writers these days. In all honesty, after many years of being in the shadow of guys like Magneto or Apocalypse or Mister Sinister, I rather like the fact that Doom is back to a position of prominence in the publishing line once again.

>I have just one question, but it's a burning one for me--any chance of Master of Kung Fu ever seeing collection as Omnibus editions, or, failing that, any reprint format? Or do the legalities of the Fu Manchu character prohibit that?

Posted by revroth on 2010-02-06 12:55:44>

We've talked about it in the past, and I believe we've occasionally spoken with the rights-holders to Fu Manchu, but I don't have any specific news to tell you. We'd like to see that material reprinted as well, but it all hangs on us all being able to make a deal that everybody is happy with.

>A while back you shared an excellent Secret Invasion Timeline that did an outstanding job and tracing when Enemy of the State, Secret War, Avengers Disassembled, Civil War, World War Hulk, happened in relation to one another and I was wondering if in honor of "Doomwar," the staff could share one for Doctor Doom dating back to his return from Hell.

I've seen him in FF, Black Panther, Thor, Cabal, Mighty Avengers, Dark Avengers, Doctor Voodoo, Captain America, Captain America Reborn, Captain Britain, Sub-Mariner, X-Factor, Fall of the Hulks, and probably several more I'm not remembering. >

This is very similar to the earlier question, though not precisely the same. No, I don't have a specific timeline for Doom in the same way I maintained one during SECRET INVASION, so I don't have anything to share. It just hasn't seemed as necessary.

>In the culmination of Millar's wonderful run, Doom explained that he survived having his heart turning to stone, his blood to acid, being dumped into the Pliocene age where he was torn limb from limb by megalodons thanks to his hate keeping him alive, then spent millions of years learning even more magic which allowed him to transform every molecule of his body so that the Marquis of Death couldn't recognize him.

1a.How does "hate" keep him alive? Surely he used some magic in there too, right?

1b. Is Doom is the Doom of today millions of years old, possessing an omnipotence on par with the combined powers of the Sorcerer Supreme and Molecule Man?

Posted by B.Serum on 2010-02-06 15:13:36>

You know, this is at least two questions right here, not counting your earlier query. Way to follow instructions! But still, I'll try to give you some kind of answers:

1a) I'd be cautious about putting too much stock in the truthfulness of anything Doom tells you-especially since this is a guy who for years has possessed his own personal time machine.

1b) No. And again, I'd be cautious about putting too much stock in the truthfulness of anything Doom tells you.

>What is your honest opinion about having multiple titles and diluting the market with a lot of the same characters or concepts. For instance, having multiple Wolverine, Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers, Hulk, and soon to be, Iron Man, series every month. Do you think it's good for the characters? I personally feel that the overexposure of Wolverine has kinda killed interest in his character, and I would say the waning sales in his solo books is a testament to that. I'd like to hear your views on this subject.

Posted by Dusty. on 2010-02-06 16:24:35>

Just a personal bugaboo, Dusty, but whenever anybody asks me what my "honest" opinion of something is, the unspoken implication is "as opposed to all those other questions where you lie like crazy." So everybody, let's please be careful about this kind of thing.

Now then, this is one of those circumstances where art and commerce aren't always served to an equivalent degree. But my "honest" opinion is that the only thing that really hurts characters over the long haul is bad stories. You point to waning sales on Wolverine, and yet all I see is a character who's still one of the driving forces of the marketplace. The reason Wolverine appears in so many titles is that people want to read about him. More people than want to read about Cyclops, or Iron Fist, or Millie the Model. The Direct Market is an extremely democratic entity-if readers don't purchase a book, retailers won't order it and companies will stop making it. And the reverse is true as well-if something sells and continues to sell well, we'll inevitably make more of it. While it was always nice and convenient back in the '60s that most of the characters were appearing in only a single title, part of that was due to the fact that Marvel's output was limited to only a set number of releases. Once that governor was let out, suddenly you'd get things like MARVEL TEAM-UP and MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE, and from there PETER PARKER and WEB OF SPIDER-MAN and so forth. One thing I've learned over my years in this business is that, while I might feel differently from a personal level, when you're talking about the audience as a whole, they have a much greater hunger for and capacity to absorb stories featuring their favorite characters (so long as they're good-crummy material tends to be fatal in the long run regardless of the popularity of the character.)

>Any advice for someone hoping to break into Marvel as an assistant editor? I have the education and work experience but can't seem to get any traction.

