Tuesday, May 15, 2007

When are we Postingggggg???

Patrick has brought up an important point:

We should probably make our official posts on Tom's blog around the same time. For safety, I think we should do it sometime late tonight rather than early tomorrow morning (it would be bad if none of us missed our posts, wouldn't it?)

How do you guys feel about allowing Sean to cobble together one long post, or cobbling one together for him since he's externally busy? Letting him state his basic overview, saying a few words to introduce each title and express his goals for them and then posting our 250 word plans for our books. I would love it if we could really present a unified front on this, as that might prevent unpleasant shakeups later on. That's also fewer posts for the Marvel boards to potentially screw up (though four concise posts have a certain charm to them too, don't they?).

If we do separate posts, does everyone agree that Sean should post first, if not daily, then at least this first round? I know you're busy Sean, but we're all trying to make sure you're happy with everything before we put it up on Tom's blog. The last thing we want to do is waste turns having Sean shoot us down as well.

19 comments:

Patrick Cook said...

Agreeance to the one post pitch. However, won't that exceed the 500 word ceiling? I think we can each post our three, and then have Sean weigh in with his thoughts on the three, bagging him his 500 word limit. And I totally agree, too many posts can muddy the water. One from each of us, laying out our bid, one from Sean with the EIC's view from the top. Then let the dissecting commence....

Michael Heide said...

I think the way to go is let Sean post first. He has 500 words to explain why he gave the books he chose to their respective editors.

Up next would be me, mainly because Tom named Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine first. I get 250 words for each book (I'm currently a bit over 300 each), then go to bed. It's 4am over here already. I'd make the posts ready now if I knew that Patrick will accept them and Tom greenlights all of my creators. I'll probably make a list of replacement writers and artists Sean and Tom can go through in case that it takes too long.

Then, the Spider-Books and Patrick's 500 word gameplan for them. Be sure to have potential replacements for King and Byrne ready. And consider moving the Romita sr. covers to Micheline's retro book.

And finally, Philip can post his approaches to Fantastic Four and She-Hulk.

Philip Schaeffer said...

Hmm...

I assume we'd be allowed a 2000 word post for all four of us. I imagine Tom would love having only one thing to read.

Now in your time-sensitive case of needing to post at a reasonable hour tonight, I'm worried that we might not hear anything from Sean till past the point of no return.

So if we all agree we'd like Sean's post to go first and it gets too late and we still haven't heard from him, post 500 words here and Mike or I will put it up, clearly noted as being yours, when we post our own.

Maybe this time we should all just do what we're doing, and when Sean's got more time we can deal with more coordinated posting efforts.

Patrick Cook said...

Michael, I think at this point, we all just at least make our initial pitches, and let the chips fall where they may. We've tried offering snippets of advice here and there, but I think it's worth putting out our first pitches so Tom can take a knife to them on Wednesday and he can make his official post, which will then lead to more feedback. I don't think we need to have the end-game locked just yet, this should be our new pitch. Then Tom throws his wrenches, and we roll with the punches.
I'm okay with everyone's pitches moving forward as is.
I really want to make sure we stay on deadline for our submissions to Tom's official blog so the Simulation can play out for everyone on time.
Anyone? Bueller?

Philip Schaeffer said...

Yeah, I'll second most of that. I'd love to at least have Sean's approval on everything, but it may not be in the cards today.

Michael Heide said...

Which means that we won't publish Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine, Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four LA that month.

No, the way I see it, we need to have solid creative teams by tomorrow morning, approved by the Editor-in-Chief. With backups for each slot (writer, artist, cover artist) in case Tom rules one of our picks out. I mean, I promised Ben that he'd get exclusive promo material for an upcoming issue of Wizard. The earlier I get approval, the earlier I can tell my writer and artists, the earlier Wizard can print a "First Look" complete with quotes by Robert Weinberg, and we might be able to raise the initial orders instead of the reorders.

