Posts
Disney/Marvel, Word Balloon, Bernice Bonanza
I was as surprised as anyone else to hear about the sale of Marvel to Disney today, but I must say, I think it'll be a good thing. It gives Marvel Comics the same financial security as DC has, the latter being part of TimeWarner, while previously Marvel had to survive purely on the strength of its comics (and, admittedly, starting with Iron Man, its in-house movies). That's why, in the past, a marginal Marvel title would be cancelled long before a marginal DC title would. Now, when the immediate success of every single title isn't make or break, I expect we'll be seeing more experiments and more creative risks from people whose love of the medium meant they couldn't help themselves but to publish comics they knew would find only a small audience, even when finances were tight. I've already heard from a few people fearing for Marvel's creative independence, but Disney also own Pixar and Miramax, and from what Joe Q's been saying, this is a similar deal. I've also heard specific worries about whether this will be the end for gay characters at Marvel, but I really very much doubt it. (Again: Miramax?) If Wiccan and Hulkling suddenly go back into the closet, I'll be the first out of the door. I promise you. If the gay characters vanish or go silent about their sexuality, I'm gone. But I'm betting it won't happen. (And let's give them a couple of months after the deal is done to see Wiccan and Hulkling and co. appearing where they naturally would, being who they naturally are, okay? I mean, don't start heckling me if Daken feels like kissing a girl that week.)
Hold me to the above. But hold your horses. And watch for your favourite edge-of-being-cancelled title to keep going a while longer now. Hmm, is it time for me to pitch that Defenders ongoing again?
Talking of comics, I did a long interview with John Siuntres of the Word Balloon podcast, which you can hear here, where we talk about all my Marvel projects, the TV stuff, everything, really. A pleasure to chat with him.
Finally, because it's been a long time coming, I want to make a fuss about this. Bernice Summerfield: The Inside Story is finally out! Written by Simon Guerrier, it's a genuinely enormous book, the history of my character in all her media, and, in the typical Big Finish style, with none of the blood washed out of the carpet. So many of the creative people involved in Benny's history have gone on to bigger things that this is serious stuff for anyone who wants to look into the engine of all that's happened in our corner of the media in the last decade and a bit. My copy came with nice messages from Simon and Lisa Bowerman, who plays Benny, and yours can too (in that they'll sign it) if you order direct. Which can be done here, and if you want a preview, a couple of pages of the section covering the original Human Nature (when it was a Doctor Who novel) are available online here. And for those of you in search of icons and avatars, the wonderful Red Scharlach has a range of Bernice designs to choose from here.
So, exciting times all round. And I really must get back to finishing my holiday now. Until next time, Cheerio.
Hold me to the above. But hold your horses. And watch for your favourite edge-of-being-cancelled title to keep going a while longer now. Hmm, is it time for me to pitch that Defenders ongoing again?
Talking of comics, I did a long interview with John Siuntres of the Word Balloon podcast, which you can hear here, where we talk about all my Marvel projects, the TV stuff, everything, really. A pleasure to chat with him.
Finally, because it's been a long time coming, I want to make a fuss about this. Bernice Summerfield: The Inside Story is finally out! Written by Simon Guerrier, it's a genuinely enormous book, the history of my character in all her media, and, in the typical Big Finish style, with none of the blood washed out of the carpet. So many of the creative people involved in Benny's history have gone on to bigger things that this is serious stuff for anyone who wants to look into the engine of all that's happened in our corner of the media in the last decade and a bit. My copy came with nice messages from Simon and Lisa Bowerman, who plays Benny, and yours can too (in that they'll sign it) if you order direct. Which can be done here, and if you want a preview, a couple of pages of the section covering the original Human Nature (when it was a Doctor Who novel) are available online here. And for those of you in search of icons and avatars, the wonderful Red Scharlach has a range of Bernice designs to choose from here.
So, exciting times all round. And I really must get back to finishing my holiday now. Until next time, Cheerio.
Labels:
Bernice Summerfield,
Comics,
Disney,
Doctor Who,
Marvel,
Word Balloon
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I can't understand the sense in this - cool Marvel being swallowed up by corporate kiddy cartoon Disney?
More concerning however are the figures involved - Marvel made over $650bn last year and employs 300 or so, while Disney made a fraction of that and employs thousands.
There's something very wrong in that. Marvel should have been buying Disney.
I think you can be hopeful about the deal, but your initial FB comments about it being "Great" may have been a tad too optimistic.
As distasteful as the following terms are to me, there's a reason that the terms "Mauschwitz" and "Duckhau" are bandied about by many in the industry when referring to Disney.
Marvel 2008
revenue: $676.18 million
net income: $205.53 million
Disney
revenue: $37.843 billion
net income: $4.427 billion
Note million vs. billions.
Hope you´re right Paul.
