Post by Mark Caringer on Jul 28, 2007 23:03:39 GMT -5
He got his feet wet with a popular Wolverine run that tied in to Civil War, helped launch a Blade series, and then moved over to DC where he…well, killed Bart Allen, the current Flash.
And now, Marc Guggenhiem is moving back to Marvel, this time, in a little more permanent a fashion, as he’s signed an exclusive contract with the publisher.
We spoke with the writer.
Newsarama: How did landing the exclusive work in your case, Marc?
Marc Guggenheim: Well, in my case, it was a while in coming. It started out with some very casual discussions among myself and various different people at Marvel. It just gets brought up in conversation: "How's it going? Where's the script for such-and-such? Have you thought about signing an exclusive?" That type of thing. It's not like you get a call with an offer, per se. At least, I didn't. It starts with a general temperature-taking. And whenever people would take my temperature on it, I'd beg off. I was having too much fun working both sides of the street. But then a few things started to happen that made me think signing an exclusive was a good idea. And I always knew that once I decided to go exclusive with anybody, it would be with Marvel first. Axel Alonso gave me my first big break in the form of the Wolverine Civil War tie-in and that kind of recklessness for my benefit engenders a lot of loyalty.
NRAMA: Who was on point for bringing you in to the Marvel fold? Was ther any one person in particular who was both the evangelist and the businessman?
MG: The negotiations were conducted through Ruwan Jayatilleke. I don't know his title, but he's actually the person who "brought me into" Marvel in the first place. He hooked me up with Axel. He's a great guy. And a shrewd negotiator. Very crafty, that Ruwan.
NRAMA: Do you have any particular elements “carved out” for you? Well, aside from your television show…
MG: There are a couple of projects that have been in the works for some time now, in various stages. Most notably, my creator-owned series for Oni Press, Resurrection, was carved out, of course. I tried to get carve-outs for Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash and Justice League, but Marvel balked at that for some reason. Those guys are hard asses...
NRAMA: Looking at the simple, big picture, why’d you do it? What was it about the deal that just made it too good to pass up?
MG: It's several reasons. Like I said, I owe Marvel a lot, particularly Axel, and I wanted to pay a bit of it back. There are also creative opportunities that open up when you're exclusive with either Marvel or DC and I wanted to take advantage of that. (Related point: Remind me to tell you about my soon-to-be-announced Team America/U.S. 1 crossover.)
NRAMA: Trucks and dirtbikes? What could be cooler?
MG: Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
NRAMA: What do you get to do on an exclusive compared to a freelancer relationship? Obviously, this takes away the pitching for another gig, but what else?
MG: Well, actually, I didn't find myself pitching for many of my Marvel gigs. It was usually like, "Want to do this? Write something up." But, as I mentioned, you also get access to certain, shall we say, properties that freelancers don't normally get access to. (It works this way at DC as well, from my understanding.) You also get a better page rate, better royalty incentives and a guaranteed amount of work.
NRAMA: Why Marvel – what was the attraction to this particular universe?
MG: Well, like I said, part of it is the professional relationship we've built with each other over the past two years. Marvel seems to "get" how I work and I really like how Marvel works. Even down to the little stuff, I like the creative and bureaucratic procedures they've got in place. I like how the place runs. And I like the people. Except for Ruwan. Like I said, he's crafty... (Kidding.)
As for attraction to this particular universe -- and for a moment, let's pause to consider just how friggin' cool it is to be talking about choosing between universes -- I've been a Marvel Zombie since I was eight. The X-Men were my favorite characters growing up; I devoured all of the Pocket Book TPB reprintings of the old Spider-Man, FF, Hulk, etc. comics; I interned at Marvel in college, etc. I just know these characters very intimately -- no not that way, get your mind out of the gutter -- and they're just some of the coolest toys to play with.
NRAMA: You’ve obviously got other irons in the fire, namely with your television series. Not to name names, but we’ve all seen “tv guys” who’ve started in comics, only to fizzle when the tv job starts to demand more and more time. What kind of buffers can you set up to prevent that?
