By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 9/2/2015
This is the first in a planned series of articles about the “Image Effect.” Over the past 20+ years Image Comics has grown from a vanity publisher for the top talents of the 90s into a trendsetter and home to a diverse range of popular titles and creators. How did they accomplish that? Image’s well-known […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/25/2014
by Alexander Jones
This early in the morning, it’s tough to get comics fans to wake up for anything. Luckily here at San Diego Comic-Con, there was a room full of eager Spidey fans frothing at the mouth to hear more news about the upcoming Spider-Verse event over at Marvel. The event combines every single Spider-Man character (owned by Marvel) into one jam packed story. This saw multiple heroes down at the show decked out in some awesome costumes. There was an Black Cat cosplayer in the room, a Miles Morales Spider-Man, and the original Peter Parker outfit as well.
The panelists included Dan Slott, writer of the event; Senior Editor Nick Lowe; Daredevil author Mark Waid; Superior Foes of Spider-Man author Nick Spencer; artist Humberto Ramos; and Amazing Spider-Man colorist Edgar Delgado. Nick Lowe solicited much excitement from the crowd who happy to oblige amongst some of the others. He teased that he was going to show some of the fans a video later on in the panel. Mark Waid was attempting to tease that artist Humberto Ramos was only late because he wanted to make a big entrance. This solicited even more applause from an energetic crowd.
We then got another tease at the Spider-Verse tease variant covers by Gabrielle Dell’Otto.
Another comic was shown off at the upcoming The Superior Spider-Man #32 by Slott and author Christos Gage, along with Giuseppe Camuncoli and Adam Kubert teased the Edge of Spider-Verse. Humberto Ramos then showed up to a crowd who didn’t give him any applause at first. The audience then gave him some news after the initial whimper. Lowe explained that they were not going to show us any of the art from Spider-Verse yet.
Slott elaborated on the return of Superior Spidey. He states that Spidey got caught in a time vacuum and ended up stranded in 2099, where the new comic book picks up. The audience was shown some variant Skottie Young covers that are absolutely gorgeous. The focus then naturally shifted over to Spider-Man 2099. Lowe asked the audience if they bought the title from Will Sliney and original creator of the hero; Peter David. The audience once again broke off into massive applause. The editor explained some of the premises behind the issue. Rick Leonardi was mentioned as returning to the book with Issues #4 and #5 coming in October.
Mark Waid then teased Daredevil during Original Sin, which focuses the spotlight on Matt Murdock’s mother. She had abandoned him as a child, and Matt sees her again when she has been on tough times and found her way to prison. She is on her way to Wakanda. The group teased pages from upcoming Daredevil #7. Lowe shared that the group has a terrifying story coming up entitled “Who Are The Purple Children.” Waid states that the happy-go-lucky Daredevil is now starting to lose his cool with this title.
Slott elaborated about the Original Sin storyline crossing into Spider-Man, which features the Spider that bit Peter has also bitten Cindy Moon. She is also known as the Spider-Bride by Ezekiel. Ezekiel served as Spidey’s mentor for a short time. Ezekiel has been keeping Moon enslaved for a certain amount of time, and her breaking out of imprisonment is going to be a major inciting incident towards Spider-Verse.
Lowe then brought some more attention to The Superior Foes of Spider-Man. Author Nick Spencer was talking about how this comic is focusing on some of the C and D-list villains in the Marvel Universe. He teased that that the comic book series may be crawling down to a halt soon. Issue #14 shifts the character focus more towards Overdrive. Spencer noted that at times he only needs to write down a paragraph and then have artist Steve Lieber work out what the page in full is going to look like.
Edge of Spider-Verse #2 by Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez was met with much fanfare, as it features the return of Gwen Stacy as an alternate Universe Spider-Man. Edge of Spider-Verse #3 is written by Gerard Way and Jake Wyatt was also met with much acclaim. Lowe stated that he has been trying to find a way to write for Marvel for some time. The musician turned comic artist has a massive following.
In The Amazing Spider-Man Issue #7, Dan Slott teased a brand new spider-Man that he created for Spider-Verse. The Spider-UK, who has supposedly been on the Captain Britain Corps. The next issue bring in the MC2 Spider-Girl known as Mayday Parker. Slott teased that she may be in for a “rough” time.
Spider-Verse Team-Up was then announced which is a new comic shipping in November. Each issue is being written by a different author. Christos Gage, Roger Stern, Tom DeFalco, Dave Williams, and others will be penning the story.
