DD: Father & Excuses

[drice6900]

I laughed my off reading this:

 

 

AT THE FINISH LINE: QUESADA ON DD FATHER #6, AND LATENESS

 

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Running down the list of Marvel books that have their final order cutoffs this week – it appeared like a mirage…it…was it…huh?

 

We asked the only person we could think of…

 

Newsarama: Joe - we ran down the Final Order Cutoff list for this week, and had to rub our eyes. It looks like Daredevil: Father #6 is on there. Misprint or real deal?

 

Joe Quesada: I think it's the real deal. After I finished the pencils I kind of forgot about it as I knew it was going to be some time before Danny Miki and Richard Isanove could get to it. Keep in mind that none of this was their fault as they had to move on to other projects. Also, at one point Danny had dislocated his shoulder pushing a lot of books back as well. DD Father, the way I saw it, wasn't a priority. I even offered Danny the opportunity to opt out of it or to give it to one of the assistants he was grooming to finish it but he wanted to do it himself. As far as I was concerned, my team waited for me so I'll wait for them.

 

NRAMA: How, in your view, do retailers and readers factor into the “team” equation? Could an argument be made they are as important part of the team any other?

 

JQ: Absolutely, but we’re talking about issue #6 here. Not like the project was a month or two late and the inker and colorist were holding it up. Issue #6 was beyond late that we were now at the point where another month here and there wouldn’t matter an iota, so that made the decision easier.

 

NRAMA: Let’s clarify that one last time - what happened with the

scheduling of the book?

 

JQ: What happened is called being EIC. I started off with a great head of steam

and time, or the lack thereof, just caught up with me.

 

NRAMA: On your end, when did you finish your pencils for issue #6?

 

JQ: As for when the last page was done, that was in March.

 

NRAMA: Obviously, this was a personal project for you, but late, high profile books seem to be becoming endemic within the industry at this time, there are two roads to go – as originally envisioned, or on time. With Father, you went with "as envisioned.” If you can put aside the personal nature of this project for a moment why did you choose that, rather than, say, putting another artist on it and just getting it out?

 

JQ: There is no other reason other than it was a very personal story. That is

the one and only reason, so it's tough to separate it out from the equation.

 

Also, someday we need to truly speak and analyze what some people are calling a lateness epidemic. While there is lateness, I don't think all the factors are being taken into consideration. Chief among them, the number of books that are being published. I will bet you a dollar that over the history of mainstream monthly comics, the amount of late books increases with the number of monthly titles that are being published.

 

Sometimes our memory of things is so much better than the reality of it.

 

Back in the early sixties, Marvel was publishing about 16 titles a month. Now mind you, it wasn't like there was no lateness back then. When something or someone fell behind, they would just install a reprint comic, or in some cases the comics didn't have full stories. They would insert a reprint backup or a short inventory backup that had been lying in a drawer waiting for just that moment. These are options that just aren't available to us in today's modern world of publishing. Why? Because times change as have the needs of the market (now direct) and the demands of our consumers who pay a lot of money for a comic book. Imagine if you're an Avengers fan

and the next issue on the stands was a classic story from the past because the book was running late? Or what if there was only a twelve page story followed by a filler backup story? How would you feel? What would fans on message boards be talking about?

 

In 1968, Marvel changed distributors and started shipping 30 later 40 titles a month, 10 of which on average were reprint comics and some which had back up stories and whole inventory stories inserted if once again a book was running late. Again, options not available to us with the change in the market.

 

Then in the eighties the direct market was born and publishers were now looking at a whole new world of change.

 

Also in the eighties the industry boomed, title count skyrocketed up to 80-90-100 plus comics a month and that was just Marvel alone. Wouldn't you know it but suddenly it became harder and harder to keep stuff on time except that now to cover up for those scheduling mishaps, you couldn't just throw in an inventory story or god forbid a reprint. In the late nineties title count went down again and now here we are once more on the rise. It only makes sense to me that the more books you have to publish on a monthly basis the higher the chances are that a train is going to fall off the tracks. The math's not difficult here.

