https://www.cbr.com/mark-millar-dc-marvel-advice/

I agree with some of what he says though it was people like him, and Millar wannabes, that started the downhill spiral.

Also, why would anyone want to save either, even though both I admit are vital for the DM to survive. They are heartless corporations. Maybe if they fail and another group licenses them out.

Millar is a shit-talking punk whose word always has to be interpreted through a lens of opportunistic self-interest and smug delusion. "We just need to get our act together and get paid more to sell more comic books to more fans who need to buy more (and more expensive) comic books" isn't even an idea, let alone a plan..



Word to that my revolutionary brother. Burn The Man down.

I would also like the direct market to continue. DC and Marvel and specifically DC and Marvel's marketing incentives make shops a chunk of money that would need to be replaces. I do wonder how big a chunk, though. They've always been half or more of comic distributor sales, but a lot of shops, and most of the successful ones, buy books from a number of distributors, and those stores will likely find losing DC/Marvel market share's unpleasant but survivable.

Soon licensing won't even be necessary. In a decade Golden Age characters start entering the public domain, starting with Superman in 2033. Maybe Disney will engineer another copyright extension law, but google says Mickey Mouse (the name and original design) enters the public domain in less than three months and there are no laws pending that say otherwise, and given the company's political controversies, there aren't likely to be. The only copyright legislation that's been introduced would reduce copyright terms to 28 years renewable for another 28 years, with specific language retroactively applying it to all Disney properties. (Lol!)

The Man will still control the trademarks, but that won't stop my "Man of Tomorrow" comic. Human Torch and Sub-Mariner enter public domain in 2034 and that would be a fun comic possibly called 'Fire vs Water."

That's the way to save DC and Marvel (after 2033): Sell millions of superior Superman and Zatara comics.

I don't think DC or Marvel are going anywhere, though. Their lack of profitability probably pays for itself in tax break and corporate upward failure anyway, but they are also profitable enough in terms of intellectual property farming The success of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies alone, which were based on relatively recent comics versus the original Kirby/Ditko/Lee concepts, justifies and subsidizes a couple decades of comic book publishing.

The comics are also fun marketing and attract considerable public goodwill. A day when Disney or Warner closes the comic publishing would yield brutal publicity.

Having stated such a compelling case for the companies staying in comic publishing, I shouldn't be surprised if their closures are announced first thing on Tuesday morning.

Millar wants to be both the disease and the cure.

Sadly true. Anyway if I won the Powerball I'm buying the Fawcett Universe anyway



Great line!

No need for money, the Fawcett Universe belongs to all of us: https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Category:F ... Characters



Besides Captain Marvel and Shazam, the list includes the entire Marvel Family, Doctor Sivana, Mister Mind, and even...

I know. I could just pay lawyers to fight them, though Black Adam is not PD and my first year storyline includes him

I know. I could just pay lawyers to fight them, though Black Adam is not PD and my first year storyline includes him

On a side note,do comic books have advertising anymore? The last comic I bought only had in-house ads. Isn't the point of having advertisers is to defray the cost of producing comics? Some ads for BB guns and X-Ray Specs would help bring down the too high price of today's comics.

I have never understood that either. Especially the digital app where they can literally sell and insert fresh ads all the time.

I don't hate Millar, but IIRC he was the one behind that hoax about 2 decades back about someone discovering some long-lost deal Orson Welles had proposed back around 1950 or so to write and star in a Cinematic adaptation of Batman, back when Welles was slender enough to have done so.

It was all the rage for a few days, maybe even a week, even getting major coverage on Ain't It Cool News, only for it to come out that Millar had made the whole thing up, WAN know why.

He could do some good stuff at times, I loved his Starlight and his Superman Adventures, but then he goes really bad

He's such a troll. I remember he did a column where he mocked anyone who didn't like the Joe Quesada/Bill Jemas era of Marvel. Which is an era that I actually like a lot, but the attitude of the article was so smarmy and obnoxious.

I liked "Red Son" though.

I also liked that one.

I have nothing more to add, just that I enjoyed that particular comic.

Millar's stance is so unbelievable I'm flabbergasted (which might be the point). The idea of big name creators doing a "tour of duty" for a company that won't share a dime more than they have to during the good times is beyond the pale.

People always say that creators don't want to give their "good" ideas to Marvel and DC anymore and that's why the books suffer -- there's a very easy remedy for that. CUT THEM IN ON THE PROFITS! They don't even need to do a 50/50 split, they can probably get a lot of creators to sign on for 20% or even less as the indie market is so unprofitable for even big-name creators who don't chance into a smash hit like Saga or the Walking Dead.

I've long said that both companies should be smart and put more resources into an indie line like Epic and Vertigo. They provide a page rate and visibility and in return, they cut themselves a sweetheart deal and first refusal of any media rights to these properties. It could be WB or Marvel Studios that makes the next Walking Dead or Scott Pilgrim or Kingsmen.

Which I find funny as Welles was the perpetrator of a pretty large hoax himself.

I personally think the Quesada reign was the beginning of the end but it sold so it wasn't for me anyway.



Agree. But the nameless corporations don't care