Mark Millar comments on Marvel’s spectacular February sales with typical restraint:
Between me and young Stephen King, that’s a lot of comic sold for Marvel this month. According to Newsarama it’s the biggest gap between DC and Marvel sales since Diamond started measuring these things. Feel vaguely guilty as have lots of friends at DC again, but what the Hell? These figures kick ass.
For what it’s worth, Newsarama didn’t say any such thing. What Matt did say was:
[T]he 12.45% margin in unit share and 9.55% in dollar share between Marvel and DC represents some of the largest in months, and their combined market shares of 82.31% unit and 75.15% dollar also represent significant - though not all-time - highs.
Mark’s reading comprehension isn’t so good; apparently, the initial editorial notes for Civil War #7 said “Don’t forget to include a scene where Cap makes it clear that he’s not surrendering the fight entirely, just choosing to fight the Registration Act in another, less frightening to the general populace, way. Otherwise, people will complain that Steve gets mugged by the cast of 9/11: The Musical and wimps out and then we’ll have to get Ed to kill him or something just to stop people complaining. Also, make sure he mentions his MySpace page otherwise we’ll have to let Jenkins do his whole thing in Frontline.” Anyway, I digress. Mark, you were saying?:
Marvel are as guilty as DC on event-driven books again, but they’re so much easier to understand. I genuinely don’t have a clue what’s going on in the DCU anymore and I have more DC comics than there are stars in the sky. I only really read the self-contained stuff.
Yeah, this year will be a monster for Marvel. Shame my stuff isn;t out there again until September, but I always said the POST CW Marvel Universe would be enormous. MCW was just the stepping stone to massive new sales. I remember someone here snarking about this with a “we’ll see:, but books like Cap and Iron Man in particular are going to go through the roof now. If over 300K readers were reading about their head-to-head at least SOME of them are going to want to see what happens next. Regardless of team, each book hasn’t sold over 45K in half a decade. Now I think they’ll be regular 90K-plus books and even more for a little while.
I have huge, monstrous plans coming up that none of you even know about. Hitchy and I are taking over a book and I’m going BACK to another at New Year. But the REAL monster– the biggest juggernaut I will ever be involved in– happens around the middle of 08. I’m writing it all way ahead of time and getting three artists working on it. But oh my God Marvel is going to sell a lot of books this year and next.
My contract is up in 13 months time, but I’m going to give them a lot of big books before I go. I like dem guys.
March 20th, 2007 at 9:52 am
We get it Graeme, you don’t like Mark Millar. You think you could try posting about something else occasionally?
March 20th, 2007 at 10:22 am
“Hitchy and I are taking over a book” Yay, a book that’ll get three issues out in 2 years, just what I always wanted. Thanks Marvel! You sure do love your fans.
How the hell can Millar b**ch about the DCU being incomprehensible. Almost all of their books are self-contained. If I want to read a Marvel book, I’ve gotta pick up 756 CW cross-owers to get the rest of the story.
I’ve always been a huge Marvel Zombie, but between Civil War and their trade price-gouging I’ve pretty much given up.
Graeme, can you please stop posting Millar’s words? All they do is make me angry.
March 20th, 2007 at 10:25 am
“Hitchy and I are taking over a book and I’m going BACK to another at New Year. But the REAL monster– the biggest juggernaut I will ever be involved in…”
Blah, blah, blah. Haven’t we been on this bus before?
March 20th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Good God, I tuned out about halfway through Millar’s rant. Just write the stories without hyping them up to levels of absurdity.
Seriously, Millar, just turn it down a notch. Why is it the best books he’s written in awhile is the book he really didn’t hype up outside of the first issue (Ultimate FF)?
March 20th, 2007 at 10:54 am
Is it okay for Millar to talk about his books on his own message board? If you’re tired of hearing about it, blame Graeme McMillan.
March 20th, 2007 at 11:01 am
“Shame my stuff isn’t out there again until September…”
So, that’s when the last issue of Ultimates 2 is going to ship?
March 20th, 2007 at 11:12 am
Well, the fact that Marvel felt the need to have days and days worth of articles on Newsarama by editors and writers just to explain what was “really” going on, kind of puts the whole “Marvel is easy, DC is incomprehensible” line in the Bull Crap bucket.
DC does have the weekly 52 articles, but that is more to point out the fluff and DC golden age history we may have missed as opposed to actually having to explain the entire story, as had to be down with CW.
March 20th, 2007 at 11:32 am
The CW story was perfectly understandable by anyone who actually read it, most of the questions Tom had to answer was from people who didnt bother
March 20th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
CW was perfectly understandable to everybody who read it and ASM. You could figure out most of the little twists that happened in tie-ins when you read CW, but the Iron Man/Spider Man fight and its aftermath made absolutely no sense unless you read ASM too.
March 20th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
CW was perfectly understandable if you ignore previous characterzation established over many decades. And you take drugs. Lots and lots of drugs.
March 20th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
“The CW story was perfectly understandable by anyone who actually read it, most of the questions Tom had to answer was from people who didn’t bother ”
Not true, questions also came from people who have profound a misunderstanding of the characters or the concept of story in general.
