Today is Black Friday, the day when it is our patriotic duty as Americans to go into a spending frenzy. For all our talk about family values, we think it is more important to forgo the conviviality of the Thanksgiving table so that we can stand in line to buy things.
Originally I had thought to write a column full of gift suggestions for those of you who want to introduce your family and friends to the joys of graphic storytelling. There are terrificbooks for a variety or ages and tastes and interests. I have my favorites, but I don’t know the people on your list, so my recommendations may not apply. That’s what the comments section is for.
Instead, I want to talk about you, Constant Reader. You and your needs.
Some people like to shop. Some people like to shop in crowded chain stores, the kind you find in your local mall. I am not one of those people. I don’t like walking around with a list of names, trying to figure out what to get. I’d rather sit at home, and imagine people getting things for me.
Here are some things you, as a fan of comics, might not yet know you want. Feel free to print this up and leave it where your loved ones can find it.
For example, do you know that your love for the combination of words and images on paper makes you a connoisseur of fine art? This book showcases the career of Barbara Kruger, one of the most influential (and entertaining) of late twentieth century feminist artists. This book provokes me and makes me feel exalted, all at the same time. Would that all gifts were so accomplished.
Do you think you have the most embarrassing family in the world? Would you like to be shown otherwise? If so, I can’t recommend enough My Favorite Year, a fictional account of what it must have felt like to be Mel Brooks working as a writer for Sid Caesar. I love everything about this movie, including Bill Macy and, especially, Joseph Bologna.
You know how everyone says the best holiday gift is peace on earth? If you say this and you mean it, you should let everyone know you want this calendar from the War Resisters League. Bold graphics, good politics, and amusing history trivia make this a great deal for an even more great cause.
A few weeks ago I was blathering about the absence of new superheroes in the current television schedules. Shame on me! I forgot about Super Ray.
Before you rush off to consult TV Guide searching for time and channel, be assured that you won’t find Ray there. The show he’s on isn’t about him. Fact is, he’s not exactly on the show. He’s a character created by one of the fictional people who is on the show. This character, also named Ray, is a comic book artist and Super Ray is his brainchild.
Still with me? Good, because it gets even more complicated.
The show is called Bored to Death and it concerns Jonathan Ames, a largely unpublished writer who moonlights as a private eye, his editor/restaurateur mentor George, and his cartoonist pal Ray. It’s a comedy, one which has grown on me; initially, my reaction was take-it-or-leave-it, but that’s morphed into a genuine fondness for an entertainment that’s quirky, unique and… what am I forgetting?… oh yeah, often quite funny.
Bored to Death gleefully and wantonly blurs the line between fiction and real life. The nominal hero, Jonathan Ames, played by Jason Schwartzman, is – no surprise here – based on the real Jonathan Ames but…the actual Ames plays Irwin who is trying to stab Ray because of a problem involving a woman. George Christopher is played by Ted Danson and I’ve never liked him in any role as much as I like him as George.
Which brings us to Ray, played by the ubiquitous Zach Galifianakis, and also inspired by a person with an address and a social security number, Dean Haspiel. Like the quasi-fictitious Ray, Dean is a cartoonist and a friend and colleague of Mr. Ames. All clear, right? Ray is tight with the Schwartzman/Ames and Dean is tight with the Ames/Ames.
Wait – there’s more! Some of Bored to Death’s storylines are borrowed from Dean’s autobiography.
But here the correspondences begin to dissolve. You probably wouldn’t mistake Haspiel for Galifianakis. Zach/Ray is a pretty dour dude whereas Dean is cheery and ebullient. To me, Dean seems to be absolutely delighted to be who and what and where he is.
(Yeah, you got me. I do know Dean – have known him since he was a little kid. He’s one of my son’s oldest friends. Okay with me if it’s okay with him.)
One more thing: Dean Haspiel is the only person I know who possesses an Emmy, an award he received for work on Bored to Death’s animated title sequence. And when Zach/Ray draws a picture on television, Dean actually wields the pencil…and again, the lines blur.
But see for yourself. Bored to Death. HBO. Monday nights at nine, eastern time.
RECOMMENDED READING: Nothing in particular, but Dean Haspiel’s website has information about his published work and a little Googling would probably yield more Dean, as well as a list if Jonathan Ames’s books. (The real Jonathan Ames, that is.)
Hmmm. It’s been rather quiet, but over the past several weeks Marvel’s been cancelling titles steadily, one or two at a time.