Posted by kidanejohn on 2010-02-06 20:37:51>

As you might expect, there are far fewer openings for Assistant Editors than there are qualified applicants. So the only tangible advice I can give you would be to get as much publishing experience as you can under your belt, and take your best shot whenever an opportunity should come along. But even if you do that, work exceptionally hard and totally dedicate yourself, there's no guarantee that you'll be able to make it in. I often tell people that, when it comes to getting into the comics industry, you need a combination of Talent, Perseverance and Luck.

>Something I've wondered is why only cover artists are credited only some of the time in Marvel Comics (and other publishers, for that matter, too)? I notice a handful of artists receive cover credits more often than others, but many go unrecognized in the books. I think one of the things that Marvel has done a very nice job with recently is the cover dress/design it gives to its titles -- Civil War, Seige, Secret Warriors, Iron Man, all spring to mind -- but week-in, week-out we get treated to some really swell covers,and just curious as to often-times lack of credits?

Posted by djt6610 on 2010-02-06 22:29:45>

As a general rule, we try to credit cover artists on any book that has a recap page that incorporates the credits, but tend to leave them out on any book in which the credits are within the story itself. That's not an absolute rule, and I'm sure you can find issues where the reverse is true, but those are the guidelines we try to follow.

>Will Dr. Strange be featured in some magic event sometime this year? >

As opposed to, say, a western event? But yes, you'll see Strange again before you know it.

>Are there any plans for the Ghost Riders now that their mini-series has concluded?

Posted by StephenSanders on 2010-02-07 01:01:37>

Yes.

More later.

Tom B

Sorry for the delay of game on this, folks--we had some technical issues that stymied us. But hopefully, we're back on track now!

Before we get started on answering more questions, I just wanted to let everybody know, especially all of the past Tradees out there, that the Hero Initiative is beginning to auction off all of the books they received as part of the Take My Trade event here on this blog. The first flight of books went up today, all of them CGC certified and signed by Stan Lee and (in appropriate cases) John Romita Sr. You can see the books currently available and bid on any you might be interested in at http://qurls.com?i=48837. Each one comes with a Certificate of Meaninglessness filled out by me, and any money you spend will be going directly to a worthwhile cause!

>In practical, everyday work terms, what changes have occurred or will occur due to your new promotion? In other words what new challenges and opportunities are you facing in comparsion to what you did previously?

Posted by Mon Morn Lunatic on 2010-02-05 20:23:16>

It's still very much the same sort of stuff I was doing before, just perhaps a bit more of it. I still edit a bunch of titles directly, and I still oversee the efforts of a number of other editors, dividing up the staff with Axel Alonso. The difference now, really, is that, with Joe Q being pulled in all sorts of directions-he's been travelling almost constantly since the beginning of the year, to meet with assorted executives and go over larger synergies-more of the immediate responsibility for keeping the Publishing department on track falls to Axel and myself. We're now called upon more and more regularly to approve cover sketches, read out and sign off on final issues, and make judgment calls about story directions and content. It's all stuff we've dealt with before, but now it's resting more directly on our shoulders.

>What is your favorite Osamu Tezuka book? >

I became familiar with Tezuka's work through animation first, so it's no great surprise that I like Tetsuwan Atom/Astro Boy probably the best. I also have a real soft spot for his Phoenix 2772 film.

>What was the script that you read that made you post a few weeks ago about emotional validity?

Posted by kyle-latino on 2010-02-05 20:38:44>

Can't tell you just yet, as it's not close to being released as a comic. But when we get to that point, I'll try to remember to say so.

> Crossover issues seem to have problems syncing up properly to other ongoing titles. For example, the ending of Dark Wolverine #82 had nothing to do with Seige #2. How does Marvel account for that?

Posted by OptionalPlayer on 2010-02-05 21:54:19>

In that specific case, I would say "Read DARK WOLVERINE #83", and you'll see that it synchs up just fine. And in general, I think we've done a good job at making events line up as they need to. I don't insist that all of the tie-ins to an event like SIEGE happen directly in lockstep with SIEGE itself, any more than I did with SECRET INVASION or CIVIL WAR. So long as the tie-ins don't jump the gun and reveal things about the main storyline ahead of time, I think it's fine for them to play out on their own schedule and with their own rhythms. In the case of DARK WOLVERINE, there are three tie-in issues, and SIEGE is a four-month event, so you're going to get a certain amount of a discontinuity right there. And there's only a single NEW MUTANTS tie-in issue. What's most important to me is making sure that the tie-ins all contain a good, strong story that's tangibly connected to the larger event-that's what's going to make people happy and make them feel that they're getting their money's worth.

>What do y'all have in mind for digital download distribution via the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad? IMO, the revenue @ 99cents per backissue would far surpass your read only digital site revenue. I know I'd spend a lot more than $60/year to 'own' digital copies.

