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

[fastballspecial]

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 agree read it again and then read Priest's blog.

 

[shadroch]

DeFalco was sent to Italy for a big comic convention and then did a couple of weeks touring France and the UK with his wife, a combination vacation and promo tour for the newly expanded Marvel UK line. Its not like he was sent into exile. He enjoyed the Italian show and continued doing it while he was EIC.

 

[boomtown]

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 agree read it again and then read Priest's blog.

 

I understand what happened, I just question most of Shooters memories. I also don't think the Priest blog paints Shooter in a better light.

 

Priest comes off as a Shooter fanboy, who was awarded his first job at Marvel by Shooter & given more power than he was capable of handling. He talks of when Shooter & him discussed firing a writer & when he did it Shooter was upset & removed him from his position for doing it. I would think that kind of situation is why a lot of his employees didn't care for him, because he is saying one thing & backtracking when it actually comes about. Priest, being in awe of Shooter, didn't see anything wrong with it. After all, in his eyes, Shooter was a genius.

 

We can agree to disagree.

[shadroch]

Shooter was a genius. He had poor people skills but he was heads and shoulders above anyone in the comic industry at the time. I'd venture that he made more money for Marvel during his tenure than Stan Lee did during his, and most of his innovations didn't really kick in until after he was fired. Comics were a dying industry when Shooter took over Marvel, and thriving when he left.

 

[aszumilo]

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

 

That may be very true, but, there are times where people get blasted for other things that may or may not be true. Not every case is the same.

 

Whether or not anyone agrees with his version of events or someone else's, it is very interesting to get a look inside their world.

 

Bottom line is, all we can do is read about it. None of us were there, so, it is difficult to know the exact truth.

[Prince Namor]

Well one thing we can all agree on is Shooter certainly knows how to construct a good story.

[Logan510]

I think Shooter did a lot of good things during his time as EiC. I've also heard many creators in person and in print say many of the same negative things about working for him. You either believe one person, or several others who basically tell the same kinds of stories about the man.

[Lobstrosity]

Very interesting reading, thanks for sharing!

[cd4ever]

It is very interesting reading. And like most dramas, there is one side, the other side, and somewhere in the middle, the truth.

 

But fun to read regardless.

 

Secret Wars.

[Stoic Man-migration]

The Mighty Comics Journal - No. 115, 1987

 

Featuring the deposition of Dean Mullany; the testimonies of Jim Shooter,

Harlan Ellison, Gary Groth; Joe Sacco on the Fleisher v. Fantagraphics libel case.

 

http://www.tcj.com/the-comics-journal-no-115-1987/

 

 

Jim Shooter: Groundhog Day in the Land of the Apocryphiars

http://www.tcj.com/jim-shooter-groundhog-day-in-the-land-of-the-apocryphiars/

Gary Groth Apr 21, 2011

[ComicConnoisseur]

In ten years Jim will be in his 70`s going around doing conventions like Stan, and he will beloved. After all he created the last great comics universe.

[Prince Namor]

In ten years Jim will be in his 70`s going around doing conventions like Stan, and he will beloved. After all he created the last great comics universe.

 

Doubtful. He's no Stan Lee.

 

[Stoic Man-migration]

More the Mark Zuckerberg type?

 

Or the Steve Jobs type?

 

Needs to smile more.

 

He's been told.

[TupennyConan]

I've only seen him once.

 

He was leaving a hotel lobby in Baltimore. I passed him on the sidewalk on my way into the hotel.

 

He's an extremely impressive looking giant of a man.

[Stoic Man-migration]

Yes, the intimidatingly towering "Leader" type: built to be a leader of men, (and women.) Would, probably, follow him off a cliff into battle. Stoic, stolid, but, after all, stodgy. Too bad. Roy Thomas, the other editor-in-cheif, gets all the love.

[aggr1103]

I've always been fond of what Jim Shooter was able to do, especially at Valiant, but the current story he has up on his blog about "forgetting" that guy's Eternal Warrior work just seems sketchy to me.