Is Joe Quesada's job in jeopardy?

[arthur pendragon]

I think the thing that Quesada has that's most valuable to Marvel are his connections/relationships with high level creators like JMS and (snigger ) Kevin Smith. I'm not sure how instrumental Quesada was in getting Joss Whedon to work for Marvel.

The publishing strategy of throwing everything you can against the wall at $2.99-$3.50 to see what sticks appears to be less and less effective. The overexposure of the high level franchises also appears to be reaching the point of diminishing returns.

The numbers just posted at Comicon
http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultim...&f=36&t=002686
also mentions one of Marvel's more recent publishing strategies which is to not let readers/retailers know if a new series is a mini or an ongoing, even though the way they've been selling across the board they all turn out to be minis.

A RUMOR just posted at Lying In The Gutters states that there may be some high level(above editors) firings in Marvel's future but the RUMOR was given a red light meaning that it's unlikely that it's true. The RUMOR said 'above editorial" so that may mean Dan Buckley or Gui Karyo.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/?column=13

When Jemas was demoted and ultimately let go from Marvel, I wonder if it was just that he shot his mouth off once too often?(Aside: Is Jemas still listed as the 'inspiration' for the Ultimate books? If Kirby and Ditko still don't get credit on the vast majority of the books they helped to create, I can't feel too bad for Bill. ) Quesada is no slouch in the trash talk department, but perhaps Marvel holds their Publishers to a higher standard than they do their EIC. I don't for one second believe Joe would be let go over the Batman/Daredevil controversy. I think if there are any high level firings coming at Marvel it will be because the men at the top(Perlmutter and Arad) are unhappy with sales numbers.

If there were high level firings, I wonder what future executives publishing strategies would be to deliver higher sales. I don't see a downscaling of formats and a reduction in price points to spur sales. I also wonder if the 'writing for the trade' practice would be changed.

The men most often mentioned to replace Quesada as EIC are Alonso and Breevort. I see these two men as the Carlin and DiDio of Marvel in that Breevort/Carlin represents the traditional comic book approach and DiDio/Alonso seem to have a more aggressive/edgy style. Strangely enough, while I think DiDio's approach at DC has been more successful than Carlin's, at least with respect to Batman and Superman, I feel like Alonso might have lost his golden touch at Marvel. The last time I really loved the Superman books was when Mike Carlin was editing them, but prior to DiDio taking charge over at DC, Carlin's final years as the top dog under Levitz weren't pretty.

Quesada has basically gone back on nearly every publishing strategy he once opposed, i.e., relaunches and renumberings without end, 'dead is dead', alternate covers, the so called 'return of continuity', writing stories about stories(Sins Of The Past in Amazing Spider-Man). It seems like desperation fueling their approach to publishing.

The fact remains that the latest attempts to reach out to kids(Marvel Age) or girls(Mary Jane) have been rotten sellers in the direct market, and if the bookstore market is the primary target of Tsunami and other books, why were they all cancelled? They didn't generate sufficient money in the direct market to continue publishing them but the bookstore market didn't embrace them either.

The thing is, would you like to see Quesada replaced, and by whom? Also what can Quesada, or any future EIC or Publisher do to increase sales besides short term pops with renumberings and multiple covers?

[Flyingsock04]

With Marvel right now what's the difference between a mini and a title that gets canceled after the first arc?

[Kaji712]

[i]Quesada has basically gone back on nearly every publishing strategy he once opposed, i.e., relaunches and renumberings without end, 'dead is dead', alternate covers, the so called 'return of continuity', writing stories about stories(Sins Of The Past in Amazing Spider-Man). It seems like desperation fueling their approach to publishing.

The fact remains that the latest attempts to reach out to kids(Marvel Age) or girls(Mary Jane) have been rotten sellers in the direct market, and if the bookstore market is the primary target of Tsunami and other books, why were they all cancelled? They didn't generate sufficient money in the direct market to continue publishing them but the bookstore market didn't embrace them either.

The thing is, would you like to see Quesada replaced, and by whom? Also what can Quesada, or any future EIC or Publisher do to increase sales besides short term pops with renumberings and multiple covers? [/b]

So well put. When Morrison and JMS first came to Marvel is when things were picking up. The ditched the code, started releasing trades, told wolvies origin, revamp x-men (without renumbering, I HATE the renumbering. Unless it is a completely new book. Where the didnt do that with X-Force and Thunderbolts when their orignal stories ended, something else I HATE.), revamp amazing spiderman.

