cool
u guys better get to work

Posted by tarhaun on 2006-08-18 22:52:45
Cough
Um, okay, so they get to be editors while we watch...heh, this would only entertain if we the fans got to do the job.

Posted by Bearpod91 on 2006-08-19 00:58:46
First response:Creative Teams
So my titles are DD, Hulk and Ghost Rider. I have given this all a lot of thought so I’m going to have to post a few long replies to this thread. My first post is going to deal with the basics - creative teams. I am going to concentrate on writers and pencillers as I will end up writing a novel here if I getting into picking inkers, colourists, letters etc. and my explaining each choice (in other words: I don’t have a clue about such things).

DAREDEVIL - Keep the creative team. They are doing an amazing job, picking up the baton from the acclaimed Bendis/ Maleev run and managing to actually improve on what came before.

HULK - Greg Pak has been a revelation, he seems to really "get" what elements of the character to stress (his brute strength and cunning) and which to de-emphasise (his complicated continuity of his mental state and supporting cast) so I would definitely keep him on. Lopresti is an artist whose career I’ve casually followed since he was a regular contributor to What The!? in the early 90s, and though his work has come on in leaps and bounds recently I am not convinced that he is really strong enough yet to anchor such an important book, which I think needs a very solid creative team to reaffirm its status as one of Marvel's top titles.

So I might make a change in artists. I am going to presume that this simulation is not totally hypothetical and so my picks have to be a little bit realistic - otherwise I would pick Carlos Pacheco/Ed McGuinness/Frank Frazetta/Jack Kirby/Andy Warhol or Leo Da Vinci (though the last one is notoriously bad with deadlines, so Id have to try and get Michelangelo on permanent fill-ins).

Anyway, realistically speaking, my top choice would be CARY NORD, an artist who has been consistently knocking the ball out of the park with his Conan work. I am of course presuming here that I could lure him away from Dark Horse - the fact that I couldn’t find any mention online of him being exclusive to the company suggests at least that it is possible.

GHOST RIDER - I would probably keep the creative team, though my reasoning for this is not obvious so you will have to bear with me. A lot depends here on what stage the book is at as I come in as editor. Are we in the exact present with just the first issue out? or are we well into the run?

The art team is pretty impossible to fault - having Tex and Saltares on GR is like having Simonson on Thor or Perez on Avengers - they are most people's pick as the definitive artists for the character. However I have serious reservations about the writer, Daniel Way, whose work I have not been overly impressed with so far.

However if the book is still very new, I think that I would be doing more damage than good by removing him, so I would give him a chance and have him stay on to at least finish his first arc. That said, if the book is new (by which I mean the first 4 issues or so) 50,000 sales is not a good sign. Though I’m not sure if such comparisons are kosher in this simulation, according to ICV2's sales estimates Ennis's last GR miniseries was selling around 55, 000 copies at its last issue (#6). I would have expected an ongoing series, especially one with this classic art team and the movie tie -in, to sell much stronger out of the gate.

However, if we are in the second scenario and the book is reasonably well into the run, then my decision is made for me - 50, 000 sales seems to me to be a very reasonable number to have levelled off to, placing the title in the early 40s in the top 100 comics sold according to current estimates. I would watch out for the bad tendencies which put me off Way's work in the past, and discuss them with him if I noticed them in his plots, but in this scenario (and provided the fan reaction to his work has not been overwhelmingly negative) the guy would deserves credit for finding a large and steady audience for his take on a character and so his position on the title would be secure for the time being.

So pretty boring really, just one change. I do have tons of ideas for alternate creative teams; I just don’t think that new editors need to go changing everything just to make an impression, especially when their titles are reasonably successful as these titles are. Hopefully Tom will give me good reason to change the creative teams on each book over the next two weeks so I can mix things up a little.

While 50,000 sales is a good base, I think the sky is the limit as far as the potential of these books are concerned, so my next post will explore a few ideas for how we might start to bring that about.


Posted by hughsheridan on 2006-08-19 07:18:29
watch out for that leo character...
I heard that DC fired him for spending all of his art supplies budget on wood and cloth, to build some sort of flying machine he designed.

Posted by phdecontro1 on 2006-08-19 23:24:58
why not have...
"Writer for a week" as the next contest?
Being a writer, I'm slightly biased....Only slightly though. :p

Alternatively: BRING BACK THE THREADED WEB.

