Marvel Comics’ seminal miniseries Secret Wars by writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribić was not just a comic, but a transformative event that altered not just the entire Marvel line in some form or fashion, but reshaped how we think about Marvel’s multiverse. And just in time for Secret Wars‘ 10th anniversary this year, Pan-Galactic Universal Worldwide (PUG-W) is crowdfunding Marvel: Behind the Panels of Secret Wars. Written by Ellie Pyle and now on Kickstarter, Behind the Panels dives deep into the event, incorporating a bevy of research including “creative summits and planning sessions, wild pitches that never saw print, first looks at new character designs, and much more,” according to the Kickstarter’s official press release. The massive 300-page hardcover incorporates thoughts from Hickman and Ribić, along with Kieron Gillen, Gerry Duggan, and Tom Brevoort.
We spoke with writer Ellie Pyle and PUG-W editor-in-chief John Barber recently about the conceit of the Marvel: Behind the Panels Kickstarter, the impetus for tackling the project, the campaign itself, and what they learned along the way while putting this together. Speaking personally, I was a huge fan of the Secret Wars event and I’m excited to see what PUG-W does with this prestige book.
FreakSugar: The 2015 Secret Wars event has been one of Marvel’s foundational storylines for the past decade. There are still reverberations from that story 10 years on. Prior to this project, what is your personal history with Secret Wars?
Ellie Pyle: I was an Associate Editor at Marvel during the lead up to Secret Wars, but had moved on to other things by the time the books actually started being developed. So I attended a few of the Marvel Summits, including the one where folks began pitching tie-in books based on the map of Battleworld, and read the books when they came out. But I missed the middle of this whole process where everything was actually made, so getting to dig into all of that was fascinating for me and a lot of fun!
FS: What is the genesis of Marvel: Behind the Panels of Secret Wars? Why did you pick this event to kick of PUG-W’s Behind the Panels line?
John Barber: The idea of doing Secret Wars came out of conversation with Marvel, which isn’t as corporate-y as that probably sounds. John Nee and I have both worked at Marvel, as has Ellie, and we still have active friendships and business relationships with our friends there. And most of the folks at Pan-Universal Galactic Worldwide know the Marvel team from the copious other books they’ve made, or are in the process of making, together. Anyway—we all knew the Secret Wars comic was going to impact the movies, and we all knew it already had impacted years and years of comics. It seemed exciting to do something that had a lot of history but that the creative team is still actively making comics together. Plus there was a nice synergy: I wasn’t working at Marvel when Secret Wars came out, but the original Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars was my gateway into reading the main Marvel line when I was a kid—and then, much later, I was the first guy that hired Jonathan Hickman at Marvel. So it all comes sort of full-circle, or some kind of full-multi-dimensional spheroid (I mean, this is a Hickman/Ribic comic, right?) by making Secret Wars our first Behind the Panels book.
FS: Speaking of that line, what can you tell us about the Behind the Panels series? What can we expect from these hardcover art books?
JB: What we really wanted to do was to take the attitude you usually see reserved for movies, where a behind-the-scenes book gets into some real depth and gives you a feel for the challenges that had to be overcome, the ideas at the center of the project, the changes that were made on the way; lucky accidents, near-disasters, misunderstandings; and the satisfaction of seeing years of planning and work come together into a finished work. I think comics are the greatest, and deserve that kind of treatment! So we’ll take you into the Marvel creative retreat where these ideas came together; we’ll see some of the preliminary work all the way to following what happened as it started to come out. That’s one of the fascinating things for me—the creative work on Secret Wars started years before anybody outside knew about it, and ended about three weeks before you had the last comic in your hand. It’s always a wild, and unique, process, and our goal is to draw you into that process!
FS: What was the process of bringing the Secret Wars volume to light? It’s such a storied event, both in front of and behind the scenes. Where do you even start?
EP: I started where it all started, with Jonathan Hickman and Tom Brevoort. I’ve actually found a lot of my process has mirrored the construction of the event itself, starting with writers, editors and artists who were in the room for the early pitches and brainstorming at the Marvel Summits, and then moving into the greater details of individual books. I leaned heavily on Marvel’s editorial staff in general while I was getting started because they touch so many books at once that it was a good way to get the lay of the land. And I’m impressed that so many of them still had process pieces they could pull up from a decade ago. I would not have been able to.
FS: On that same note, where does your book begin? Secret Avengers? The Fantastic Four books? How far back do you go?
EP: We’re definitely going to at least touch on all of that. It all started when Jonathan Hickman pitched Tom Brevoort “a bigger book” during his Fantastic Four run, and I think it’s important that an event like this had to be years in the making for both creative and logistical reasons.
FS: What can you tell us about some your interviews featured in the volume? What can we expect from those who had hands in shaping the event?
EP: One thing that came up again and again was how much fun the writers had brainstorming Battleworld. That summit was frequently described as “one of the most fun Marvel ever had”. “Fun” was not a word at least one artist wanted me to use about this event, though the work was no less incredible for having been overshadowed by the stress of deadlines.
FS: Was there anything that particularly surprised you throughout the course of your research and interviews for Secret Wars?
EP: I was surprised to discover that almost every issue of Secret Wars is longer than your average comic. Which is something you don’t think about when you’re reading them. That definitely made the deadlines even more challenging, but proved worth it in the end, along with the decision to ultimately prioritize the long term reader experience by keeping Esad on every page.
