One of the things you mention in the interview (which was great, by the way) is that you've had to corral some commenters when it comes to Jim Shooter. I was born in 1986, making me much too young to have had any experience of Marvel at the time. I will say that I have the TBP for Secret Wars, which Shooter wrote, and the dialogue is AWFUL, while the story is great (so I can excuse the bad dialogue). I know he was... controversial as an editor. But I'd love to read more about HOW he was controversial and WHY (beyond just New Universe, because I think I know enough about that). I just feel like I'm missing big parts of the story. So what I'm saying is, I'd love you to point me to a place that gives an even-handed review of Shooter's tenure as EIC at Marvel. Or if no such thing exists (that you know of), I'd love to have you write a take on it. Because for some of us, that's all in the past and exists only in what we can piece together from reading comments on the internet... which, it probably goes without saying, is not very helpful.
Thanks for the comment David. The best coverage so far has been Sean Howe's book, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, however, I'm not sure it's an even-handed review. I'll definitely add it to my writing queue for 2013.
The basic understanding I have is that he created an amazingly fertile creative grounds for the Marvel Comics of the 1980s. However, the commercial success of Secret Wars seemed to have really changed his direction and after that his attitude started to alienate creators and led to his ultimate dismissal in 1987.
One of the things you mention in the interview (which was great, by the way) is that you've had to corral some commenters when it comes to Jim Shooter. I was born in 1986, making me much too young to have had any experience of Marvel at the time. I will say that I have the TBP for Secret Wars, which Shooter wrote, and the dialogue is AWFUL, while the story is great (so I can excuse the bad dialogue). I know he was... controversial as an editor. But I'd love to read more about HOW he was controversial and WHY (beyond just New Universe, because I think I know enough about that). I just feel like I'm missing big parts of the story. So what I'm saying is, I'd love you to point me to a place that gives an even-handed review of Shooter's tenure as EIC at Marvel. Or if no such thing exists (that you know of), I'd love to have you write a take on it. Because for some of us, that's all in the past and exists only in what we can piece together from reading comments on the internet... which, it probably goes without saying, is not very helpful.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment David. The best coverage so far has been Sean Howe's book, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, however, I'm not sure it's an even-handed review. I'll definitely add it to my writing queue for 2013.
ReplyDeleteThe basic understanding I have is that he created an amazingly fertile creative grounds for the Marvel Comics of the 1980s. However, the commercial success of Secret Wars seemed to have really changed his direction and after that his attitude started to alienate creators and led to his ultimate dismissal in 1987.