I do worry about how good a writer is when, jumping in to get onto the hot news item, they write:
"First I'm posting from Bleeding Cool because Rich will go there and will straight up admit it."
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2020/02/22/the-way-dan-didio-was-fired-brutal-and-unnecessary-says-dc-comics-founders-granddaughter-nicky-wheeler-nicholson/
It's a short item so Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson gets some CBO internet time (she's probably fainting on hearing that):
"So here's the deal with me. First I'm posting from Bleeding Cool because Rich will go there and will straight up admit it. Second, I never met Dan but I do know he was one of the people who helped insure that New Fun #1 ended up where it belonged in the archives at DC. For that alone I am grateful. Third, I find the way he was fired brutal and unnecessary for someone who clearly loved comics and contributed to the company for a long time.
"Even if you disagree with his contributions letting someone go in this manner makes the company look very bad and they don't need that in my opinion. This is exactly the kind of thing I have feared from the ATT takeover and something I voiced to some of the higher ups a year ago, March.
"Why should I care what happens when I do not own even a dust bunny at DC and most people in the industry have no idea who I am or who the Major was and of those who do, there are people who have no stake in trashing the Major but who apparently are still hanging on to the old tropes of "he wasn't really there, and if he was there, he didn't do anything, and if he did do anything, he was an idiot or a charlatan or whatever." Really, really beyond sick of that! DC Comics was the Major's idea and vision and that is why I care what happens to it and how it is being taken care of by WB and now ATT.
"If ATT destroys it, it will break my heart."
So from this we learn that Wheeler-Nicholson did not know Didio. She has not spoken to him. She does not know how Dido was let go. This means that her entire opinion is based on the fact that her grandfather set up National Periodicals (DC).
This is how it works in the real world: her family sold off DC comics. Took the money. End of story -no connection with DC for decades. And it also raises the question of how Didio's firing was "brutal and unnecessary"? No one else has the details yet this person who makes it clear she has no DC clout/knowledge and does not know Didio can pronounce how badly Didio was treated?
Also, will "Rich straight up and admit it"? I can only maintain interest in what he might admit for so long.
I need to point something out. I have written extensively on the UK Platinum and Golden ages of comics. I have posted scans of covers of Triumph with the first UK appearance of Superman. I found a Bleeding Cool post on the subject of Superman and it included some of my cover scans. I was credited. That crediting in itself is so rare I was taken aback (normally internet types just steal everything with no credit given). Just saying.
I have seen and heard people screech that the publisher being sacked means the end of DC comics. No, I'll explain.
In the UK and Europe -I guess in most of the world, too- if you are the publisher then you run and take care of most things including hiring and firing. Included in that is supervising your editors. There are exceptions of a sort in that if you publish something for someone else you are the publisher but the money comes from elsewhere outside the company.
In the United States a corporation will buy a publisher and hire people in to work as publishers -people with experience in the field. Creators being fired by Stan Lee when Marvel was taken over in the late 1960s was a sign, as far as most ignorant people were concerned, of his being a back-stabber. The firing of people physically affected him (he was heard "dry vomitting" in the office) but he believed that Kirby and other talent would just walk into new jobs because of their talent. Lee had no choice since the bosses ordered the firings and at least Lee could do the job as a friend and boss rather than the company shout "Yer out!"
Quesada was a later figure head for the company and was a "yes man" and everyone knew that but if things went wrong he would be sacked, demoted or whatever. He was the smiling public face of Marvel. When Jim Lee jumped publishing ship yet again to DC he was and still is just a figure head. Someone asked (in fact there are several videos and blogs asking this question) "What exactly does Jim Lee do?" He turns up, smiles, does "how to draw" events, smiles, gets in a car and drives off. His job should have been the same as Didio's and so he ought to also be going, right?
No. The money-men running things know that Didio has made himself disliked by fans and it is no good how much his pals (let's see who sticks by him now) build him and his work at DC up: he was brusque at best with fans and really seemed to want to push his own, rather than the company's agenda. It lost the company lots of money and that, for AT&T was a no-no.
Everyone loves Jim Lee (he has the t-shirt that says so), Didio -disliked by fans. Lee loved by fans. No need to toss a coin to see who gets "let go". Lee played a canny game of letting Didio make decisions and I don't think anyone will ever know what was really going on behind the scenes but editors and creators can be venomous back-stabbing little primadonnas -it's what led to Jim Shooter being fired at Marvel after making it successful again: look what happened when he left.
Didio and the rest of the gang will all have non disclosure agreements to keep them quiet. AT&T want a company that looks good to the share-holders and public -they ain't gona say anything that is not 'gracious' about Didio such as "being a great publisher and guiding light who has moved on to newer projects and we wish him all the best in his endeavours".
Where could Didio go next? Set up his own company? I noticed someone else picked up on the Disney-to-Didio phone call and wondered whether things might change at Marvel (think about it -he knows all the DC insider dealings and plans): if it happens I called it first but you'll all forget that. If it doesn't happen....you'll still forget what I wrote!
But removing a publisher does not mean the end of DC Comics and certainly not the end for Didio.
Reading all the reactions you might think the fella had died!
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