Spider-man Sales Review

[NC_Yankee]

The video didn’t really explain much. If their theory is correct about PRH (which I seriously doubt as it seems to misunderstand how a business like PRH would operate) currently Amazing is one of Marvel’s top-selling books, so it would need to bring new readers in (or lapsed readers back) to increase sales significantly. DC did this with the New 52 by (more or less) restarting their entire universe and doing a heavy promotional campaign that infiltrated the non-comics media. Regardless of what one thinks of the overall quality of that relaunch and the trouble they had sustaining it, it did bring in non insignificant number of readers who weren’t there the month before.
Does Chip Zdarsky taking over Amazing Spider-Man get people outside of comics talking? Does it get any play in the “straight” news media?
If we look at something like the Hickman relaunch of X-Men two years ago, it was a combination of Hickman being a huge name returning to Marvel after years away and the relatively abysmal condition of the X-titles in the years leading up to it. Marvel was able to put ads in their books with just the word Hickman and the start date. Does a white page with the word “Zdarsky” on it get people excited? Would the announcement of him taking over Spider-Man get a write up in USA Today? What will his name mean to someone who stopped reading comics ten years ago? Does it bring them back into the shop?
That isn’t to say that Zdarsky doesn’t get the book, but if he does it isn’t for the reasons those guys in the video think. If he gets it, it’s because he has a pitch that Marvel editorial likes. But the problem with relying on YouTubers for info is they’re just as uninformed as the rest of us. The reason they think that Zdarsky would sell big numbers is that they like Zdarsky. I love Zdarsky! But I don’t think that past a relaunch with a new number one and the variant incentives that he sells Amazing in numbers significantly above what Spencer is doing. Amazing has probably tapped out its growth potential in the current marketplace (that’s not a negative—it’s probably Marvel’s most consistent seller, like Batman is for DC) so to really get a big bump it would need to get new people into the shops and Zdarsky doesn’t do that.

I share a lot o your opinions except one: If Zdarsky takes over, I do not think Zdarsky had to do a “Sales Pitch” to Maevel. Why? They are very familiar with his ability to write Spider-Man. I think they knew months ago Spencer was leaving and asked Zdarsky to take over, Zdarsky gave them his parameters and they agreee:

[RJT]

I share a lot o your opinions except one: If Zdarsky takes over, I do not think Zdarsky had to do a “Sales Pitch” to Maevel. Why? They are very familiar with his ability to write Spider-Man. I think they knew months ago Spencer was leaving and asked Zdarsky to take over, Zdarsky gave them his parameters and they agreee:

If Zdarsky does end up taking over, Marvel absolutely asked him for a pitch before offering him the book. I can't think of a writer that would be given carte blanche on a title as high profile as Amazing Spider-Man.

[Spiderfan001]

If Zdarsky does end up taking over, Marvel absolutely asked him for a pitch before offering him the book. I can't think of a writer that would be given carte blanche on a title as high profile as Amazing Spider-Man.

Agreed.
The video says that the people at marvel realize how a good a writer Zdarsky is and more importantly how many people want him to write Spider-man.
They are realizing that they are wasting him on a book like DD that despite being one of the best won't sell as high as ASM.

[Somecrazyaussie]

There is no scenario in which ending story arcs in separate one-shots is not totally embarassing.

Well, Judas Contract was finished in a annual and that is fondly remembered.

But this is the first time where I have seen in done for story arc after story arc. I mean, these aren't "event" stories and Marvel is basically like, "a story so big it needs a special to wrap it up!". They should have just left them in Amazing proper. That's just my opinion.

[NC_Yankee]

If Zdarsky does end up taking over, Marvel absolutely asked him for a pitch before offering him the book. I can't think of a writer that would be given carte blanche on a title as high profile as Amazing Spider-Man.

I guess we agree to disagree. Asking Zdarsky to do a sales pitch for Peter is like asking Bruce Willis to audition for Die Hard sequels or Vin Diesel for Fast and the Furious sequels.The work speaks for itself. I also think Marvel had to bring someone in quicker then they expected ( regardless if Spencer quit or they removed him from the book), which is why Cates is on Hulk instead of his “Dream Job” on ASM. In business, when you are under the Gun you do have to make compromises and if indeed it is Zdarsky, I still think Marvel made a few to bring him onboard. Obviously if it is a writer who has not written Peter before, that is quite different.

[RJT]

I guess we agree to disagree. Asking Zdarsky to do a sales pitch for Peter is like asking Bruce Willis to audition for Die Hard sequels or Vin Diesel for Fast and the Furious sequels.The work speaks for itself. I also think Marvel had to bring someone in quicker then they expected ( regardless if Spencer quit or they removed him from the book), which is why Cates is on Hulk instead of his “Dream Job” on ASM. In business, when you are under the Gun you do have to make compromises and if indeed it is Zdarsky, I still think Marvel made a few to bring him onboard. Obviously if it is a writer who has not written Peter before, that is quite different.

Zdarsky would 100% have to do a pitch before taking over Amazing Spider-Man. When Nick Lowe was hyping up "Hunted" in the lettercolumns, he mentioned that the story was part of Spencer's pitch that got him the book. And Spencer was a more well-known commodity at Marvel, having written Superior Foes, Ant-Man, Ultimate X-Men, Avengers titles, two different Captain America series, and Secret Empire. When Bendis was leaving X-Men, they asked Rick Remender to take over the books. He had written Uncanny X-Force and Uncanny Avengers, so he was well known in the X-office, but they still asked him to write up a pitch. He shared it last spring on his website. (It was rejected, and he chose to walk away.)

There is just no universe in which Editorial asks Zdarsky to take over Amazing Spider-Man and then just sits back and waits for his first script to come in. What if he writes a first issue where Peter Parker becomes mayor of New York? Or one where Jonah Jameson murders Mary Jane? These books operate as part of a massive shared universe, where events in one book can have effects in other books. No writer is given carte blanche like that.

Editors often stay on books across multiple creative teams. They are the stewards of these characters. They hire the writers and artists that they think can sell the books, but they are the ones ultimately responsible. They have to make sure that a) the writer's vision of the characters lines up with the company's and b) it lines up with (or at least doesn't contradict or mess up) what is going on in the rest of line.

This isn't a value judgment on Zdarsky. It is a reality of comics production at the Big Two. Whoever ends up taking over Amazing Spider-Man in October 100% had to present a pitch to editorial before officially getting the job.

[RJT]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol4_T-gnqY4

If you skip to 19:00 of this video, Dan Slott explains how the "chain of command" works at Marvel, with regards to creators pitching books.