Post by BIGKEV on Dec 10, 2007 20:53:23 GMT -5
There's a virulent rumour doing the rounds right now (and as you know, all rumours lead to me) that Steve Geppi, owner of the comics distributor, a toy manufacturer, a comics publisher, a comics price guide, a museum and one level of a sports stadium, also owns the New York Comic Convention, run by Reed. Or at least owns a minority stake. Or a cut of the gate. That may be being phased out. There are lots of versions.
People who work and have worked for Diamond and Reed seem happy to confirm this, not on the record, but as something they've heard internally or are aware of. And that it's an industry secret that, should it get out, could see all sorts of accusations of monopolies and abuses of power.
All very well, except that it's not true. Not according to NYCC director Greg Topalian, who was there at the beginning. Steve Geppi was one of the principle encouragers of the convention, it's true, and Diamond have been a major sponsor of the event, but that's as far as it has gone, has ever gone, and is likely to go.
So now that the big twist in "One More Day" is out and about, it might be fun to look at its precedents...
Back in the day when Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Mark Waid and Tom Peyer were asked to write the whole of the Superman line as a "Hive Mind" (which was revisited in some fashion for "52"), they chose to do away with Superman's marriage by having the chemical that stored Lois Lane's memory of their marriage made poisonous by one of Superman's enemies, so that after her conscious mind was wiped, if she remembered she was married to Superman/Clark Kent, then she would die. But there was then a change of editorial, so...
Joe Casey states that his solution with Jeph Loeb, Joe Kelly and Mark Schultz was to have Superman's secret exposed, Lois die and for Superman make a deal with the fifth dimension demon Mr. Mxyzptlk to use his powers to "fix things." which wiped everyone's memory, including Lois. But them in charge disagreed.
John Byrne and Howard Mackie's Spider-Man marriage fix is described as having Peter Parker go through a harrowing series of events, only for the Shaper Of Worlds to remake Spider-Man's world to when he was back in High School, set in the present day. This was abandoned by the creators as being "too cosmic".
None of these solutions ever saw print - the Superman through editorial rejection, Spider-Man through self-rejection. Although, with writer J Michael Straczynski stating that he did not approve of One More Day and at one point wished his name off the book, it seems to have come close. But then the artist and co-plotter was the Editor In Chief...
And you have to feel sorry for Matt Brady. He found a thankless task this week, publically drumming up questions from his readers to ask Spider-Man editor Steve Wacker, regarding the "Brand New Day" arc. Which follows the controversial "One More Day" arc. Yet, as Brady put it, "Please note - Wacker’s not going to give away any secrets of how ‘One More Day’ ends, and will be somewhat limited in what he can say about the specifics of Spidey’s life post his run-in with Mephisto."
People who work and have worked for Diamond and Reed seem happy to confirm this, not on the record, but as something they've heard internally or are aware of. And that it's an industry secret that, should it get out, could see all sorts of accusations of monopolies and abuses of power.
All very well, except that it's not true. Not according to NYCC director Greg Topalian, who was there at the beginning. Steve Geppi was one of the principle encouragers of the convention, it's true, and Diamond have been a major sponsor of the event, but that's as far as it has gone, has ever gone, and is likely to go.
So now that the big twist in "One More Day" is out and about, it might be fun to look at its precedents...
Back in the day when Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Mark Waid and Tom Peyer were asked to write the whole of the Superman line as a "Hive Mind" (which was revisited in some fashion for "52"), they chose to do away with Superman's marriage by having the chemical that stored Lois Lane's memory of their marriage made poisonous by one of Superman's enemies, so that after her conscious mind was wiped, if she remembered she was married to Superman/Clark Kent, then she would die. But there was then a change of editorial, so...
Joe Casey states that his solution with Jeph Loeb, Joe Kelly and Mark Schultz was to have Superman's secret exposed, Lois die and for Superman make a deal with the fifth dimension demon Mr. Mxyzptlk to use his powers to "fix things." which wiped everyone's memory, including Lois. But them in charge disagreed.
John Byrne and Howard Mackie's Spider-Man marriage fix is described as having Peter Parker go through a harrowing series of events, only for the Shaper Of Worlds to remake Spider-Man's world to when he was back in High School, set in the present day. This was abandoned by the creators as being "too cosmic".
None of these solutions ever saw print - the Superman through editorial rejection, Spider-Man through self-rejection. Although, with writer J Michael Straczynski stating that he did not approve of One More Day and at one point wished his name off the book, it seems to have come close. But then the artist and co-plotter was the Editor In Chief...
And you have to feel sorry for Matt Brady. He found a thankless task this week, publically drumming up questions from his readers to ask Spider-Man editor Steve Wacker, regarding the "Brand New Day" arc. Which follows the controversial "One More Day" arc. Yet, as Brady put it, "Please note - Wacker’s not going to give away any secrets of how ‘One More Day’ ends, and will be somewhat limited in what he can say about the specifics of Spidey’s life post his run-in with Mephisto."