200611161100Wizard’s 2006 Awards are out, and you’ll have to pick up the magazine to see all the winners, but they have released the Man of the Year, and it’s “The man known as Joe Q to friends, co-workers and Internet fans”:

It was all there—Marvel’s entire publishing plan for 2006 through 2008 in red, green, black and blue marker, stretched across the walls of the huge editorial conference in Manhattan on the last day of the January planning meeting.

A cabal of the biggest and most successful writers in comics, including Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Millar, J. Michael Straczynski and Greg Pak, sat around the large, square room filled with gray rectangular tables studying what the last few days of discussions, arguments and planning had yielded.

But as Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada reviewed the plans, something just didn’t feel right.


Dear god, how is that for suspense?

1 COMMENT

  1. Oh, how to fill in the rest:

    “Suddenly Quesada realized that the books would have to ship on time to keep fans and retailers happy.”

    “Suddenly Quesada realized that spending even a little money send review copies to journalists might not be a bad idea.”

    “Suddenly Quesada realized that a miniseries that hinged on major players behaving completely out of character might prove problematic.”

    Okay, I’m out of ideas. Anyone else?

  2. Keith:

    “Then Quesada realised that people would buy it anyway.”

    “Then Quesada realised that journalists would buy their own copies anyway”

    “Then Quesada realised that people would buy all the spinoff series dealing with those problems anyway”

    Elayne: Probably. They seem to employ a few. Joe is allegedly even married to one.

  3. Yeah, but the way the Wizard awards are set up now, Karen Berger would either have to change her gender to be “Man of the Year” or they’d have to change the name of the award. As a for instance.

    Then again, what am I saying? Karen Berger? Jeanette Kahn? Diana Schutz? What the hell have they ever done for comics anyway? NO CHICKS ALLOWED!!!!

    (I sincerely hope I don’t have to let people know which part of the comment contains sarcasm)

  4. As much as I’ve seen the attitude lately that women should shut the h*** up about there not being enough women creators in comics, that sign might read:

    No Gurls Aloud.

    Don’t mis-understand, I agree that there need to be more women-as-creators in comics, just that the arguments about women in the comics business have become circular. Many say, “Of course there aren’t any women creators. Women don’t read comics.” “Of course we don’t have any women at our summits. Women don’t write our comics.”

    And don’t get me started about Wizard magazine.