Thread by @GailSimone

Okay, this isn't a full-on Story TIme With Gail, this is just a few random little bits of my personal experiences with @JoeQuesada. It'll take a few minutes, but I'm tired of seeing this guy be misrepresented.

This first part is a bit controversial, but I lived it, I knew all the players though I was not yet writing as a pro. There was a time when Marvel was in real trouble. Financial trouble, creative trouble, everything. And no one was sure what to do.

They were playing it too safe. Some aren't going to like to hear this, but it was a new age in a way, because of the internet. Editors were getting direct, immediate feedback. And it became almost like orders...no one wanted their favorite character to ever make a mistake.

I'm not saying this as an allegory, it has nothing to do with comicsgate. This was a previous situation that was a new status quo, and people wanted to avoid that negative feedback. Marvel was playing it VERY safe.

But creators and editors don't want purely safe stories, that gets boring fast. Readers don't want it either, and you could see interest was waning in some spots of the line.

So Marvel opened up OTHER versions of their characters; Marvel Knights, Ultimate Universe, whatever the thing was with Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld (it's late, I don't recall what that initiative was titled).

And in those imprints, the heroes could mess up, you could change things, and you wouldn't get a wave of angry readers who felt they should have a large role in directing stories.

I am not judging, this wasn't malicious, it was a new experience for everyone that you could talk to editors and they'd talk right back to you in real time. It was new for everyone.

Then @joequesada and @jimmypalmiotti came along and with Marvel Knights, they threw that rule book out the window. They hired people who could not easily be caged, and produced a ton of hit books AND told great stories.

And part of it was, forgive me for saying, but it's true, they didn't listen to anyone. They said, "let's tell the best story we can with whatever character we work on."
And it worked. The books sold great, and Marvel Knights helped wake people up.

We all love readers. We want them to be happy. But the whole IMPACT of drama is surprise. And it's easy to forget that. Previews, teasers, all that stuff can lessen that feeling of, "I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING."

Later, I was still not a pro, I was writing a comedy column about comics online, in my spare time. But I took it deadly seriously. And Joe was a big fan of it. When Garth Ennis refused to go online, Jimmy would send him copies to read.

And Joe would send little emails, that I'm telling you, were a big deal to a hairdresser from Oregon who had long since given up any dreams of writing as a professional. He got the jokes, even the ones that were aimed at him a little bit and he always laughed with grace.

One day I wrote a column about him and said that game wardens had tagged his ear and dropped him off in the woods. I don't know why that was funny, or even IF it was funny, but it made me laugh so shut up. : ) Joe was great about it, he wasn't insecure.

One day, out of the blue, I get a message from him. "Can I call?" And I panicked, you guys. I didn't know if he was mad, I didn't know anything. But it was the head honcho at MARVEL COMICS and I freaked out. Yes, Joe, you can call.

He calls and he had this accent I wasn't prepared for, and I didn't have the best phone line. I have told this part of the story before, but I'll say it again because I think it's funny. I messed up on phone calls with Joe TWICE.

First, and again, barely getting what he's saying, he says they are about to cancel Deadpool and they need a hail Mary pass. Remember, I have ZERO big two experience. I was the wrong gender, the wrong experience, the wrong location, everything.

None of that mattered to Joe. He thought I could do it. He said, I want DP to be laugh out loud funny again.
And he had several other pros doing pitches, some of them were big names, some were heroes. One was a dear friend.
Welcome to comics, it's a little rough at times!

So I did a pitch for twelve issues. I didn't know how to do it, so I just wrote it to be as funny and with as much heart as I could muster. Jimmy calls me back, I ask how it went, and he said, "Editors are asking to borrow the pitch to read on their own time, you're in."

I freaked out. And it changed my life and I cannot thank Joe enough. But the key of the story is, he runs Marvel. He couldl have asked ANYBODY. He had every name in the rolodex. But he gave me that first shot.

And again, part of the success was Joe NOT doing what was expected, not doing what was 'gaining traction online' or any of that stuff. He read the pitch and said, "this is what we're going with."
I really loved that time, even if there were mistakes made. Because risks are fun.

