Joe Quesada: Editor in Chief

By Alex Hamby with George Berryman - June 2001

So much has changed in the industry since Joe Quesada took charge. We are on the ride of our lives and we have yet to see where it's all going to end up. Marvel has returned to the spotlight and in a major way. With Joe at the helm it's also become an unpredictable ride and not everyone brought their medication.

This time around HR takes a different approach with interviews and the results are intriguing. Joe answers the questions we most wanted answers to but might have been afraid to ask once upon a time. We hope you will enjoy it as much as we did!

Joe Quesada, the man, the myth and the legend that is one of the finest artists who has graced the board with his fine pencils. It started some time back when we all became aware of this man as one of the finest artists around. Since then he has become one of the most, if not the most powerful man in comics today. He has gone from Valiant, where he worked under former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, to one day assuming that role for the very same company. Now he is known for making some of the most important decisions that control the direction of the books we all read and love. Joe has done more interviews in recent months than many creators get to do in a lifetime. When it came our time to do it again we took a different approach with our questions. We took the position of the disgruntled fan and tried our best to cover many of the questions that we believed were yearning to spill forth from those fans who were most like us. After all, not everyone who's reading the books are happy with the changes. So, yes, we were a bit slanted with our questions and biased with our approach. It's something you expect from us but what you never expected was that Joe "The New Man" Quesada was going to put us in our places and say it exactly like it is. That's exactly what he does with style and finesse.

By Alex Hamby with George Berryman

PERSONAL

Time must be tight for an EIC and a full time Editor, especially when there's a new baby onboard. How are your wife [Marvel Knight's editor, Nanci Quesada] and new baby doing?

All is well in Quesadaville although Nanci is the one who has been dealing with the early wake ups. I could sleep through the Hiroshima bombing.

Any hopes that the new kiddo will come to work side-by-side with dad?

My only hope is that she's as fortunate as I am and finds something that will bring her as much joy as the comic industry does me. If she ends up half as happy she'll be doing pretty good!

What's married life like between two editors? And how does Mrs. Quesada grade the EIC's job so far? Is she your sharpest critic?

We manage to separate business and home extremely well. We make it a point to stop discussing comics the minute we get to the front door. We have a 15 minute walk so we can talk as much shop as we want up until that point, after that it's over. She is of course my harshest critic, although harsh is the wrong word. Nanci sees the world in simple black and whites, no grays allowed; I've learned so much from her I couldn't even begin to quantify it. So anyway, to her there is a right way and a wrong way, there is fair and unfair and there is the truth and everything in between is just a lie. She's my moral barometer and I always consult her on tougher issues. You know what they say, behind every great man there's a great women, well there's a great woman behind some mediocre guys as well ;-)

Let's step back in time a bit. If you'd stayed with Event Comics, and if Ash had been able to maintain a monthly schedule, how would that have changed the current status quo?

That's tough to say. Realistically looking at what happened to the industry, the way it collapsed, I doubt that we would have been able to survive in the long run. Keep in mind there were no investors with Event, we bankrolled that baby ourselves and Diamond wasn't really helping us small guys stay in business. We had to start resorting to all that double cover crap to try to stay alive. We had to start to think in terms of mini series and other methods in order to keep numbers up. The truth of the matter is the deal with Dreamworks was a wonderful thing, it put some nice coin in our pockets and got us in the door to meet some important people who still play heavily in my life, but at the end of the day when Dreamworks lost momentum on the Ash project and things started to cool off, I lost momentum too. There were some things that we found ourselves with our hands tide and it just made creative life increasingly more difficult, at least with respect to Ash. It was also a tough time for me. I had gone through this crazy failed relationship and pretty much found myself unable to sit at the drawing board due to horrific anxiety attacks. Personally it was a really dark time for me. Still, I wouldn't change a thing, not a one! I learned a lot of hard lessons and managed to have a lot of fun and continue to have a lot of fun with Event! I take great pride in the fact that even though you don't see an Event label on things, it's one of the most lucrative corporations in comics today!

What, if anything, do you feel you owe to DC Comics for setting you up with some of your first workÑincluding the insanely popular Sword Of Azrael?

That's an interesting way of phrasing it. I owe a lot of people many things in my life, many people who took a chance on me! Before DC there was Arthur Nichols at Valiant who got me out of my day job and into the freelance coloring biz working for Shooter and his gang. DC of course was instrumental in giving me my first sequential work and for that I will always have a warm spot in my heart for Jim Owsley, AKA Christopher Priest! He really took a chance on me when I was as green as they came. He basically hired me on the spot and I've never wanted for comicbook work in the 10 years since that day! Another bit of gratitude is owed of course to Denny O'Neill who hand picked me for Azrael and to Archie Goodwin who taught me what being a great editor truly is!