 

And then there is also a very important component that has to be looked at here. We've come to expect comics every thirty days because that's what the machinery was set up for when we were newsstand business. That machinery, that philosophy, was carried over to the direct market world and retailers used the monthly formula to set up their business plans. While many things changed with the advent of the direct market, many other things were carried over. But, now let's look at the world as we know it. Comics are at least a three dollar item and fans have come to expect only the best, most detailed, highly rendered work for their hard earned money. There are no two ways about it, that kind of work takes longer to produce for most artists. Yes, there are a handful, just like there were a handful in the Golden Age, who are very fast, but most artists doing that level of detail work just aren't. So, we live in an age of conflicting desires and it's something that will eventually work its way out and morph into something new.

 

Yes, advanced planning is always done, but let's face it, stuff will always happen. Considering the amount of titles that are being put out currently in the comics market I think what needs to be looked at is how most are shipping on time. What tends to shine a spotlight on this issue is when one of the top titles in the industry happens to miss, then suddenly the sky is falling and we have an epidemic.

 

NRAMA: Those are all legitimate arguments, but doesn’t the question then become, if everything has changed so much, from the expectations of the fans, and retailers, to the work of the artists, to cover prices, et al, why doesn’t the way books with potential scheduling issues are solicited evolve to a contemporary model?

 

JQ: They do, but as I also mentioned, things fall off the tracks, they always have, no matter what the system. This is an age old argument. And like I said, when people talk about this they make it sound like 50% of the books in the industry are late when that simply isn’t true. All I’m arguing here is that what you’re calling an epidemic is simply a part of publishing that will always be here. As the number of titles increases the chances of things shipping late increases exponentially.

 

NRAMA: Er – just a point for clarity’s sake, we said endemic, not epidemic. In that it’s become prevalent in this particular field.

 

That said, you have more artistic talent in your “bullpen” than perhaps ever in your history. Why can’t two complimentary artists be assigned to big high profile titles?

 

JQ: Because despite the complaints, that’s not what the public wants. We’ve seen it over and over again. Take the big time creator off a project in order to just get it done and you can kiss your sales goodbye. It’s a double edged sword. Fans demand the creators that give them the most bang for their buck, hence retailers want to see those creators doing more books as well. For the most part, those creators aren’t monthly, the work is too time consuming. We do our best to mix and match, but the math doesn’t always line up perfectly and that’s where you have to be careful.

 

Also, let’s think of it from the point of view of the creator. Say you have Jimmy A List drawing or writing a Wolverine mini series. Jimmy A list is falling behind so you look for another top, top talent to come in and finish the book. So, the only person who can fill the shoes and keep the momentum up is Harry Hot Artists. Harry gets the call and you discover one of many things.

 

1. Harry is already working on a huge mini series that he’s also falling behind on .

 

2. Harry is already working on a mini series and he’s falling behind too and we could really use another A lister to pick up the slack (repeat and rinse)

 

3. If Harry is between projects, the last thing Harry wants to do is fill in work. He’s a top talent, so he wants his own #1 issue or he wants to start a story arc at the very beginning.

 

Now, that’s not even taking into account that Harry may not like Wolverine, the writer, the editor etc. By the way, all of these are valid reason as Harry tries to continue to build his career and cache.

Oh, and let’s not forget how Jimmy is going to feel about this.

 

There are so many variables that go into day to day publishing that to sit and try to explain every possibility, every turn of what happens is insane because no two situations are the same. What happened with Ultimate Wolverine/Hulk is 1000% different than what happened with Civil War than what happened with Father. What goes unseen are the dozens and dozens of projects that do get held up because we anticipated correctly.

 

NRAMA: Well, since we have a few minutes, and you brought it up, on short limited series like Ultimate Hulk vs Wolverine, why even start the illustrating process until all scripts are in?

 

JQ: Because not all projects in publishing work that way. Leinil and Damon were the guys who wanted to work together on this project. Leinil had a window in which to draw it and the scripts started to come in. I know that people are looking for nice neat formulas and square pegs to put this whole epidemic thing into, but it doesn’t work that way. The only thing in this world that works that way are machines on assembly lines and even they break down from time to time.