Posted by celticursa on 2010-02-05 23:15:47>

This is all territory we're looking at and exploring, but when we're ready to announce what we're doing, it'll be a bigger deal than just an item in my blog. As it stands, we're already offering certain books and series through a number of platforms, and we'll continue to investigate the possibilities that direct digital distribution offer to us. But it would be premature for me to say anything beyond that at this point.

>What's the story on what Steve Rogers saw in Cap: Reborn #6? Is that seeding for a future storyline? >

Yes, possibly more than one!

>.And speaking of Steve, any hints regarding if he is the reborn Cap promised in the USA Today article about the Heroic Age? I would like to see him join the Avengers as just Steve Rogers or maybe the Captain.

Posted by moose967 on 2010-02-06 03:41:43>

I'm not sure offhand what the USA Today article said, so it's tough to give you much of an answer at this point. For the time being, both Steve and Bucky are active in SIEGE. Beyond that, you'll have to wait and see.

>The ads for Siege say "an event years in the making". When Bendis started Avengers Disassembled years ago, was there really a plan that included secret war, civil war, house of m, iniative, dark reign, world war hulk, culiminating in siege? How much did it deviate from the original plans? And isn't it kind of ambitious to be making a 6 or 7 year plan on a book when the average creator only stays on a book a year or year and a half? >

I think Matt Fraction described the process the best in a recent interview. He said (and I'm paraphrasing here) that it was like starting in New York and knowing that the place you want to get to is California, but not having a map of all the terrain in-between, and so there were detours and changes of direction and new opportunities that came up along the way. But the destination is something that we've been aimed at for a very long time, though we couldn't have told you for certain just exactly when we'd get here-two years ago, we might have said at the end of SECRET INVASION. And sure, this is ambitious, but that's part of what separates Marvel books from the rest of the pack. With dedicated creators like Brian Bendis having confidence in being around for the long haul, they can plan and plot out in longer and longer swatches of time, allowing for better story payoffs for those who've been on the ride all along without any of it becoming forced. You maybe couldn't do this sort of thing with everybody, but when it comes to somebody like Brian, barring some crazy unforeseen circumstance, all involved were confident that he'd be around to see his vision through to the end and beyond. Because as you go, you invent more stuff, and so there's now more track laid out ahead of us and new destinations off in the distance.

>As an editor (and executive at Marvel, congrats BTW), are you worried about the quantity of books published decreasing the quality of the books? When you look at lines like Hulk, Avengers, Iron Man, Wolverine, or Deadpool the number of monthly books have increased five-fold in just a few years. When I look at the Marvel line (and I buy 60-70 marvel titles a month), I see a significant decrease in the quality of the art especially. When Amazing Spider-Man has about a 50/50 shot of having art from a guy I've never heard of before, and really isn't up to par with other A-list book artists, isn't that a problem?

Posted by mcross76 on 2010-02-06 11:14:06>

I believe you're only looking at half of the picture here, Mcross. While we're doing more Hulk or Avengers titles, we're not really doing more titles in general-our output of monthly releases has remained relatively stable over the past few years. We have our heavy months and our light months, sure, but we typically put out somewhere in the 60-70 titles-per-month range consistently. And so, I think this is just a switch-over of resources-the number of books we're putting out hasn't grown five-fold, not even close. But this has been the kind of question that fans have worried about since the days when Marvel was limited to no more than 8 releases a month. And the fact of the matter is that, while the odds increase that you'll do a crummy book the more books you turn out a month, doing fewer books isn't a guarantee of quality either. There were stinkers back in the 8-titles-per-month days too, and in every year since then. And, just speaking for myself, I don't see the dramatic decrease in the quality of the books that you're looking at (which isn't to say you're wrong, tastes vary of course.) For my money, Marvel still has the most consistent and best-looking line of titles in the business, and we work long hours every month to keep it that way. In the specific case of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, while I don't agree with you about the caliber of the artwork there either (taste again, remember), the very fact that the series is released three times a month makes it far more difficult to keep anybody on it for too long. What would be a quarter of a year on any other series is used up in just one month on ASM, so it's a particularly difficult beast to wrangle, and editors Steve Wacker and Tom Brennan have done an excellent job at it in my estimation.

More later.