Remember,
"Friday is the close of a fiscal quarter, so any books that miss shipping by Friday won't count in terms of the revenue for that period."

Noone said this would be easy. We agreed to do this, so all of us should give our 100%.

Patrick Cook said...

???

Don't think anyone's not giving the 100%, I'm just nervous that if we're waiting for the green light from Sean, we could run into a cascade of delays. I'm good to go with whatevery everyone wants, but won't be able to post live between 7-3 p.m. on Wednesday, and I don't want to foul up Tom's blog in the process.

Philip Schaeffer said...

Yeah Mike, I think that all Patrick and I are saying is that we want to try and avoid delays by having to take a whole day waiting for Sean to approve our pitches before sending them to Tom.

And I completely agree that we should offer several alternates, and tell Tom that in order to speed the simulation he can assume we'd call everyone on the list, so he can just choose whoever he decides accepted it. Especially if we don't here from Sean soon.

You guys have any feedback on my FF pitch? I'm trying to make a shortly worded one and wouldn't mind hearing your opinions.

Philip Schaeffer said...

Oh, also, I'll extend this Olive Branch to you guys. The first two issues of both my titles are part of a crossover in which The Original FF, Black Panther, Storm, She-Hulk, Gravity (and Spidey and Wolvie are more than welcome, being members of the New FF) follow a newly reappeared Doctor Doom through Space and Time trying to prevent him from causing some calamity, only to find that he's been building a machine to feed the hungry masses of the third world. So if you wanted an initial crossover spike for Spectacular or Wolverine before getting into your own stories you're more than welcome to put in an issue (if I can have this title extend through Black Panther for two issues and you guys both gave one we could schedule this as a two-month weekly event).

Again, no pressure, the offer's on the table.

Michael Heide said...

With it being so closely tied to your Defenders plans, Sean should approve that crossover first, before you find yourself at a dead end.

Michael Heide said...

And while I like that idea, it doesn't fit Wolverine's new direction, I'm afraid.

Patrick Cook said...

Philip, I'm hoping to keep Spidey self-contained just for this one-year blast. Especially on the King pitch, I'm thinking TPBs down the road and would rather avoid overlap with the crossover.

Now, if Friendly Neighborhood is still up and running - it wasn't assigned to me - THAT might be a good home to work in guest stars and the crossover.

Philip Schaeffer said...

Exactly. Wish he was around.

However, this still works within my own little FF office even if my Defenders plan doesn't occur; it'd just the crossover on which She-Hulk teams up with the FF to launch FFLA, and also reintroducing some serious Doomage.

And I think that's editorially within my own wheelhouse to dictate.

So I'll put down Wolverine as a "I unfortunately cannot attend."

Patrick Cook said...

Philip - not sure I like Deodato on FF unless I know he's off T-Bolts. Not sure he can do two monthlies on your deadline.

And we want more Inhumans!

Philip Schaeffer said...

And Spidey too! These New Avengers types don't like coming to social gatherings, huh? I guess all that time in the dark really messes with you...

Philip Schaeffer said...

Deodato's my long shot on FF, and he'd only be on for an arc (or if I were really lucky he'd draw my event book). I assume he'd be getting off T'Bolts anyway; I doubt Ellis is on for the long haul and I figured he'd leave when Ellis left. Clearly he can't draw two books monthly.

No, Pelletier's done great work; he's a little slow, but he's still my monthly man, and definitely my pick to draw his share of the kickoff crossover.

Patrick Cook said...

Philip, just to clarify - I don't have a problem with you using Spidey in the FF, I just want to keep his titles self-contained.

Obviously, don't turn him into a six-armed spider freak or somesuch. Just make sure I get him back in one piece. Sorta.

Philip Schaeffer said...

No, I don't need to use him. It was if you wanted a crossover sales boost. Which, if you get the creators you're trying for, isn't going to be a problem for you.

Michael Heide said...

Same here. You can use Wolverine. But not his own book.