Note from JayJay: In the late 90s Jim got a book deal from a major NY publishing house to write a book on the comic book business. This is the book proposal that got him the deal. Unfortunately, the project proved too research intensive to do alone and he was unable to finish it. But this is a fascinating overview by a uniquely positioned insider of a point in time when the future of comics was seriously in question.
$UPER VILLAINS: The Decline and Fall of the Comic Book Industry
A Book proposal ©1998 by James C. Shooter
The Concept
A Mafioso loan shark who also happens to be an artist is inking a Superman page when an FBI organized crime sweep picks him up. A four-hundred-fifty pound publisher of soft-core porn comics, heartbroken over being ousted from the company he founded, rolls himself over the railing of the forty-fifth floor landing of the Marriott Marquis Times Square Atrium and craters in the elevator lobby below. A young cartoonist decides to get in the mood to draw his creature-of-the-night strip by prowling over the rooftops of Hellʼs Kitchen at midnight, leaping from building to building.
The comic book industry is chock full of colorful characters on and off the pages. The real-life characters are the most creative, and possibly the most dysfunctional group ever assembled. The comics industry has always been a tiny sideshow just off the entertainment midway, a bizarre little freak show of the nerds, by the nerds and for the nerds. Always brilliant, yet pathetic, wonderful, yet wretched, it has bumbled its way along since the early part of the century—a medium that has nonetheless created powerful ideas and timeless icons.
Meanwhile…
In their marbled lairs and Wall Street aeries, financial predators caught the scent of opportunity. Men like Mario Gabelli, Ronald O. Perelman, Herbert Allen and Carl Icahn have swooped to attack this plump, defenseless little business. Through evil machinations, they inflated its perceived worth until Marvel Comics alone had a market capitalization of nearly three billion dollars…
But, Marvel was a hollow giant. Moves made to provide short-term growth damaged its markets, drove away talent and cut out the companyʼs creative heart. Marvel was reminiscent of a rotting whaleʼs corpse—impressively big, but bloated by the gasses of its internal decay.
Other comics companies werenʼt spared. All across the industry, short-sighted greed and pillaging by Super Villains wreaked havoc. Collapse was inevitable.
In mid-1993 the comic book industry implosion began. Itʼs still going on. The once-thriving comics business is all but dead, now, its value strip mined away. Most of the Super Villains escaped, as free as O.J. Itʼs no wonder that during these last two decades, the comics themselves have become darker and grimmer. Super heroes are a futile and bitter lot these days, always failing, losing and impotently swearing vengeance.
Iʼve spent the last twenty years straddling the great divide between the business side and the creative side of the comic book industry. Iʼve been a writer, an editor, an executive and an owner—sometimes all at once. Iʼm intimately familiar with the rank and file employees and creators, to whom the Super Villains might as well be dark gods, beings beyond their ken at whose whim they suffer. Iʼve also had many direct dealings with the Super Villains. Iʼve fought against them in the boardroom and in the court room. Iʼve bid against them in the 1988 auction of Marvel Comics. Iʼm not a stranger in their world. I saw the fall of the industry from both sides.
$uper Villains, The Decline and Fall of the Comic Book Industry begins with a short overview of the tortured history of a schlocky little business that set out to be a shortterm fad but decades later was stunned to find itself still alive, surviving paper shortages, a Senate investigation and a slow erosion of sales to disastrously low levels.
Then, it tells the tale of the turnaround and rise to prosperity, which attracted the attention of the Super Villains, the resulting years of turmoil and meteoric crash, as I saw it from my unusual vantage point. Since much of my time was spent among the comic book ground troops during that time, my view of the ravaging of the industry necessarily includes up-close, behind the scenes stories about the weirdest people on the planet.