March 20th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Wow, if Mark Millar is this bad on his message board, imagine what he’s like in person (insufferable is my guess). Millar needs to learn or re-learn some humility.
Just because your latest event series does well (ok, extremely well) in the comic book marketplace doesn’t make you the greatest comic writer since Stan Lee. Far from it, actually.
And what’s with all the DC bashing? Does he honestly expect never to work for DC again? From his comments, it sure sounds like it.
I’ll step back from my Millar bashing (not that he doesn’t deserve it) for just a sec and say that all the story problems with Civil Ware aren’t just Millar’s fault. There’s plenty of blame to go around, e.g., writing-by-committee, Joe Quesada (who needs to buy and read Robert McKee’s “Story” book asap).
March 20th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Graeme, did I ever tell you I think I love you?
March 20th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Just a point of fact — Cap 1, which came out two plus years ago, sold in the mid-70s, and the regular monthly book has been selling in the mid-50s since around issue 14, I believe. Iron Man launched fairly high in the 70s, as well.
It’ll sell better after Cap 25, certainly, but still… Numbers and numbers.
March 20th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Let him brag.
I just believe that many are like me and saying good-bye to the Marvel we loved as this new incarnation tells us how to love comics.
I have been pushed away from Marvel and started reading a great deal of DC, and with little knowledge beyond the surface history of the DCU have really been enjoying and yes, UNDERSTANDING the books very well. Last time Marvel got in trouble I and other Marvel only readers stood by them. When the next rough patch occurs I hope these new readers stand by them, I will not be.
In fact CW and the whole shebang has made me just say no to Marvel when considering buying anything new or keeping the titles I am reading. I have been to the LCS 3 weeks in a row and bought Zero Marvel books out of the $30 spending those weeks.
March 20th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
The point about Millar’s hype being inversely proportional to his quality is an interesting one, because I suspect that Millar is, like many other people in arts and entertainment, capable of producing good work, but not inclined, and not even because he’s lazy, but rather, because he actually prefers to produce crap.
For those who don’t believe Millar is capable of humility, try complimenting him on his work on Superman Adventures - in the interviews and message board reactions I’ve seen, Millar’s typical stance is to shrug off those compliments by saying how ashamed he is of that work in retrospect, even though (a) Superman Adventures was really good, and (b) this is coming from the same guy who gave us Trouble.
Kevin Costner was aces in Bull Durham, but even to this day, he’s stated that he remains much prouder of his work in Waterworld. Richard Dreyfus has done a lot of great films, but when asked which one he felt was most deserving of (another) sequel, he told an interviewer, “Stakeout.” The fact of the matter is, there are plenty of talented people out there who can only be compelled to produce good work against their own wills, and Millar might well be one of them.
March 20th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Millar is ashamed of his Superman Adventures work? But…that was GOOD…
March 20th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
“CW was perfectly understandable to everybody who read it and ASM. You could figure out most of the little twists that happened in tie-ins when you read CW, but the Iron Man/Spider Man fight and its aftermath made absolutely no sense unless you read ASM too.
-Nick”
But what if a guy who’s reading Civil War doesn’t like, Spiderman (I know I’m in the minority here)? What about all the ballyhoo that the story was self-contained? Why do I need to read another book just to understand a mini that was supposed to be self-contained?
March 20th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
“Marvel are as guilty as DC on event-driven books again, but they’re so much easier to understand. I genuinely don’t have a clue what’s going on in the DCU anymore and I have more DC comics than there are stars in the sky. I only really read the self-contained stuff.”
Ummm…if you only read the self-contained Marvel stuff, wouldn’t it be just as potentially incomprehensible? That’s what I don’t get about Mark when he’s on his “Joe Q. isn’t stirring the pot enough, let me get their hackles up” kicks…he obviously doesn’t proof-read his rants for logic.
March 21st, 2007 at 1:10 am
Quit trying to break the blogosphere in half, Graeme, and remember somewhere out there Kurt Busiek still wins. (And thanks for interesting content, even though some mistake it for stalking!?!)
March 21st, 2007 at 5:02 am
[Wow, if Mark Millar is this bad on his message board, imagine what he’s like in person (insufferable is my guess).]
Sure, if by insufferable you mean very, very funny, very generous and even sweet. He’s excellent company, actually.
PS Please keep up the stalking, Graeme! This stuff is SERIOUS BUSINESS after all.
March 22nd, 2007 at 6:48 am
Please keep up the stalking, Graeme!
I wasn’t aware that “stalking” could be defined as “repeating exact quotes that other people post on their own message boards.” If Millar, or anyone else on the Internet, wants to be an attention-whore, then that’s his right, I suppose, but then, that also means that he has absolutely no right to complain when, you know, people actually do pay attention to him. If a girl chooses to take off her top and flash her tits for a Girls Gone Wild video, she has zero right to complain about being “exploited” afterwards.
March 23rd, 2007 at 5:40 am
I’m sorry, there was not enough POINTLESS DRAMA generated by your reply.
Plz continue your umbrage with added SERIOUSNESS. You need to get MOAR SERIOUS about this.