Sunday, October 6, 2019

What If I Ran Marvel...in 1968 - pt. 1



I have written variations on this several times for this blog in the past (most recently here) on the nature of if I ran Marvel now, or ran Marvel in the past, and imagined various “jumping on” points where a time-traveling me could have made a significant difference. But, after recently reading Jack Kirby Collector #75, with its timeline of Marvel history, I realized the jumping on point I missed considering (and is so obvious now) was 1968, when Perfect Film & Chemical bought Marvel for $15 million. This was the first time Marvel had gone up for sale, only to be purchased by a company that had no interest in steering the direction of Marvel Comics. But what if I had $16 million back then, or represented a company that did, and outbid Perfect Film & Chemical?

The website The Fantastic Four 1961-1989 Was the Great American Novel has already addressed this year, with a lengthy essay on what all went wrong in 1968. But what if I was in charge by the end of that year? Instead of what went wrong, what could I have put right…?
  
Thanks to the website Mike’s Amazing World of Comics, I know Marvel published 27 different titles during 1968. Thanks to the website Comicchron, I know which titles were the best sellers that year. In order, they were:

#1. Amazing Spider-Man - 373,303 (average copies sold per issue)
#2. Fantastic Four - 344,865
#3. Thor - 295,371
#4. Daredevil - 292,423
#5. Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos - 286,747
#6. Incredible Hulk - 277,857
#7. Avengers - 276,951
#8. Captain America - 273,476
#9. X-Men - 273,360
#10. Strange Tales/Doctor Strange - 266,422
#11. Rawhide Kid - 216,045

I don’t have figures for the remaining 16 titles. Those worst-selling titles were: Captain Marvel, Captain Savage and His Leatherneck Raiders, Groovy, Iron Man, Marvel Collectors Item Classics, Marvel Super-Heroes, Marvel Tales, Mighty Marvel Western, Millie the Model, Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD, Not Brand Ecch, Pussycat, Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner, Silver Surfer, Spectacular Spider-Man, and Tales of Asgard. Of them, Groovy, Pussycat, Spectacular Spider-Man, and Tales of Asgard never made it past 1968, so I wouldn’t even have to worry about canceling those. Captain Savage, Marvel Collectors Item Classics, and Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner would all get canceled.

Now, the sales figures on those top 11 were good, and fantastic by today’s standards, but DC, Archie, and even Gold Key’s Tarzan were out-selling Marvel at those figures, so there was room for improvement on even Spider-Man.

So how would I chart a course for growth for Marvel Comics, that would hopefully thwart the sales slump of the 1970s? First, I would have to sit with Stan Lee and Roy Thomas and discuss who was in charge. I would be Editor-in-Chief, Stan would stay an editor, and Roy would be promoted to editor, and we would divide titles evenly between us -- though I would sit in on planning sessions on their titles as well and offer input.   

Next we would work on some immediate steps towards quality control. One simple thing we could do would be to give readers more for their money. Marvel Comics had shrank to 20 pages with an average of 4-5 panels per page. We would increase story page count back up to 21, and guarantee at least 105 panels per issue.

Quality comes from quality people, and quality people need to be paid a quality wage. Flo Steinberg would soon quit for not getting a $5 pay raise; I would give everyone a $6 pay raise across the board. For artists, I would immediately implement new work-for-hire contracts that guaranteed payment for reprints, collections, and reissues, or art re-used in TV animation. This would include a creator-equity agreement, like the industry would not see until the 1980s, granting 1% of all revenue on new characters back to the artists, and writers. Further, any title with sales exceeding 300,000 per issue would kick back 1% royalties to writer, artist, and inker, plus .5% to colorist and letterer (up to 5 positions, to be divided if more involved).  

