Waiting
For Tommy: Ian Edginton and Joe Quesada
By Richard Johnston
I'm
part way through my first novel and working on another for
Games Workshop. I have two more arcs of a three arc story
to finish for them too.
I'm also
finishing up the outlines for the third series of The Red
Seas with Steve Yeowell (a fantasy pirate yarn that pre-dates
Pirates of the Caribbean) and I'm part way though two new
series with ballroom dancing boy genius Matt Brooker a.k.a
D'Israeli entitled Gothic and Stickleback.
He and
I are also tidying up an old project of ours called Kingdom
of the Wicked that's only ever been seen in black and white.
We're in talks with a publisher regarding a full colour reprint
in the same vein as Scarlet Traces for release later this
year.
RICHARD:
And that's a wrap I think. Ian Edginton can be contacted
here.
But
that's not all for this column! Joe Quesada was fed up of
answering sniping interviewers who only wanted to ask about
why Chuck Austen was allowed to write New X-Men, or what happened
to Epic or if Captain America was being turned into Mickey
Mouse... and why couldn't these nasty people ask questions
about how well Marvel are kicking arse this summer? Well,
anything to oblige.
RICHARD
JOHNSTON: Marvel are kicking arse! But isn't there room
for someone in the Top Twenty apart from your guys? If Jim
Lee's Superman is there all on it's own, will you be nice
to it? You won't bully it or anything will you?
JOE QUESADA: I love Jim and I'm a fan of his work,
but he makes for great competition. I know he wants to kick
our ass as much as we want to kick his. Let's face it, thank
god Jim dusted off his pencils or every month would be a clean
sweep.
RICHARD:
Marvel are kicking arse! With Ultimate Fantastic Four clearing
200,000, will you settle for anything less than 300,000 for
Astonishing X-Men? Who will hunt down retailers who don't
order enough - you, or the fans?
JOE: 300K is a tall order for anyone right now. What
I'm hoping for is record breaking sales in the bookstore market.
I believe that the legion of Whedon fans, especially those
of the female persuasion will want to get their Joss fix at
a bookstore.
RICHARD:
Marvel are kicking arse! A friend of mine read the script
of Spider-Man 2 and claimed Chabon to be a Spider-genius.
What's your take on what you've read? Any chance of grabbing
him to join the likes of Bryan Singer on the comics?
JOE: You never know, but Chabon is a genius, no doubt!
I love the short story he did for DC and I'm looking forward
to his Dark Horse stuff.
RICHARD:
Marvel are kicking arse! There are three high profile films
on their way based on Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's work.
Punisher, Constantine and Preacher. My money's on Punisher
- you should have seen how people swarmed around those giveaway
T-shirts at Chicago. Can we expect more and more Ennis/Dillon
projects from Marvel?
JOE: Certainly more Ennis, he has a couple of things in
the hopper. As for Steve, he can work for us anytime he wants
but word on the street is that he's knee-deep working on City
Lights, his and Garth's barroom opus for Vertigo. Hey, look
at that, I gave my competition a plug!
RICHARD:
Marvel are kicking arse! Supreme Power broke all expectations
in the American market, being a top selling mature readers
comic. There are some concerns though that this is seen as
an exception. Do you expect other projects of a similar tone
from Marvel?
JOE: MAX is a unique imprint because I don't view it as
an imprint. I view it more as an outlet for some of our creators
to tell certain types of stories. If MAX was intended to be
an imprint like Marvel Knights or the Ultimates, we would
have set a certain title count strategy and a bottom line.
That was never the intention, what we wanted was to have the
ability to allow ourselves certain latitudes. That said, MAX
may have two titles by years end and then again it may have
ten, there's really no telling, we'll just take the stories
and concepts as they come.
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