This was JB's advice/strategy posted a few pages back: "get the books into the maximum number of venues, get them out on time, and make them universally accessible."

These simple ideas all run counter to "Marvel 2010". They contradict everything the market is currently about. They practically stab at its very heart.

Isn't that... weird?

"I think I got my answer about why the legends in comics don't like Marvel today, when I saw how you decided to take a shot at John Byrne. Ego board? Do you seriously think that you, JQ, Millar, and the rest of the club don't come off full of yourselves?

Yeah, that was a bit harsher-sounding than I'd intended. Sorry about that. My point, though, was that, if you want to debate these issues with the people who are actually in a position to affect change, it helps to do so in places that those people frequent. I rather doubt that the folks over there have such new insights as have never been thought of before, but you never know. I do know, though, that these kinds of discussion often center on "pie-in-the-sky" assessments of the marketplace, the industry, and the world around us, that evidence a lack of understanding of what's taking place in those areas in 2010. But we'd welcome a good, workable idea from any quarter."

Here's the link to his tweet

http://www.formspring.me/TomBrevoort/q/1471619307

Edited by Rick Whiting on 09 November 2010 at 11:11pm

Ah, so we're just a bunch of uninformed old men on our collective porch shaking our fists at the new kids crossing our lawn.

Brevoort would rather set himself on fire than admit in any way, shape, or form that Marvel Comics is the standard of unprofessionalism in 2010. 

In a way, I can only say it's a good thing distribution issues are hamstringing comics' success in America. It's the creative quality of those comics which leaves me glad comics are ghettoized entertainment for aging perverts.

Do you want the current crop of Marvel/DC products readily available for anyone to pick up? More kids seeking good Superman stories and getting Geoff Johns gory excess instead? More teenagers needing to identify with a hard-luck loser like Spider-Man and instead finding Mark Millar's smarmy critiques of characters he knows nothing about? All rendered in the most obvious, deprecatingly Benes-esque artistic manner possible?

And even if those extremes aren't enough to scare you away, the Marvel/DC story product is boring, trite, and sophomoric. Insulting to ethics, insulting to genders/minorities, insulting to intelligences, insulting to taste. The writing is sh*t and the art is sh*t-smeared.

Illustrated screenplays are not comics. Hollywood wannabes are not comic book writers. Storyboard artists are not comic book artists.

In a way, I can only say it's a good thing distribution issues are hamstringing comics' success in America. It's the creative quality of those comics which leaves me glad comics are ghettoized entertainment for aging perverts.

+++++++++

This makes sense!

Why whine about comics not being available to kids, if the comics themselves aren't appropriate for kids? Let them stay in the ghetto! Better distribution means this crappy content is more widespread--which is BAD!

JB said: As I have said before, the thing that really ticks me off about this whole late=better mentality, and the idiots who fall for it, is that it spits upon every single PROFESSIONAL who ever turned in a job on time.

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What amazes me is that guys like Jim Lee and Geoff Johns, whose books are always being delayed, are promoted to the upper echelons of the company that they work for. What other industry does this?

••

No bars on our doors that I am aware of. Maybe it's the garlic on the lintel?

"But we'd welcome a good, workable idea from any quarter."

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Any time they're ready to start publishing them, I'll start buying Marvel again.  For now, I'll ignore the re-tread of ideas and heroes that don't act very heroic.

••

I find this statement the most intriguing of all. The "idea" I have been putting forth for what seems like decades now is publish on schedule, make the work as widely accessible as possible, get the books into the greatest number of venues.

Since Breevort dismisses my ideas, I would be fascinated to read which part or parts of the above he considers neither good nor workable.

No bars on our doors...

Well, you are one of those angry, nasty atheists...

____________________________________

Shawn, you hit the nail right on the head. Brevoort, and many of the other editors and creators currently working for Marvel, think that they are hot stuff because many of their books top the chart in the current market. They are too busy celebrating and patting themselves on the back to notice that today's top selling comics would be on or below the cancellation bubble 20 to 40 years ago. I also think that their success with their movies over the last decade, and Marvel being bought by Disney, has inflated their egos and given them a false sense of security.