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My Unknown Greats pt. 3
2008-03-10 07:59:58

DEADLINE #1

That's right, it's not an apology for "One More Day"--sorry, Steve Zoovie, live in hope--but instead a continuation of our series of books I worked on that flew a bit under the radar when they came out.

A number of years back, when Marvel emerged from bankruptcy under new ownership, a change was made to our operating policy. Before that, people working on staff were not only encouraged to seek out writing work, it was almost expected of them. But there were some definite abuses, and this generated some ill will among the creative community. So from that point on, nobody working on staff at Marvel could get paid to write for Marvel, and it was actively discouraged for those on staff to pursue such work even under those conditions.

At the time, Bill Rosemann was working in Marvel's marketing department, editing our Previews catalogue and coordinating our online press and the like. But he was also interested in telling stories, and he had an idea for a MARVELS-style series that would take a ground-level viewpoint on the Marvel Universe. Having a background in journalism, he wanted to set it at the Daily Bugle. Undaunted by the new guidelines, he brought the idea to Joe Quesada, who liked it and worked with him on refining it a bit--and when he thought it was in pretty good shape, Joe passed it over to me to see if I'd have an interest in editing it.

DEADLINE was a four-issue series, a crime story with gothic romance overtones set in the Marvel Universe. It was quirky and different, but also accessable and interesting. I had previously edited a black-and-white DAILY BUGLE limited series some years before, so it was something I was interested in.

The spine of DEADLINE was novice reporter Kat Farrell's search for The Judge, a mysterious vigilante who'd just appeared on the scene, and her quest to find acceptance in teh eyes of her mentor, Ben Urich. Joe Q did the design for the Judge himself. For the artwork, I remember Bill was hot to get Guy Davis, whose work he'd admired on SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATER over at Vertigo. There was some initial resistance to the notion of Guy doing the book--he wasn't really a Marvel kind of artist. But it was Joe Q who said, "Doesn't matter--once he's here he'll be a Marvel artist."

Covers were provided by Greg Horn, who had become something of an in-house favorite that week. I think this may have been the first cover I commissioned from Greg, and he told me he enjoyed doing them because they were so different from everything else he was working on--they attracted a new audience to his work. I also remember that there was some resistance to this first cover initially, since it was ultimately just a shot of a normal woman on a rainy street, and didn't feature any elements of the fantastic at all. I got it through, though, by some combination of obstinance and luck.

Typical of the projects in this series, DEADLINE wasn't a huge seller, but it was a great deal of fun to work on, and it was the kind of project that expanded the scope of what we were publishing under the Marvel banner just a bit. And while the Judge has yet to reappear, Kat went on to become a supporting player in THE PULSE. Bill Rosemann, on the other hand, left Marvel, moved to Florida and joined CrossGen, then returned to New York and worked at DC in their custom publishing division, before eventually coming home to Marvel a year and a half ago, where he now works on the ULTIMATE titles and masterminds ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST.

More later.

Tom B

Great pick!
This was a fantastic series!

Posted by pmpknface on 2008-03-10 09:14:19

Deadline

was a series I really liked. I'm not sure what it says about me but I own ann like all these 'unknown greats'. i really liked Kat and I hope the Judge comes back one day.

Posted by bomaya on 2008-03-10 09:43:36

Unknown greats
While all of these have certainly been interesting creatively, It's hard to imagine any of them selling well in the current direct market system.

None of them have a built in hook that can easily convince a LCS owner to order more than a minimal number of copies for the percentage of fans willing to try something new and experimental
that doesn't have a familiar hero or well known creative team on the cover. I'm sure everyone involved with such a project knows that going in. It's great that Marvel was willing to do some of these experimental books and even better that a few of these stores and characters have been revisited so that they have another chance of being discovered.

I'm betting the Hood probably got a bit of a bump in back issue or TPB sales. Maybe some of these others will get a second life as well.

Posted by izzatrix on 2008-03-10 10:36:04

Apology for OMD
Joe Q got in a dunk tank. If that isn't enough for some of us, then nothing will be. As for me I'm just waiting for the BND trades. I made the decision based not on the stories but the 3x a month schedule. The collections ARE coming out soon aren't they? After all at that rate you've got enough for a collection in just two months instead of the usual 6.

Posted by izzatrix on 2008-03-10 10:40:03

Deadline was a really nice series - Marvel just doesn't do enough inventive stuff like this any more. Marvel's been really good at keeping Runaways going up to the point at which it's now a pretty successful book, it would be nice if it would give some more new projects a big push - it's the only way to prevent the movie side of things from becoming stagnant in the long-run.

Posted by Fetsur on 2008-03-10 12:28:18

totally missed it but it looks like a wonderful concept.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2008-03-10 12:44:33

Bill Rosemann was working in Marvel's marketi
So from that point on, nobody working on staff at Marvel could get paid to write for Marvel, and it was actively discouraged for those on staff to pursue such work even under those conditions.

So does that mean Bill didn't get paid?

Posted by deworde on 2008-03-10 13:02:27

Zoovie triumphant !!!
Almost.
I feel the man weakening ! Soon, my pets, soon.

Tom- ADMIT YOU ARE AS ASHAMED AS WE ARE ABOUT WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO SPIDEY! THERE IS NO NEED TO BE ENSLAVED ANY LONGER. THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE! COME OUT OF THE SHADOW OF SHAME AND DENIAL. COME, TOM. COME INTO THE LIGHT OF TRUTH.

