cat yronwode's RACM post, reproduced here in entirety:

 Here's what i have pieced together from talking with others in the
 business today There are at least two professional sources for each item
 below and as many as five independent sources on some of these items,
 except as noted. PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL ME. The reason i have stayed off
 this newsgroup is that my innate politeness clashes with my deadline
 commitments. I simply cannot answer e-mail. Thanks.

 --catherine yronwode
 fit to print, The Comics Buyer's Guide
 production department, Claypool Comics
 (check me out in alt.lucky.w)

 =================================================

 Marvel sent workers a memo on Tuesday basically telling them to keep their
 resumes current.

 Wednesday the first wave of layoffs occurred. They let 40 people go,
 including 17 editors and editorial assistants, giving them until Friday to
 clean out their desks. Included in this group were Carl Potts, Bob
 Budiansky, Nelson Yomtov, Marc McLaurin and Joey Cavalieri, Chris Cooper,
 Mike Lackey, Eric Fein, Sarra Mossoff, Mariano Nicieza. Of the 17, 9 had
 one-year contracts (Cavalieri's contract through Oct. 1996, for instance)
 and they will be paid for not working. The rest will be given severance
 pay.

 Thursday a second, larger wave of layoff notices went out.  An unknown
 number of people were fired at Fleer, Toy Biz, the Marvel marketing
 department, the Marvel advertising department, and the Marvel licensing
 department. According to one source, the advertising department was cut
 back to "one single guy" and so was the licensing department.

 The production department remained relatively unscathed, but -- 10
 workstations for colouring were recently bought and the remaining workers
 have been given an ultimatum" learn to do computer colouring by June or
 take a hike.

 Fleer has dismantled its returnable sales program without provision for
 dealing with product now in stores, thus leaving the stores with
 unreturnable "returnable" product -- and with no customer service
 representatives to complain to.

 The entire Malibu line -- 9-10 titles per month -- was cancelled and the
 entire Malibu staff was all fired, except for the colouring department,
 which was retained. The editors let go at Malibu were Hank Kanalz, Roland
 Mann, and their assistant editors. The last Malibu books will ship in
 March; Editor Mark Paniccia and his assistant Dan Sheehan will stay on as
 a skeleton crew only to oversee production the final issues, then they too
 will be laid off.

 The X-Men office is intact; no lay-offs there. There are plans to increase
 the number of X-books, possibly even to double the line.

 Two to three people in the Spider-Man office were kept on, among them Tom
 Breevort. There are plans to increase the number of Spider-books.

 The 2099 books were cancelled. Thor was cancelled.  The Hulk was "probably
 not" cancelled. Titles whose status is unknown to my informants:
 Daredevil, Ghost Rider, What If?

 The entire line of licensed books was cancelled, Barbie among them. Hildy
 Mesnick, the Barbie editor, "may stay until the inventory runs out and the
 licensing contract is completed." Anna Maria Cool, a Barbie artist, will
 be doing an Elvira back-up for Claypool a.s.a.p.

 Other licensed books, presumeably all cancelled: Mighty Morphin Power
 Rangers, Beavis and Butthead, Ren and Stimpy, Conan, Conan the Savage
 (yes, Conan is a licensed character), MCA Saturday Morning Cartoons, Dr.
 Who, Gargoyles, Masked Rider, Muppet Treasure Island (limited seres)
 Nightmare Circus, V. R. Troopers, Casper...

 Peter Sanderson, the official Marvel historian/librarian, was fired.

 Bobbie Chase has not been fired

 Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio are still working, but there are
 virtually no titles in the old "classic Marvel heroes" line for them to
 edit, since the folks from Image will be editing those as part of their
 packaging deal with Marvel. Mark and Ralph will be "reassigned," although
 it is rumoured (unconfirmed) that DC is trying to recruit Gruenwald. (A
 side note on the Image-Marvel deal: Jim Lee and Rob Liefield have been
 given a lateness ultimatum and and sales quotas on the books they will be
 producing and Marvel will brook no violations of the rather stringent
 terms; failure to meet either the deadline or sales goals will result in
 immediate termination of the contract.)

 Total number of people laid off this week -- circa 125, say some sources.

 Total number of books cancelled outright -- or if licensed allowed to run
 their contract courses and then to be cancelled -- circa 30-35. (This is
 out of a combined Marvel/Malbu total of circa 70 titles per month).

 The reasons for all of this:

 1) Buying HWD and handling their own distribution was the biggest mistake
 Marvel has made in years. Sales are down, down, down. (But not as down as
 DC's -- rumours (unconfirmed) have it that the Marvel X-line alone
 outsells the entire DC line. Still, DC is making great money from
 television and films, where Marvel lags...)

