Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I'm trying to ease back into my editorial duties here at AICN. At the same time, I'm trying to figure out exactly how I am going to fake my own death to get out of my insane medical bills from last week.
One of the things I've sadly neglected has been the excellent work by Andrew at Grayhaven Magazine. Several of the columns he's prepared fell through the cracks here at the Labs, and it's entirely my fault. I'm also trying to get Frank Bascombe's latest column of book reviews ready for this Wednesday. Add that to my own personal diabolical projects with Harry Lime and the RUMBLINGS I'm preparing with AOTC stuff, SOLARIS and KILL BILL reviews, and a glimpse at an indie animated film underway right now, and I think I'm well on my way to completely disregarding my doctor's orders. But hey... time waits for no man, not even an Evil Genius.
Here's Andrew with an announcement about CROSSGEN and a piece about a controversy between Alan Moore and Marvel. I'll also be posting a whole mess of reviews today, and here's hoping I can keep up with him from here on:
CROSSGEN UNVEILS NEW PRODUCT: THE COMPENDIA SERIES
FORGE And EDGE To Address Price Performance Concerns Of Industry
In response to the growing concerns of the comic industry regarding inaccessibility due to the high price of modern single-issue comic books and the need to attract new mainstream readers, CrossGen is launching FORGE and EDGE, the first of its Compendia Series, and the first leg of a multi-legged plan to introduce better price performing products and to grow comic book readership. Based on the proven models of European comics and manga compilations from Japan, FORGE and EDGE are both monthly, 200 plus page, full color, book series in standard trade paperback size that feature the same production values as CrossGen's monthly comics, including a quality paper stock similar to that of the monthly comics, all inside a card stock cover. FORGE and EDGE will sit on a bookshelf making them easy to rack, easy to store, and durable alternatives for those looking for a new way to read comics.
FORGE and EDGE will carry an initial price of $9.95. After the first few issues, page count will increase to near 300 pages and this increase will necessitate a moderate price increase of no more than two dollars per issue -- still an incredible value. Since FORGE and EDGE are primarily designed to bring new readers into comic books, the content of both FORGE and EDGE is planned to lag at least 90-120 days behind CrossGen's monthly comics and planned to not contain stories not already seen in the monthly comics.
For the first year, each issue of FORGE and EDGE will contain at least eight stories covering five series, increasing to six series by the end of 2002. FORGE and EDGE offer readers something comparable to eight comic books, a $23.60 value, for one low price.
FORGE #1 will be on sale April 10 and EDGE #1 will be on sale April 24. FORGE and EDGE will then continue to ship the second and fourth or fifth weeks of every month. FORGE #1 will contain: Crux #1-#3, Meridian #15, Negation Prequel, Sojourn Prequel and #1, and a preview of The Path. EDGE #1 will contain: The First #8-#10, Mystic #15 and #16, Ruse #1, Scion #15, and Sigil #15. Each "in-process" series begins with the first issue following the second trade paperback collection and FORGE and EDGE both contain a significantly expanded "Story So Far" description for new readers, making it easy to jump onboard.
"CrossGen was founded around a very simple idea," said Mark Alessi, CrossGen's Publisher. "We set out to make comics relevant again to a mainstream audience. Part of doing that was telling stories that map to mainstream genres and tastes. Genres like science fiction, fantasy, mystery, etc. -- the kind of stories that make up a large percentage of the fiction categories of the major booksellers. However, this was only part of the overall concept. We also needed to put those comics into a package that makes price performance sense to this mainstream audience. People buy books, so we've serialized our stories in a book format. People expect value for their dollar, so we've put together a package that can be sold at a very competitive price. We call this new product Compendia, and the first two, more specifically -- FORGE and EDGE."
FORGE and EDGE are the first stage of a planned mass-market initiative set to attract a great many new readers to the comic book industry. Further announcements regarding these plans will be forthcoming in 20-30 days. "It's not about how many comics can we sell, but how many new readers can we bring into the comics industry," said CrossGen Vice President Business Development, Tony Panaccio. "This mass-market initiative is huge, greater than any thing that's ever been tried in this business. When those new readers come to comic stores looking for a product they understand and can afford, FORGE and EDGE will be there waiting. And they'll be waiting for them twice a month, every month, when they return again and again."