The crowd was even more excited about the brand new Scarlet Spiders tale. The comic is a mini-series written by Mike Costa and drawn by Paco Diaz. The book features Ultimate Jessica Drew, Ben Reilly Spider-Man, and the Scarlet Spider. The cover teased was a variant issue drawn by long-time Ultimate Spider-Man artist Mark Bagley.
The trailer for a multi-media project was teased. Developed by Gameloft, the panel was teasing a video game entitled Spider-Man Unlimited. There are 23 playable Spider-Men in the brand new phone game. Lowe noted that each Spider-Man has different abilities, and there are going to be other villains in the title. The game is set-up like a Temple Run style format.
Whew! That is a lot of Spidey info. Spider-Verse kicks off in Amazing Spider-Man #9 in November.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 3/24/2014
It’s been an age since I went onto a Marvel conference call – heck, it’s been an age since I did anything over here which wasn’t an interview. So today when Marvel set up a call with Dan Slott and Nick Lowe to discuss the next Spider-Man event storyline, I decided to nip across and see what was going on.
Spider-Verse will be a six issue storyline starting in issue #9 of Amazing Spider-Man – for Peter Parker is returning next month, as well as the Amazing Spider-Man series – and will see the villain Morlun return to take his attack on Peter Parker to multiple Universes.
Marvel are advertising this as a storyline where every Spider-Man to have ever appeared (as well as Spider-Girls and Spider-Womens) will appear once more, to try and take on Morlun. As you can see in the images here, all kinds of Spiders will show up. Spider-Ham is there, as is Miles Morales. Scarlet Spider, Venom and Spider-Man 2099. Morlun wants to kill every Spider, so every Spider is going to have to work together if they want to stop him.
With art from Olivier Coipel, the story will be teased in next month’s Amazing Spider-Man #1, but will also be previewed in Marvel’s Free Comic Book Day issue with a five-page story from Slott and artist Giuseppi Camuncoli – two pages of which you can see here.
When you get in on one of Marvel’s press calls, you’re willingly opening yourself up to “the full Nick Lowe experience”, which typically ends with you feeling like you’ve just eaten a whole bag of sherbet. Routinely pausing to scream the words SPIDER VERSE!! at the rest of the Spider-Man office, Lowe said that this was the first script he read upon moving to role of Spider-Man editor.
It was a fun call, and a lot of details came out during the press questions – the press being CBR, Newsarama, Crave, ComicVine, John Siuntres (the one man brand) and Nerdist. With Superior Spider-Man soon ending, and Peter Parker returning, the story was decided upon as it would hit on an interesting slant for the character: having just come back to life, Peter will now find himself face to face with the man who killed him during ‘The Other’. Morlun is a fairly recent villain, and Lowe said “Spider-Man is never closer to defeat than when he is facing Morlun”.
When I asked about why they chose Morlun to be the villain who is tracking down and killing off every version of Spider-Man he could find, Slott answered:
So many questions haven’t been answered yet about Morlun. He always dies at the end of each story he appears in… but always comes back, as an unstoppable force. It takes the most desperate, flailing measures to take him down. Doc Ock gets beaten a million times, and we’ve seen him lose repeatedly. On the other hand, Morlun has a really good record! Morlun means business.
This is being pitched as a war story for Spider-Man, as he heads off to battle with an army by his side. And that army will include Miles Morales, the Ultimate Spider-Man:
We loved Spider-Men, and the characters certainly remember meeting…
Lowe said. The idea of this being a story with multiple Spider characters in it led many people to speculate on which characters would or wouldn’t show up. John Siuntres asked if the Spider-Man from the Broadway production “Turn Off The Dark” would appear, whilst Crave were told that the Spectacular Spider-Man from the cartoon series would not get to show up – the character is partly owned by Sony. The Ultimate Spider-Man of the cartoon will show up, though. As will Mayday Parker.
Slott said that he wanted to write a story where the Spider-Car would come to life – a sentient creature, in the style of Pixar’s Cars – and would be called “Peter Parked-Car”. Lowe said he wanted Stingray to show up.
Marvel’s press calls are very silly things. In the poster right at the top, from Gabrielle Del’Otto, five of the six covers for the series are displayed. The sixth one will follow on to the right, but is being held back for the time being. Also held back were details on the tie-in storylines for this event, which’ll be announced at C2E2 instead. There will be a series launching alongside this event, as well as several different miniseries.
