Tom Brevoort is Executive Editor for Marvel Comics, and oversees such titles as New Avengers, Civil War, and Fantastic Four. Recently on his blog (http://www.marvel.com/blogs/Tom_Brevoort/), which is quite informative, he opened it up for some questions and here are the two that I asked.

- This may sound a bit long winded, but it’s all really one question. With the recent trend of getting writers from other media (like say movies and novels) is there other realms of writing and media that you’d like to get new writers from. For Marvel want to bring on a foreign news correspondent because they would have experience that could really flesh out some of the more international Marvel Characters (like say the Supreme Soviets).

We’re constantly interested in new writers from all walks of life, provided they have the goods. I don’t know that we’d specifically be looking for, say, a foreign correspondent to write our international characters, but I wouldn’t rule it out either. The important thing is that they have the talent, and a track record of some kind helps as well. I think overall the quality of the writing at Marvel has increased over the last decade or so, so the bar is set higher in terms of people being able to break in.

- 2nd question sort of along the lines of the first one is, are you looking to get more focused push on manga styled comics. DC seems to be trying with their CMX line but Marvel’s attempts have been a tad scattershot with things like the Mangaverse and having Kia Asamiya draw the X-Men for several issues. Considering Manga is dominating the bookstore market despite the markets is leveling out, wouldn’t it be in Marvel’s best interest to get a big piece of that pie?

I think a lot of people misunderstand what Manga really is. It’s a cultural style of storytelling rather than a particular look or flavor. So it’s not all that easy to emulate simply by drawing big eyes or sailor-suited girls or speed lines. That said, we did recently license an X-MEN Manga to be produced by Japanese creators, so we’ll see how that goes. (Editor Note – What he is referring to is the Marvel and Del Rey deal that’s been announced where a shojo manga version of the X-men will be written by Raina Telegemeier and Dave Roman with art by Anzu, and a Wolverine shonen manga written by Antony Johnston. We hope to have some interviews on this as we get closer to the Spring 2009 release date of those books).