How did you come by your first work at Marvel? When you were new to Marvel did you ever envision yourself helming the shining star in the comic industry?

Some of my first work for Marvel was on some 'What The?' pages. There was a time when I was up for a Terminator comic, which never came to fruition and then a Silver Sable book which was launched without me because I happened to have had the wherewithal to ditch the project before it got started. The original writer went nuts and I bailed right after not even waiting to see who was taking over. I did some assorted covers and a couple of rush breakdown jobs but my real first break came when all the boys decided to form Image and there was a vacuum left in the X offices. I was asked to take one of the books and I only agreed if I could work on X-Factor with Peter David. It was the only book that I could read because the rest were just a jumbled mess that completely disinterested me. I don't think envisioning oneself as the EIC of Marvel is something that anyone normally does. I mean, let's face it; it hasn't been that glamorous of a job since Stan held the gig. Certainly I can see up-and-comers having stars in their eyes of being the next Jack Kirby or Frank Miller but lets be honest, who fantasizes about being the next Jim Shooter or Tom Defalco? I mean no slight to Jim or Tom, it's just that the job doesn't seem like it's all that much fun, you know.

Creator ownership at Marvel has always been something of a controversy. As a creator have you retained the rights to anything you have developed for Marvel? If not, do you feel a bit like Stan Lee, adding a bit of yourself to the machine to make it run?

I created a few characters for Marvel in the past and I retain the normal character equity that is given to creators. I have no disillusionment about what I'm doing and who I'm creating it for as I'm sure Stan didn't either. Let's face it really, who is this machine that we all like to talk about? Well, if you own stock, it's you! At least you're a part of it. I know very well what I'm doing here and the reason I'm doing it at Marvel is because I really feel I can serve the industry better as a whole by doing it through this "machine."

Here's the real world scenario for you: If anyone is going to make a dent in bringing back readers new and old into the stores, it's going to be done easiest by someone with recognizable icons being written and drawn in the best possible manner. Once the fans are in the stores they will dabble, they will experiment and they will try other titles. For the indy publishers like Event to work and become profitable, Marvel or one of the major players needs to be indestructible! Sure maybe X-Men will still be selling more than any other book, but if it helps the sales of Paul Jenkins' new creator-owned book, great! If it helps put more money in Brian Bendis' pocket because sales of Powers has gone through the roof due to the increased traffic, fantastic! That is what working at Marvel offers me, a chance to hopefully improve the business for all of us! That's why I work here, that's why I add bits of myself, besides this is anything but the machine people are making it out to be. I have high hopes for this place but if someday I'm proven wrong or booted out onto the curb I will have no regrets because at least I know I tried.

With the rigors of the EIC position, and with the time it takes away from the drawing table, how much do you really and truly miss regular pencil work? And since Daredevil was such a great project, do you miss drawing it? Is it ever difficult to see other people working on it?

Not drawing has been the one great sacrifices that I've made to do this job. It's like having a limb amputated but sometimes the Doctor comes along and reattaches it just to tease me a bit. Words cannot begin to describe how much I miss it. If it weren't for the fact that the EIC position has turned out to be so much more creative than I thought it would, I would probably be going insane right now. As for seeing DD being passed on, no it's not difficult at all. I'm so proud of the guys dong the book right now, they're great pals of mine and it's really nice seeing them carry on the success of the book. It's really the one place where I feel like I've left a legacy in a very short stint. I believe that Kevin and I came in and showed that you didn't have to be Frank Miller to make DD cook, that there was something wonderful about that character and all you had to do was treat him with care and he would take care of the rest! It's just nice to see that sales have not wavered at all and that the fans have opened up to David Mack and Bendis' work!

Do you see projects that are just too irresistible to turn down? What was the last title you helped put together that you knew was meant for your pencils?

I see projects like that all the time, especially with the wealth of writing talent we have at Marvel nowadays! I don't know about projects that were "meant" for my pencils but there are certainly projects that I see come down the pike that I would be jazzed to draw! I would have given an arm and a leg to draw something like "Origin" but then it would have also have been the ultimate hand out in a way and we've done enough of that at Marvel. The flip side of the coin however is that I believe Andy Kubert is better for the job than I am. From the pages that I've seen we made the right call!

Since we are talking DD, is there any chance of a reunion of Smith, Quesada and Palmiotti on the title any time soon? Can we look forward to any formal announcements?

