I think that if you want some of the reasons why DC is so screwed up
you need only look at an article posted by Bob Bricken on The Topless
Robot blog back in June:
http://www.toplessrobot.com/2012/06/breaking_dcs_new_52_might_not_have_been_completely.php
George Perez, brought on for
Superman, could not wait to
hand things over to Keith Giffen. You would think that if Didio at DC
said “let’s get George Perez in on Superman -he knows what he’s doing
and he’s a fan favourite”…well, you think that he might have had
everything written down and prepared. Instead, Perez arrives on the
book and is told he cannot do what he was doing and brought onto the
book to do. Mainly, it seems, because editors these days have little in
the way of brains or balls.
Perez wrote:
“Unfortunately when you are writing major characters, you sometimes
have to make a lot of compromises, and I was made certain promises,
[...] and unfortunately not through any fault of Dan DiDio — he was no
longer the last word, I mean a lot of people were now making decisions
[...] they were constantly going against each other, contradicting,
again in mid-story.”
But I just shook my head at this:
“I had no idea Grant Morrison was going to be working on another
Superman
title. I had no idea I was doing it five years ahead, which means … my
story, I couldn’t do certain things without knowing what he did, and
Grant wasn’t telling everybody. So I was kind of stuck. ‘Oh, my gosh,
are the Kents alive? What’s his relationship with all of these
characters? Who exists?’ And DC couldn’t give me answers. I said, ‘Oh,
my gosh, you’re deciding all these things and you mean even you don’t
know what’s going on in your own books?’ So I became very frustrated …”
Firstly, I do not give a damn if it’s Alan Moore, Grant Morrison or
any of the other so-so writers in comics today who seem to think they
are mega stars and the Shakespeare of comics.
They are writing
comics. They are being paid to do so by a company. The editor has to
edit and pull them inline or else he is NOT an editor -he’s a wet piece
of string (you have no idea how I had to hold back there).
A company pays someone to write and/or draw a comic. Forget this
poncified. egocentric crap of “graphic novelist” or “graphic
illustrator”: they are writing and drawing comics. Graphic novels are
extra thick comics.
Would Julius Schwarz or Stan Lee or even Roy Thomas have sat back and
said: “okay. We’re paying you but you do not want to tell us WHAT you
are going to be doing on the book? Fair enough -you are the star!” Like
bollocks would they.
Here is a good example of how crap DC bosses are. Bob Wayne sat on a
DC panel at the Bristolo Comic Expo a few years ago along with Howard
Chaykin. At these events DC usually insulted British comic fans but got
away with it. But on this one occasion one person in the audience
said: “There does not appear to be much continuity with DC Comics. I’ve
read them since I was a kid and I’m 45 now. Everything seems to be
thrown out, chopped or changed. It’s difficult to follow.”
To which Howard Chaykin responded and Bob Wayne nodded in agreement while grinning:
“F**k continuity.”
I know standards are slipping and this was only in the UK but that
someone high up in DC would allow and not apologise for that sort of
response to a loyal fan is unacceptable. Of course, the geeks in the
audience who had no real intellect, giggled. A woman with two youngsters
at the front of the audience left looking disgusted. Nothing.
I have no respect for management or editors at DC comics. I would
say the same thing if offered work by them (which would show they were
frikking insane!).
We hear constant talk about “creator conferences” to sort out what is
going to happen in titles over the next year. Are DCs bosses then
turning to writers at the end of these events and saying “of course, YOU
are the star. Just ignore us if you want to.”??
Marvel Comics, as I already mentioned in other postings, has lost it
creatively. I am shocked that so many people hang on to everything they
are told by Marvel is “great” -which is just about every single thing
Marvel publishes or wipes its ass with. It’s like a junkie that gives up
heroin. It’ll toy with methadone a little but you know it is going to
get straight back on the heroin in a short time.
“Dark Reign” could apply to any and every event from Marvel since it committed hare kari with
Avengers Disassembled. The
House of M ‘event’
just left me asking what the hell was going on? The methadone or, as
we comickers call it, “The Heroic Age” from Marvel, finally seemed to be
the company seeing sense but then they returned to the heroin (Dark
Reign) stuff.