 

NRAMA: Same token then, why can’t the timetable projects are developed and published evolve along with all the changes you cited and get solicited only when a significant amount of work is in the can?

 

Wouldn’t the latter solve a great deal of what right or wrongly frustrates fans and retailers and make this an issue you don’t need to address in interview and at cons anymore?

 

JQ: That has happened, but even with that, stuff sometimes falls short. Again, we’re not talking about hundreds of books here and this will be an issue that will be discussed until the day that comics are done by machines in an assembly line. If you look at the Marvel catalog, what goes unnoticed is that there are times when a comic doesn’t get solicited because we know it’s falling behind, whether it be a monthly or a limited in the middle of its run. David Gabriel and his crew have worked very hard to make this as easy for retailers and fans as possible. What also goes unseen is the number of books that are just sitting in flat files here that haven’t been solicited or even hinted at because we’re waiting for more work to be done on them. When’s the last time you heard anything about the sequel to Ultimate Iron Man or Marvels: Eye of the Camera?

 

Again, a big book gets pushed back and everyone cries epidemic. Behind the scenes dozens of books are being held until further work is done but no one will ever know, why should they really. That said, somehow the assumption is that we’re doing nothing to prevent these things from happening to the best of our abilities.

 

NRAMA: Forgive us for this one, but...what's going on when issue #6 picks up again? It has been a while...

 

JQ: Well, issue #6 is called Daredevil Grandfather.

 

NRAMA: Ba-dum-bump!

 

JQ: Last we left the book, Maggie Farrell had Foggy Nelson in a compromising position while Matt was at her home in Jersey talking to her husband who quite simply died in front of him.

 

NRAMA: As you've said, you're currently working on/in preparation for a Spider-Man project of no little importance with JMS. Are there steps being taken to ensure that what happened with Father won't happen with that one?

 

JQ: Yes, I am wearing a shock collar that gets activated by David Bogart if I fall behind. Let me tell you, if I had known how kinky he was I would have given it to someone else. In all seriousness, the simple failsafe put into place is that if I fall behind, someone else will be drawing the mini. It's time sensitive so there's no wiggle room with this project.

 

NRAMA: In the name of full disclosure for people who want to decide whether or not to invest in the story, can you name who that artist will be?

 

JQ: Nah, not yet. I haven’t even disclosed what the project is nor is it even solicited.

 

NRAMA: Okay – back to the issue at hand - end of day, will there be any sense of closure when this book hits the stands for you - both in the personal aspects of the story as well as the "I got it done!" aspect, or did that emotion come and go earlier, when you were done with the pencils?

 

JQ: The day I finished the pencils I felt that sense of closure. For the last page, and if you see it you'll kind of understand what I mean, (minor spoiler here) I used my daughter and myself as a models, and when I drew it I have to admit, I kind of got a bit watery eyed. I know, I know, I'm a wimp, what can I say. Hey, look, Editor Axel Alonso admitted he got teary as well.

 

Linky

[uclapeterg]

[Pirate]

funny it's always Joe Q explaining himself. Never see Dan Didio or one of the DC guys making excuses.

[Hobgoblin]

I wonder what the reaction will be when its finally released.

 

I know most board members will not buy it. If we were reading the series, we've said to hell with it due to the extreme lateness. But fanboys and the general public who don't know much at all might all run out and buy them up due to the hype of it finally being released. *spoon*.

[followtheleader]

Quesada needs some lessons from Lean Manufacturing. There are positive & preventive solutions to "down time". I.e., don't advertise the series until it's near completion when it's someone as high profile as Lindelof. I know, I know. He "addressed" it. But he says, when was the last time you heard of Ultimate Iron Man II? Uhm, I heard about it almost as soon as the original was finished! Don't even bring it up to begin with.

 

One thematic problem he kept mentioning (though in a positive light), there are TOO many titles! Cancel a bunch. Loved it when that happened in the late 90s. I'd rather see fewer titles out on time with super solid creative teams than a million with subpar creative team and a few not hitting schedule.

 

Pat