Kevin and I have spoken about coming back to DD some day but it won't be anytime soon. If we do reunite right now it will be to do something completely different and very unexpected.

MARVEL BUSINESS

Would you clarify for fans, once and for all, rumors associated with Marvel and Citibank's relationship?

Actually I can't. As an officer of the company, answering that question in any way can get me in quite a bit of trouble. Basically, all I can say is no comment.

How much danger is there that Marvel could lose their copyrights to the bank and watch them summarily sold off to other interests? Is there a plan of action in place to combat this threat?

No comment.

In a recent poll on the Marvel.com site, fans were asked about the ÔBest X-Men Comic Right Now'. The reaction was very interesting considering the overwhelming controversy surrounding the creative teams on New X-Men and Uncanny.

1.) X-Treme, with 7,545 votes.
2.) Ultimate X-Men, with 6,686 votes
3.) Uncanny X-Men, with 3,869
4.) New X-Men, with 3,864

As a reflection of the new Marvel, how would you describe this poll's results and the company's use of these results to better serve their fans and improve sales company wide?

It's certainly very interesting since it does not corroborate at all with the sales figures we are getting from retailers and Diamond. The net's an interesting place filled with a lot of people with multiple screen names. New X-Men sold out before it hit the stands and was the single highest selling X-Men book in years, so go figure. If this poll is in anyway accurate, it will be reflected very quickly in our sales. If we don't see that reflection then you can pretty much say that something is pretty smelly in Dodge and that these Internet polls are basically meaningless.

You have talked quite a lot about Marvel's media blitzes. It was presented to me, by another creator, that most of the company's attention was being focused towards newspapers and media magazines. He went on to point out that your core audience, the one that you need to really make an impact upon, don't read these publications. What is your response to that idea?

You're kidding right? Our core audience knows what's happening at Marvel sometimes before we do. What we need to do is reach out to those who have no idea what our industry is about. Our core readers have a billion comic sites to choose from and we spend quite a bit of scratch marketing our new books to the choir. Look at the recent Elektra promotion or what we did with Ultimates. To think that the core audience is being neglected with respect to marketing is just insane. What comic fan isn't aware of what Marvel is doing? What we need to do is reach out to the uninformed, that's why we have a PR agency that handles much of that stuff. Also keep in mind that all of the mainstream press we're getting is free! We haven't taken any ads out in Rolling Stone last I looked, so it actually cost us more to promote within the industry than outside of it. All those articles and interviews in EW Magazine, Spin or USA Today are free and priceless!

What do you believe it would take to get comics into the hands of kids? Since younger readers could be a valuable and long term investment into the industry, do you see any value to younger readers anymore?

Young readers are of course the future of comics. Reading comics is very much like a bike. My dad is a very well read man, he reads books constantly, probably a novel every couple of days. He hasn't the foggiest idea how to read a comic. He has trouble following which balloon follows which and which panel comes next, especially with complex pages. He never read comics as kid, wasn't exposed to them and I find this to be true of most people who as adults have trouble reading them. It's an acquired skill that is best learned at youth.

So if we don't start to cultivate a new audience, where will we be when our current one dies off or abandons us as they have in the last 5 to 6 years? Quite frankly I believe that the solution to getting kids into comics is both an easy yet complex. The complex part is getting the books into the hands of the kids, our distribution needs to improve. The word needs to get out there that we're alive and well, which I believe we're doing quite well at Marvel, and then we have to make sure that the product can get into the hands of the perspective fan. Then the easier part of that equation is make sure that our books are the best they can be. If you give a kid a great product they'll get that right away and they'll be hooked! Kids are much smarter than we've given them credit for in the past few years and they know the difference between Grant Morrison's X-Men and an issue that was written by a Marvel Assistant Editor without looking at the credits page. We've been addressing the latter part of that equation in a hard way and we're making inroads with respect to getting the books out there. Heck, 2 million free copies of Ultimate Spider-Man is no joke! Another interesting part of this equation is that our hits per title on Marvel's Dotcomics are starting to exceed the sales on the individual books. This is a wonderful sign that kids and fans in general want our product as long as we're committed to offering the best stuff out there!

If you do see the value of this new customer base; how do you plan on facing possible backlash for such violent imagery as presented in easily recognizable titles as X-Men (that have been marketed towards children for decades), X-Force and Ultimate X-Men, which you promote in the quarterly report as being a part of the publishing company's books focused towards younger readers?

