Mangled Remains The Rest Stealing From The Best

Anonymous asked: "Doesn’t stop us from selling lots of comics about him." Do you prefer do a comic of good quality that sells little or a bad comic that sell much?

jordandwhiteqna:

My instinct was to say “great question” at the top of my answer, but the more I think about it, the more I realize it’s actually not a great question.

If those were the only two options, I would either A) put out great books that did not sell and probably lose my job because we don’t make comics to lose money and make people happy…or B) make lousy books that made lots of money and not enjoy my job at all. Thankfully, it’s a false dichotomy.

Fact is, you’re playing dumb in order to be snarky. That’s your business. But you’re ignoring the context of the quote. It began with me posting how much I loved working on Gwenpool. So, obviously, I think her stories are good. Duh. Then someone replied that “everyone hates her”. So I replied that “everyone hates Deadpool. Doesn’t stop us from selling lots of comics about him.” The point there was to show that what “everyone” says about a character has very little to do with our sales.

There are three ways for us to judge the quality of the work we put out. The first is sales. Do sales always equal quality? Probably not…but I think it’s relatively safe to assume that people will not continue to by a book month after month if they think it’s lousy. 

The second is what readers say about the books…the problem there is that if you compare what people say about the books with the sales of the books, they often do not line up. How many times over the last 8 years has the internet exploded over how unhappy they are about the current Spider-Man series of the time? And how often does that correspond with the book getting huge sales? People are more likely to shout about things on the internet when they are unhappy–if they are enjoying the book, they are more likely to do so quietly. So at a time of high sales, there will be a large number of haters…but a larger number of quiet enjoyers. I know that when you are unhappy about something, that is not what you want to hear…but it’s true. If everyone was unhappy with a book, sales would tank. This is not theoretical–it’s happened in the past. Usually WITHOUT a huge fanfare on the internet…people just quietly spend their money elsewhere.

The last way, and the most important one for an editor, I think…is our own judgment of the work. This one is a big deal, as it’s our inner barometer for good stories and good comics…and if it’s not right, then we’re doing bad books. I am very proud of the work I do at Marvel, and the work of the creators I work with.  Have I put out some comics that are duds? Yeah–sure I have. These things happen. But I did my best on all of them, and I think my track record is pretty darned good.

The best example of a book quietly and suddenly dying horribly was Exiles when they put Claremont on. Nobody yelled, nobody posted indignant tumblr’s. The book’s numbers simply halved issue by issue.