Gotta Say I Disagree

Over on Robot 6, Kiel Phegley answers criticism for not pressing more on the question of royalties in his Cup O' Joe interview with Marvel's Joe Quesada.

Joe Quesada: Going pretty far back, in discussions about electronically/digitally distributed comics, our publisher Dan Buckley stated at several convention panels and in interviews that we would be paying incentives for creators of these books. We just didn't put out a press release about it, and I guess some folks just didn't catch it when he said these things. But there you go, welcome to the world of the Internet.

Kiel Phegley: To clarify the specifics of Marvel's plan a bit more, why did the royalty program take longer to get in place than the digital comics sales platforms?

Joe Quesada: Well, that's just the thing; it hasn't. Like all incentive programs, whether paper or electronic, sales are tabulated, math is done and then, eventually, checks go out. If you want specifics, okay I'll give you one: our first incentive checks for e-comics will be going out sometime right after San Diego Comic-Con. Announcing this, now maybe DC can put out a press release saying that they’re going to pay their incentives the week before San Diego. Cool, if they do that, then they’ll manage to be the first at something in the digital arena.

Phegley cited some fan reaction to the interview being negative about him even bothering to ask questions about the royalties. The idea being: imagine how much more negative reaction there'd be if he pressed with a few more questions. It would have been a waste of everyone's time.

Things I would have pressed on and wouldn't have thought were a waste of time:

1. Sure, Buckley said Marvel intended to pay "incentives". It was first said in reference to Marvel DCU that has been around for years...and still hasn't seen a dime paid out to creators. So, you know, the fact that he said Marvel would be paying incentives is about as meaningful as all of those black and white 1950s serials that said we'd have flying cars in the year 1980. When a statement that hasn't resulted in any action over a period of years is used as defense, it would be smart to politely press on that. Otherwise, you've wasted everyone's time fielding this poor excuse for an answer.
2. All due respect to Joe, but, well, that's just the thing: IT HAS. Marvel first started offering single issues via Comixology back in October 2009, but are PLANNING on paying their first incentive checks "sometime right after SDCC"? That's supposed to refute that their compensation plan has taken longer to figure out than offering their books for individual digital sale? Again, if you let that nonsense pass without a follow up, especially in light of all the "boy who cried wolf" claims about payments from Buckley that passed before, you're wasting everyone's time.

Phegley is a really good writer and, from all accounts I've heard, a great guy. I honestly think he'd be better off having not responded to complaints. Why? Because when tough questions aren't asked or bad answers aren't challenged on comic book news sites, I'm pretty sure the real reason is that freelancers have to fear professionals deciding they want to be interviewed by someone else from now on. 

Access is everything when you make your money covering comic books...and you'd be surprised how publishers and even some creators can be when deciding who to give it to. I know a writer who was pegged to do a running feature on a major comic book event and almost lost the job before it started because he had given the company's writer a negative review on one of his books months ago. 

I can't say it loudly enough: ACCESS IS EVERYTHING. And fans expecting high standards of journalism should stop looking for it from major comic book sites until less fans decide what sites they frequent based on how many exclusive interviews and previews a site gets. 

Joe Quesada Tweets Submission Tips

These are tweets from Twitter, folks. Start at the bottom of the page and work your way back up.