Let's be honest, X-Men has never been for 8 year olds. That's a reality that we've come to grips with this year. I have no idea what it says in the quarterly report nor do I care or think it has any bearing on who a retailer sells these books to. What's important is that we realize that there really aren't 8 year olds reading titles like X-Men and we should stop asking our creators to dumb down or take the edge off of there stories that are very viable for smart 11 year olds. Instead what we will be doing is creating books that are for that 8 year old demographic in the next year. I mean let's be real, on what planet did we ever envision Frank Miller's Born Again or Claremont's God Love, Man Kills really something suitable for an 8 year old?

Where do you see weaknesses that still need to be addressed within the company? Do you have any current plans to take on those issues and solve them?

Internally we suffer from a bit of low self-esteem. Marvel for years, and most of the time justifiable, has been taking lumps from fans, creators and retailers. We're on the right track and it's really been turning morale around in the last few months. I've been seeing my editors getting jazzed about upcoming projects, jazzed about the fact that their cool idea wasn't met with "We can't do that because it's not the Marvel way!" I'm starting to see folks in house becoming True Believers again! As Bill Jemas said at our editorial retreat last year, "Somewhere down the line we went from being the House of Ideas to the House of Fear." On the improving side, our Ultimate and Marvel Knights Magazines look and read brilliantly but we're still having problems getting them racked with the magazines. There are also a few creator issues which I'm trying to resolve.

What do you feel is Marvel's current strength that will help maintain its current standing in the top spot?

A few very simple formulas, the best creators on the most recognizable characters! After that we will have a very aggressive creator owned deal that will enable a creator, if he or she wants to work on something that they share a greater stake in, to be a part of something that will be financial and creatively more liberating than whatever else is out there. I often wonder how the world would have looked if Marvel had been willing to publish the books for the Image boys?

The comic industry is a $400,000,000 industry. This isn't much considering the incomes of many other industries and the stability that they have and comics lack. Sitting in the driver's seat offers you a unique perspective that many don't have when discussing the market. What do you feel that the current direction you are taking with the company will really help to promote comics as a mainstream form of entertainment?

First let me say that the future is looking incredibly bright, and that's not hype. Call your favorite retailer and ask about business. We've been getting reports daily now that we have a pulse and the patient is starting to kick! Couple this with the rejuvenated Marvel gift for gab and promotions and we're really starting to make headway and waves. There is no magic bullet but as I said before you just chip away and you chip away. There are future customers out there and maybe they'll hear a sound bite, maybe it's "Bad Girls for Fanboys." Maybe that won't mean anything or grab them per se but it's out there. Then maybe they hear about Kevin Smith, JMS or Joss Wheadon writing comics and that causes a little stir, maybe a fleeting thought that someday if they ever cross the path of a comic shop they'll drop in. Then maybe a bit later they hear that Marvel is publishing the most controversial comic in its history and all of a sudden they remember that their use to be a shop about 20 miles down the road and they decide to make the trek. Now here they are the neophyte fan and our retailer knows that this person is a fresh green face so they pounce. The retailer holding his end of the bargain makes sure that that new fan walks out with something that they're going to enjoy. It may be Avengers, it may be Kabuki, it doesn't matter because at that point we've got Ôem!

We have had some discussion regarding your thoughts about DC and the Comics Code Authority. As I understand it, you are a bit chapped by the fact that DC has managed take a hands-off approach to promotion of their titles, taking advantage of the benefits offered them by AOL/Time Warner. How do you feel that DC could have better used their resources to promote the industry and why can't Marvel do any of this without the help of companies like DC?

You see, Marvel is doing it. Check out all the press, national mind you, that we've been getting for things like Wolverine's origin or JMS on Spidey! I mean the number of pro comics interviews I'm doing on a daily basis is getting to the point of the absurd. All the time the only thing that keeps running through my mind is that we scratch and claw really hard to get every stitch of this, a lot of it appears in Time Warner publications. Then I wonder what we really could do if I had those TW contacts right at my finger tips; not even my Rolodex we're talking on my interoffice e-mail if I need it. Then I get to wondering about what other assets they must have. I know they have warehouses and distributors at their disposal and I wonder if there weren't possible ways to cut their costs enough to actually make comics cheaper and more profitable for retailers and fans by using those TW facilities? Then I just kick back and think about how DC's main objective, even more than selling or promoting comics, is making sure that TW doesn't notice that they're there and that they possibly could be used as a revenue center not just a license factory. I do stand corrected however on one point of this. Someone pointed out to me what if DC doesn't want to promote the industry outside of the small niche we're in, why is it their responsibility anyway? You know, that person was absolutely right, it's not DC's responsibility, they don't owe that to anyone and it was wrong for me to take them to task. I will say this, at Marvel I feel it's our responsibility to do so!

