MattBrady
11-05-2002, 09:23 AM
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/originhouse.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/originhouse_t.jpg" width="250" height="95" align="right" alt="The Howlett House, by Andy Kubert" border="0"></a>Readers of Marvel’s Origin miniseries who were familiar with Western North Carolina landmarks undoubtedly felt a small twinge of recognition upon both seeing and reading about the house in which James Howlett was raised. An impossibly large mansion nestled in the mountains has long been a staple of comics, but in this instance, it turns out the Howlett mansion was based in reality.
In the late 1800s in Asheville, North Carolina, George Washington Vanderbilt oversaw a near army of artisans and laborers as they built <a href="http://www.biltmore.com" target="_blank"> Biltmore Estate</a>, with the goal that the mansion and grounds would rival the great manors of Europe. While the house itself was a marvel of then-modern day engineering, the grounds, including the three-mile approach road were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (who also designed New York’s Central Park). In 1895, the Estate was officially opened on Christmas Eve.
The house still has the distinction of being the largest single residence home in America, despite that the Vanderbilt descendents have not lived there for years, and opened the house to the public in the mid 1900s. Each year, thousands of guests tour both the house and grounds. The mansion never fails to make an impact on its visitors – one of whom was Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada.
“It was just spectacular – I’d never seen anything quite like it, and to actually be able to walk through the rooms and see the original furnishings, and experience the building first hand – I took a lot away from it,” Quesada said. “Later, when Bill and I were mulling around the idea of Origin, and Bill had the idea of making the story about three little kids – I think the original setting Bill had was the plains in Texas, or something along those lines, that wasn‘t very visual, and then the idea of Biltmore came to me.”
When Quesada explained the area surrounding the estate to Jemas, he was quickly swayed to see how it would fit the story perfectly. Like many estates of the wealthy industrialists and heirs constructed in the late 1800s and first part of the 20th century, Biltmore was maintained by a virtual army of servants and other employees. In the case of the Biltmore Estate, the house and grounds lay on top of a mountain, while those who built, and later worked at the house lived in a small village below, now named Biltmore Village.
The social structure of Biltmore was mirrored in Origin, where the Howlett’s lived on the “hill,” and those who worked for them, including James’ companion, Rose, lived below. Additional similarities, although not factually based were the Vanderbilts themselves to an extent, as George Vanderbilt was noted to be more concerned with the arts and had a deep concern for people, much like Origin’sJohn Howlett. Both men were unlike their fathers, both of whom, fictional and real, were the driven industrialists, with Vanderbilt’s father continuing the family business in shipping that was established by George’s great-grandfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt.
The similarities end there, as Vanderbilt had a daughter, rather than a son.
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/house_08.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/house_t.jpg" width="175" height="144" align="left" alt="The front of the Biltmore House, image © the Biltmore Estate" border="0"></a> Historical digression aside, the social structure of Biltmore was something Quesada and Jemas thought would play perfectly into the story they were constructing with Paul Jenkins.
“You had the family that lived at the top of this hill, and they have so much money,” Quesada said. “George Vanderbilt was born to this, and was very generous with it, investing hundreds of thousands into the town and its people. They became one of the leading manufacturers of faux Louis XIX furniture, because they constructed it for the house, rather than import it. They created a dairy farm, and a full village below which was populated by people who either worked for Biltmore himself, or tended the land or other property.
“There was this fascinating social structure where you had a rich family, but one that allowed the money to trickle down. The family also believed in teaching the people to be self-sufficient, which is why they encouraged them all to learn a craft, such as furniture building, through their establishing of different industries. We used that as a loose foundation, story-wise for the social structure in James’ life, where his father was sort of based on the idea of a young man who was born to these riches, and decides to use them, in part, to look out for the townspeople. Then we created the old man Howlett, who was a real bastard about it, and didn’t approve of what his son was doing at all.”
And then came the art. “As we were going through these stories, Andy [Kubert] came to us looking for some ideas about what we were thinking of for the mansion, and I told him about the Biltmore House, and how the social structure was based very loosely on the surrounding area,” Quesada continued. “I showed him some of the books I had from Biltmore, and he took them home and drew it.”
And then came a problem. A couple of preview images of the Howlett house by Kubert were published in Diamond’s Previews catalog. Somehow, the images made it to the offices of the Biltmore Estate, which quickly placed a call to Marvel, and filed a suit to prevent them from using the image. Given the unique structure of Biltmore, as well as the surrounding area, the Estate has trademarked the image of the Biltmore House, and it cannot be used without paying a license fee.
“That was fine for us – Andy just took an eraser, drew a few new lines, and it wasn’t the Biltmore House anymore,” Quesada said. “It was unfortunate, because they could’ve had maybe a few more people learn about the Biltmore Estate when we’d have said that the house Wolverine grew up in was based on Biltmore. Not only that, we wanted to discuss with them about giving them an ad in the back of the issues that would tell people to go and visit the house. It just didn’t work out, so Andy took an eraser and created his own mansion. All in all, we were only using the façade for maybe three panels – I thought it would’ve been a nice cross-pollination thing, but it just wasn’t meant to be.”
