Disney / Fox Merger Finalized Today

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Ares
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Disney / Fox Merger Finalized Today

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/20/disney- ... close.html

I'm curious to see where things go from here. Disney just acquired a lot of properties for themselves and the streaming service they plan to promote, as well as new additions for the various parks.

For 71 billion dollars (my GOD but that's a stupid amount of money), Disney now has the rights to Avatar, the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Die Hard, the Aliens and Predators films, the X-Files, and a ridiculous film library that goes all the way back to 1935. Not to mention the original deal that allows them to publish the original, unedited Star Wars films again.

Part of me wonders what this would mean if we ever got another "Disney Infinity" style crossover game of all the properties Disney owns, what kind of weird shenanigans they could get up to. Which is admittedly a silly thing to think about, but eh.

A larger part of me wonders what this will mean to Marvel Comics, if it'll wind up basically being turned into a department that merely controls who gets to outsource their comics rather than self-publish them. It's kind of scary to think of Marvel as we know it ending.

What do you guys think?
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Re: Disney / Fox Merger Finalized Today

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I really want positives to come out of this. I mean just give me a Predator in a Star Wars comic and I'll be happy.
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Re: Disney / Fox Merger Finalized Today

Post by Scots Dragon »

Ares wrote: Thu Mar 21, 2019 1:59 am A larger part of me wonders what this will mean to Marvel Comics, if it'll wind up basically being turned into a department that merely controls who gets to outsource their comics rather than self-publish them. It's kind of scary to think of Marvel as we know it ending.
I don't think that'll happen. Disney has literally no reason to do that at the moment.

The most likely instance of something even remotely like that happening is the continual shrinking of the print comics industry will continue apace, for reasons set in motion decades ago and which Disney themselves has nothing to do with. The whole thing is the fault of Diamond distribution.
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Re: Disney / Fox Merger Finalized Today

Post by Ares »

Scots Dragon wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:30 am
Ares wrote: Thu Mar 21, 2019 1:59 am A larger part of me wonders what this will mean to Marvel Comics, if it'll wind up basically being turned into a department that merely controls who gets to outsource their comics rather than self-publish them. It's kind of scary to think of Marvel as we know it ending.
I don't think that'll happen. Disney has literally no reason to do that at the moment.

The most likely instance of something even remotely like that happening is the continual shrinking of the print comics industry will continue apace, for reasons set in motion decades ago and which Disney themselves has nothing to do with. The whole thing is the fault of Diamond distribution.
Except we've seen Disney do that sort of thing in the past. They essentially got rid of their entire video game development section after the games didn't prove profitable enough. Not that the games weren't making money, but not enough to satisfy Disney, so they've simply let other companies like EA license their properties to make games. LucasArts is basically kept around solely to oversee the licensing of Star Wars and other LucasFilm properties to other game companies.

Disney has, to my knowledge, never really had their own comics publishing, people always paid them for the privilege of publishing books with their characters. Marvel is the first time they've acquired a comic book company, but Disney has also shown that they're willing to license their properties to other publishing companies like IDW.

Warner Bros. actually considered doing something similar with their DC Comics characters back in the 80s. DC Comics characters are a marketing wet dream, and at the time every product, TV show or film that included a DC Comics character would sell like gangbusters . . . except for the comics themselves. The comics needed to exist to generate new characters and ideas to be adapted to other media, but the comics themselves weren't selling. So Warner Bros was in talks with Marvel to basically license their characters to Marvel the way G.I.Joe and Transformers were licensed to Marvel, and let Marvel basically re-imagine the DCU in a way that would be more profitable to Warner Bros. The plan never went through for a few reasons, not the least of which was DC managing to pull themselves out of their slump with Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Disney has shown a willingness to shut down the production side of a company they've acquired if the profits weren't what they wanted, and been happy to simply license the properties that company controlled to other people. And they've already licensed Marvel characters to other comics companies like IDW. If they decide that the current Marvel backlog of comics and TV shows gives them enough material to use for their films, and if the comics don't pull their weight, it's entirely within their recent history to simply make Marvel the guys overseeing the licensing of their characters and leaving the actual comic publishing to other people.

This is especially true after the 70 something billion dollars they spent on a new company where it's pretty evident they plan to lay off thousands of people. Disney is going to be really focusing on balancing their books, and if Marvel doesn't show their worth, they could go the way of LucasGames.

