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Stephen Robinson
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Posted: 07 February 2010 at 12:38pm | IP Logged | 1  

It happened to occur to me that this marks Quesada's 10th year as Editor in Chief of Marvel.

What are some thoughts from the forum about what has occurred at Marvel over the past decade? I confess to being biased in that I believe Quesada pursued "big name" talent (Hollywood writers) at the expense of some of the finest talents in the field -- JB being one of them. The result being late books and a rock-star mentality that did not seem to have learned anything from the last time the singers were elevated over the song (the speculator boom).

That said, his tenure is the longest of anyone since Lee. Shooter managed 9 years and although we know the backstage dramas related to his years as EIC, the results at least were impressive (JB's FF, Simonson's Thor, Miller's DD, and the X-Men becoming the biggest book in the planet).

To survive at the top of ten years, there must be some positives that I'm missing. I don't mean this in snarky way. I'm actually curious from those who might be in a better position to articulate that POV.

After all, the 70s were tough for Marvel after Lee and Kirby left (subtly in the former case and overtly in the latter). I'm not sure how much of that had to do with the EICs at the time. There was a resurgence under Shooter and then with DeFalco, a wave that ended with the speculator boom and bust.

So, after ten years of Quesada, what comes next?
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John Byrne
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Posted: 07 February 2010 at 12:41pm | IP Logged | 2  

It happened to occur to me that this marks Quesada's 10th year as Editor in Chief of Marvel.

••

Hopefully, that will be the most depressing thing I will have to read this year.

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Paulo Pereira
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Posted: 07 February 2010 at 12:41pm | IP Logged | 3  


 QUOTE:
So, after ten years of Quesada, what comes next?

More Quesada, unfortunately.
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Michael Todd
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Posted: 07 February 2010 at 12:54pm | IP Logged | 4  

Sadly to me the "Quesada-Age" would more fittingly be called Marvel's Dark-Age.
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Kevin Brown
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Posted: 07 February 2010 at 1:16pm | IP Logged | 5  

Quesada Age....  The decade in which I stopped buying Marvel Comics entirely.
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Michael Arndt
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Posted: 07 February 2010 at 1:22pm | IP Logged | 6  

Looking back it really has been about the same time I actually quit reading Marvel comics on a monthly basis.
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Michael Retour
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Posted: 07 February 2010 at 1:29pm | IP Logged | 7  

I don't get one Marvel comic and read the various reprints.  Last book I even looked at was something with a Paul Pope Inhumans story.
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Jason Czeskleba
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Posted: 07 February 2010 at 1:39pm | IP Logged | 8  

We're clearly not the audience Marvel is interested in selling to anymore.  Given the sorry state of periodical print media in this country, I suspect the corporate strategy is simply to milk the existing readership dry, with not real thought to what happens when said readership dies off or loses interest.  And Quesada seems to be the best qualified of anybody for milking something dry.  For 25 years now comics have foolishly shunned casual readers in favor of fans... I think the bell has tolled.  I don't know that there are any casual readers left if the comic industry decided to go out and look for them.
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Joe Hollon
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Posted: 07 February 2010 at 1:39pm | IP Logged | 9  

Wow.  Ten years.  I officially quit reading Marvel comics in 2004, less that halfway into the Queasy years.  Ten years is about 43% of the total time I've been reading comics!  Amazing. 

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Emery Calame
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Posted: 07 February 2010 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | 10  

The cheesy age. Fitting.
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John Peter Britton
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Posted: 07 February 2010 at 1:50pm | IP Logged | 11  

I quit reading DC and Marvel in the 1980's!
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Joe Hollon
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Posted: 07 February 2010 at 1:56pm | IP Logged | 12  

Serious question:  what were Quesada's qualifications that got him the job?  He was a fairly popular artist (as I recall) with very little output.  His own creation...about the fireman....(what was it called?) went absolutely no where.  Then suddenly he's the most powerful man in the comics publishing business.  What'd I miss?  
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