Does Marvel consult you on these things?

Got questions? He's got answers!
Post Reply
XIII
Posts: 40
Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:16 pm

Does Marvel consult you on these things?

Post by XIII »

Dear Alan,

At long last, Marvel is collecting in book form your glorious second Excalibur run. If sales of Excalibur Classic hadn't plummeted like they did when it ran out of material from your initial run, this would have been published as "Volume 7", but instead they're rebooting the whole thing as "Excalibur: Across The Universe Volume 1 TPB"
http://www.amazon.ca/Excalibur-Across-U ... 785137408/
collecting issues 42 to 50, which I consider amongst your finest work ever.

This made me wonder if you have any say on how your comics are repackaged by the Marvel trades department. Specifically, since there has been speculation about an "Excalibur Visionaries: Alan Davis" treatment for this material, I wonder who came up with this new unexpected title. I mean, I suppose that "Across The Universe" is a fairly descriptive title for some of the action taking place in those issues but it's also a bit too by-the-numbers and generic, so it doesn’t strike me as the kind of title you would choose if you had such prerogative. Therefore, my guess is that it's some Marvel editor's idea and you had nothing to do with it. If I'm wrong and this title is indeed your idea or has your approval, disregard my opinion as irrelevant, but if I'm right, I would like to know what title you would give to the overarching story of issues 42-50.

Also, I hope they're commissioning you to draw a new original cover for this book, like for the Captain Britain Omnibus, but if that's not the case and they're going to do like in the Excalibur Classic trades and just pick up one of the inside covers and digitally recolor it, I'd like to know which one of the 9 covers of those issues you would choose for it. My choice would be the cover to issue 48:

Image

Speaking of which, I'd like to know your opinion about this "digital remastering" done to the Excalibur Classic tpb covers, specifically the ones in which they took one of your covers for the original issues. What do you think about the results?

Image Image

Image Image

Finally, I suppose you have no idea if Marvel has decent reproduction materials of your second Excalibur run. I'm asking because the quality in some of the "Excalibur Classic" trades was awful. I think most of it was scanned from the printed individual issues and for instance, in Volume 5 (which reprints issues from only about a year before issue 42), some of the pages are almost unreadable. I'd hate to see this new book having the same problems, since your classic second run deserves to be presented in all its splendor.
Alan Davis
Creator
Posts: 472
Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2005 9:13 pm

Re: Does Marvel consult you on these things?

Post by Alan Davis »

I’m not consulted in any way about reprints—except for instances where I retain the original art and can supply superior scans.

The majority of digital colouring offends me. Primarily because the colourists attempt to remodel every figure with little of no understanding of anatomy, lighting or form.
XIII
Posts: 40
Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:16 pm

Re: Does Marvel consult you on these things?

Post by XIII »

You've been officially named VISIONARY, Mr. Davis. That is, your Excalibur solo run will be reprinted under the banner it deserves:

EXCALIBUR VISIONARIES: ALAN DAVIS VOL. 1 TPB
Written by ALAN DAVIS
Penciled by ALAN DAVIS
Cover by ALAN DAVIS
Excalibur leader Captain Britain is double-teamed by problems when the Technet take over his house and he's abducted to be put on trial by his fellow Captain Britains! Meanwhile, Excalibur's own ranks grow as Widget, Kylun and Cerise join the action — presuming anyone on the team survives the wrath of the Anti-Phoenix! More than four years of mutant madness culminate in a fearsome fight in #50! Collecting EXCALIBUR #42-50.
232 PGS./Rated A ...$24.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3740-5

And apparently the chosen cover is #47:

Image

which is a perfectly good choice, but it will be ruined by the usual digital "remastering".
Post Reply