Rosa from Newsy.com was kind enough to direct me to a video on their site offering some insight from the recent news about the Marvel Comics and Disney “merger” (or takeover, as would be more appropriate). They posted a great video looking at different media angles as well as fan opinions, and I’ve embedded it below:
Time will tell what this ultimately means for both companies, as well as their licensors (like Hasbro), but you can be sure there will be some sorts of changes coming down the pipe. You can find the original video on their site here.
I brought the point up on the site earlier this morning, but unfortunately haven’t had much time today to follow up with keeping up with the new addition and all, so I poked around tonight, and discovered a very good article on Reuters talking about the very same concerns I had in regards to the Disney/Marvel merger and how it could end up affecting toy makers, Hasbro in particular.
Reuters brings up some good points, mentioning that current licensing deals will stay intact, “Hasbro’s agreement with Marvel to make toys and games based on the latter’s characters extends through 2017”. However, from there on out, things may get murky, “especially since Disney has a longer history with Hasbro’s arch-rival Mattel Inc.”
Where Hasbro might feel an even bigger pinch, however, is in their recently announced television deal with Discovery Kids. Apparently, thought in industry circles is that Hasbro intended to offer a slate of Marvel related programming on that channel, but obviously with this new move, those programs would more likely drift over to Disney XD instead. Lots of legalese, and a lot of stuff that many of us don’t care about, but regardless, this could get interesting, and even though Hasbro will be cranking out Marvel figures for at least the next 7 years, they may feel the pinch in other areas, and it might be a big one.
Damn. Long time readers of my site know that back in the day when G.I. Joe news was a bit less constant and frenetic than it is now know that I used to talk quite a bit about Marvel, but mostly in regards to their cartoon and movie endeavors, and not so much about the comics themselves. See, I was a Marvel Comics fan for nearly twenty years until repeated retcons, convoluted stories, and annual massive “EVENTS” took the luster off my love for the medium. But I never lost my love for the characters. Spider-Man, Wolverine, the X-Men, Captain America, Daredevil…they’re all timeless characters that I really love, even if I was growing a bit tired of what was being done to them in the series of 22 pages every month.
And then a funny thing happened…while I was a devout comic fan I laughed and scoffed at the various cartoons, TV elements and movies based on the comic characters. They didn’t match the stories I was reading, they were never mature enough, and often written for the average attention span of a 5 year-old. Recently, though, I’ve done an about-face. While I don’t have the time, energy or inclination to read the monthly Marvel titles, I am a huge fan of the films, the cartoons (Wolverine and the X-Men ROCKS!), the video games, and the characters still ring very true.
So immediately this news hit like a ton of bricks. Is it a good thing? Will some Disney backing ensure more Marvel animated fare or better quality movies? I dunno, Marvel’s been doing a pretty damn good job on their own these days. Will there be any shake up in the Films or Entertainment division? Let’s hope not.
This is an interesting move that could prove to be very good for the future of the Marvel Comics enterprise, or could it also suddenly offer a frustrating series of legal impasses similar to how Warner and DC go about their Hollywood endeavors?
How will this also impact the toy world? Mattel is a long-standing Disney licensee for many of their toy offerings, while Hasbro has the license for all Marvel related action figures and associated toys. Will this offer any sort of conflict between the two?
Thanks to the Terror Drome for pointing out an interesting sale where you can purchase selective various Rise of COBRA product and receive free bonuses depending on what you pick out. A lot of items come with a Wal-Mart Gift Card, but some also come with a bonus comic! Like the Amazon.com sale, this sale looks like it comes with a bonus comic that never came out with one of the cancelled Comic Packs, this time the Snake Eyes vs. Night Creeper one.
Check out the Wal-Mart.com GI Joe shop here, and find a way to get that comic!
In case folks weren’t aware, Greg Horn, who is a big name in the comics world himself, will be appearing at JoeCon this week! He’s done numerous G.I. Joe related projects like some of the awesome painted comic pack covers, and convention related items as well. The full details are below:
Greg Horn is appearing at this year’s G.I. Joe Convention, with a
limited edition Baroness print, this weekend (August 14-16).
Greg Horn is best known for his artwork on MARVEL COMIC’s titles
ELEKTRA, EMMA FROST, and SHE-HULK. He is currently the regular cover
artist on the acclaimed series MS. MARVEL by Brian Reed. On the
licensing front, Greg’s art has been used on just about any piece of
merchandise you can think of! With WARNER BROS’ licensing division,
Greg has provided spot illustrations based on the SUPERMAN RETURNS
movie, and also an original painting for MATTEL’s board game
Kryptonite Crisis. Other recent WB projects have included a Superman
poster for CLAMPETT STUDIOS, and several illustrations of NBA star
Lebron James for POWERADE and ESPN.