Posted by TheDeacon on 2006-08-20 01:58:33
Seconded!
I would love to have a crack at a writing contest. I suggest a format where we have to write a five page script that has a marvel character doing something completely bizarre (even for a superhero), with the goal of making it seem plausible and appropriate. Then Mr. Brevoort could uncap his gold-plated red pen (I'm just guessing that's what he uses) and tell us what we did wrong. :)

Posted by Hyenadoc on 2006-08-20 02:26:37
Response to phdecontro1
Phdecontro1 I had not heard those nasty rumours about Leonardo. If I had I probably wouldve name dropped a different renaissance artist to to show off the breadth of my expertise in art history - Donatello, Raphael, Bebop and even Rocksteady were all possibilties I also considered.

Be warned part two is coming up - hopefully Marvel's servers can handle the bandwith ...


Posted by hughsheridan on 2006-08-20 08:57:26
2. Packaging
Okay so I dealt with the creative teams in the last post. Though their work is obviously the most important part of the product and most of my efforts would and should be devoted to ensuring that it is realised in the best manner possible, an Editor also has other responsibilities. Two areas where I have loads of ideas and where the editor has a major role are the packaging and marketing of each comic. This post will cover my ideas about the packaging - editorial pages and the covers.

One Disclaimer: many of my proposed changes entail more work for editors. Though I understand that the in real life, Tom and his colleagues are already hugely overworked (how many titles do you edit Tom, twenty or so?) , in this simulation I have only three titles so I am assuming I have a bit of leeway in this department.

So - first off - editorial material, which for Marvel comics mostly means letter pages. They may seem like an obscure part of any comic, an afterthought really that few notice enough to pass comment on, but I think that editorial content like letters pages have much more potential in them than Marvel is currently exploiting, so updating their format would be one of my first moves.

I think that the example given by Powers and Walking Dead are illustrative of how, if done right, good editorial content can be a definite asset to any comic. I know that with those series many people buy the individual issues rather than "wait for the trade" because of the quality of such material. Marvel can’t replicate their success exactly because of restrictions on tone and space, so I think a different approach is called for to maximise their potential.

As it is at present, Marvel is to be commended for resurrecting the letter column, but I think that the company has been blindly nostalgic and failed to acknowledge that in the internet age their traditional function has become obsolete. They used to be the one of the only places where readers could go and read other fans discussing the comics - but today with the ubiquity of message boards this is no longer true.

I change the nature of these pages completely, trying to make them into "bonus material" features. Text pieces (preferably written by the series writer) , design sketches, character/creator profiles, interviews and previews of upcoming content are all the type of behind the scenes material I would try and put in here on a rotating basis. I would still feature letters - but borrowing a page from the Mort Weisinger playbook I would condense them into a "Bits of Legionnaire Business" type column where letter writers are named and their main points addressed. I would also post a web address on the page to an appropriate place on marvel.com where readers can go and discuss each comic, which might go some way to placate those fans who will miss the old forum format.

Also, (if allowed) I would hijack any other open marvel editorial space that is free and expand such features to two pages. I am talking here about house ads and items such as (the long dead) "Bullpen Bulletins" or the "Marvel Heroes Hotspot" page I’ve noticed recently in some of Tom's books. While such pages can have value and are loved by some fans, I would argue strongly that they are a waste of resources as most readers these days buy multiple comics which feature them, which means they probably ignore the content at least half the time because they have seen it before.

However I acknowledge the limitations here - two pages for such content is probably wildly unrealistic, and also if the writer wants to use the space for story pages then that would obviously take precedence.

Nevertheless, when they do appear I would endeavour to make sure these new "letters pages" would have the maximum inherent value for the reader with, hopefully, exclusive and unique material. I would try and avoid the temptation to turn them into one big hype box at all costs.

The other part important part of packaging is the covers. Basically I don’t have any ideas to reinvent the wheel here - striking non-generic images which reflect the interior story are what I would prefer to see, and I would institute a policy of reviewing the design and progress of the cover with the artist (if such a policy doesn’t exist already).

Going through each title's covers individually I would stick generally with current practices. Michael Lark is doing a great job with Daredevil, #84's "Who Killed Foggy" cover was a particular stand out, though I would try and get him to avoid doing the standard DD poses as he did with the rain soaked pose on #83's cover.

