Following the internet backlash for the Civil War delays and his Editor Simulator, Tom Brevoort ponders the role of the editor in the public consciousness:

Nobody’s going to confuse editing with a glamor job. By definition, it’s the editor’s lot to operate in obscurity, pulling levers and throwing switches behind the scenes in order to make the trains run on time, and keep them shiny and new. And this is really the way it’s supposed to be, after all–”Creators get the credit, Editors get the blame.” And certainly, most people have no idea what it is that a comic book editor really does.

In fact, when you think back over the great comic book editors of years gone by, you quickly start to realize that most of them are better known for the work they did writing or drawing comic books. Stan Lee? Writer. Archie Goodwin? Writer. Mark Gruenwald? Writer. Harvey Kurtzman? Artist. Al Feldstein? Writer and Artist. Shelly Mayer? Artist (technically, cartoonist.)

But it’s a rarified few guys who are primarily renowned for their skills as a comic book editor. And when you get to the truly great guys, I can’t really think of many outside of Julie Schwartz.

Are there likely to be additions to that list going forward? Possibly–the advent of the Internet makes it easier for people outside the business to become aware of the different editors and their roles. Right now, I think maybe Axel Alonso has a shot, depending on the next few years.

Two thoughts about this: I can think of a couple more suspects off the top of my head and Brevoort is one of them (Cue Jesse Baker appearing in three, two…), which makes me wonder if the above was Brevoort just hoping for compliments, or perhaps feeling underappreciated…

The other thing that springs to mind is that a lot rests on Axel Alonso’s shoulders right now at Marvel. Now that he’s been named as the X-Men Group Editor, he is now in that position for three different groups at the publisher (To put that in perspective, there are only four other groups at the publisher, to my recollection: Marvel Heroes, Spider-Man, Ultimate and Marvel Adventures. Am I missing something?), as well as the editor for titles in groups that he isn’t in overall control of. Obviously, his star is on the rise at the publisher, but I’m wondering whether he’s being given more than he can handle, both in terms of workload and internal pressure. Not that I have any inside info or anything, I’m just thinking aloud…

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 7th, 2006 at 12:08 pm and is filed under Comic Books, Industry, Marvel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.