What’s leaving? Let’s see… All Winners Squad, Alpha Flight, Black Panther The Most Dangerous Man Alive, Daken Dark Wolverine, Destroyers, Ghost Rider, Herc, Iron Man 2.0, The Punisher (MAX), Victor Von Doom, Villains For Hire, and X-23. A few of these titles were either mini-series, now castrated, or never released in the first place.
Many speculate S.H.I.E.L.D., Generation Hope, and Deadpool MAX are not long for this world as all three have direct sales figures in this same neighborhood – around 15,000 to 20,000 copies. More interesting (at least to me), Ghost Rider’s last issue will be released around the time the second movie comes out. That’s hardly a vote of confidence in their film division’s latest gem.
Separating the wheat from the chaff has long been a comics publishing tradition, and doing so in such a manner as to generate consternation and paranoia among both the creative community and the few surviving retailer outlets is standard operating procedure.
Twelve titles and counting is a lot, but I am certain it does not represent a decision to publish fewer titles. Fewer money losing titles, sure, and that’s an act of business sanity. But there are at least two very significant reasons why Marvel will simply replace them with other stuff come the spring.
The first is called “the fourth of May.” No, that’s not another X-Island Fear style event; that’s the release date for The Avengers movie. Note Marvel has yet to cancel any titles with the word “Avengers” in it, even though Avengers Academy and some of the current Avengers mini-series sell in that red zone.
The second is called “the third of July.” You guessed it; that’s when The Amazing Spider-Man movie is foisted upon an all-too-suspecting public.
If Marvel’s past habits remain intact – and by “past” I mean “2011” – we can expect to see a plethora of sundry Avengers and Spider-Man movie tie-ins… like, say, The Scarlett Spider.
Of course, most comics publishers would murder their aged grandmothers and their puppies for sales figures in the realm of those now-deceased Marvel titles. I look forward to their organizing an “Occupy Marvel Comics” encampment.
Historically, DC and Marvel go through this housecleaning OCD at roughly the same time, a remarkable coincidence by the standards of anti-trust law. This time, maybe not. DC’s only now beginning to sense which of their “New 52” titles are losing steam, although with the massive talent changes in that line it does seem they’re busy rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Nobody – certainly nobody in upper management at DC – expected all 52 to be successful, and if they maintain that “52” campaign they’ll just replace this fall’s losers with next summer’s losers.
This is the comic book food chain. Eat what you like while the food’s on your plate.
I was going to finish up the how and whys of the Action File school system deal this week and begin The Guardian Line Christian publishing deal. I’ve decided to take a step back and deal with some important particulars about these deal-making articles. I’ve gotten some feedback in person and by email over the last week that I want to address so I’ll finish those deals next week.
Someone asked me last week to whom did I think I was giving advice?
I replied: “Me.”
I started last week’s article by saying I was not bragging when I say I’ve got a ridiculous résumé and by ridiculous I mean bad ass and by bad ass I mean impressive and by impressive I mean yada, yada and yada. I stated that so it was clear up front that I am writing from a position of one who has done what I’m talking about. I have little to no respect for people who talk a big game but it’s only talk because they have never really been in the game they are talking about. Case in point, sportscasters who have never played the sport professionally but find it easy to second-guess players, managers and coaches on the field.
Lots of ruminating this week. Mostly political. Mostly causing me to make sure my passport is up-to-date and to wonder what the hell country I can move to if the Repugnanticans – my term for what passes as the Republican Party these days – actually win the Presidency.
This past Thursday, November 17th, marked the two-month anniversary of the start of Occupy Wall Street. Some smart mouth caller to the Tom Hartman show pointed out that the prefix “anni” comes from the Latin anno, which means “year,” so November 17th couldn’t be the “two month anniversary.” Why did I think while listening to this jackass that he was a front for the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity or Karl Rove’s American Crossroads? So just call it an observance, a tribute, a celebration, or a commemoration, asshole.
The Los Angeles Times reported on November 20th that police officers who just walked up to students peacefully demonstrating in solidarity with the Occupy movement at the University of California-Davis and pepper-sprayed them dead-on in their faces have been put on administrative leave while their actions are investigated. (You can go to my Facebook page to see the video, or check out this link.) Hmmm. Administrative leave. That means they’re getting paid. Just like…
In my circle, my disdain for broccoli is pretty well known. I call them “tiny trees” and I don’t like their smell, their taste, or their texture – but I have eaten them. That’s how I know I don’t like them.
Recently, Dark Horse Comics finally announced the new Star Wars project that Jan Duursema and I are working on. Jan and I have worked on two other series together – Star Wars Republic and Star Wars Legacy – to the praise of a lot of Star Wars fans. This is in addition to my already announced Star Wars spy series, Agent Of The Empire. (plug plug plug plug)
The new series is Dawn Of The Jedi and it goes back and tells the origins of the Jedi Order which, we hope, will have some interest even to the fans who have only watched the movies. We’re doing our best to make it accessible even to those who are not conversant with the large Star Wars story known as the EU (Extended Universe). However, even with all that effort, I know some readers won’t even try it because it’s Star Wars.
