August 25, 2008
Marvels Sequel Starts In December
Comic Book Resources has an article up on Marvel announcing they've scheduled
Marvels: Eye of the Camera, a sequel to the 1990s best-seller
Marvels to begin publication starting this December. The original series' writer, Kurt Busiek, returns, this time working with painter Jay Anacleto as opposed to original series painter Alex Ross.
Marvels was a big, obvious success for the company in a post-Image era where the company was being squeezed for every last bit of leverage and value it was worth. The publishing side of things really needed a defining hit, and
Marvels was it for a really, really long time in publishing and public identity terms.
Marvels was also kind of an odd book in that -- as more than a few critics have noted -- it's best remembered for a kind of wistful re-imagining of superheroes from the vantage point of people on the ground when both the witness-to-history metaphor that it represented, as well as the criticism of loving superheroes too much that was obvious on a close reading, are now almost completely forgotten.
My interest in this as a publishing news story is that I think it will underline how much the mainstream comic book business has changed in the last 12-15 years: the big publishers cultivate and manage premeditated blockbusters based on plot progressions and positioning now, they tend not to wake up and realize they have hits in their midst based on folks' reaction to a creative approach.
(I imagine there's also something to be said in a non-comics fashion that this was announced at
Fan Expo Canada, and is a bigger announcement than any I can remember from any of the Wizard shows; it was only a short while ago that just about all major announcements were held for a Wizard show.)
posted 8:10 am PST |
Permalink
Daily Blog Archives
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
Full Archives