MG: A lot of them are already in place since I've been working simultaneously in TV and comics for the past two years now. Yes, things have gotten a little more challenging because I'm now co-running a show, but my general approach is the same: I work very hard to (a) make sure I have only as much on my plate and I can handle and (b) make sure I'm very disciplined in terms of getting what I need to get done comic book-wise each day. That really all comes down to scheduling. I try to be very disciplined about allotting a specific amount of time for each issue of each project and sticking to that schedule. I'm not saying I don't slip occasionally or that some disaster strikes that throws me off, but the idea is to have an equal number of "good" days -- days where the scripts just pour out of me -- to make up for the "bad" ones. It's an ongoing struggle, but I haven't blown a shipping date yet.
NRAMA: Just out of curiosity, what kind of schedule will you be carrying? How much time a week does the show demand, and how much will comics demand?
MG: Good question. The show demands about 200 hours per week. (What do you mean there's only 168 hours in a week?) Comics demands a bit less time. I'm not going to lie to you, it's tricky. Having an understanding wife helps a lot. Having a supportive business partner (über genius, Greg Berlanti) helps a lot. People are always asking me how I find time to do everything, and the honest answer is: I have no idea. I have an ulcer, but no idea. Like I said, a lot of the answer is scheduling and discipline, but beyond that I don't know how it's all getting done. I'm not all that interested in "taking a look under the hood" to find out. So far, the show's running, the comics are shipping and my wife and kid haven't left me. Actually, I'm not sure about the last part. Honey? Sweetheart? Anybody home? Yeah, I don't know where she went...
Seriously though, I love my wife and I love my daughter and we have an amazing family. My wife is a showrunner herself, so she gets it. And even if she wasn't a showrunner, she'd still get it because she's a very empathetic, understanding person. And my daughter is incredible. One day you'll I'll meet her and you'll see -- she'll be the one with the knife asking for your wallet. Okay, I'm kidding again. Really. That's the other part of my time management scheme, you have to joke about it all. (Related point: Keep an eye out for my book on parenting entitled, "It Takes A Nanny.")
NRAMA: This will be covering Wolverine and another assignment at Marvel. Does that pretty much fill in your workload for comics, or will there be more?
MG: I'll also be continuing Resurrection, my creator-owned series for Oni. And maybe one or two other things you might be hearing about. I know, I'm crazy. I am. I need help. Honey? Honey!!
And now, Marc Guggenhiem is moving back to Marvel, this time, in a little more permanent a fashion, as he’s signed an exclusive contract with the publisher.
We spoke with the writer.
Newsarama: How did landing the exclusive work in your case, Marc?
Marc Guggenheim: Well, in my case, it was a while in coming. It started out with some very casual discussions among myself and various different people at Marvel. It just gets brought up in conversation: "How's it going? Where's the script for such-and-such? Have you thought about signing an exclusive?" That type of thing. It's not like you get a call with an offer, per se. At least, I didn't. It starts with a general temperature-taking. And whenever people would take my temperature on it, I'd beg off. I was having too much fun working both sides of the street. But then a few things started to happen that made me think signing an exclusive was a good idea. And I always knew that once I decided to go exclusive with anybody, it would be with Marvel first. Axel Alonso gave me my first big break in the form of the Wolverine Civil War tie-in and that kind of recklessness for my benefit engenders a lot of loyalty.
NRAMA: Who was on point for bringing you in to the Marvel fold? Was ther any one person in particular who was both the evangelist and the businessman?
MG: The negotiations were conducted through Ruwan Jayatilleke. I don't know his title, but he's actually the person who "brought me into" Marvel in the first place. He hooked me up with Axel. He's a great guy. And a shrewd negotiator. Very crafty, that Ruwan.
NRAMA: Do you have any particular elements “carved out” for you? Well, aside from your television show…
MG: There are a couple of projects that have been in the works for some time now, in various stages. Most notably, my creator-owned series for Oni Press, Resurrection, was carved out, of course. I tried to get carve-outs for Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash and Justice League, but Marvel balked at that for some reason. Those guys are hard asses...
NRAMA: Looking at the simple, big picture, why’d you do it? What was it about the deal that just made it too good to pass up?
MG: It's several reasons. Like I said, I owe Marvel a lot, particularly Axel, and I wanted to pay a bit of it back. There are also creative opportunities that open up when you're exclusive with either Marvel or DC and I wanted to take advantage of that. (Related point: Remind me to tell you about my soon-to-be-announced Team America/U.S. 1 crossover.)