This artist contract would be just one of my lures for keeping Jack Kirby at Marvel. I would meet with Kirby privately, show him this contract, but also offer him the position of Senior Art Director for 2 1/2 times his current pay, all the benefits of the expanded work-for-hire contracts, plus full-time benefits, and a salaried position. If he took the new position, he would continue drawing three titles a month, would continue to do layout work as needed, but would also develop a new character file that all staff could use, and would get royalties when those characters were used.  

Next, I would try to court back two other talents, Steve Ditko and Wally Wood. I would meet with them both individually, explain the new artist contracts, explain that I was only looking to hire them as inkers, but the artist contracts would apply specially to them, and assure them that they would not be working with Stan Lee any longer. I like to think I would win them both back.

Next I would work out which titles would be our six bimonthly titles. These were the larger 25 cent size issues that varied in length back then, but we would standardize them to 50 pages. Marvel abandoned this thicker format, but I think with proper branding and more patience it would have worked. These needed to be uniform in being meant for more mature readers -- not people looking for sex and violence, but more complex stories like the early Silver Surfers were offering. Titles that were doing well monthly would not be switched to bimonthlies, but Captain Marvel, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD, Rawhide Kid, and Silver Surfer would become this new line. Each issue would have a 40-page lead story of new material, plus a 10-page reprinted back-up story. Of them, only one is straight-up superhero.    

Next, of the remaining titles, I would name the monthlies. The nine top-selling titles listed above are no-brainers. To them I would add Marvel Super-Heroes - for try-outs, Marvel Tales - for reprints, Mighty Marvel Western - for cowboy reprints, Millie the Model - for girls, Not Brand Echh - for humor, plus -- knowing from future history how important licensed comics will be to Marvel’s success -- a 15th slot that will be filled by a licensed comic of whatever is most popular at the time. While we wait for Star Wars to come out, we’ll start this title by partnering with Hannah-Barbera -- currently airing season 2 of their Fantastic Four series -- in cross promotion (more on that soon). We’ll start with a comic book featuring their Wacky Races cartoon (and by the end of 1969 will replace that with a Scooby Doo comic book). That would give us 15 monthly titles, 5 for Stan to edit, 5 for Roy, and 5 for me. Of them, only 9 would be straight-up superheroes (10 counting Marvel Tales, which will be mostly superhero reprints).

It would make sense to let Stan handle the five titles that had been doing best under his care, but Jack and Steve would be happier not working with Stan and I wanted Jack to stay on his titles, and Steve to come back to Spider-Man. That meant Stan would get Daredevil, Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, Incredible Hulk, Avengers, and X-Men to edit. Roy would get Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Mighty Thor, Captain America, and Not Brand Echh, and I would get the rest.

Marvel always prided itself on writing for an older audience, but it would be important to keep engaging a younger audience too. Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, Millie the Model, Not Brand Echh, Wacky Races, and our two reprint titles would be all-ages fare, meant for readers 8+, and would be like the kind of stories that were published in 1968. The other monthly titles would push the envelope, story-wise, to where Marvel was in 1970. These titles, and the bimonthly “adult” titles, would not carry the Comics Code Authority label so long as it does not allow the H-word, the supernatural, and the suggestion that sex has taken place. The bimonthly titles will push the envelope to 1973, use the D-word, can be sexier or more violent, though there would still be no nudity or gore.  
   
Then I would meet with everyone and explain that Marvel Comics would continue to be about change and not the illusion of change. Time would go back to passing in the comic books, though we would begin slowing it down to 6 months of comic book time in 1 year of real time. Further, every issue would resolve at least one plot element. No plot strings would go untied after twelve issues. And no cliffhangers picking up at the same time the following issue; at least 10 minutes of time would have to pass between issues, abandoning the cliche cliffhanger of the hero in mortal danger. Innovation was expected of all creative staff and we would not be sticking to a status quo or resetting titles. The fictional world would change to reflect Marvel history, not real history. Since the comic book Moon landing took place in 1963, when the real Moon landing happens in 1969 it will be something different in the comics, probably the installation of a Moon base. Always moving forward, not back.

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