More details on Marvel-Disney deal
Newsarama reports from a Disney investor call giving more information about the Marvel-Disney deal, including the following:
- No plans to move Marvel away from Manhattan
- No plans to change Marvel’s creative structure
- Possibilities to exploit Marvel characters more fully via Disney infrastructure.
Click through for the full report. I talked to indie comics creator and comic-book retailer Rob Vollmar, of Norman, to get his reaction to this morning’s report:
“It’s hard to say exactly what the sum impact of Disney’s acquisition of Marvel might be but my initial reaction was not a good one. Disney’s corporate approach to creativity is diametrically opposed to Marvel’s ‘shout-across-the-office’ style of doing business. We should expect, of course, better movies and cartoons using Marvel characters, but I suspect the impact on the publishing wing over the next ten years forward will not be a good one. Up to this point, Marvel enjoyed a certain freedom to experiment that gave them a creative edge over DC and I can’t see that freedom not being reigned in by Disney’s desire to maintain a squeaky clean image. More broadly, this is just one more step towards the fewest number of companies controlling the greatest percentage of creative activity in the US and, in principle, I think that is bad for creator and consumer alike.”
Any other local creators, retailers or comic fans who have thoughts on the deal, feel free to comment here at Nerdage or contact me at mprice@opubco.com.
- Matt Price
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This could be good news or not so good news. Given Disney’s track record, I’d say it’s not so wonderful.
Hopefully I’m wrong, but I doubt if we’ll see the continued existence of the MAX imprint.
Matt, you say that Marvel has had more creative freedom than DC. I would dispute that especially if you factor in the Vertigo imprint, which is largely regarded as the best major creative imprint in the industry.
The more experimental characters and titles will probably not be as prominent now as more of the A and B listers like Spidey, Cap, FF, Avengers, Thor, Hulk, and oh yeah, X-Men.
I would love to see Disney / Marvel get titles back in strength on the newsstands again but let us adult fans have the content we’re used to too.