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In The House: The Publisher
2007-06-27 14:20:29
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work within the hallowed halls of Marvel?
Have you ever daydreamed about what it would be like to sit in the fabled Bullpen?
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be the proverbial fly--ummm, spider on the wall of the House of Ideas?
Wonder no more, Marvelite, because we’re comin’ atcha with our latest installment of IN THE HOUSE, but remember, tell no one, it’s our little secret. In the coming weeks we’re going to be focusing on a variety of the many aspects that make up Marvel publishing. You’re going to peek into meetings, check out how our offices operate and even meet a person or two.
Today we focus on one of the key members of the Marvel family, someone who tends to shy away from the Internet and that many of you may not be familiar with, so click play and keep them cards and letters coming!
See ya in the Funnybooks!
JQ
EEK!
Inside The House
2007-05-29 16:14:32
Hey there, True Believer!
Are you ready for the next step in the ever-evolving world takeover by Mighty Marvel?
We've been working on this concept for some time now, behind the scenes and in the shadows. As the world becomes more and more electronically savvy, we here at "The House" have been making our plans to keep nudging the Marvel Universe along with it.
Back in the early sixties, Stan and company established a tradition. That tradition was something never quite seen before in the comics industry or any other faction of the business and entertainment world for that matter. It was the idea of inclusion, the "True Believer Experience," as I like to call it. Stan's Soapbox, his Bullpen page, F.O.O.M., the Merry Marvel Marching Society, all of these things served to make those of us who were reading Marvel Comics at the time part of the family. Stan wasn't a mysterious wizard behind the curtain, heck, he pulled away the curtain and showed you all the gears that were making things work. It was a revolution of remarkable proportions.
One of the things that we've worked very hard at over the last six years is bringing back that sense of family and community, the look behind the curtain.
Warts and all.
Marvel TV and these mini movies that we'll be doing over time will hopefully continue the traditions started way back in 1961. We'll be giving you a tour of Hallowed Halls as well as some in-depth looks at staff members. Heck, we even have footage from a brain storming session from the Marvel Creative Summit.
So, before I run off (got a scene to shoot), let me say that what is truly amazing about all of the stuff you'll be seeing on Marvel TV is that all of it has been done in house. From the filming to the editing to the music, every stitch of it is being put together by staffers, right here, at Marvel. So, let me take the opportunity to thank, everyone who has been working so hard to bring these things to frution, including John Dokes, Virginia Melendez, Jason Harvey, Jeff Suter and Ryan Penagos.
Hope you dig it and come back next week, I'm sure we'll have some more.
See ya in the funnybooks!
JQ
Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum in 3-D
2007-04-19 10:01:17
Hey, Gang, long time no Blog!
Last time I posted I was showing off a 3-D view of Stark Tower created by my pal Jason Christensen. From the reaction we received to that piece, it seems like you cats really dug it.
Well, never let it be said that your ol' pal, Joey Q ain't thinking about ya. So, due to popular demand, here's another 3-D ditty for you all. I call it a 3-D Astral Fly By of Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum.
Once again this model was built by Jason using the Marvel Handbook as his guide with some additional flourishes added for good measure.
-JQ
Sure Danny, make me look stupid!
2007-03-22 15:09:55
Well, here I was thinking that the Wolvie cover was going to be digitally painted due to Danny Miki's dislocated shoulder and no sooner do I say this that he sends in the inked piece.
While according to Danny, he's still operating at a reduced speed, he is managing to get a few pieces out the door.
And while Danny may make me look stupid, he also makes me look better than I actually am.
Check it out.
JQ
I'M BACK!!!
2007-03-22 15:08:31
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I’m Back!
Well, at least for today.
Sorry about the absence but it’s been pretty crazy for me as of late and I’ve been burning the candle at both ends.
So, what’s been going on you ask? Lots and lots of amazing stuff as we prepare to unleash our plans for 2007. But, we do have a pretty big problem here at Marvel, it’s tragic actually and I don’t know how to fix it. We have too much incredible stuff and not enough months in the year, I kid you not. As we look over the calendar, we find ourselves shifting stuff around because we want to make sure that all the projects get the attention they deserve. Just yesterday we spent the late afternoon hammering out some story elements of one of our big stories for 2007. It’s so chock full of goodness that I’m dying to tell you about it, but I just can’t.
As a friend of mine is fond of saying, “these are high class problems to have.”
On a personal front, I’ve been knee deep in a couple of non Marvel related freelance illustration projects that I can’t speak of at the moment, but they're pretty cool and keep me busy and up late at night.
