Joss Whedon

Hmmm... what is there to talk about this week?

We push a couple of comic book hot buttons this time around, with more discussion of Civil War’s scheduling, a closer look at Marvel’s "policy" regarding homosexual characters as series leads, Mark Bagley leaving Ultimate Spider-Man, and more, including your first preview at some of Marvel’s newer or more noteworthy November projects...

Newsarama: Joe, you know what we have to talk about week...

Joe Quesada: I couldn’t imagine what you’re alluding to? But to be honest, I think it’s been talked to death. There’s nothing that I can say here that is going to be new information, so just look back on the info that’s available.

NRAMA: That’s true, and since we’ve already spoken to Tom Brevoort about the specific delays in Civil War, we won’t retread those specific areas, but we do need to revisit this general issue that continues to dog both you and [to be fair] DC, despite some general improvements in this area.

First of all, it really wasn’t fair to ask Tom Brevoort, why this announcement wasn’t made until the day before issue #4 was supposed to come out? Assuming completed books go the printer 20 days before on-sale, you guys knew for a bare minimum of 3 weeks you had a scheduling problem?

JQ: Well, yes, kind of unfair and also inaccurate since this book has been on the bumped book list for two weeks now. The most recent Diamond Shipping Changes had it as coming out on September 6th. So, the announcement was three weeks prior to the on-sale date, and it included information to help retailers and fans budget themselves for the next six months...instead of our just bumping these books week to week, which would have kept the whole thing much quieter, but no less a problem.

NRAMA: Fair enough.

We think on some levels many readers understand and appreciate arguments made by Millar and McNiven, and Bryan Hitch, and even yourself in the past about the sophistication of storytelling and artwork these days, about creative and artistic consistency and vision, and wanting to give readers and retailers the highest quality product in the end. But that’s only half the equation here.

A good portion of the frustration is yes, that the product isn’t monthly, but what exasperates this is what’s viewed as broken promises by the publisher, or at least indifference to fans and retailer expectations.

So to actually get to a question, why do publishers need to, and why do they allow titles to be solicited when at the time there must be some internal indication scheduling could be an issue?

For example, at the time Civil War #6 which will be two months late in December, at least was solicited for release in October, wasn’t there any internal indication the schedule was developing so that making an October ship date was very unlikely?

JQ: There are so many factors that go into all of this stuff but the biggest factor is that at the core of it there are human beings at all ends of the creative and business spectrums of what we do. We go in with the best of intentions and stuff just happens. To even suggest indifference is really insulting.

But look, fans want all of these big events to make sense and coordinate properly in order to keep all elements of the Marvel Universe in lock step with each other, so we do work incredibly hard to accomplish that, but with so many titles depending on one and other, the process becomes exponentially more and more prone to breakdown the bigger it gets in scope. When you deal with a big summer event that has so many ancillary tie-ins, you have to put a flag in the sand and say, "this happens during these publishing months," simply because there are so many moving pieces and behind every moving piece are several human beings working at trying to keep all the plates spinning. You have to make sure that the time selected makes sense for your creators and for the fiscal publishing schedule as well but sometimes you can’t get to one of the plates and when one crashes, there’s a good chance that several will come crashing down as well.

We certainly could have done

Story wise, “MCW” fit into a perfect spot in our creative publishing schedule, the timing seemed right, everyone was excited about it. As you start to plug along there are times when things begin to speed wobble and then there are times when they get back on track. Last’s year’s House of M had gotten off to a horrific start schedule wise, yet we said let’s give the team a shot to get it back on track, and they did in miraculous fashion! The same is true here except that we fell a bit behind but because so much was tied to this project, we had to do the most prudent thing for the whole “MCW” storyline and just push it back in order not to spoil the story.

In the end, the decision was made that for the longevity and future of this project and looking way ahead at trade and hardcover collections, this was the best decision to make. Sometimes those things can seem painful at first because some decide to look at the here and now, but sometimes you also need to look at the larger picture.

