By Kevin Mahadeo
The journey began with pain, but ended up leading to a lot of joy for Nick Lowe.
While in 7th Grade, the recently promoted Marvel Senior Editor fell off his bike and broke his arm. The compound fracture led to a weeklong hospital stay, but during that period, Lowe's older brother Matt brought him a mysterious brown paper package. Inside held two comics: an issue of CLASSIC X-MEN and that month's most recent X-Men title.
"I read these X-Men books, and my mind was just blown," recalls Lowe. "I had no idea what was going on, and neither of those comics were what I would call the perfect X-Men stories, but something about the characters and powers and costumes and all the insanity that was going around completely hooked me. By the time I left the hospital, I convinced my mom to get me a subscription to X-MEN and UNCANNY X-MEN. That was my gateway drug that led me to comics."
From that point, Lowe began reading all sorts of titles, from older classics to modern day marvels. Eventually, as a student at the Catholic University of America, he took on an unpaid internship at Marvel, moving from Washington, D.C. to New York City for the summer. The gamble paid off as Lowe’s work ethic led to his immediate hire after graduation and now the one-time intern finds himself as Marvel's latest Senior Editor.
With his new position just beginning, we spoke with Lowe about his secret origins, his favorite landmarks from the road travelled and the Captain America audition that never happened.
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| Nick Lowe |
Marvel.com: Nick, from that initial internship, how'd you end up getting fulltime work at Marvel?
Nick Lowe: I was a general editorial intern, and even though they told me that my assignment was two days a week, I just started coming in every day and no one told me to go away. So, I ended up endearing myself to a couple editors, especially Nanci Dakesian and Axel Alonso. I sent in my resume when I knew I was going to graduate because Nanci had asked me to and she and Joe and Kelly Lamy hired me as an editorial assistant for Marvel Knights when I graduated. So I started work here two days after I graduated college.
Marvel.com: So, you're really a testament to hard work pays off in the end?
Nick Lowe: Well, annoyingness. One of the two. Persistence or the ability to be incredibly annoying. [Laughs] So, yeah. That's how I got started. I worked for Nanci and Joe [Quesada] at Marvel Knights for my first nine months and then I got moved over to the Ultimate office where I was an assistant for a couple years. I was working there starting with year two or three of the Ultimate books I would say—the end of ULTIMATES volume one and the beginning of volume two. And also, 1602 had just started when I started work here. Nanci was really great to me and let me do all kinds of things that I never thought I'd get to do. I was talking to Neil Gaiman on the phone my first week of the job. And Andy Kubert and Brian Bendis. These people who I was a huge fan of. So I've been really lucky. From the Ultimate office, I came to the X Office and I've been [there] ever since. Axel [Alonso] came in as Group Editor, now he's Editor in Chief and now they made me Senior Editor. Those are the Cliffnotes.
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| Nextwave |
Marvel.com: You know, you gave a rundown there and you've been so many places in the Marvel offices. It might be hard to choose, but are there any favorite stories that you've worked on?
Nick Lowe: My favorite book I ever edited, and this is a bit hard for me to say because I've loved so many, is NEXTWAVE. Warren Ellis pitched me and Joe Quesada on that. He came to me with the idea and we got Stuart [Immonen] on it. That was probably my favorite thing I've ever worked on here at Marvel and 12 of the best issues I've ever read. ETERNALS was a really great book and a really fun story. I was associate editor and became editor on ASTONISHING X-MEN with Joss [Whedon] and John [Cassaday] on it. I edited the last arc and a half on that and they are just so great to work [with]. When you get a fax of a handwritten ASTONISHING X-MEN script from Joss Whedon, that's a pretty cool day. His computer had broken down, so he wrote out the script by hand and found a fax machine and sent it in. That was a fun day to get that and then assign an intern to transcribe it. [Laughs]
Marvel.com: You know you just said "handwritten" and "fax machine." A few younger readers I'm sure are now wondering, "What? Fax machine? What are you talking about?"
Nick Lowe: Indeed. I'm sure he was listening to something out of a record on a Victrola as well. [Laughs] I've been here now for eight and a half years. Marvel was a great opportunity for me. I majored in acting in college and part of me thought I was going to do that, but I really ended up taking to this job and enjoying it and really thriving here. I've got to work on RUNAWAYS with Brian Vaughn. I've been really, really fortunate to work on some really great books and make some fun contributions up here.
Marvel.com: I did not know you majored in acting. Now that leads to me have to ask, did you demand an audition for "Captain America: The First Avenger?"
Nick Lowe: I used to go into Joe Q's office every day and perform Steve Rogers. [Laughs] No, I did not get to screen test. Sadly, I think that they had already picked Chris Evans for that. But I was hoping to challenge him to a leg wrestling contest to see who would get the part in the end. Then I saw
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| Astonishing X-Men |
how much he beefed up for the part and knew he'd beat me in that, too. But, let's be honest: a Nick Lowe Steve Rogers, so many people would be happy with that.
Marvel.com: Agreed. Speaking of crazy, looking back at your eight years at Marvel, what would you say is your craziest moment?
Nice Lowe: There's so many crazy moments. Some of the craziest times are at retreats. My favorite moments are when the creators are in town. I remember we were at the Marvel retreat where NEW AVENGERS was conceived and one of the people who was a key part of that was Mark Millar. I remember I went out for drink and hung out with Mark and Garth Ennis and ended up hearing the filthiest jokes and stories. Things like that are just a ton of fun. As far as editorially, the hardest things to edit and manage are crossovers. Those can be so nutty. Especially near the end of those things, it gets so crazy with the deadlines and artists and us scrambling on them. It used to be incredibly crazy.
Marvel.com: With the new job then, do you foresee things being less crazy and busy or do you think you're going to have to forego sleep completely?
Nick Lowe: It's not going to be a break in the work, that's the truth of it. A lot more meetings. But at the end of the day, those aren't bad things. At the end of the day, you're talking about what Spider-Man and Wolverine and the Hulk are going to do. Those aren't bad meetings. They're a lot of fun and interesting. I'm really excited to be stepping into the role of a Senior Editor in charge of the X-Men books. I've got an incredible staff that works with me and already help make me look good. And some new people are coming in who are going to help me look even better. We've got an incredible staff working on these books and I'm going to push them for ideas that I can then take credit for. The natural state of things. [Laughs]
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| Eternals |
Marvel.com: The last thing I wanted to ask is that, apparently, you used to play Ultimate Frisbee. How has your new job affected your career with that?
Nick Lowe: Oh, it completely wrecked it. I shuffled a lot of papers here in this job, and the paper cuts you get really affects your flicks, your hammer, all those things that are incredibly valuable. And all this time behind a desk has not helped my endurance on the Frisbee field, I'll tell you that much. I really turned in my Frisbee for a dodgeball for a couple years. And then I've turned that in for the gym. I'm a shadow of my Frisbee self. A shadow.
