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Jim Shooter's Blog - Interesting Behind-the-Scenes Drama & Intrigue at Marvel

Started by Stoic Man-migration,

36 posts in this topic

MyNameIsLegion

MyNameIsLegion

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I've been reading the entire blog, going back to March, and I have to say it's pretty fascinating. I wonder if Jim had stuck with writing only if he might have become one of the best ever, at least on par with Waid, Stern, Goodwin, Brubaker, etc.

 

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Zonker

Zonker

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That's some very interesting stuff there, especially about the DC line.

 

That really was a revelation. I wouldn't have been surprised to learn about Marvel almost taking over publishing DC comics for Warners back in 1979/1980, but Shooter's memos from 1984 cast things in a whole new light. Up until now, the conventional wisdom has been that with the launch of the Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans, DC was back on the road to recovery by 1981. But that now looks to not be the case. This suggests that mid-1980s moves like Crisis on Infinite Earths and the Byrne Superman relaunch were not so much actions of a resurgent publisher on the move, but instead Plan B Hail Mary passes, desperate attempts to just stay alive.

 

It worked... I suppose... (shrug)

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boomtown

boomtown

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Shooter comes off as delusional & paranoid at best, quite possibly a raving egotistical maniac.

 

One minute he goes on about how everyone at Marvel hates him but he is too important to get rid of because of the upcoming sale. The next minute, new management hates me, they are worse than the old management & they fired me. I thought you were the "key guy" in the deal?

 

The only reason he is staying on is to fight for his employees rights, but oops, I don't want to let Walt Simonson know how management is screwing him on his foreign royalties, he might leave & I would get blamed.

 

Then he was fired & they let "cretins" who particularly hated him pack up his office & ruin everything he had.

 

Good lord, get help Jim.

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Logan510

Logan510

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Posted
Shooter comes off as delusional & paranoid at best, quite possibly a raving egotistical maniac.

 

One minute he goes on about how everyone at Marvel hates him but he is too important to get rid of because of the upcoming sale. The next minute, new management hates me, they are worse than the old management & they fired me. I thought you were the "key guy" in the deal?

 

The only reason he is staying on is to fight for his employees rights, but oops, I don't want to let Walt Simonson know how management is screwing him on his foreign royalties, he might leave & I would get blamed.

 

Then he was fired & they let "cretins" who particularly hated him pack up his office & ruin everything he had.

 

Good lord, get help Jim.

 

Exactly. I find the blog interesting, but his memory is not awesome and his stories almost always do not jibe with what other people who worked there at the time say.

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sckao

sckao

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Posted
Shooter comes off as delusional & paranoid at best, quite possibly a raving egotistical maniac.

 

One minute he goes on about how everyone at Marvel hates him but he is too important to get rid of because of the upcoming sale. The next minute, new management hates me, they are worse than the old management & they fired me. I thought you were the "key guy" in the deal?

 

The only reason he is staying on is to fight for his employees rights, but oops, I don't want to let Walt Simonson know how management is screwing him on his foreign royalties, he might leave & I would get blamed.

 

Then he was fired & they let "cretins" who particularly hated him pack up his office & ruin everything he had.

 

Good lord, get help Jim.

 

Exactly. I find the blog interesting, but his memory is not awesome and his stories almost always do not jibe with what other people who worked there at the time say.

 

Both of you seem to be misreading his blog post.

 

The then upper management was allegedly corrupt. The company was sold. The new owners (New World) KEPT THE OLD UPPER MANAGEMENT. When Shooter complained to New World, clearly it poisoned his position in the company further when they did nothing about UPPER MANAGEMENT.

 

Whistleblowers tend not to be employed long in most businesses.

 

 

 

 

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boomtown

boomtown

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Posted
Shooter comes off as delusional & paranoid at best, quite possibly a raving egotistical maniac.

 

One minute he goes on about how everyone at Marvel hates him but he is too important to get rid of because of the upcoming sale. The next minute, new management hates me, they are worse than the old management & they fired me. I thought you were the "key guy" in the deal?

 

The only reason he is staying on is to fight for his employees rights, but oops, I don't want to let Walt Simonson know how management is screwing him on his foreign royalties, he might leave & I would get blamed.

 

Then he was fired & they let "cretins" who particularly hated him pack up his office & ruin everything he had.

 

Good lord, get help Jim.

 

Exactly. I find the blog interesting, but his memory is not awesome and his stories almost always do not jibe with what other people who worked there at the time say.

 

Both of you seem to be misreading his blog post.

 

The then upper management was allegedly corrupt. The company was sold. The new owners (New World) KEPT THE OLD UPPER MANAGEMENT. When Shooter complained to New World, clearly it poisoned his position in the company further when they did nothing about UPPER MANAGEMENT.

 

Whistleblowers tend not to be employed long in most businesses.

 

 

 

 

I would think if he was "the key man" in the deal, as he mentions, he would have a little more say in the situation. Shooter is all over the place in those blogs, the three examples I presented were pulled from a couple of paragraphs. Anyone that befriended him was punished, all that opposed him were rewarded. Cretins were allowed to pack up his office & they ruined all his stuff. Surrree Jim.

 

Really, when I read Shooters ramblings he comes off much like one of our own board members who often goes off on rants about how important he is & wonders why so many people dislike him. Just saying (shrug)

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shadroch

shadroch

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What I heard, from somebody who worked in the Marvel front office, was that New World was very impressed with Shooter until someone brought his lack of education. They didn't feel comfortable entrusting their multi-million dollar purchase to a guy with only a HS education. Tom DeFalco, on the other hand had a degree and was married to an english professor. Jim didn't have many allies to watch his back.

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sckao

sckao

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This parallel account from Christopher Priest looks at that period leading up to Shooter's dismissal from another interesting angle:

 

(Tom DeFalco who succeeded Shooter as EIC had been sent to Europe for a while after being fired off of Amazing Spider-man.)

 

http://www.digital-priest.com/comics/adventures/spidey.htm

 

 

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