Also, I’ll be heading to Baltimore on Friday for the big Baltimore Comic Convention, if you happen to be in the area, stop by and say hello and don’t forget to come to my Cup of Joe Panel at 1PM on Saturday.
And, of course before I leave, let me leave you with some art. Here are the latest pencils for two Wolverine covers.
A- When I have a cover assignment to do I generally begin sketching ideas any place and any chance I get. The concept for issue #8 hit me during an editorial meeting and I doodled it on the agenda sheet.
B- I then took that doodle and tightened it up a bit more and put Wolvie in his Team X uniform. I’m still working very small here, about 3x4.75 inches. You’ll notice that I was toying with the idea of a gun vs. the none Adamantium covered claws. I was even thinking about using both but thought the better of it as things were just looking too cluttered.
C- One more small layout, this time figuring out the balance of lighst and darks.
D- Okay, now this is the final sketch before going to finish. This drawing was done at printed comic size so that I have an idea of what it will look like to the person holding the comic.
E- And the finished pencils ready to go.
F- The idea for cover #9 was pretty well realized in my head, I just needed to get it down on paper. As I sketched I realized I wasn’t getting the energy I wanted out of the drawing. Necessity is the mother of invention so I decided to use my Ichat camera on my computer at home and took this quick blurry picture of myself in the pose that I was looking to draw. You’ll notice that I added some minor scribbles at the bottom just to give myself a sense of the where the claws were to go.
G- Here’s the first loose sketch based on the photo. I’ve done a few ultra close up slashing covers of Wolverine and they’re a blast to do so I wanted to add one more to the series. The feeling I was going for in this one was more of Logan pulling the bloody claws out of his victim and about to come down with them again.
H- Here’s the final tight sketch. I added lighting to get a sense of how the whole piece would read. After this stage, I decided that I wanted to add more black to the cover but I’ll do it on the finished piece.
I- And the finished piece. More shadows added, detail, facial hair, key lighting and lots of blood!
I’ll make sure to share the colors once I have them. I’d share the inks but Danny Miki has dislocated his shoulder and had to cut his output by a considerable margin until he’s better so these covers will go straight to Richard Isanove for digital painting. Get well soon, Danny!
See ya in the funnybooks,
JQ
EEK!
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Stark Tower in 3-D
2007-03-06 16:24:33
I’ve just started to use a 3-D program called Sketchup over the last few months, building my own models and sometimes hiring some expert Sketchup model builders to help me along as the building can be very time consuming, depending upon complexity. Thinking about some future, practical uses for Sketchup (with respect to what we do for a living here in comics) I set about doing a bit of an experiment in order to demonstrate the possibilities and potential for myself of employing simple 3-D programs into the making of a comic book. As an artist I could certainly see the benefits, especially when it comes to time management and complex pages. I felt that building a model of Stark Tower would prove interesting, primarily because the Sentry Watchtower on the very top hasn’t been fully realized in the round. Ever notice how we artists have only been drawing it from one angle ;-)
The Tower was built by an amazing 3-D artist named Jason Christiansen, who managed to build in a few hours what would have taken me several days to do. The following is a little flyby of the building to give you guys a sense of what a fairly new landmark within the Marvel U. would look like in the round.
By the way, for anyone that’s interested, Sketchup is now available as a free download from Google. Their moto is “3-D for everyone,” and they really mean it. Within a few short minutes, anyone, even those not artistically inclined, can use it. Spend more time and you’ll find it addicting. And hey, if you get good enough, nothing says that you couldn’t design oh, lets say, something like the Baxter Building and maybe have it presented right here on Marvel.com.
Have fun!
See ya in the funnybooks,
JQ
EEK!
Chi-town
2006-08-08 14:33:36
Hey, there, Blog heads!
Just back from Wizard World Chicago and we had an amazing time. The fans were great, the after con hang out scene was great (perhaps the best in comics) and the weather was nearly perfect.
It usually takes me a week to decompress after con season, but I need to get back in the saddle right away. I have a Wolverine Origin’s cover that has been sitting on my desk since before San Diego that I need to get to, so, hopefully I’ll have some prelim stuff to show you in the next few days.
For now, I have a couple hundred more e-mails to wade through so I’ll leave you with the pencils for the Stephen Colbert piece.
See ya in the funnybooks,
JQ
EEK!
Colbert!
2006-08-02 09:51:51
Don't forget, kids, tonight on Comedy Central, 11:30 PM, Stephen Colbert and I go toe to toe as we talk comics and bears!