1. What form does that submission take and how long or short should it be? Therein lies your answer.about 2 hours ago from web
2. Put yourself in the position of the editor who is overworked and getting hundreds or subs.about 2 hours ago from web
3. If we like what we see, we'll ask you to show us the rest.about 2 hours ago from web
4. But even with that, keep it simple, 11-22 pages or so. We don't need six issues, we just need to see your best.about 2 hours ago from web
5. Artist and writers are coming together to show off their talents and printing their own mini comics. These make it much easier for Editors.about 2 hours ago from web
6. Brian Bendis is the master of this, produced his own stuff and worked it well. Got read and got in. Now he is king ;-)about 2 hours ago from web
7. Having something in comic form, an ashcan, what have you, is the easiest. Today with the global community, this is easier to do than beforeabout 2 hours ago from web
8. Now, all this said, sending in a writing submission like this is a very difficult way to get discovered. Having something in print is easierabout 2 hours ago from web
9. These don't have to be fleshed out but go a very long was as they show us just how creative and prolific you can be.about 2 hours ago from web
10. If you consider yourself someone who has great high concepts, you can also include several high concepts along with you initial pitches.about 2 hours ago from web
11. This will show us your range.about 2 hours ago from web
12. I'd recommend perhaps two or three samples like this. Pick a different character or team of characters. Add variety to the mix.about 2 hours ago from web
13. Then, give us a scene with panels, action and dialog so that we can get an idea of how you would handle scripting. About 3-5 pages of comicabout 2 hours ago from web
14. Follow this with a three-paragraph breakdown of the three acts in your story. If you can't do this rethink your story.about 2 hours ago from web
15. If you can't distill it down to one two sentences, then it's not going to work. Trust me, this is very tough to do, you'll be surprised.about 2 hours ago from web
16. Give us a one or two sentence pitch of your story. In other words, “The High Concept.”about 2 hours ago from web
17. Start by thinking of a 22 page, told in one story. This is much harder than you may think.about 2 hours ago from web
18. This is what our monthly writers have to do. Yes, they reinvent from time to time, but most often they're playing with the toys as they areabout 2 hours ago from web
19. This is what separates the men from the boys, women from girls. Work within the parameters, what can you do, can you make it interesting?about 3 hours ago from web
20. Pick a character, lets say Spidey, and show us a pitch for a Spidey story as he exists in current continuity and current cast.about 3 hours ago from web
21. If you get a gig at Marvel and steady work, then later we'll be interested in your higher concepts. But when breaking in, keep it simple.about 3 hours ago from web
22. What we want to see is how you handle our characters as they exist right now. Example: don't redefine Wolverine, just write Wolverine.about 3 hours ago from web
23. This is a waist of time. We don't want to see that from you at this stage in the game.about 3 hours ago from web
24. Too often writers want to send us an idea on how to reinvent or interpret an old character, or a concept for a big event.about 3 hours ago from web
25. In many cases it may never get read at all. My advice is the same as for artist, keep it short and sweet.about 3 hours ago from web
26. No matter how you look at it, a Brubaker script will always be at the top of the pile of stuff to read.about 3 hours ago from web
27. Editors are busy and have scripts that have to be published that take precedence over everything else, so your sub is going to have to wait.about 3 hours ago from web
28. Okay, now that that's out of the way - -about 3 hours ago from web
29. This is simply because a writer can produce more work in a given month than an artist can.about 3 hours ago from web
30. However, while it’s harder to break in as a writer, if and when you do, you have a better opportunity to make more money than an artist.about 3 hours ago from web
31. So, first and foremost, it's much harder for writers to get looked out. That''s the hard truth.about 3 hours ago from web
32. We're trying to get our house in order and come back with a better submissions system and hopefully be able to avoid backlog in the futureabout 3 hours ago from web
33. First let me make clear that because of a huge still unread stack of submissions, Marvel is currently not looking at new writer submissions.about 3 hours ago from web
34. I'm going to keep this as short as possible and pick it up on another day. Consider this installment #1about 3 hours ago from web
35. Okay kids it's time to give some tips for writers who want to break in. Get your pens and pads ready and call your pals, we're starting in 5about 3 hours ago from web

I've Been A Bit Of A Marvel Event Hater...

(image found at DeviantArt)

...but thinking about it lately, I've come to remember all the types of stories I wished that the super-hero comics would tell. We always settled for Elseworlds, What Ifs and plain ol' out-of-continuity mini-series to get our fix of that really complicated story idea that you knew would never happen in the regular books because it would be too difficult to coordinate and too big of a gamble for the publisher to take (in case readers thought it sucked).

I've been too caught up on holding editorial and creative teams to hyperbolic statements made in fluff interviews to sit back and really appreciate the balls it must take to ALMOST ALWAYS have some major changes happening to their fictional universe that has ripple effects (or more) through their entire catalog.