Events like The Coronation of the Tater Queen and The Great Marvel Whack-off Contest come to mind…
$uper Villains also necessarily includes some of my own story, beginning with becoming the youngest professional comics writer ever at age thirteen, working my way up through the ranks from associate editor to editor in chief and vice president, and finding myself, ultimately, battling Ronald O. Perelman and his ilk for control of Marvel. I was profoundly naive about business and finance when I arrived for my first day of work at Marvel, fresh off the plane from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with my suitcase in my hand, fifteen bucks in my pocket and no idea where I was going to sleep that night. As the crisis in the comics kingdom evolved, and as I moved up the ladder, I had to learn about what was happening because I couldnʼt learn to bury my head in the sand. I suppose itʼs because I read too many Spider-Man comics when I was a kid. As he would say, “With great power comes great responsibility.” To the Super Villains, the comic book business in general and Marvel in particular represented the opportunity to make a play with reckless disregard for long-term consequences, but to the people I worked with every day, it was their livelihoods, their careers, and often, in a somewhat pathetic way, their lives. When I saw evil threatening, I felt like I had to do something about it. If only Iʼd been able to duck into a phone booth, change into my costume and punch out the bad guysʼ lamps to solve the problem…
What I did do was possibly just as ridiculous, often foolish, sometimes funny and ultimately unsuccessful. I used whatever clout I had inside Marvel to resist the machinations of the predators, and got fired, I raised money to bid for Marvel, and lost, I started my own company, and had it stolen out from under me by Super Villains.
But, I made a valiant effort. Iʼd like to think Spider-Man would be proud of me. The experience has given me an incredible story to tell. And, the fact is, itʼs not quite over yet.
Bankrupt, in the hands of a Trustee, Marvel Comics is for sale again…
Hmm.
Wouldnʼt it be a proper comic book ending if the good guys could ride to the rescue at the darkest hour?
The Author
No one else could possibly write this book. My experiences with the corporate raiders and financial predators who came to plunder Marvel and other comic book companies, combined with my extensive background in the comic book business, give me a unique perspective. No one else has written Spider-Man stories for Marvel and also bid against Ronald O. Perelman in an attempt to buy the company.
In 1965, at age thirteen—a world record—I began writing Superman and other comics for National Periodical Publications, Inc., publishers of DC Comics. I worked with longtime chief editor Mort Weisinger, who taught me a great deal about creating comics, and the business of comics as well. Later, I also worked closely with and learned much from Stan Lee, one of the founders of Marvel Comics.
In 1978, when I became editor in chief of Marvel Comics, the comic book industry was in steep decline. Over the course of several years, we turned it around, and Marvel emerged as the dominant leader of a revitalized industry. Our new, booming success was well publicized. We might as well have chummed the waters of Wall Street.
During 1983, corporate raider Mario Gabelli began and attempt to takeover Cadence Industries, Inc., Marvelʼs parent company. After a long, bitter struggle, from which Gabelli emerged significantly richer, Cadence was taken private by chairman Shelly Feinberg and the board of directors. Soon thereafter, a number of attempts were made to sell crown-jewel Marvel. Viacom, Western Publishing, under Richard Bernstein, and several other potential buyers backed away, but finally New World Pictures bought Marvel in late 1986.
While Marvel was on the block, the previous owners were stunningly short-sighted, even self-destructively so at times, but shortly after the new owners took over, I realized that they were intent on setting a New World record for myopia. Disgusted, I left Marvel in Spring of 1987. New World, so ineptly run by Larry Kuppin, Harry Sloan and Bob Rehme that, at one point, it was losing over a million dollars a day, was forced to sell Marvel at auction in 1988.
Having had an education in the buying and selling of companies forced on me during my time at Marvel, with the help of Chase, N.A., I raised money and entered a bid of $81 million. However, through his Andrews Group, Ronald O. Perelman (who was an insider at New World, by the way) narrowly outbid me and wound up with Marvel. I wound up with another education.
Since then, Iʼve started three comic book companies, only to discover that financial predators by no means confine themselves to big targets like Marvel. The parade of people Iʼve dealt with—and sometimes struggled against—includes Herbert Allen, Enrique Senior, Victor Kaufman, Lew Korman, Michael Ovitz, Wayne Huyzienga, Charles Lazarus, Tom Riefenheiser, Gordon Rich, Michael Lynn, Bob Shea, Michael Lynton, Bill Bevins, Dick Snyder and Lorne Michaels. Iʼve been the subject of a feature article in Forbes Magazine (June 12, 1993), which recounted one of my battles involving Allen and Company, and Iʼve often been interviewed by and quoted on the subject of the comics industry in The Wall street Journal, The New York times, Crainʼs and many other well-known publications.
