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Some of you may not know who he is, but Bill Jemas is a powerful
man in the comics industry. He is President of Marvel Publishing, the
boss of Editor In Chief Joe Quesada. As of late he has been in the news
promoting Marvel Comics and with Quesada, making big changes in
Marvel Comics. This interview reveals info about his past, his opinions and his
plans for the future.
Coville:
What is your work history prior to becoming President of Marvel
Publishing?
Jemas:
(Attachment:)
Bill Jemas Background
Bill Jemas, the former Executive Vice President for MSG Sports, who
joined Marvel as President of Publishing & New Media. Jemas originally
worked with Marvel from 1992 - 1996, as the President of Fleer Corp.
Under Bills guidance, Marvel Cards (including Fleer Ultra X-Men and Spider-
Man, Flair, and the Overpower card game) became hottest products in the
Comic industry (actually outselling Marvel books). Moreover, Fleers
Entertainment card lineup (including, Fox Kids, MTV Animated, and the
Casper, Power Rangers, Batman Movies) captured over 70% of a very
healthy entertainment card market.
Earlier in his career, he served as Vice President, Business
Development and Business Affairs for the National Basketball
Association, where he was a key member of the team that built NBA
Properties into one of worlds leading merchandise companies. He
brings this wealth of experience to Marvel at a time when the company is
re-tooling and looking forward.
Coville:
Did you read comics as a kid? Which were your favorites?
Jemas:
I never did read comics as a kid, but I was hooked on the Sunday
funnies.
My dad gave me an old old copy of the New Yorker comic anthology. I
must have read that 50 times in junior high and high school. I was
also a big Kliban fan.
Coville:
Why do think people buy comics?
What do you think the average age of comic book readers are?
How will Marvel under your supervision, improve the medium of graphic literature?
What is Marvel doing to attract kids and adults into reading comics?
Jemas:
(Attachment:)
Bill Jemas - May 17, 2000
The Ultimate Marvel comic book line will be our most comprehensive,
focused and well-financed imprint. During the next 18 months, the
X-Men Movie from 20th Century Fox and the Spider-Man Movie from
Columbia Tri-Star will raise Marvel exposure and excitement an to all time
high. Marvel plans to leverage the growing demand for our characters
into new readership for our comics.
Everybody in the industry knows that this is not an easy task. For the
past ten years, Comic publishers have been talking about bringing in new
fans. But the cold truth is that the collective efforts of publishers and
distributors have failed. Readership continues to drop and stores
continue to suffer financially. Marvel is not giving up on comic books.
In fact, Ultimate Marvel is on the ultimate industry mission - new
customers.
The Ultimates will be great Marvel comic stories.
Loyal comic fans have earned an inside knowledge and insight through
five, ten or twenty years of reading. The Marvel Universe is the
longest-running continuous story in history, and it's very difficult, in
that context, to do anything new that's not tied in to that continuity.
Lose the continuity and you lose your most important customers.
This is the dilemma. Loyal fans embrace the complexities of the
forty-year history, but new fans are baffled by it. This is an
industry-wide issue. It is all but impossible for a new reader to
comprehend (let alone enjoy) any main line comic from any main line
publisher.
Marvel believes that the Ultimate Spider-Man and X-Men lines are the
answer. Core comic fans will love these books. The characters are
pure and true to themselves. The stories are strong, complete,
compelling, and produced by our best artists and writers. But, any
new reader can pick up any one of these books and start reading.
Essentially, the Ultimates swap out the traditional back-story and
replace it with a rich, self-contained, Year-2000 context.
The Ultimates will be marketed to new readers.
Lets face facts. New readers are not going to find us. We cant to sit
back and wait for a 12 year old kid to wander into a comic shop, drift
over to the right rack and find the Ultimate X-Men. Marvel will reach
out through aggressive marketing and sampling programs. Our goal is to
distribute12 million sample comics over a 12-month launch period. We
believe that the books will hook new readers into the Ultimates line and
that they will expand their horizons to traditional titles. We are
willing to invest heavily in this program.
Marvel.com will play a major role in the rebuilding of our comic book
business. Marvel has developed our graphic and storytelling skills and
earned our reputation as Americas storytellers. Now we are putting
those skills to work in the on-line environment to reach out to a new
generation of readers. Again, the goal is to build comic book readership
by introducing them to the beauty of comic book story telling and
promoting the purchase of hard copy books at retail.
Coville:
What non-Marvel Comics do you read?
Jemas:
I enjoy read everything that Brian Bendis and Mark Millar write, and
get to as much of the other stuff as I can.
Coville:
It's often debated as to what's more important in comic sales.
Creators or the characters. Which do you think is more important?
Jemas:
Just about everything in comics is "often debated" and many of the
debates are as silly as this one. Because, when a great creator is
working on a great character, the last thing you think about is which is
more important.
Coville:
Will Marvel publish creator owned & controlled work any time
soon?
Jemas:
Coville:
You have been a lot more active in promoting comics online since
Joe Quesada has become the new EIC, why is that?
Jemas:
Coville:
Will Marvel be using old cover gimmicks like holograms and variant
covers?
Jemas:
Only if the script calls for it.
Coville:
Many people within the industry think catering to speculators
(people who buy comics hoping they'll go up in value) caused the
industry downfall in the mid 90's. What do you think?
Jemas:
You mean, "Were gangs of wild-eyed speculators yanking comic books
out of the hands of innocent readers, completely halting their life-long love of
comics?"
No, not that I recall. What I recall is the industry-wide
over-proliferation of really, really, stinky content. Then I recall
billions of collector dollars building the beanie babies and Pokemon
businesses into huge successes.
Coville:
It's now known that some profitable X-titles are going to be
cancelled. Do you think this is wise in today's market?
Jemas:
For 10 years, every single comic book fan has been complaining that
Marvel cranks out too many titles that are too similar to each other. They
say that they can't afford to buy all those books, and that they can't
follow all of the complexity. During those years, thousands of readers
have voted with their feet and walked away from the hobby. We are
facing that issue head-on in 2001.
Coville:
Since the X-men movie didn't do much to raise toy and comic sales,
how do you expect the Spider-Man movie to do better?
Jemas:
Check the box scores for December, X-Men hold all four of the Comic
book spots
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