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INTERVIEW: JOE QUESADA- Part 1 Joe Quesada Interview - Part 0 Now Joe, gonna start off on a serious note, a question I've been wanting to ask you for a while. So '99 and 2000 have been quite the years for you, and 2001 will top them all. Aside from everything going on in your business life you've had to deal with sickness in the family, marriage, the loss of a family member as well as the gain of another, you even suffered a fall nearly cracking your head open. But never have you used all this as an excuse, never have you tried to justify the effect this has had on your work. Didn't it ever bother you that fans would be attacking you for being behind on Daredevil while you were attending a funeral?
So being EIC, big responsibility. What all does the title pertain? What new jobs does this entail and what jobs are you still handling from the 'pre-EIC' era? It basically makes me responsible for the overall editorial flavor and direction of the books. Pretty much what I was doing at MK but on a much bigger scale. It also means that my hands are less tied with regard to recruiting talent, which I see as one of my major functions. There were some people that wanted to work for Knights but wanted use of certain characters that were unavailable to us, I don't have that problem anymore. If creator X wants to write or draw character Y, I can pretty much make it happen if I feel it's a good combo. One of the things that I had to deal with from the previous regime, and it's really not fair to put this on Bob since it was common company practice for many years at Marvel, was books being written and created internally. There was a time when a good number of Marvel titles were written by editors or friends of friends. This caused a major recruiting problem within Marvel that eventually became very evident when you looked across town to our Distinguished Competition and saw all the best writers in the industry working for them. By hiring internally we extensively closed the door on many young talented people who eventually became the super stars that they are today. There was a real network in this place and it was created long before Bob was in charge. It was a cancer that was eating away at the quality of our books. Now, I'm not saying that I'm against an editor writing a book, but they damn well better be the best person for that title. I've told my editorial team that if they ever want me to do a cover or to work on a project they're going to have to prove to me that I'm absolutely the right person to do it. I also feel that if an editor ends up being one of your top talents, chances are sooner rather than later they're going to wise up and quit their day job. Another problem I inherited was this dark cloud that hung over everyone's head in editorial. These are some of the best editors in the industry who have been beaten down by the constant downsizing of the industry and more importantly the company. At Knights we generally had a rosy outlook on things, we were small, lean and mean and as our books sold better and better, people sort of just got out of our way. Well, that's exactly how I feel about Marvel's current editorial group, we're small, lean, it's guerilla comics warfare, renegade creativity! If you ever come by the offices you'll see what I mean! I've been trying very hard to let the editors do what they do and much like Knights, stay out of their way and cheer them on to the best of my abilities! Does your role as EIC involve working along side Jemas in terms of marketing to outside forums? For instance, we've recently seen Marvel characters involved with commercials for MILK, Frito-Lays and AGF mutual funds - plus it's been mentioned deals with major soft drink and fast food companies have been set in motion to be seen later this year or next. This is more of a function of Russ Brown and the licensing group. They work out all those deals, we just get to glow in the glory of them. You and Jimmy have both admitted to being the 'pretty faces' behind Marvel Knights while Nanci is cited as the real brains behind the operation. How has the marriage affected your work together? There must be some 'creative' ways she had to make you meet deadlines. She tried, but it was just a losing battle. She did manage to get more work out of me than anyone else though. We have a very unique working relationship. Don't ask me to define it, it just works. I think it stems from the fact that neither one of us is afraid to acknowledge that the other is better at certain things and then just letting that person do what they're good at (quite frankly she's better than me at most everything). We very rarely butt heads on anything other than deadlines. She's' a brilliant woman but I hesitate from talking about her in public because 1) she hates it, she's very shy and 2) it will just come across as partial and like the worst form of nepotism. What a mature response, I was really expecting a few sex jokes. Oh well. Oh, you didn't ask about sex. Marvel Knights was, at it's inception, The Joe and Jimmy show. You've stated in previous interviews that both yours and Joe's responsibilities at MK were equal, but different. Except now you're the EIC of the entire company, and Jimmy is doing a number of freelance assignments for various publishers. Can you talk about what happened? How was it you attained the position of EIC as opposed to perhaps Nanci or why you and Jimmy didn't headline Marvel together? Well, Jimmy was long gone from MK by the time I was named EIC. Nanci is more of a nuts and bolts type person. I would deal with the creative, the writers and artist, she would deal with the trafficking and accounting for the company. The EIC role is one in which, I believe, a creative hand is needed in order to take the company in a particular direction. I always felt that Marvel was at its best when the EIC had some sort of vision as to what Marvel should be.
