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| SDCC DAY 3 – Cup ‘O Joe Panel |
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Here’s a look at some of the images shown at the panel, including a preview of Zeb Wells and Seth Fisher’s trippy Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big In Japan four-issue limited series (Oct.), art from what’s now called Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos, and December’s Daughter’s of the Dragon by writers Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray (think it’s about time we start calling them “Grayotti”?) and artist Khari Evans.
The last bit of info at the panel is a major teaser. At the end of the panel, Quesada recalled being asked at last year's Comic-Con if there was any one writer he could have come work on a Marvel Universe project, who would it be. Instead of recalling his answer, the accompanying "King" image was displayed... The panel ended immediately following.
The panel – which included Marvel’s Joe Quesada, Dan Buckley, and Andy Schmidt, ex-editor/current consultant CB Cebulski, and writers Reggie Hudlin, J. Michael Straczynski, Robert Kirkman, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Joe Casey – actually started with a show of images with some commentary on them.
- In another surprise, Marvel Team-Up #14 by Robert Kirkman will team-up Spider-Man, and another character written by Kirkman… Invincible.
Drawn by Corey Walker, artist of the first 6 issues of the Image series, Quesada said it adds some unpredictability to the Marvel Team-Up book, and if this works, there may be more of this type of crossover in the future.
- JMS’s Book of Lost Souls with artist Colleen Doran (Oct.) is about a man who committed suicide in 18th century London by jumping off the London bridge. Just as he was about to jump a, a mysterious character handed him a book, saying it will help go down faster. He “lands” in the 21st Century, and the pages of the book are blank and it’s his mission to help desperate cases like he was. He’s joined by a talking cat named mystery.
- Daughters of the Dragon’s Jimmy Palmiotti said he always thought the characters were the “coolest chicks in comics." Misty and Colleen will be bounty hunters hunting low-end supervillains in New York. The first issue open with them chasing the Rhino down the West Side Highway and destroying everything in site.
He described it as exciting and a lot of fun.
- Regarding Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big In Japan, Quesada said simply “Big – f-in monsters."
- Punisher #25-30 is a story arc pitting Frank Castle against the NYPD.
- Runaways #9-12 sees the kids runaway from LA to NYC, where they meet Cloak & Dagger again and the New Avengers.
- Young Avengers #9 sports a new team member and menace, respectively.
- Explaining the She-Hulk #100 image, two months after She-Hulk returns in a new series in October by Dan Slott, they are going back to the “original” numbering covering the original Byrne series and the previous Slott series.
The crowd laughed and Quesada joined them, clearly joking, “We are such whores”.
- As displayed by the preview image, New T-Bolts #13-14 is a meeting with the New Avengers.
- Regarding Moon Knight, Quesada said Charlie Huston’s scripts are among the best he’s ever read by someone who hadn’t written comics before. He said Huston has read all the past series and he’s very respective of history and continuity and many of the familiar elements are in place, but that he takes it and moves it forward.
The panel then went to Q&A from the audience.
- Responding to the ‘who will be the new New Avengers artist following David Finch’s exit to Moon Knight’ question, like Bendis Quesada said news was upcoming shortly. In the meantime, Frank Cho will help out on a couple of issues (revealed earlier to be #14-15) following Steve McNiven’s Sentry arc and Finch’s last “Ronin” arc.
To the surprise of no one, the Cho arc will center on Spider-Woman.
- Marvel does have a writer in mind for Iron Man after Warren Ellis’ arc concludes, but Quesada said it was no one on the panel. Kirkman humorously exclaimed “What?!” and began to cry.
- Marvel’s still not ready to announced Neil Gaiman’s project, but Quesada said, “2006 will be on heck of a year”.
- Dan Buckley said Joss Whedon and John Cassaday with be with Astonishing X-Men at least through issue #25.
- Echoing comments made yesterday, Quesada said news of a X-Statix related project is about a month away (Chicago anyone?)
- Asked about the return of comics to 7-11, Buckley said the initial numbers and feedback are pretty good, but that it’s a very different model than the direct market and they won’t have hard data until September.
Marvel is also in other select outlets like supermarkets and Walgreens. He hopes more and more stores and chains will get involved.
- There is a writer lined up for Hulk post Peter David, but they aren’t ready to announce.
- “When you see the Essential Killraven come out, you know anything is possible,” responded Buckley to a question about 70’s characters coming back.
- Asked about this January six-issue limited series with Chris Weston, FF: First Family, Joe Casey said it was similar to his Earth’s Mightiest Heroes series and as appropriate, will see a lot of “firsts”, like the first time Reed “kisses the government’s ass, like he seems to do a lot now."
