The secret origin of Marvel Zombies
2007-03-22 14:33:13
In honor of tooday’s release of the Marvel Zombies hardcover, I thought I’d share my own inside-Marvel-editorial perspective on how this monster of a success story came to be.
Now, you’ll be able to see in the hardcover Robert Kirkman’s perspective on the beginnings—which I’m sure will prove a more fun read—and I don’t think we contradict anything here, but I think this provides an interesting look inside the Marvel offices, with a few details even the principle players aren’t aware of.
Marvel Zombies is a really unique book; one of my favorites that I’ve had the pleasure to work on. More than that, though, it was a book where every single piece of the puzzle fell into place and worked just right…and believe me, that did not seem like the way this book was going to work out…
The first credit for Marvel Zombies success belongs to Mark Millar.Mark, of course, conceived of the idea of a planet of zombified heroes for the first story in his and Greg Land’s run on Ultimate Fantastic Four. Greg—who’s a huge horror fan—went to town on it, and created some of the most vivid scenes of apocalyptic zombie destruction ever seen in the comics medium.
And Mark also had the idea to spin the Zombies off into their own book. He took the hook “Marvel Zombies” from an idea that, I believe, editor Axel Alonso was batting around—the phrase itself, of course, referring to readers who either only read Marvel comics, or read all Marvel comics, depending on context. Mark suggested to Joe Quesada that we launch the series hot on the heels of his and Greg’s UFF debut.
Mark actually had an idea of the creative team on the book, but the people he suggested, for one reason or another, didn’t work out (because they were working on other series, that kind of thing; I don’t want to name any names here because that seems improper—I don’t want to hurt any feelings or anything).
But even without a creative team, Joe loved the idea, turned to us—the Ultimate office—and had us submit paperwork on the series. When we’re getting ready to launch a new series, the powers-that-be at Marvel (people like publisher Dan Buckley, director of sales David Gabriel, and a few others) look at the costs of producing the book versus the number they think it’ll sell.
So when I turned in the paperwork, I included only one name as a member of the potential creative team—colorist June Chung. That’s not really common, to have a colorist in mind before a writer or artist, but I thought the sort of color palette June usually supplies over Jae Lee would work great in the world of the zombies…of course, June’s capable of other styles, plus she might not be a good fit with the artist, plus she might not want to do it—I just wanted to make sure we could afford her if we wanted her!
Next: there was only one right choice for writing and one for drawing this thing, but how did we figure that out? Plus…covers?
Madureira and the ultimates Sorry, I don't know where to write this. (First time in this blog) So I write it here.
I still don't understand why Madureira is going to draw the ultimates. I'm not saying he is a bad artist or something but the ultimates has a so different style from his art, that it's like a crime letting him draw this serie. Where is Alan Davis when he's needed?
Hitch come back, pleaseeeee!!!!
Posted by PSOLOUNO on 2006-08-09 15:06:11
wow didn't know
Posted by tarhaun on 2006-08-09 15:33:08
RE: Madureira and the ultimates psolouno, i couldnt agree with you more. not only is madureira the completely wrong choice in terms of style, he is always, always late! as if ultimate title dont have enough problems with this already. Whats wrong with hairsine, who did an awesome job on ultimate 6? or any number of artists who dont draw peoples wrists bigger than their hands, or their hands bigger than their heads. And someone teach the man to draw feet, he is as bad as liefeld... almost.
Im not saying that Joe Mad. is not terrifically suited to some projects (Runaways might be fun) but the Ultimate unviverse seems to have been grounded in realism and believeability.
If it aint broke dont fix it, but if its biggest flaw is it being perpetually late (issue 12 of ultimates is what-5 months late, minimum?) dont put a ridiculously slow artists on it, either.
Posted by jacetyle on 2006-08-10 10:26:46
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About this blog: Associate Editor John Barber gives the inside story on the Ultimate line of comics--plus whatever other comics John edits!
About the author: John Barber has been a web cartoonist, self-publisher, author, and now comic book editor. He lives in New York with his fiancee Alison.
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