In the late 1800s in Asheville, North Carolina, George Washington Vanderbilt oversaw a near army of artisans and laborers as they built <a href="http://www.biltmore.com" target="_blank"> Biltmore Estate</a>, with the goal that the mansion and grounds would rival the great manors of Europe. While the house itself was a marvel of then-modern day engineering, the grounds, including the three-mile approach road were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (who also designed New York’s Central Park). In 1895, the Estate was officially opened on Christmas Eve.
The house still has the distinction of being the largest single residence home in America, despite that the Vanderbilt descendents have not lived there for years, and opened the house to the public in the mid 1900s. Each year, thousands of guests tour both the house and grounds. The mansion never fails to make an impact on its visitors – one of whom was Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada.
“It was just spectacular – I’d never seen anything quite like it, and to actually be able to walk through the rooms and see the original furnishings, and experience the building first hand – I took a lot away from it,” Quesada said. “Later, when Bill and I were mulling around the idea of Origin, and Bill had the idea of making the story about three little kids – I think the original setting Bill had was the plains in Texas, or something along those lines, that wasn‘t very visual, and then the idea of Biltmore came to me.”
When Quesada explained the area surrounding the estate to Jemas, he was quickly swayed to see how it would fit the story perfectly. Like many estates of the wealthy industrialists and heirs constructed in the late 1800s and first part of the 20th century, Biltmore was maintained by a virtual army of servants and other employees. In the case of the Biltmore Estate, the house and grounds lay on top of a mountain, while those who built, and later worked at the house lived in a small village below, now named Biltmore Village.
The social structure of Biltmore was mirrored in Origin, where the Howlett’s lived on the “hill,” and those who worked for them, including James’ companion, Rose, lived below. Additional similarities, although not factually based were the Vanderbilts themselves to an extent, as George Vanderbilt was noted to be more concerned with the arts and had a deep concern for people, much like Origin’sJohn Howlett. Both men were unlike their fathers, both of whom, fictional and real, were the driven industrialists, with Vanderbilt’s father continuing the family business in shipping that was established by George’s great-grandfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt.
The similarities end there, as Vanderbilt had a daughter, rather than a son.
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/house_08.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/Other_Publishers/house_t.jpg" width="175" height="144" align="left" alt="The front of the Biltmore House, image © the Biltmore Estate" border="0"></a> Historical digression aside, the social structure of Biltmore was something Quesada and Jemas thought would play perfectly into the story they were constructing with Paul Jenkins.
“You had the family that lived at the top of this hill, and they have so much money,” Quesada said. “George Vanderbilt was born to this, and was very generous with it, investing hundreds of thousands into the town and its people. They became one of the leading manufacturers of faux Louis XIX furniture, because they constructed it for the house, rather than import it. They created a dairy farm, and a full village below which was populated by people who either worked for Biltmore himself, or tended the land or other property.
“There was this fascinating social structure where you had a rich family, but one that allowed the money to trickle down. The family also believed in teaching the people to be self-sufficient, which is why they encouraged them all to learn a craft, such as furniture building, through their establishing of different industries. We used that as a loose foundation, story-wise for the social structure in James’ life, where his father was sort of based on the idea of a young man who was born to these riches, and decides to use them, in part, to look out for the townspeople. Then we created the old man Howlett, who was a real bastard about it, and didn’t approve of what his son was doing at all.”
And then came the art. “As we were going through these stories, Andy [Kubert] came to us looking for some ideas about what we were thinking of for the mansion, and I told him about the Biltmore House, and how the social structure was based very loosely on the surrounding area,” Quesada continued. “I showed him some of the books I had from Biltmore, and he took them home and drew it.”
And then came a problem. A couple of preview images of the Howlett house by Kubert were published in Diamond’s Previews catalog. Somehow, the images made it to the offices of the Biltmore Estate, which quickly placed a call to Marvel, and filed a suit to prevent them from using the image. Given the unique structure of Biltmore, as well as the surrounding area, the Estate has trademarked the image of the Biltmore House, and it cannot be used without paying a license fee.
“That was fine for us – Andy just took an eraser, drew a few new lines, and it wasn’t the Biltmore House anymore,” Quesada said. “It was unfortunate, because they could’ve had maybe a few more people learn about the Biltmore Estate when we’d have said that the house Wolverine grew up in was based on Biltmore. Not only that, we wanted to discuss with them about giving them an ad in the back of the issues that would tell people to go and visit the house. It just didn’t work out, so Andy took an eraser and created his own mansion. All in all, we were only using the façade for maybe three panels – I thought it would’ve been a nice cross-pollination thing, but it just wasn’t meant to be.”