That's completely speculation and a worst case scenario, but it's in line with other Disney decisions. I certainly don't want that to be the case, since despite some of my recent frustrations with the company, I still overall like Marvel Comics and want it to be around when my nieces are of age that I can read them about whatever heroes they latch onto.
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Re: Disney / Fox Merger Finalized Today

Post by Scots Dragon »

Ares wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:23 am
Scots Dragon wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:30 am
Ares wrote: Thu Mar 21, 2019 1:59 am A larger part of me wonders what this will mean to Marvel Comics, if it'll wind up basically being turned into a department that merely controls who gets to outsource their comics rather than self-publish them. It's kind of scary to think of Marvel as we know it ending.
I don't think that'll happen. Disney has literally no reason to do that at the moment.

The most likely instance of something even remotely like that happening is the continual shrinking of the print comics industry will continue apace, for reasons set in motion decades ago and which Disney themselves has nothing to do with. The whole thing is the fault of Diamond distribution.
Except we've seen Disney do that sort of thing in the past. They essentially got rid of their entire video game development section after the games didn't prove profitable enough. Not that the games weren't making money, but not enough to satisfy Disney, so they've simply let other companies like EA license their properties to make games. LucasArts is basically kept around solely to oversee the licensing of Star Wars and other LucasFilm properties to other game companies.
First: LucasArts hadn't been producing anything of note for years at that point.

Second: they literally just revived LucasArts (well, Lucasfilm Games) anyway and are looking for designers and developers, so...
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Re: Disney / Fox Merger Finalized Today

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Ares wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:23 am Disney has, to my knowledge, never really had their own comics publishing, people always paid them for the privilege of publishing books with their characters. Marvel is the first time they've acquired a comic book company, but Disney has also shown that they're willing to license their properties to other publishing companies like IDW.
Disney never had its own comic publishing company in the U.S.A., in several European and South American countries (most notably Italy, France and Brasil) there are -- or were until recently -. branches of Disney that specialized purely in comics.
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Re: Disney / Fox Merger Finalized Today

Post by Ares »

Scots Dragon wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 10:04 am
Ares wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:23 am
Scots Dragon wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:30 am

I don't think that'll happen. Disney has literally no reason to do that at the moment.

The most likely instance of something even remotely like that happening is the continual shrinking of the print comics industry will continue apace, for reasons set in motion decades ago and which Disney themselves has nothing to do with. The whole thing is the fault of Diamond distribution.
Except we've seen Disney do that sort of thing in the past. They essentially got rid of their entire video game development section after the games didn't prove profitable enough. Not that the games weren't making money, but not enough to satisfy Disney, so they've simply let other companies like EA license their properties to make games. LucasArts is basically kept around solely to oversee the licensing of Star Wars and other LucasFilm properties to other game companies.
First: LucasArts hadn't been producing anything of note for years at that point.

Second: they literally just revived LucasArts (well, Lucasfilm Games) anyway and are looking for designers and developers, so...
First, LucasArts had been creating games right up until LucasFilm was bought out by Disney, at which point Disney made the licensing deal with EA and stopped using them to produce Star Wars games. LucasArts hasn't been producing games for console and PC on their own since 2012 specifically because Disney made them stop.

Secondly, LucasArts was only one of several in-house video game developers Disney owned (most of which fell under Disney Interactive) that got shut down a few years ago, with LucasArts being kept around solely to manage the various licensing IPs that LucasArts use to control.

Thirdly, according to this:
Gamasutra has been told by Disney that these job listings "do not indicate a revival of the Lucasfilm Games brand, but apparently are for a segment of an existing business that coincidentally shares the name of the LucasArts precursor."

"The representative sought to make clear that Disney is continuing its licensed games strategy with partners like EA and NetMarble", Gamasutra adds.
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Re: Disney / Fox Merger Finalized Today

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Woodclaw wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:15 pm
Ares wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:23 am Disney has, to my knowledge, never really had their own comics publishing, people always paid them for the privilege of publishing books with their characters. Marvel is the first time they've acquired a comic book company, but Disney has also shown that they're willing to license their properties to other publishing companies like IDW.
Disney never had its own comic publishing company in the U.S.A., in several European and South American countries (most notably Italy, France and Brasil) there are -- or were until recently -. branches of Disney that specialized purely in comics.
Interesting. I knew Disney comics were popular abroad (indeed, way more popular than superhero comics in some countries), but I didn't know they were produced in-house by Disney. Though from the past tense you use, I take it that's changed?
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Re: Disney / Fox Merger Finalized Today