Do you think it is in the better interests of Marvel to openly criticize the competition on the eve of such a major and important crossover between both companies?

I think it's fine and healthy for both companies to poke at one and other from time to time. We're in competition for crying out loud! The age of Amalgam was boring, okay! I recently read some comments that Bob Wayne made at Bristol Con in the UK and all I could think to myself was, "That's the spirit!" Bob nailed us with some good zingers, it was low hanging fruit! Believe me I dish it out fully expecting to get it back in spades! Good for Bob, it was fun to read it, it's fun for the industry. Quite frankly if I was so petty that I would let stuff like those remarks bother me enough to cancel a crossover of that magnitude then I don't deserve to have my job. DC is filled with some brilliant people, some that I'm fairly close to (at least last time I looked ;-) ) and I'm certainly no more thick skinned than any of those folks. They know I have a job to do as do they. At the end of the day we're just disagreeing about business philosophy, it's not like I'm going out there and insulting people on a personal level.

Has the DC "Just Imagine" project with Stan Lee stirred any ill feelings between Marvel and his former homestead? If not, is there another reason that 'Stan Lee Presents' has been removed from the Marvel titles?

Over the course of many years the "Stan Lee Presents" has been omitted from many or our comics and each time it has happened it's due to complete oversight. So the fact that Stan's name was left out of some books is nothing but an editorial mistake. As for the "Just Imagine" projects, I'm thrilled as all heck for Stan! I'll be the first one at my local comic shop when those books come out!

You are a person who enjoys throwing out the challenges. What was your hope with your challenge to Todd McFarlane? Do you see any chance that the Spawn/Spidey project could happen in the future or have you turned your sights elsewhere?

Throwing out challenges? I only did it once as far as I can remember. My hope was that Todd might take me up on it. He knew it was coming; we spoke on the phone before it happened. Heck, worse thing that could have happened was that Todd and I get to do a little trash talkin' on the net and in Wizard. What harm does that do? It does however get people talking about comics in a fun way! If you notice everyone was polarized on the issue, even those that said that they didn't care, they cared enough however to make a point of saying they didn't! It would have been cool if it would have happened and who knows, maybe someday we'll revisit it.

Do you feel any pressure having so many large name talents working under one umbrella? How do you deal, or expect to deal, with previously volatile problems regarding creator's egos clashing?

I feel it's a very simple formula, yes we now have some of the best and brightest in the industry, but what they want is no different than any other creator. They want their publisher to show their work the same amount of respect and care that they put into it. I feel that as long as we can try to keep that goal a priority, we'll be fine. We may not be perfect all the time but I know, as a creator, when someone is giving it their all, even when they mess up. Honesty is also very important. Gone are the days of Marvel beating around the bush with respect to jerking people around. I may hate being the bearer of bad news from time to time, but again, as a creator, I hated when I was fed a line of BS by my editors. Creators aren't children; we know when we're being BSed. Quite frankly I know that I would rather hear any bad news up front than be kept hanging in the wind wondering which end is up. Also, it's important to let your creators know how much you appreciate what it is that they're doing. Sometimes a simple phone call or e-mail is all you need, but I know that it always made me feel appreciated when my editor called to say how much he or she liked the pages. Finally, it's important to be fair. So that's my basic plan, at the end of the day that's really all you can ask for. Now with respect to feeling pressure with all the talent we have, it's quite the contrary. I would be feeling significant pressure if we didn't have the talent and we were trying to make these books great. They're making my job easier, so basically I sleep well at night.

How would you describe Marvel's current outlook and the future?

Right now it looks brighter than it has in years! I look forward to work every day because I really feel we're making progress and it's happening incredibly fast! I've been asked about how quickly the improvement has come and what I attribute it to? It's quite simple in my mind, people love comics and they want to read good stuff. The fact that we're bouncing back so quickly is a glowing testimonial to how great our medium is. When we're on our game there's nothing better!

STORIES

First off, and honestly, how many of the Marvel titles are you currently reading on a regular basis? How many of those titles predate your term as EIC?

Why would you assume that I would answer that question dishonestly? I've said it before and I'll say it again, I read every single one of our titles. What predates my term? Almost everything does, doesn't it? I'm not quite sure what you mean by that?

How much of a DC Vertigo fan where you prior to hiring talented editors like Axel Alonso and Stewart Moore from that line?

I only read one Vertigo title and that was Preacher. I would pick up the occasional oddball title here and there but Preacher was always a mainstay of my reading diet. Also, Stuart was long gone from Vertigo when we hired him for Marvel Knights.