On Hulk, Ladronn's work has been amazing, his version of the character is so powerful I would both keep him on and try and convince him to contribute interiors for one-shot story or even explore his doing a special project (a miniseries for instance) with the character.

On Ghost Rider, Tex's covers are typically striking and evocative, and are definite keepers. I would try to exploit them fully by getting approval for a glow-in-the-dark cover, if possible on the October (for Halloween and the movie release) issue. I am usually not a fan of gimmick covers, but I can remember loving the 1990s Tex glow-in-the-dark cover, which I seem to remember was also a great sales success, so why not repeat it?

Man, this is turning out to be much longer than I intended. My apologies for going on at length I don’t plan on doing this every day I just want to set up all my ideas before Tom starts throwing curve balls at us and we get preoccupied with problem solving. I hope to write one more long post which will cover some ideas for marketing my books, which hopefully I’ll have up tomorrow.

Thanks for reading this far in if you made it!

Hugh
hughsheridan@gmail.com

Posted by hughsheridan on 2006-08-20 09:01:39
Lark on Covers
Has Lark done or is doing any of the DD covers? Also Cary Nord was an inspired choice. I would love it if he were doing anything at Marvel.

Posted by jkarguth on 2006-08-20 12:27:00
Its not Lark
Doh! jkarguth you are right.

The covers I was referring to are by Tommy Lee Edwards. Looking at them now it seems obvious that they are not Lark's work, especuially when you compare them with his Gotham Central work.

It looks like Marvel has been using different artists on the DD covers recently, with Lee Bermejo being the current incumbent.

In this scenario I would try and hire someone permanent Bermejo's old studio mate TRAVIS CHAREST would be my top choice. He is probably one of the most talented artists in comics though he may be unavilable/exclusive to Les Humanoids.

If Tom thinks that Charest is unrealistic I would go with the more obvious choice of DAVE JOHNSON or BRIAN STELFREEZE, two perennial cover artists who get a lot of work for a simple reason - they are damn good at it.

Hugh

Posted by hughsheridan on 2006-08-20 13:09:23
Charest is doing Star Wars covers for Dark Horse, so at least he's not exclusive.

Also, have to agree about Aaron Lopresti--I think his greatest strength is that he has a style you could put on a fill-in arc on half of Marvel's books and he'd manage to make it fit in just right. Less sure as having him as a regular artist.

Posted by NielsVanEekelen on 2006-08-20 17:20:09
Tough ones Tom
Ok you've given me a tough batch of books. And because this is the first time ive been able to access the internet, I'm going to do have to this on the top of my head.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: Great book, great creative team, great covers. I think the big issue with this book is accessibility. If I'm not mistaken, we are still covering events from the first arc of the book and I really think we need a fresh start. Big bold storyline that changes a status quo, but still accessible for new fans. Steve' covers really do wonders for this book, so lets make sure Mike Perkins is still around to switch off story arcs with him.

IRON MAN: a pair of good writers, an ok artist, and a solid cover artist. Truth be told I have NOT been following the book, so I'm not sure what Iron man status quo is, but I have been flipping through it and I have to say, Zircher has got to go. He has, in my opinion, taken a step back from his work on Cable/ Deadpool and needs to be replaced. I would have two alternating artist, one Chris Weston (Ministry of Space, FF First Family) and the other: Jamie Raiz (Transformers, Tokyo Storm Rising). Both have similar styles, and both can knock the tech stuff out of the park. If this book is about a guy with a suit of armor that can hold back an army, lets make sure two or three army's are thrown at him at a time. I'll encourage Dan and Charlie to think "bigger" with their stories, all the while moving lower key sub-plots forward. As for the cover artist...Adi is a brilliant artist but I think his latest round of covers have been pretty stale. Very stiff poses, nothing striking at the reader. My choice if at all possible: Geof Darrow. Let the guy who designed the Matrix go wild on covers like these.

EXILES:...Sigh. A book that completely disinterests me because it is absolutley mired in continuity. To be fair I have not read this book and for all I know, its the next Watchmen. But seriously, try to sum up the high concept: mutants from different times jump from one alternate dimension to another...I'm already getting a headache.