But also, in regard to timing, I had someone pull me aside at a con and said that was most intriguing about Civil War was the timing of it. It’s the perfect story for this particular time in our countries history. If it had come out last year or if it were to come out next summer, there’s a very good possibility that it wouldn’t resonate as well as it has right now, especially with all those new faces that are coming into comic shops. I found that to be a fascinating observation and perhaps a very accurate one. While you can never predict these things with any sort of certainty, we felt the time and place for this project was appropriately as we planned it and who knows, perhaps the delay will prove in the future to be fortuitous as well.

We’re really sorry for any pains this has caused our retail partners, all we can do right now is work our hardest to get it under control and our best to make up some of the lost revenue for our everyone involved

NRAMA: Joe, finally, before moving on to other topics, we’ve addressed in the past the seeming resentment some fans seem to feel towards “Hollywood” creators in the comic book industry, and to be fair, some of those names have maintained schedules as well as anyone, but at least as many have started projects that have subsequently suffered significant delays.

To play Devil’s Advocate, is there an argument to be made that by choosing these creators name-recognition and/or their level of talent over their ability to maintain a more traditional publishing schedule, that it’s fostering an environment where all talented creators know schedule is not a high priority - sort of the comic book version of the “Broken Window Theory”?

JQ: No I don’t believe this because this comic book lateness thing has been a part of the industry way longer than people care to remember. Does anyone remember the beginning of the Image era? Does anyone remember that both Dark Knight and Watchmen had shipping delays? Does anyone remember that there was a time when unannounced inventory stories and reprints were installed into the monthly runs of books because of creative delays?

What is old is new again. How about the case of Daredevil #1.

Bill Everett the artist on the book was working at a greeting card company at the time as well as moonlighting doing some comic’s work. Daredevil #1 was scheduled to be released in late 1963. By that I mean that within the old system of publishing comics, Marvel had press time reserved for the book and back in the day, if you missed the press time it would cost you tons of money, a bigger sin you could not imagine in the world of comic’s publishing. Well, as luck would have it, Everett was late on the book, so late that Marvel was about to miss it’s press time. But, Martin Goodman the publisher loved Bill Everett’s work so much that he decided to forego the scheduled press time and take the loss in order for Everett to do the book. Daredevil #1 shipped, I believe in April of 1964, at least four to six months from its appointed ship date.

So, folks can play devil’s advocate all you want, but if there’s a “Broken Window” theory, that window was broken a long time ago.

NRAMA: Okay, so here is your last shot to tell readers something about Civil War #4 that will make it worth the wait..?

JQ: Thor kicks some major ass and one of Marvel’s biggest characters has a bad day!

NRAMA: Moving onto other topics, last year you announced author Captain America project, to be published this year.

JQ: Ah, funny that this should come up in the heat of all this conversation. Since this project doesn’t hinge upon continuity or affect the Marvel Universe outright or any other titles in any way, we’re waiting to get a bit more work done on the book before soliciting it. I believe we’re now looking at middle of next year for this project. By the way, I’ve read the first issue and it’s remarkable!

NRAMA: Sometimes just for fun we talk a look at what Amazon.com is listing on their advance schedule, and to be fair, while not 100%, it’s been a pretty good indicator of future projects in the past. X-Men: Deadly Genesis, Nextwave, Black Panther: The Wedding and other titles have been listed there before being officially announced. So here are a couple of listings, can you say anything at all about what they may be, or may have been?

 “On Ice” by Chris Claremont?

 “Book of Ezekiel” by John Romita?

 “Daredevil” by Jimmy Palmiotti?

JQ: I have no idea what these projects are, they sound kind of made up.

NRAMA: Well, all projects are made up at one point...

Okay, so we’re going to have to put you on the spot again about an issue that arose during your Chicago Cup ‘O Joe panel, which was picked up by the gay press and sparked some debate.

Though you made it fairly clear the policy isn’t of your making and that you’re not happy about it yourself (correct us if we’re wrong about that interpretation?), it’s regarding the Marvel Comics policy about any solo series starring a gay or lesbian character would be published as a MAX title.

First of all, we have to ask, is it a true policy in the sense would your higher ups even truly consider publishing a solo series starring a homosexual character and where his or her sexuality played a significant role), considering the negative publicity you cited Marvel as a company is apparently wary of?