There’s been a lot of noise on two areas of the blogosphere that I follow – comics and politics – because Frank Miller recently posted about the Occupy Wall Street movement on his blog. My favorite response, as usual, was on TBogg’s blog, because I love me some snark.
See that photo over there? It’s had an honorable position on my refrigerator since it was taken about 15 years ago at the San Diego Comic Convention. It’s me and Frank, back when he could still walk the floor.
I’ve known Frank since the late 1970s. I met him soon after I met Denny O’Neil, and we hung out a lot when he was drawing the Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14. My friend, Legs McNeil <http://www.amazon.com/Legs-McNeil/e/B000APOLAA>, was (and is) a huge comic book fan. He managed a band, Shrapnel, that was essentially Sgt. Rock set to music. We conspired to put them into an issue of a comic book, a mission that required many trips to CBGBs.
I don’t remember talking politics with him, but its possible that I did. There are a lot of people in comics that I like, but with whom I disagree politically. Dan Jurgens, Larry Hama, Chuck Dixon – we don’t agree, and that’s fine. We also tend to like different kinds of music, movies and books. We have fun conversations.
Our disagreements never led me to boycott their work. And I’ll boycott quite easily. For example, I haven’t bought any Revlon cosmetics since Ron Perelman plundered Marvel.
But I won’t give up something that gives me joy. If my joy is ruined by my disagreement with the owner or creator, then I’ll give it up.
What amused me about this particular kerfuffle is that, once you got away from the comic book sites, the reactions were fairly hilarious. Most people seem to think that Frank Miller, not Zach Snyder, was responsible for the movie, 300. It’s true that Snyder spent a lot of time and energy trying to mimic specific pages of Frank’s work, but he also added a lot of other stuff to fill out the 117 minutes of playing time.
I disagree with Frank on this issue. I think he’s wrong, profoundly wrong. I think he’s far away from this issue, and getting his information from less than reliable sources.
But I don’t think he deserves to be called names. As grown-ups who defend the free exchange of ideas, we can disagree with each other. We should. But it’s bad for the country when we descend into name-calling.
Our story thus far: Percy the comic book artist has gone to the South Street Seaport seeking influences. There he meets a mime and:
The mime stared directly at Percy and asked, “Looking for an influence, numb nuts?”
Gobsmacked! That’s what Percy was, absolutely gobsmacked! How could this white-faced bozo know what he, Percy, was after? It’s not like he was wearing a sign that said: Will work for influences.
“Pay attention,” the mime said and:
Was transformed into a little boy who is creeping down the stairs and sees a box and eagerly, eagerly unwraps it, flinging aside paper and ribbon and looks inside and is horribly disappointed and…
The mime transformed into himself again and, moving his face to within inches of Percy’s, growled. “You influenced?”
Percy stared at his shoes and mumbled, “You’re not even an artist. You’re just a guy who…I dunno what you do but how can you influence me…”
“Go to a museum,” the mime said and when Percy raised his eyes, the mime was gone.
A museum?
Well, Percy knew that there were a lot of them in Manhattan and he’d always kind of planned to visit one and he’d even got close to the big one on Fifth Avenue once when he was girl watching in Central Park…Okay, he’d go to a museum because, really, he had nothing better to do – in fact, he had nothing at all to do.
He found the right subway and got off at the right stop and went up wide, concrete steps past some columns and then he was inside a museum. Big. Crowded. Intimidating. He wandered into a gallery full of large paintings and scoped them out: saints – the people with halos – and characters from mythology –that’s what the little cards told him– and just people, all engaged in activities that were recognizable and interesting. Pretty cool, some of it, but…? “What does any of this have to do with comics” he said aloud, to no one.
“It’s about storytelling,” said a man standing nearby – a man who looked oddly like the mime if the mime had gotten rid of his whiteface, was sporting a huge, waxed moustache, and was wearing a tuxedo. “What these painter chaps do,” the man continued, “is imagine how their subjects would appear when their faces and bodies are at their most expressive and render that in the purest possible manner. Rather like what those buskers in the park…the silent ones who seem to be forever walking against the wind, poor devils.”
