will the WGA start protecting comic book writers

Over at ladies creating comics Alexa Dickman has posted a letter she sent to the WGA (both their east and west branches)  asking for the WGA (writer guild of America) to protect the writes of comic book writers.  For those who may not know the WGA is the union for writers that are working in TV and Film.

No word yet if the WGA has responding to her request but it is an interesting ideal and as she points out the industires are becoming more and more connected.

I just saw a commercial for DC comic relaunch and this is my response

The other night or giving the time early yesterday morning I was watching the comic continuum show, a local show (I guess it’s local) that talks about things related to comics, movies, video games etc. Ok every so often they talk about comics but the main focus is movies (usually the kind based on comic but always the stuff nerds want to see)

Anyway while watching this show I saw the commercial for DC comics and my first reaction was “cool I think this is one of the commercial DC is putting out to promote their reboot, I had a feeling that I would see this ad on this show.” But after watching the ad the feeling of “hey cool” quickly turned to the feeling of being under whelmed.

First I don’t really think giving slight motion’s to pretty static images of DC’s character is really that appealing. Now I realize comics don’t leaned themselves to commercials that well. I mean they are just still pictures with words. Movies and TV shows you can just show some clips, a video game a bit of game play, ect. What are going to do with a comic book show a few pages? Well I think that would have been a better ideal then bouncing a picture of Wonder Woman and Batman around.

But the truth is that is not why I think this commercial wasn’t good. The problem I had was that I only knew what the commercial was about because I’ve read all the stuff online about this relaunching. But if I was someone that didn’t read comics I would be wonder what do they mean about “DC the new 52.” The ad gave no information. A person watching the commercial wouldn’t know that DC is somewhat rebooting it self and that this would be a good time to start reading comics because they are starting everything over from the start. Giving that DC says they want to bring in new readers those are some of the things they need to do. DC’s marketing people needed to make sure those ads told people that this is a good time to start reading comics because they can get on at the ground floor.

The sad thing is that some of the ads done by local comics shops that ran on the show where much better and DC is a part of a giant media company.

Maybe it would have been better to just have some people dressed up as DC characters telling people that they have a brand new comic series coming out and issue one is on sale now.

What I did find interesting (in an inside baseball short of way) is that ad ends with saying you can get DC comics at a certain comic shop. I wonder how much money that shop put in to co-sponsor that ad, I wonder how much DC did and I’m guessing that the reason DC joining with local shops is not only to save money but are giving that local shop the power of where to place the ads in their local areas. I also wonder if only one shop in an area can run these commercials or can anyone do it.

DC lack of women creators and a simple solution to how they can fix it.

Recently DC comics has been getting a lot of negative news due to the lack of women writing comics for DC post relaunch. The number will drop to just a hand full of women writers to just two. That’s a sad fact indeed but due to the low number of women that where writing for the main DCU before this the fact that they will only have two or less woman writing for them isn’t too surprising. A sad fact but not surprising because the comic book pro has been largely White dudes.

The comic industry has long been in need of increasing it’s diversity both in the characters they show and the creators they hire (as well as editors, marketing staff etc., etc.) and that is one of the things that DC has said they will be doing with this reboot. I don’t know the break down of the ethnicities of the people that well be writing for DC after this reboot but in terms of gender diversity they are taking a step back instead of ahead. Even though the people running DC realize they need to increase their diversity more they are still a little slow in doing so (at least behind the scenes,) But this isn’t where DC really dropped the ball on this issue.
Where DC really dropped the ball was at Comic-con, where at a panel a woman dress as Batgirl along with her kid dressed as Spoiler asked a panel made up of Dan Didio, Jim Lee and Grant Morrison about the fact that their was only one woman writing for them after their relaunch. Instead of responding to the woman professionally, the panel was dismissive of her point and mockingly rude toward her. Dan Didio told her they only picked the best scripts. Which maybe true but is one of those things that still doesn’t sound good when you think of the issue at hand, since it could be taken that their where no good women writers for them to publish. Responses like that reflected negatively on DC.

But here’s the thing after this story broke out the internerd there started to be a few reports that DC actually did talk to at least a few women comic pros to work on some relaunched titles. Some of them had other jobs at the time, other pitches just didn’t get picked. If DC just said “we actually did contact take a number of women writers, but we where able to come to any deals in time for the relaunch.” Then this thing may have played out a lot differently.

But sadly they didn’t and so what DC needs to do now is some good PR spinning. The first thing they need to do is issue an apology and then a dress the issue at. DC comics needs more diversity in their writing staff. At the very least DC should take a page out of Marvel’s book and release an anthology comic featuring all women creators (and maybe characters,) a new Sensational comics title would be fine if they want to use an old comic book title. While they are at it DC could have a few other anthology books as training ground for new and up coming writers and artist.