Despite a few early stumbling blocks, such as early Spider-Man continuity errors placing Gwen in High School with Peter, how are your newer editors adapting the new way of Marvel thinking to the old Marvel Universe? How much coaching do the newer editors receive from continuity editor, Ralph Macchio?

Let's clear something up right now, we've been making continuity mistakes for as long as there's been continuity. I think that the fact that we're placing less of a spotlight on continuity has placed a spotlight on when we make a simple mistake. Now what Gwen Stacey mistake are we talking about? Ralph is a wonderful source of knowledge but what he's more concerned with, as am I, is the consistency, or Super Consistency as Grant likes to say, of the Marvel U which I feel we haven't paid enough attention too as we've made the creative team changes. It's simple things like the UN Building being destroyed in one of our issues and then not having reflected in other books. That to me is what was so much fun about the Marvel U, it was a shared Universe. Sometimes I feel that fans mistake continuity for consistency. Anyway, it's something that we are starting to pay more and more attention to.

Marvel fans have a reverence for the history of this universe. For years the company has taken great advantage of this appreciation by publishing titles like Avengers Forever, Marvel Universe and other titles that cashed in on the history and the characters. Now there seems to be a disregard by certain creators, best known for work at other publishers, for this long and cherished continuity. Is this a reflection of a new direction started by people who simply don't know the history or are simply not concerned with it?

No, it's a new direction started by a group of people who are honest enough with themselves to realize that as long as you continue writing stories that only the most hard core of fans could follow, then you will constantly be doing absolutely zero to expand your fan base. We became masters of strip mining our own continuity and writing comicbook stories about comicbook stories. It's okay to do that from time to time, it's a bonus for the hard core fan, but when as an industry you make that a mainstay of what you're publishing, well that's just death. Imagine if all that you saw on TV tomorrow was new episodes of Gilligan's Island and Leave it to Beaver with lookalike actors. Now imagine that that was all you could get. How about turning on the radio and only hearing bands do cover versions of classic rock. You see where I'm going with this don't you? Our history is wonderful and rich, but it is history. If we want to wither and die along with our existing fan base we can certainly accomplish that by continually telling retro stories or stories that happened in-between the cracks of other stories. Thank God Stan Lee and company didn't have that option! They had no continuity; they had sit there and make the stuff up from thin air! What a concept! These new creators that we have coming on board for the most part were Marvel Zombies at one point, yet they understand the value of leaving what's in the past in the past. How do you expect us to ever tell great future stories if we keep looking backwards?

Is there any connection with this new direction and your overall lack of personal knowledge about what the universe is to long time Marvel fans, being as you were primarily a DC fan before?

I'll admit that when I started at MK 3 years ago I wasn't a Marvel Historian by far but I made it a point of learning my stuff. With respect to DC, I probably know little to nothing about DC continuity past the last 10 years since that was when I started reading their books. Now, I'm not quite at Tom Brevoort's level where I know issue numbers but you're taking for granted that although I've only been EIC for 8 months I have been here for 3 years and I did have a pretty good understanding of the Marvel U to start off with. Either way, the assumption is mistaken; the new direction is very strategic in nature and designed to maximize our ability to capture new readers while satisfying our older readers with great comics! Simple math, not brain surgery!

Why are some properties exploited for their continuity, such as the Defenders and the Avengers, while the X-Men and Spider-Man continuities seem to be profane?

As I said above, some books are geared towards our existing fan base; it's our tip of the cap to those that have been with us for years. Kurt knows his Marvel history so he speaks well to that audience but he also has a great talent for creating brilliant new stories. As you read Avengers you can see Kurt changing gears from story arc to story arc. Defenders is even more in that camp and again it's okay to have books with a classic feel; the problem is avoiding doing too many. Also keep in mind that a book like Defenders wouldn't be high on my list of new reader bait it's more for the hard core fan who remembers the original series. Spidey and X-Men are the books that most people pick up first anyway that's why they need to live in the land of the new and different!

Let's also consider the fact that Marvel is having success with titles like Fantastic Four, which is very dependent on its long and rich history. Why is it, do you believe, that Marvel couldn't approach X-Men and Spider-Man the same way and work towards the wide appeal?