Gobsmacked – really, really, no kidding gobsmacked – Percy shuffled from the museum, took a bus downtown, entered his building, and slept a very deep sleep. The next morning, he skipped breakfast and went straight to his drawing board: the mime, the paintings, and what they did, how they communicated – his task was clear. Percy wasn’t satisfied with his first effort, or his five hundredth, but eventually, he got close to what he wanted. Then, he began winning prizes. But that is a story for another time.
As is well-known, the Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Comics a little over two years ago. Marvel joined the Muppets, Pixar, ABC and ESPN as tentacles of that great evil media empire that has done so much to homogenize the American culture. After all the jokes died down, some people wondered why the Mouse wanted the House that Jack Built in the first place.
Disney is a movie company, and Marvel’s shiniest family jewels – Spider-Man and The X-Men – were in the hands of competing studios (Columbia Pictures and 20th Century Fox, respectively) and aren’t likely to revert any time soon. The sundry Avengers characters were in the hands of Paramount Pictures, although Disney was able to purchase a nice reversion deal here. But, still, the motion picture revenue picture was severely compromised by the Spidey and X deals, and made all the more expensive by the Paramount buy-back. So, the question “why” certainly is valid.
Nobody that big buys a publishing venture – certainly not a comic book publishing venture – for the profits it will generate on its own. The phrase “fart in a blizzard” comes to mind. Merchandising and licensing revenues can be fairly attractive and Disney/Marvel/Muppets are a good fit. But… still… why?
I think we’re beginning to see the real reason. Disney owns ABC, which includes ABC Family, the Disney Channel, Disney XD (which already carries many of the Marvel animated shows), Playhouse Disney, Disney Cinemagic, Hungama, Jetix, Radio Disney, SoapNet, WABC-TV New York, KABC-TV Los Angeles, WLS-TV Chicago, WPVI-TV Philadelphia, KGO-TV San Francisco, KTRK-TV Houston, WTVD-TV Raleigh-Durham, and KFSN-TV Fresno, and as the various ESPN channels – possibly excluding “El Ocho.” Plus all kinda stuff overseas.
One can argue that teevee in general doesn’t have much of a future, and I might agree. But teevee programming has one hell of a great future no matter what platform we’ll be enjoying in the future: cable, satellite, computers, tablets, integrated teevee/computer systems, visors, brain implants, whatever. And that’s where the Mighty Marvel Money Machine will become the Mouse’s cash cow, true believer.
Disney already has The Hulk, Cloak and Dagger and Alias in development. Of course “Alias” has to be renamed – it’s working under the title “a.k.a. Jessica Jones” right now, and the show includes both Luke Cage and Carol Danvers. Mockingbird is also in development as a Miley Cyrus style kids show, possibly as fodder for the ABC Family network.
Step back a pace and take a look at what’s going on here.
Most of these shows are built around female superheroes. As headliners, such characters are anathema to motion picture studios. But Disney is betting heavy, heavy bucks that the distaff side will draw a sufficient audience to warrant the investment.
That’s pretty cool – and very risky. Women heroes haven’t fared much better on the small screen: Nikita was renewed by the skin of her teeth, The Bionic Woman revival flamed out, as did Charlie’s Angels redux. David E. Kelley’s Wonder Woman didn’t make it past the pilot stage. Yet Disney is developing no less than three Marvel shows built around women.
So no matter what I might feel about Disney’s predatory influence on our culture, they are showing a great deal of courage here – courage they developed by purchasing Marvel.
I’m not bragging when I say I’ve got a ridiculous résumé, and by ridiculous I mean bad ass and by bad ass I mean impressive and by impressive I mean… you know.
Really. I am not bragging. Consider one of my favorite sayings from the great philosopher Yogi Berra, who said “It ain’t bragging if you can do it.”
Trust me on this. I won’t bore you with the details but I’m one the best dealmakers in the comics business if I do say so myself.
And… I do say so.
Yeah, yeah. I can hear the haters out there. Who is this guy? Except for Milestone and ComicMix I’ve never heard of him.
That’s fair.
But I’m sure a great many of you love movies and have never heard of Michael Ovitz either. I’ll just leave it at that.
When I say “deal” I’m not just talking about getting a comic book done. I’m talking about expanding the medium to as many media platforms as my mind can conceive. Except for the movies (which I’m working on) I’ve done major deals in TV, mainstream publishing, education, the music industry, toys, the Christian market, radio and I’m working on a (get this) musical.
I’ve done very few comic books as a creator. In fact, I’m only done two mini series, a few covers had some work in a few anthologies and at Milestone. Yet I was named one of the most powerful people in comics for two straight years by Hero Illustrated in 1993 and 1994 and back then I had nowhere the résumé I have to day.
Of course after naming me to that list for the second time, Hero Illustrated went out of business. Coincidence?
