[boox909]

Wall Street Journal link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125172509349072393.html


The big question, how is this going to change the comic book industry overall? 

Other questions come to mind in what this means for us fans of Timely's GA output and its poor/overpriced availability.   

Wacky questions include what happens if Mickey Mouse, Pluto, and Goofy team up with the All Winners Squad against Cruella de Vil and the Red Skull? 

Ah well...

B.   

[Yoc]

Only thing for sure is the Disney Lawyers (TM) will have just that much more intellectual property to rigorously defend.
One would like to see the youth market rebuilt but do comics play any interest to Disney or are they just after the character rights for movies, cartoons, etc and to hell with the rest?

-Yoc

[phabox]

Disney has long been happy to let 'others' publish comic versions of their characters, Dell, Gold key and Gladstone being just three that come to mind straight away so my guess is that comic books are NOT the companys main interest.

On the other hand there could well be a flood of 'New' Disney comics bearing the Marvel logo or at least some kind of "hi-breed" name such as 'Marv-Ney' (sounds like a Kree Captain  )

-Nigel

P.S. I wonder how much STAN LEE gets out of this deal, -if anything?

[Yoc]

They will let him stand around Disneyland and take pictures with tourists for minimum wage and no washroom breaks.

[rez]

Copied from the article for clarity:

By NAT WORDEN
Walt Disney Co. agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment Inc., the creator of Spider-Man and thousands of other characters, for about $4 billion.

The deal marks one of the largest acquisitions in Disney's history and the first big media deal since companies began hoarding cash last fall during the global financial crisis.

The move fits with Disney's stated strategy of driving revenue from popular content over time across multiple platforms. It also gives the company a boost with young male audiences, where Marvel's characters like Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor are particularly popular. Disney has shown more strength with females from its properties like Hannah Montana.

Under the agreement, Marvel shareholders will receive $30 a share in cash plus about 0.745 Disney share for each Marvel share. Based on Friday's closing prices, the deal is valued at $50 per Marvel share, about a 29% premium.

The companies said the amount of cash and stock in the deal will be adjusted at closing so that the value of the Disney stock is at least 40% of the purchase price. Besides shareholder backing, the deal will require antitrust approval.

Miller Tabak analyst David Joyce said Disney is paying a steep valuation for Marvel but he views the deal as a "good long-term strategic move" for the company. "This is another sign that confidence is returning to the marketplace," he said.

Disney shares were down 1.7% at $26.38 in Monday morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, while Marvel shares jumped 26% to $48.79.

Marvel has long-term production and distribution deals in place with Disney competitors, including Sony Corp.'s Sony Entertainment, News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox Films and Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, which complicate the company's strategic position. News Corp. is the parent of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

In many cases, it will take years before Disney can garner anything more than licensing fees from some key Marvel characters, but Disney Chief Financial Officer Tom Staggs said those revenue are attractive and the company will have the option to produce and distribute Marvel's content on its own when those deals expire.

"Marvel is worth more inside Disney than outside Disney," Mr. Staggs said.

Marvel Chief Executive Ike Perlmutter, who will continue to oversee the Marvel properties, called Disney "the perfect home for Marvel's fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses."

The comic book maker has been boosting awareness of its characters by continuing to branch out into animated television series and live-action films. However, the company in the spring pushed back its film schedule through 2012 as it looked to build anticipation for its coming slate of films.

Marvel's results have been boosted from its film-production business, and last year was the first year it which it began to produce its own films, taking in all the profits instead of just licensing fees.

In March, it formed an international advisory board made up of business leaders from overseas markets as it looked to expand its global presence.

[John C]

What it means for the comic book industry is the same thing it meant when Warner Brothers bought DC, I'd imagine:  Not a heck of a lot, overall.  And Disney is absurdly diverse, so it's not like they're going to "kiddify" Marvel (though it could use some toning down, these days) and give Iron Man big doe eyes and a singing turtle sidekick (which, by the way, sounds like an amazing idea, and I'd be first on line for that movie).

On the other hand, unlike Warner, Disney actually does have some action/adventure types that could get retrofitted into the larger Marvel superstructure.  Kim Possible comes to mind, for example, as being a good candidate.  It's already set in a kind of low-rent superhero universe, so making that a corner of Marvel Earth wouldn't be a huge stretch.

But really, they looked at the profits Sony was raking in with the Marvel movies and wanted some.  That's all there is to it, I'm sure.  The cartoons will fill air time on their ancillary networks and there'll be more cross-promotion with...is it McDonalds that does the Disney promotions?  But the comic side of the business will probably go on as if nothing has happened.

[darwination]

I'm with you John C, I wouldn't mind if Marvel quit aiming their comics at angsty 20-somethings but doubt that Marvel will be affected too much beyond perhaps their movie and toy figure distribution.  I can't even let my kids open a Marvel comic without checking the content, and few make the grade as kid-friendly.  Adult story lines (in one sense of the word at least) and pages drenched in black, "Dark Marvel" = bleh.  On the flipside, I'd recommend the Boom Pixar comics to anybody with kids, mine love them.  I hope that the Boom contract is not affected by all this....I never tire of bashing Marvel (tho I do like some of the Icon books), so all I have to say is that any change in direction would be a good change.  Disney is turning out material like Up and Ponyo, can any influence they might provide be all bad?

[Drusilla lives!]

Only thing for sure is the Disney Lawyers (TM) will have just that much more intellectual property to rigorously defend.  ...

I guess we'll have to get use to not being able to use  "...Nuff Said!" to end our posts. 

