The Motley Fool: “Will Licensing Doom Marvel?”

I’ve always wondered whether Wall Street would figure this out. (Join the site if you have to. It’s free.)

The Motley Fool article links to a blog post by Rivkah Greulich, an American writer and artist of manga for Tokyopop, that’s even more interesting. She gets it. Completely.

4 Responses to “The Motley Fool: “Will Licensing Doom Marvel?””

  1. Tom Walker Says:

    I’m struck (upon reading this) by the centuries old requirement of an artist or composer to find themselves a mentor. There is of course a certain codependency in the established relationship, but it has been known to work.

    This appears to be a significant point the Rivkah blog alludes to, that seems to be missing from as much of the MF article as I’ve read so far.

    I’m reminded of Steve’s remarks that the recent Howard the Duck mini-series came about with the full support of a good editor in Marvel at the time.

    Perhaps the management design is wrong – and good creatives forced to think like agents and money people when it isnt their natural forte in the first place.. perhaps all good creatives benefit for good mentors.

  2. Tom Walker Says:

    FROM good mentors..oops

  3. Nat Gertler Says:

    I think the Motley Fool article is a bit deceptive. Sure, there hasn’t been a big hit class A character from Marvel since 1974… but if you had asked that same question in 1987, there wouldn’t have been a big hit character since 1965. At that point, Wolverine didn’t yet have an ongoing solo series (and was still years from appearing as part of a team on the small screen, more than a decade from hitting the big screen, and is still awaiting his big screen solo debut) and Blade certainly wasn’t anything to shout about. So the fact that Marvel doesn’t have any A-list characters less than 30 years old doesn’t mean that Marvel hasn’t brought out new A-list characters for the next decade. (Note: this is not saying that I think Marvel has done everything perfectly wonderfully for any such thing.)

    And just as the best grapes don’t make the best wine, so it is true that the big comic book successes are not necessarily the big licensing successes. Things like The Men In Black and Road To Perdition weren’t exactly big hit comics when they came out.

  4. craig taylor Says:

    Uh-huh

    *reads the Motley Fool and Rivkah’s journal entry*

    says it all, ’nuff said.

    Nat does makes some good points about Wolverine. Spider-woman also has some interest-value, aside from the obvious.

    Personally: more impetus gained in motivation for change in contents of my standing order list, mainly to acommodate big changes re new comics coming in dec and 2006 (Fallen Angel, Hard Time, The Spirit).