CBR: Cup O' Joe - Mar 4, 2011

[CBR News]

In a very special installment of his regular CBR column, Marvel SVP of Publishing Tom Brevoort welcomes Message Border Sighphi to talk pricing, the state of mutants, Spidey's Future Foundationing and more.


Full article here.

[Kiel Phegley!]

Yo guys!

Kiel from CBR here. Before the regular discussion gets going, I just wanted to drop a note to say two things:

1 - Thanks so much to everyone who applied to talk to Tom. There were a lot of folks who seemed like they'd be a great fit for the column, and narrowing down to one dude was insanely hard and seemed totally unfair with guys like Predabot, IllegalPAP, babybro, maniacmatt and more chiming in.

We're going to swing back around and do another like this in the near future, so PLEASE remind me when that happens that you applied once.

2 - That said, I think Sighphi did a radical job, so three cheers around for him!!!!

OK...now go back to polietly discussing what was said in the column this week. ;)

[Soundrave]

Great interview!

It's cool to see a comic book interview that almost reads like an adversarial, 60 Minutes-type piece. So often in the online comic community it's a case of fanboys gushing over the creators/professionals that they're interviewing and not asking any pressing questions . . . or asking a pressing question and then responding with "Fair enough!" after the creator doesn't really give an answer.

[Ari Gold]

Very, very cool.

Great job Sighphi, and kudos to Mr. Brevoort & Marvel.

I've been very negative on Marvel the last couple of years and this was an impressive endeavor in my eyes. I appreciate the goodwill intended by this gesture.

[rwe1138]

I wanted to congratulate Mr. Padilla on a great job as well. Your questions were well thought out and echoed several I've had myself. I look forward to more of these Q&As with Tom and other message boarders.

[Matt Spatola]

Best interview and questions that I have seen in forever on here. Better than the normal CBR questions for sure.

[DisneysFolly]

Loved the questioning about all the superpowered questionables/mutants/etc. Didn't like the answers though. I just hate how watered down the Marvel Universe is getting with constant introductions of a new generation of superheroes with similiar powers as characters that already exist...and in fact many of whom are underused. A good writer can still make it work, but it just feels so crowded to me. Just the X-Men alone is becoming impossible to keep track of. The volume of mutants is single-handedly keeping Matt Fraction's idiotic introduction boxes alive. So Iceman is marginalized, but I have to keep seeing the I'm-so-happy-Greg-Land-draws-me Pixie in everything. It's just layers and layers of characters. New Mutants and Generation X go away, with only some going onto other teams. Grant Morrison introduces a school full of new characters and Wanda wishes them away. Academy X opens and closes. Matt Fraction introduces even more.

And with The Initiative and Avengers Academy and Young Avengers, Young Allies, etc...it's just getting out of hand. Stick with a group and develop it. There are plenty of characters to flesh out as is. To me, it takes away the uniqueness of the Avengers and the X-Men. Why wait for Wolverine when you can have 50 flame-throwing, mind-reading, body-made-of-rocks mutants come instead? I wish the Marvel Universe was back to being a world full of billions of humans but only a handful of special superheroes.

[mugiwara]

Ok, could somebody point me in which ATI issue Cloud 9's origins have been told? Because I don't remember the "encounter with an extraterrestrial gas" thing either.
And I'm not sure a little statement droped in one pannel is more an origine than just saying "she's a mutant". It's sad that we are still getting Captain America, Cyclops or Hulk's origins one shots every 3 years, but there is no room for the secret origins of new characters like Cloud 9 or Butterball.

[Soundrave]

Ok, could somebody point me in which ATI issue Cloud 9's origins have been told? Because I don't remember the "encounter with an extraterrestrial gas" thing either.

I'm pretty sure it was the issue where Super-Skrull asked her to "pull his finger."

[mattereaterladam]

Very good questions! Same old "I dunno *tow the company line* I dunno *tow the company line* I dunno" answers as usual. What happened to the days when editors actually drove storylines and were required to have some idea of what was going on? This is a business first, but come on.

