Watch As I Destroy The Marvel Universe!

By | Saturday, May 12, 2007 3 comments
This post could alternatively be titled, "Watch Sean Make A Complete Ass Of Himself." Hindsight will eventually prove which is more accurate.

Sometime last summer, Tom Brevoort ran a "Marvel Editorial Simulation" in which two contestants were given some comic titles to edit. (No, not for real. That's why it was called a simulation.) They'd make whatever decesions they wanted and Tom would come back with how those decisions had an impact, positive or negative. It was kind of like a classic game of Dungeons & Dragons, with Tom as the Dungeon Master. I found it a fascinating look at some of the things editors have to deal with, and both Tom and the two players handled things quite expertly all around. Especially for being a first attempt at anything like that.

Now whether Tom's just a glutton for punishment or what, he's running the game again. This time, though, he's got four players to deal with, which I can't imagine is going to make things any easier on him. More pertinent to this blog, though, and the reason for the ominous title, is that I was selected as one of the particpants.

I think this will be an interesting experiment. I've laid claim here before that I know the comic industry pretty well, so this will show whether or not I really do. I don't think I've ever said the job of an editor was easy, but I have wondered if I couldn't do a better job than some of the pros. (Not Tom, though. I'm reasonably confident he could edit circles around me any day of the week.) This will be really great to get a taste of what editorship is and whether or not some of the ideas rolling around in my head might work. It is just a simulation and, ultimately, all the results of my decisions are fictional, but Tom knows the industry really well and, last time at least, he directed the results that were pretty believeable.

As of this writing, I don't know what book(s) I'll be editting. Maybe the whole X-Men line, maybe just Ant-Man -- your guess is as good as mine at the moment. I have some thoughts and ideas, though, rumbling around in my noggin and it'll be interesting to see what works and what doesn't.

So, starting Monday, keep an eye on Tom's blog to see how well/poorly I do. I expect that I'll have some notes to include here throughout the game, but I have no idea what format those may or may not take. If nothing else, you'll get to watch me go down in flames, zeppelin style.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

COOL!

The Knave said...

Don't worry, Mr. Kleefeld, there's no way you'll destroy the Marvel Universe.

You'll be able to wreck three, four books max.

Richard said...

You can't destroy the Marvel Universe; that's already been done for you. At best you can, like Bart Simpson, achieve fame for knocking over a bit of scenery and then turning to the audience to say "I didn't do it!"