I asked about working with Coipel, as I believe this is the first time Slott and Coipel have collaborated.
One of the things about Olivier – when he signs on – is he first and foremost has a love for characters. He wanted to make sure there was a good story for Peter Parker. What clinched it for him is that this is a story which is meaningful for Peter. It’s not just a battle filled with splash pages of all these characters leaping about – but there’s character, and a real arc for Peter Parker himself.
The scope of the story will be large, and head to other dimensions as Morlun goes on his killing spree. Slott first had the idea to write this when he worked on the video-game “Shattered Dimensions”, in which the player got to take control of four different Spider-Men at different points in the game. This is the natural progression from that, and obviously a bit bigger in scope.
The call wrapped after three questions each. Although for my final question, I simply asked “will Spider-Kitty be in this story?”
Spider-Kitty, of course, being the hero of a Skottie Young short story set during the previous Spider-Island event. After a pause, Slott said “I hadn’t thought of Spider-Kitty… but now we’ll have to write it in”.
So, y’know, you’re welcome.
Spider-Verse starts way into the future, in November, with Amazing Spider-Man #9. It’ll be teased in Marvel’s Free Comic Book Day issue, out in May.
This is a great peek behind the curtain, thank you for this.
To work totally editor free is an awesome experience, to do whatever you want feels nice….. and scary.
the truth is I like working with editors, I learned a LOT working with them, When I was in Image, even Jim Valentino and Erik Larsen gave us great advice. Then with Scott Allie I learned (and keep doing so) great things and made me a better storyteller.
Having that outside eye is really important, and making changes are not a bad thing at all, we creators sometimes are so in love with what we’re doing that we cannot separate ourselves from our work to find the flaws, and an editor definitely can.
I think Editors will stay for as long as there are comics.
Editors thriving?
Hahahaha! Oh good one.
Good editors are often like good bartenders, to be friends and confidants, sounding boards and in some cases uncredited co-writers. Every creative team and project is different. Approach on a corporate owned project is completely different to a creator owned one. So many variables and you have to be able to handle all of them.
Like the big publishing houses, the comics editors have been viewed as not integral to the end product by the bean counters like Ike Perlmutter. Many traffic managers have been allowed to assume the ‘Editor’ title in lieu of a pay rise.
DC’s best editors were Archie Goodwin and Andy Helfer. Marvel had people like Ann Nocenti and Louise Simonson. Image don’t have any editors but they do have some great production people who read most of what they handle and pass on any mistakes they just happen to catch.
That’s not to say good editors aren’t at these companies but they’re usually overworked, underpaid, and told not to upset the talent by interfering.
Rewrite someone’s script? Most creators used to get the opportunity to rewrite their own unless they were unwilling to do what the publisher wanted or went awol (it happens), but if you don’t get the approval or acknowledgment of the creator good luck surviving the next month on social media.
Then there were the Marvel years where artists would get plots and then drew whatever they felt like drawing. Writer gets three or four issue ahead before he sees pencils to dialogue and can’t find his story in there beyond page three. Realizes his other scripts are now useless.
Ah, editors. Last out the office, first to be shit on.
What Dave Elliott said. Exactly.
Editors definitely seem to be underappreciated, which I explained in the article. But they’re increasingly in-demand amongst creators at publishers like Image, so in creator-owned comics at least I think they’re being viewed as increasingly important.
This post is terrible.
Dustin, be prepared to support your answer!
Reading article it seams that that today’s editors are simply focusing on production and financial matters rather than on the actual editing.
“Over the past 20+ years Image Comics has grown from a vanity publisher for the top talents of the 90s into a trendsetter and home to a diverse range of popular titles and creators. ”
I don’t think Vanity Publisher is an apt description of Image at it’s outset, unless of course you’re John Byrne. They’ve also been trendsetters, for better and worse, for most of the time since their inception.
Heidi this post needed… an editor. Backing up the “editorial interference is often overstated” subhead with a scoffing Nick Lowe tweet is not exactly digging into a topic. Nor is the rest of the post, which seems more like a long commercial for whatever Andy Schmidt is selling. Whatever the role of or possible need for editors might be in today’s comics landscape, I know exactly 0% more than I did when I started reading this, but I do know a ton more about Andy Schmidt. Andy Schmidt. Andy Schmidt!