I do not like the ultimate universe because it changes charactors too much, when Emma was found out to be Xaviers old lover and then left because he was taking a too violant approuch it was so out of her regular charactor. I was pissed. and now marvel has become relieant on these title. How long before these titles have too much continuity for new guys. The regular universe really isnt that hard to understand assuming you get good writers and artist.

And now marvel is just going back to everything that they did so well. Just because they want people to take notice. I am not huge on DC titles but they are very consistant. Something marvel consistantly lacks. All they care about is money and by renumbering titles everyone rushes to get issue number one. I recently found out Emma Frost was being cancelled which I am very upset about. I encourage everyone to support it. I saw the numbers on Comicon. and it is number 71. And it has only decreased in sales since it came out. Which made it seem reasonable to get cancelled. however, after looking other marvel titles series generally have a constant trend to loose numbers, generally until a big arc comes along. The series is still way high is charts for a marvel age series.

Marvel needs to work on getting big artist and or writers for these smaller titles that come out. X-Men will always be a high seller, but the big guns somewhere else.

[The Shadow]

I also don't think Joe should brag about bringing Kevin Smith into the fold. Sure he signed an exclusive with Marvel... but that has produced 2 issues for 2 mini series both over a year late.

[arthur pendragon]

Originally posted by Flyingsock04
With Marvel right now what's the difference between a mini and a title that gets canceled after the first arc?

It may simply be semantics. Instead of having to say they cancelled a 18 series this year they can say they published 18 mini series this year. Sounds better, doesn't it?

[Kaji712]

Originally posted by The Shadow
I also don't think Joe should brag about bringing Kevin Smith into the fold. Sure he signed an exclusive with Marvel... but that has produced 2 issues for 2 mini series both over a year late.

Damn straight! Whatever happened to Black Cat/Spider-Man??? Its been like two years. I dont care who you are, finishing your frickin book! And the Dodsons better come back to finish the work.

[MattMurdock]

Damn that Joe Q! With those consistently good books!

Daredevil, the Ultimate titles, Amazing Spider-Man, New/Astonishing X-Men!

What a bastard!

[arthur pendragon]

Originally posted by Kaji712

Marvel needs to work on getting big artist and or writers for these smaller titles that come out. X-Men will always be a high seller, but the big guns somewhere else.

What is the reason that I supported a mid-tier title like Guardians Of The Galaxy by Jim Valentino over ten years ago? First I was 10+ years younger , but even more compelling was the fact that the book was inexpensive and it wasn't decompressed. That was the reason I read comics, and that ending was the reason I stopped.

I posted some months ago about what post-Jemas Marvel would look like and things are going about as expected.

http://www.newsarama.com/forums/show...&threadid=6733

[arthur pendragon]

Originally posted by The Shadow
I also don't think Joe should brag about bringing Kevin Smith into the fold. Sure he signed an exclusive with Marvel... but that has produced 2 issues for 2 mini series both over a year late.

Imagine the writer of Daredevil: Father and NYX chiding someone for being late on their books!

[cyclopsfan]

my question is this, if ULT universe is a cheap attempt at sales... what is your reaction to DC copying them with their own "Ultimate" book?

[Kaji712]

Originally posted by cyclopsfan
my question is this, if ULT universe is a cheap attempt at sales... what is your reaction to DC copying them with their own "Ultimate" book?

Well I think the Ultimate Universe sounds really interesting. I do love the Ultimates. I dont know why it just that one. I'm not big on BMB writing to be honest. I love Mark Millar just not his Ultimate X-Men stuff. I think the concept of an Ultimate Universe should be to change the settings and circumstances, even changing orignal team members work. But you cannot change the actual charactor. There personality mainly. And try to change their history as least as possible. I see an Ultimate universe more like Age of Apocolypse (One of my fav X-stories). The writers did a very good job to basically keep all the charactors the same person but its a completely new and different story.

[arthur pendragon]

Originally posted by MattMurdock
Damn that Joe Q! With those consistently good books!

Daredevil, the Ultimate titles, Amazing Spider-Man, New/Astonishing X-Men!

What a bastard!

