moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Andrew Sigel, posting via Moriarty) (02/07/86)
The December 6, 1985 issue of Publishers Weekly had an extensive group of
articles on comic books as part of their "Magazines in Bookstores"
special report. These appear on pages 34-43. I was especially struck
by the first paragraph of the article (given Jean Grey's recent life
after death), and am reprinting it verbatim:
Marvel Comics, which holds a dominant sixty percent of the
comics market, publishes 30-50 titles each month, including
monthly and bimonthly titles, annuals and other tie-ins.
Within those 50-odd titles, expalins vice-president/publisher
Mike Hobson, "We probably have 2000 characters." They appear
and reappear -- nobody dies forever in the Marvel Universe.
One can only congratulate Marvel on this realistic view of life as we know
it, and await the inevitable resurrections of the Original Gwen Stacy, her
father, Peter Parker's parents and Uncle Ben, Johnny and Sue's father, and
Jean DeWolff. And, of course, all the villains who have been bumped off
over the last several months.
Andrew Sigel