CBR: Cup O' Joe - Jan 11, 2011

[CBR News]

Joe Quesada looks at his legacy as Editor-in-Chief of Marvel, unveiling the peaks and valleys of his ten years at the top of Marvel Editorial and what he views as his biggest contributions to comics and much more!


Full article here.

[RolandJP]

You get an A+

Joe.


I bet being an EIC is like being the President of the United States, you hardly get credit for the good things but all the blame for the bad. That being said..happy trails..and Best Wishes at your new post.


Okay let me get back to giving Alonso, Hell.

j/k

[malephoenix]

I've looked around, but I can't find a layman's-term explanation for what these changes actually mean. Is there a clear, concise version somewhere?

[Sighphi]

Kiel Phegley: One issue that's cropped up around Marvel in recent years, as the Disney thing happened and as Marvel Studios ramped up its output, is the question of whether companies like Marvel, or DC in that they're closer to Warners, are leaving comics behind. The question of is this something where the big wigs look at publishing comics and say, "It's there, but the focus is really making movies." In what ways have you and Axel discussed Marvel Publishing continuing to be its own thing? Is there any way it can be left behind as other segments of the company grow?

Joe Quesada: Let me make this as perfectly clear as I can: Publishing is the life's blood of what we do. While other areas of Marvel may make more revenue, I can't think of a division that is more important to us right now. That's not to say that Publishing doesn't make a tremendous amount of revenue, it's just that when you compare it to a major motion picture, it tends to get over shadowed. But from a consistency basis, it's incredibly important, and from a content point of view, it is the end all, be all of what Marvel is.

Within our corporate structure, I always define Publishing as the hub. It is the "Idea Factory." All of the great stories and ideas for Marvel are created within the hub and then spoke out to the other divisions. The stories and characters you will see in Marvel's animation, television and movies, while altered to fit the medium they're being presented in, will have all started in one way or another inside the pages of a Marvel Comic. Publishing is where all the ideas are generated, it's the source & inspiration for every other aspect of Marvel. Sure, we can take ideas that were generated in Iron Man comics over the years and distill them into an Iron Man movie and generate significantly more revenue than the comic could, but ultimately that movie wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the comic book.

I dont know, the latest Iron Man volume when the movie came out took a hard left road to resemble the movie. Needless to say, Spider-man which you, JOE Q, went all over the place saying, "Pete isnt married anywhere else." Was another and there are others..... that dont come to mind right now. Looking at DC and Marvel, Marvel looks to be the one that just following what being created outside of the medium more than creating.

Jonah Weiland: I recently asked Mark Waid this question as he was leaving the E-i-C spot at BOOM! Studios, even though he only had three years to your ten. [Quesada Laughs] But I asked him to give himself a grade as Editor-in-Chief, and I think he gave himself a "B" or a "B+." That's a hard question to answer because you have to step outside yourself and look at your work critically, but what kind of grade would you give yourself as Editor-in-Chief of Marvel?

Joe Quesada: I can't do that. I just don't know. Honestly, I couldn't grade myself because it's like asking me to grade my artwork. Quite frankly, once I finish a piece of art, I'm ready to start the next piece in the hopes of making it better than the previous.

If you going to make your next work better it means that you did, in fact, graded the last one. Because if you didnt you would not know what to improve to make it better.

Jonah Weiland: Well, you talk about always looking at your art with a super-critical eye. Were you the same way with your work as Editor-in-Chief?

Joe Quesada: Like I said, I just so rarely reminisce about stuff. I also have such a distaste for people in any medium whose time has passed that spend their days criticizing those who are in the same trenches they laid in. That whole, "It was better in my day" stuff is really icky to me.

So, while I'd love to give you a romantic answer about how I look back on my tenure, the truth of the matter is that to me, it feels like old news at this point. My whole attitude is simply, "Hey, that was fun! Go kick DC's ass Axel! Okay, what's next on my plate? Cool, stand back -- I'm going to break these!"

So Joe Q cant take criticism?
That explains a WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE lot.
That was a better answer than actually giving a grade, Joe.

Back in the day, so many of us in the creative community would sit back and watch someone produce a TV show or a movie based on a comic book and see it flop miserably because those people didn't understand what made those characters work. We'd sit there going, "Why didn't they hire comic book people?" Well, that's what Marvel is doing. Slowly but surly, you'll be seeing names you recognize getting involved in other aspects of Marvel Entertainment. Just look at the "Ultimate Spider-Man" animated show we're working on. The creative team consists of Brian Bendis, Paul Dini and Men of Action. We'll be announcing some more stuff down the road, too, with more comic book folks. So stay tuned, it's going to be fun.

I dont know if this is going to bring the average up on this.

[StoneGold]

I've looked around, but I can't find a layman's-term explanation for what these changes actually mean. Is there a clear, concise version somewhere?

Basically, what it's been for the last couple months. Joe's still involved in high level creative meeting stuff, but Axel is in charge of day to day creative publishing matters. Although I have no idea how Brevoort's new title fits into things.

But from what I can tell, Joe gets to be more creative on a macro level, Axel less, and Tom gets to stay basically where he is, more or less.