Newsarama talks to Jim Shooter about Magnus

[orbitalshift]

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/shooter ... 00701.html


Not much in the way of new information.

Is it just me, I just want someone to ask if there will be any kind of imprint grouping these titles together and if so will the stories be connected. The cohesiveness of Valiant when Jim was there was a big reason I liked it.

[robb77]

im glad to hear samson is on its way

[J-Scott-R]

I'm just curious to see if Shooter is going to continue to write all four of these titles once they all get going or if he is going to let someone else take over one or more of them. I love his writing, but is he gonna be able to maintain the quality writing four books a month? That seems like a heavy workload to me.

Scott

[magnusr]

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/shooter ... 00701.html


Not much in the way of new information.

Nice read all the same. Thanks for the link.

/Magnus

[Second_Death]

I thought this was interesting.

Nrama: We’ve got Magnus, Doctor Solar, and promise of Turok and Mighty Samson on the way – but one of the beauties of these Gold Key characters is how many there are. Are there any characters in the Gold Key library that might surprise people to know you’ve got your eye on for future stories?

Shooter: I like all the ones you’d expect, but I can’t stop thinking about what might be done with Jet Dream and Her Stunt-Girl Counterspies ever since my friend, excellent writer Roger Stern gave me a heads up about it. No really. I think I can rock that!

[orbitalshift]

Honestly though, I would rather see a new character get their own book. The Gold Key stuff is neat, and I'm glad to get new Magnus and Solar stories but what I liked most about Valiant was the new stuff Jim created. I'm sure he will do great with whatever properties he uses, but I'm really hoping for some all new original stuff.

[UnknownTales]

Honestly though, I would rather see a new character get their own book. The Gold Key stuff is neat, and I'm glad to get new Magnus and Solar stories but what I liked most about Valiant was the new stuff Jim created. I'm sure he will do great with whatever properties he uses, but I'm really hoping for some all new original stuff.

[Second_Death]

Sure there will be new characters and they will be introduced beginning with the very first issues. Looks like Whit Pick from Dr Solar #1 will be a significant addition and play a major role.

You can tell Jim loves many of these old GK characters and is looking forward to reinventing them. Most likely Jim's vision for Jet Dream will be quite unique.

[Second_Death]

I'm just curious to see if Shooter is going to continue to write all four of these titles once they all get going or if he is going to let someone else take over one or more of them. I love his writing, but is he gonna be able to maintain the quality writing four books a month? That seems like a heavy workload to me.

Scott

As of now, looks like Jim will pen the first story arcs at least for each title which for now include Solar, Magnus, Turok, Samson, and Spektor. After that, the title most likely to retain Jim as a writer appears to be Solar. Considering the grand scale of a character with god-like abilities and that it is the core title for the DK line, can't imagine anyone else who could adequately replace Jim as a writer for that series.

[orbitalshift]

My biggest fear with this line, if it is a "line", is that they are approaching the characters as just remakes of what has come before, and we will get a few good Solar and Magnus stories then Jim will tick someone off or Dark Horse will lose interest and move on. Then we end up with just another derivative version of what were once great characters. I'm hoping for a full on universe with each title neatly connected. It disappoints me that they are including the classic stories in the new books. Not that there is anything wrong with the classic stuff, but in my mind, it diminishes the new story. Its like hey here is a new Magnus book, but just in case its not great we are including this old story too, so you dont feel ripped off. I guess I just would like Dark Horse to treat it like a full on universe with its own identity thats separate from Gold Key, Dark Horse or Valiant. Maybe they are or maybe they have something even better planned. I was just hoping for something more substantial from the interview. I'm just kinda venting here, hope no one minds.

[dave]

Of course they did Vintage Magnus at Valiant as well...

[Chiclo]

Of course they did Vintage Magnus at Valiant as well...

Vintage Magnus was a separate comic. It did not come bound with the new stories.

[orbitalshift]

And it was done after the Valiant Magnus was well established. I guess I'm just hoping this won't be "Jim Shooter does Magnus" only to followed by someone new doing their take a few years down the line. I would rather it be "Jim Shooters New Comic Universe featuring Magnus". As much as I enjoy Shooters previous work, its the continuity that really draws me in.

[Todd Luck]

My biggest fear with this line, if it is a "line", is that they are approaching the characters as just remakes of what has come before, and we will get a few good Solar and Magnus stories then Jim will tick someone off or Dark Horse will lose interest and move on. Then we end up with just another derivative version of what were once great characters. I'm hoping for a full on universe with each title neatly connected. It disappoints me that they are including the classic stories in the new books. Not that there is anything wrong with the classic stuff, but in my mind, it diminishes the new story. Its like hey here is a new Magnus book, but just in case its not great we are including this old story too, so you dont feel ripped off. I guess I just would like Dark Horse to treat it like a full on universe with its own identity thats separate from Gold Key, Dark Horse or Valiant. Maybe they are or maybe they have something even better planned. I was just hoping for something more substantial from the interview. I'm just kinda venting here, hope no one minds.

Well I've gotten about 40 or 50 modern marvel comics with reprints in the back and I've never once felt they diminished the lead story. There's no reason you can't like both the new story and the reprint (or hate the reprint and like the new story, in some cases).

The reprints serve a few purposes:

1. It lets them give the reader something extra at minimal cost to the publisher. In some cases reprints act as filler and it's heckuva lot better than 8-16 pages of incomplete previews of other comics or house ads.

2. It gives the reader a sense of history to the series, which I think is neat (In Marvel's case it actually gives backstory as well since their old comics usually "count" in continuity, which isn't the case with Gold Key Heroes stuff)

3. It plugs the reprint collection that features the story. Actually reading a story and enjoying it is 10 times more effective than a single page ad just announcing a reprint collection exists.

As far as the universe question, that's been asked of Shooter several times and answered. The characters are in the same world, the "real world," separated by the various time periods they live. In other words, is it a universe? Yes. Is he screaming that it's a universe from the rooftops? No.

You got to remember when Valiant first started putting out the new series of Magnus and Solar there was never a single mention of them being in a universe. It was months later, when they started putting out other books they added the tag line "We're building a universe" to their ads.

And you also got to remember that when Jim did Broadway there wasn't much, if any, talk about the titles being a part of a universe. The books only had subtle references to each other. Only after a while did they finally solicit the big, blatant Fatale storyline with other Broadway characters in it (which was never published). This was a smart idea. At the time most readers where "universed out" after the big boom that had dozens of new lines of comics, each forcing them to buy gobs of connected titles.

I think readers are in a similar place now. "Universe" equals "I got to buy a bunch of titles to understand the one I'm interested in" to a lot of readers. Is this fair? Probably not. I've never had to buy a single non-Captain America comic to follow Brubaker's 6 year Cap run. I've never had to buy a single Non-Hercules comic to follow the Herc series which has been around 3-4 years. And so forth and so on. But the perception persists that you'll be forced to buy other comics if try one that exists in a tightly inter-connected universe and that can scare some readers away. So I think that it's smart to start with the subtle universe and work your way up to the obvious team-ups, crossovers, etc.

Just my 2 cent.