I say we Let Tony and Paul do one big giganto story; let them tie up loose ends from the book and seal up evrything with a nice little bow. Should give a nice bump in sales, especially with all the possible guest stars

Ultimatley, I want to relaunch the book with a new creative team and i want to let them go wild. Since we have a coupleof month before Tony and Paul split, I'm goingto hold off on a decision till tomorow to who I want steeering this ship.

Marketing: Myspace and Marvel.com are in my opinion not utilized enough by this company. We need to start pointing our fans to these spots and encourage them (by way of the new installed 'No prize") to spread these links through word of mouth First issues of these newly improved titles should go up on both these sites within two weeks time, so that we can get the fans in the store to begin pre-ordering the second issues.

all for now, I'll think up some more as it comes to me

Posted by SteveQ on 2006-08-20 18:35:20
A follow up
Ok, I've thought it over and I realize that revamping a book that caters to long time X fans might lead to some fan uproar. So How do I placate the hard core fans, and get some new ones through the door, all the while keeping the book accessible?

Simple. Bring back the old favorites.

The new Exiles book will feature some of the mutants who have lost their powers because of Wanda. Without their powers, they don't quite belong with mutants, nor do they belong with humans. Hence the name: Exiles.

Ultimately we will gather them together by way of one mutant offering them something special, the chance to belong. This disparate cast of former x-men heavy's :Jubilee, Chamber etc., will be forced to work together if they want to belong, but at what cost? what does this mutant puppet master want?

Thats just the idea off the top of my head. Obviously we are going to solicit pitches from creators far more talented than I, and maybe they can find the hook that wil make this concept work.

Whoever is on the book, I want Kaare Andrews on covers.

Posted by SteveQ on 2006-08-20 19:35:56
3. Marketing
Okay Marketing. This is going to be a long one I’m afraid…

First off: advertising. I am not sure if Marvel has any budget per se for advertising their individual series. I think I can remember seeing Marvel ads in places like CSN and Wizard, though I may be mistaken in this. Anyway if there is a marketing budget for each title I would not spend it there – instead I would try and get free coverage from the comic media by providing them with access and news items.

I would then focus what ad spend I have on the internet your cash can go a little bit further. I would try and get ads on non –comic websites – ones covering video games, movies and other entertainment products that are at a similar audience. Aint it Cool News is probably the best example of the type of thing I mean, though that site itself may be too pricey these days.

These ads would feature a striking image and minimum text (I go into more specifics further down) and also feature the comic shop locator number. When clicked the ads would open a new window with a series specific page on Marvel.com, which would feature a brief synopsis of what the book is about and links to material like character profiles, and a sample issue. I am impressed by Marvel’s “dotcomics” format and would love to use it here, though I would remove the registration requirement which I think turns off the casual browsers we’d trying to attract with this.

As I said earlier I would try and get at the traditional comic buying audience by getting free or near free coverage from the comics media. Besides providing them with access and stories another way of doing this is to make sure that review copies of comics get out to prominent comic book reviewers at sites such as the Fourthrail, AICN comics and the X- Axis.

Let me get a bit more specific with ideas for marketing each book. With “Daredevil” I think the main selling point of this title is its high quality – it has had a long run where it has been consistently excellent, as good if not better as it has ever been in my opinion, and I would try and exploit that more by getting the word out to a broader audience. Generally speaking, the idea here would be to make praise of the series so universal that any halfway decent comic book collector would feel that they HAVE to be following the series.

The internet ads would feature a few short review quotes and star ratings. And if we could find a line in a review that compares the current creative team favourably with Frank Miller then I would definitely include it, both because of Miller’s strong connection with the character and his current high profile both in and outside the industry.

I think this book in particular has enormous mainstream appeal so I would also send out review copies widely to as many mainstream outlets as possible in the hopes that something like Entertainment Weekly might run a review, which might bring enormous benefits.

With “Ghost Rider’’ the movie is obviously a great marketing opportunity, though I am assuming that large scale giveaways of comics at cinemas on release weekend is a prohibitively expensive. However having good GR trades of the opening arc of the new book (and perhaps one featuring the highlights of the 90s series) available at bookstores as the movie opens would obviously be crucial and Im sure something you are already doing.

