HELLO FROM THE COLD AND WET PARTS
Salt Lake to Seattle. Some of the worst drives in the US. Hope you’re doing well. This one comes to you from Pendleton OR. Doesn’t seem to be anything here, save a Denny’s, an airport, and a Radisson. Getting some work done, but let’s have a newsletter.
BEG BORROW STEAL… OR JUST CHILL AND DO WORK
Alright, last time I talked about the specifics of a creator's career, I got called a bully. I thought and still think that I was being sincere and my purpose wasn't to demean anyone. But we're in an era where criticism isn't seen as a sign we're equals, rather an inherent punching down that can't serve any good.
Ok.
So I'll not talk about the guy I talked about a few newsletters ago. And I won't say that when he comes on my Twitter feed begging for Big Two work and attempting to 'woe as me' shame a CORPORATION into hiring him, I vomit. I'll refrain from expressing my concern that debasing yourself for $1200 from Spider-Man is not only career malpractice but spiritual suicide. And I'll stop myself from plainly stating that viewing temporary stewardship of greater men's creations as some type of end-goal is fully tragic.
It's worth noting that sometimes pleading does work. I can think of four creators in recent memory and one from the past who got work exclusively because they applied whatever sort of pressure to the Big Two. Hired to do creative work on the strength of their ability to guilt strangers. I know I'm coming off judgmental here, but let's attempt to look at it without bias:
What's the goal?
1. Make great comics
2. Be able to tell your mom's friends you work for Big Company
3. Make $1200
Do you care if credible people respect your work?
1. Yes
2. No
3. I don't understand the question
If the answers come in as anything other than 1, 1, then proceed with the begging.
My class of creators was conniving. They modeled themselves after the previous generation, which had really elevated the game. I remember male creators brainstorming on how to ingratiate themselves with the now-defunct Valkyries women's retailer organization. Trading information for positive coverage with press was big. There was a ton of, well, bullshit. Dumb careerist bullshit that had nothing to do with the craft of comics.
With that in mind, I almost can't blame these weird veal calves who petition the largest entertainment companies in the world for rent money. They're just walking in the footsteps of their idols.
But it sucks. And it's not helping. Aggrieved fans already hate what's going on. But let's put them to one side. The average comic reader is more likely to just stop reading than to go online and hammer editors for their failures. And that's clearly what's happened. All this talk about new readers. All this talk about demographics. The distraction of culture war. None of it matters more than the simple fact the customer does not like the product. Hiring a guy because he called you a big meanie online is not any type of solution. Just digging a hole deeper.
Knock it off. On all sides and all counts, knock it off.
I MOSTLY APOLOGIZE
Just wanted to clean something up about last newsletter. In the X-MEN creator announcements I covered, I failed to talk about the artists. On the most basic level, I apologize. Rude of me. But on the practical-application-what-we-all-know-will-happen-let's-be-honest level, I can't pretend I committed a capital crime.
Because the artists in announcements do not stick around. That's just become normal. I don't have a judgement of any type here because lord knows I can't do what they do, but it is a really important part of the 'why don't artists get equal credit in the minds of fans' formula. Nobody believes their favorite artist is giving them 12 issues. Just what it is. But, sorry I fell into it. All these guys are highly capable, and assuming the colorists honor the work the books should look good.
THIS WEEK’S CRUCI-FIXATION
Late-breaking news: A creator is getting murdered online as I write this. Looks like he did something nasty, but I can’t confirm that, obviously. The standard of proof -in real life- is more than screenshots. But for the purposes of this conversation, let’s assume the worst.
I’m seeing an awful lotta happy people.
Why is that? If this dude did something foul, why does that bring anyone joy? Why would anyone be glib about something serious? I get gallows humor, but that’s not what I’m seeing. Instead, it’s a lotta “was waiting on this fucker to fail” energy.
That sucks, man. There’s a difference between ‘accountability’ as the terminally online use the word and crabs in a bucket. Or at least there should be. I hate the term community but if this is a community, what goddamn weirdo is more thrilled by their ‘enemy’ falling off than they are concerned about his alleged wrongdoing?
This is why you won’t catch me using that word community, because this so obviously something else. It reminds me of the executives in Robocop, who interact with each other daily but wait patiently for each other to fuck up. Crabs.
Focus on the part of the story that matters. Think about next step. If your first thought is “woo-hoo! Always hated that fucker!” you’re in loser territory.
I saw one pro celebrate this guy’s downfall with “yes! Reminds me of when another guy got jammed up. I loved that because I hate that dude!” And someone replied with “oh I didn’t know about that. What did that guy do?” and the original poster replied “I honestly don’t know, but I was happy to see him fail.”
That’s unhealthy shit. That is bad for YOUR brain. Let’s back off the ugly.
OTHER PEOPLE’S PROPERTY
I've been contacted about working on a licensed series. I had to examine my feelings a bit before I responded. As a general rule, I hate licensed books. Is that insane considering I would give a Big Two book a read? Yeah, it's insane. There is no difference. At least now that the movies are so big and nothing matters. It used to be that creators wanted to leave a mark on the corporate comic universes they grew up on. But in 2024, very few consider the comics the 'real' continuity. You can't leave a mark, unless perhaps the movies lift your story, turn it inside out, put it on the track to make rent, and step on it a few times before selling it. So X-MEN is POWER RANGERS. All the same shit. A good story is a good story, and continuity has been prostituted into irrelevance.
