CBR: CBR TV @ NYCC: Joe Quesada

[CBR News]

Joe Quesada spoke with CBR TV on his career changes since Disney bought Marvel, the third Spidey story he'd still like to tell, his thoughts on message boards, comic book pricing cuts and much, much more.


Full article here.

[Sighphi]

If Joe as COO is spending less than half of his time on publishing i think it's time for Marvel to choose a new EIC that can spend more than half of his/her time on publishing.

I vote for me.


And Joe saying that you cant tell how prices going up or down affect retail is really, REALLY funny. I mean..... seriously...... so retail survives on what? Magic? Why dont you sell comics for 60 bucks each then?

[keilthetarheel]

did the interviewer do a giant buzzer noise when Joe said he wanted to write a 3rd Spidey story?

[Hulk_Is]

If Joe as COO is spending less than half of his time on publishing i think it's time for Marvel to choose a new EIC that can spend more than half of his/her time on publishing.

This is what I was thinking.

I vote for me.

This is not what I was thinking.

[b3shmoonwalk]

40% really did he think that was smart to say. It just shows his lack of commitment, during this video I just felt he was being lazy for example 'I don't know what our writers get paid anymore.'

[Lord Bravery]

How does it show his lack of commitment? He is committed into making Marvel the biggest business he can. There just isn't enough $$$ in comics anymore, so they MUST branch out into other things, such as animation and movies. It's business sense.

[cookepuss]

It was a fun & funny interview. One of his least condescending & tongue in cheek too. A pleasant surprise really. I have been hyper-critical about OMD/BND/OMIT on these boards recently, to a fault. Still, it's nice that he can take our venom for what it is and roll with the punches.

That said, I do feel that this interview is really the handwriting on the wall. JoeQ's tenure as EIC is drawing to a close. The publishing end is there to keep the properties in a constant state of evolution for the marketing & licensing end. After all, these licenses were the big draw to Disney. If JoeQ can only dedicate 40% of his time to the publishing end then something is wrong.

Delegation is an important part to every job. I understand that. I am well aware that he's in a position of management. Like a football coach, he can only direct and hope that his players perform their tasks as assigned and to the best of their abilities. However, is being there only 1/2 the time good enough? If this were football, would we tolerate a coach who only showed up to 50% of the games or 50% of the practices?

I wonder.

Something is going to give. CLEARLY, JoeQ already seems stretched by the requirements of being both CCO & EIC, as is evidenced by his apparent disdain for the excessive travel. Half an EIC is better than no EIC, but still worse than one who's there full-time.

Most EICs, Stan excluded, tend to last ~7 years or so. 10 years is a good run. JoeQ should spend all of his time as CCO and pass the reigns of EIC on to somebody else. My vote would go to either CB Cebulski or Tom Brevoort. At this point, I think that either one would do a bang up job, as well as contributing something new to the mix.

I think that JoeQ has himself outgrown the EIC job. A little too comfortable maybe. That he's as scared now, as CCO, as he was when he first started as EIC is a good thing. Maybe he can bring that same fear motivated passion to the West coast stuff that he did here on the East back in 2000.

[InterwebHero]

It was a fun & funny interview. One of his least condescending & tongue in cheek too. A pleasant surprise really. I have been hyper-critical about OMD/BND/OMIT on these boards recently, to a fault. Still, it's nice that he can take our venom for what it is and roll with the punches.

That said, I do feel that this interview is really the handwriting on the wall. JoeQ's tenure as EIC is drawing to a close. The publishing end is there to keep the properties in a constant state of evolution for the marketing & licensing end. After all, these licenses were the big draw to Disney. If JoeQ can only dedicate 40% of his time to the publishing end then something is wrong.

Delegation is an important part to every job. I understand that. I am well aware that he's in a position of management. Like a football coach, he can only direct and hope that his players perform their tasks as assigned and to the best of their abilities. However, is being there only 1/2 the time good enough? If this were football, would we tolerate a coach who only showed up to 50% of the games or 50% of the practices?

I wonder.

Something is going to give. CLEARLY, JoeQ already seems stretched by the requirements of being both CCO & EIC, as is evidenced by his apparent disdain for the excessive travel. Half an EIC is better than no EIC, but still worse than one who's there full-time.

Most EICs, Stan excluded, tend to last ~7 years or so. 10 years is a good run. JoeQ should spend all of his time as CCO and pass the reigns of EIC on to somebody else. My vote would go to either CB Cebulski or Tom Brevoort. At this point, I think that either one would do a bang up job, as well as contributing something new to the mix.

I think that JoeQ has himself outgrown the EIC job. A little too comfortable maybe. That he's as scared now, as CCO, as he was when he first started as EIC is a good thing. Maybe he can bring that same fear motivated passion to the West coast stuff that he did here on the East back in 2000.

Tom Brevoort as EIC would be absolutely hilarious. His brutal honesty would just kick so much fanboy ass. Does Cb Cebulski edit? I know he scouts and occasionally writes (and cooks) but does he actually edit?

[cookepuss]

Tom Brevoort as EIC would be absolutely hilarious. His brutal honesty would just kick so much fanboy ass. Does Cb Cebulski edit? I know he scouts and occasionally writes (and cooks) but does he actually edit?

