In issue #3 of Straczynski's Ten Grand series he mentions the new comics he has coming out from Image. Two of them were formerly from Marvel Icon imprint: The Book of Lost Souls and Dream Police. Dream Police actually kind of shocked me, as I remember the first issue coming out and that was it. It seemed weird to me at the time, but I chalked it up to just being a one-shot. Not so apparently.
Anyways, JMS referred to Icon as: Invisible Content Operationally Nonexistent. Which came off pretty harsh to me. Then again has it been anything more than a vanity imprint for Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar the past few years? (A serious question since I don't know all of their output) To a certain extent that is understandable. Bendis is still one of Marvel's more bankable stars in the 616 universe. Of course everything Millar does at the imprint is like printing money.
Yet, I get JMS' point. Icon was supposed to be Marvel's new creator owned line. Where are the new projects from other people for this group? Surely someone is making a proposal or two to them. A lot of people complain about DC not taking chances, but this imprint should be Marvel's Vertigo, and it simply isn't.
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Maybe 'practical' imprint is a better term? Bendis contribution to Marvel over the last 10 years can be sumnmed up with the phrase "no show without Joe." Whatever keeps him happy is to their benefit. As for Millar, obviously he hasn't done much mainstream work for Marvel since Civil War, but he's a good bet, and his presence means they can have the cachet of running a 'creator-owned' imprint that isn't losing money! Beyond that, why help creators make money for themselves, when you can make more money getting them to work on your properties?
JMS himself is on record as saying that creators just have to suck it up when dealing with big corporations, so he should stop 'whining' or he'll come across as a hypocrite.
I think Matt Fraction's Casanova is still under the Icon imprint. But it comes out so sporadically that it's kind of theoretical at this point. I was surprised when Fatale came out with Image, just after Criminal with Icon. As far as I know neither Brubaker or Phillips have commented on it publicly.
It seems once Winter Soldier was cancelled Brubaker's tenure at Marvel is over for now. It looks like the last issue of Casanova came out August of last year. I don't know if Fraction is planning to continue it or not.
He did suck it up, and took his work elsewhere. Also that one line was all he said bout Icon, it wasn't like he ranting about it. He was more talking up his new books that are coming out.
Icon has actually always differentiated itself from Vertigo. From the beginning, it was billed more as an imprint where Marvel's top creators could do creator-owned stuff there, rather than a mature-readers imprint where any creator could pitch. DC's equivalent would be an imprint that included books from Geoff Johns, Scott Snyder, and Grant Morrison... and maybe Jeff Lemire in a year or two. Most of them have done work for Vertigo, but if Vertigo were like Icon, it would be *only* them.
But why is Mark Millar still there? Wasn't Civil War his last work with Marvel properties? So Marvel doesn't get the Quid Pro Quo of his continued work for them that they get for Bendis. Marvel needn't worry about him heading over to the competition, as he's burned his bridges with DC by my understanding. Maybe his creator-owned comics are profitable for Icon? Does Icon/Marvel get a cut of the movie adaption profits?
Good question -- I've no idea. I guess they must be profitable in some way, if not multiple ways. I doubt Marvel gets any part of the movie participation, but who knows?
Figserello said:
From I've seen from the sales ALL of his series sell well. It also doesn't seem to matter how late they run either, people are just eating it up. I would almost guarantee that Marvel sees something from the movies (I won't go 100% since I really don't know just a guess).
Two thoughts on why Mark Millar remains at Icon. 1. He probably got a pretty sweet deal when he was doing a bunch of work for Marvel, so he is grandfathered in (like some of the Vertigo people). 2. His work gets shelved with the other Marvel books, so it gets more eyes at a comic book shop.
And factor into that that Millar is now a big enough name that Marvel will likely want to keep him happy, in case they can lure him back to the MU for a special event. If he wanted to leave, he could go anywhere, surely. But everyone seems happy with the arrangement.