Wednesday, April 24, 2002

MARVEL PRESS CONFERENCE

Following is an edited transcript of the question-and-answer portion of Marvel Comics' press conference on Wednesday:

Question: Are there current plans for Paul Jenkins, any creative shifts on Peter Parker once Humberto Ramos' arc is done?

Alonso: Rest assured that Paul Jenkins will be doing some monthly Spider-Man work.

Quesada: Paul's going to continue doing Spider-Man. We have some special stuff up our sleeves and we just can't let the cats out of the bag, so to speak.

Alonso: It's going to be big news, what we have planned What I do want to do is address the question on everybody's mind, why do three Spider-Man books? We tend to have really good reasons - obviously, having JMS out there and Kevin Smith out there with their visions of Spider-Man is one thing, but why would we want the third vision? We have good reasons for this, and will be unveiling them, and we also have exciting announcements about the creative team.

Quesada: I think that, unfortunately, because of the Straczynski and Smith announcement, Paul's really the forgotten man. Let's really not forget what an incredibly talented writer we have on that other Spider-Man book. You're talking about a guy who brought you The Inhumans, who's bringing you Origin - he's one of the top guys in the business. I don't want to see Paul get overshadowed here, but rest assured, Paul is involved with Spider-Man.

Question: His work has died down a bit in recent months. Is there any possibility of him returning to his previous work or venturing out to new projects in the upcoming year?

Quesada: It's completely Paul's call. Paul and I are great friends, and he knows he has an open invite here at Marvel. I think Paul's been trying to streamline his life a little bit. He's met a lovely young lady, who, I don't know if he's made it public, but he's getting married soon. So he's got a couple of things to take care of right now. I think comic work takes a little bit of a back seat to that kind of stuff.

Question: How come Kevin is going to be on Amazing, while JMS gets the new book?

Quesada: Again, this is the strategy that we came up with. I don't really want to get into the intimacies of the deals and the strategy. But let's just say we feel it's the smart move and the best way to utilize these two guys. But there is a reason for Kevin to be on Amazing, aside from the fact that he would also like to be on it.

Question: Is there a possibility of printing the Last Galactus story under The End?

Quesada: No.

Question: On the 'Nuff Said month, most of the scripts got posted on the web site. The Amazing Spider-Man script by Straczynski has never been posted. Is that going to be made available?

Bill Rosemann: Yes. Every single script is up there but that one, and we'll get that one up there today.

Question: Are all the Spider-Man trade paperbacks available through Diamond now that the movie is opening next week?

Rosemann: We just went back to print on the majority of the Spider-Man trade paperbacks, so they're available for print. Call your Diamond rep.

Question: With these two creators, is it a two-year deal? Also, both have lots of other irons in the media fires, and I'm wondering if there are any elements in the contracts for them to do a certain amount of work?

Bill Jemas: We can't speak to the specifics to anybody's contract. But we can say that Kevin and Joe have soul-searched and have given us a serious commitment to get books out on a very timely basis. I mean, these are two people who are comic book lovers and they understand the turmoil it creates for a monthly reader not to have their book come out that particular month. They're going to do everything they can to get on time.

Question: Who handled the licensing of the Spider-Man movie? Why Hardee's?

Jemas: Marvel and Sony, through a joint venture, do jointly handle the licensing of the Spider-Man movie. To make a long story short, going forward, on licensing, and this means everything from T-shirts to electronic games, Sony will handle electronic game licensing and apparel, and Marvel will do everything else. With respect to Hardee's, that's a promotional deal and that was handled by Sony. They are very, very happy with their promotional partners in general and they are happy with the performance by Hardee's. I think your question is if they're the ideal partner, and that's not ours to speak to.

Question: How are the Spider-Man hardcovers selling?

Jemas: Obviously, we pushed really hard to get the hardcovers out in advance of the movie. The hardcover program, both at bookstores and at comics shops, has been very well received. We've gotten some nice words of encouragement in terms of the content of the books, that we're delivering extra features in the hardcovers that frankly we don't do in the trade paperbacks and more. People are happy to have that. Sell-through has been strong, but on the new product, sell-through is always strong. So we're optimistic on the hardcover program, but it's a little bit guarded. A year from now if the books are selling as well as they are now, we'll be jumping up and down. Right now, we're having better than expectations. But there's the hottest movie in recent history is coming hot and the book's related to the hottest movie in recent history. We're happy, but there's no conclusion yet.

Question: Does the 40-issue lag between the trade paperback and the current Black Panther series hinder the book's growth?

Quesada: I don't believe so. Would it be better served at this point by a number of trade paperbacks that bring you up to snuff for the first 40-some odd issues, or would it be better served by talking a look at the character, and streamlining it a little bit, and going from this point forward? I really think the latter is really the way to go.

I don't think there's anything intrinsically wrong with the way Priest is doing the book. Obviously I love the way he's doing the book, with the exception of the fact as I've told Priest in the past that I think we're getting a little too convoluted and a little too mired in the Marvel Universe, and we need to back up a little bit and get back to what those original few issues of Panther were really all about which was really T'Challa, Everett K. Ross and moving forward, and a little bit less about the backstory, the Panther that we knew from 1960 or whatever.