Yeah. He actually started in editorial, iirc. Couple of articles on the net that even mention this. He also helped scout new talent. Sadly, he's the least likely to get the EIC nod though. He was recently promoted to Senior Vice President, Creator & Content Development.

That being the case, apart from Brevoort, I can only see Marvel looking to Axel Alonso to take over for JoeQ. Both guys seem to work very well with both the rest of their crews and the community at large.

Funny? Funny would be Bendis as EIC. It'd be like the Jetsons' Mr. Spacely, but with 100% more Luke Cage.

[alf_to_the_rescue]

I'll try again. That's 16 minutes of my life I will never get back. He doesn't seem to spend much time working on the actual comics so I think a new EIC is needed.

[JimmyDee]

Fun interview and wow, some of you guys seem to just be automatic when it comes to the Joe hate. Saw nothing in here to hate, really.

And why is the fact he's being utilized in other parts of the company and has less to do with publishing necessarily a bad thing? It's become clear over the past six months that he's done well to trust Axel and Tom to run day-to-day operations, both very qualified individuals, while he focuses on lots of big picture stuff with Disney. That doesn't mean he's out of touch, it means his focus has shifted because Disney is making the best use of his skill set, which is great for him, for comics and for the exploitation of Marvel in other media.

I do want to see that third Spidey story from Joe, though, if only to be entertained by the wild reactions online.

[ARCHER9]

I vote for me.
?

Please God no. I want to be able to keep reading the books I like.

[Kevin Nichols]

40% really did he think that was smart to say. It just shows his lack of commitment, during this video I just felt he was being lazy for example 'I don't know what our writers get paid anymore.'

It seems his employers think he is doing a good job. No offense, but fans don't write performance evaluations.

Most EICs, Stan excluded, tend to last ~7 years or so. 10 years is a good run. JoeQ should spend all of his time as CCO and pass the reigns of EIC on to somebody else. My vote would go to either CB Cebulski or Tom Brevoort. At this point, I think that either one would do a bang up job, as well as contributing something new to the mix.

A neat idea, but why would Marvel want to pay two people to do a job that one is currently doing? Doesn't make any business sense.

And Joe saying that you cant tell how prices going up or down affect retail is really, REALLY funny. I mean..... seriously...... so retail survives on what? Magic? Why dont you sell comics for 60 bucks each then?

Joe touched on it briefly during the interview, but didn't get too much into it. The business accounting term is "contribution margin". Let's say a comic book costs Marvel $1.00 to create/distribute (totally arbitrary numbers here) and they charge $4.00 per issue. The difference of $3.00 is the contribution margin. That margin also has to encompass a whole slew of other costs associated with running the company, including making up for the cost of other books that don't sell. Let's say Marvel sells 1,000 comic books every month. Their comic book contribution is $3,000.00. Only now they are dropping the prices by a dollar an issue. This brings their comic book contribution down to $2,000.00 every month. The problem is that their costs haven't necessarily been decreased by a third even though the gross profit has. They now need to sell an extra 500 issues a month (which in itself incurs additional costs) just to meet the same contribution margin. And this is a very basic explanation. If CBR interviewed one of Marvel's accounting guys, would you really want to sit through the hour and a half lecture on all of the numbers they had to crunch to come to this decision?

[cookepuss]

A neat idea, but why would Marvel want to pay two people to do a job that one is currently doing? Doesn't make any business sense.

Just because you can do two jobs for the price of one doesn't mean you should. Not even JoeQ is Superman. Something will eventually give way as one too many compromises are made and either the work of JoeQ CCO or JoeQ EIC will suffer as a result. Stuff is going to slip through the cracks.

It's not a dig against Quesada. Not at all. Consider it a situational truth. JoeQ is now in a corporate environment. The responsibilities, and pressures, are that much greater. It would be unrealistic, even in this economy, to think that he'd be able to juggle both roles indefinitely.

I'm not saying that he's out of touch, as has been suggested in this thread already. I do think that, as a result of wearing a second hat, third if you count penciler, he's not nearly as connected as he needs to be. Being involved in the publishing end only 40% of the time puts him dangerously close to being an "armchair EIC" of sorts. There's no way you can put in 40% effort an get 100% results. GIGO

I'm not suggesting that he micromanage everything to death. That wouldn't serve anybody either. I simply think that putting in half the effort required by the job serves nobody. Perhaps, somebody capable of devoting their full attention to the publishing end should be tasked with the job. Same with the CCO position. If that's only getting 60% of JoeQ's time, maybe it's time he's allowed to give it all 100% instead.

Regardless, 10 years is a good long time as EIC. The publishing world of comics is now a different place in 2010 than it was in 2000. The market is different. The expectations are different. The state of the art is different. Again, no offense intended, but JoeQ has had his moment in the spotlight. 10 years and one promotion later, the band is playing and his time to get off this stage is nearing. The man will be replaced. After 10 years, far sooner than later. It's a numbers game at this point.

[Lord Bravery]

Disney seem to like Joe, that's all that matters.

And Disney didn't buy Marvel for the comics. Disney bought Marvel for the characters, they wanted a piece of the superhero pie. But does that mean comics? No. Disney obviously wants to build up the movie, merchandise and animation side to Marvel. They want it as a more global brand.

There just isn't enough money in comics alone to sustain a company like this anymore. They have to branch out into other fields or they'll go bust again.