Straight from the horses mouth (or fingers as the case may be) come tales of what could have and should have been:
I remember being asked to pitch for a mooted BLACK PANTHER 2099 book at Marvel. The book actually never happened at all. I imagine none of the pitches were up to snuff, and they just killed the idea. I dimly remember mine being a sort of terrifying “Fear Of A Black Planet”/Huey P. Newton thing, with Black Panther Cells run from Marvel’s fictional African country Wakanda destabilising corporate-run America. I think I used some of the stuff in there for my later DOOM 2099 sequence. I wasn’t happy at doing the foot race: I got paid, and my foot hadn’t been in the door that long, and I supposed this was just the way things were done. But I had a feeling that maybe it wasn’t the best way to do things.
I also took part in a run-off for a BLADE comics series. You didn’t always find out whom you were in competition with, but this time I’d discovered that I was running against my good friend Ian Edginton. It was awkward, but we had a teddibly English gentlemen’s-manners thing about the whole situation, and I was delighted for him when he got the book. Also slightly irritated, because I could have used the money, and as corporate jobs go it had some potential for fun and advancement. But I’d obviously rather the gig go to a friend if it had to go to anyone but me. I remember that Ian ran into problems on the book straight away. And a few months later the editor phoned me and asked me if I’d take over the book.
I was young, and arrogant, and a bit of a prick, and I said to him, “No. You should have got it right the first time.” Which was offensive on a number of levels, not least to poor Ian, who did not deserve the inference. But I didn’t get anywhere without having a degree of security in my own talent. And I was pissed off.
Hmm interesting, one problem though Warren Ellis…Black Panther 2099 did happen…..as a one shot it didn’t quite die the way you think it did 😛
Source: Warren Ellis Dot Com
The difference being that Warren Ellis BP 2009 pitch sounds like it would have been an AWESOME ongoing series, as opposed to the incredibly mediocre and pointless one-shot that Robert Kirkman wrote.