The usually mild mannered reseacher Bruce Banner just sent Father Geek the following alarming report... I hope he keeps his cool... once he gets upset he's a little hard to control...
Hey Father Geek, Bruce Banner here. I send this to you because I know you and Harry are interested in preserving all things geeky. We have this tidbit up over at my comic webzine site, at my lab, but we didn't know if you had seen this or not. It's pretty unnerving.
We're pretty bummed at the Marvel news. In case you haven't seen it I will post it for you here. I found it over at www.anotheruniverse.com and it was also up at www.comicon.com/splash/.
It says Marvel's turning towards film and video games and that they're going to start moving away from comics.
So, because a bunch of suits (bad, stupid suits at that) decide to run Marvel into the ground for over ten years and run the company like complete assholes, the fans get to suffer.
You can read Marvel CEO Peter Cuneo's comments in the article below. As comics fans We're pretty bummed. And from a business standpoint... how does Marvel think they'll be able to support those movies and video games without a comic lines establishing and continuing the characters that have always existed IN comcs?!?
Damn! I've got to go now. The damn Beta Ray alarm is going crazy again...
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Marvel Moving From Comics to Film
Marvel Enterprises will increasingly move into film and video games and away from comics, Marvel CEO Peter Cuneo told The Wall Street Journal.
With comic book sales flagging, company execs acknowledge that kids just aren’t ready comics that much anymore, according to the Journal. The newspaper says the company’s "only chance for survival is to leap--right off the page."
"The simple paper medium of comic books just isn't cutting it in the age of video's flashy special effects, explosive audio and interactive action,” the Journal said.
Despite the move into celluloid, Marvel’s Cuneo acknowledges that the company won’t get a cut of ticket sales for any ongoing movie project except for Spider-Man. "[T]he other deals were made by past Marvel CEOs that sold the rights to the characters for cash," Cuneo told the Journal.
Web only comics and interactive games at www.marvel.com are also in the offing.
Plus, Marvel will try to make its characters more relevant beginning with Spider-Man (Peter Parker) who is (in Spider-Girl) "a 30-something married man with a daughter and prosthetic leg.” Peter Parker will become a "digital photographer for dailybugle.com".
Carl Icahn, who owns 5% of Marvel, “has signed an agreement that essentially says he won't try to take over Marvel--at least until October 2002 when the accord expires," the Journal said.
Well. there it is. It's... enough... to get... my blood boiling!