Jimmy and I are really doing radically different things. He's busy with animation, working for Wizard and other stuff so basically we're running around in different circles. We still speak from time to time but it makes catching up quite difficult. This new mature, no-code line. Will this allow for more new talent and new characters to be introduced under the Marvel banner? It's going to be very flexible. There will be some new takes on old forgotten characters and some familiar title names that might not mean the same thing in the context that they once did. We'll be launching with primarily familiar top shelf writing talent, you may see some new artistic faces. I believe that this line will eventually become our creator owned line as well so the future for new concepts and new talent looks bright in my eyes. This is my most anticipated experiment because it's the one that Marvel has failed at in recent history. I feel we have the right people in place to really make this happen much; like the group that was in charge of Epic in the early days. So far the concepts I've seen are brilliant, not what you would have come to expect from Marvel, MK or Epic even. Archie Goodwin would be proud! Will marvels upcoming non-code line bring with it more opportunities for the writers to tackle certain sensitive issues? IE. political standings and opinions, ethnic wars, prominent gay or lesbian characters, etc. Or will the emphasize fall on doing heroes right first, and then having the writers get their way to explore more personal stuff afterwards? Well, let me start by saying that it's not all about heroes. Although we may launch with a significant amount of material that is related to our hero universe we will be looking in other directions very quickly. I believe that there is a certain amount of wait and see attitude in the creative community towards this mature imprint and understandably so. In the recent past we've done this and failed miserably or chickened out at the last minute. I can assure you that this imprint is going to be the big surprise for 2001. I can certainly see us printing books with all different points of view, but again one thing and one thing alone will remain the focus, regardless of subject matter - the story has to be great! One of the more popular moves since becoming EIC has been the announcement of a better trade program. Will this be put to use to make some of the harder to find titles available to the public? For instance; CONSPIRACY, RUINS, TYPHOID, DRUID, or popular storylines like the Counter X titles, the MK series, the early Heroes Return issues, etc. The most important thing about the trade program isn't just to go out and reprint everything. We need to scrutinize the old material and really find out if it's palatable for the general public. For quite some time now I would say that most Marvel books have been talking to themselves. I'll tell you a quick story that I think explains this perfectly. I received a pitch from a creator about a character who gets the chance to travel through time and, using their power, they're able to change the course of history. I said, "Okay, that sounds cool, you mean like the JFK assassination, the Persian Gulf war?" "No!" was the reply, "historical events like the Age of Apocalypse and Secret Wars!" This is what we have become, history is no longer the real world and many of our books have little to nothing to do with what's happening outside. It's tough to blame creators since for years we've been finding it profitable to cannibalize our own continuity. That's a problem when your looking at TPBs. Do we go to press in a big way with a book that only speaks to Marvel U fans, probably not. At best we would do small runs. So the answer is that we will look at every past series carefully and decide if it needs reprinting, if it moves the needle for us. Quite frankly that's why it's easier and more profitable for us to compile the older stuff. It was infinitely more accessible since it was written before the Marvel U became this untamable beast. The real goal starting from day one of my term as EIC was to make sure that every book is now written with TPBs in mind. There are certain writers that acclimate themselves better to this and I believe that we have them working for us now! So what you will probably see happening more evidently is the newer stuff getting compiled quickly and in large numbers. Our real backlist thrust began months ago. The trades seem to be inconsistently priced though. Earth X is a 464 page book for $24.95, where Marvel Boy is a 144 page book for $15.95. One is under 7 cents per page, the other is 12 cents per. What factors go into deciding the price of a trade paperback? Print quality and page count. Still $15.95 for MB is still pretty good. That