Frank Darabont: Well, I’d love to reprint Steve’s story in a gorgeous but unpretentious small edition. Even though he’s not fond of limiteds, he’s thinking it over right now. The last time I heard from him, he said to me, “Frank, I might agree to this, but only if you agree to also include your screenplay adaptation, plus some of the pre-production monster art you’ve been doing.” My reply was, “Gee, Steve, twist my arm.” My name on the spine of a book alongside Stephen King’s? Are you kidding me? Hell, yes! I’m there!
Lilja: In the same interview Stephen King says he isn’t that fond of limited editions. What is your comment on that?
Frank Darabont: When I read your interview with Stephen King (wonderful interview, congratulations), I had to laugh when I read his comments about limited edition books. I laughed because he and I have had this debate many times. It is a loving debate, as only friends can have. After I read the interview, I sent him an email that said: “Steve, contrary to your notion that people who buy limiteds never read them, I’ve read every single one of mine, some of them more than once. I had the gigantic ’Salem’s Lot limited from Centipede Press, all twenty pounds of it, resting on my stomach for three nights in a row as I lay in bed. Not only did I enjoy every word of it, but it also strengthened my stomach muscles. And last year I reread that gorgeous The Stand limited edition published some fifteen years ago that looked like the Bible and came in a wooden box.” (That The Stand limited was actually a gift to me from Steve, which was incredibly generous of him!)
I went on to tell him: “I agree it’s absurd to put a book on a shelf and never touch it, as if it were some holy relic instead of a book. That’s like being afraid to open a bottle of wine because it’s too expensive and rare, or afraid to drive a classic car for the same reason. Wine is meant to be drunk, books are meant to be read, classic cars are meant to be driven—and I do all three!” (He responded by suggesting that I refrain from doing all three at the same time.)
As I’ve told Steve in the past, I really feel that presenting a beloved book as a limited edition is a way to honor that literary work and the author responsible for it. The people who create these limiteds do so because they love the books; it shows in the care and quality and effort they put into creating them. I feel it’s a huge compliment to the book and its author. I became email friends with Jared Walters (who runs Centipede Press) because I was so knocked out by that awesome huge ’Salem’s Lot he published. So, I got in touch to compliment him on it; I sent him a fan letter. And it was very clear to me as we emailed back and forth that he published that limited for one very compelling reason: Jared read ’Salem’s Lot when he was younger, and it changed his life. He loves that book so much that he wanted to honor it, make something special of it, like putting a painting in a perfect frame and hanging it on a wall with just the right lighting. (Jared still hopes to do The Shining some day as a limited, and I hope that Steve will eventually allow him. The Shining is the very first Stephen King book I ever read, so it’s very special to me; it’s the book that turned me on to King and led me to be a lifelong fan. It stands as one of Steve’s all-time best works, and my personal favorite.)
As for people who buy these books, like me, they do so for the same reason: we love the book. I certainly wouldn’t buy a limited of a book I didn’t care for just as an investment, or some other silly reason—but for a book I love, how wonderful to have a special edition of it! I’ve told Steve that as long as the books are also available in low-cost trade editions (“books for the people,” as Steve admirably calls them), then what harm is there in doing a small number of special editions for loony, hardcore book lovers like me? It is the difference between buying a gorgeous custom-made chair lovingly handmade by an artisan who withholds no effort in crafting it, and buying a cheap mass-produced chair at Ikea. You can sit on both, they serve the same function, but the aesthetic of the handcrafted chair makes it a piece of art in itself.
Here’s another analogy I’ve given Steve. You can go see a flawless 65mm print of Lawrence of Arabia in a beautiful theatre with great projection and sound, or you can watch it on a crappy videotape at home. You’re seeing the same movie, all the words are there, but the experience is vastly different. The same thing holds true for a book. You can read something on acid-free paper with a hand-sewn binding that your great-grandchildren can read because the book will last for centuries, or you can pick up a paperback that’ll turn yellow and fall apart after a few readings.
