Comic Book Resources

Quesada talks about 2009 plans in latest MyCup 'O Joe

Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada chats with the Hero Initiative's Jim McLauchlin about Marvel's 2009 plans in his latest MyCup 'o Joe column. The chat includes a laundry list of several of their major storylines and initiatives, including digital comics:

The digital world is the great unknown. It could be the promised land, it could be nothing at all. We’ll see. We’re testing the waters, and I will tell you this: I think we’re taking a leadership position in this.

I may be wrong, but I certainly don’t see another comics publisher producing the volume of new material with well-known and established characters for digital first that we are.

So many people seem afraid of it. But I do see it as being an enhancement to our core monthly comic business, much the way I saw trade paperbacks back in the day.

Remember, so many people were just dead-set sure that paperbacks were gonna kill monthly comics.

But it’s really helped monthly comics; it’s provided a new avenue for people to discover them, and get in to these adventures.

In many ways—and think about this—trade paperbacks really replaced the newsstand system, which was the old feeder system to the comic book stores. I certainly see the digital world as very much the same thing, a way of introducing fans to the material who might not be familiar with it, or are lapsed readers, or who might not live anywhere near a comic store. So for those people who might be fearful, I say again: This will not replace the monthly comic. This will accentuate the monthly comic.

The ultimate goal is…man, I tell you, I still hear people who say, “Comic books? I thought they didn’t make those anymore.” The ultimate goal is to make sure no one…ever…utters those effing words again.

He also shares a few pages of script for the upcoming Fantastic Force comic, starring the future heroes introduced in the pages of Fantastic Four (and who you can see in the artwork up top).

I haven't been following Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's run on Fantastic Four, and I also haven't seen a lot of people talking about it ... at least not at the level that you'd expect to see for a book being done by the guys who brought you Ultimates. I guess it isn't just me, as Tom McLean mentions it in his review of the latest issue (which he really liked). So who out there is reading Fantastic Four? Is it worth picking up in trade form?