The Tribute to Dwayne McDuffy Comic-Con didn't want you to see

Over on the Dwayne McDuffie Forum Matt Wayne (writer and former editor at Milestone comics) posted a tribute he wrote about Dwayne McDuffie for Comic-con but comic-con turned around and didn't want to print it.

I miss Dwayne every day. It’s still inconceivable that he isn’t around to appreciate the world with me.

When my son gets another baby tooth, or I see a new episode of Doctor Who, I still have the urge to call him. Given the chance, I’ll talk about my late friend for hours at a time. I find myself making lists of McDuffie facts—not wanting to forget any more than I already have. And one of the things I’ve thought about most while mourning him was his long struggle for recognition from the comics industry.

Dwayne loved comics, both the superhero and non-superhero varieties, long before he made them for a living, and he continued to love them till the end. Our last conversation was about the Masterpiece Comics collection I’d given him for his birthday, which includes a pastiche of his beloved Little Lulu.

That said, I don’t know that the comics business loved him back.

Here’s a trivia question for you: Aside from the titles he published himself, what was Dwayne’s first monthly comics writing assignment? Believe it or not, that was Justice League of America in 2007. “But what about Deathlok,” you ask? Sorry, that was co-written with the redoubtable Greg Wright. “Fantastic Four?” Nope, it wasn’t open-ended. Dwayne knew that was a finite assignment when he took it. “X-O Manowar?” “Firestorm?” Same deal.

The majors never appreciated Dwayne’s writing enough to grant him a steady job of it. Not until there had been a Static cartoon, and the Justice League cartoon. And Beyond! And Fantastic Four. And Milestone, of course. By the time he landed that regular monthly, Dwayne was already in the history books of two media.

Now, naming no names, think of how many not-so-good writers you’ve seen blunder from one long-term monthly comic assignment to another. (And sure, who qualifies as a hack is subjective. You and I might not be thinking of the same names.) Each of those writers got more of a shot than Dwayne did.

We all know how good he was. And again, what Dwayne made of such opportunity as he did get is now a matter of history. He always counted a great number of People Who Oughtta Know among his fans, including Comic-Con International, the ones who give out Inkpot Awards.

Still, there’s no question in my mind that, given the finite length of Dwayne’s career, he would have been better off both financially and creatively to have never worked in comics at all, and gone straight into animation instead.

But that’s not how love works, is it?

Matt Wayne

Very heart felt and truthful. I'm surprised Comic-Con didn't print this.

I guess they wanted something that was all sweat and rosy but the truth is Dwayne McDuffy was a talented writer that when leaving wasn't always treated fairly by the comic book industry.

Of course similar things can be said by a lot of people working or trying to work in the comic book industry. A truth many people already know so why Comic-Con didn't want to touch that is something I'm puzzled about.

my view on the DC reboot

Well I know everyone knows that DC is relaunching the DCU.

some people hate the ideal and some people just wonder why DC is doing it?

I actually liked the ideal when I first saw the news, I thought it was ballsy for DC to start everything over new and fresh but the news started to leak that's not a full reboot but just a relaunch with some changes and my interest went down a bit.

I was hoping for a golden age to silver age type reboot of new character that happen to have the names and powers of older characters not a zero hour reboot.

Then DC released what some of the new titles will be and their creative them, which brought mixed feelings. There where a few books and creative teams that I think sound great but then there are a number characters getting titles but with writers I'm meh about.

while some nerd are so upset they are strking comic-con I still have a wait and see view on all this.

Superman making radio news for denouncing American citizenship

As I was listening to Thom Hartmann talked about the current issue of Action comics #900 where Superman gives up being an American due to him being tired of people thinking all his actions are due to him acting as an American agent.

Hartmann made a joke about the fact that Superman wasn't born in America and so why haven't the brithers gone after him like they do Obama.

I'm sure in other circles this will really piss them off. In fact I noticed some post about people at Fox News being upset.


So superman is now fight for more then just the American way and is going global. is this Anti-american or DC trying to reach a global market by not connection one of their lead characters to any country at all?

Out Of This World: Early Black Comic Book Heroes: Butterfly (II)

Out Of This World: Early Black Comic Book Heroes: Butterfly (II): "Tucked away in the interior of Skywald's Hell-Rider 2 (Oct 1971) is an 11-page complete story that is the second and last appearance of The ..."

we will miss you Dwayne McDuffie

It was 4 something in the morning when I was watching world news now and read the news crawl running at the bottom of the screen that said "comic and tv writer Dwayne McDuffie died at age 49"

I gasped and just stood there for a few minutes with my jaw dropped to the ground.

For those who don't know the man's work he was a comic book and tv show writer, he was a founder of the comic book company Milestone and created many of their flag ship characters including Static.

I never had the chance to meet him in person but have online. He was one of my role models in the comic book industry. He was filled with great wisdom and insight about comics and minorities in comics.

we have lost a great voice and an even greater person.