When I have reverence for a literary work (as I obviously do for King’s oeuvre), I love the sense of event and ritual involved in reading a special edition. Opening the box or pulling it from the slipcase…the smell of the binding, the quality of the paper…it’s an experience that says: “This book is special to me.” It’s like seeing that flawless print of Lawrence of Arabia in a theatre: by indulging ourselves in the best presentation of that experience, we not only heighten our enjoyment of it, but we also honor the artist who spent years developing his talent and has put so much effort into creating this piece of art that we love. To put it another way, there’s just simply a big difference between seeing Monet’s Waterlillies reproduced in a book, and seeing the actual canvasses hanging on the wall at the Monet Museum.
Anyway, that’s my side of the debate. I love Steve and respect his opinions enormously, but I’m sure our debate will continue and we’ll never totally see eye-to-eye on this. Steve always responds to my impassioned perspective by making gagging sounds and yelling, “Books for the people!” I respond to him: “Thank you, Karl Marx, but I want my fucking limiteds. As long as the people aren’t starving, I occasionally want filet mignon and a bottle of Mouton Rothschild.” It’s a pretty funny debate, because Steve and I are politically identical. We’re both liberal democrats who believe in compassion and fairness, that everybody in our society should be cared for. But when it comes to limiteds, I’m more like Marie Antoinette: “Let them read paperbacks.”
Lilja: I wish you the best of luck with all your upcoming projects, and once again, thanks for agreeing to do this interview and please feel free to stop by the site any time!
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Joe Quesada
Posted: April 16, 2007
Lilja: So, you’re doing The Dark Tower as a comic?
Joe Quesada: Yes, we are.
Lilja: I have read the first issue and I really like what you have done with it.
Joe Quesada: Thank you so much.
Lilja: How did you get involved in the comic?
Joe Quesada: The deal was presented to me by my art publisher here, Dan Buckley. Dan was in contact with Mr. King’s agent and they where discussing the possibilities of doing something, and The Dark Tower came up. So, Dan asked what I thought. He thought it was a great idea to get in the business to publish Mr. King’s novels in adaptations of the stories. I thought it was great. I mean, I always wanted to work with Stephen King, so it was kind of a dream come true. And, I also saw it as a way to have comics reach out further into the mainstream.
Lilja: I understand you said at a Comic-Con that you wanted to work with Stephen King and that that was what got the ball rolling.
Joe Quesada: Maybe, I don’t know. I like to think so. It was probably a self-fulfilling prophecy. I do panels on all the conventions I go to, and at one of the panels one of the fans asked me, “What is the holy grail? If you can have one person do something at Marvel, who would it be?” I said, without a question, “Stephen King would be the person I’d want here at Marvel.” Just to do something with him. And shortly after that we started hearing rumors that something was cooking, so I don’t know if one thing led to another or if we were are all thinking likeminded, but I’m happy it happened regardless.
Lilja: You later also hinted that, I guess at a later Comic-Con, Marvel and King would do something, and online rumors started that the King you alluded to was actually Stephen King.
Joe Quesada: Yes, exactly. That was a fun thing to do because within the comic when you s
ay “The King” or you say “King” people immediately think of Jack Kirby, who’s known as the King of Comics or King Kirby, so it was actually an interesting promotional stunt we did because we were also doing a project with the Kirby family, with Jack Kirby’s daughter, that involves old concepts that Jack had created before he passed away. So, we were working with two Kings at the same time, but that ad was really focusing on Stephen King. Then we released the news about the Kirby project and people thought, “Well, that was what they were talking about,” and then no, no; we hit them in the head the second time with the Stephen King announcement.
Lilja: Were you surprised that people were guessing it was actually Stephen King so fast?
