Joseph "Joe" Quesada (born January 12, 1962) is an American comic book editor, writer and artist. He became known in the 1990s for his work on various Valiant Comics books, such as Ninjak and Solar, Man of the Atom. He later worked on numerous books for DC Comics and Marvel Comics, such as Batman: Sword of Azrael and X-Factor, before forming his own company, Event Comics, where he published his creator-owned character, Ash.
In 1998 he became an editor of Marvel Comics' Marvel Knights line, before becoming editor-in-chief of the company in 2000. He was named Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment in 2010 and left his editor-in-chief role in January 2011, being replaced by Axel Alonso.
Quesada was born in New York City to Cuban-born parents and grew up in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens. He studied at the School of Visual Arts, where he received a BFA in illustration in 1984. He started out as an artist in the early 1990s. His first widely distributed works were for Valiant Comics where he penciled interiors and covers for Ninjak, Solar, Man of the Atom and others. His art was heavily influenced by Japanese manga, evidenced by large, watery eyes, long, flowing hair, and unnatural body proportions. Several of his page compositions reflect the art nouveau style of Alphonse Mucha. Later, he and his inking partner Jimmy Palmiotti formed a publishing company, Event Comics, and co-created Ash, a firefighter with superpowers.
In 1998, Event Comics was contracted to do several books for Marvel Comics, dubbed Marvel Knights. As editor of Marvel Knights, Quesada encouraged experimentation and used his contacts in the indie comics world to bring in new creators such as David W. Mack, Mike Oeming, Brian Michael Bendis, Garth Ennis, and Steve Dillon. Quesada also illustrated a Daredevil story written by film director Kevin Smith
Editorial work
Joe Quesada became editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics in 2000, following Bob Harras's departure from the company. Joe Quesada is the first artist to become Marvel's editor-in-chief. As editor-in-chief of one of the two largest publishers in the comic book business, he holds a great deal of influence over the direction of the American comic book industry.
Quesada became editor-in-chief at the same time that Bill Jemas succeeded to the presidency of the company. The relationship culminated in the establishment of the Ultimate line of Marvel titles, which were aimed at teenagers and took place outside of the restrictive continuity of the Marvel Universe.
House of M #1 featuring the Scarlet Witch. Variant cover art by Joe Quesada & Danny Miki.
In the mid-2000s, Quesada imposed a moratorium on the comic-book practice of creatively bringing back a character thought to be dead, known as "dead is dead". In a January 2008 interview in which he was questioned about numerous characters that had since been resurrected, Quesada clarified that the policy was for writers to exercise forethought and caution before killing off characters or resurrecting them, so that such plots were not produced too frequently or without gravitas, and not that it be entirely prohibited.
Joe Quesada's predecessor as Marvel editor in chief, Bob Harras, canceled and restarted all of Marvel's titles that were not either X-Men-related or at fewer than 100 issues already. This was an effort to shore up sagging sales with a new #1 issue for each of Marvel's popular titles, issued at a time shortly after the bust of the comic book collecting industry, and when Marvel was in the throes of bankruptcy. Quesada reversed this policy first by showing the "old", combined issue numbers beside the "new" numbers on covers (the difference between the two issue numbers shown on the cover would always be the number of issues that the series had before Harras restarted it), and then definitively restoring the "old" numbers for Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man and Avengers when they each passed the 500 mark.
Joe Quesada has been involved in the creation of three successful imprints:
Marvel Knights, aimed at older readers, with Jimmy Palmiotti (before his tenure as editor-in-chief)
MAX, aimed at adult readers, with Brian Michael Bendis
Ultimate, aimed at teen readers, with Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar
Critics of Quesada's policy of emphasizing trade paperbacks charge that they cannibalize monthly comic book sales, because readers may opt to forego monthly series in order to wait for the cheaper collections, not realizing that monthly sales are an indicator to publishers of interest in such collections.
When confronted with a backlash by some fans due to his decision to dictate a controversial retcon of Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane Watson in the "One More Day" storyline, Quesada participated in a series of interviews on the subject to address the issue of the marriage, comparing it to real life marriages. He also promoted and praised the MC2 title Spider-Girl for continuing to provide fans with a stable marriage and an expanded family, although that title has since been canceled and relaunched multiple times,eventually being cancelled for good in 2010.
