1932: Martin Goodman starts the magazine publishing business that will later become Marvel.
August 1939: Marvel Comics #1 is published under Martin Goodman's Timely Comics umbrella. Other logos would be used, including Atlas in the 1950s.
1961: A renaissance begins at perennial also-ran comics publisher Marvel with the publication of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #1, the first of a new wave of super-heroes that would include Spider-Man, The Hulk, Iron Man, The X-Men, and The Avengers. Marvel's market share would grow, regularly becoming the #1 publisher by the 1980s.
1968: Martin Goodman sells Marvel to a firm whose products range from magazines to vitamins; the firm would later be known as Cadence Industries.
1986: Cadence sells Marvel to New World Entertainment, a television and film production company.
January 1989: Ronald Perelman's MacAndrews and Forbes buys Marvel Entertainment group from failing New World Entertainment for $82.5 million.
Summer 1991: Perelman and company sell 40% of Marvel in a public offering.
That sale created a stock that sparkled throughout the speculator bubble in comics, with Marvel buying additional assets along the way in financier Ronald Perelman's attempt, in his words, to form a "mini-Disney." Dan Raviv quotes Perelman in Comic Wars: Marvel's Battle for Survival:
"It is a mini-Disney in terms of intellectual property. Disney's got much more highly recognized characters and softer characters, whereas out characters are termed action heroes. But at Marvel we are now in the business of the creation and marketing of characters."
Dec. 27, 1996: Burdened by a large debt following many expensive acquisitions in trading-card and other tangentially related fields -- and shaken by the mid-1990s decline in comics publishing fortunes -- Marvel Entertainment files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
1997-98: A long legal battle between holders of Marvel's bonds results in temporary control of the company by Carl Icahn and his associates. Later, control is regained by the owner of one of Marvel's subsidiaries, Toy Biz.
Marvel emerges from bankruptcy with a much-reduced publishing slate.
May 2002: The first Spider-Man feature film is released. Increased attention to comics benefits Marvel and a comics industry on the rebound, thanks to a business model that also includes bound collected editions of comics, allowing Marvel and other publishers to capitalize on their long publishing histories through bookstore sales.
August 31, 2009: The Walt Disney Company announces the purchase of Marvel Entertainment Group for $4 billion in stocks and cash.
August 1939: Marvel Comics #1 is published under Martin Goodman's Timely Comics umbrella. Other logos would be used, including Atlas in the 1950s.
1961: A renaissance begins at perennial also-ran comics publisher Marvel with the publication of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #1, the first of a new wave of super-heroes that would include Spider-Man, The Hulk, Iron Man, The X-Men, and The Avengers. Marvel's market share would grow, regularly becoming the #1 publisher by the 1980s.
1968: Martin Goodman sells Marvel to a firm whose products range from magazines to vitamins; the firm would later be known as Cadence Industries.
1986: Cadence sells Marvel to New World Entertainment, a television and film production company.
January 1989: Ronald Perelman's MacAndrews and Forbes buys Marvel Entertainment group from failing New World Entertainment for $82.5 million.
Summer 1991: Perelman and company sell 40% of Marvel in a public offering.
That sale created a stock that sparkled throughout the speculator bubble in comics, with Marvel buying additional assets along the way in financier Ronald Perelman's attempt, in his words, to form a "mini-Disney." Dan Raviv quotes Perelman in Comic Wars: Marvel's Battle for Survival:
"It is a mini-Disney in terms of intellectual property. Disney's got much more highly recognized characters and softer characters, whereas out characters are termed action heroes. But at Marvel we are now in the business of the creation and marketing of characters."
Dec. 27, 1996: Burdened by a large debt following many expensive acquisitions in trading-card and other tangentially related fields -- and shaken by the mid-1990s decline in comics publishing fortunes -- Marvel Entertainment files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
1997-98: A long legal battle between holders of Marvel's bonds results in temporary control of the company by Carl Icahn and his associates. Later, control is regained by the owner of one of Marvel's subsidiaries, Toy Biz.
Marvel emerges from bankruptcy with a much-reduced publishing slate.
May 2002: The first Spider-Man feature film is released. Increased attention to comics benefits Marvel and a comics industry on the rebound, thanks to a business model that also includes bound collected editions of comics, allowing Marvel and other publishers to capitalize on their long publishing histories through bookstore sales.
August 31, 2009: The Walt Disney Company announces the purchase of Marvel Entertainment Group for $4 billion in stocks and cash.
Hiša, ki sta jo zgradila Jack Kirby in Stan Lee je bila že nekajkrat v krizi. Najhujše je bilo v drugi polovici 90-ih, ko je skoraj dokončno potonila. Nove temelje in ojačane stene sta postavila Joe Quesada in Jimmy Palmiotti. Prvi je zdaj izvršni urednik Marvela drugi pa se pase na sosedovem pašniku pri Marvelovem največjem konkurentu DC comics.
ReplyDeleteKo sta Lee in Kirby, ustvarila večino od 5000 Marvelovih junakov, katerih niti še živeči Lee ne ve več vseh imen, sta napisala naše dobno mitologijo. To kar sta naredila Quesada in Pallmioti je bila umetnost druge vrste. Starim konceptom sta vlila zelo potrebno novo energijo in to sta naredila tako, da sta svojim ustvarjalcem pustila proste roke pri pisanju zgodb. Rodili so se Marvel Knights. Na razpolago sta dobila par obskurnih in nezanimivih likov in jih naredila zanimive za odraslo publiko. Kevin Smitha sta najela za pisanje zgodbe o Daredevil-u sama pa sta se spravila na risbo. S prvo številko sta po dolgih letih Marvel vrnila na prvo mesto mesečne prodaje stripov. Potem je slo vse samo še navzgor.
Seveda je velik uspeh požel tudi prvi film o nosilnem liku Spider-man-u, ampak brez Quesade bi bil zaton neizogiben. Ko so njegovi najboljši pisci kolebali ali naj še ostanejo pri Marvelu jim je ponudil tisk avtorskih zgodb pri inprintu Icon in besedo pri izbiri kam se bodo premikali glavni liki.
In zdaj je vse to kupil Disney. Za 4 milijarde. Vseh 5000+ likov. Že Spider-man sam je vreden vsaj dvakrat toliko. Obljubljajo, da se ne bo nič spremenilo. Da bodo avtorji še vedno imeli popolno svobodo. Da bo Disneyjeva marketinška mašina popeljala Marvel v nove višave. Da bo zdaj lahko Pixar, ki ga Disney ni nikoli blokiral pri ustvarjalnih odločitvah (razen pri vseh celovečercih, ki so jih distribuirali), končno dobil Marvelove like v uporabo.
Še vedno pa nihče noče povedati kaj je z liki ki jih je Marvel dal v uporabo Fox-u (X-men-e),
Universal-u (Hulk, Iron-man, Captain America, Thor). Ali bo Disney dovolil, da se z njegovo lastnino počne karkoli?
Slišim Kirbyja kako se smeji.