I would also try and get ads on movie and horror specific websites and make sure that the ads: 1. feature a typically striking and dynamic Tex GR pic and 2: make it clear that it is the monthly comic that is being advertised and not the movie.

Finally: a longshot. I would get a copy of the first trade out to Nic Cage with a little note attached saying that if he likes the series it would mean a lot to us if he could mention it in interviews. I imagine that their might be some resistance to this idea from the Marvel Studios side of the business as it could be perceived as pestering the star, but the guy is a comic fan and the potential rewards of a mention on something like the Tonight Show are pretty massive.

Of all the three character whose books I am mock editing, the Hulk clearly has the highest mainstream popularity and awareness – basically everyone knows who the character is and most have a fondness for the concept. This gives us the opportunity to generate some coverage from the mainstream press provided we have the right hook for a good news story. I would talk to my writer, Greg Pak, and look through his plans for some aspect that might be spinned into an attractive mainstream headline which plays on the popular perceptions of the character.

Just off the top of my head I can think of two examples of headline which might have appeal to mainstream publications: “THE HULK SENT TO ANGER MANAGEMENT CLASSES” and the “THE HULK GOES TO IRAQ”. However these are just examples - the first one is pretty goofy, and the second would be controversial and incredibly hard to pull off successfully, but hopefully they illustrate the type of thing I mean. Anyway I would not direct Pak to write a storyline around a headline – the story would have to come first.

Getting away from the specific comic books I would also publicise my line of comics by exploiting two relatively new internet innovations – video blogs and “alternate reality games”.

Video Blogs: I would try and create a regular video blog from the Marvel offices perhaps updating it every two weeks or so. Marvel has produced internet video promotional material in the past – Im thinking of the Ultimate X-Men: Weapon X and Civil War trailers, but both of those seemed over produced to me – they were trying to hard to be slick, ultra-serious movie trailer like pieces and neither really worked (for me at least). I think a much more low-tech, casual approach is needed, an approach which takes inspiration from Peter Jackson’s King Kong diaries and Bryan Singers “Bryan’s Blogs”

Obviously unlike like those movie productions Marvel does not have as much glamour (or even physical activity!) to showcase, but I think that with a little humour and imagination, five minutes or so every fortnight could easily be filled up with entertaining material which would also increase the awareness and anticipation of our products. Interviews, previews and Robot Chicken like sketch material (though it would probably have to be even cheaper!) are all possibilities for this.

Finally I would try and set up an “alternate reality game” featuring Marvel characters. This is something I only learned about recently from reading about “The Lost Experience” (check out the Wikipedia entry -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Experience -on it at for a full low-down) and I have to say I was very impressed by the concept – a guerrilla marketing campaign that increases the consumer’s commitment to your product the material by creating a extra level of entertainment value.

The way I would go about this is simple. First off I would hire a writer/s to help me come with a background storyline – it would have lots of twists and to involve plenty of mystery elements – clandestine organisations, secret agendas, hidden codes etc, though also be different enough from the Lost Experience so as not to get unwanted legal attention – we are nicking the format here, not the story. Setting it in the espionage world and involving Nick Fury as the central character would make sense to me, especially given his current “underground status”.

The whole thing could be done relatively inexpensively - we would set up fake websites (Fury’s blog for instance) and plant clues around the net and the comics (on a poster in the background of panel, or a fake ad). The game would be teased out over months - slowly leading up a winding path that would culminate a major storyline in one of my comics or the launch a new series.

So that’s it! those are my ideas for now. Once again sorry about the length, I just wanted to get them all out there at the beginning.

Hugh Sheridan
hughsheridan@gmail.com

Posted by hughsheridan on 2006-08-21 07:34:51
copyediting
One last thing - I would get someone else to copyedit all my books. Just read through my last post and its clear that that is one "editing" skill I dont have.

Hugh


Posted by hughsheridan on 2006-08-21 07:56:45
Alternate Reality Game
Hey Hugh - check out the Temple of Atlas blog here @ Marvel.com. The mysterious Mr. Lao is running a game on this site right now!

Great stuff...keep it up!

Posted by kuyu001 on 2006-08-21 10:58:48
sounds interesting kuyu001

Thanks for the tip kuyu001. Ill definitely check it out!

Hugh

Posted by hughsheridan on 2006-08-21 14:02:43