Hello, everyone! Sorry to detract from the actual entertaining posts, but I wanted to introduce myself so that next week, everyone knows that it was the new guy and not MGK who said that whoever green-lit “Spider-Man: Reign” must have been smoking crack. (Note: This may not actually be the topic of next week’s post. I don’t believe in stating the obvious.)
My name is John Seavey, and I’m a writer who’s probably best known on the Internet for my series of “Storytelling Engines” columns on ‘Comics Should Be Good’ and my accidentally inflammatory “How To Save Marvel Comics” columns on my own blog, ‘Fraggmented’. Offline, I’m probably best known for my contributions to the ‘Feng Shui’ line of RPGs from Atlas Games…which still isn’t saying much, but hey, it beats being on ‘America’s Most Wanted’.
Somewhere in all that writing, I caught the attention of Mightygodking, who politely offered me the chance to be one of his regular guest bloggers. Speaking as someone who doesn’t get even a tenth of the audience this place pulls in, I jumped at the chance. I’m no dummy, after all. (This may, in fact, be your only point of concrete evidence on this point, and it’s really my word against yours.)
So what kind of posts can you expect from me in my Friday slot? Well, I can usually be relied upon to talk about comics, although you should be aware that I am something of a curmudgeon about the current state of the market (I have at one point suggested that DC should just publish a new crossover every year called, “DC Kills Everyone Who’s Alive and Resurrects Everyone Who’s Dead!”) I also do a good line in chatting about movies, and I can yammer about Doctor Who with the best of them. (I can actually follow a debate about “UNIT Dating”. And “Lives Before Hartnell”.) And sometimes, I just have crazy weird shit that I have to get out of my head, which is really the secret purpose of every blog everywhere. (This is why there are fewer homeless people now. They do their crazy ranting on blogs instead of street corners.)
It should also be noted that I have political opinions. If MGK’s offend you, you’re not going to be any happier with mine.
So that’s me, at least the parts of me that will relate to this blog. Assuming MGK doesn’t shitcan me for such a boring opening post, tune in next week to hear me saying something interesting!
(Warning: Use of the term “interesting” does not guarantee actual interesting content. If content is “Spider-Man: Reign” related, author reserves the right to do the joke about the “Spider-Man” cartoon theme. Author has been known to define “Friday posts” as occurring on Saturday, or even the following Tuesday. If you have serious liver problems, please contact your doctor before reading. If you have extremely serious liver problems, please contact your doctor right now. In case of fire, read this post while using the stairs, not the elevator.)
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If you’ve worked on “Feng Shui”, that’s good enough for me. One of my favorite games.
Hey. Big fan of Fraggmented, John. Are you going to continue posting new stuff there as well as here?
Woot! Feng Shui!
Welcome to the jungle, etc.
Anything that increases the Feng Shui content on this blog is 100% welcome!
Y’know, if you are a comics fan and a fan of Spiderman, why don’t you do an article on Ultimate Spiderman? MGK seems to ignore the series completely, and this is although it happens to be consistently the best Marvel comic I read every month.
Welcome!
Oh, this is gonna be good.
“and my accidentally inflammatory “How To Save Marvel Comics””
That’s the one that said, basically, that Marvel should start marketing to kids again, right? I liked that. Made a heck of a lot of sense.
Don’t worry, Grazzt, this won’t reduce my Fraggmented posting volume. It’s still “Mondays” and “Thursdays” over there, I promise.
And mental note: People like Feng Shui. 🙂
Mr. Seavey, I think we’re going to get along just fine.
Dude. I had no idea that they guy who wrote Storytelling engines also wrote for Feng Shui. They’re 2 of the 5 recommended resources for storytellers at my FLGClub. I actually want your opinion on an analogy a friend of mine made this week at Game Club. Fengh Shui : Exalted :: Nintendo Wii : Playstation. Basically does the same thing. Shot clock initiative, Kung Fu action, and Trees of charms or schticks, Using demons and Dragon Nests to make everything go. One is for the casual gamer who is used to the conventions cinema. One is for the hardcore gamer steeped in the conventions of gaming who like math. This having been said. Do you think its a good metaphor? If so, why is it wii sells better than PS3 but Exalted Sells better than Feng Shui?
Do you still hate the Marvel Max line? Still think it should be shut down?
I never said I hated the Marvel Max line, or that it should be shut down. I said I hated the name, because I do; “Marvel Max” sounds like a line of condoms, not comic books. I said that the “Marvel Max” line shouldn’t feature any of Marvel’s flagship characters (like Captain America, Spider-Man, or Iron Man), but that’s the same policy that DC follows with its Vertigo line, and they do quite well by it. (You’ll never see a Vertigo title starring Superman, for example.)
In fact, I think that Marvel should be more aggressively building their adult comics brand, because I think it’s important to have a brand identity of “comics for grown-ups”…I just think it’s equally important that this line not be the main Marvel Universe line, because the brand identity of that line is “family-friendly entertainment.”
I really have no idea how you got from my statements on the subject to that position.
I said that the “Marvel Max” line shouldn’t feature any of Marvel’s flagship characters (like Captain America, Spider-Man, or Iron Man)
—-You see, I work, in a comic book store, and I’m fairly certain I’ve never seen them.
Then what are you worried about? 🙂
It’s actually not Cap, Iron Man or Spidey that worry me, it’s the Punisher. See, the corollary to “Don’t use regular Marvel characters in the MAX line” is “Don’t use MAX characters in the regular Marvel line”. Again, you’ll see this over in DC; they don’t use Swamp Thing in the mainstream DC universe anymore because he’s been branded so successfully as a Vertigo character.
Once the Punisher made the transition (the very successful and logical transition, given the character’s nature) to the MAX line, he should stay there. Putting out an “adults-only” title and an “all-ages” title featuring the same character with very similar titles is a recipe for confusion, and you don’t want confusion in your branding. People should know, just from the logo, what kind of experience they’re getting from your monthly periodical.
Dude, I will admit – I had no idea who you were, but I went and checked out Fraggmented. I then spent today reading you Storytelling Engines posts in full.
Amazing work. I am a convert.
Captain America, Iron Man and Spider-Man may not have been in MAX titles, but Blade, Luke Cage, Thor, War Machine, and the X-Men have all had feature comics in the line, and a lot of their supporting characters appeared in those titles. That’s pretty heavy infiltration by the main universe.
On top of that, the Marvel Knights imprint, which blurs the line between MAX and the main imprint, has had pretty much ALL the main Marvel characters.
I don’t even pay much attention to the imprint unless it’s Marvel Adventures or something. The kid-specific line is at least noticeably different; when you have people getting ripped in half or raped in the 616 comics, how is the MAX imprint any different?