Joe Quesada: No, it’s not a stretch. I think a lot of people thought about it but they said, “Ah, that couldn’t happen, there’s no way.” We have very ravenous fans that love what it is we do, which I think is what makes it such a wonderful marriage. I know that Stephen King fans are the same as Marvel fans. They wanna gobble up anything that Mr. King creates or has a hand in, so somebody is always gonna guess right when you start the guessing game, so it didn’t trouble me at all. I was happy there was a buzz going around about the actual possibility of it.
Lilja: It sure was. People were guessing what stories there would be if it was actually Stephen King. Was it Stephen King who suggested The Dark Tower?
Joe Quesada: I’m assuming it came from Mr. King. We began the discussion with his agent, but they were probably thinking about The Dark Tower. Mr. King was in the process of writing the last novel so…It was interesting because we at first thought we were doing straight adaptations of the novels. I thought it was cool, but Mr. King said, “No, no, we’re gonna do some new material, some material that we touch upon in the novels but never went into great detail, but we will in the comics.” I thought, “Wow, that’s it. That’s what’s gonna make this beyond special at this point.” Because now it’s not just…you know, if you’re a fan of The Dark Tower you’re like, “Yeah, let me see what it looks like in comic form.” You may wanna do that or you may not wanna do that, but now if you’re a fan of The Dark Tower and you feel like the story is complete, you’re like, “Now, wait a minute, they’re telling more stories?” I think that is a great thing.
Lilja: That is very nice. Are you nervous about when the first arc is done and you’re heading for the new material? How it will be received by the fans?
Joe Quesada: No, I’m not, because this all comes from the head of Stephen King. If Mr. King wasn’t involved I’d be a little more nervous because now we’re adapting, we’re trying to get into his head, trying to figure out what it is he may want to do. He is so involved in the process. Everything from looking at the art, reading the final scripts after the plot comes in. And also, Robin Furth is involved, and I’m sure you’re aware of how important she is to The Dark Tower, so the whole King family is involved in this, and the Marvel family’s involved, so I think between what it is that they do well and what we do well, and we understand what each one does well, and we stand out of each other’s way. I think it’s a recipe for success. At least I hope so. I hope The Dark Tower fans are happy because I know that the comic fans are really happy. Especially those who haven’t picked up The Dark Tower books; they are really blown away by it. What I hear from a lot of fans is, “I have to go and pick up these books. This looks really cool.”
Lilja: I’m interested in hearing the reaction from people who haven’t read the books. Do they have any problems following the story?
Joe Quesada: That was the key for when we did the first issue. The Dark Tower is a huge saga with hundreds of characters. We wanted to make sure that the first cast we introduced was hopefully the most important characters going forward from this point. But also, if you have read the books, you’ll notice that we took a lot of time to try to introduce everyone properly. If you’re coming into this for the first time, you’ll understand who the players are and at least get a sense of how they are moving forward.
Lilja: Are you worried at all over the size of this project? There are going to be something like thirty issues, right?
Joe Quesada: No, in the business I’m in we produce approximately seventy to eighty comics a month, and about eighty to ninety percent of those are serialized, so thirty comics don’t really faze me one way or the other. To be honest with you, I go like, “That’s it? Just thirty?” [laugh]
Lilja: [laugh] I’m sure there will be more after those thirty.
Joe Quesada: I’d like to think so. We’re having a lot of fun, and on our end we’d love to do more, but at the end of the day it’s really up to Mr. King.
Lilja: What is your role in creating the comics? Are you supervising every move or…
Joe Quesada: I couldn’t supervise every move of all our books. As the editor-in-chief I overlook the entire line and make sure that the quality of the books is at the top, at the very best they can be. That the talent that works for us is happy, that we go after the best talent, artists and writers, whatever that may be. So, I’m responsible for all the books. With The Dark Tower I make sure to look over a shoulder every once in a while, but the other thing is that The Dark Tower was handed to one of our top editors here, Ralph Macchio, who has been at Marvel for over thirty years. He has also read the books through and through. He was lobbying to be the editor on the project; he loves the books.
Lilja: How did you prepare for the project? Had you read the books before or did you have to read up on them?