I, also, get stuck on the idea that they went in this direction instead of that one or maybe weren't quite as ballsy with the changes as I'd like to have seen. That kind of reaction is either testament to how well they've been pulling it off (that my major complaint is that they should have gone further), a bit of entitlement or both.

When I review books (which I'll get back to shortly, whether you want me to or not), I make a point of trying to step back and evaluate the execution as much or more than I evaluate what story direction they've chosen. I've kind of lost sight of that in the last few months.

That doesn't mean that the execution of the last few years of events has been flawless, mind you. Just that I think that a lot of fans forget that, at one time, they asked for this sort of cohesive storytelling to the fictional universes they read about and now try to tear it down because it went off in a direction different from what they would have preferred.

You have to take the good with the bad and, sometimes, just have to step back and realize that the next major change might bring along that story you've been waiting for them to tell for years.

Does Howard Stern Know He's A Marvel Villain?

I know that Joe Quesada goes on Howard fairly often...and Brian Michael Bendis is a big fan of the show. I just wonder if anyone has told him that he's shaping up to be the next major villain in Runaways, apparently.

Wish it wasn't true, because his appearances thus far are reading a bit 80s-hack-villain for me.

A Bit About Spoilers...

Last time I posted some spoilers from Mr. Anonymous, I caught some shit from a few people. Some understandable (I'm still sorry to Pedro, who apparently got the spoilers against his will via the RSS feed) and some less so (some of the hate posted at the Bendis boards, where they welcome Rich Johnston with open arms (and rightly so), despite his having done the spoiler thing many times).

Mr. Anonymous still hasn't given the go ahead and I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do when he does. Some have suggested I not run it at all. A friend or two has suggested I run it with wildcards to obscure the full reveal. And, of course, there are the rabid that just want the info NOW NOW NOW.

In advance of whatever decision I make, I wanted to reiterate a few things:

• Last go 'round, I received no correspondence from Marvel or anyone associated with them asking me to pull down the spoilers and stop posting anything further. The posting process went on over a nice chunk of time, so they obviously had plenty of time to generate and e-mail me a C&D, like "marvel_b0y" supposedly received. One could imply tacit approval of my actions from their failure to communicate any problem with the matter to me.
  
• As mentioned in an earlier comment of mine, Joe Quesada bellying up to the bar with Rich Johnston, who certainly has published spoilers regarding Marvel and DC items (like the Inferno bit this week).
• More of an addition to the first bullet than a separate reason: I explicitly stated in my previous blogs that I'd immediately cease publishing the spoilers if someone from Marvel (ANYONE) asked me to. I requested to be contacted if it was a problem. I assure you they have ways of contacting me. No one did.
  

Now, I'm not saying I'll definitely be posting anything. But, if I do, just remember the above bullets while you call me a douche around the 'net. ;)

Whither Joe Quesada

One thing I heard over the weekend (from fans and people covering the convention, not Marvel artists or writers) was speculation about why Joe Quesada didn't attend the convention.

None of it was of the type floated about Dan Didio a few weeks ago. Marvel is having great success under Joe, so why would there be rumors of him getting fired?

No, some were speculating that he might be considering passing on the mantle. He's said more than a few times, to my recollection, that this wasn't something he expected to do forever. There are a lot of advantages to stepping away during such a good time for the company. Not only do you leave on a high note, but you're letting the new head honcho start out without having to try to repair any damage done by possibly overstaying your welcome.

In all likelihood, Quesada probably just had personal reasons for skipping Heroes & Wizard World Chicago that have absolutely nothing to do with even considering stepping down. I just thought it was worth mentioning.

Quesada Still Saying Its Magic

From the Wizard World Philly coverage of the BND panel over on Newsarama:

Asked if the "missing time" between OMD and BND will also address what was going on with Spider-Man in other titles, Quesada said that the more detail that you go into, the more complicated things can become. As a result, the plan is to keep things as clean and as simple as they can.

If that doesn't reaffirm JMS's statements that Quesada wanted to fall back on "it's magic, we don't have to explain it", I don't know what does.

There continues to be inconsistency in their statements regarding the Spider-Man changes...inconsistencies that only get worse with each time they open their mouth to answer questions.