Thats all for now. In the words of Alice Cooper, there will be no more love at your convenince.

Posted by Steve Zoovie on 2008-03-10 15:22:57

Hey!
Another trade I own. I own the western one aswell. And The Hood.

I maintain that an ongoing series set in the Bugle would in fact sell well, particulary if written by a Journalist, like Duane Swiercynski. Or me. I have a journalism degree,

Posted by Dave James on 2008-03-10 17:55:19

I picked this trade up for a buck, making it one of the best-bang-for-my-buck values of any comic. As a working print journalist, I was very impressed with how well this covered my field. It's a rarity, for some reason. Far too often, we get things like Frontline, which features one of the worst ficitional displays of journalism since I don't know when.

Posted by motteditor on 2008-03-10 19:19:00

Does anyone remember that black-and-white "Daily Bugle" miniseries from the 90s? That was completely awesome. I dug it out around a year ago to reread it, something I almost never do.

Posted by aurata on 2008-03-10 23:05:38

Zoovie
I'm sorry for coming at you again... but this is just disgusting. This time you aren't even using your own words. You're using more cliches than i can count, plus you actually use an incorrectly cited quote from Alice Cooper, who i totally trust on all my literary decisions. (that's just my way of saying that his words have no meaning in an argument on this subject. It'd be like quoting Sun Tzu while washing clothes.)

Also, you weren't triumphant in the least. Don't call us (sorry for speaking for all of us) your pets. I know you think you're funny and original, but that's not either of those things.

I apologize to my fellow posters for an obviously negative post. I had an odd day and seeing displays like this just makes me a little sad for the world. 'tis a shame. Some people on these boards are so smart, while others are just ignorant and believe that these characters and stories belong to them. That's just not true in the least. People will disagree with me on that, and i'm totally willing to discuss it. My views on that subject (like many) are hardly black and white.

I'm probably giving you the attention you want and obviously need. I'm sorry for that my fellow posters, but I'm just sick of seeing this crap littering the boards. All I can say is don't hate on BND without actually reading it. Yeah OMD was a cheap way out, but I'm enjoying BND way more than i was before the changes were made. Just give it a try and stop being afraid of change. Its kinda despicable.

Posted by Anson17 on 2008-03-10 23:40:41

now that i've got to review zoovie's old resp
You (or the next poster) called me a sheep. I find this hilarious because a sheep would mean that i was following the majority blindlessly. If i remember right (also just reading the consensus on the boards) most people abhor anything related to Spider-man at the moment, where I am enjoying it all the same even when some of my favorite reviewers who "tell me what to think" disagree with me on the matter of ASM.

Calling someone a "Sheep" because they disagree with you just shows that you're being an ignorant internet troll who is just looking to stir things up because you're bored or just really feel like they wanna be heard (because no one listens to your unsupported opinions in real life) whereas i come to the boards to discuss the comics i read in a fairly positive manner with other people who may or may not agree with me.

I'm one of the people who believes that we as humans can learn much more from people we disagree with than from people who we agree with. Its honestly boring talking to someone who agrees with you. Its so much more enriching to intelligently discuss things with an open mind instead of bantering with hate back and forth. That's not discussing, that's just pointless arguing which is what this has already turned into and turns many people away from things like the Marvel Message Boards. Oh well.

I'm not sure why you called my political views into question, but i consider myself a moderate. Voting by party is one of the dumbest things a person can do except for single issue voting. I don't listen to what people tell me about the candidates. I actually go and find the information for myself from different sources (spanning from the most liberal to the most conservative) and basically make a synthesis of those viewpoints and contrast it to my beliefs, finally arriving at my actual opinion. At least this is how I like to do things. All people are prone to their biases and lean towards one side of an argument. Its sad but true.

Judging a candidate (or anything for that matter) from one source is like going into a gun fight with an unloaded weapon. Its just stupid. Forming a viewpoint of your own needs to come from a collaboration of multiple sources or else you're just spewing information from one place and therefore being a true "sheep" as you put it. Accusing me of being told who to vote for was pointless and just an attack. It lent absolutely nothing to the argument. I first thought that explaining how my opinions form would just be defending against your pointless attack, but i realized that it was actually quite important to the overarching "debate" (if we can actually refer to it as that) going on here.

Zoovie, if you actually took the time to read this, I'm glad. Hopefully we can continue this discussion in a far more civilized manner, maybe somewhere other than Brevoort's blog. Just doesn't seem fair to the guy when he's just trying to talk about creative teams he really likes and respects as artists. (I was just psyched he did a story on Vaughn, can't get enough of that guy's stuff, especially his creator owned series)

Posted by Anson17 on 2008-03-11 00:11:20

I agree with Dave James,I should write 'Criminal' cause I'm a mobster.
by the way, folks, who kills J.F.K ?

Posted by notapotatoe on 2008-03-11 03:58:35

I bought the monthlies when it first came out. I LOVED it. Rosemann is a VERY good writer. I hope someday he writes anything; I'll read it.

Posted by Wolver-Ham on 2008-03-14 11:36:05

Rosemann should write more comics. This trade is definitely an unknown great. Great story and art.

Posted by Wolver-Ham on 2008-03-14 19:16:23

Array

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About this blog:
Ramblings and musings from the mind of Tom Brevoort. "It won’t be clean. It won’t be fun. It mostly won’t be coherent."

About the author:
Tom Brevoort is Executive Editor for Marvel Comics, and oversees such titles as New Avengers, Civil War, and Fantastic Four.


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