Go Read a Fascinating Bill Jemas Article in the Latest, "The Comics Journal," Issue!

The Comics Journal used to come out monthly but some time ago shifted to having short website articles and fascinating pieces of long-form journalism in a yearly-ish edition the size of a hefty novel. The 310th issue recently came out and contains a fascinating examination of how Bill Jemas arguably saved Marvel from going utterly insolvent in the 2000s through all kinds of wild and weird ideas before being let go because the company regained stability and no longer had any space for the wild and weird ideas. The TCJ website has a preview of the big piece you can read, but I'd frankly say you should just get yourself a copy of the latest issue and delve into the fascinating character that is Jemas. 

Is Bill Jemas a man with passion or a bully? Someone who takes calculated risks or a foolhardy gambler who managed to strike it lucky just often enough to keep going? A hero to those he helped like Mark Millar and someone to be compared to Darth Vader by others he enraged like Tom Breevort. I have to confess I have a fondness for the era of Marvel under Jemas' tenure as it brought us the wildly inventive Ultimate Universe, the Marvel Max line, Morales and Bakers' "Truth," Grant Morrison's amazing, "New X-Men," (although that ended after a number of screaming matches via the phone between Morrison and Jemas) and other inventive stuff like a superb run on, "Cable," that morphed into the surreal, "Soldier X." This isn't to say the time Jemas spent at Marvel only put out bangers, there were plenty of flops and outright bizarre misfires--remember, "Marville," my friends? That said, the TCJ article points out it was the last time Marvel seemed to really be trying something new and different as opposed to, "Safe," content that wouldn't rock any corporate boats too much (Disney, after all, did buy Marvel back at the end of 2009).

It's a great article that paints a complex and at times contradictory picture of Bill Jemas, a man who at the end of the day feels he is right, and sometimes he is! In my own dealings with Jemas he once wrote me when I posted negative initial impressions of the comics from one of the publishing lines he was a part of post-Marvel, Double Take comics. He sent me an email stating how he felt if I read more than the first issues of various series I would get a better feel for everything and like a lot more the line's output. Jemas sent me in the mail a bunch more stuff to read. He was, in fact, correct, and I liked the Double Take stuff before the line folded and Jemas went on to some other endeavors. Jemas is an interesting person and, "The Comics Journal," gives us a fascinating and juicy article about the fellow. Go get a copy from your store of choice or the publisher Fantagraphics itself. The rest of the issue is full of great reading too!