Taping occurs tonight at 7:30 so I'll most likely be back here tomorrow or soon after to give you all the low down.
See ya in the funnybooks (and TV!),
JQ
EEK!
Where in the world is Joe San Diego? Part 2
2006-07-27 16:51:17
Friday.
This morning I'm on pins and needles, I have a breakfast meeting with a very important creator. I can't get into details because I want to surprise you guys some other time down the road. The meeting goes incredibly well.
My meeting runs a bit late so I'm rushing to the Spider-Man panel, holy smokes, the crowd to get into the con is so huge that I have trouble getting in and I just make it to the panel by the skin of my teeth. This was the feel good moment of the con. In attendance were Kevin Feige (Marvel Studios), Joe Strazcynski, John Romita, Jr., John Romita, Sr., Stan Lee, Jim McCann and myself. Jim McCann got to sit next to Stan thus realizing a lifelong dream. I want point out that I thought Jim was going to literally pass out he was so excited. Stan and John, Sr. stole the show. Their wit and charm was a pleasure to behold and I'm just glad that I could be there to moderate, it's a memory I will treasure forever.
Directly after the panel, I met up with British Superstar celebrity, Jonathan Ross and family. Through Mark Millar, I've had the pleasure of meeting Jonathan when he visited the Marvel offices a little over a month ago. He's a historian of American comics, in particular Marvel and just a fun guy to be around. Jonathan and I chatted for a bit and discussed his most recent scandalous interview in the UK, he had me rolling! Also, Jonathan's wife is the screenwriter of Neil Gaiman's upcoming Stardust movie.
Lunch with Robert Kirkman was my next stop. Robert is one of the funniest guys I've met in my comic's travels but we don't really know each other all that well. I pride myself on getting to know the guys that work for me as well as I possibly can so I wanted to get some private face time with Robert just to catch up and make sure that we were doing okay by him and to discuss some future projects. This Kirkman is a smart guy, I like the way he thinks!
After lunch, I met up with David Hine. David wanted to discuss some ideas he had and some future projects and the direction he was looking for his career to take. It was great catching up with David as we so rarely get to see our international creators outside of these comic cons. We discuss a couple of projects and I think that fans of David's work are going to be thrilled with what he has planned.
Two o'clock and it's back to the Marvel booth for my signing.
After the signing it was of to an interview with Spike TV and then a meeting with Howard Chaykin. Howard and I go back a ways and he's one of my favorite people in the business. Howard's one of the few people I can count on to tell me when he feels that my works sucks, I truly appreciate that about him. Howard and I went to a small hotel bar across the street, talked comics and projects and gossiped like old women. Funny story, as Howard and I were walking to the bar, they were filming or doing some sort of promotion for a movie whose name now escapes me. They had a large poster with the actors on it and Howard pointed out that the only person he recognized on the poster was Lewis Black. I turned to Howard and said, “I love Lewis Black!” Suddenly a guy walking in from of us turns around and says, “me too!” It was Lewis Black! We walked and talked with Mr. Black for a bit, nice guy, only at Comic Con!
I ran back to the con and up I went to host the Halo panel. As I said, I'm not a gamer, but it was a thrill being on a panel with Moebius and all the great creators involved in the project and all the passionate Halo fans.
Next up was my favorite interview of the day. G4 TV's Attack of the Show was broadcasting live, MTV Beach House style from the convention. They asked me up and we did a whole Civil War segment, which was a lot of fun.
At the Marvel booth Dan Buckley and I had a secret meeting with another huge creator about some future Marvel work. Man it's great to be a Marvel fan today!
Later, dinner at the Palm was in order for the Marvel crew. Walking up to the private room reserved for our party, the new drawings of Spider-Man, Captain America and Wolverine, respectfully drawn by John Romita, Sr., John, Jr., and Billy Tan, greeted me on the wall of the stairway up. In attendance were the Marvel crew along with Daniel and Charlie Knauf, Joss Whedon, Reggie Hudlin and so many more. I wasn't eating as I had to run to another function. Before I left, The Knauf's pitched me a great new concept for a Marvel team book.
Ran of with Joss Whedon and to another dinner function at the invite of my agent Chris Harbert. It was a function thrown by the kind folk at the C.A.A. agency and was filled with some great comic and Hollywood talents. Brian Vaughan and John Cassaday were there as were Ron Moore from Battlestar Galactica and Damon Lindeloff. I had the great pleasure to sit next to John Favreau and we spent the entire diner, I mean the entire diner, talking about Iron Man. Let me say this right now, this guy gets it and he loves the character. I was floored at the ideas he had for the movie and his views on how to visualize the suit and flying. I cannot wait for this movie to come out! The future of Marvel movies is a bright one!