All through this, Iʼve kept an eye on Marvel. Thanks to the many contacts Iʼve accumulated along the way, both in the comics business and in the financial world, Iʼve had a ringside seat for the struggle between Ronald Perelman, Carl Icahn and others over the remains of Marvel, which entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 28, 1996. Marvel was the leader of what was once a billion dollar a year industry. Unfortunately, the industry is so dependent upon Marvel to attract customers into stores, inspire interest, and serve as the economic bedrock of the business that, as Marvel has dwindled and weakened, the entire industry has crumbled. Greed, inept management and callous disregard are destroying an industry, the lives of people who depend upon it, and an artform.
Friends of mine in the comic book business have often asked me to write this book. No one else could—and itʼs a story that ought to be told.
Table of Contents
Introduction: “This Man, This Monster”
Super Villains fight dirty. Theyʼll slime you.
Chapter One: “Days of Future Past”
The tawdry, tacky, lightly checkered history of the only other American artform besides Jazz, the future we had and how we blew it.
Chapter Two: “What Price Power?”
Cadence Industriesʼ boardʼs epic and expensive struggle against Mario Gabelli, culminating in the boardʼs taking the company private.
Chapter Three: “New World Aʼborninʼ”
New World Picturesʼ junk-bond financed purchase of Marvel Comics, and subsequent plunge into the abyss.
Chapter Four: “If This Be My Destiny”
My attempt to buy Marvel and deliver it from the clutches of the Philistines.
Chapter Five: “The Perelman Cometh”
The Ronald O. Perelman era at Marvel, during which the company was inflated, much like the Hindenberg.
Chapter Six: “Turning Point”
My attempts to buy Harvey Comics, create a comics publishing division for Disney, and start up a comics company, leading to the launch of VALIANT, which became a huge success.
Chapter Seven: “By a Friend…Betrayed!”
The scheme involving my partner, his bedmate, who was a principal of the venture capital company that funded us, her brother and others from Allen and Company by which I was ousted from VALIANT. VALIANT was then sold for $65 million. Machiavelli himself would have blushed.
Chapter Eight: “Man on a Rampage”
My start-up of another company, DEFIANT. DEFIANT ended in disaster as Marvel began to collapse, the market began to contract and deals with Savoy Pictures and New Line Pictures failed to close in time to save us.
Chapter Nine: “The Web of the Snyder” (or “Along Came a Snyder”)
My start-up of Broadway Comics in partnership with Lorne Michaelsʼ Broadway Video Entertainment. We were sold to Golden Books Family Entertainment and subsequently “Dicked.”
Chapter Ten: “When Titans Clash”
Carl Icahn and Ronald Perelmanʼs war over the right to pick the corpse of Marvel.
Appropriately, Chapter Eleven “Their Darkest Hour”
After a year in bankruptcy, the judge finally appointed a trustee. Breaking up is so very hard to do.
Epilogue: “The Final Chapter?”
Is it over for the comics industry? Or is it possible that, like a Phoenix from the ashes it will rise again?
Chapter Overviews (Part 1)
Introduction: “This Man, This Monster”
The introduction to Super Villains illustrates the nature of the game Super Villains play, and itʼs not just buy low sell high. Itʼs a cowboy business—there are few rules on the range. A would-be buyer of a company who spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on due diligence, only to discover that the auction was rigged by a Super Villain insider shrugs it off like a fisherman whoʼs lost his bait. There is no cost-effective legal recourse—better to move on to the next deal. Cheaters prosper. “Business ethics” is an oxymoron. Board members operate in their own interests—screw the stockholders.
Down the line in management, executives are expected to help the Super Villains strip mine the company and are rewarded for doing so. One key thing required of them is lying to the employees: “We want them to think this so letʼs tell them that.” Spin control to keep the troops marching is essential. They may be marching right into the whirling blades, but so what? Nothing personal. Itʼs just business.
Donʼt misunderstand. Super Villains is no paean to blue collar honesty or the heroic worker. Employees and creators in the comic book business have routinely been sucked in by the manipulations of their exploiters because of their own greed. An amazingly small bonus and the promise of future success under a new regime is often all it takes to secure gung-ho support form the employees. Itʼs all part of creating the illusion of value which is, in fact, what Super Villains cash in on.
If you stand in their way or oppose them you find out very quickly that Super Villains fight dirty. They have money, power, influence, clever lawyers and good PR people.
They can hurt you in many ways.