PLENTY of other people in that role would never have taken that chance. And we ran the sales way up, reviews were great, Agent X did even better. So that's who Joe is. When something didn't work, he tried a NEW thing. I loved that.

The editors of Deadpool and Agent X were my favorite, and partly because of our success, they got promoted to run the X-Men books. The new editor, I didn't get at all, and he wanted someone else for the book, and it just didn't work. It happens.

So Marvel invited me to SDCC, my first con, it was freaky and weird, and Geoff Johns and Jeph Loeb came and scouted me for Birds of Prey and at one point literally took me by the arm to talk to the editor. It was Barbara Gordon. I couldn't turn it down.

And here's how classy @joequesada is. I'll never forget it. Remember, aside from running Marvel, he was ALSO one of the most popular artists in comics. And instead of being mad that I was leaving for Marvel, he sent a lovely, kind and gracious congratulations. And something else.

He said that, to see me off right on my new book, he would do the cover of the first issue.
Now, he didn't have to do that. I was already so grateful. But I can't explain what a big gesture that is. It would have made a HUGE difference in sales. It would have been huge news.

"MARVEL HEAD DRAWS COVER FOR FIRST ISSUE OF NEW WRITER'S RUN ON BIRDS OF PREY."

At that time, that would have been explosive. I freaked out.

Sadly, the DC execs of that time were a little salty about Marvel. And they turned it down. And we did okay. But MAN, what a shame!

That kind gesture has never left me. I didn't work for Marvel again for a long, long time. I had a long-running DC exclusive, and I was incredibly happy there. But I never forgot what Joe had done for me. And we would talk, but rarely. Years would pass between emails.

Fast forward a bunch of years, we've barely spoken. I am really struggling with editorial in the bat-offices, long story, I've told it before. But the thing is, I was bummed, but also relieved because it had been REALLY stressful.

And when the news was announced, I got calls and emails from EVERYONE. This is the part of the story I couldn't talk about at the time. But it was a huge deal, made the legitimate press, all this stuff, it was baffling.

What I was not allowed to say was this...I HAD ALREADY BEEN RE-HIRED. But i wasn't allowed to say. DC wanted to do a press release to get the reaction to calm down. It's a big weird, ultimately funny story, but it's complicated. Every top person at DC called, I was hired back.

But it was the weekend, and there was one day before the call to get me back. And that day, I WAS kind of bummed, we had worked so hard, had a consistently excellent selling book AND outlasted almost every other New52 team. So it was weirdm and that Saturday, I was bummed.

I got two emails that I was not expecting that day, from people I hadn't spoken to in years. Brian Bendis and Joe Quesada. Now, I wasn't working at Marvel, and these guys WERE Marvel. And their two emails changed my whole perspective.

They said similar things, at the time I couldn't see them. But they were dead right.

Joe wrote and said, "you don't know this now, but this is going to be the best thing that ever happened to you. It's going to open up the world."

That made NO SENSE to me, and I thought they were just trying to cheer me up. But because it was Brian and especially because it was Joe, I believed them even if I didn't see the light, exactly. But more than that, it was just such a kind thing, for the busiest guy in comics.

SO like that little girl in Miracle On 34th Street, I was like, "I believe, I believe, it's silly but I believe..."

And it was true, it was the best thing, because it helped me realize what I truly want to do in comics. Shorter runs on varied titles. Make an impact and go. :)

And Joe was dead right, the next day my phone was off the hook with people offering me stuff I wouldn't even have imagined. It was so liberating, and it changed how I choose assignments. I take the jobs that make me happy. That's it!

Those are my @joequesada stories. He gave me my first big two work, he encouraged me all along, and when I was working for his competition, he reached out to give the best comics advice I've ever received.

Say what you like.
But that my friends, is a solid dude!

Ps. I should add that this was a weird slippery spot in my time at DC, long since patched up. It's been my home in comics for a long time and I dearly love it and the new52 was freaky for everyone. :)

Ps, also, a couple times I said Jimmie when I meant Joe, and Jimmie’s correct handle is @jpalmiotti. Sorry, Jimmie!

I was sleepy!