I think they've taken the worst approach possible in their attempts to have their cake and eat it, too.

Marvel decided they wanted to make some significant changes to the character. That's great. That's their right. Take it and run with it.

But when you make significant changes like this, you're going to invalidate some stuff that went before and piss off some fans. Accept that as the cost of doing business instead of trying to say everything happened (when it couldn't possibly) and that you didn't really change anything other than the wedding not happening (when, again, that isn't possible).

As long as they continue to try to make it be everything to everyone even when that flies in the face of logic, they're going to find that this continues to be thorn in their side. Just make what sense of it that you can...cutting out what really can't fit in continuity...and move on.

And, for God's sake, don't try to compare the unanswered Spidey questions to how things are done in LOST...

The Two Joe Quesada Questions

Since a few people want to know what they would have been, I'll share them here...despite the fact that I'm sure it will be anticlimactic, though.

Yes or No Question 1: Was Marvel behind the Marvel_b0y blog at any point in its existence?

Glaringly obvious question, no? But I didn't catch anyone asking it or hear anything about it. With all the accusations about it, Marvel hasn't seemed to address it at all. I know I posted a question about it on Marvel.com for the MySpace Cup of Joe. I don't think I was the only one. So, I feel asking this would have been at least a little confrontational to a guy who was running a fairly feel-good panel at the time.

Yes or No Question 2: Did you get a Screen Actors Guild card for your work in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back?

This is the beating of the dead horse. But the fact remains that he had a speaking role in a Hollywood release. Normally, that requires you either being in SAG or paying for SAG membership. That would put the crossing the line to appear on Colbert in a completely different light, regardless of whether he let his membership lapse. But, being that it had nothing to do with comics and wasn't a friendly question, I didn't feel like changing the mood of the whole panel.

Everyone seems to think that I'm enough of an attention whore to have no care about screwing up a panel for other attendees or to stalk people for a response. Not me. I made an attempt to put out feelers for the Joe questions that would get to someone in a position with Marvel that would give it a chance at happening in the right circumstances. Either the info didn't get to them or they had no interest whatsoever. And thats...ok. ;)

No Lunch? No Problem!

I have two questions I'd like to ask Joe Quesada. Two YES/NO questions.

I'll make a donation of $100 to Hero Initiative for each question answered. If both questions are answered, I'll double the donation...making it $400 donated to a great charity. The time and place of the questions is completely up to Marvel.

No One Remembers Second Place

...and, in this case, he doesn't even get to bus the tables so he can see the look on Joe Quesada's face.

I was bid-sniped in the last seconds (literally) by someone who played the eBay game better than I. My only hope is that I helped drive up the price of the charitable auction much more than it would have been without me there (meaning the other bidders wouldn't have bid as furiously, not that my name garnered a response).


Shame. I was going to be a polite and gracious lunch guest. Well...for the most part. The plus side in losing is that now I won't have to sell vital organs to cover the winning bid. ;)

Is There No One Charitable Out There?

Look, I'm all for getting a steal of a deal...but when it is for charity, I don't feel so good about it.

Less than a day of bidding left. A lunch with Quesada is still only $305? That's criminal.

I challenge people out there to make me pay more. Or even try to spare Joe from having lunch with me. Think about that: awkward! ;)

Update: There's someone competing with me now. Might be too rich for my blood at this point, but I'm glad Hero Initiative is going to get more money this way.

Confirmation That Jen Grunwald Is Marvel_b0y

Why is it that no one at Marvel appears willing to confess to and address the Marvel_b0y excessively shite-y viral marketing campaign?

Mr. Anonymous (no, Marvel didn't find out who he was and make him sleep with Namor) has found out that, for at least the Windows Live iteration, it definitely was Jen Grunwald. I contend that it was always her and done with the blessing of Bendis and others the whole time.

Ms. Grunwald is an admin at the Bendis boards. She'd definitely have had the power to idiotically reactivate and rename the Marvel_b0y account over on the Bendis boards. The horridly fake game of cat and mouse between her and Bendis the whole time clearly points to his being complicit in the whole deal. I've heard whispers of others at Marvel being involved in the process, but then they turned up on the MySpace viral campaign...so it might have just been crossed signals.