Joe Quesada: To be honest with you I wasn’t a reader of The Dark Tower. While I had read Stephen King’s books, The Dark Tower was one that I hadn’t gotten to. The way that I prepared for the project was very, very simple. During the time that we found out and when I was going to meet Mr. King there was no way I was going to be able to read all the books. So, what I did was that I took the first book…One of the things I wanted to impress Mr. King with is the fact that…if you haven’t picked up a comic book lately, especially over the last five years…the world of comics has really changed considerably. The way the art looks, the quality of the writing. Everything about modern day comics is completely different and much more sophisticated and more beautiful than I think most people remember. Most people remember it as sort of a quaint little art form that was mostly geared toward kids, and that’s not really what we’re all about anymore…
So, one of the things I wanted to do was…I had taken the first book and was obviously very familiar with the opening lines, which are now famous, and decided that what I was going to do was create a three page…just do the first three pages of what would be in the comic book if Mr. King wanted us to produce it. So, I broke down that first line, and broke it down to a three-page little vignette, which are, by the way, the three first pages of the book as you see them now. And then took that and presented it to the artist and colorist who we wanted to do the book, Jae Lee and Richard Isanove. I said, “Hey guys, when Mr. King comes here he isn’t expecting this, but I’m willing to present him with this piece.” So, they did a beautiful job, and then we took that and we blew them up to almost like poster size. So, when Mr. King came into the office I said, “I know we don’t have a deal or anything, but I just wanted to show you what’s possible,” and I presented him with the artwork and showed it to him and he was floored by it. And I know we had him because when he was leaving the meeting he said, “By the way, do you mind if I take those boards?” That was very cool!
Lilja: Yeah, I was very surprised by how good it looked. And I especially like, and I don’t know if this is common in the comics now, how the illustrations go all the way from left to right…
Joe Quesada: That is more of a stylistic thing that happens depending on the artist. But yes, it gives a panoramic, cinematic kind of feel to it.
Lilja: Yeah, kind of a widescreen feeling.
Joe Quesada: Exactly.
Lilja: It looks very good.
Joe Quesada: And then the computer coloring, which is now
a staple of comic books today. It’s not that flat coloring that most people remember.
Lilja: I read that you originally planned to do two different versions of the comic. One as it is now and one with just Jae’s sketches.
Joe Quesada: That’s something Jae wanted at one point. He had never really been digitally painted. He was just of the traditional pen-and-ink method in comics. And I was the one pushing Jae to try the digital painting: “I’m gonna give you the best guy in the business, Richard Isanove, who has digitally painted me in the past.” And Jae said, “OK, but I want a second version with the ink,” and I said, “Yeah, OK, fine.” Then when he saw the digital painting he was like, “Wow, forget the other version, this is the version I want out there.” So, that’s the way Jae tells the story.
Lilja: And you actually did one of the covers?
Joe Quesada: Yes, I did one of the covers.
Lilja: Did you actually do the cover yourself?
Joe Quesada: Yeah, I drew it, and it was digitally painted by Richard Isanove as well.
Lilja: It’s very nice. I really like it.
Joe Quesada: Thank you.
Lilja: I understand that at the beginning there were only supposed to be different covers for the first issue and just one cover for the rest?
Joe Quesada: I don’t know about that. You have to ask our marketing people. I don’t know what the plan was with that.
Lilja: Are you worried at all that some people may think that different covers are just a way for Marvel to squeeze more money out of this?
Joe Quesada: You know, the alternative covers phenomenon has been with comics for the last twenty years. The people that really appreciate those are our retail partners, who hold them as premiums. But at the end of the day we’re not forcing anyone to buy anything. We just put them out there and some people really enjoy collecting the multiple covers. And the truth of the matter is that those additional covers are mostly for the comic book shops. When these books are compiled and sent to the bookstores they’ll go out like regular books and they’ll probably have the additional covers on the inside where you can see them if you want to see what they were all about.
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