Quesada appeared at MarvelFest NYC 2009, where he judged a costume contest with Dan Slott, Scott Adsit, Chris Claremont, and Frank Tieri.
In June 2009 Quesada began writing a weekly column for Comic Book Resources called "Cup O' Joe", in which he answers questions every Friday from readers or provides information Marvel projects.
On February 10, 2010, Quesada apologized and changed the content of Captain America #602, which depicted an apparent Tea Party movement protest, with its character Falcon, who is black, saying that he would not be welcomed by a crowd of "angry white folks." The cartoon drew the condemnation of national Tea Party leaders.
On June 2, 2010 Marvel announced that it promoted Joe Quesada to Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment. In this position Quesada will help ensure that all portrayals of Marvel's characters and stories remain true to the essence of Marvel history. He will also oversee the creative aspects of media adaptations of Marvel properties, which include participating in story and script development.
On January 4, 2011, Quesada stepped down at editor-in-chief, and was replaced by Axel Alonso. After being given the additional job of CCO, in 2010, Quesada explained to Comic Book Resources, "With my increased travel schedule over the last year plus, I've only been able to work with the publishing division in a more macro sense, or as you put it, a more, "big picture," sense. During this time, Tom and Axel have been handling the more detailed functions of the stories within our comics. My role has been one in which I work on the larger stories and the overall flavor and feel of our books and universe."
Techniques and materials
When illustrating, Quesada begins with sketches much smaller than the actual size at which he will render the final drawing. He employs a Cintiq drawing tablet when he desires to do a "tighter" digital layout of an illustration. When sketching figures, he will sometimes use photographic reference, and incorporate the photos directly into his sketches during the process of finalizing a layout. Once he makes a final decision on a layout, he will then print it out at full size, and use a light box to pencil it, sometimes altering elements in the design such as lighting or other details.
Media appearances
In Kevin Smith's 1995 film Mallrats Quesada is credited as an artist for the opening sequence featuring fictional comic books covers. He appears in Chasing Amy, alongside frequent collaborator and inker Jimmy Palmiotti, signing comic books in the end scene. He later appeared as a pizza delivery man in Smith's 2001 film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
Personal life
Quesada lives in New Jersey.
Bibliography
- Comics work (as writer and/or interiors artist) includes:
- The two page cover for X-O Manowar #0 by Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti.
- DC
- Azrael/Ash (1997)
- Batman: Sword of Azrael, miniseries, #1-4 (1992-93)
- Question Quarterly #3, 5 (1991-92)
- The Ray, miniseries, #1-6 (1992)
- Spelljammer #8-13, 15 (1991)
- Marvel
- The Amazing Spider-Man #544-545, 601 (full art); #641 (along with Paolo Rivera, also writer) (2007-10)
- Daredevil, vol. 2, #1-11, 13-14 (full art); #50 (among other artists) (1998-2003); #12 (writer) (2000)
- Daredevil: Father, miniseries, (also as writer) #1-6 (2004-07)
- Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24 (2007)
- Iron Man, vol. 3, #26-35, Annual 2000 (writer) (2000)
- Marvel Knights Double Shot (Punisher) #1 (2002)
- Midnight Sons Unlimited #1 (1993)
- NYX, miniseries, #1-7 (writer) (2003-05)
- Sensational Spider-Man #41 (2007)
- Sleepwalker #12 (1992)
- What The--?! #13 (1991)
- X-Factor #87-92; Annual #7 (1992-93)
- X-Force #12-15 (1995)
- Other publishers
- Ash #1, 1/2 (also writer) (Event, 1994-97)
- Ash: The Fire Within, miniseries, #2 (also writer) (Event, 1997)
- Deathmate: Epilogue (Image, 1994)
- Ninjak #1-3 (Acclaim, 1994)
- Painkiller Jane #1 (writer) (Dynamite, 2006)
- Painkiller Jane Zero #0 (writer) (Event, 1999)
- X-O Manowar #0 (Acclaim, 1993)
- Original Article on Wikipedia
Social Networks:
- Follow Joe on Twitter : @JoeQuesada
- Follow Joe on Facebook: Joe Quesada
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