Another post from my Marvel blog of long ago in which I answered more questions from the readership.
April 28, 2007 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done this, so let’s pull a few questions from the response-threads, and lay down some answers:
>Ditko really doesn’t get his due. Kirby was Kirby, but Ditko was unique. I think that’s one of the major reasons why you don’t see many Ditko imitators… it’s just not that easy to copy his style.
Wish someone could coax him out for one last hurrah.
Posted by CylverSaber on 2007-04-24 20:26:44>
British celeb Jonathan Ross just announced on BBC Radio that he’s been filming a documentary about Ditko. He came by the Marvel offices to shoot some interviews a couple of months ago, and swung by Steve’s digs in an attempt to get him to agree to be interviewed. No such luck.
>What happened to the video game blog, with new Spider-Man 3 game out you would think that there would be more information on Marvel about the game.
Posted by spidey0402 on 2007-04-27 10:53:32>
The fellow who had been doing the video game blog left Marvel, and nobody else has since ponied up to take it on.
>A letter for Avi Arid on My Marvel movies are
Okay I’ve never blogged b4 so I just tried getting into the first blog I could. This is just a letter that I hope gets to Mr. Avi Arid from a very frustrated Marvel fan and movie fan.
Posted by jedebklyn on 2007-04-30 09:49:30>
Jede, I’m sorry to frustrate you even further, but the chances of Avi reading your comments posted here on my blog are just about nil. You’d have much better luck if you were to send it via regular mail to Marvel Studios.
>I don’t
and I spare you my opinion about the way you consider ( or not ) some others publishers as interesting concurrent ,( AVATAR and MOONSTONE, you didn’t reply) , it is actually difficult to discuss with someone who actually thinks with numbers on a paper ( I’d really like to know if Matt Wagner, Mike Mignola, Duncan Fegredo, Sam Kieth, Dean Ormston, Paul Pope, Kyle Baker, Vince Locke ,Guy Davis, Paul Grist and Glenn Bar exist in your world….and you dare to say things like : ” Certainly most manga publishers aren’t competing over the same talent that we and the guys uptown are using “…),
Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-04-23 10:10:35>
Whoa, Potatoe, where in anything that I wrote does it say that I don’t acknowledge creators such as Wagner, Mignola, Fegredo, Kieth, etc (many of whom have done work in my office)? And my comments about a two-party and three-party system aren’t meant to be dismissive of AVATAR or MOONSTONE in terms of their content–only that neither of them currently comprises enough of the marketplace to be considered a viable third party. Doesn’t mean that they might not get there at some point, if they continue to grow–but they’re not there yet.
>What about the effect of new big name Manga on American Comics Sales?
Posted by deworde on 2007-04-23 12:39:35>
At the moment, the effect seems to be negligible–we don’t see a downturn in the sales of SPIDER-MAN when any new Manga volume is released. And again, this may be something that changes over time–but right now, the fact hat there is no verifiable sales relationship leads me to believe that Manga is largely additive to the market.
>”And while they may really only like that one type of comic”
When did manga become one type of comic? Surely manga encompasses more types of comics than Marvel as a whole?
Posted by RichJohnston on 2007-04-25 08:11:42>
Okay, not the best choice of specific words–but I told you way back on day one that I’d be doing one draft with no proofreading in these entries. So substitute a phrase along the lines of “And while people who like manga may only like manga” and see if that works better for you.
>Dazzler is Diva Magic!
Talk about FABULOUS! I would love to see the direct-sales figures for Dazzler #1 in comparison to other books — or even Dazzler #10. Girl can rock it if she’s made divafabulous again! Thanks, Tom!
Posted by Novaya Havoc on 2007-04-22 19:13:56>
As I recall, DAZZLER #1 was the first Marvel title to be sold exclusively through the Direct Market–the first Marvel book not available on the newsstand. It was done as a test case, to see if the Direct Market could sustain a series all by itself. And reports at the time put the circulation of DAZZLER #1 at somewhere around 400,000 copies–so clearly, the Direct Market could.
>Gone into the multiverse
Hello chaps, I posted a response last night, but it’s been removed. Roma’s doing?
Posted by Volthoom on 2007-04-21 08:29:21>
People keep jumping to this conclusion from time to time, so maybe I’d better clarify how the response section works. When a blog response is posted, any reader has the ability to flag that response post as offensive. When a post is flagged as offensive, it automatically comes off the site, until an administrator can evaluate its content, and decide whether to approve it and restore it, or to delete it. And on this blog, most often that person is me, and I don’t always get an opportunity to scroll through the back-posts every single day. So sometimes, responses that you’ve made may seem to disappear into the ether–but rest assured, in all likelihood they’ll return as soon as I find them. The only reasons I’ll remove a post is for language or genuine offensive content. If you disagree with me, that’s fine, so long as you’re not cursing up a blue streak.
>Disappearance from the Newsstand
Hey, Tom —
Could you explain the reasons for the decline in newsstand revenue? Is this why comic companies today are gunshy about committing to a significant, extended, long-term newsstand push? I know that I got into comics via newsstands as a kid in the 80s, but from what I’ve seen today, comics aren’t readily available outside of the direct market comic shops.
Posted by therubberbandman on 2007-04-19 18:24:08>
I could probably do a whole post on just this subject–so let’s plan on making that tomorrow’s entry.
More later.
Tom B
The Tom Brevoort Experience 