Casey then sarcastically added it will crack the Internet in half, which garnered the response from Quesada, “Which half?”
Casey: “The half that’s left”.
-The last issue of Secret War should be out by at least November, with a hardcover to follow early in 2006.
- Quesada reiterated familiar reponses regarding the future of the MAX imprint, saying it was never suppose to be imprint with a certain # of titles, but an “outlet” for certain kind of stories that can only be told with the creative allowances MAX provides.
Talking about Supreme Power, JMS also reiterated that he and Quesada decided there was a glass ceiling on the title as a MAX book, and that they could reach many more readers as a Marvel Knights book.
He added the stories won’t change, the themes won’t change, and it will essentially be the same story he’s been telling all along.
- Marvel still doesn’t know if an “uncut” Shanna, the She-Devil will be offered.
- Marvel is about a month away (again, likely Chicago) from revealing Warren Ellis’ team book.
- Again addressing the number of variant covers they are publishing, Buckley said he realized there are analogies between now and the abuses of the early 90s, but that he was there during that time and now is the very different business dynamic than it was.
Buckley said in the early 90’s, much of the book's production costs went to gimmick variant covers, not leaving a lot left over for creative teams and it resulted in low-quality titles.
He said comics are now much more story-oriented and the quality is much higher. But he also said while it’s a different dynamic, it does make more money for retailers and Marvel, creates excitement and brings attention to series, and that Marvel will continue but without going overboard.
- There is another unnamed Frank Cho project coming out after his New Avengers run.
- Quesada said there is no plans to announce regarding The Champions right now, with Schmidt adding there has been some talk of a project, and that because most of the original Champions are under the Marvel Knights imprint right now, there is talk about it in the MK offices.
- One person pushing for the return of the Champions and Hellcat is Director of Sales David Gabriel, and there are scripts and proposals floating around the Marvel offices for Hellcat.
- Asked twice familiar questions about whether there will be more minority characters introduced into the Marvel Universe, Quesada said he recognizes because of the history of comics that heroes have mostly been white, but he thought Marvel was ahead of anyone else in terms of diversity and Marvel tries to reflect the world outside, which never had been and isn’t now lily-white.
Hudlin added that when he visited the Marvel offices to make this point, he didn’t meet any resistance, but went on to say the industry is so focused on the direct market and sending product to the same people month-in and month-out, that is doesn’t reach out to new readers.
He said there is an obvious audience out there, and there is no resistance at the Marvel editorial level, the issue is restructuring the industry to reach a more diverse audience.
Later Buckley said that Marvel also wants to look for a wider, more diverse pool of creators as well.
- Don’t expect any crossovers between the Marvel and Supreme Power Universe, but they have talked about having analogues of Marvel Universe characters like Spider-Man appearing.
Quesada feels Marvel should keep universes separate and not intermingle them in order to make them all special and unique.
- Quesada still feels the economic model of original graphic novels doesn’t work for Marvel.
- Asked about “writing for the trade”, Buckley said he feels Marvel stories are tight all around, but that they are creating more shorter storylines and have less 6 and 8 issue arcs currently.
- Asked how long the Ultimate Universe can continue before getting bogged down in continuity that led to its creation in the first place, Quesada said if Marvel is doing their job right, never, adding there is a certain way of telling stories to keep things inviting for new readers.
- Quesada said Wolverine will be battling some pretty cool characters soon and will have some costumed superhero adventures.
- There is another Mary Jane series from Sean McKeever coming in November or December. The panel joked every time McKeever’s name came up that they now have to call him “Eisner Award Winner Sean McKeever” (based on his win last night). Quesada joked he legally changed his name to “Eisner Award Winner Sean McKeever.”
- Ed Brubaker has an unannounced limited series that they’ll reveal fairly soon.
- A few Iron Man related mini-series are in the works.
- Asked where he sees Marvel in 10 years, Quesada cracked, “utter world domination, religions based on Marvel characters, mass suicides based on event in Marvel Comics”. But in all seriousness, Quesada said the company is in great shape and growing, and that the entire industry is doing well. He said his goal is to see the American comic industry on par with how it’s regarded in Japan and some parts of Europe, where creators there are regarded on par with film directors and authors.
- Asked how Marvel gets feedback from fans, Quesada very tongue-in-cheek said “solely from the Internet”. He continued “because of that we know you don’t like me very much, you like JMS even less, and Reggie – you’re fired."
He went on to say comics are very democratic, and that the audience votes with their dollars.
- They’ll be collecting the Marvel Handbooks into trades.
- Blade will be appearing in Black Panther in the future.
[Check out Newsarama’s continually updated 2005 SDCC News Index for all the con coverage from Newsarama and CBR]. |
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