Greg has also been the artist for the following G.I. Joe products:
G.I. Joe Comic 2 Packs Issue 14 Cover
G.I. Joe Comic 2 Packs Issue 25 Cover
G.I. Joe Comic 2 Packs Issue 30 Cover
G.I. Joe Comic 2 Packs Issue 64 Cover
G.I. Joe Comic 2 Packs Issue 87 Cover
G.I. Joe Comic 2 Packs Issue 115 Cover
G.I. Joe 22 Buy Me Toys Serpentor Cover
Elektra vs Scarlett from Wizard 131
G.I. Joe Movie Dream Cast from Toyfare 81
G.I. Joe Convention 2008 Boxed Set Cover
G.I. Joe Convention 2009 Comic/Program Cover
Greg will have prints available of many of these images (including the
new limited Baroness image created for this years convention) and will
also be signing any books, magazines, action figures, anything he’s
provided the art for at this year’s G.I. Joe Convention (Greg appears
August 14-16). The Convention takes place this weekend, August 13-16,
in Kansas City.
Over on Chuck Dixon’s message board, long time Joe comic fan cashel brings up a great question to Mr. Dixon himself, inquiring about the pacing and the writing for the main G.I. Joe title. First of all, kudos to him for taking it straight to the source. Often times the fandom is happy to sit on their haunches (myself included) and decry various things without even inquiring about reasons or bringing the issues to anyone’s attention. I’m glad to see cashel speaking to Dixon directly about his concerns.
Anyway, Chuck was thoughtful enough to post a reply, which I have quoted below:
“I got this complaint on Nightwing when I was on it and for many of ths same reasons cited here. There was no first person narration on Nightwing or very little of it.
And, trust me, my editor chimed in on this.
The whole question is one of periodicals versus trades. It’s not much a question to my mind. Trade collections are where it’s at. There is a very strong chance that the trade sales on Joe will be higher than the average monthly sales. That’s the track record for non-superhero trade collections of household name characters anyhow. And overseas, there are no periodical editions. It’s all trades all the time.
So, my potential audience in trade form dwarfs those few, those merry few, who still pick up the monthlies.
I could go as other writers have gone in the past to a kind of “feature film” approach with lots of frontloaded set-up and character bits and all that. (which is actually a terrible approach to escapist entertainment) Or I could go the plot advancement/action/plotadvancement/action approach that standard action stories take.
But I decided to fall back on my strong suit and advance plot and character through action and pace the whole thing briskly enough to carry the potential trade reader through the 120+ pages in one sitting.
But what about the monthly reader? Well, they get an action-packed chapter each month that also advances sub-plots and explores the world of Joe. In five issues we have met the Joes (a whole lotta Joes!), met Destro and Baroness and had a peek into how Cobra does business. We’ve seen that Scarlett, Snake Eyes and Duke have a history. We’ve traveled the world from the Gulf of Mexico to the Phillipines, to Patagonia and to the Nevada desert. We’ve seen the MASS Device in (dysfuntional) operation. All of this with a sword fight, robot fightin’ action, Snake Eyes ninja stuff, a car chase and more punching, shooting and stabbing then you get in most comics these days. And issue #6 delivers. I promise you this. There’s a couple of developments that will floor Joe readers.
I took my time in The Pit battle because it was important to see the Joes in action on home turf in an extended military confrontation. Larry used to do whole issues of just Joe and Cobra fighting. Remember the issue where Cobra and Joe land on opposite sides of an island and fight for supremacy? If Larry had been writing for trades I’m certain he would have taken an approach closer to mine. His own (excellent) origins rolls out a more deliberate pace.
All my career this has been a question. I had a hard time breaking into comics because I rejected the Roy Thomas approach to comics writing. I was all about Archie Goodwin. But even Archie was conforming to the wordy comics norm when writing superheroes. When not, his work was more balanced between words and pictures and more purely comics.
There are readers who like their comics verbose. Sorry, I can’t do it. Believe me, I’ve tried. I like my comic books lean. And the whole trade collection deal allows me to pace things differently with the kind of lightly dialogued sequences I would never have done for the monthly-only format. The next arc on Joe has a major Snake Eyes sub-plot that (by necessity) is virtually wordless.
And for Joe fans who are diappointed that we’re not going Joe on Cobra right out of the box—well, that’s the way we’re doing it this time. And Cobra is going to be cooler, meaner and scarier than you’ve ever seen them before. The Cobra minis by Gage and Costa are nasty noirish spy thrillers that bring you inside Cobra. My job is to show both the Joes’ and Destro’s learning curve. In the next arc we’ll see our first direct Joe/Cobra contact and it’s epic.”
Again, credit to cashel for bringing the question up, and lots of credit to Chuck Dixon for responding. I feel a LOT better about the direction of the main title now than I did even twenty minutes ago. I’m sure we all realized it was a trade paperback thing, but hearing him talk about how things might end up shaking out is a nice change of pace, and I think things are probably heading in a good direction. Thanks to Xassonex from JoeBattleLines for bringing this to my attention!
