I've been reading this fascinating book called "Inside Steve's Brain", which goes into detail how he thinks and what he did at Apple. I am a HUGE fan of Jobs as a business person and of Apple as a company. Now I know why. And it got me thinking that comics, or DC or Marvel, need a Steve Jobs type t otake it into the next century and reinvigorate the comic industry. A visionary who gets press and gets people excited about new projects, not just for the geeks but for as many people as possible.

One thing that got me thinking in this direction was how many things he did since he was at Apple, that went against conventional wisdom. From the ads to completely trimming their product lines to keep it simple (freaking people out when he dropped printers etc. from the line), to completely overhauling the OS, old fans be damned, he not only had the vision, but attention to detail and MOST IMPORTANT, the belief and stamina to see it through. I know what I would do but any thoughts from my peeps here?

If only there had been someone like that in comics 40 years ago. Oh, wait...

I think almost every industry/market could use a Steve Jobs. But especially comics. I was hoping something would com e out of the Disney thing.

Me too.

This is who COULD have been that person:

Jim Shooter at Valiant

Mark Alessi, a MAJORLY lost opportunity destroyed by his ego

Joe Q when he started

I read an article discussing Shooter at Valiant, and, yeah, it could have
gone a lot better. I quite liked the Valiant comics when they started.

Yeah it started with such a splash and then ehh.

Alessi too had an opportunity and he blew it with his monstrous ego.

Me too Hated that he left.

As opposed to Jobs' well-known humility?

It wasn't ego what drove Crossgen off the cliff, it was that Alessi didn't have the talent to back it up.

What? CrossGen had poached most of the best artists in the industry at the time. They were killed by mismanagement and poor sales, plain and simple.

Anyhow, what is Bill Jemas doing these days?

I was talking about Alessi's talent.

Jobs has an ego but he doesn't let it get in the way of business. Alessi did, he ignored every suggestion from anyone other than himself. He had created such a stir when CG started, he had a great opportunity to be the new face of comics. And he blew it

Because he was a talentless hack who bit more than he can chew instead of a talented businessman like Steve Jobs.

Again, ego doesn't matter much if you're great at what you do to begin with.

Very true. His lack of talent and ego, which got in the way of the talented people around him, blew it for him. But I was referring more to the opportunity he had.

And now we need a new visionary.

Too bad' because he Crossgen had a lot of great artists and writers.

Yes he did.

I'm now at the part where they discuss the retail stores. Almost every expert thought it would be a huge disaster but he knew it was needed for his long term vision of the digital lifestyle.

It ended up being the fastest growing retail line ever and the most profitable line in the country, earning 6 times the profit a Best Buy giant store does.

What struck me about it was Jobs insistent on the best buying experience possible, which meant cool stores, friendly people who help but do NOT push or sell, and an environment where people can hang all day if they want (and they do). AND they put them in prime retail areas, unlike Gateway's stores where they put them in the cheapest area, had pushy salesmen and did not even have the product onsite.

And when he conceived the stores, he didn't hire tech geeks to come up with it, he got the BEST retail people, like the former head at the Gap, unlike comics incestuous relationships where they hire former fans turned creators/buddies to ru nthis business.

While Jobs wants to make money it's never about that as a primary goal, it's to make the best experience for the consumer. And he won't tolerate anything else.

Yeah, Stan Lee was the man.