It just seems that each week Brevoort takes these questions as a personal challenge, and not just as questions.

[poneley]

Tom, Kiel and CBR, thank you for doing this. I highly enjoyed this one-on-one dialog with a reader. Keep it up.

[CMBMOOL]

Interesting questions and congrads to the man who was able to ask them.

[mattereaterladam]

I posted that last reply before entirely completing the article but wow. The way Brevoort answered the last few questions was unbelievably frustrating! Where is he getting this statistic of 1% of current readers care about past continuity? Is he reading every negative piece of criticism and doing the math from there?

Holy cats. Its as if he's saying,"Look buddy, its my job to make sure the books get out on time every month. I can't pay attention to silly little details like what color the Hulk is, or how many claws Wolverine has this month! Only .0000078 people care about that! Money baby! Show it to me!"

Additionally how would Marvel stories get cruddier at a lower price point? What sacrifices would have to be made to reach this price point, story wise? You can't just generally say,"They'd be worse," and leave it at that.

98% of new series fail if they don't start strong out of the gate? I'd like to see Vertigos numbers on books like Scalped, Unwritten and American Vampire versus Marvel books like She-Hulk. Cripes. Even R.E.B.E.L.S. lasted 28 issues somehow.

[Predabot]

Some good questions this round. Not precisely what I would have asked, but the answers seemed more heartfelt and honest this time around. :)

Hey Sighphi, did anyone think about actually recording the phone-session?? I'd LOVE to hear that! Could be great if it was available in original audio-format as well as text. Hear that CBR? Make it a reoccuring podcast when the fans get to pick the Hat's brain!


@Matter-Eater-Lad-Guy: That question about 98% of new series have been asked and answered in the past... It's this simple: DC is publishing some comics regularly for no reason other than they have to ( Wonder Woman for instance, they'll lose copyright), and some books are actually getting subsidized in order to stay afloat. ( All sorts of books. Like Firestorm, or Manhunter, etc..)

That subsidation comes from Warner Bros., and it comes at a price. Loss of autonomy, IMHO.
Marvel didn't use to be owned by Disney, so they didn't do this, and the feeling I've gotten in several of these interviews is that Marvel is determined to stay as autonomous as possible going forward as well, which means: No asking papa' Mouse for extra expenses.

Personally I applaud that, but I see where you're coming from too. I think the solution lies somewhere in the middle: going digital only, and digital preorder, and ad-funded comics. I'm pretty sure some of these comics might be able to survive as digital only, if given the chance.

It won't fit every series tho'. It would all depend on characters and the creators involved.

[fredmanson]

I am not satisfied with his answer about the $3.99 comic books.
You buy a $2.99 and a $3.99, each from Marvel.

What you have in hands? The same account of story pages (AKA 22 pages more or less), the same ads (and it's a shame for a $3.99 comic book...), and the comic books printed on the same cheap paper with a same cheap paper cover (there, it is really a bad trick based on "we bring you the best comic book! So, buy it and shut up!" ).

Indie comic books have (with exceptions, of course) been sold a $1.00 higher on the regular $2.99 sold by the big two. But when I bought these indie comic books, I am not having a flyer of ads. I have a true comic book, with or without the 22 regular story pages. A little or none ads. And it's printed on better paper and cover paper than the big two.

IDW seems to have make a compromise with certain of its $3.99 titles: no more glossy paper and cover but a really strong paper for the whole comic book, see D&D - Dark Sun mini series. I know that this type of paper will not suffer of its multi readings, it won't have the horrible fingerprints on the cover, it won't have the "ARGHHHHH!!! The center pages have been cut by the stitches!!!!!!" and so on...

I hope that IDW will continue on this way because, seriously, it is really an advance to the future of the printed comic books in the years to come.


For the rest of the interview, I have stopped because I was bored. Sorry guys. Do more interviews but lightly ones. It's much better. My opinion, of course!!

OK guys, I let you discuss, I am going to sleep. It's 01:29 AM in France!!

Bye!!