[jfglade]

 I would assume the real target of Disney's upcoming purchase of Marvel Entertainment would be characters for movies (and possibly cartoon series), and I imagine comic books (and graphic novels, and so one) would be a minor consideration, at best.

Under Roy and Walt Disney, mostly Roy, Disney established a pattern of taking tremendous risks, which easily could have bankrupted the company, and having the risk pay off remarkably well. A non-fiction book from the early 70s, titled "The Disney Version," by an author who's name I cannot recall offhand, is the best history of the Disney corporation, warts and all, yet written. It should also be noted that today's Disney corporation is hardly the same corporation that once took wild flyers on things they were told would end disasterously like, sound cartoons, color cartoons, full length animated movies, children's television, and the outre idea of putting the company name on an amusement park. Today Disney is a more conventional corporation, albeit one which has diversified in ways that Roy Disney likely never even considered. The purchase of Marvel Entertainment strikes me as a "safe" move, despite the price tag (a billion here, a billion there, after awhile it all starts to add up to some real money).

Personally, I would love it if the sale led to the reprinting of each and every 'Uncle Scrooge' comic book by Carl Barks, but I'm afraid things of that nature can be ruled out.

[tbdeinc]

I had posted this on IMWAN... but here it is...

Disney for a long time after Walt's passing, started to slip into a hell-hole for artists.

Then, Steve Jobs took Disney to the cleaners for BILLIONS.

Lasseter and his top crew are running the creative now, Steve is the largest shareholder.
Stable minds are in control of Disney.

Will Disney screw with Marvel... no... what I see is Disney's quality seep into Marvel...

That quality is... The Disney effect thru association will tone down the CRAP that is currently dished out at marvel.
(ex. graphic death, violence, soft porn, swearing, etc...)
Quite possibly. Hopefully.

I hope that Marvel will one day come back to when the artists and writers use their collective creative hearts and produce comics that sing, dance and excite the mind... like they did in the 60s and 70s... and a little of the 80s.

After that, I lost the interest... women would have constant hard nipples, everyone on the page was always angry, death and more graphic violence was the normal...

Really, count how many times in the first 200 issues of Spiderman, FF, Cap, DD, Avengers, etc... you would see the stuff I pointed above...

Now look upon Disney, there is a style guide that follows certain rules for creating content, that EGO driven writers and artist will not cross...

Marvel doesn't have that style guide, that rock hard rule to not-F#$K-with-characters.

Mickey, Goofy, and every other Disney character is locked into a certain age, a certain charcterization and have been doing just fine for over 50 years... granted Archie getting married is pretty F#$Ked up... But how much F#$K ups like that can be counted on Disney's side... and how many F#$%K ups can be counted on Marvel's side?

GPG

[John C]

I actually doubt there'll be any cleanup at Marvel, because Disney isn't just Disney proper (that is, the Little Mermaid, High School Musical, and the like).  It's also the ABC collection of networks (ESPN, ABC Family, Soap Opera Network), the movie studios (Dreamworks, Mirimax, and so forth), along with radio and publishing arms.

When you consider Disney's writing standards, it's important to remember that those standards are extremely localized--what applies to a Mickey Mouse Club revival doesn't apply to an episode of Lost or a Mirimax release.

I do HOPE that some rational VP will look at the cesspool of emotional trauma and rats nest of conspiracy that the Marvel Universe has apparently turned into and decide it needs fixing to be worthy of Disney citizenship, but it's far more likely that their efforts will be spent negotiating with Sony to get a bigger share of future Iron Man profits.

I mean, really, look how much Disney rakes in overall, compared to the dribble from comic book sales.  It's not worth their time to fix any perceived deficiencies unless they're hurting the company.

[Yoc]

A funny worth repeating on the subject -

Posted by: "barryprl"

Just saw the Disney Marvel DVD releases:

Escape to Scarlet Witch Mountain
The Absent Minded Professor X
Beauty and Hank McCoy
Ol' Yella Claw
Finding Namor

And, through Marvel Productions their first R rated movie: Bambi Goes All The Way For a Buck.

PS (Finding Namor is my favorite)

[BountyHunter]

Dark Reign: Goofy

Can't wait!

[crimsoncrusader]

Hopefully this buyout will be beneficial for both Marvel and Disney. Both of those companies have had their issues since the visionaries who once lead the companies have either died, retired, or diversified  into other interests. Maybe now they can return to the quality Marvel and Disney once stood for in entertainment and create a new Marvel Age of comics.

[Mr. Izaj]

 What I'd like to see from the Disney-Marvel merger would be not only a return to the quality both companies stood for in entertainment, but also more of a revisting of their roots. Marvel has done an excellent job of revisiting their comic book roots with their Masterworks books (I own more than a few of their Golden Age Masterworks volumes). I'd like to see them embark on a full scale reprinting of many of the classic Disney comic strip and comic book stories that Disney's various artists have done over the years, done in the manner of Marvel's Masterworks series of course. It would be nice to see the works of such artists as Carl Barks, Floyd Gottfredson, Al Tallaferro, and Walt Kelly reprinted in some attractive hardbound volumes.

I'd also like to see Disney do some very strong animated cartoons based on the Marvel characters that would outdo all of the animated adaptions of Marvel strips that have been done before. Knowing that Disney was the studio that gave us the classic animated adventure TV series Gargoyles and many classic animated features. We should expect the same quality to be done with animated adaptions of Marvel's heroes.

[rez]

I'd also like to see Disney do some very strong animated cartoons based on the Marvel characters that would outdo all of the animated adaptions of Marvel strips that have been done before.

Boy, isn't that a pleasant thought.