 2) Ronald Perlman, who owns Marvel, wants to cut costs, drive Marvel's
 stock price up, and sell the company as soon as possible.

 catherine yronwode
 cyronwode@aol.com
 alt.lucky.w -- the newsgroup of synchronicity, amulets, and talismans
 sustag-principles@ces.ncsu.edu -- e-mail list for the sacred landscape
 http://sunSITE.unc.edu/london/The_Sacred_Landscape.html

37 responses total.

Although this is still as-yet-unconfirmed rumor (and will be until
Marvel formally announces it), it's likely truth.

I suppose from this, if taken as fact, that Malibu really was bought
for their coloring department.

I browsed a post regarding possible buyers for Marvel, but forgot to
grab it. If I find it, I'll bring it here; it was interesting.

Of course, the reason DC has better TV and movie licensing is because
it's owned by Time-Warner.  You can't get much more support than that.
(Having Time-Warner's deep pockets doesn't hurt DC's stability,
either. Even the comics with the lousiest sales can still be
bankrolled, as long as there's some merchandising aspect for the
future.)

And I thought the corporate raiding of the 80's was over!
What did I know?  *sigh*

I'd probably care more if I still read any Marvel titles.

(Response #1 slipped in.)

Possible buyers?  Hmm...  Wouldn't it be hilarious if Image became
a part-owner?

I seem to remember a comment in a Marvel editorial several years ago,
back when they were still privately owned, that they didn't have a
"Daddy Warnerbucks" to bail them out if they put out lousy comics,
which is why they were #1.  I guess it's still true. :)

 #1...is Ralph Macchio working at Marvel the same guy who used to be an
actor and was in the Karate Kid movies?
  Also they wouldnt cut back the Spiderman office, since there is a big
megabudget movie, "The Amazing Spiderman" coming out this summer.  No
word on who plays Spidey in it.

Different Ralph Macchio. I think I might even have an old Marvel laying
around where he jokes about being confused with the Karate Kid.

And yep, they did cut back the Spiderman office, or maybe "change" is
more appropriate. Bob Budiansky, who was saddled with the "Clone"
storyline, was let go. I _think_ that plans are to hold the number
of Spidey titles steady, with perhaps one extra title.

Are you sure about the date of the Spiderman movie? The last info I
had was that the license was being sold off in the wake of the 
dissolution of Carolco, just a few months ago. That would likely
push the project off for another yeat, if not kill it outright.
There's no doubt that James Cameron would _like_ to do a Spiderman
film, though.

      So whats going on now?  Can anyone give me a list of the
things that have survived and those that didn't make it?
Thanks.

I don't have a definite list. The only one I'm certain of right now
is that even though it has low sales, the Silver Surfer comic will
survive because there will be a Silver Surfer animated series 
next season.

this anothr good reason to buy creator owned. You can't be fired if your our
own boss. Plus, insted of worrying about stocks, they worry about story and
art.

Latest news: Marvel plans to shut down Heroes World Distributors and have
Diamond carry their comics again. I guess that makes the score:
Diamond 100, Marvel 0. I don't know who's left who can compete with Diamond
now.

I'm glad that Marvel is finaly getting what they deserved. By buying Heroes
World and going exclusive fucked the industry majorly. Of course, I'm not glad
that I'm going to have to get a big section in Previews. Since I hate Marvel
it's so easy just not having included in the catalogs. As for competition
against Diamond, there are many very small distributers out there that are
so small that I can't remember their names...

I know that Cold Cut Distributors competes with Diamond some but the only
advantage they have is that they carry more back issues for reorder. I
consider that a plus, especially for independent comics, but it isn't
enough to make any of the stores I frequent to deal with Cold Cut.

I not sure where to put this, but it's about Marvel bankruptcy... A group of
bondholders lead by Carl Icahn are taking charge of the Marvel bankruptcy
thing... I really don't understand what's going on, but it looks like it may
be for the better. Basicly they are trying to emphasize conyinuty and return
the characters to the way they used to be.

woo-hoo!!! and about time.. :P

I don't know about that. They might bring even more characters from the dead
to return the characters to the way they used to be. And that, my friends,
resulted in the Spiderman clone saga.

question:  The way the characters used to be means a lot of things.. with the
X-men they change every year.  

Actualy the exact quote was, "a return to basics for Marvel characters." At
this pount, pretty much anything would be an improvement. Although, think of
it this way... this fgroup is not a bunch of comic book readers, these are
business investors. This although will be an improvement from Ron Perlman,
don't look for Marvel to make a difference in the market anymore.

Dave, whether you like it or not, Marvel is still huge in the market.  What
they do matters, period.

