So I figure, hey, it’s only six pages of angry replies, right? How long can it take to answer some of this stuff?

Let’s see.

With those fateful words, Tom Brevoort dived into the comments thread for yesterday’s Newsarama interview with him about the Civil War delays to speak to some of those who were annoyed by the news. Let’s see if we can condense the interesting things that Tom came up with to prevent people having to read 16+ pages of call and response, shall we?

On the schedule of any series: 

The only reason our industry runs on a thirty day cycle is because it’s a holdover from the days when comic books were newsstand-oriented periodicals, and everybody’s used to that. But if you look at the entire field over the last five years, you can see that starting to change. And, like with any change, not everybody is going to be equally comfortable with it.

We put out monthly comics because that’s the way we’ve always largely done it. But the reason for why the comics are produced monthly in this format has kind of fallen away–and because of this fact, you’ve begun to see a metamorphosis in the way the industry operates, in my opinion.  

On whether Mark Millar’s illness has had any effect on the delay:

I don’t want to dispute Mark, and I especially don’t want to get into his personal matters in public, but while Steve has never had to wait on a script from Mark–he’s always had something to draw on his desk–Mark’s illness has absolutely played a role in getting us to this point. It’s not an excuse, it’s not casting blame his way–it’s just the reality of the situation.

On the newly announced special issue tie-ins:

No, the specials aren’t fill-ins–they’re sidereal product. There’s a difference between, say, an issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA and a CAPTAIN AMERICA special. For one thing, the special is typically going to sell less than a regular issue, because it’s not part of the run. And the reason that they typically sell less is that, not being a part of the regular run, readers have an easier time in giving them a pass. A fill-in is a job that breaks up a run, and in this case we’re talking about a last-minute substitution jamming out pages that are probably not going to be the artist’s best work simply to make a ship date. Whereas a Special, as sidereal product, doesn’t have that same mental “pressure” against it. So yes, we’re doing some specials to help bridge the CIVIL WAR gap, both for readers and for retailers, but we’re setting them up, for the most part, so that the average reader doesn’t feel compelled or forced to buy them. Sure, we’d like for them to buy the books, but because they genuinely want them and are interested in them, not simply because it’s issue #23 and they have the other 22 and curse-you-Marvel-for-making-me-buy-this-crap-just-to-keep-up-my-collection. If you’re not interested in any of this new ancellary CIVIL WAR product, then by all means, give it a pass.

Also on the specials, and note when the delays were first apparently noticed:

Secrets behind the comics: a month ago, we didn’t have any of these sidereal projects planned. They came into existence specifically because of the shipping adjustment and the shortfall. We waited until we had the entire plan in place before going out to the retail community with the information both so that they could have everything at once and get an overall picture of exactly how this was going to affect them, and so that they could see that there actually IS a plan–whether that plan will work or not. 

On where the creators are right now:

Okay, an absolute progress update taking all of this into account:

Mark turned in the final, polished draft of #6 yesterday. It’s something like draft seven, so it’s not like he hasn’t been working. But Mark hasn’t written #7 yet.

On when Marvel knew the delays would impact so many books:

We had a pretty good idea that issue #4 might be late when we wrapped up #3, with Steve having to pitch in and ink the last two pages himself in order to get it out on time with the Canada Day and Fourth of July holidays mucking up the race tot he finish line. The question at that point became, “how much of an effect is this going to have?” Because there’s a big difference between needing to ship a week or two late and needing to ship four weeks late, especially when you’re also dealing with tie-in titles. Everybody involved tried to buckle down and burn rubber–but it didn’t happen. Steve pulled a muscle in his shoulder, and the blackouts stranded his family in Detroit for a few days, creating additional pressures. Plus we had the San Diego convention and the Chicago convention. Once we got our hands around the precise scope of the problem, we worked first to project out where the assorted books were likely to ship, and then we built the plan for the additional supplemental projects to help fill the gap.

On whether, as Mark Millar suggested, it wasn’t expected that Steve McNiven would meet all the deadlines from the get-go:

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But when we began down this road, we had reasonable confidence that we’d be able to pull this off. Didn’t happen. We made a mistake, people do that.

On the timing of the announcement of the delays:

Because this was how long it took for us to get our plan together.

And every retailer in the country knew that CIVIL WAR #4 wasn’t going to ship yesterday at least a few days if not a week beforehand, as it wasn’t on Diamond’s ship-list. What they didn’t know was the extent of the delay and how it would have a domino effect on other titles in the line. That’s the information we had to calculate and organize before we could communicate with the retailers. But no informed retailer walked into their shop on Tuesday expecting CIVIL WAR #4 to be there the following day.

On why fill-ins were not an option:

As I’ve said elsewhere, without Mark there would be no CIVIL WAR, and without Steve there would be no CIVIL WAR–it’s that simple. It’s Mark’s story, and Steve was the one guy he wanted to work with on it whom we thought could manage the schedule. And make no mistake, this was a dicey thing for Mark to take on, as his doctor advocated he take most of this year off to deal with his illness. So the only other option was not to do the project at all.

And sure, we discussed other options, such as a fill-in artist, as things went sour. And, at the end of the day, we made what we consider to be the best choice given the circumstances. And when you talk about how in most other fields such a project manager would be fired, you’ve got to keep a few things in mind: 1) CIVIL WAR is performing so far beyond everybody’s expectations that it’s crazy. We’ve sold as many copies of issue #1 as we budgeted for the first two issues, if not more. So that’s an incredible success that helps to balance out the scales a little bit. And 2) these decisions were not made in a vacuum, but in consultation with the editor in chief, the publisher, the VP of sales, the managing editor, and VP of operations. This isn’t me just running a maverick operation, this is Marvel Comics jointly making a specific business decision based on the cumulative judgment of its editorial officers.

On Mark Millar’s comment that a fill-in was planned for #5 from the start:

I think I covered this elsewhere, but to quickly reiterate: we didn’t expect #5 to require a fill-in from teh get-go. Our expectation off the blocks was that we’d be able to squeek everything in. Didn’t happen, so now we’re dealing with where we are now. (And in point of fact, we did push CIVIL WAR back at the start–at the very beginning, we had wanted it to start in April, but it quickly became apparent that that simply wasn’t going to be possible.)

On why retailers weren’t told earlier:

if you don’t have the proper information to give them, then just telling them, “hey, there’s going to be a problem, can’t give you any details yet” doesn’t help them. It actually makes their situation worse. At least with the plan to look at, they can intelligently size up their options, know where they stand, and make the moves that will work best for them. “The sky is falling” is not a helpful communication for them. 

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