Death of Icons

Unbelievable week!

Ed McMachon died on Tuesday. This morning Farrah Fawcett joined God's Angles. Now I'm getting confirmation that singing super star Michael Jackson has died.

McMahon was older, 84 years old, and had been having some health problems of late. Fawcett, age 62, had a battle with cancer. And Jackson, only 50, was experiencing some health problems and early news reports say he had a heart attack today that killed him.

Each of them is well known - iconic really - for what they've done. It's sad to see them all go in just one week.

I remember Michael Jackson being a superstar when I was in grade school and middle school. My sister even had a red jacket covered with zippers similar to the one Jackson wore in Thriller that we referred to as her Michael Jackson jacket. Kids were trying to figure out his moon walk and making sequin covered gloves. There were books about him, posters, MTV played his videos constantly. He had that Pepsi add incident when his hair started on fire - I remember constant news updates about that. Like so many who rise to stardom as children, he had his mental problems, and those definately became more of Jackson's persona in the last decade or so. But I always remember him as that pop icon cranking out hit after hit.

What a sad week!

iPhone Users Click Here

Heidi's The Beat tells me today that there is a FREE iPhone Eisner Award app. How awesome is that? WAY awesome if you love comics and free stuff and want to be able to appear to be savvy about the 2009 Eisner Awards.

According to the column: Digital entertainment provider Uclick has announced the release of a new Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards app for iPhone and iPod Touch. The app celebrates the comics industry’s most prestigious awards by providing details on Will Eisner and the Eisner Awards, as well as the entire list of award categories in a tap-and-swipe menu, with information on each creator and title, and images from their nominated works.

To get the Eisner Awards app for iPhone and iPod Touch, search “Eisner” in the App Store or click on the link below: http://bit.ly/4ODQm

I don't have an iPhone, but if I did you can bet I'd at least check out this app. It sounds pretty cool, and it is free after all. How can you pass that up? You can't, can you.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

The game is looking pretty cool! Although using Civil War as a premise seems a bit "out of date" since it will be nearly 2 years since that story came out when the game releases (September 2009 now). None-the-less, hero vs hero can be pretty cool, and I did see some bad guys in there as well.

I enjoyed the first game, so I am sure this next one will also be fun to play. I hope it is a multi-player like the last one so that Craig and I can both play. So few games have that capability, which makes us sad.

To see more on the game, head to the Ultimate Alliance 2 site.

Neptune in the News

Craig and I really worked to promote Marvel's early release of Captain America #600. That seems to have caught the eye of Marvel and the press. Craig was quoted a few times!

Matt Price's Nerdage

Newsarama.com

The Beat

Craig was also interviewed by Vaneta Rogers of newsarama.com back on 6/4 about variant covers. It's an interesting column, so check it out! I've been harping on variants since before I even started this blog - so I always like to see if I'm alone in my general dislike of them.

Go Joe: Marvel EIC Sees the Light

From Comic Book Resources, Cup O Joe, 6/17/09

Jonah Weiland: People always look at the big summer competition between Marvel and DC, and that's probably not really fair because summer events lead into the fall and go on for months. But in terms of upcoming events, it's a little different than it's been in the past. You have Dark Reign, which is an overarching tone to the entire Marvel Universe. You don't have a single mega-event like Secret Invasion, with an anchor book and a beginning, middle and end. DC Comics has Blackest Night, which will be in a more traditional format and drive their superhero titles for the next eight to ten months. Marvel does have a few mini-events that are sort of connected and sort of disconnected. You've got "Reborn" and the "Dark Avenger/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia" story. Do you have a big event planned for next year?
"Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia" is one of Marvel's big summer books

Joe Quesada: This is all part of a plan. We listen to our readership and hear the things that they're looking for and some of the things that they want or that they're tired of. We're very turnkey at Marvel, there is no spoon and now we’re shifting gears, and I think you can expect a bigger shift in gears come next year. We've already started planning next year and the year after that, and I think you're going to see an interesting marketing campaign from us where even the tone of Marvel Comics will be changing in a big sense. What you're seeing right now is just the tip of the iceberg of where we're headed, but it's all very much within the realm of the plans.

Here's the thing. The easy button to push, the very easy button to push is the button that says “Big time summer event. Everyone in the pool. Everyone ties-in.” But you can only do that for so long, it becomes the laugh of diminishing returns. Sometimes you need to pull back a breath. And sometimes that little restraint helps you for later on when you decide you want to do it again. So for us, I think you’re going to see some interesting new approaches and ideas, especially next year. That doesn't mean we don't have big stories coming out. We have several different big stories coming out within different lines and different books and character families, I wish I could say more about it, but it’s way too soon. Either way, it's going to be pretty amazing ride for all our fans.

Jonah Weiland: So this a reaction to cries of "event fatigue?"

Joe Quesada: It's more than just the cries of fans of event fatigue. We're fatigued. [laughs] Internally and creatively, while events are fun and yes they drive a lot of revenue, they take a toll. They take a toll on the editorial level. People begin to snap at each other. Trust me, Tom Brevoort is a bear. And it takes a toll on our creators. It gets difficult to do for an extended period when everything has to tie-in to everything else, and sometimes it does hamstring you from telling a particular story you want to tell in a particular kind of way. And it's exhausting. It's keeping plates spinning for a very long time. Sometimes you need to step away, refresh your batteries and let fans refresh their batteries and show them what's special about the individual titles and character families.

I have in the past done surveys and blog posts about fans and event fatigue. My findings were that people don't buy events - they buy good stories. They were tired of the big event crossovers and wanted the publishers to focus more on quality characters and writing. It seems that Marvel has caught on to this. While Marvel is still doing some crossover type stories, I've noticed that that's more just letting readers know which stories are in continuity with each other. Sure there have been some Dark Avengers mini-series, but these have not received all of the hype events usually get.

Quesada says Marvel has some new plans and some new ideas. I for one, am excited to hear what they are. Knowing that the publisher is taking a break from the summer event marketing idea has caught my attention and I'm ready to hear what else they have in store. One change already visible is the Anniversary event that I posted about yesterday. For Marvel to actually plan something out and not only provide retailers with comics, but also with other marketing tools, that's a positive change I hope they will continue and build from. I'd still rather see JQ be an artist and not the EIC, but I am glad that he and his staff had this realization -- better late than never.

I know lots of credit goes to David Gabriel, Marvel's connection between the corporation and the direct market retailer channel. Whenever we've talked to him as store owners, even though we just have one small store, he has listened and done what he can to help. Sure, sometimes Marvel does things that make me scratch my head, but on this I'm quite happy. For this company to actually look at the direct market and come up with ways to COOPERATIVELY work to promote the Marvel brand is great and I definitely hope this is something that other retailers are also excited about.