The evening closed with a secret meeting with a creator. Sorry folks, this is privileged information.
Saturday
Today began with breakfast with Kevin Feige from Marvel Studios. Kevin started at Marvel West right around the same time that I began at Marvel East and it's been great seeing him rise though the ranks under the wing of the brilliant Avi Arad. Kevin's reputation as one of the good guys in Hollywood is only surpassed by his knowledge of movies and the Marvel characters. We have a great conversation about creators and characters and some very cool Marvel West and Marvel publishing stuff.
11:30 and it was time to begin my Cup of Joe panel. Lisa Kirby was on hand for the missing Fantastic Four issue announcement as were Dan Buckley and Jim McCann. A great time was had by all and the crowd was just wonderful!
Cup of Joe was followed by three business meetings.
Netscape stopped by the Marvel booth to do an interview about the con and comics.
Stepped out for lunch with Ed Brubaker. Ed was heavily promoting Criminal, his new creator owned titles from Icon, Looks like Ed is learning something about shameless marketing from working at Marvel ;-) We ate at Hooters, for the wings I swear, I like the wings!!!
Lunch with Ed ran a little late but trying to get back into the convention hall was nearly impossible. I was due at a Fanboy Radio panel and ended up getting there 20 minutes late (sorry, Scott). The Fanboy panel is a smaller event, but the audience is always great. If you guys aren't listening to Fanboy, you need to check it out.
Dinner was a relaxed event as I sat with several creators including Joe Strazcynski and C.B. Cebulski. I also got to see Greg Hildebrandt and Jean Scrocco as they stopped by the table. Jimmy Palmiotti also droped by to let me know that there was a Sci-fi Party that evening and that the folks who were working on the Painkiller Jane TV show would be there. I had all intentions of going but after dinner I was so spent that I did little more than hang at the hotel bar for a few minutes and then headed up for some sleep.
Sunday
Flying out today and can't wait to get home but before getting on a plane I needed to meet up with Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi for breakfast. Let me just say this, this guys is the next big painting superstar, his work is just unbelievable and only getting better. He's also a tremendous guy who's a dynamo of energy. We discussed their upcoming Wolverine story and what comes next, so keep your eyes open for Simone's artwork, it's going to be revolutionary!
Time to go home.
Where in the world is Joe San Diego? Part 1
2006-07-25 12:52:47
Miss me?
So, I’m near the end of my tour across the states as my trip to San Diego Comic Con is over but I now begin to prep for Chicago. While San Diego is amazing and akin to a rock concert, it really isn’t a comic’s convention any longer. Reports or perhaps rumors have attendance numbers at 150,000 people and from what I saw, I believe that number is off by an additional 50,000. The show has become more of a pop culture event sprinkled or themed by comic characters and creators. I landed on Wednesday and it was basically non-stop from that point.
Wednesday
My hotel room wasn’t ready so I meandered over to the bar and ran into Olivier Jalebert. Olivier is the manager of the Album store in Paris, the largest comic chain in the area and also represents several magnificent European artist. I had the pleasure of doing a signing at Album and it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had doing an international signing. The fans were great, the staff was knowledgeable and helpful and Olivier has become a dear friend. I can’t wait to go back! Anyway, we caught up a bit until it the front desk contacted me and my room was ready.
Unpacked and a quick shower later, I ran off to do an interview with some folks from Canadian TV. We started to shoot at the Sea Port until a security guard came over and said we needed a permit to shoot video footage there. It seemed strange to me as the camera was facing out towards the bay and horizon and not towards the shops in the seaport? Regardless, we started to pack up and asked the gentlemen where we could shoot that didn’t require a permit. He pointed to an area literally five feet away that was no longer considered part of the seaport, I kid you not. We shuffled over and finished the interview.
From there I ran off to dinner with David Engel from Circle of Confusion. David is one of the top managers in Hollywood and reps some industry hacks like Bendis and Oeming. Over the years, David has also become a very good friend so we sat at the Kansas City rib joint, made famous because they filmed portions of Top Gun there (and they never let you forget it), and we caught up a bit and chatted about story and concepts and such. About three quarters of the way through dinner I started to feel myself fading so I headed back to my hotel room and got myself to sleep and hopefully by the morning I’d be adjusted to the time difference.