So, the answer to the question is I don't know if we're going to be doing trade paperbacks of the in-between 30-some add issues that we haven't covered yet, but I know that we are taking a good hard look at Black Panther. I think it's really impressive that the book is coming upon issue #50. It would warm the cockles of my heart to see it get up to issue #100 one day, but realistically speaking, it's a matter of whether we can turn the book into something a little more accessible that you can pick up from ground zero and go.

Jemas: Let me just add one thing to Joe's answer. It is interesting that a year ago, when on a call like this, Joe and I spoke about accelerating the flow of trade paperbacks so that a trade paperback would follow hot on the heels of the end of the story arc in the monthly. One of the concerns expressed by the people on the telephone call was "Well, won't this ruin the sales of your monthly books?"

Our sense was that it was either two different audiences or that there would be a catch up point. The nice fact is that we do find the trade paperbacks do in fact increase the sales of the monthlies. But getting back to Joe's point with respect to Black Panther, is really relating I think to, accessible content much more so than the availability or lack of trade paperbacks.

Question: With the Spider-Man movie coming, have you been able to find more venues to sell the books?

Jemas: I'd say that a couple of things have happened. At our peak, my best guess is that Marvel comics were distributed in 75,000 retail outlets. And that's a pretty good guess because it was based on a lot of research that the guys at Fleer did in the mid '90s.

What's happened in that time period, the damage to the distribution system, is that I don't think there's been so much a lack of outlets, but lack of good, solid stocking within the outlets. Very recently, at least in the stores we've surveyed - for example, Barnes and Noble have doubled their graphic novel section. So, yes, absolutely, some of the independent bookstores that didn't carry graphic novels at all, let alone Marvel graphic novels, they have opened up.

But relatively speaking, the important change since the Spider-Man movie has come out, and frankly, since Joe and Axel have really stepped up the content of the Spider-Man books, is the expansion within the high-traffic, big profile bookstore chains.

The aggressive distribution move that has happened very recently is Wal-Mart has taken the Ultimate Spider-Man graphic novels, and those have been doing very well in that chain.

Question: On the new MTV (Spider-Man) cartoon coming out, how will it tie into the movie?

Quesada: From what we've seen so far, with respect to scripts, it is an extension of the movie experience. It takes place some time right after the movie ends.

Question: Are there any comic products to tie in with the animated show?

Jemas: I would say no in respect to that, but more because the overall media tie-in products for Marvel is Ultimate Spider-Man, so I would say this is one where the horse is leading the cart, that well in advance of the movie's coming out, Marvel understood the creative direction of the media and created a book that would be accessible and fun for media fans. The movie adaptation, generally speaking, worked as a fairly derivative product, as some of the animation adaptations. What you're seeing here is Ultimate Spider-Man as every bit of a touchstone for the media as the media is for the comic book.

Question: Do you have any other specific promotions to get copies of Ultimate Spider-Man into hands of movie goers?

Quesada: I'm sure most of you are aware of Free Comic Book Day. But, for those of you who aren't, obviously as you all know this is an industry that can't agree on anything - ever. But I think we've all come to the conclusion of the importance of the Spider-Man movie, not just because of the class that Spider-Man is in, it is a prime opportunity because the movie is so reverent to the comic-book source material.

On May 4, the day after the Spider-Man movie premieres, any neophytes or lapsed fans who decided to venture into one of two thousand-plus comic specialty stores will obviously walk away with a considerable amount of free merchandise, stuff that was created specifically for Free Comic Book Day. These are not little pamphlets, these are not brochures. These are actually full-fledged comics, including, on Marvel's end, the much hard-to-find Ultimate Spider-Man #1 will be reprinted for this particular day. DC is producing a Justice League animated comic. Dark Horse is giving a Star Wars comic, and Image is producing a Tomb Raider comic. And I believe we have other publishers that are involved now, getting involved.

I believe it's an incredible show of solidarity for the comic industry, and fun should be had by all. So hopefully, storeowners will be sweeping their stores, washing their windows and putting on their best faces. And Saturday after the Spider-Man movie opens, we should be experiencing a nice influx of fans.

Jemas: Speaking of storeowners, the retail community really stepped up to the plate for this promotion. I don't have off the top of my head the numbers for the other books, but retails ordered 750,000 Ultimate Spider-Man #1 reprints, which is just a spectacular number. It really is just the right content for somebody who has just seen the movie.

Rosemann: The No. 1 ordered book in May.

Jemas: But Diamond will find some way to make Transformers No. 1 for May, but in terms of actually orders, yeah, I would say that's No. 1.

Question: How as the Megalomaniacal Spider-Man doing and are there any plans get to get Peter Bagge to do more work?

Alonso: I know Bill will kill me, but I'd like to do a Megalomaniacal Hulk. Look, we had a lot of fun on that project. I'd love to work together again with Pete and hopefully we'll do something down the line.

The whole point of The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man is to show that this is a pop icon, and we can do many different things within him between the Spider-Man that appears in this book and the Spider-Man that appears in Amazing, or Peter Parker, but it's all part of the same thing. As for its performance, I don't think it's competing with Amazing Spider-Man, but it's getting great reviews.

Question: Can you do a fast rundown as to what movies are the most urgent stages of development?

Quesada: That would be best answered by our West Coast office because they're there on a day-to-day basis. It's my understanding, though, based on what I hear from those guys, that Daredevil's next up, and that there's considerable amount of work already. I know people have shot scenes and things like that. I think that's the obvious one, but after that, you'd have to speak to folks on the West Coast.