FORGE and EDGE will not only appeal to new readers, but to existing readers looking for a new product choice. With the addition of Compendia to its line, CrossGen now offers readers three completely separate and easy ways to buy, read and enjoy their stories. CrossGen offers single-issue comic books, trade paperbacks, and now Compendia.
"We've been using this analogy around the office when explaining the types of choices we're offering readers," said Ian M. Feller, Director of Corporate Communications for CrossGen. "Consider your favorite soft drink, say cola. That cola is offered in many different forms for purchase. There's the 12 ounce can, 16 ounce bottle, 20 ounce bottle, 32 ounce bottle, 1 liter bottle, 64 ounce bottle, or it is available from a soda fountain, all at different prices. But in the end, it's all the same product. We are taking that formula and applying it to comics. And if you want something other than cola, you can choose one of our different genres the way you would a different soft drink flavor."
FORGE and EDGE also appeal to those existing readers that are looking for a cost-effective way to try additional CrossGen titles.
"We have a large percentage of readers that have been reading more than just one of our titles because of the overarching backstory," CrossGen's Director of Marketing and Sales, Chris Oarr said. "With FORGE and EDGE, those readers can now pick up additional titles at what breaks down to be very little additional money. For example, if they currently buy three of our books for about nine dollars, they can try five titles for just a dollar or two more. And if they currently read five titles and are spending about $15, they can now read the entire line for about five dollars more."
FORGE and EDGE are the types of products that will not only appeal to readers looking for a new price performance choice, but to anyone who may have considered trying a CrossGen book but either didn't know how to begin or felt that it was too late to start. FORGE and EDGE offer readers another choice in making a decision of how to start reading CrossGen's comics.
"The train has not left the station," said James Breitbeil, Director of Marketing and Distribution for CrossGen. "Now with FORGE and EDGE, potential new readers have an easy and affordable way to jump aboard the CrossGen line. With CrossGen's Premier Retailer program up and running and gaining dozens of new members every week, potential readers know exactly where they can go to get them. There's no reason for anyone to feel they can't try CrossGen's stories."
ALAN MOORE/MARVEL CONTROVERSY
On Friday afternoon, Newsarama featured an interview with Alan Moore in which the legendary writer said: "I'm not interested in working for Marvel. Marvel hasn't called me for a while. I saw the Captain Britain book that they recently brought out. Well, when I said that I saw it, I don't mean that they sent me any copies - I meant that I went down to the shop and bought a copy. The small, non-humiliating copyright notice that I'd asked them to include, and which I had been assured would be included hadn't been included. As far as I'm concerned, there's no possibility of me working for Marvel in the future or having anything to do with Marvel, and I don't want anybody from Marvel calling me in the future."
This stems from the recently released Captain Britain Trade Paperback, which was reported to be the lynchpin by which any other work would be done by Moore for Marvel. Judging from Moore's comments on Friday, that is not going to happen. Not ever.
So a good part of my weekend was spent sifting through hundreds of posts on dozens of Internet sites all about how Marvel is the evil corporation and how Moore has been persecuted once again and what a loss this is for both Marvel and the Industry.
Bollocks, I say.
There were the comments about how Joe Quesada, as EIC of Marvel Comics, should have caught the mistake before it went to print. Expert Internet posters who's main contribution to society have been to write 'First' in posts now have added their analysis that Joe is an 'idiot'. Wonderful. After disregarding every post that included name-calling of either side (because most of these brave souls who call creators names behind their online alias are the same sweaty palmed geeks who ask the same creators to sign 20 comic books at the next convention), I was down to about 5% of the original threads that I started with.
I won't even get into the people who were making comments about how Moore should have received his copies already. Comps and advance copies are two different things and the comp books typically come out after the comic has been shipped to stores.
