John L. Byrne apparently likes to make it challenging for him to find a friendly face to give him a job, as he kind of offers a bit of snark about what Marvel should do and, conversely, what they'll most likely do in 2009:
As the new year approaches, it occurs to me there are some things I'd like to
see -- and most pointedly not see -- from the Condo of Concept.
• No new X-titles
• No recycling of 20 and 30 year old storylines
• No more "writing for the trade", which also means…
• No stories that run more than 3 issues
• No pinup covers
• No fake deaths
• No real deaths
• No breaking of the status quo by the latest flavor of the month
"talent".
Of course, even as late as they are with most of their product, this is
December, so at least the first few months of 2009 are probably in the
drawer. How many of these challenges have already been lost, d'you
suppose?
Thoughts?
Posts
Byrne for Marvel EIC?
ReplyDeleteI really can't disagree with any of those points. Especially about this 'writing for the trade rubbish', it's just general laziness and costing the fans cash.
Byrne's a dick. While I appreciate his "old school" mentality & respect his contributions to comics lore, his arrogance is pretty off-putting. Considering that his last few offerings for DC, notably Action & Blood of the Demon, followed those guidlines & were pretty well hammered by critics suggests that he's not as keen as to what the market needs as he thinks he is.
ReplyDeletePoint of fact, just about every one of those suggestions could have been culled from the Marvel/DC message boards on either CBR or DC - he's not saying anything that hasn't already been said by one fanatical poster or another.
I have to agree to a degree with Byrne. I mean how long was "Hush"? "Batman R.I.P."? "One More Day/Brand New Day"? "Messiah Complex"? And so on and so forth.
ReplyDeleteMost of the books coming out are up there in arcs. Why not have over lying themes? Two issues dealing with someone stopping a bank heist with an underlying plot of someone getting cancer. Three or four more arcs later boom they deal with that person dead from cancer. Doesn't mean it has to be an 18 issue arc entitled "Cancer strikes back!"
What happened to those short stories that BUILD characters? We could use that in between MONDO, SUPER IMPORTANT, CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT, SOMEONE MUUUUUUST DIE, UNIVERSE CHANGING EVENT! I mean I get how Secret Invasion LEADS into Dark Reign and that they're really excited about it but Marvel REALLY killed the momentum of Secret Invasion by announcing a follow-up event while yet ANOTHER event would be going on in War of the Kings.
I mean they killed Annihilation with Civil War. At least they aren't screwing up fifty years of convoluted continuity like DC.
I agree with all but one of those things. Real deaths are ok, but they must stay dead for a minimum 10 years.
ReplyDelete