What matters is that with Marvel's huge market share and the common perception
in the mainstream society that "Comics are just superhero stuff for kids,"
can you imagine the impact if Marvel goes to the toilet (again?) It'll drag
the entire comic industry with it and Diamond's distribution screwups will
only make it worse. Like it or not, Marvel will probably either save or
end comics in the US. If distributors suddenly lost 30-35% of their business,
they'd shut down and take the comic stores (including Vault, which doesn't
even carry Marvel) with them.

True.  Much of marketing products, such as independent comics, involves riding
the coattails of something else.  See grunge music.  The public's interest
in Nirvana and Pearl Jam allowed carefully placed bands to be brought into
the spotlight by the larger bands and labels.

What I'm trying to say is what kind of books they are putting out... Nobody
was doing comics on glossy paper with computer colors until Image came around.
DC has revolutionized comics by allowing Chris Clearmont, Marv Wolfman and
Shawn McManus's characters run amok with all the other DC heroes while still
pushing their sci-fi and horror comics. While other comics like Bone show that
you can be a hit even without superheroes... What difference has Marvel made?
It's Busiek and ross's Marvels was really great causing other painted series
to get some spotlight, but what else. No Marvel editor thought about that
one... they had Ross's art in front of them and they couldn't say no.
   What I'm trying to say is that there are moves that companies make that
makes people look at comics different. Events like Watchmen or The Dark Night
Returns were not events because of hype, but for what theey are and every
other comic after that has some influence from it. While Marvel has the
persentage of the sales, they aren't making a difference.

Marvel makes people actually read all the new stuff.  And that's enough for
them.

How??? It's not the writting and 75% it's not the art... what is it?
   It's called a Marvel Zombie. At one point I was one to. I didn't choose
Marvel because of it was the best, I choose it because the misguided notion
that everything that wasn't Marvel was crap. This was caused by the over
abundance of hype and propaganda (just read the Bullpin Bulletins). The fact
that they put out 300 books and when you start out colecting comics, it's hard
to find anything else.
   The thing is you need to have something beyond the flash to keep the
readers buying the book every month. Sure cliche stories and quick dialog work
on 14 year boys, but beyond that they are losing the battle. The reason they
have lasted so long is that the majority of comic reads ARE 14 year old
boys... The problem with that is by targeting one audiance they are limiting
their sales. Maybe one of these days Marvel will learn. The set themself to
be outgrown.

The stories are moderately intriguing if you have the open pocketbook.  Marvel
gets the business, and nothing will change that by and large.  Much as Image
is superior, marvel still makes the money.

i don't know about Image being "superior"..

I guess you've been under a rock lately, Luke. :P

bullshit, dave

I have to defend Dave on this one. What other company besides Image can make
good superhero comics (or at least "better than average") and also put out
titles like A Distant Soil, Jinx, Soulwind, Bliss Street, Mage, Age of Heroes,
(formerly) Strangers in Paradise, and Kabuki. Marvel has NOTHING that compares
to the non-superhero comics that Image publishes. That makes Image far
superior to Marvel.

too bad almost all those books started at different companies... then
MOVED to Image

Marvel couldn't possibly be superior to Image... Hell would have a nuclear
freezedown first.  Quality from Marvel?  Go figure.  The only thing they have
are the readers.

actually they have started focusing a lot more on quality recently....

Re #29: pez, Bliss Street and Soulwind did not move to Image. They started
there. Other examples of this are Leave It to Chance and A Touch of Silver.
But at least Image recognizes quality from other creator and helps them
with the business end of things without interfering with their creative
output. Marvel can't say that.

i believe i said 'almost all books'

I stand corrected.

Wow, why do I have to argee when Mike does it for me... good show Mike, you
make great points. Marvel will NEVER write a inteligent story since it targets
14 year old boys. Image is increasing it's non-hero line and it doesn't make
a difference wiether they canme fro, other publishers first. You see there
are about 300 Marvel titles, which they own and publish, but Image doesn't
own one title (although they publish it). You see Image is not a company, but
an imprint. if it is a hero book or a non-hero book, they are owned by the
creater. Todd could decide to take Spawn to any company he wants. Image is
about freedom and that is something that Marvel will never have. Image has
made moves fror creator rights, art quality (do you think that one book at
Marvel would be using computer coloring if it wasn't for Image giving Marvel
compiction?), and now they are making moves for story quality...

Image hasn't gone the whole way, but they're getting there.  It's not about
continuity (though a year or so after it started, there was some bruhaha about
Image cutting books that didn't relate to the creations of the original seven
artists.  I think they solved taht), it's about creativity.  Thank god.

i don't think the focus is set on 14 year old boys at Marvel.. and they do
not publish 300 titles a month

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