About the end of your involvment with the first Clan run . .

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Crusader K
Posts: 42
Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 7:19 pm
Location: Pittsburgh

About the end of your involvment with the first Clan run . .

Post by Crusader K »

Hi again Alan!

Sorry to be such a noodge with all my questions, but I find anything you do to be fascinating on several levels.

I can remember picking up ClanDestine Vol 1 # 9 (8? 9? Memory fails, sorry) and being fairly horrified at the . . uhm . . changes that were being wrought unnecessarily and your departure. This was only matched by my shock at the changes made to Excalibur after your run.

I apologize if this has been already asked and answered by you but was there a reason why you left ClanDestine Vol 1? And left it, well...in less than capable hands, Bryan Hitch nonwithstanding? Were you told to leave it? Did you ask to leave it?

Don't mean to strike a nerve but I've always been curious.
"Now I believe there comes a time, when everything just falls in line.
We live and learn by our mistakes; the deepest cuts are healed by fate"
Alan Davis
Creator
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Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2005 9:13 pm

Post by Alan Davis »

Its not striking a nerve,CK... although I have answered this question quite a few times over the years and five or six times recently but to ensure your multiple choice query doesn’t stimulate any new mythology I have cobbled together various quotes from other posting and interviews below.
The first series of ClanDestine ran into problems before issue one saw print because Marvel UK became the first casualty of the comic industry implosion and, literally overnight, went from publishing 26 titles to editing (for Marvel US to publish) just one, The ClanDestine!
It was immediately apparent that the situation at Marvel UK could only go from bad to worse but there were staff I considered as friends whose jobs was reliant on the continuation of the ClanDestine book. However, it soon became obvious that Marvel UK had been marginalised to such a degree that the ClanDestine title had very little support and would never be properly publicised or promoted. All the time I was working on the ClanDestine title Marvel US editorial were offering me other assignments and asking why I was wasting time on ‘that little book’ when I could—should-- be working on X-Men or the Fantastic Four.
I don’t mean to suggest anyone was at fault. It was just a very awkward and ultimately untenable situation. But the politics and general lack of support was undermining my enjoyment of the work so I decided to quit ClanDestine and Marvel UK.

I did feel a bit like a rat deserting a sinking ship so I gave permission for Marvel UK to continue the book after I left in the hope the staff who had helped get the book of the ground might be able to at least keep their jobs.

I had given editorial my long-story plot (with over 20 issues of continuity) so I anticipated that the series would continue along the lines I had envisaged BUT my long-story was completely ignored. I don’t know who chose to ignore it or why (there were contradictory accusations when the ‘new direction’ proved unpopular) but the book had strayed so far from my plots that it undermined all of the future continuity I had planned.
Some time later Bob Harras offered me the opportunity to do the X-Men/ClanDestine crossover-- But as a prelude to drawing a regular X-Book rather than resurrecting the Clan.
Ignoring the suspect art and interpretations of the Clan characters the events in issues 9-12 was so far out of line with what I had planned the only solution was for Rory to ‘wake up in the shower’ and declare 9-12 were just a REALLY bad dream.
Crusader K
Posts: 42
Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 7:19 pm
Location: Pittsburgh

Post by Crusader K »

Alan,

Thanks for the explanation again! Amazing how background business can interfere with such creativity!

I for one NEVER saw Rori's bad "dream" as an unsuitable explanation for issues 9-12. I can remember actually breathing a sigh of relief reading that and saying, "Oh...I was right. It WAS just a bad dream!"

Thanks for coming back to the Clan!
"Now I believe there comes a time, when everything just falls in line.
We live and learn by our mistakes; the deepest cuts are healed by fate"
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