was originally slotted to be a $19.95 TPB. Will many of the old works in line for the trade paper back program be accompanied by new material? You mean new material inside of the TPB? Probably not, it's not cost effective. Another thing that we're trying to do with TPBs that we haven't talked out loud about is that we're trying to keep the cost down considerably. What about OGN's? And playing with format - working outside the norm of the "pamphlet"? You know, I hate that term pamphlet, to me it's derogatory and a catch phrase coined by someone or someone's who happen to be partial to the TPB format. How do you think that a novelist would feel if you referred to his or her short stories as pamphlets? Heck what's next, leaflets? Let's completely devalue what we're doing by naming it something worthless, the new fans would love that I'm sure. "Hey mom, can I have $2.50 to buy this pamphlet?" With regard to your question, yes, we are looking into doing original graphic novels. Of course this would be creator specific and would be considered on a case by case basis. Kevin Smith discussed the possibility of doing this with me when we were at Knights. At the time it didn't seem that Marvel would have been ready or receptive to doing it. Once I got the EIC job I called up Kev and said, "Hey remember that graphic novel idea we discussed?"
Not at all. We discussed several scenarios and characters. I'm hoping we revisit DD where Kevin wants to revive a third or fourth string character. Do you see Kevin returning to do another run for the DD series or would you reserve that for a graphic novel? Most likely either a self contained mini or a graphic novel depending on scheduling and such. How'd the movie shoot for JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKES BACK go by the way? Word is the part you play is more then just a cameo and is actually a role significant to the films development. I guess you can say that. It's a touching romantic scene. You've also been around the sets for SPIDER-MAN and Bob Gales HIGHWAY 60 as well right? Will this become a regular thing for you? God, who knows? I'm not a real Hollywood kind of guy but it's one of the cool perks of being EIC. Back to "pamphlets" then. Marvel has been cutting the page count of their stories, and the size of their comics both horizontally and vertically, a number of times over the years. Does the buying public actually value a 22 page story worth $2.25 or $2.50? Can you think of anything comparably priced? Of course I think that the buying public still wants the 22 page format. That's why I receive daily heat from fans and retailers demanding that single issues of sold out books still be available for reorder. They don't care that the TPB is out or the mini 3 issue compilation, they want their 22 page book. Can I think of anything comparably priced? Check out the price of breakfast cereals or a ticket to a ball game. There is no question that TPBs are growing in popularity, what's going to make this extremely visible is that now that Marvel is jumping in with both feet and since we've been so behind the curve, it's going to make for a huge leap in the number of TPBs sold this year and next industry wide. This also brings up another issue, price. Speaking for myself, a single issue averages around 4 bucks each. UNIVERSE X runs for over 5 bucks each. Even for US cover prices it must run quite a bit much. Do you see the average price range as staying the same, or increasing in the future? We've actually dodged 2 price increases based on the fact that we believe that our product is going to sell better. Quite honestly this all really depends on the price of paper. Continued... Joe Quesada Interview - Part 0
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Nah, the fans just wanted their book. We made DD fun again and they just wanted more, you really can't blame anyone for that. The fact that I had all of this stuff keeping me from the table was really no excuse, DD's lateness was my fault and mine alone and for that I'm truly sorry, but I have to look ahead now and DD is in great hands. What was really frustrating at the time was that there was so much more stuff going on behind the scenes that I couldn't and wouldn't talk about. Usually I'm very open about my life with the fans, that's why things like my mother's death and my father's illness were known to begin with, but there were just some things that I couldn't publicly talk about that probably effected the work just as much. Still, it's all in the past now and I think it best to look forward rather than
behind. 
Have you and Jimmy remained the close friends you once were? Has becoming EIC affected that friendship? Or do you still find time to hit up SCORES together? 
Is that graphic novel idea very far along btw? 
