chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Laurie Sefton, C/O chuqui) (06/25/85)
A short note on what seems to be happening at Marvel... Checking out my CBG this week, on the front page I noticed the articl "Marvel Cancels two..." in which Jim Shooter said "We are cancelling those titles which take up either considerable editorial time and expertise or just aren't clicking with the intended audience the way we had hoped they would. That is not to say that both titles were not selling particularly well. They were." Now earlier in CBG #600, Shooter, while trying to explain why Rom, Dazzler, The New Defenders, Micronauts, The Thing, and Power Man and Iron Fist were being cancelled said "All these books are actually doing quite well. If sales were are only concern they wouldn't be going anywhere. We simply need these creators and their talents elsewhere." Now, one of two things is happening here. Either Marvel is experiencing a *major* and *drastic* shortage of talented personnel, which means that all of us here at net.comics ought to drop what we're doing and *immediately* apply for those positions; or Shooter is lying. I personally believe the latter. The only way Marvel could be experiencing a major shortage of talented people is that no one will work for Shooter anymore (which, from what I have heard at cons from both current and former Marvel personnel, might not be too far off the mark). And the reamrk about "all of these titles are selling well"? Ahem.. I thought that the idea of being in a business was to produce items that sold well. My mistake, obviously. I think what this boils down to, is that Shooter appears to have some pretty bogus ideas about what he can tell the comic buying audience. he seems to think that he can announce any sort of bizarre garbage and it will be eaten up by those "Fan-boys in bondage". *sigh* Any comments? Laurie Sefton -- :From the misfiring synapses of: Chuq Von Rospach {cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA The offices were very nice, and the clients were only raping the land, and then, of course, there was the money...
moriarty@fluke.UUCP (The Napoleon of Crime) (06/26/85)
I think you've hit the nail on the head -- Shooter reminds me of the current administration more every day. In the comics industry, one hopes for a little more candor than is found elsewhere.... "If you tell the truth, you must smile. Otherwise, people will kill you." Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. UUCP: {cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsri}!uw-beaver \ {allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty ARPA: fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA