In Marvel's press conference, held today to discuss Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk (streeting December 21st, see 'Lost Co-Creator Pens 'Ultimate' Series'), Marvel Director of Sales David Gabriel revealed that the issue of TV Guide to be released the third week of December will include coverage of Lost, its co-creator Damon Lindelof, and his work on the Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk miniseries.  This should provide a great opportunity for comic retailers to reach out to Lost fans that might not otherwise buy a Marvel Ultimate mini-series.

 

Marvel also plans to use the X-Men 3 movie this summer as a way to expose new consumers to the Ultimate universe.  It plans to produce a special oversized trade paperback volume of the Ultimate X-Men with a new cover, collecting the first couple of volumes of the series at a lower price, as a way to get new consumers started on the whole Ultimate X-Men series. 

 

Marvel is also providing in-market support for Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk, including ads in Comic Shop News and Wizard, in-store posters, and postcard giveaways.   

 

Lindelof did drop a few nuggets about the content of the upcoming miniseries.  Asked about guest shots, he said that the first issue of the mini-series will introduce a new Marvel character into the Ultimate universe.  There will also be a couple of other characters that will float in and out of the series, but they won't be introduced into the Ultimate universe in this book.  'A couple of fun mutants' will probably appear in the third or fourth issues, making brief appearances. 

 

He said that he has found the process of writing comics 'liberating' compared to the creative process for television.  'In Hollywood we get micromanaged,' he said, and the storylines are constantly constrained by the costs or difficulties of filming what the writers can imagine.  In comics, 'the storytelling boundaries can be pushed.'He said that he expects 'a lot more cross-pollination between movie and TV writing and comics.'  As an example of that phenomenon in the other direction, Marvel writer Jeph Loeb has been tapped to join the writing staff of Lost for the back half of Season 2.