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Do Not Use
2007-06-18 10:19:11
 Shelves upon shelves of reading enjoyment
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And now for a little horn-tooting:
David Gabriel, Marvel’s Senior VP of Sales, sent around an e-mail report of the Dark Tower midnight opening at Midtown Comics, and some responses from other retailers who participated. (Photos from the Midtown event are courtesy of Marvel’s Mike Pasciullo, VP of Business Development.)
Take it away, David:
________________________________________
Already reports on the event from last night, from all over the country have been tremendous. All retailers that I have heard from have reported sales close to a slow Wednesday on sale date. Comic retailers actually had people shake their hands thanking them for holding the event.
Random things I heard and/or saw myself at Midtown:
• People are flipping out over the book- many claiming it is the best example of a comic book ever
• LOTS of notice on the House Ads in the books, especially the Last of the Mohicans.
• People loved the personal note from Ralph Macchio (at least one person said "he's still there?")
• More new faces coming in the doors than ever before
• Many guys passed out the Dabel Brothers and MAX samplers along with the DT Sketchbooks
• Ladies bringing cookies
Congrats to EVERYONE for all the hard work on this
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Issue 3: Under the Gun
2007-05-29 16:54:02
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9:00 a.m.
John is out at the L.A. convention, and Ralph doesn’t know how to use technology (this is not an insult, but a fact), so I am solely responsible for seeing Dark Tower 3 out the door and to the printer. Much of the work is done, granted; much of it is being done by people other than me. I just have to see to it that it gets put together properly.
Yesterday I took a look at the stack o’ Dark Tower stuff that John had left for me just so I could sort out where everything stands. Here’s what I have before me:
--Three cover sheets with different approval signatures on each one.
--A black and white copy of the lettering with handwritten corrections all over them, including Stephen King’s (which does give me a kind of geeky thrill, I’ll grant you).
--An old version of the recap with handwritten corrections; plus the corrected version that Kate from the bullpen has given me.
--The article for this issue, which is all done except that it has black and white spot illustrations, which need to be replaced with the colored versions.
--A transcript of the Dark Tower panel from the New York convention, with photos of the panelists; this still needs to be proofread and reviewed for design elements.
None of the pages are numbered in the order in which they’ll appear in the book, and none of the ads seem to be ready.
So I do what I always do in situations in which I am overwhelmed with information: I make a list!
Then I do what I always do next: I realize that the list is useless and discard it!
But now that I know what I have in front of me, and the status of each piece, I am in much better shape to proceed.
10:30 a.m.
Kate comes by with some revisions she’s made to the panel transcript. Our intern, Jon-Michael, takes it upstairs to be proofread.
I check to see if Richard Isanove has uploaded any new pages to Marvel’s ftp (file transfer protocol, which we use to exchange large files). He has. I give them to Chris Eliopoulos, who is compositing the book (putting the lettering and coloring together into one glorious mélange).
11 something
Marvel’s production manager Sue Crespi asks me when we’re getting the rest of the color files. I tell her Richard is sending the pages of the comic one by one. Sue asks, what about the color for the spot illustrations? I tell her those are coming too.
12:30 p.m.
Back at my desk, I realize that we’ve had the color files for the spot illustrations since this morning. I get ‘em over to the bullpen fast – that’s one more segment of the issue that can get finished.
12:50 p.m.
Kate brings the article, now with color illustrations in place, and with that, this segment is complete.
Meanwhile, our intern Jon-Michael helps me pick out some pieces of the issue-in-progress to scan for the blog. Thanks, Jon!
2:40 p.m.
I call Richard Isanove to check on the status of the remaining pages. He’s still working on the last few. He hasn’t slept all week. He fell asleep for two hours but it was by accident. If I were him, I would have been a lot angrier.
Now that we’re well into the afternoon, I decide to submit this blog entry to the website, since this saga might not conclude for a while.
This is where I’d look out the window, gaze at the freezing hail that has been barraging New York all day, and think of something philosophical, but I don’t actually have a window. I hope John is enjoying California.
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The Error That Almost Was [Jan 16, 2007]
2007-03-29 15:38:51
At the end of last week, we released Dark Tower #1 to the printer. The usual procedure goes something like this:
--We get all the material in from the artists
--We give it to our production department, aka “The Bullpen”
--The Bullpen puts it all together, along with the ads and covers
--We run it around to everyone who needs to review and approve it
--We send it back to the Bullpen for any necessary corrections
--Once all the corrections are completed, we send the final digital files to the printer
--The printer sends us a black-and-white final proof of the completed book
Normally, this last step is very simple because at this point, everything should be completely finalized. However, this step gives us a chance to notice any serious problems that might have been overlooked—for example, if the pages are out of order or we sent the wrong version of a page to the printer.
