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Huh. Interesting the stuff you miss when you're not paying attention.
Branson is really serious about trying to turn Virgin Comics into, arguably, at least a player in the second tier of comics companies here. (DC and Marvel as the top tier -- though it can be argued that DC has been slipping mightily over the past few years, and it's clearly #2 -- Image and Dark Horse on the second tier, and Oni, SLG, IDW, Devil's Due, Dynamite, Viper and everyone else as ... well, everyone else.)
I have to admit, I'm curious as to what this universe is going to look like. Mind, I'm not necessarily curious about what his "tentpole title" is going to be -- the only thing I've seen lately that I know that Stan Lee wrote recently was the "Who wants to be a superhero" tie-in issue "Feedback", and that was, frankly, quite quite dreadful. (Though, to be fair, if I hadn't gone into it with expectations high because it was STAN LEE, it might have seemed merely very very very bad.) I do wonder how well it sold; I haven't seen any announcement of the next season's issue for Defuser, and that should have been in Previews by now, at least.
I did try to see what else he'd written lately, since it's entirely possible that the Flashback thing was just a one-off bad issue that was also heavily constrained by the source material, and eventually found the Stan Lee - Chronological Listing at comicbookdb.com appears. (Tell you what, for someone deep into his 80s, the man is amazingly busy.) Of course, finding the listing didn't quite help because (1) I don't read Marvel universe, at least not those books, and (2) I'm not going to read those particular Marvel Universe books, so I have no idea if any of them are any good. I will say that Stan Lee's Alexa, Volume 1: The New Series from the World's Most Popular Comic Writer (and yes, that IS the listed title) from 2005 looks intriguing, if slightly out of scope for Stan Lee. I mean, yes, superheroes, sort of, but a put-upon woman in the man's world of cartooning sounds like a distinct change of pace. (The Amazon listing is deceptive; it's entirely unlikely that new copies will appear in 3-6 weeks, as Byron Preiss' iBooks, along with the rest of the company's holdings, went into bankruptcy proceedings in 2006 after Preiss' 2005 death in an auto accident, and I can't find any evidence that the company ever came out of those proceedings or that its assets were purchased. Heaven only knows who holds the rights to the titles the company published.) The writing in Alexa was generally well reviewed, although people did note a slightly dated, silver-age feel -- the art, on the other hand, got savaged -- so it's possible that with more freedom to work, maybe Stan's still got it.
All that said ... Stan Lee joining Virgin to create a new universe is just odd. Granted, they've been branching out into other areas; for all that the main line's focus is clearly on India, its people, myths and legends, everything that's not the main Virgin line has been decidedly non-Indian. Their Director's Cut Line doesn't have a single Indian title or creator anywhere to be seen. (...Interesting, that.) So I suppose this could also be a way to change how people perceive the company; for all that the other stuff is higher profile, when you think of distinctive Virgin titles, you think of Devi and Sadhu and Snakewoman and the like. I guess they're aiming to have people think of Virgin as a general comics publisher, and not just a British/Indian comics publisher.
We shall see, in any event.
Stan Lee to oversee Virgin Comics' superheroes - Los Angeles Times
April 19, 2008
Does Stan Lee have any more heroics in him? Richard Branson hopes so. The British tycoon is going into business with the 85-year-old Lee, the co-creator of Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Iron Man, Daredevil and dozens of other signature characters made famous by Marvel Comics. Branson's upstart Virgin Comics will formally announce the deal with Lee at this weekend's New York Comic Con, where Lee is being honored as "a living legend" and is scheduled to receive the inaugural New York Comics Legend Award at an event at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square.
The new venture will have Lee as the editor overseeing a line of superhero comics that will launch next year with a tentpole title he is writing himself. That project -- the title of which remains under wraps -- will center on a superhero team that sounds similar to his classic work on the Avengers at Marvel. (Lee ended his exclusive relationship with Marvel in the 1990s but still has ties to the company and even has cameo roles in the upcoming Marvel films "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk.") "It will be a team of 10 heroes and they will be dealing with personality conflicts, personal problems and chemistry within the team," Lee said in an interview this week. "I'm going to get started working on it right away and I'm very excited about doing something that will be fresh and breaking new ground. I can't give away the details or the names yet, but I have some exciting things in mind." [...]
Branson is really serious about trying to turn Virgin Comics into, arguably, at least a player in the second tier of comics companies here. (DC and Marvel as the top tier -- though it can be argued that DC has been slipping mightily over the past few years, and it's clearly #2 -- Image and Dark Horse on the second tier, and Oni, SLG, IDW, Devil's Due, Dynamite, Viper and everyone else as ... well, everyone else.)
I have to admit, I'm curious as to what this universe is going to look like. Mind, I'm not necessarily curious about what his "tentpole title" is going to be -- the only thing I've seen lately that I know that Stan Lee wrote recently was the "Who wants to be a superhero" tie-in issue "Feedback", and that was, frankly, quite quite dreadful. (Though, to be fair, if I hadn't gone into it with expectations high because it was STAN LEE, it might have seemed merely very very very bad.) I do wonder how well it sold; I haven't seen any announcement of the next season's issue for Defuser, and that should have been in Previews by now, at least.
I did try to see what else he'd written lately, since it's entirely possible that the Flashback thing was just a one-off bad issue that was also heavily constrained by the source material, and eventually found the Stan Lee - Chronological Listing at comicbookdb.com appears. (Tell you what, for someone deep into his 80s, the man is amazingly busy.) Of course, finding the listing didn't quite help because (1) I don't read Marvel universe, at least not those books, and (2) I'm not going to read those particular Marvel Universe books, so I have no idea if any of them are any good. I will say that Stan Lee's Alexa, Volume 1: The New Series from the World's Most Popular Comic Writer (and yes, that IS the listed title) from 2005 looks intriguing, if slightly out of scope for Stan Lee. I mean, yes, superheroes, sort of, but a put-upon woman in the man's world of cartooning sounds like a distinct change of pace. (The Amazon listing is deceptive; it's entirely unlikely that new copies will appear in 3-6 weeks, as Byron Preiss' iBooks, along with the rest of the company's holdings, went into bankruptcy proceedings in 2006 after Preiss' 2005 death in an auto accident, and I can't find any evidence that the company ever came out of those proceedings or that its assets were purchased. Heaven only knows who holds the rights to the titles the company published.) The writing in Alexa was generally well reviewed, although people did note a slightly dated, silver-age feel -- the art, on the other hand, got savaged -- so it's possible that with more freedom to work, maybe Stan's still got it.
All that said ... Stan Lee joining Virgin to create a new universe is just odd. Granted, they've been branching out into other areas; for all that the main line's focus is clearly on India, its people, myths and legends, everything that's not the main Virgin line has been decidedly non-Indian. Their Director's Cut Line doesn't have a single Indian title or creator anywhere to be seen. (...Interesting, that.) So I suppose this could also be a way to change how people perceive the company; for all that the other stuff is higher profile, when you think of distinctive Virgin titles, you think of Devi and Sadhu and Snakewoman and the like. I guess they're aiming to have people think of Virgin as a general comics publisher, and not just a British/Indian comics publisher.
We shall see, in any event.
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