I don't deny that some people like what they see from Marvel. That didn't prevent Jemas from being canned though, did it? I notice the books you mentioned are mostly from Marvel's big two franchises. Heck, you might be loving Amazing Spider-Man to death, but the sales figures on the book in the year of Spider-Man 2-The Movie, aren't exactly encouraging.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
Jul Amazing Spider-Man #54 - 95,173 ( -1.8%)
Jul Amazing Spider-Man #55 - 95,467 ( +0.3%)
Aug Amazing Spider-Man #56 - 92,277 ( -3.3%)
Aug Amazing Spider-Man #57 - 93,469 ( +1.3%)
Sep Amazing Spider-Man #58 - 92,294 ( -1.3%)
Oct Amazing Spider-Man #500 - 148,928 (+61.4%)
Nov Amazing Spider-Man #501 - 94,558 (-36.5%)
Dec Amazing Spider-Man #502 - 90,484 ( -4.3%)
Jan Amazing Spider-Man #503 - 87,341 ( -3.5%)
Feb Amazing Spider-Man #504 - 84,064 ( -3.7%)
Mar Amazing Spider-Man #505 - 83,613 ( -0.5%)
Apr Amazing Spider-Man #506 - 83,152 ( -0.6%)
May Amazing Spider-Man #507 - 81,944 ( -1.5%)
Jun Amazing Spider-Man #508 - 82,268 ( +0.4%)
Jun Amazing Spider-Man #509 - 101,632 (+23.5%)
Jul Amazing Spider-Man #510 - 84,750 (-16.6%)
6 mnth ( -3.0%)
1 year (-11.0%)

The sales dropoff on Marvel Knight$ Spider-Man looks like 'Trouble'(pun intended ).

MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN
Apr Marvel Knights Spider-Man #1 - 137,314
May Marvel Knights Spider-Man #2 - 99,320 (-27.7%)
Jun Marvel Knights Spider-Man #3 - 82,715 (-16.7%)
Jul Marvel Knights Spider-Man #4 - 75,508 ( -8.7%)

[Curtis Lowe]

One of the biggest problems with Marvel right now is they could care less about getting there titles out on time and more about charging more for the titles tht are late.


But I dont see them getting rid of Joe, even though I think they should get him out of the Marvel U.

[arthur pendragon]

Originally posted by cyclopsfan
my question is this, if ULT universe is a cheap attempt at sales... what is your reaction to DC copying them with their own "Ultimate" book?

If the idea looks commercial, it's not surprising that DC would try it any more than Marvel blaming their mulitple covers on DC.

At the height of the bubble DC had gimmick covers and titles on the stands just to take up space too, but Marvel had many more.

DC is no less willing to overexploit their premier franchises than Marvel is. I guess they'll both continue to release multiple titles of their precious few franchises that sell.

[cyclopsfan]

Originally posted by arthur pendragon
If the idea looks commercial, it's not surprising that DC would try it any more than Marvel blaming their mulitple covers on DC.

At the height of the bubble DC had gimmick covers and titles on the stands just to take up space too, but Marvel had many more.

DC is no less willing to overexploit their premier franchises than Marvel is. I guess they'll both continue to release multiple titles of their precious few franchises that sell.

so... is Dan Didio's job in jeapordy too?

[joslik]

The thing is, would you like to see Quesada replaced, and by whom?

I can't say that I would like to see JQ replaced as I really can't see anyone in the medium right now that could do anything better. The obvious progression for EIC at Marvel is Bendis or Millar. Hopefully not though - I think both writers know they are better writers than they are businessmen.

[arthur pendragon]

Originally posted by cyclopsfan
so... is Dan Didio's job in jeapordy too?

Historically, DC execs, at least the role Levitz occupies, have been much more stable than Marvel's. As we all know DC does have a lower number at which they'll cancel a title than Marvel does. Also, even though Marvel makes the bulk of their money from licensing, comics still account for more of their bottom line than DC does for Time Warner. I wouldn't be surprised if the same held true for DC Comics, but since they're just a small part of a huge corporation, the annual reports don't break it down as distinctly as the Marvel one does.

Finally, I know that Marvel doesn't have the exact same titles of excutives at their company as DC does. For instance, although DiDio is listed as Vice President-Editorial on DC books, I think he's DC's equivalent of an EIC. I do know that since 1980 Marvel has had four EICs being Shooter, DeFalco, Harras and Quesada. That's an average of six years per man. Prior to DiDio when Carlin was the top man in charge of comics on a day to day basis at DC his title was Executive Editor.

[arthur pendragon]

Originally posted by joslik
I can't say that I would like to see JQ replaced as I really can't see anyone in the medium right now that could do anything better. The obvious progression for EIC at Marvel is Bendis or Millar. Hopefully not though - I think both writers know they are better writers than they are businessmen.

Marvel's pattern, ever since I can remember is to make editors the EIC, not writers.

[gwangung]

Frankly, this kind of talk is idiotic.

We don't know the publishing environment involved, we don't know which decisions are made over his head, we don't what is under his control and what isn't. The fact of the matter is that we don't know jack.