Tom B

More questions from you:

>Aside from the digital elephant in the room and the obvious "just tell good stories and they will come", what do you think publishers can do to draw more new eyes to comics? For example, would a distribution deal with WalMart or some other BigBox store actually be beneficial? >

You speak as though we don't already have that, but Marvel product has been available at Walmart for a few years now. It's stuff we package especially for them, mostly pulled from our Marvel Adventures catalogue, which is something they're comfortable with. And you kind of quickly dismiss the digital model in your question, but direct digital delivery remains the option with the greatest potential of being able to expand the audience for comics, as it delivers the reading experience directly to the prospective reader without him having to scour for it, and potentially at an entry-level price that he'll find enticing. Beyond that, everything else helps to some degree, from movies and television shows to Free Comic Book Day, to anything that gets media attention on the stories we're telling and might make somebody seek us out. Even controversy, as with the recent CAPTAIN AMERICA #602 foul-up, brings attention to the books, and creates both awareness and a greater likelihood that somebody is going to seek them out.

>Marvel has done a great deal to help drag the comics industry up to the level of real business, much of it due to the work of the sainted Carol Kalish. What is it doing today? I don't mean offers for variant covers or anything, I mean co-op advertising, marketing assistance, etc? What goods and/or services are Marvel making available to LCSs to help them market themselves, comics in general, and marvel comics in particular?

Posted by vbartilucci on 2010-02-05 19:58:52>

This is a question that could be better answered by somebody like our Sales VP, David Gabriel. So I asked him, and he said:

Marvel offers cash back to retailers as one of the main incentives on books.  With this cash back there are no restrictions as to how retailers may spend this money.  These incentives are offered on an almost weekly basis.  This is probably the most important thing.

Marvel also is the only publisher to create an online resource center for retailers whose number one goal is to create and maintain websites for retailers that do not already have them, and where they do have them, the sites can be used as Marvel centric online stores, again maintained by Marvel leaving the retailer to sell in his or her store.  The resource center, the MRRC, also has many other marketing functions including downloadable flyers, postcards, checklists, mini posters, press releases, logos, reading chronology pages, updated comic and collected edition covers and the best part of all this is that Marvel sends merchandise to these retailers with cover prices far greater than the monthly fee associated with the resource center.

Along with all these tools Marvel is the only publisher to make ALL weekly comics viewable one week in advance of the on sale to retailers who are a part of the resource center.  This is one of the newest tools of the MRRC and the Marvel titles are all viewable through the Marvel Digital Comics Reader.

Membership in the MRRC also qualifies retailers for free MDCU monthly subscription.

And if that's not enough, there's a free section of the center for retailers who want the ordering and sales information for all the Marvel on sale and orderable comics and collections.

Marvel sends out large poster EVERY month to retailers to hang in stores to promote monthly comics.  These are free to retailers.

Marvel sends out mini posters EVERY month to retailers to give out to customers.  These are double sided posters promoting events and series. These are free to retailers.

Marvel sends out postcards with checklists every month to retailers to give out to customers in stores. These are free to retailers.

Marvel sends out FREE samplers, saga, and comics every month to retailers to hand out in stores and to help sell comics and collections. These are free to retailers.

Marvel just started the Marvel's Greatest Comics Program which launches in March which gives retailers comics for the low price of one dollar, at least 4 selections each month.  These comics represent the first "chapter" of some of the greatest collected editions we have to offer. We're launching the program with a free copy of the Invincible Iron Man #1.

Marvel sends out on a quarterly basis, bookmarks to retailers for free, to give away in stores.

Marvel plans and promotes nationwide in store events for retailers getting national press for retailers.  These events come with their own free postcards, mini posters, giveaways, sales etc etc.

Marvel sent every retailer Free Calendars to give away in stores prior to New Year's Eve at the end of 2009.

Marvel continually goes back to second printings for retailers and promotes the new editions online to customers who may have missed the first editions.

Marvel sends out countless press announcements as well as sets up countless interviews, previews, and other announcements about upcoming titles on a daily basis.

Marvel creates weekly or bi weekly podcasts and posts these for retailers to download and get customers interested in upcoming titles.

Marvel makes digital comics available free of charge in order to promote upcoming titles and events...and we heavily promote these marketing tools.

Marvel includes the comic shop locator on the front page of nearly every Marvel comic and collected edition, all Marvel digital comics contain the Comic shop locator pointing new and current customers to shop in local comic shops.

Marvel puts out the best books, bar none, in the comics industry...and that brings customers into stores week after week.

Marvel is also dedicated to bringing new customers into stores by branching out into new genres and heavily promoting those books, Dark Tower, The Stand, Anita Blake, the Wizard of Oz, Halo, Enders Game...and more.

>Are there any plans for another Doctor Voodoo mini-series?

Posted by donvonice on 2010-02-05 20:05:18>

Let us finish the current series first, before we figure that out. But there'll be a Doctor Voodoo story in AGE OF HEROES #1 in May.

More later.

Tom B