I'd really like to know why Marvel doesn't own up to their goof. Come clean and put it to rest. Someone should pose that question to Joe Quesada this week.

Heidi Says I Know Why She Stopped Talking Shit 'Bout The 'Rama

Heidi MacDonald popped off with a rumor back on 3/11/08:

§ Marvel EIC Joe Quesada’s popular feature Cup O’ Joe in which he takes on fan questions will be returning as a regular feature at MySpace:

Every week, Quesada will tackle questions posed directly by True Believers on the world’s most popular social network in this brand new weekly feature on MySpace Comic Books. Like a might Marvel team-up, the online community known for connecting legions of fans with the most exciting creators, projects, and events in the industry comes together with the leading comics publisher to present your chance to get inside the mind of one of comics’ most popular personalities.

Cup o’ Joe was long a regular feature at Newsarama, but word on the street has it that Marvel and the comics news giant had a falling out over a broken embargo.

I would have completely missed it, if not for Caleb blogging about it, pointing out how she got little bits wrong and didn't really back up the rumor much. She said, in posting on his blog, that she was confident in it and would follow up.

When she didn't follow-up, I posted to ask her about it, which led to the following exchange:

Kevin Huxford Says:
03/14/08 at 5:13 pm

Why no apparent effort made to contact the concerned parties on that Newsarama/Quesada bit?

Kevin Huxford Says:
03/20/08 at 1:48 pm

You posted over at Everyday is Like Wednesday:

You guys I stand by my rumor — and the emails I got afterwards provided even more substantiation. However since everyone seems SO interested in this it should be a fertile ground for follow-up.

No follow-up? Or did your sources all of a sudden seem less trustworthy?

The Beat Says:
03/20/08 at 2:04 pm

Kevin — give me a fucking break. You know full well what happened.

Kevin Huxford Says:
03/20/08 at 5:03 pm

No, Heidi…I don’t. You reported a rumor that you said had plenty of backup. Said you’d be delving into it more. Haven’t seen you cover it any further and was curious. How would I know why you didn’t cover a rumor that I didn’t believe had any truth to it?

I stand by that I don't know "full well" what happened. I did ask someone who would know "full well" that the rumor was BS to speak up on Brady's behalf. I did ask the most likely suspect of spreading that BS whether they passed it along as themselves or under one of their aliases.

So...does that imply that one of those two things are responsible for her not following up on it? Weird, you'd think if a more knowledgeable source came out and said the rumor was wrong, you'd print a retraction. If your source came panicking back to you asking you to cease talking about it, you'd think it might lead you to doubt them and...maybe...print a retraction. Especially since the figment of someone's imagination that you reported and stood behind mistakenly was picked up and spread across the internet.

Where's Dan Slott to question the journalistic integrity of bloggers when you need him?

Marvel, MySpace, & Newsarama

Saw that Joe Quesada is moving his weekly Q&A to MySpace.com. Fought the urge to comment when ignorant posters blamed his leaving Newsarama on my dust up with Guggenheim and Slott. But then people started claiming it was because Newsarama bashed One More Day and Brand New Day.

That's when I decided I had to say something.

People really need to get their facts together before just hurling conspiracy theories out there.

Joe stopped doing New Joe Fridays about 5-6 months before the announcement. That's pretty far before my MOSTLY civil debate with Guggenheim that's ending ruffled some feathers. That's pretty far before all the OMD negativity on Newsarama that was in no way the official opinion of Newsarama.

Yes, the roundtable that I participated in had a distinctly low opinion of One More Day. But the opinions of the Best Shots crew are not the opinions of Newsarama. That's always been made crystal clear. When Brandon Thomas came out as pro-OMD, he was accused of just trying to brown nose for a gig and then had it suggested that it was Newsarama trying to do damage control by spinning a positive view on the book.

So...was the official Newsarama opinion the one that came from reviewers like myself (giving my opinion for free) or an official regular column where there is some sort of contractual deal undoubtedly in place? Neither was. But people don't bother looking closely enough to see that.

