As someone who's struggled to break into the comic book industry I've kept my opinions to myself on a lot of issues because ya never know who your gonna have to work with or for someday, ya know... But since that's no longer an issue...
Today I saw a report that Rob Liefeld is going to be writing 3 books for DC after the one he already had been working on was cancelled. In the corporate world this is called "failing up". We all know these people: They come in late, take long lunches, don't help customers or when they do they say "Can't help ya bro" or "that's not my job" or just in general are incompetent and lazy (The corporate term for this is "stealing time") and rather then getting what they deserve, which is fired, they get promoted.
...Take a sec. I know you can list 5 people you work with who fit this description...
Not that that description really fits Liefeld- Failing up does, but he's not lazy thats for sure. Love his work or not the guy is always working- Ya gotta give him that. I've also never had any interaction with him myself but the people I know who have said that he is very personable and cool to his fans and all so that's another positive. It's just the work itself just isn't any good. It was popular for a time, but rarely are "popular" and "good" interchangeable. And it's also a time the comics industry looks back on and cringes at and we've (Yes, I'm going with the collective "we've" here) tried to distance ourselves from. And even then he was known as a bad writer. Not just someone who's work you like or not like his artwork was, but just plain bad. And now, 20 years later, his work has shown no improvement and yet he's writing 3 books for the second largest comic company there is.
As someone who would kill for an opportunity to work for DC it's so frustrating. There are hundreds of actual writers out there who would kill for the opportunity, and rather then give the shot to someone who might do something good with it they give these books to someone who is the comic book equivalent of Ted McGinley. You remember him- He was an actor (Still is I imagine, in much the same way Liefeld hangs around) in the 80's who as soon as you saw him on your favorite show you knew it was gonna be cancelled. Jumping the shark has a whole section on him...
Anywho, I am a lifelong DC fan. The reason I got into comics in the first place was the Batman movie book by Jerry Ordway. I worked with Dick Giordano, DC's former editor-in-chief, for 8 years. I love DC and defend them constantly to my Marvel zombie friends. Yeah, we have a Who's Who full of stupid characters but so do you, I just don't have any of them to point it out...
Or I guess I should I say "loved"- What they are publishing now are not DC books, the characters are no longer the characters we grew up loving, and the people there are not DC people. The EIC is an old Marvel editor and he's bringing back his old 80's/90's Marvel crew, and they are putting out shitty 80's and 90's Marvel and Image (Based on some of the characters re-designs) books. They even took Superman and turned him into Spider-Man- An emo kid with "problems". He probably even uses those laser beams to cut himself off panel...
I know what your saying: "Gee, that's a lot of bitching, aint it Rob? What's your solution???" It's simple- 2 words: Mark Waid. Bring in Mark Waid like baseball brought in Kenesaw Mountain Landis after the Black Sox scandal and let him clean house- The guy knows all the history of all the characters and would be the best guiding force the companies had since Dickie left.
And best off he's an actual writer!!! Please at least let him fix what you've done to Superman. Give me Waid with Cully Hamner on art and get out of their way. (Yes, I know Cully helped re-design some of the costumes but he had nothing to do with what they did to Superman- Had he it would have been closer to the original and without a doubt much, much better then what they have now). And while I'm ranting and speaking of Gaijin guys can you please give us at least one Bat-title with covers by Brian? I really don't think that one is asking too much...
You'll notice nowhere in this did I say anything about giving me a shot at writing any of these titles. I'm not a writer and would not waste an opportunity like that on me- Like I said before there are so many talented writers out there who would kill for that chance I wouldn't feel right lucking into or talking my way into a job like that that I am in no way qualified for. Same goes for art- Sure, I would rock a Batgirl story or Zatanna or something like that, but putting me on Superman would be like letting Rob Liefeld write 3 books for your line...
So yeah, aside from the Tourettes outbursts and posting artwork, this blog is now gonna feature my burning bridges too! Maybe if I get in a feisty enough mood I'll just start listing the people who's work I really hate...