Thursday
I purposely kept breakfast this morning to myself. Got up early, did a little sketching for a special Hulk piece I’m doing that you all will hopefully see later this week and then took of to the con to get my day started. Today is my lightest day so I’m going to try to enjoy it as best as possible.
Hit the con floor and it’s beyond description, all I can think of is the end of Indianan Jones when they load the arc into the warehouse that goes on forever and ever. That’s what the con floor is like. The DC booth is so far away from the Marvel booth that we can’t even see it from where we are due to atmosphere and the curve of the earth.
The Marvel booth is one of the best we’ve had in quite some time. We partnered up with Activision who was promoting their Marvel Alliance video game that looks absolutely amazing! I’m not a gamer, but I may have to go out and buy this one, it’s crazy off the hook!
The Marvel booth has a nice size conference room constructed within it and that’s where I met with Scott Kolins. Scott and I discuseds his upcoming post Civil War project and coloring approach to his work and just the direction that Marvel and comics where taking. I love Scott’s work and while his next project is going to blow you all away, if you’re not reading Beyond, his current book, then you need to do so RIGHT NOW!
Next up was my first signing of the con, I was floored by how many people where in attendance considering it was a Thursday. In between signing books, Tom Defalco and I chatted and gossiped about Marvel, currently and in his day, it was a good laugh.
The weather was so spectacular today that Paul Jenkins and I decided to find an outdoor cafe for a bite of lunch. Paul and I discussed Front Line, his upcoming film work and his next big Marvel project.
Three o’clock and the Civil War panel began. The sign on the wall of the room said capacity 1400, but I believed they packed an addition 200 people, standing room only, until they had to stop people at the door because of fire regulations. Let me say this here and now, I have never been to a livelier panel than this Civil War panel. The fans were a riot, sometimes heckling questioners, all in good fun, but a real blast! At one point, I introduced a guy named Mike as the writer of Civil War, the crowd went silent, they couldn’t figure out what I meant. Mike came up to the podium and then I explained that Mike had Mark Millar on the phone and was acting as mark’s surrogate. Mark proceeded to take on fan questions and answer them from his home in Scotland, it got pretty crazy very quickly. A bit later in the panel, Jeph Loeb made one of his patented walk-on appearances and revealed that he and the brilliant Simone Bianchi were going to be doing a six issue arc beginning with Wolverine #50, the crowd went wild! Simone also made his first panel appearance and charmed the crowd with his surprisingly good English but thick Italian accent and his mastering of English profanity. When the panel was over we were all thrilled with the reception that Civil War has gotten. Thanks to everyone who was at the panel.
If you ever wondered what these were like, here’s some video of the panel courtesy of Comic Book Resources. Be forewarned, there’s some adult language used here.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=7955
Shortly after, Publisher Dan Buckley, Jeph Loeb and I walked out of the con to have a bit of a strategy meeting. For brevity’s sake we ducked into a San Diego landmark called Dick’s Last Resort. The theme of Dick’s is that it’s a dump and the wait staff treats you like dirt. While back in the day I found myself drinking way too late in the night at Dick’s, this afternoon we were just there for a nosh and a chat. Word to the wise, don’t eat at Dick’s, while the beer is cold, the food is horrible!
After the meeting, Loeb and I walked back to the Hyatt where we planted ourselves in the lobby for a bit just to decompress and chat. Robert Kirkman stopped by, he was waiting for Arthur Suydam and Renee Witterstaetter, they had lunch plans. Rob Leifeld stopped by and we chatted about a project which just blew me away! We all just hung around and had a good laugh until I had to excuse myself in order to prep for my next stop.
Next up was the Hasbro/Marvel party at a club called “On Broadway.” Wow, what a bash, this party rocked! Stan Lee was there and he charmed the crowd. We also got a peak at Hasbro’s upcoming toy line along with some clips from Ghost Rider, Spider-Man 3 and some upcoming Marvel animated stuff. Color me impressed! As we exited the party we got a goody bag filled with all sorts of cool swag including a laser pointer, which I love because it freaks out my cats!
After the party, it was straight to bed for me, big meetings tomorrow and I have to be sharp. Jeeeesh, when did I become so responsible?
More tomorrow.
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About this blog:
Hey there True Believer! Ever wonder what a day in the life of Marvel’s Editor in Chief is like? Well, wonder no more o’ faithful one! Join Joe Quesada as he takes you through the hallowed halls of Marvel in his very own "Cup of Blog!"
 | About the author:
Joe Quesada is Editor in Chief of Marvel comics. |
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