I will bet you that the success of FF has more to do with Carlos' brilliant art than the fact that it deals with past elements. Sure it's a great read but if it remained a great read and never once touched on the past and still had Carlos drawing it you know we wouldn't lose a single reader, not a one! It's just a bonus that Jeph and Carlos are telling a great story while dealing with elements from past continuity. It's sort of like saying that the only reason the book is good is because it deals with the FF's "rich history." With respect to X and Spidey, what the heck do you think we've been doing for the last 6 to 7 years? All we did was deal with the history of these books and that's why our fans left. Seven to Ten percent a month, that's what we would lose as we told stories about this rich histroy.

Marvel has taken a rather controversial approach with two marriages in the MU. Peter and Mary Jane Parker and Scott and Jean Summers are both headed towards rough times with their relationships. Is there any market numbers that indicate that fans of your comics have problems with marriage? Is there any chance that these issues will work out for the better and lead to stories like the current run on Superman that is being received well by comic fans?

Well, I can't sit here and tell you what's going to be happening in our books in the future, that would sort of undermine everything that we set out to do. All I can tell you is read the books and see what happens. We don't do things haphazardly here anymore. Spidey is single again and Jean and Scott have troubles. Read the books and see what happens down the road.

How much has the Authority/Preacher mentality affected Marvel storytelling?

I'm not quite sure what that means. I think what's really had an affect on Marvel storytelling is that I come from the school of everything should be in story arcs and suitable for TPB formatting when it's done. So rather than rely on the monthly cliffhanger and stories that were mostly middle because you need that monthly cliffhanger, we are now thinking in terms of story arcs, mini movies per se. That's a philosophy that also effected the type of creators we went after. We needed talent that knew how to write for TPBs.

Previous attempts to tell Wolverine's origin were met with very poor response. Marvel had attempted to steer this course before but after a very negative backlash withdrew any further stories dealing with the character's past for fear that they would irreparable destroy any marketability he had. How do feel your approach will differ from the previous attempts and failures?

I feel timing is a very important element and another reason is that we're not approaching this tentatively. We're not approaching it from the angle that if it fails we can just turn around and wipe it clean with some excuse that it was a memory implant. It is however quite amazing to me how little fan resistance I am getting compared to what I was expecting. For the most part I've been getting mail from fans expressing relief that we're finally going to do it. Marvel got to a point where as a company we were acting out of fear. Fear almost put us out of business so it's time to move on.

Let's talk death. You have gone on record saying that when a Marvel character dies that this is their death is final. On the eve of movies like X-Men 2, with Ian McKellan signed to play Magneto, is it wise to kill such recognized characters?

You need to add the rest of my quote in there. I said this with respect to meaningful deaths like Colossus or Karen Page. Nothing is worse or cheapens a story than to see a character suffer a noble end and then see them return to super hero hijinx the next year. As for super villain "Oh my God he just jumped off a cliff trying to escapeÉhe must be dead" kind of deaths, those are open game. So if you think that Magneto's death in that issue had you convinced that he was meaningfully dead then you might want to read it over.

How is Marvel distinguishing the line between killing a character for shock value (i.e. all the deaths in the X-Books) vs. telling a quality story (i.e. Daredevil)?

What recent "shock value" deaths are you referring to? Just watch what happens in the new X books, these are the ones under my watch. You'll see deaths that both shock and have meaning! A death in a comic should resonate with fans to the core of their beings; it should serve a purpose within the story and truly be the only outcome that will serve those purposes.

Worse case scenario: Your new direction for Spider-Man or X-Men winds up driving fans away a la the Clone Saga. At what point does Marvel put it around and run damage control? Do the creative freedoms offered to some of the newly arrived creative teams supercede the wishes of the fans?

No of course not, the fans are the final judges of the product and the creators know this as well, that's what makes these people the best at what they do. As a creator you make yourself aware of fan reaction and if it's not going the way you intend then the most talented guys know how to shift gears. You see that's the beauty of what we're doing. If it doesn't work, that's okay, we're not afraid to rethink it and change direction. Here's the key to all of this, we have been as about far down as we could be without going completely belly up as an industry. We have seen the abyss, heck we've stood at the edge of it, and we know that we have nothing to lose but we do know that we can lose it all if we continued the course we were on.

THE FANS

At what points have you felt the most negative fan reaction to your work?

I get negative fan reaction no matter what I do, it's the nature of the beast. There is no way to please everyone so if we cancel a book we get negative reactions, if we keep the same book alive I get mail asking me why I'm keeping that piece of garbage in print. The key is to make the decisions that the majority of your readers are going to be pleased with and so far I think we've done pretty well.

How has your approach to fans changed since taking on the role of Marvel EIC? Do you feel a separation between you and the fans that wasn't as prominent as when you were heading up Event or Marvel Knights?