Given that the ENTIRE magazine business has been shrinking at a steady 3-5% rate over the past decade and a half, we shouldn't over emphasize the drop in sales Marvel has gone through (which is the first drop in three or four years). And given that the whole direct market (as it has evolved) almost actively conspires against growth, I'm not sure that what we're seeing is the NATURAL attrition of readership from titles--it's the acquisition of readers where the problem lies.

(And, of course, the direct market is actively hostile at titles aimed at getting new readers...).

[arthur pendragon]

I remember when Millar and Morrison were both at Marvel during the early years of Jemas/Quesada and they were predicting a new sales boom in comics a few years down the road. Well, it's a few years down the road and here's what Morrison had to say in an interview shortly before he left Marvel.

QUESTION: Okay, so let's take your ambitions for superheroes. You once said that Superman should be selling a million, and given the opportunity that's where you'd take it. Is that goal still achievable, given that Marvel's best-seller -- X-Men, subject of one blockbuster and an upcoming sequel, has struggled with sales of late?

GRANT: I don't think comic books are in trouble but I'm no longer convinced that we can raise sales appreciably on these items. I think they're clearly becoming a niche market, like poetry, but with more hand-to-hand combat. The glossy, overly-expensive, hand-drawn periodicals we're now used to are such luxury aesthetic items that it's unlikely they will ever sell in quantity again. If they could be made much cheaper or else packaged as 200 page shinies, it might help, but compared to a game, a lad's mag, a CD or a DVD, a typical comic book is just too damn expensive and esoteric for most non-specialist consumers.

http://www.dynamicforces.com/htmlfiles/tommy23.html

[arthur pendragon]

Originally posted by gwangung
Frankly, this kind of talk is idiotic.

We don't know the publishing environment involved, we don't know which decisions are made over his head, we don't what is under his control and what isn't. The fact of the matter is that we don't know jack.

Given that the ENTIRE magazine business has been shrinking at a steady 3-5% rate over the past decade and a half, we shouldn't over emphasize the drop in sales Marvel has gone through (which is the first drop in three or four years). And given that the whole direct market (as it has evolved) almost actively conspires against growth, I'm not sure that what we're seeing is the NATURAL attrition of readership from titles--it's the acquisition of readers where the problem lies.

(And, of course, the direct market is actively hostile at titles aimed at getting new readers...).

If the direct market is truly the problem, then why doesn't Marvel, and every other company simply cease to sell to them? Then they can continue to sell returnable merchandise to the bookstores who support new material just like they did with Marvel's cancelled Tsunami line.

We know as much about Marvel's internal politics as we did when Shooter, DeFalco and Harras were shown the door and that is that the people with real power at Marvel weren't happy with their performance.

I don't think anyone at Marvel wants to hear about the publishing environment when their premier Spider-Man title, Amazing, drops 11 percent the year of the big sequel. So much for synergy.

[rjjb7]

Dude, so you don't like Marvel. Whatever. Deal with it.

No need to spread nasty rumors or insult one of the artists who helped bring Marvel back from bankruptcy.

I like Marvel books and am glad they're around. And Joey Q. is allright by me.

[mike616]

I don't think JoeQ's job is in any danger unless something drastic happens and DC overtakes Marvel.

[arthur pendragon]

Originally posted by rjjb7
Dude, so you don't like Marvel. Whatever. Deal with it.

No need to spread nasty rumors or insult one of the artists who helped bring Marvel back from bankruptcy.

I like Marvel books and am glad they're around. And Joey Q. is allright by me.

Is there anything that was a rumor that I didn't label as such? Is there anything I posted as fact that you believe wasn't? Should Quesada's failure to deliver Daredevil: Father or NYX be commended or condemned, or perhaps neither? Maybe we just shouldn't speak of such things.

I don't deny at the height of my comic buying years I was a bigger purchaser of Marvel books than DC so they are naturally the focus of more of my posts. Also, Quesada is much more visible than DiDio, and because of his trash talk he's a lightning rod for controversy.

I also don't deny publishing's role in Marvel's return from bankruptcy but the bulk of the credit goes to licensing, not publishing.

As to spreading nasty rumors, I'm sure Rich Johnston's Lying In The Gutters column will get many more readers than my little post.

[arthur pendragon]

Originally posted by mike616
I don't think JoeQ's job is in any danger unless something drastic happens and DC overtakes Marvel.

I'm not sure if that happened under Harras, but I'm near certain it didn't happen under DeFalco. Remember, Harras was given the boot when he failed to properly exploit the X-Men books for the first movie. Look at what Amazing Spider-Man sales have done the year of the sequel.