Wednesday, May 16, 2007

What I need from my EIC.....

Okay Sean, I'm looking for some help from you on a couple of fronts.

Todd McFarlane hasn't responded to an initial inquiry as to his availability for a run of covers for Spectacular Spider-Man. I figured if he got a call right from the top *cough- you* it might go a long way to making him realize how much we value his work. We've got a special run coming up on Spectacular featuring a couple of Spidey's most famous past creators. Think what a special event it would be if one of his most FAMOUS artists ever made a return, if only for covers? Look how popular his Ultimate Spider-Man 100 variant was!

Anyways, lemme know, because if not, I've got to let John know we'll be looking for him to do the covers on his run as well. BTW, you ever confirm things with John? I hadn't heard. I know he works fast, so I'm not too worried about his capacity to meet the deadlines, but I really want to get a few issues in the can early. David is ready to roll as soon as we get his penciller on board.

Over on Amazing, I'm thinking of pulling in rising star (Sorry JMS!) Matt Fraction for the 12-issue arc that John Romita Jr.'s already signed on for. I'm figuring on JRJr doing covers, though it sounds like we've got his dad on board for at least one variant, most likely for the first featuring our new creative team.

Can you check on these items and get back to me? Thanks......

11 comments:

debbie said...

Matt Fraction is a solid choice for this. I thought of Bendis first for his "zing" and Fraction second.

Still, Stephen King was SUCH an ambitious move.

Patrick Cook said...

And Sean, just to be clear, if McFarlane can't sign on for multiple covers, how about just ONE? We can schill that as a special variant for the first issue of this arc.

Byrne would be solid on covers.

To keep on tapping past creators for some variants, what about Erik Larsen for another during the run?

Patrick Cook said...

"Debbie" or whoever you want to call yourself tonight, you're right, King would have rocked.

And I still can't shake your Webslinger Reborn title....

Patrick Cook said...

Oh yeah, Sean, and if Fraction is a no go, what do you think the chance are that we can land Jeph Loeb?

Sean Kleefeld said...

I like Fraction -- good choice. I'd be tempted to give him an exclusive. Loeb could work as a backup, but getting him might be tough.

I'll fight for you on Byrne -- no response as of this writing, BTW -- and I'd be just inclined to give him the covers. Nothing against McFarlene but I don't want to spend a lot of time pursuing someone JUST for covers. Let's see if we can't get Byrne to do the regular covers, and if you can give me a a good rationale for some variant covers, we could go with McFarlene and/or Larsen for those. If you do a variant, though, it should be for an anniversary issue or maybe if/when you can get Brock and the symbiote back together or something big like that.

Michael Heide said...

I agree that a variant shouldn't be wasted on the first issue. The first issue gets attention anyway because of the new creative teams. Better slap the variant cover on a later issue to give sales another bump.

And Fraction is a brilliant idea. Sean, when you try to sign him, keep "Casanova" in mind. We might be able to put this under the "Icon" banner.

Patrick Cook said...

So on the Spidey variants, let's keep Romita Sr.'s in the tank for a bit further into the run, and Sean, let's see if we can't keep the line of communication open to McFarlane. One cover over the course of the year - as mentioned elsewhere, Venom's big return - would definitely be smarter.

And EIC, here's an idea spinning off Michael's suggestion - to help lock Byrne in, what about an Icon pitch for his Next Men return?

Michael Heide said...

Do you really want John Byrne to shift his focus to another title he's working on besides our books?

I know that Byrne has written, drawn and inked two issues a month in the past, but I think the quality always suffered from it.

Let him focus on Spectacular Spider-Man, with perhaps the flashbacks in She-Hulk.

Sean Kleefeld said...

I Agree with Mike on Byrne

Patrick Cook said...

Agreeance on losing Byrne over to Icon. My thoughts were, Sean, that it was a carrot you could dangle out there for him longer term, so he could see Marvel was serious about working with him again, and that if he made the commitments we're looking for, we'd be glad to help him on his own priorities down the road. Thought it could be more of a negotiation item to help him take the leap.

Michael Heide said...

The thing is: We can't lure him on board with a prospective Next Men series and practically tell him "but you have to do the Venom arc on Spectacular Spider-Man first before you even think about what you can do with them, but don't worry, somewhere down the road we will get back to it".