In the course of my battles against them, theyʼve threatened me, harassed me, fired me, had me spied upon, had me followed by private investigators, had my office ransacked and my files stolen. Theyʼve sued me spuriously several times, and, though Iʼve always defended myself successfully, the cost in time and resources has been crippling—which was the point, of course. Worst of all, theyʼve spared no effort to destroy my reputation.
In the comic books, super villains typically cackle, rub their hands gleefully and boast about their wickedness. Real world Super Villains, however, always claim the moral high ground. Some of the really twisted ones even believe that they hold it. They present themselves to the employees of target companies as good guys, even saviors. At the same time they demonize whoever opposes them.
Me, for instance. Iʼve been slimed—and itʼs made life difficult.
For example, in 1989, after being outbid for Marvel by Perelman—who was an insider at New World Entertainment, the seller—I needed a job. I thought Iʼd found one until Michael Lynton, then marketing VP of The Walt Disney Company, reneged on his promise to install me as head of the new comic book publishing division they were forming. The reason, he said, was that theyʼd done their usual background checking and had been informed by a number of sources that I was literally a monster. It had been said that while I was editor in chief of Marvel Iʼd been a megalomaniacal, raving tyrant that no one who knew me or knew of me—in other words, no one in the comic book business—would ever work for. Disney Comics would be boycotted if I worked there. I was a pariah.
The information, Lynton said, flew in the face of his own experience with me. Iʼd been working with him for six months as a consultant, helping to develop the business plan and creative strategy. Weʼd gotten along fine. He said heʼd found me eminently reasonable, level-headed and easy to work with. Maybe, he said, Iʼd reformed since my Marvel days…
I tried to explain how the several Super Villains Iʼd vied against over Marvel had rewarded anyone who denounced me, punished anyone who sided with me, generally vilified me and blamed me for everything except the Challenger disaster.
Lynton was sympathetic, but said that Disney couldnʼt take a chance on me.
As it turned out, no one would. I ended up starting my own company and creating a job for myself. Disney, meanwhile, hired someone else.
A year later, Michael Lynton called and apologized. As heʼd gotten more involved in the comic book business and learned more about what had happened at Marvel, he realized that what Iʼd told him was true. He said he sincerely regretted not hiring me, a vindication which meant a great deal to me.
Later, Michael Lynton personally invested in one of my start-ups and even served on the board. He is currently CEO and president of Viking Penguin, and we remain friendly.
Thatʼs generally how it works. They smear you wholesale. You have to prove them wrong one person at a time.
If the idea of people falling for such a transparent smear campaign seems fantastic to you, you donʼt understand the stunning naiveté of the comic book community, professionals and fans alike. It was easy for the Super Villains to make comic book people, who after all love super heroes and super villains to believe that Iʼm Doctor Doom.
To this day, it is commonly held that anyone who had a dispute with Marvel during my tenure there was actually having a problem with me personally. A beloved artist having a dispute with Marvel over the return of his originals became “Jim Shooter wonʼt give Jack Kirby his artwork back.” A small publisher alleging unfair trade practices became “Jim Shooter flooded the market to drive First Comics out of business.” A film deal falling through became “Jim Shooter ruined the Laurel Entertainment deal.”
They even managed to reverse good parts of my reputation. For instance, while Iʼm the one who installed virtually every benefit and incentive program for artists that Marvel has, it is now a generally considered fact that I was the Great Enemy of creatorsʼ rights while at Marvel.
Once Iʼd been slimed, it got easier and easier for Super Villains to slime me again. My legend still grows. The kindest mentions in business and trade media call me “controversial.” Every business transaction I undertake begins with trying to convince investors, partners or employers that Iʼm not so bad. One potential investor, Centre Partners, demanded, and I provided, one hundred references from reputable people in the trade refuting my alleged monster-hood. Others simply werenʼt interested in getting involved with someone so “controversial” no matter how many hoops I jumped through.
Nonetheless, Iʼve managed to survive and, periodically, in my Grandma Elsieʼs words, “rise up and strive again.” Iʼm not through fighting the Super Villains yet, but I think itʼs time to tell the story so far. They may not like it, but so what? Nothing personal. Itʼs just the truth.
Next week: $UPER VILLAINS Part 2
Four Color Sinners
Ms. Jackson- Thank you for taking the time and making this available.
Mr. Shooter’s archives are undoubtedly an invaluable resource.