Marvel Civil War Delays

While Civil War writer Mark Millar commented to Newsarama about the
change in schedule of Marvel's crossover storyline, artist Steve
McNiven has posted (via Millar) a statement on the Millarworld forum

"Hey folks, just thought I should get a post up here. First up
apologies to the fans and retailers of civil war. The responsibility
for the art delays lies with me, period. I've been working harder than
I ever have, (and this is my third profession), but this is the
hardest project I've ever done and as Mark said, I had little lead
time. It was as big a surprise to me as anyone else that Marvel
changed its publishing schedule to allow Mark and I to finish the
series together.

When I was sent word of this yesterday, I realized the problems that
this will cause for readers and retailers immediately. After reading
Hitchy's post I am beginning to understand why Marvel went this way,
but it still amazes me. Of course I am proud of the work I have done
on Civil War and I am chuffed that Marvel feels the same way, but I
worry for the people that could be negatively effected by this. Please
realize that the art delays were never meant in a malicious way nor am
I being a prima donna with my work. What I'm trying is to do service
to the exceptional story that Mark has written. That's it, and is all
that I focus on when I'm at the table. I let Marvel know exactly where
I am on a daily basis, from day one, so that they can make the
decisions like the one they have made. I'll continue to work hard to
put out the rest of this series with the best work I can do in the
time I have been given and I hope that you, the fans and retailers
will stick with us, 'cause Mark has written a real gem here.

The "Hitchy's post" McNiven refers to is this one, posted by artist
Bryan Hitch.

It's easy to think that having a late book is terminal and everybody
flies into a panic because it's been a condition of the industry for
so long. This is an industry that has, for most of it's seventy years,
made it's living on periodicals and we all know they have a limited
shelf life. If your book is a month late n the magazine racks your
space goes to somebody else because the stores and newsagents want it
filled.

This is not the case now; for a start comics are mostly sold in
specialty stores and they will keep books on shelves for far longer
than a single month, secondly there has been an enormous growth in
revenue from collections and so called graphic novels.

Years back Perez hit his deadlines on Crisis by eventually going to
breakdowns but had Ordway on finishes so the standard was high. Nobody
was expecting twenty-five years of continued reformatting and sales of
the collections, they were just aiming at deadlines. However, as much
as I love my Absolute collection of Crisis as a mark of my comics
reading childhood, I don't love the fact they had three different
styles on the finish from three different inkers. I hate that on
Infinite Crisis that so many cooks are involved when the fab Phil J
should have been allowed to complete the project for my own tastes,
anyway.

Two of my favorite re-reads in collections are Dark Knight and
Watchmen. Nobody now remembers that each was late at the time of the
original periodicals but that was a blip, a couple of years in each's
25 year publication history and these will STILL be published 25 years
from now. I love these books but how awful would it have been if the
otherwise brilliant Jim Aparo had drawn issue 3 of DK, or that DC had
Alan Davis do an issue of Watchmen. Both brilliant guys but you would
have hated the blip in the collections for the short term gain.

These days we have the benefit of hindsight and there are precedents.
You can't set out to create a classic or a series with longevity but
it's getting easier for publishers to spot them as they unfold because
the collection market is so large now and one can see what works and
what doesn't. A fill-in might potentially stave off an unfortunate
delay but hurt the long term property potential and the only reason a
company would consider a fill-in necessary would be to avoid a
financial hit in the short term not to keep you guys happy. If they
are willing to take what must be a massive hit in the pocket,
believing in it's long term potential, to allow it's creators to
finish the book as intended then that isn't really a bad thing.

If we do things the way they have always been done then we don't
develop. It pays to be flexible, I guess and Marvel obviously believe
they are doing the best thing in the long game for a product they
believe in and one that has already proven more successful than they
believed possible.

Mark isn't exaggerating when he talks of how quickly this thing was
put together and the small lead time. Nobody had intended the book to
even exist; other plans were in place but the geniuses of Bendis and
especially Mighty Mark started the ball rolling that Mark would evolve
into Civil War (which also means we have to find a new title for our
big follow up, so thanks MM). It's also been the biggest jobs of both
Markie and Stevie's careers and required an enormous amount of work
from both. Watchmen was bi-monthly remember and wasn't a crossover. I
envy them their massive success but not the even more massive work
involved. Nobody gets paid more for working harder in comics.

Mark and Steve should be applauded for the efforts as those efforts
are a clear indicator of why the book is a success. Marvel should also
be applauded for making sure everybody gets the best possible
product. It's a delay guys, not a cancellation. Certainly not a crisis!

Pretty damned cocky comparing himself to George Perez, the greatest comic book artist of our generation, and comparing Marvel's Civil War crossover to DC's Dark Knight and Watchmen, which together redefined how a generation of comic book readers and writers looked at and expected from their comic books.

Two comments...

...on the first, I don't see it.

...on the second, no freakin' way!

For the zombie Marvel fan who wants to disagree with me, the comment button is below, I'm an equal opportunity ignorer...one request, no throwing monkey feces.