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Ares wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 2:46 pm
Woodclaw wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:15 pm
Ares wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:23 am Disney has, to my knowledge, never really had their own comics publishing, people always paid them for the privilege of publishing books with their characters. Marvel is the first time they've acquired a comic book company, but Disney has also shown that they're willing to license their properties to other publishing companies like IDW.
Disney never had its own comic publishing company in the U.S.A., in several European and South American countries (most notably Italy, France and Brasil) there are -- or were until recently -. branches of Disney that specialized purely in comics.
Interesting. I knew Disney comics were popular abroad (indeed, way more popular than superhero comics in some countries), but I didn't know they were produced in-house by Disney. Though from the past tense you use, I take it that's changed?
I can only talk about Italy, of course. Topolino magazine is a weekly anthology that has been in publication for 1949. Usually it includes two long stories (usually the first and last) often multi-issues arcs, alongside 3-4 short self-contained stories. In the '50s most long stories were translated from U.S. comics (especially Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse and Carl Barks's Ducks), but from the 1960 onward 99% of the stories were written specifically for Topolino. Some of these exclusive stories were written by non-Italian writers, including Jerry Siegel (who wrote a number of sci-fi based stories in the 70s, starting with Topolino Ranger dello Spazio, Mickey Mouse Space Ranger).
In 1988 the Walt Disney Company took direct control of the entire publication process, starting with #1702, this was part of a long-term process, by that time Disney Company had already established a Cartoon and Graphic Arts School and it was supervising most of the creative process. In 2013, Disney withdrew from direct publication, although it retains artistic control, and the publishing rights went to Panini (which had already absorbed the Italian branch of Marvel Comics in 1996).
The interesting thing is that the "Italian School" (and the Brazilian as well) more or less evolved in semi-independent entities and, as time went by, many signature characters became very different from their roots. For example, Mickey Mouse is much more adult character, he doesn't wear the red boxers anymore and usually has a regular day job as either a journalist or a private detective.

Image
Special cover of Topolino for the 90 years of Mickey, comparing the classic version of the character with the current one.
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Re: Disney / Fox Merger Finalized Today

Post by Ares »

Woodclaw wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:30 pm
Ares wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 2:46 pm
Woodclaw wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:15 pm

Disney never had its own comic publishing company in the U.S.A., in several European and South American countries (most notably Italy, France and Brasil) there are -- or were until recently -. branches of Disney that specialized purely in comics.
Interesting. I knew Disney comics were popular abroad (indeed, way more popular than superhero comics in some countries), but I didn't know they were produced in-house by Disney. Though from the past tense you use, I take it that's changed?
I can only talk about Italy, of course. Topolino magazine is a weekly anthology that has been in publication for 1949. Usually it includes two long stories (usually the first and last) often multi-issues arcs, alongside 3-4 short self-contained stories. In the '50s most long stories were translated from U.S. comics (especially Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse and Carl Barks's Ducks), but from the 1960 onward 99% of the stories were written specifically for Topolino. Some of these exclusive stories were written by non-Italian writers, including Jerry Siegel (who wrote a number of sci-fi based stories in the 70s, starting with Topolino Ranger dello Spazio, Mickey Mouse Space Ranger).

In 1988 the Walt Disney Company took direct control of the entire publication process, starting with #1702, this was part of a long-term process, by that time Disney Company had already established a Cartoon and Graphic Arts School and it was supervising most of the creative process. In 2013, Disney withdrew from direct publication, although it retains artistic control, and the publishing rights went to Panini (which had already absorbed the Italian branch of Marvel Comics in 1996).

The interesting thing is that the "Italian School" (and the Brazilian as well) more or less evolved in semi-independent entities and, as time went by, many signature characters became very different from their roots. For example, Mickey Mouse is much more adult character, he doesn't wear the red boxers anymore and usually has a regular day job as either a journalist or a private detective.

Image
Special cover of Topolino for the 90 years of Mickey, comparing the classic version of the character with the current one.
It's interesting how different the Disney characters are perceived abroad, especially in Italy. Donald Duck is probably the most well known Italian superhero under his Paperinik identity. Interestingly enough, Don Rosa's grandfather was an Italian immigrant to the United States. Maybe its genetic.
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- Captain Marvel SHAZAM! : Power of Hope (2000)

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Re: Disney / Fox Merger Finalized Today

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Ares wrote: Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:23 am Disney has, to my knowledge, never really had their own comics publishing, people always paid them for the privilege of publishing books with their characters. Marvel is the first time they've acquired a comic book company, but Disney has also shown that they're willing to license their properties to other publishing companies like IDW.
Did someone mention my beloved Crossgen comics?

As Crossgen was going out of business, Disney snapped them up for one of their titles. It would have very much fit into the Disney princess space.

Sadly, the only thing that they did with the titles as release a couple of miniseries that completely missed the concepts of the stories.
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