Actually I feel closer to them than ever! I certainly speak to more of them than ever! I've visited all sorts of different fan sites and I've been made aware of bigger issues, which weren't my concern in the past, by our fans. They're an invaluable resource.

There have been several exchanges between you and your fans online in recent months. Some have been pretty volatile while others were quite calm and enlightening. What have you taken from these exchanges? How do you feel about the less than positive correspondence you have had with fans online?

Let's talk about the overwhelming positive response we've had from the fans! Let's talk about the increase in sales and the increase in interest! See, this is one of the things that troubles me the most about what's happening (especially) online. All this negative rhetoric that really gets tiring after a while. I remember when this industry was proud of itself and devoid of this repulsive self-loathing we've grown to shroud ourselves in. Times are getting better and we should be getting happier! It's time to focus on what's good about our industry and get over this crap about negative Internet babble. Listen, the reality, and you know this is well as I that for the most part it's fewer people than you think all under different names. My exchanges with the fans have been over policy and concepts, but it's just that, exchanges. Let's talk about the other exchange we have with the fans, the silent exchanges, the quiet, satisfactory footsteps of people returning to comic shops.

What would you like fans to know about your approach to their favorite comics that might not be understood at this point?

I don't know, I think I've been pretty open about everything we do. No secrets really.

Where have you seen the most positive fan response to your work so far?

The proof is in the numbers. Our sales have increased by huge numbers in the last six months so that's as positive a reaction as I need to see!

What is your view, as EIC, about online fan and news sites? Do you believe that there is any competition between these sites and the company's better interests?

I think when the Internet spoils news and it becomes detrimental to all of our businesses. It's a short-term blip for the website but it does months of damage to a companies marketing campaign. The problem is that all these sites require daily news and there isn't enough news in our industry to put out daily drivel, that's why some sites resort to spoiler news or copying and pasting message board posts. That's also why we get so much press, these sites are dying for content so if it's content they want then that's what we'll try to give them. I will say this the more we keep everybody busy with stuff like "It's going to be the most controversial marvel story ever," the more they stop sniffing in areas that we need to keep secret.

THE FUTURE

With the introduction of Witches later this year, focusing on the magical old school aspects of the Marvel Universe, can fans expect to see more horror titles as well in a similar vein to what Marvel had with Tomb Of Dracula and Werewolf By Night in the 70s?

The fans will determine what the fans will see. It's a simple, age-old equation. If they respond well to horror and magical stuff, then we'll make sure to make more of it available.

What else can fans expect to see in coming months? Do you have any tidbits that you can share with fans about upcoming projects, plots or anything else?

There's a big death in September, and it's one of those real permanent ones I've talked about. We have a kid's imprint that we're working on and we're cooking on the creator owned front. Outside of that everything is top, top secretÉ well except for a huge Spider-Man related book that's going to be worked on by a talent that will guarantee us a top five book. There ya have it, an exclusive, more on this in San Diego Comicon!

The Essentials program seems to be moving along quite smoothly. What future Essentials can we expect soon and will they tie in at all with the release of other releases?

Well, we have a Doctor Strange Essentials and a Hulk Volume II out this year. In 2002 we have some special ones on the way but we aren't prepared to release that info just yet.

How does it feel? You are living a lot of people's dreams on a daily basis. Comics are your life tothe point where you have probably sought out other hobbies in order totake your mind off superheroes. So, tell us what it is like being in the Editor-in-Chief's office where Lee, Shooter and others have been before.

It's an amazing view I must say. The perspective is completely different and the responsibility is great. I really enjoy the job and I'm having a ball. Ask any of the people that I work with, we're just having a blast coming up with new projects and aggressively going after the best talent! It's funny, I can't say that I have any real hobbies right now, I did make it a point however tonot have any comic art at all in my NYC apartment. We have a home in New Jersey that's chock full of the stuff, but back at the apartment where we spend most of the time, we're putting up classical illustration and photos that I've taken. You wouldn't know that twocomic book people live there, it's pretty funny. I love buying DVDs and watching them with the family on rainy weekend and I'm a big audiophile, I've have home theater set-ups in both locals. I figure I don't get much time togotothe movies s

When I see them at home I want to make the neighbors ears bleed. Aside from that I just enjoy being with my wife and daughter and spend a hell of a lot of time worrying that I'm not spending enough time with either. Life as the EIC is fun, but I know it's not a permanent gig, eventually someone else will have totake over. It's okay, I'm fully prepared for that day whether it's 30 days or 30 years from now. I just want tomake sure that when I leave, I leave the place in a better place than I found it.