Marvel's Epic Comics has made a liar out of me. Just recently I was bragging about how cool Marvel was, how hip and edgy. They were taking a chance, trying to find new talent. What they were attempting truly was... well, epic. Now, they've shut their door to new submissions due to the large quantity that they've already received (if they didn't think they were going to get flooded then they were seriously naive).
What about the few people who already were accepted? Well, they will get their stories published in a large quarterly anthology collecting the four comics. Well, the creators are not happy about this change of events. Mike Sangiacomo and Mitch Breitweiser, the creators behind Phantom Jack have resecured the rights to their comic and are taking it to Image, which appears once again as the haven for unhappy Marvel creators.
Now, in Marvel's defense, I think they are doing something that is on the verge of being brilliant. Someone needs to publish a large anthology of new rotating talent. It's a way to get new writers and artists exposure without risking an absurd amount of money. Also, if one of the books garners attention, it'd raise the profile of everyone involved. But it does more than make finiacial sense to the publisher, it also makes sense to the consumer who is getting more bang for their buck. The reader can get four or even five stories for the price of two.
I do think that Marvel has made a few mistakes in carrying out their plan, though. First off, they didn't the creators of the plan up front which makes it look like it's a fallback plan and that they don't have any faith in their product (the sad truth probably is that this is a fallback plan and that they don't have any faith in their product). It just makes the books reek of failure. If Marvel had announced this plan from the beginning, everyone would've been fine with it.
Their second mistake was to make it a quarterly anthology that will only have a second issue if the first one makes a decided profit. The only way for this type of project to succeed is with a lot of work. Marvel's gonna have to make this an ongoing monthly and put all their weight behind it or it just won't work.
At this point it comes off like Marvel's doing this just so that they can say that they gave it a try.
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