Joe Quesada

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Joseph "Joe" Quesada (born December 1, 1962 in New York City), colloquially known as Joey Q, is the editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics and a comic book writer and artist.

1 Writer and artist
2 Editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics
3 Bibliography
4 External links

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Writer and artist

Image:Ninjak03.jpg

Quesada started out as an artist in the early 1990s. His first widely distributed works were for Valiant Comics where he penciled and plotted Ninjak, X-O Manowar and others. His art was heavily influenced by Japanese manga, evidenced by large, watery eyes, long, flowing hair, and unnatural body proportions. Several of his page compositions reflect the art nouveau style of Alphonse Mucha. He also had a unique and flashy way of illustrating the reflection of light. Later, he formed his own publishing company, Event Comics, and created Ash, a firefighter with superpowers.

In 1998, Event Comics was contracted to do several books for Marvel Comics, dubbed Marvel Knights. As editor of Marvel Knights, Quesada encouraged experimentation and used his contacts in the indie comics world to bring in new creators such as David Mack, Mike Oeming, Brian Michael Bendis, Garth Ennis, and Steve Dillon. Quesada also illustrated a well-received Daredevil story written by cult film director Kevin Smith. Due to the success of the Marvel Knights line, Joe Quesada ended up taking a more managerial role at Marvel, and became editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics in 2000. He also sits on the executive board of comic book charity A Commitment to Our Roots.

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Editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics

Image:Houseofm1.jpg Joe Quesada is most well known as the editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He succeeded to this position in 2000, following Bob Harras' separation from the company and becoming the first Hispanic editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics and one of the few Hispanics in the industry to have achieved prominence for work other than his own draughtsmanship. As editor-in-chief of one of the two largest publishers in the comic book business, his decisions are influential and have had, and continue to have, reverberations outside the world of comics. He has been the subject of much praise and derision from commentators both inside and outside the industry.

Quesada became editor-in-chief at the same time that controversial personality Bill Jemas succeeded to the presidency of the company. The two enjoyed enormous success together and enjoyed a seemingly warm personal relationship. The fruits of that relationship culminated in the establishment of the Ultimate line of Marvel titles which impacted the way comics are currently produced. However, Jemas, despite his efforts to correlate his creative acumen with that of Quesada's, was fired after a series of mishaps and public personality conflicts, first with acclaimed comic writer Peter David, and later with the then popular Fantastic Four scribe Mark Waid. Jemas' fate was sealed when he clashed with a comics retailer over Marvel's controversial distribution policy. The conflict escalated when the retailer, exasperated with Jemas' seeming indifference, reported his concerns to company executive Ike Perlmutter. The complaint, followed by complaints from other retailers, had become a distraction for the company and began to eclipse the early successes of the Jemas-Quesada management team. Jemas, after a series of discussions and changes in his role as a Marvel executive, separated from the company.

Quesada, however, was retained as Editor-in-Chief; Jemas' separation had the unexpected result of confirming the company's, and consequently the industry's, confidence in Quesada's stewardship. There have been no serious challenges to the assertion from Marvel that Quesada is an industry mover and shaker.

Joe Quesada is credited with supervising Marvel Comics during a revival and a period of growth in which Marvel Comics recovered from the bankruptcy of the late 1990s. He restored Marvel Comics as the comic book industry leader in market share. He aggressively cut titles which did not sell. Throughout the 1990s, Marvel Comics was known for relying on its large stable of trademarked characters instead of hiring talented creators; Quesada shifted emphasis more toward hiring capable creators.

Quesada oversaw the growth of Marvel as a major brand name in the entertainment industry outside of comics with such hit films as X-Men (2000) and Spider-Man (2002). Quesada has tried to turn Marvel Comics from being a solely comic book business to a general entertainment services business.

Joe Quesada is known for disliking comic book deaths and imposing a moratorium on the resurrection of dead characters at the beginning of his tenure as editor-in-chief. His moratorium prevented writer Chris Claremont from being immediately able to resurrect Psylocke after her death in 2001. However, over time, this moratorium has been relaxed and more characters have been resurrected — Psylocke herself was resurrected in 2005. He has made recent comments[1] disavowing the rumors of a formal restriction on deaths (the "Dead Means Dead" policy), when questioned about the recent returns of long-dead characters Colossus and Psylocke, saying instead that the rule for resurrecting dead characters was to examine the circumstances of that character's death and that such events must be story-necessitated, not simply used for higher sales numbers (i.e., as Psylocke's death was not, in his words, "a classic death," her resurrection was allowed to explore her further. Joss Whedon's return of Colossus, on the other hand, who had a very significant death - to stop the Legacy Virus - was deemed by Quesada to really "nail it," and thus be allowed under the latter reasoning).

Joe Quesada also banned the use of editorial footnotes in comic books early in his tenure, though like the case with comic book deaths, this ban has since been somewhat relaxed.

Joe Quesada also has quietly disallowed Marvel characters such as Wolverine and the Punisher from smoking. Throughout his tenure, no hero has smoked. This stems from his own father's death from lung cancer and his feeling that these characters whom kids look up to should not be seen smoking. This has been a common practice for the past few years in most entertainment mediums, such as movies and television.

Joe Quesada disliked renumbered titles and restored the old numbering (implemented under Bob Harras's tenure) of Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers, and Fantastic Four.

His tenure has seen many titles return to prominence in the sales charts, benefiting from creative team changes and relaunches - the most successful to date being New Avengers

Joe Quesada has been centrally involved in the creation of three successful imprints:

Marvel Knights, aimed at older readers (this was before his tenure as editor-in-chief)
MAX, aimed at adult readers, with Brian Michael Bendis
Ultimate Marvel, aimed at new readers, with Brian Michael Bendis, Bill Jemas, and Mark Millar

Quesada has advocated he is personally not a fan of comic book creators signing exclusive contracts with Marvel or DC Comics instead of freelancing, yet he understands that it is simply how the market works in this day and age.

During Joe Quesada's tenure, Marvel Comics has moved toward the aggressive marketing of trade paperbacks, which has been criticized by some as hurting the comic book shop business, yet all data proves otherwise since the growth of business in the comic (or direct) market has grown significantly in the past few years. On the other hand, it allows for new readers to quickly and easily catch up on a title and encourage purchasing the monthly. It has also seen a huge success in the bookstore market, introducing a new generation of readers to comics via trade paperbacks, hard covers, and digests. Marvel has also been a forerunner in publishing oversized hardcover collections of comics, which are praised for their quality and content. Following the tradition of Stan Lee's "Stan's Soapbox", Joe Quesada writes a monthly column called "Cup o' Joe" that appears in most comic books published by Marvel.

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