We very seldom make changes at this stage, because of the additional expenses for Marvel and the additional steps it requires in the printing process.
But because of the public attention to Dark Tower, we need to be extra careful with this one. So Marvel’s Print Logistics people, Amy Vandevender and Raphael Rodriguez, have taken additional steps to get us high-quality color copies of these final printer proofs before the books go on press, just to be extra sure.
So today, we had a chance to look over those proofs for issue 1. We also invited Jae Lee over to the office to take a look as well. Sure enough, Jae found something.
It was a pretty small oversight, but still something that a serious Dark Tower fan would notice and care about: In one panel, a word balloon is pointing to the character Alain, when it should be pointing to Cuthbert. Their faces are in shadow and the distinction doesn’t affect the story. But, the tone of the line is much more in keeping with one character’s personality than the other. To keep it as such would ring as a false note with the fans, and they are the ones relying on us to remain consistently true to the source.
And so it was that John Barber made arrangements with the Bullpen, Raphael and Amy to make the correction and replace the old file with the new one. It was a tiny added step, but we know it will make a difference to readers. And now Ralph, John, Jae and I can all sleep a little easier, knowing that this tiny but significant oversight was corrected.
That is, at least, until our printer deadline for issue 2.
It Begins! [February 5, 2007]
2007-03-29 14:14:26
Just two days until The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #1 goes on sale at retail locations, and the office is abuzz just as we’re also working on getting issue #2 ready to go.
This morning, Marvel editor Bill Rosemann dropped into the office to compliment the first issue, having read an early office copy over the weekend. He’d read the first novel a while back, and asked me to confirm whether a big fight scene in the comic had been adapted from there. It had, so we discussed some of our favorite face-gouging, bone-crunching details.
 Richard Isanove has handed in a few more pages of color for issue 2. Website Guy Ryan Penagos is kindly allowing me to post a teaser from that issue here:
And if you’re reading this, you probably already know that retailers throughout the country are holding midnight openings on Tuesday night to celebrate the release of the first issue.
For you lucky so-and-sos who are enjoying the mild climes of California – Richard Isanove, color artist, will be signing at the Comics Factory in Pasadena:
Comics Factory
1298 E. Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91106
626-585-0618
ylekiot4@aol.com
And here in New York, artist Jae Lee and scriptwriter Peter David will be braving the subzero wind chill to sign at Midtown Comics’ Times Square location:
Midtown Comics
200 W 40th St # 2
New York, NY 10018
212-302-8192
www.midtowncomics.com
info@midtowncomics.com
If you’d like to burn the midnight oil with your local retailer tomorrow night, check the list at http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.607 to find out which stores are participating.
[Editor's note: this blog was 'sposed to be up yesterday. Blame Ryan.]
Midnight Opening
2007-02-09 09:31:19
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And now for a little horn-tooting:
David Gabriel, Marvel’s Senior VP of Sales, sent around an e-mail report of the Dark Tower midnight opening at Midtown Comics, and some responses from other retailers who participated.
(Photos courtesy of Marvel's Mike Pasciullo. Find more event photos at the Agent M blog, here.)
Now take it away, David:
________________________________________
Already reports on the event from last night, from all over the country have been tremendous. All retailers that I have heard from have reported sales close to a slow Wednesday on sale date. Comic retailers actually had people shake their hands thanking them for holding the event.
Random things I heard and/or saw myself at Midtown:
• People are flipping out over the book- many claiming it is the best example of a comic book ever
• LOTS of notice on the House Ads in the books, especially the Last of the Mohicans.
• People loved the personal note from Ralph Macchio (at least one person said "he's still there?")
• More new faces coming in the doors than ever before
• Many guys passed out the Dabel Brothers and MAX samplers along with the DT Sketchbooks
• Ladies bringing cookies
Congrats to EVERYONE for all the hard work on this
Here are a few retailer responses:
.........
Thank you so much for this.
New faces and tremendously high sales for only 3 hours.
The variants as door prizes went over huge. Thanks so much. I held back one of each to compensate the guys who went to local bookstores to hand out flyers, but I gave the other 8 away to stunned, buy very happy customers.
Half of the faces in the store were new.
One third of the new faces found out from either Marvel.com or Stephen King's e-mail newsletter. Great job marketing all around. Thanks for the idea, the execution, and the partnership-minded marketing.
I am thrilled. I had guys shaking my hand for how great this event was. It started with Marvel and you getting this together.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
-Tom, Cool Stuff/Effin Comics
..........