What else might have Newsarama been blamed for? A poll about OMD where the fans overwhelmingly voted as having thought the event's resolution was shite? Please...

It is clear, however, that Slott cracked and seemed to start snapping at Newsarama, blaming it for much of the reaction to OMD that was present on the site.

NRAMA: You've said before, Spider-Man is one of the what, three books that you would kill to write monthly...did your devotion to the character waver at all when it was made clear the changes in the status quo of Spider-Man and his world that you would be writing?

DS: Wow. That's a pretty loaded way of putting it. I can see where you fall on some of these issues, Matt.

Slott went on a bit of a witch hunt after anyone who was posting an opinion that might negatively effect his Brand New Day arc before it hit the stands. He was all over Blog@Newsarama, criticizing what was clearly one of Newsarama's many OP/ED areas for not researching claims that were made by other sites in link blogs.

I highly doubt that Slott's attitude is evidence of how Marvel feels, though.

Joe Quesada and Marvel are always looking for the bigger better deal that puts their product out into the mainstream. Not everyone would agree that it is the best move at this point, not that we're all privy to exactly the deal. I mean...we haven't seen the first column yet. I'm not going to damn him for the decision when we haven't even seen a few columns worth of the new status quo (which, I guess, is ironic since I decided to drop BND before I saw an issue).

By the way: if you think that my kerfluffle with Guggenheim cost Newsarama NJF, why was it still intact after I called Brevoort a liar?

That's right. When the Civil War delays were announced a year and a half ago, Brevoort said that they were doing everything they could to give retailers ample warning. Retailers found out about the delay by Civil War not being on their invoice the Saturday before the books were supposed to arrive in store. I called him on it several times and pointed out how having the interests of the retailers as a top priority was obviously a lie when they let notification be put off so long in order to come off with a plan that made them hopefully look a little less inept.

I was just as much a contributing writer at Newsarama during the Brevoort discussion as I was in the Guggenheim debate. I actually behaved more like an ass in the Brevoort talk, with not even the slightest attempt at tact.

Let's recap:

1. Joe Quesada stopped doing NJF long before the completion of One More Day.
2. Many other editors were sporadically filling in for him, with several Fridays passing without a column long before One More Day.
3. Many Marvel books have been savaged by the Best Shots crew in the past (when they deserved it) with NJF humming along nicely.
   
4. My Guggenheim issue pales in comparison to my Brevoort argument, making it highly unlikely that the former killed NJF when the latter didn't phase it.

Marvel Entertainment has struck a strategic deal with Fox Newscorp. It has nothing to do with personality clashes or differences of opinion. It is clearly a business decision...as anyone with a brain would see.

More OMD Fallout? JMS Ends Marvel Exclusive

JMS has decided to end his exclusivity with Marvel Comics, effective on February 1st (but only announced publicly today via Newsarama.com).

Fans, of course, want to jump to assume that the One More Day fiasco (the end being largely re-written by Joe Quesada and editorial) was the straw that broke the exclusive back. I'm amongst those.

JMS tries to ward that idea off through this statement:

So I'm now in a comfortable place to opt out of exclusivity. Consequently, a few weeks ago, I contacted Joe Quesada and Dan Buckley to let them know that I would no longer be exclusive after the first of February, 2008. They were gracious and understanding and I have nothing but praise for both individuals. That Joe and I have disagreed over stuff from time to time, as will happen in any working relationship, that has no impact on how I perceive him as an editor and a stand-up guy. Stuff is just stuff; it has nothing to do with the person. Ditto and then some for Dan Buckley, who has always been an absolute mensch. They understood the importance of being able to grow by working in different universes, and have been completely supportive in this decision.

The timing seems odd. If it were just about finishing his commitment to Amazing Spider-Man, he could have ended it in January without a problem. January first would have been after the end of OMD shipped. But, instead, it ends after the Joe Quesada spin interviews over at CBR that JMS seemed to object so strongly to. The JMS view on what he was set to do with OMD is diametrically opposed to the view Quesada expressed. The following month, JMS is a free agent? Far too convenient to not have much of anything to do with each other.