Live Chat With Jim Shooter - Monday August 15th - 8:30PM EST

[greg]

Thank you so much for joining the fans on the site.

Here's my question:
You've seen 50 years of the comic industry from the inside. There has never been a time with the amount of pop culture recognition worldwide that we've seen in the past decade-plus with movies... but comic sales are so much lower than prior decades. What do you see changing in the comic industry (if anything) when the general audiences tire of comic-based movies?

[vikingspawn]

Hi Jim! Big fan of your work on the Defiant & Broadway Comics.

Was it in the works to merge in the Defiant characters into the Broadway Comics Universe had the imprint gone on longer?

What kind of work did you do for Continuity Comics in the '80s? Anything published from there?

[Ladakh]

Can you briefly tell the story of how, after Acclaim recieved my "VALIANT: 1999" book that they decided totally out of the blue to make Unity 2000?

[Jim_Shooter]

My relationship with Bob Layton is none. In exchange for a great deal of money, $4 million, according to my ex-partner Winston Fowlkes, who was privy to what went on, plus a big salary for a couple of years and dividends he stabbed me in the back. So did Jin Hartz. The white collar criminals who stole VALIANT -- Massarsky, his wife, who was the venture capitalist who funded us, and their lackeys, like Fred Pierce,gave Bob stock, I was told, and when you are trying to sell a company, generally you clean the cash out in dividends, so he was part of the thirty million or so pool. He is scum.

[Ladakh]

I do know Acclaim paid him off to stay then paid him off to write "Dr. Tomorrow" then paid him off to retire.

[greg]

Given the rise of the internet since the time of VALIANT and the generally-accepted standards for written/typed communication online, is it "ok" with you if Valiant is no longer capitalized by your fans?
(Or are we still obligated to "yell" VALIANT even when we're not "yelling"?)

[Ladakh]

VALIANT refers to the books I gave Jim, Valiant refers to everything since.

[Jim_Shooter]

vikingspawn, I think the main reason comics these days sell poorly is because they aren't good. The art is great but often the storytelling is unclear. The artists are making pages for the aftermarket, not to serve the story. Some of the writers are talented but "decompressed" writing makes the stories move glacially. The movies are exciting. They're units of entertainment that tell a whole story, usually well. The comics tend to be dark and less exciting, and each issue/unit has only a piece of the story (if there is one at all). In the 80's media exposure sold books. Now, there just isn't enough relationship between the comics and the films. Mark Waid, by the way, is great.

[vikingspawn]

Have you ever considered starting a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign to fund a new comic book project? Or better yet, a line of multiple new comics?

[mramsterdam]

Hello Jim, i know you created Rai.Would you have introduced the other Rai's if you would have kept writing?

[greg]

VALIANT refers to the books I gave Jim, Valiant refers to everything since.

I'm not asking for YOUR opinion tonight; I can get that anytime.

[greg]

Another question, if you care to answer...

What do you think of Stan Lee's willingness to sign anything put in front of him? From the Marvel characters he didn't create (Wolverine, Venom, Deadpool) to oddball items like Detective Comics #27 reprints?

[Ladakh]

VALIANT refers to the books I gave Jim, Valiant refers to everything since.

I'm not asking for YOUR opinion tonight; I can get that anytime.

Yeah but Shooter will agree with me. He got the idea from MARVEL which should be "all caps, always"... he carried that over to VALIANT. This is well-documented.

[greg]

VALIANT refers to the books I gave Jim, Valiant refers to everything since.

I'm not asking for YOUR opinion tonight; I can get that anytime.

Yeah but Shooter will agree with me. He got the idea from MARVEL which should be "all caps, always"... he carried that over to VALIANT. This is well-documented.

Then the internet arrived. All caps means YELLING now. It didn't then.

[grendeljd]

A couple years back I drew a spoof of the HARD Corps characters that ended up being part of a print project to help out JayJay with her cat's medical expenses - she provided the colour work on the image.

You were kind enough to sign the limited run copies to help promote the project as well. I just wanted to thank you very much for that, it's a a huge honour to have your name on something I contributed to making.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ladakh]

VALIANT refers to the books I gave Jim, Valiant refers to everything since.

I'm not asking for YOUR opinion tonight; I can get that anytime.

Yeah but Shooter will agree with me. He got the idea from MARVEL which should be "all caps, always"... he carried that over to VALIANT. This is well-documented.

Then the internet arrived. All caps means YELLING now. It didn't then.

Yeah- so open your window and yell VALIANT!!! LOL

[Jim_Shooter]

Regarding the end game (for me) at VALIANT, yes, like NASCAR, my VALIANT is all caps, always, Forbes Magazine found the events compelling enough to do an article entitled "How Not to Start a Company: Or what do you do when your partner starts sleeping with the banker."

John Veronis and John Suhler interviewed me regarding funding DEFIANT. Funding a start-up was something Veronis and Suhler never did, but they felt I presented a unique opportunity. One of the Johns asked me, words to the effect, "If you're such a genius, why did they (VALIANT) fire you?" I said we were funded by Triumph Capital and.... They laughed and cut me off. "Say no more." Triumph's rep for dirty dealings was known throughout the banking community, though Melanie Okun marrying a partner in a start-up was a new one.

[jmatt]

Hi Jim, hi guys. Jim spent four hours answering my questions. I'm just gonna sit back and watch him answer yours.

[vikingspawn]

What kind of work did you do for ICON?

Is it true that Plasm goo existed as a toy prototype? Did any action figures ever make it to prototype stage? (Lorca, Chasm, War Dancer...)

[mramsterdam]

Who is your favorite superhero/superheroes in all of comics?

[Ladakh]

Who is your favorite superhero/superheroes in all of comics?

My guess is either Superboy or Solar.

[mramsterdam]

Who is your favorite superhero/superheroes in all of comics?

My guess is either Superboy or Solar.

Can't go wrong with Solar.

[Jim_Shooter]

Yikes! I'm such a slow typer. There was no plan to incorporate DEFIANT into Broadway, though Broadway did acquire the DEFIANT characters as part of a settlement with the River Group, which sued Broadway for hiring me after DEFIANT went down. Sigh. A pattern emerges. Anyway, the suit failed, was thrown out several times (and reinstated). Broadway agreed to pay some small portion of the legal costs in exchange for the properties. I was not involved in the negotiations.

I wrote two issues of Megalith for Continuity. Neal wanted a Secret Wars style crossover with all his characters. I'm typecast. I think maybe one issue was published. I think Keith Pollard drew it.

Joe, I have no idea about your 1999 v. Acclaim's 2000. Could be you "inspired" them. Ripoffs happen a lot in this biz.

[grendeljd]

To pull away from VALIANT questions for a moment - you wrote the original conceptual treatment for the Transformers animated series.

The original animated film is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Despite all the heavy marketing that has perpetuated the 'franchise' of the idea all these years later, the original show is also still very dear to fans. I know many people who show that original stuff to their children & those children respond very positively to it. Did you ever think that it would have such a long lifespan? Do you feel proud to have developed the core idea of it?

[Jim_Shooter]

RE: Kickstarter. I freelance for a company called Illustrated Media. Mostly commercial wrk, promo comics, custom comics, etc. They're considering trying a Kickstarter for one of my many properties.