An Open letter to Joe Quesada and Marc Millar Article by aviewaskewed, 12:41 AM 01st Jun Disclaimer: The following column is entirely the opinions of the author (even at that we aren‘t sure), any similarity to the opinions of any other staff or affiliate of theendlesscrew.com is entirely coincidental and unintentional. Unless specifically noted otherwise, all creator comments have been gleaned from other sources and no creators have actually endorsed any aspect of this column. In fact, I’m sure I’ll piss a few off this week, but that’s sort of what I figured this thing would do anyway. Dear Mr. Joe Quesada and Mr. Mark Millar, Hi, I write a weekly column every week at my own site, and have been a comics fan since I was 7 years old, I grew up with Marvel comics, my favorites were Spider-Man and The X-Men. I was a fiercely loyal “Marvel Zombie”, into my teens, getting into some more diverse material in your line, and even some older books like Tomb of Dracula. I was very staunchly defending your product and you, I even stuck with the product when most fans were maligning the decisions made by you and Bill Jemas Mr. Quesada, because I believed in the company, in your material, and your vision. I have enjoyed the work of yours I’ve read Mr. Millar, I really loved The Ultimates 1, and really look forward to diving into The Ultimates 2 when the trades come out (dopey me did not get them on my pull list). I respect the work that both of you have done to date (although I would be lying if I didn’t say an issue or 2 of MK Spider-Man with, what looked to me to be obvious errors, in Spider-Man lore such as The Jackyl Miles Warren alive again, and Peter just treating his as a former teacher, and not a man who had ripped apart his life on several occasions), which is what makes this letter so much harder to write. You see, obviously, I am a fan who obviously has internet access, and uses that access to read things posted on the net by various folks (yourselves included), while I applaud you both for how you have embraced the internet as a tool to help your business, and connect with your fans, I must say I’m disappointed in the comments I read over the last week or so from both of you as it regards to Marvel’s trade program, and the way you view the fans that buy them. Mr. Quesada, you decided that rather then simply rest on the right reasons as to explaining why your trades contain errors (an understaffed, overworked department. Mistakes in the original material simply being copied over to their collected editions, for instance). You decided that you would try and rip on your competition, and make a comment that I found very immature, when you said “well, DC makes the same mistakes, it’s just nobody reports on that”. So basically, we should, as fans, accept lower quality work because the other guys are doing, and the net simply likes to paint Marvel as the bad guy in all things, is that you’re defense? With all due respect, that is completely unacceptable to me. Not to mention the just immaturity of saying “well, they do it too, but they only pick on us” are you guys a business? Or a little kid? Because that just sounds like an excuse a little kid would make, rather then a company who is raking in millions of dollars, has major blockbuster motion pictures on their plate, and relies on the goodwill of it’s customers, and supporters, to continue to exist. If you’re competition is not putting out great product (and as I am also a DC reader, I have never noticed the types of errors, in trades I’ve bought from them that I’ve heard reported in certain Marvel offerings), shouldn’t you guys be taking that as “ok, they’re giving us a real opportunity to win over some customers who are fed up with this inferior production level, so let’s crank ours up”? I think you should. I also think that instead of trying to absolve yourself of responsibility to your readers, you should be making every conceivable effort to fix these mistakes, like DC does. Oh, but I forgot, you have an excuse for why you don’t need to do that either, because you really don’t see DC as a competitor, you said “DC doesn’t need to be profitable, as they have a huge parent company behind them that uses them as an R and D firm basically”. Oh yeah, that whole re-branding thing made it abundantly clear that AOL/Time Warner doesn’t care about DC, or having it make them any money, that was really bad timing to make a comment that just struck me as trying to sound like you’re in the know about something the fans aren’t. That is a bad excuse to me, you shouldn’t ask your customers to accept inferior product, to me, that’s just bad business, and I know that it is yet another Marvel policy which has shaken my faith in your companies customer service, and will continue to make me think before I spend money on Marvel. Now Mr. Millar, who said “I’m almost glad they make these mistakes, because it’s like a big F you to all those people who wait for the trade”. Wow, that is just the words of a jackass right there in my mind. You know Marc, those people who “wait for the trade” are paying your salary same as the folks who are buying your work monthly, maybe even more so since as long as Marvel is keeping that work in print, you’re getting new readers, and new income. So to take a leak on those fans like you did not only makes you look like a jerk, it makes you look pretty foolish too. I was absolutely looking forward to buying Ultimates 2, and probably will anyway because I enjoyed your work on it, but as to future projects? I will be very careful indeed, as I think you’re attitude is totally disrespectful to people who have plunked down their money to buy your work. You’re a superstar creator sure, but the fans made you into one, including those people who “wait for the trade” that you think deserve to have mistakes in they’re books it seems. Maybe you think that makes you look all bad ass or something…me? I just think you look bad, or like an ass. Thanks for taking the time to listen gentlemen, I don’t imagine one fans opinion is going to make you change your policies much, if at all, but I just thought that I would vent my frustrations a little bit, and maybe it would give you pause to consider how your comments have shaken my faith in a company I once followed unquestioningly. Back to Rants