We opened the doors at 9:30- it's pretty cold here in upstate NY. We had punch, coffee and cookies for those who were able to brave the weather. We passed out some sketchbooks we held back and handed out Dabel Brothers and Max samplers in addition to color Xeroxes of covers we had made from the pdf files. And inside each one of the Dark Towers we inserted a flyer with cover scans of issues #2 and #3, along with an ad for Anita Blake and an announcement of Free Comic Book Day on May 5th- hey we want these people back, right?
We had a decent turnout, about 50 people total over four hours. There were a lot of oohs and ahs over the content. The local news came down and took video of the store and the customers talking about the book. it 's going to be shown on the morning show, so we're going to get ready for the next wave of customers. We made some money, pushed some future projects and customers had a great time.
Thanks again for making this happen, we were honored to participate.
........
Same here, about half a good Wednesday money in 3 hrs. Gave away raffle, 3 books every half an hour, 1 ticket for every $10 spent during the sale. Had 30% off TPBs, 50% off back issues, 20% off merchandize sale. Did really well with that.
And the best thing, this was almost a free promotion. Total spent about $10 (including postage for press releases and copy cost of those stickers that are free labels from UPS).
Also, sold 4 out of the 6 1:75 variants and 10 out of 18 1:25 variants, so the books are PRETTY MUCH Free now. Sold for $75 and $25, and people were ecstatic, no talk of "gouging" at all. ZERO. People who get King stuff get it completely.
Amazing production at Marvel, and a hell of a read of a comic book. Best promotion job ever. If every company tried this hard.... we'd be much happier retailers…
.......
…and so on and so on!
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Do Not Use
2007-02-08 15:30:45
| |
And now for a little horn-tooting:
David Gabriel, Marvel’s Senior VP of Sales, sent around an e-mail report of the Dark Tower midnight opening at Midtown Comics, and some responses from other retailers who participated. (Photos from the Midtown event are courtesy of Marvel’s Mike Pasciullo, VP of Business Development.)
Take it away, David:
________________________________________
Already reports on the event from last night, from all over the country have been tremendous. All retailers that I have heard from have reported sales close to a slow Wednesday on sale date. Comic retailers actually had people shake their hands thanking them for holding the event.
Random things I heard and/or saw myself at Midtown:
• People are flipping out over the book- many claiming it is the best example of a comic book ever
• LOTS of notice on the House Ads in the books, especially the Last of the Mohicans.
• People loved the personal note from Ralph Macchio (at least one person said "he's still there?")
• More new faces coming in the doors than ever before
• Many guys passed out the Dabel Brothers and MAX samplers along with the DT Sketchbooks
• Ladies bringing cookies
Congrats to EVERYONE for all the hard work on this
|
Mapmaking
2007-01-04 16:00:10
Ever wondered how a map in a comic book gets lettered? No? Well, today you’re going to learn anyway. And evidently, so am I.
Up until now, Dark Tower was something that we’d thought of as being safely In the Future. We could look to it with that haughty confidence that comes from believing, falsely, that you have an infinite amount of time to prepare. But now, reality is setting in and we’re getting close to the date when we need to send the completed first issue out to the printer. It’s making me a little nervous because of all the attention this book is getting. It means that the lead time is over, and everything has to be ready on a monthly basis now, like clockwork. (You hear that, Jae?)
So right now, we’re busy putting the finishing touches on issue 1. The artwork and lettering are completed, but there’s some supplemental material that we’re also going to include.
I hope the marketing folks don’t mind me revealing that the first issue will include a map of the Barony of New Canaan, a location within the Dark Tower universe. I’ve never worked on a comic-book map before, so this is somewhat new to me. Here’s how we did it.
Robin Furth wrote up a document and drew a rough sketch explaining the locations of various landmarks in New Canaan.
Then, Special Projects Editor Jeff Youngquist recommended that we contact artist Jim Calafiore to do the map art. Jeff gave us some samples of maps Jim had drawn before for other projects. They looked cool, so we got in touch with him.
Next, Jim penciled and inked the New Canaan map, referencing the information from Robin’s sketch.
Right now, color artist June Chung is working on coloring the map, and our letterer Chris Eliopoulos will be adding the text.
Now, here’s the rub. I wasn’t sure how to convey to Chris exactly what he should do. Lettering a comic is one thing, because you know exactly what words need to appear on the page, and where. On the map, the text and its placement on the page was less clearly defined.
So, conscientious editor that I am, I gave Chris all the material that I had on hand, explained it as best I could, and then fled the office, hoping for the best.
This morning, Chris called me up and very nicely explained that he had no idea what to do.
So this brings us to the present, at which point I’m making a numbered list of locations, worded exactly as they should appear on the final product. Then I handwrite the numbers on a copy of the map itself, indicating where Chris needs to place the text. I tried to write neatly, in order to impress you all with my fine handwriting skills.
Here, for your viewing pleasure, are the fruits of that labor and a sneak peek at one of the special items that you’ll see in the first issue. Enjoy.
