Happy Election Day! Before you head out to the polls, be sure to check out our interview with Marvel editor Jen Grünwald! Check out the video as well, cause no matter who wins tonight, you can't stop the signal!
Jen Grünwald pitched my terrible, horrible, dirty Mini Marvels idea to Chris Giarrusso without even flinching. I can't blame the hole that put me in with Chris on her either, because I gave her permission to do it, so enamored was I by her energy and enthusiasm upon first making her acquaintance.
And she's Marvel canon. Yeah, she was the vampire victim in Ultimate Spider-man #95-96 and she was in the backup story of Stan Lee Meets Doctor Strange. Knowing that only increases my embarassment from calling her an assistant editor. She paid her dues and is now living large as a full blown collections editor. I will never make that mistake again.
Hopefully taking the time to figure out how to type the umlaut in her name makes up for it in some small part.
Stephen Mayer: We're talking to Jen Grünwald, who is an assistant editor at Marvel...
Jen Grünwald: No, no, no, no, no.
SM: No? I'm sorry, I'm sorry!
JG: I have risen the ranks over the last six years. I am an editor at Marvel.Â
SM: And what books are you working on?
JG: All the trades, but the big project I do a lot is the handbooks. The hardcovers in particular, which are awesome!
SM: I'm a big fan of those.Â
JG: They're a lot of work, but they're pretty awesome.
SM: So do you work with Jim McCann and David Gabriel?
JG: Yeah. They're sales, so I don't work with them, but they're there all the time. They're pretty cool guys...I guess. [laughs]
SM: You've worked at Jim Hanley's Universe in New York.Â
JG: Yes, I worked there for six years.Â
SM: Would you care to share one of your craziest stories from working there?
JG: Crazy stories, my gosh...What do you mean by crazy?
SM: Any very influence creators...
JG: Well, yes, one of the coolest people I met there, the first creator I met there was Warren Ellis actually. He did his tour in 2000 or 2001 and I was real excited to meet him. I had a graphic design class at the time, not graphic design, web design, and our final project was making a presidential website and I decided to do "Spider Jerusalem for President." So when I met him there I was really excited and I told him about it and he was so nice. And then after that he actually went on his From the Desk of Warren Ellis and mentioned that I work there and was like, "Oh, go talk to Jen there, she was really nice." and then he went to the website and signed the guest book and everything. I was like, "Oh my god!" Then when I went England to study there the next year, he brought me out with his message board guys and it was the coolest thing. He's the nicest guy. Warren Ellis: awesome!
SM: It doesn't get much better than that!
JG: It was really, really cool.
SM: What one project that you've been trying to get started at Marvel or that you were trying to get collected into trade, even since you've started working there that you're still trying to push through.Â
JG: There've been a few that have happened. Once when I was younger I wanted to read Dazzler comics. I guess it's not that hard to get now, but at the time I didn't know, so that was really cool to do the Dazzler Essential. And then I finally got Sean [McKeever]'s Young Inhumans, or Inhumans that we're calling Young Inhumans, in trade finally fully collected. But I really want to do a Rogue trade or like every appearance. [laughs] Like from the first appearance.
SM: From Avengers Annual #10?
JG: Yes! And up until her regular things. When I was young I was like, "I want to have all those things!" I didn't know her whole story. I was obsessed with that. I could only get certain things. I was hard for me to figure out what she was in. So I really want to do that. I know it's lame and probably no one will buy it. [laughs] A Rogue collection!
SM: Dazzler is actually one of the top-selling Essentials.
JG: Oh, really? That's kind of cool. I kind of helped design that one, too.Â
SM: I think they're kind of caught off guard at first, but then they're intrigued. It's that one and early Power Man. Power Man vol. 1.
JG: Yeah, those do really well. Dazzler's cool. She's not one you have to color in though. [laughs]
SM: C.B. [Cebulski] writes, obviously and Jim McCann just had his first story solicited. Do you have any desire to get in on that side of the creative process?
JG: Not really, no. If I had a story in there, I'd probably want to do it. I really just like comics. I'm not looking to make 'em. I just want to enjoy them. I feel like I should almost, cause I've got an in, but nah, I'm not into that.
SM: If you had to write someone, who would it be?
JG: Like what character?
SM: Or team.
JG: Let's see...Rogue, probably. Maybe a little Kitty Pryde/Lockheed story in there.
SM: Kitty Pryde's my favorite!
JG: I've got a Lockheed tattoo.
SM: The John Cassaday one?
JG: Yeah, he's my boy. [laughs] I love that guy.
SM: Jen Grünwald, thanks a lot.
JG: No problem! Thanks for talking to me. Â
Jennifer Grünwald is now Collection Editor for Marvel Comics. At Baltimore Comic Con, she accepted the Harvey Award for Best Collection for the Ed Brubaker Captain America Omnibus. She can be found at Brian Bendis' Jinxworld Message Board and her blog, I Got Kitty Pryde.
