Home > COMICS > [RETROSPECTIVE] MARVEL KNIGHTS: TEN YEARS LATER
[RETROSPECTIVE] MARVEL KNIGHTS: TEN YEARS LATER
Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti look back on their revolutionary imprint's launch 10 years ago!
By The Wizard Staff
Posted 8/05/2008
THE BEGINNING
JOE QUESADA: Marvel was f---ed.
JIMMY PALMIOTTI: They were in Chapter 11 bankruptcy [in 1998]. We were publishing Event Comics, and Marvel had done this thing [two years earlier called] "Heroes Reborn." It allowed the Image Comics guys [Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld to creatively control core Marvel titles such as Captain America and Avengers] and that did well. They decided to see what other guys they could bring in.
QUESADA: "Heroes Reborn" was very successful, but internally at Marvel it was a mess. Editorial felt Marvel was shipping off [creative control of] all the best books to [Image] and the people on staff were feeling slighted about it, and you can understand why. We knew they weren't gonna give us Spider-Man or any of the big titles. But we knew there were a couple of real diamonds in the rough that could really be polished up and made special. So we literally went with our guns loaded ready to ask for those characters. I remember telling Jimmy, "Let's walk into that meeting and when [then-Marvel President Joe Calamari] asks what we wanted to do, we say make us Editor-in-Chief of Marvel and give us all the characters." At which point he's gonna laugh and then we'll say, "Okay then just give us Daredevil." Basically that's what we did. [Jimmy laughs]
PALMIOTTI: Daredevil was ready to get cancelled.
QUESADA: It was. So the one thing we said was we will work from the offices at Marvel. Give us office space and we will be there. We will be in the trenches with everyone there. They found that intriguing. [Looks at Jimmy who smiles]
PALMIOTTI: They were clever because we were up there, but then they put us on the roof. They put us in the penthouse.
QUESADA: It was great. I think we're both surprised at how successful the line was. The proudest thing for me was bringing creators like Garth Ennis and J.G. Jones.
PALMIOTTI: One of the things we did that I think changed a lot was the coloring on the books. We labored over the coloring.
QUESADA: Jimmy and I would spend countless, countless hours in the bar sitting there going, "Man if we were in charge, we'd do this. If we were in charge, we'd do that." This was an opportunity for us to go from playing fantasy football to actually getting in the game and really doing it the way that we envisioned it.
Grant Morrison, Brian Bendis and Mark Millar were actually first coming in through Marvel Knights but then at that point I had made this switch over [as Marvel's Editor-in-Chief in 2000] and they had come and started doing Marvel-proper stuff before actually doing Marvel Knights. A lot of people who became key players at Marvel really started through Marvel Knights.
I kept that initial Marvel catalog from [Sept.] 1998. When you page through it, it really is mind-blowing when you see the differences between then and today.
THE FIRST AD
BOTH: [Marvel Editorial] hated us! [Both laugh]
PALMIOTTI: Editorial would be like why those guys?! We had to brand the line. We had to say, "Look, here's the two schmucks putting out the books and we're responsible for them and if you like them great." [We were trying to say] "Look how cool we are," which isn't really cool looking at it now. It's funny. [Joe laughs]
QUESADA: I forgot all about it. We would walk through the Marvel halls and feel like there's a target on our back. I don't blame those guys because we're outsiders coming in. But it took us about a year to get really accepted.
DAREDEVIL
PALMIOTTI: [Raises eyebrow] Kevin Smith owed us.
QUESADA: Eventually we got Kevin thanks to Jimmy. If not, this never would have happened. Kevin, Jimmy and myself became pals when we did some trading cards [for] "Mallrats." Then when this came around we knew Kevin and us we all had the same influences and stuff from Frank Miller and Alan Moore and we loved the Daredevil run on "BornAgain" [Daredevil #227-#332]. We spent a lot of time talking about that. We knew Kevin was the guy we wanted to tap on the shoulder and call in the marker. Kevin agreed to do it and said, "Yeah I'm in I'm in I'm in." And we were waiting and waiting and waiting, and the script never came in and I remember there was a conference call where it was me, you and Kevin on the phone. Kevin was like "Hey guys, I'm sorry but I just can't do it. I can't walk in the same shoes as Frank Miller."
I was just being very mopey on the phone. [Gives sad face] I'm like, "Alright, fine, fine, fine." We hung up and Jimmy decided to be the bad cop.
PALMIOTTI: I called him up on the phone later that night and I was like, "Is this how you treat your friends? What are you, a one idea guy?" I gave him a lot of guilt. [Joe laughs]
QUESADA: You were harsh.
PALMIOTTI: I was. I felt that he was looking for some tough love or an easy way out, and that he needed to be called on it. And he called that night and said, "I got an idea!" And that's the book. We're all insecure about what we do, in a way, until we do it. The first cover for Daredevil I still think it's an iconic cover. That said it all for Marvel Knights. That was like Daredevil times 10 for me.
QUESADA: More than me and Jimmy doing Marvel Knights, more than anything that's happened in this modern age of comics, I think the seminal moment was Kevin Smith doing Daredevil. Because the thing that we as comic fans and creators sometimes lose sight of is that for most people when they make a career move they go from the little pond to the big pond. But very rarely do you see somebody go from the big pond to the little pond. That was what Kevin was doing.