Probably not, but who am I to say?
You may ask yourself, as I have, “Self, how the heck did he get on that list?”
It’s the art of the deal my friend, the art of the deal.
I’ve put deals major together such as creating a comic book universe as a high interest low level reading program which is now and has been taught in schools as a curriculum and I did that in 1996. It’s called The Action Files; it started at Simon & Shuster then went to Person Learning.
That’s a pretty big accomplishment, but not my biggest. 15 years later it still holds up as a badass deal.
I’ll use that deal as a step by step ‘”how I did it.” I’ll go from idea to how The Action Files came to be distributed in the school system by not one but two powerhouse publishers.
My step by step will be interspersed with asides which will (hopefully) help provide a better and true understanding of the what-and-why mechanics of the deal.
The Action File Deal
It all started with a great idea: comics in the school system.
I’m not the first guy to think of that not by any means. In fact both Marvel and DC have had comics in the schools for one reason or another for decades. Those “educational” comics covered subjects such as drug abuse prevention among various other public service content.
What made my idea different was this: I wanted to create a comic book universe that would be a complete reading program with study and teacher guides that allow for a specific curriculum to be taught.
Many young people go wrong when trying to do something new or groundbreaking they think that a great idea is all you need.
Err, no.
My idea was neither ‘new nor groundbreaking, but my program was both. With that said here are the steps taken that turned my idea into a deal and that deal into a reading program.
Step 1: Does your idea have merit?
In other words, is it a good idea to anyone else but you?
I knew my idea had merit because it just made sense. I knew this on a personal level because the summer I discovered comics I went from a forth grade student with a third grade reading level to a fifth grade student with a ninth grade reading level. I knew this because I had to attend summer school that year to be able to be promoted into the fifth grade. I tested third grade in July and ninth grade in late August.
Why had it not been done before with a major publisher? That was the question I had to think about. That led me to my next question and step:
Step 2: What are the barriers to entry and why has this not been done before?
After thinking and researching this question for a few weeks (another reason people fail: they think a good idea is somehow magically going to go away or be stolen if they don’t move the second they think of it. So they don’t do their due diligence) I decided the reason why there was no comic book reading programs taught as a curriculum is because of the educational climax and prejudices that were associated (at the time) against comic books.
In other words no one wanted to see The Hulk in a textbook.
When I ran this little tidbit by my then girlfriend she responded“That’s silly! Kids love comics!” True, kids love comics and very few kids would frown on reading them in school.
BUT, you are not selling to the kids; you are selling to educators and parents. Get it?
That’s another reason why some fail at this sort of thing. The idea is everything to them. They focus only on the audience that the idea would be great for. Very seldom is the end user the gatekeeper.
How many times have you seen a TV show and it just sucked? When’s the last time you felt gipped because you spent nine bucks on a movie that was just bad?
Have any comics that you wished you could not only get your money back but also find the creative team and beat them with your copy?
I’m sure the vast majority of the readers of this column have experienced some if not all of the above. Here’s the thing: that TV show, movie and comic book all started out as a good idea to somebody. I’ve had much better ideas and so have you than certain things I’ve seen in the movies or on television. Yet somehow the shitty stuff is on TV and my idea is not. That’s because all the people involved figured out and dealt with the barriers to entry. What happened when the movie or TV show was being filmed is not the problem you should be worried about while you are looking to sell your idea.
That’s another reason people fail. They ask for outrageous things the moment someone shows an interest. I have a dear friend who killed a huge animated deal at DreamWorks because he insisted on directing. He never directed anything in his life so guess what happened to his idea?
It went from a DreamWorks movie to just being another idea.
Here’s another thing most people will not tell you: ideas are a dime a dozen, ideas are cheap and there is very little new under the sun.
By no means is anything I wrote or anything I’ve managed to do a magic bullet for a deal closing. I’ve killed a deal or 50 in my career with bad moves and most likely will again. This series of articles hopefully will shed some light on the inner workings of real deals and how they got done.
Think “ABC” when it comes to deal making:
Always
Be
Closing
What good is any idea if it just stays an idea?
Next week, I’ll finish up the Action File deal and begin to tell you how I set up a comic book universe and animated film deal for the church market.
Until then if you are interested in deal making, Goggle Michael Ovitz. I’m good but he’s the best that ever was and compared to him I’m just a squirrel trying to get a nut.
A cute and sexy squirrel, but still just a squirrel.
Today is Black Friday, the day when it is our patriotic duty as Americans to go into a spending frenzy. For all our talk about family values, we think it is more important to forgo the conviviality of the Thanksgiving table so that we can stand in line to buy things.