Meeting with Stephen King
2007-01-04 10:43:45
It was about two years ago that I moved from working in Tom Brevoort’s editorial office into Ralph Macchio’s. At that time, the Dark Tower comic project was still top secret. Not even the other people in the Marvel office were supposed to know about it.
So when I started working with Ralph, the news of a Stephen King project in his office came pretty much out of the blue. It started with whispered comments within the office, and eventually there came the day for a meeting in the office with Stephen King and some of the people on his team. We called Robin Furth in because she lives and works in London.
Here are a few things that I remember about that meeting:
--I didn’t say anything, partly because I didn’t have much to say but mainly because I didn’t want to make a fool of myself.
--Ralph brought a Marvel comic book adaptation of The Lawnmower Man that he had edited way back in the day, to remind Stephen that they’d collaborated before.
--It was the only meeting I’ve ever been to at Marvel where there were bottles of water set out at every place at the table. Partway through the meeting, Stephen King finished his water and very politely requested another. Nobody knew what to do, because none of us knew where the water had come from. Alan Fine, the president of the company, had it together enough to get up and find another bottle. Goodness knows from where.
--In order to have some art to show Stephen King’s team, we had asked Jae Lee and Richard Isanove to do four pages of preliminary art. Those four pages are now the opening sequence in The Dark Tower issue #1.
--Marvel’s creative services department had made these beautiful display boards showcasing that preview art. Stephen King took one look at it and gave his enthusiastic approval.
This last tidbit was especially interesting to me, because I work on a number of projects at Marvel that require approval from outside companies. In many cases, it takes several rounds of revisions and corrections before we come away with an approval.
What’s striking about working with Stephen King and his group is that they’ve been so happy with everything we’ve provided so far. That’s largely due to the high quality of the work that Robin, Jae, Richard and Peter are doing. But I think there’s also a lot to be said for King’s ability to trust other people’s artistic judgment. To my mind, that further cements his stature as an artist and a professional.
Greetings from the Tower
2006-12-19 12:14:38
Greetings, readers – welcome to the Dark Tower blog. I’m Nicole, an associate editor at Marvel. And I’m lucky enough to be working on the Dark Tower comic project, which, in my view, is about as awesome in reality as it sounds on paper. So it’s a privilege to be able to bring some behind-the-scenes dirt to Marvel.com and communicate with readers directly on the development of this series.
Let’s kick things off with an introduction to some of the folks working on this comic.
STEPHEN KING:
Stephen King, of course, is the originator of the Dark Tower universe. He wrote the story as a seven-part series of novels beginning in the 1970s and concluding in 2004.
ROBIN FURTH:
Robin writes the plots for each issue of the Dark Tower comic. She’s also the author of the Dark Tower Concordance, a 2-volume encyclopedia of everything there is to know about the Dark Tower universe. She’s the be-all and end-all of Dark Tower expertise.
JAE LEE and RICHARD ISANOVE:
Two of Marvel’s most talented and beloved artists, Jae and Richard are the team behind the Dark Tower comic art. Jae draws the images in pencil (guided by Robin’s plots) and Richard paints them digitally. (The Dark Tower Sketchbook provides a detailed example of how this process works.)
PETER DAVID:
A comic industry veteran, Peter writes the scripts for the DT comic, determining the dialogue and captions after the plots have been written and the art has been created.
CHRIS ELIOPOULOS:
Head of his own lettering studio and comic creator in his own right, Chris transforms Peter’s text into word balloons and captions, and adds them to the art digitally.
RALPH MACCHIO*:
Ralph’s a Marvel senior editor, and he heads up the team responsible for bringing the contents of the DT comic together. As it happens, Ralph is a pretty big Stephen King fan himself, so he had a ready-made knowledge of the DT universe.
JOHN BARBER:
John is my fellow associate editor. Together and with Ralph’s oversight, we see the comic through each stage of development, the goal being to make sure that all of the material is at its best and on schedule.
Those are just a handful of the folks involved in bringing the Dark Tower universe to the comic book page. We’ve also got designers, sales and marketing folks, and countless other members of Marvel’s staff, as well as others who work directly with Stephen and Robin, all coming together to make this project happen. For more on the series, make sure to visit our Dark Tower area!
As we go through all the crazy machinations involved with bringing a massive project like this to life, I look forward to commenting on the story behind the story as it unfolds.
*Not the Karate Kid actor.
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About this blog:
The Dark Tower creative and editorial teams give us the behind-the-scenes details on The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born.
 | About the author:
Stephen King's Dark Tower is adapted for comics by Peter David, Robin Furth, Jae Lee, Richard Isanove, John Barber and a handful of other astute minds. They'll all contribute to the blog. |
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