Thursday, May 17, 2007

EIC Summary Updates So Far

Wow -- this is flying a hell of a lot more fast-n-furious than I would've figured! I'll be honest with you guys, I'm trying to keep up as best as I can, but I'm doing a lot more scanning than I'd like. That's not to say I want you to halt discussions, just bear with me as I try to summarize where we're going. I want to make sure we're all on the same page here!

Pat - I get the feeling that we're only going to get Byrne if you put him on Amazing. I get the impression that he's being polite but isn't that keen on Spectacular. It sounds like he'd need to get his top tier Spidey book, avoid the Venom story that he's not keen on anyway, and keep him from having to deal with crossover business, since Fraction's not keen on that in the first place. That also means moving JRJr to Spectacular -- don't know if that's going to upset JRJR or not though. I'll fight for Byrne, but not if he's not interested. If you're ok with Byrne on Amazing I'll put another call into Byrne, otherwise you'll need to tag someone else.

To Tom's point from OPS, I'm leaning towards bumping Amazing in favor of FF. With Phil's Defenders crossover running through that book and the lack of solidified creative teams on your end AND the possible delay anyway, I think that makes the most sense. That means you're out of the gate a little late, and might take some flak for that. Fair warning...

Phil -- Ditch your bit about teasing Slott about Torch in that post before you give post it to Tom's. The 500 words seems a bit more than I would've guessed initially and allows us to throw in bits like that, but it's still a pretty finite limit, and I want us to make sure that we don't screw ourselves if we have to make some last minute changes by our 8:00 deadline. Also your description's a little unclear as to whether She-Hulk is getting canned/cancelled/absorbed. Also, avoid mentioning Sue leaving just yet -- I want to follow up with you on that.

I'm not going to try to edit BOP personally. I saw a couple of different posts about Deodato or Cheung on the book -- I didn't track which was your latest thoughts on the matter. I'd suggest keeping Deodato on FF (since he seemed excited about it), and put Cheung on BoP. Call Vaughan (how the hell do you pronounce that anyway?) and Cheung to see if they're up for it. Backups look good from my POV. Let's see if you can't

Mike -- Gotta go. I'll have to get back with you. But you have the fewest issues anyway! :)

12 comments:

Michael Heide said...

> Vaughan (how the hell do you
> pronounce that anyway?)

Bow-Ling-Ball-Head.

Also, be sure to check those Djurdjevic redesigns.

Patrick Cook said...

Sean, gonna disagree with you a couple of points here - you can take it out on me at the next editorial retreat.

Amazing is good to go. I've got Fraction AND Romita Jr. revved and ready to go. Fraction's been e-mailing me all day with his ideas, so he's ready to run with this.

I have a huge problem 1) taking Romita off Amazing. He's the one I reached out to first, because I thought he was the most pivotal to the Spiderverse, and I'm not going to pull the rug back from him at this point.

Plus, the internet buzz I'm seeing looks like the fans are fairly jazzed about the pairing, too.

So as far as Amazing goes, that will NOT be delayed and will be ready to publish on time.

Should you choose to bump that in favor of the FF crossover stuff, that's your call and I understand, but Amazing will be ready to roll as planned.

On Spectacular, I'm appreciative of Byrne's initial points that he raised, but I still think this can work. If the Spectacular title and/or the Venom inclusion aren't floating his boat, then so be it, I understand. I thought this would be a smooth way for him to transition back into mainstream Marvel, and still believe he'll nibble. But I don't want to start making a domino series of moves to placate one creator, and in the process, potentially lose Romita and Fraction - and even Romita Sr. who has agreed to do a variant cover for us.

I threw out dibs earlier on Pelletier fresh off his latest gig as the back-up to Byrne, to work with Michelinie.

So bottom line - Amazing is ready to roll, Spectactular is just waiting for the finishing touches on your surgery with JB.

Thanks, look forward to hearing from you again

Philip Schaeffer said...

Sean, I posted my FF office stuff as per your adjustments. We obviously need to talk about Sue leaving the FF (which I omitted from my post) and Jen taking her place. Pending your approval on that I'll post the BOP move, which I'm comfortable doing as its own separate 500 word entry. I'll cut it down and include some of those planning things at the top if you'd like to avoid eating up too much of your EIC post.

Philip Schaeffer said...

Sean, I'd be happy to do a Newsarama/Wizard interview on Balance of Power, but would you consider doing the interview yourself? I feel like Joe Q and the creators handle all the interviews for big things.

Sean Kleefeld said...

I can do interview stuff on BoP, but I'll wait to secure up at least some of the talent first before I start touting it too much.

Sean Kleefeld said...

Pat -- I see where you want to go with Amazing. That's fine. But I'm not willing to push Byrne that much on Spectacular. He doesn't seem all that keen on the title and seems to have little/no interest in Venom.

I'll leave it to you whether you want to pursue byrne any more or not, but remember that Pelletier isn't a sure-thing either yet and we do have deadlines to meet. If you want to go with pelletier, just make sure you A) follow up with Byrne and politely say you're going in a different direction and B) have a backup reading in case Pelletier won't/can't work on Spectacular.

Sean Kleefeld said...

Phil -- You still want Byrne for She-Hulk flashbacks?

Philip Schaeffer said...

Yes, but we lined up Paul Ryan for the first three issues.

Based on response I'm very happy to continue those She-Hulk flashbacks, this time drawn by Byrne, as I move She-Hulk onto the team...

Segue.

Let's talk about her replacing Sue at some point.

Sean Kleefeld said...

Sorry, couldn't recall if Ryan was a lock yet.I'll call byrne then about the SheHulk flashbacks.

Definitely need to talk about Sue leaving. Not going to happen before today's 8:00 deadline tho. (not opposed to the idea, FYI, just want some clarifications)

Philip Schaeffer said...

Absolutely. Some time tonight I'll post an in depth outline of her role in BoP.

Can I post my BoP move? Your notes on it end with "Let's see if you can't" I've made all the other adjustments, I just want to make sure I don't screw anything up, and in thirty minutes I'm leaving and won't be at a computer until after the deadline.

Philip Schaeffer said...

Okay I have to leave. I'll make it to a computer right at the deadline and post according to your wishes UNLESS you'd prefer to copy+paste my pitch or whatever elements from it you think are pertinent to show Tom at this point (maybe he doesn't need the whole story outlined so much).

Otherwise I'll post it right under the wire.

Sean Kleefeld said...

Sorry I couldn't follow up earlier, Phil. Go ahead and post the BoP stuff.