The pessimistic side of me expects to see Princess She-Hulk hitting the shelves after Christmas.
Regarding Wiccan, Karma, Anole et al, I do hope they survive. It´s been the most positive time for gay comics readers in recent years and this comes like a great big smack in the head. Not in a good way.
As for creativity, I do hope you can continue writing for them in a vein similar to that up to the present. I am worried about it all degenerating into lines solely aimed at young children.
Yes this is time for you to pitch a Defenders ongoing again. Yes, yes, a million times yes.
Christian, I refer you to Steven further down. Scott: but people say all sorts of things about all sorts of things, don't they? And you're right, that is distasteful. Dyl: yes, as I said in the blog, that would all be bad, but not going to happen. Hoot: but I always think that. And Mr. Furious, if you're listening: as an old friend of the blog, if you reposted your comment without the link, but with the gist of your position, I'd print it: I just felt that taking the debate over to your blog was a little against the rules.
Oh gosh how embarrassing. I can't count or read figures. :/
I still don't feel comfortable with the whole thing though. Disney own so many other characters and properties - they've done nothing to guide any serious international re-emergence of the Muppets for instance - I can't see how this can be a good thing long-term.
To me it feels like McDonald's buying the rights to Fish & Chips - it just feels pointless, possibly damaging to the fish and chips and generally just wrong.
I'm happy to be proved wrong though...
Paul, I share you sentiment towards the deal. In the long run I think it will be a great thing for Marvel. However, I'm not looking forward to the useless Disney variant covers that are surely to come.
As far as a Defenders title. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE pitch that idea again. Before reading CB&MI13, I never gave the Marvel UK characters a second thought. Now I consider it one of the best series I've ever read. I would love to see what you would do with all the great characters in the Defenders gallery.
Although, I would be disappointed if your lineup didn't include Valkyrie, Nighthawk, Hellcat, and Gargoyle.
Marvel & Disney Face Off
Namar Vs The Little Mermaid. And don't tell me she hasn't had it coming for some time:)
Christian: that's because they only owned the Muppets for about a year, and don't now. Chad: those are my favourite Defenders too.
Paul,
Have found this link to a video which gives a fair bit of insightful comments about the Disney and Marvel stuff.
Though you and your readers may find it of interest.
http://www.newsy.com/videos/spidey_meets_mickey
Hi Paul,
You really SHOULD pitch Defenders again. And if this takeover does result in more of Marvel's second tier titles surviving for longer then that really would be a good thing.
You look over at DC. With Warners' financial backing books like Blue Beetle were able to be kept running for several years while making sales notably less than the average Marvel ongoing book which has been axed.
When you look back over recent years Marvel have had to cancel a LOT of good ongoing titles. Books like Captain Britain & MI13, Runaways, eXiles, War Machine, Agents of Atlas and the like are great titles, but under Marvel's previous situation there really has been a lot of pressure on them to be profitable.
And quickly. The latest version of eXiles was axed on its 3rd issue.
With Disney's financial backing hopefully this situation will change, and Marvel will be able once more to be a bit more adventurous with there titles.
I know there are always going to be people concerned with the idea of Disney interfering on a creative level. But don't forget about their other concerns - Pixar, Mirrormax, ABC. Have Disney forced any of these to dramatically change their contact?
At the end of the day Disney aren't daft. Why try to change something which works well? They're not likely to do anything crazy to Marvel which would jeopardize the company making money.
Yes, Disney is generally seen as being very 'Kiddie' but that's the exact kind of reason why they've bought Marvel. It's tough to try and market mainstream Disney to teenage boys, and the general comics fanboy demographic. Marvel comics on the other hand...
As a long-time Defenders fan, Paul, I think it would be fantastic to see an ongoing title of Marvel's favourite non-team penned by your good self.
For heaven's sake, yes! Pitch, you fool! :)
Indeed, Mr. Sword, that's how I see it. And Jez, it was kind of an idle thought. Let's see how I feel about it down the line.
My main concern about Disney taking over Marvel is the fact that a very big corporation has now got bigger, and ownership of the media is becoming even more concentrated.
Also, I still have not forgiven the Mouse for what it did to The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The way that they surgically removed all of Douglas Adams from the finished product.
Anyway, what you said about Marvel now having the financial muscle to be more creative is a silver lining. The Marvel equivalent of DC Vertigo perhaps.
You mean that Hitch-Hiker's movie that Adams wrote and entirely approved before he died? Sorry, but I've seen so much rubbish about that. And I really like the movie.
Yes, it is a fun movie, but not knowing the details of the production, I wonder how much the finished product resembled the project Douglas Adams was working on before his untimely death. Sorry about going so badly of topic.
I understand that he'd entirely completed the script and that's what they filmed, so it's not like anyone 'interfered' with anything.