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As a follow up from my reports on Marvel's bankruptcy a few years ago, I am happy to report that Marvel had a net income of 42.8 million for three months ending June 30 2003 (nearly doubling from 20.4 million in 2002) and a net income of 97.5 million for the first six months of 2003 (up from 29.7 million in 2002). Marvel stock is going great this year it is up from about $5 a share to over $23 a share year to date. Marvel is owes a great deal of its income to feature films, and licensing of feature films.
The ticker symbol is MVL if you want to look it up for yourself. Check out my early articles here at Suite 101 to see how poorly Marvel was doing five to six years ago.
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Anyone here ever watch the TV show "American Idol"? Ever wondered what would happen if there were a comic book version of "American Idol?" CrossGen comics and Comic Book Resources at http://www.comicbookresources.com have teamed up to creates (imitate?) "Comic Book Idol". Contestants put in new artwork weekly (or weakly, heh! heh!) to be analyzed by hosts including Jamie S. Rich, Ron Marz, Erik Larson, and Joe Quesada.
If you think the American Idol judges are tough, wait to you read these guys!
The funny comments are from Larson who repeats 90% of his dribble for all contestants and has no idea what CrossGen characters are supposed to look like. (This begs the question "Who let him on the panel in the first place?" but he does know art.) Marz is initially tough and then insightful. You definitely know what he likes and does not like. Quesada is brief and to the point, and tries to be nice as he tells you that this and that your art is not very good.
I give kudos to Quesada for taking time out of his schedule to look at the artwork and provide comments. Especially after Alessi criticized him at MegaCon 2003.
Here's a brief except for the CrossGen website from moderator J. Torres
"In this talent contest, the audience decides who moves on to subsequent rounds, and it doesn't matter who Joe Quesada's favorite is, or how much Ron Marz wants to work with one contestant, or even how much Jamie Rich hates someone's art--ultimately the Comic Book Idol will be the people's choice," stated J. Torres. "Meanwhile, Ron Marz has been amazing! I mean, this man shows up the day after his third child is born--beat and sleep deprived--to post some very constructive criticism for our contestants that, in a couple of cases, put certain artists on cloud nine. He's gone above and beyond, and it's an honor that he is one of our judges...as well as one of our prizes."