Marvel, or rather Disney, do not care about the comic fan. Quite
honestly they would sit back and watch you drown slowly unless there was
money in it for them to help. Marvel has had to escape bancruptcy -On
August 31, 2009, the Walt Disney corporation announced a deal to acquire
Marvel Comics’ parent corporation, Marvel Entertainment, for $4
billion, with Marvel share-holders to receive $30 and 0.745 Disney
shares for each share of Marvel they own. Thus silencing any criticism
since share-holders are there to make money.
When Joe Quesada took over as headman at Marvel there
was
a positive change. The books became far more European in the way they
were written and thinking behind them. Then someone -Quesada?- lost it.
Possibly the greatest Avengers series ever was
Avengers Forever by
Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco. Fantastic art. Gripping stuff but
above all else, Busiek managed to clear up all the continuity glitches
in 40 years of Avengers history. Just as he had helped return the
Avengers to former glory, along with George Perez -fantastic art and
great stories with some nice twists, Busiek managed to weave a complex
story that I’ve read so many times in its 12 issue series format that I
had to buy the trade before they tore apart.
And Marvels response…”Avengers Disassembled” (imagine “Avengers Disassembled” as being written in a sort of excremental smear).
Oh, and Busiek was told to **** off. Sorry, according to Marvel
Busiek left the title as the new writer was “far better” than he was.
Aneurism time as you try to work that out.
DC and Marvel employs its own little stable of writers who grow fat
while defecating the same stale brown crusty cobs over and over to,
apparently, ‘fan’ praise. Let’s not go into how many pencillers or
inkers it takes to put a 22 pages book together -or why a certain
company employs veteran creators such as Sal Buscema to tidy up the “new
guys’ work” and make it printable. I mean Sal Buscema has more talent
in his toe nail than some of the ‘big’ stars (who cannot draw a comic on
schedule) and he has to wipe the snot from their noses???
Just as Alan Moore needed an editor to stand up and say “No. This needs more editing…” so do other ‘stars’.
I like a quote from John Byrne at a UKCAC convention in London in the
1980s: “You go to events and its ‘John Byrne’ the big comic super star
and everyone looks on in awe. I go to a supermarket to buy groceries
and I’m just a schmuck in the till queue!”
Slightly paraphrased there.
You have creators rights now but that does not mean you can do
whatever you want and mess things up. The editor was the person who was
there to say “No. Redraw that panel” or “You cannot re-name a character
who has existed for 20 years because it sounds better to you” or, more
significantly: “No. Sorry. Rape is not a form of entertainment that has
to be in every issue of your current comic.” Considering other factors,
editors ought to really say rather firmly:”We have standards.”
Alan Moore doesn’t like it then he walks off. He doesn’t mind not
getting paid then fair enough. He wants to argue with editors and
publishers and get himself black-listed, or as he likes to call it
“making a stand” then fair enough. His decision. But he needs/needed
(has he REALLY quit comics this time?) editing. The same for the other
premadonna ‘stars’ in comics. Editors make sure they get paid. An editor
needs to have balls and to say:”Look, we pay you. We expect you to do a
good writing job but within standards. You do not want to be edited
-okay, walk. Go look for a job elsewhere.”
Until companies tell their editors to get balls and do their editing
jobs (or quit) and these ‘stars’ get to understand they are paid to do a
job things will just keep getting worse at Marvel and DC (I don’t want
to ask “can it get worse?”).
Quesada: “What is my job? Uhh. Lemme see. Uhh. I, uh, no, wait -I know this one!”
Didio: “What is my job? Uhh. Lemme see. Uhh. I, uh, no, wait -I know this one!”
Those changes will never happen, though. Why? Because comic
buyers won’t say “enough is enough” because they dare not. Or, more
simply put, the comic buyer is the piggy bank that company executives
like to squeeze every penny out for quick profit. Does management or
any editor really care about the fans? No. Bosses want big profits (they
are businessmen) and the editors do not care so long as they make the
boss happy and get their cheques.
“Simples”, as a great philosopher once said.
Disney, and Marvel, just keep grinning and say “Look how much our movies make!”
Now, off to put a portfolio together to submit to Marvel and DC. I’m
hoping for either Quesada or Didio’s jobs since they aren’t doing them.
Yes. I am a bastard.
Comix Reader Issue 4 Launch & ExhibitionOn
Friday 3rd August celebrate the launch of the UK’s top underground
comix newspaper at Gosh! comic shop in London, there will be an
exhibition of the original artwork and artists from the paper will be
there too! 7pm Onwards.