The conspiracy theorists mentioned 'sabotage' as a possibility behind the mistake. Sabotage? I think this is just an idea put out there by X-Files fans to make this whole thing sound more interesting than it really is.
The debating and mudslinging and arguing were based on the accounts of one person who never cared much for the company to begin with. The truth about the situation would be much simpler.
There are several ways one can look at this situation, but it seems to me everyone has been missing the point. While people cry about how Marvel is losing out on the greatest writer of our time, they don't see the clear issue that the only one who loses in this situation is Alan Moore. I won't even get into the whole issue of Alan Moore being the best comic writer ever. Simple response: He's not. Moore is responsible for my favorite comic work of all time, 'From Hell', and many, many other brilliant stories. But I could name at least 5 other writers who I'd place before Moore in that 'greatest ever' category. Maybe a few others if I took the time to really think about it.
All of this anger, this nonsense of the past few days, is nothing more than a case of geeks not getting their dream project of Alan Moore on the X-Men or Spider-Man. But does anyone believe such a thing would ever happen? Even during the announcement of the Captain Britain Trade, Moore never said that he would be returning to Marvel. The man has repeatedly stated his dislike for the superhero set. One would have to assume that any work he did for Marvel (if he had ever even considered doing this at all) would involve his own creations, ala the ABC line and not the characters most fans are hoping for him to take a shot at.
But what great loss is it of Marvel's if the man says he never wants to work for them again? Would an original concept by Moore, published by Marvel, do anything for the company other than giving them the chance to say, 'we've published an Alan Moore comic?' No. Alan Moore has had books published through independent companies and DC and none of the fail to sell more than 30 or 40 thousand copies, regardless of the quality of that work.
I'm not suggesting that a top 5 selling book like Ultimate X-Men is better or worse than say, Tom Strong, but not having Alan Moore associate with them is no huge loss on Marvel's part. Moore would stand more to gain by having an X title under his belt and reaching 60-70 thousand more readers.
This is a debate started by people who hate Marvel (and always have), getting one more chance to take a shot at them. We all know that the same people criticizing the mistake now would have criticized Moore for going to write for them (if it had happened), and then criticized the inevitable project solely due to who was publishing it.
The other day, Joe Quesada issued a public apology for the mistake:
"Why is it that all the crazy stuff happens when I'm away from home and unable to handle the problem properly?
First, let me assure everyone that the mistake on the Captain Britain trade paperback was not an act of callousness, but rather simple human error. It really is disheartening to me when people believe that there is some little evil gremlin at Marvel who is looking to screw people over at every turn. What happened with the Captain Britain copyright notice was a mistake and nothing more, and there's very little I can say except, "I screwed up!"
I can go and try to pass blame on other departments or other people, but the truth of the matter is that the buck stops with me and I'm ultimately responsible. This is me not passing the famous Bill Jemas IQ test. That's why I'm the one who has to publicly apologize to Alan Moore and Alan Davis for this incredible oversight.
When I visited Alan I made him several promises, all of which were kept but, unfortunately, the copyright notice fell through the cracks. Let me just make it clear that I didn't travel across the Atlantic to screw Alan over or to make promises that I didn't intend to keep -- it's just one of those things that gets chalked up to human error.
Our TPB department has been trying its best to get out a significant number of titles in a short period of time. I know that with the construction of this particular book they've taken great care in keeping the two Alans in the mix, but ultimately we failed and dropped the ball.
I spoke to Alan on Friday and I told him we would do two things (not contingent on whether he would ever work for Marvel again, but because making it was the right thing to do). First, a public apology from myself, and all of us at Marvel. Second, subsequent printings of Captain Britain would have the correct indicia stripped in.
We here at Marvel have been trying very hard to make amends for the errors of our past, but sometimes in the efforts to try to make everyone comfortable with the new environment we stumble slightly. To those people out there who would like to attribute this to malevolent actions on our part, I have to say that simply isn't the case.
So once again, to Alan and Alan I would like to offer my sincerest apologies, and the promise to be more diligent in the future." - JQ
A sincere and public apology from the man thrust into the center of the debating, regarding an issue that affects only one person. Let it end with this.
