Walking Dead Co-Creator Robert Kirkman has some interesting things to say about Marvel. He recently had this image in an issue of Invincible. He was also quoted here as saying
“I don’t have bad blood with Marvel per se, aside from the fact that I think they’re a poorly run company that is partially destroying the comic book industry,” Kirkman said.
Kirkman then called Marvel “extremely short-sighted” and that the company is having negative effects on the industry. He also says that Marvel caters to fans and that they are “not going to be around for a hundred years. I always try to look at the long game,” he says.
Marvel editor Tom Brevoort was asked about Kirkman’s quotes and said, “I think that, like anybody, Robert can say and believe anything he likes. “
What are your thoughts?
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@#9-In fairness I think the movies cater to general audiences as well. They just tend to do a good job of pleasing both sides of the fence
@#10-Exactly that.
@#11-I think that’s the way it SHOULD be but I do not think that is honestly how it works in reality. I mean half the crappy editorially mandated stories over the past decade have boiled down to basically the fan whims of the creators. That is honestly the reason why at say DC Hal Jordan and Barry Allan came back to life and why OMD happened from Quesada’s point of view.
I think once you work for Marvel and you’re working on the books, you stop being a fan as your primary association with the books. You are an employee first, then a fan.
Well I think you’re all playing semantics on the ‘caters to fans’ thing because Marvel does do that but the fans they cater to are the ones behind the books and not necessarily the ones buying them. That’s been my take on things for a while at least… maybe I’m wrong.
He’s right except for the “Marvel caters to fans” thing. That’s simply not true. Marvel’s Movies cater to fans but Marvel’s Comics cater to the whims of their editors/writers.
The new #1’s aren’t necessarily what’s destroying the industry but the insane amount of variants and the pressure on shops to buy tons of what they can’t afford and what they won’t be able to sell is insane. Buying variants contributes to the problem.
Atomic robo beat him to that joke years ago.
Love him or hate him, he kinda has a point.
I’d rather someone write stuff that “caters” to fans over someone who writes stuff just to anger fans, Kirkman.
Dark Reign/Siege was gory enough and they weren’t that long ago
Maybe he’s just unsatisfied with the lack of gore in Marvel’s titles.
The only thing I disagree with Kirkman about is how Marvel caters to fans because if that were true the series would seriously not be the way it is now…also I think Kirkman writes in a fan catering way wearing his fanboy colours on his sleeve….and I actually LIKE that. These days it’s more like Marvel caters to itself and/or just follows dumb trends (hence the new #1s and events) but catering to the fans? Er…no. That’s really, really not what they do. At least not with Spider-Man. I mean they’ve been waaaaaay too out of touch with the readership to legitimately cater to the fans
“I think they’re a poorly run company that is partially destroying the comic book industry,” That’s not true! Oh wait, he said “partially”. Never mind.
That image talking about number ones, I completely agree with it. It’s not Kirkman’s fault that Marvel thinks rebooting its series to #1 will solve its problems. A temporary increase in sales is not a good business plan.
Uh-huh. I’m sure Marvel’s hurting Walking Dead’s sales, Kirkman.