FS: With this being the inaugural outing for the Behind the Panels series, can you tease what other volumes might in the works?
JB: We’ve had a lot of talks about what comics we should do next…and I can’t really spoil that now. But we do genuinely want to know—what books do YOU want to see? What comics—from big events to impactful runs to cult classics—do you want to take a peek Behind the Panels of.
FS: Following up on that, what do you hope for this line? What do you hope to do to set apart from other series?
JB: I really want readers to feel like they got to walk backstage and see how this stuff is made. Sometimes we get caught up in the characters, in the business, in the other-media-ness of everything, but these were comics made by real humans, many of them my friends, who put a lot of thought and emotions—a lot of themselves—into these comics. And the stories behind the, well, the panels, is a human story. That’s the part that I think sets these apart from other making-of books.
FS: The Secret Wars miniseries is one that I find myself revisiting often. What do you attribute to its regard as such a high watermark for storytelling?
EP: It was character driven, meticulously planned, visually stunning, and built in such a way that everyone wanted to get on board. That created a main series, and collection of tie-ins that felt organic and cohesive.
FS: What can we expect from the volume and the Kickstarter itself?
JB: We’ve got the book itself of course—in “regular” gorgeous hardcover or limited edition also-gorgeous hardcover. We’ve taken our Pan-Dimensional 3D technology and applied that to a jigsaw puzzle—you can put on 3D glasses and put the puzzle together like you were Doctor Doom assembling Battleworld! We’ve got phenomenal fine-art-quality prints of some of our favorite covers. We’ve got stickers, including Mr. Sinister with a martini glass, which is editor Mason Rabinowitz’s favorite thing ever. But the actual best thing are the Bite-Sized Covers. They’re the size of bridge cards, but super-thick, and each one reproduces a Secret Wars cover in miniature. You can file them in the special mini short boxes that come with them, you can display them…it’s hard to get across how cool these feel unless you’re actually holding the prototypes, but it’s like you’re Giant-Man looking at comic book covers. It made me feel like a kid, when I’d have my original Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars comics spread out on my grandma’s living room floor, and I knew the comics so well I could put them in order just using the back-cover ads. It’s fun, and we have some cool future plans for the Bite-Sized Cover line.
FS: If you had a final pitch for the book and Kickstarter, what would it be?
JB: If you’ve ever wondered how big events come together, how creators balance art and commerce, scale and humanity, writing and drawing; how something that affects every comic and storyline affects the folks making them; how your favorite characters and universes constantly update themselves while staying true to the core of what makes them work—if you’ve ever wondered about any of that, Behind the Panels of Marvel’s Secret Wars is a great place to look. We’ll take you past rumors and suppositions into the real world of creative retreats and comic book stores!
The Marvel: Behind the Panels of Secret Wars Kickstarter has already hit its initial goal, with seven days left to go in the campaign. This is a unique and exciting project and has something for everyone, whether you are familiar with Secret Wars or not!
From the official press release about the Kickstarter:
Pan-Galactic Universal Worldwide (PUG-W), a creative production company based in Southern California, announces the first volume in its new Behind The Panels series of deluxe hardcover art books, MARVEL: BEHIND THE PANELS OF SECRET WARS, a collaboration with Marvel Comics.
How does a team of talented creators destroy the Marvel Universe, replace every book in Marvel’s comic line with an alternate-reality crossover event, and then remake the multiverse in a way where every story before, during, and after the event still counts?
Written by Ellie Pyle, Marvel: Behind The Panels Of Secret Wars takes a deep dive into the secrets that shaped the groundbreaking 2015 crossover event, one of the most important stories in Marvel history, compiling tales from creative summits and planning sessions, wild pitches that never saw print, first looks at new character designs, and much more. Measuring 11.7”x16.5” and showcasing hundreds of gorgeous illustrations, this 300-page deluxe hardcover features meaningful insights from creators including Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribić (Secret Wars), Jason Aaron (Thors and Weirdworld), Keiran Gillen (Siege and 1602: Witch Hunter Angela), Gerry Duggan (Infinity Gauntlet, 1782, and Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos), and Tom Brevoort (Vice President and Executive Editor, Marvel Comics).
“It’s been a fascinating journey back into Battleworld via the memories of the writers, artists, and editors who built it! So many cool stories, from ‘the most fun Marvel summit ever’ to the final deadline crunch for this ‘event that was all events’,” said Ellie Pyle.
“There have been many art books and behind-the-scenes peeks into the world of Marvel Comics—but with the Behind The Panels line of books we wanted to present comic books with the same stature we might with a film,” said PUG-W Editor-In-Chief John Barber. “We treat the comics with the reverence and depth they deserve and show what goes into making a huge event comic from the mouths of the people who were there. This book and the extras that are planned for the entire campaign will showcase what PUG-W as a company is about.”
Secret Wars has a long and storied history at Marvel Comics, with lasting changes that still play out in the Marvel Universe today. The 2015 event series shares connective tissue with the legendary Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars (1984) by Jim Shooter and artists Mike Zeck and Bob Layton, and inspired many concepts at the core of upcoming Marvel Studios films.
Visit the Marvel: Behind The Panels of Secret Wars crowdfunding campaign, now live at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/578322347/behind-the-panels-of-marvels-secret-wars.
