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.
Comic Bits 20 