NRAMA: Trucks and dirtbikes? What could be cooler?
MG: Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
NRAMA: What do you get to do on an exclusive compared to a freelancer relationship? Obviously, this takes away the pitching for another gig, but what else?
MG: Well, actually, I didn't find myself pitching for many of my Marvel gigs. It was usually like, "Want to do this? Write something up." But, as I mentioned, you also get access to certain, shall we say, properties that freelancers don't normally get access to. (It works this way at DC as well, from my understanding.) You also get a better page rate, better royalty incentives and a guaranteed amount of work.
NRAMA: Why Marvel – what was the attraction to this particular universe?
MG: Well, like I said, part of it is the professional relationship we've built with each other over the past two years. Marvel seems to "get" how I work and I really like how Marvel works. Even down to the little stuff, I like the creative and bureaucratic procedures they've got in place. I like how the place runs. And I like the people. Except for Ruwan. Like I said, he's crafty... (Kidding.)
As for attraction to this particular universe -- and for a moment, let's pause to consider just how friggin' cool it is to be talking about choosing between universes -- I've been a Marvel Zombie since I was eight. The X-Men were my favorite characters growing up; I devoured all of the Pocket Book TPB reprintings of the old Spider-Man, FF, Hulk, etc. comics; I interned at Marvel in college, etc. I just know these characters very intimately -- no not that way, get your mind out of the gutter -- and they're just some of the coolest toys to play with.
NRAMA: You’ve obviously got other irons in the fire, namely with your television series. Not to name names, but we’ve all seen “tv guys” who’ve started in comics, only to fizzle when the tv job starts to demand more and more time. What kind of buffers can you set up to prevent that?
MG: A lot of them are already in place since I've been working simultaneously in TV and comics for the past two years now. Yes, things have gotten a little more challenging because I'm now co-running a show, but my general approach is the same: I work very hard to (a) make sure I have only as much on my plate and I can handle and (b) make sure I'm very disciplined in terms of getting what I need to get done comic book-wise each day. That really all comes down to scheduling. I try to be very disciplined about allotting a specific amount of time for each issue of each project and sticking to that schedule. I'm not saying I don't slip occasionally or that some disaster strikes that throws me off, but the idea is to have an equal number of "good" days -- days where the scripts just pour out of me -- to make up for the "bad" ones. It's an ongoing struggle, but I haven't blown a shipping date yet.
NRAMA: Just out of curiosity, what kind of schedule will you be carrying? How much time a week does the show demand, and how much will comics demand?
MG: Good question. The show demands about 200 hours per week. (What do you mean there's only 168 hours in a week?) Comics demands a bit less time. I'm not going to lie to you, it's tricky. Having an understanding wife helps a lot. Having a supportive business partner (über genius, Greg Berlanti) helps a lot. People are always asking me how I find time to do everything, and the honest answer is: I have no idea. I have an ulcer, but no idea. Like I said, a lot of the answer is scheduling and discipline, but beyond that I don't know how it's all getting done. I'm not all that interested in "taking a look under the hood" to find out. So far, the show's running, the comics are shipping and my wife and kid haven't left me. Actually, I'm not sure about the last part. Honey? Sweetheart? Anybody home? Yeah, I don't know where she went...
Seriously though, I love my wife and I love my daughter and we have an amazing family. My wife is a showrunner herself, so she gets it. And even if she wasn't a showrunner, she'd still get it because she's a very empathetic, understanding person. And my daughter is incredible. One day you'll I'll meet her and you'll see -- she'll be the one with the knife asking for your wallet. Okay, I'm kidding again. Really. That's the other part of my time management scheme, you have to joke about it all. (Related point: Keep an eye out for my book on parenting entitled, "It Takes A Nanny.")
NRAMA: This will be covering Wolverine and another assignment at Marvel. Does that pretty much fill in your workload for comics, or will there be more?
MG: I'll also be continuing Resurrection, my creator-owned series for Oni. And maybe one or two other things you might be hearing about. I know, I'm crazy. I am. I need help. Honey? Honey!!