In itemizing my problems with licensed books, I found the (near) universal stumbling block: ass art. This doesn't apply to the new Skybound titles and there's been some special projects from the other indies that likewise dodge this curse. But, often, it's the thing.
Some of these artists are early in their professional journey so I don't wanna attack them by name. But it goes without saying that the typical licensed book formula is Writer You've Heard Of and Artist Who Is Not Ready. That's because these things have tight budgets. What goes into the pocket of ‘name brand’ creator comes outta the pocket of the less established creator. And right or wrong, writers have been the sales motivator for the past decade.
Before you suggest that if both writer and artist were credible it would raise sales above baseline, I'm sorry to report that theory doesn't typically bare out. Not because your instinct is stupid, but because there's a ceiling on each property. You could have the highest-quality THE GOLDEN GIRLS book imaginable, and sales would differ little from the worst-quality THE GOLDEN GIRLS book.
In a very presumptuous move, I offered the editor a potential solution to that familiar problem. He's been doing what he does a long time and I wouldn't blame him if wasn't interested in my prescriptions. But I need books to look good. It's ok if a creative partner is early in their career. We can grow together. But art with failings still has to have style.
Another issue I have with licensed titles is their purpose. Beyond making a return on the investment, do they have a reason to exist? Often not. Creators are hesitant to spend their brain capital on intellectual property they don't own and doesn't enjoy a huge readership.
The writers I've met in comics who use phrases like "what I'm really saying with this book is" are typically coming from a very tired middle school lit teacher mental space. These are the people who insist you divine the 'true meaning' of the apple Gregor Samsa's father throws at him. They don't operate off themes, they pedantically hammer metaphor. Tired.
That said, comics do need to say something. And licensed titles rarely do. Shelf-filler fluff for the most part. Even if the idea of the book is "this is the familiar character at his most realized." That's still something to hang a story on. Instead licensed titles tend to oscillate between "origin story that will be ignored in all future depictions of the character" and "lightweight adventure story wherein the writer leans on a new supporting cast because they're afraid to really WRITE the title character."
I did find something to say with the property. It helped a great deal that there was a single authorial voice to the IP. And that fella had a lot to say, and he's not above having characters articulate it.
All this is to say, I dunno if I'll be officially offered the gig and I dunno if we could agree to terms if I was. But nice to be thought of, and nice to flex another muscle if only for a pitch.
PROFITS PLEASE
I’ll link a video below that features me stumbling through the same point I fumble through here. For the completists among you.
Here’s the thesis: Corporate comic creators and editors positions have become decoupled from the profit motive. The result is product that fails to connect with readers, with little hope of path correction.
When my mother took a job for the city of Albany, a coworker told her she’d “have to shoot the boss, on camera” to maybe get fired. State and county positions become lifetime appointments. They are fully protected by simple bureaucratic inefficiencies, union representation, and general disinterest on the part of their superiors.
This wasn’t to my mother’s liking, as she’s a bit more competitive by nature. But it proved true. She had a coworker who was clearly deteriorating mentally and there was no course of action the office could take to dislodge that person. A potentially dangerous individual able to ride their job out to retirement.
This is how government bureaucracies work. They take competition out of the equation and all that’s left is inertia. This is ‘as it should be.’ But it’s not the case with privately and publicly held companies operating in an open market. Or at least, it’s not supposed to be the case.
Perhaps it’s a result of ‘too big to fail’ megacorporations with dozens of divisions, subsidiaries, etc. They’re government-sized entities at this point, so I guess we can expect some government-sized inefficiencies. And when creators or editors flout best practices or act in direct opposition to making a dollar, we can expect some lag in the type of redundancies a healthy industry would typically enact.
For the past few years, there’s been all these Youtubers going on and on about how the Big Two need to treat their customers with respect. And for those years, I’ve thought “man, these dudes are sensitive. Who gives a shit? The books are all that matters.” My time in music has made me a pro at separating art and artist (or simply accepting that creative people are flawed people).
But this past week, I hit my limit. I found myself watching a Big Two employee aggressively push readers away. And found myself thinking, “nobody ever loses their job, huh?”
As a creator-owned comic professional, I have no distance from the profit motive. I am not cradled in a corporation’s arms. I am not somehow overlooked by bean-counters and allowed to leak capital. I am, in the most literal meaning of an abused word, accountable.
I do not get to make no-stakes stances on divisive politics. Anything I say is held against me. And we can debate if that’s good or not. But it’s a fact. And I guess what I’m arriving at here is that I don’t wanna hear hot takes from creators who will never have to pay a price for those takes.
ANOTHER
I’m running outta time in this hotel. Checkout looms. So here’s another video from this week. I’m trying hard to keep up with all my responsibilities despite having no actual brain time to myself.
This one is about how some of the tropes of the 2020s are tired and just act as big AVOID signs for potential readers.
ALRIGHT ENOUGH
Tour is almost over and I will return to my regular schedule of writing too much in these newsletters and generally being a nuisance. Until then, I hope you’re all healthy and productive. Avoid negative shit for the sake of negative shit. We need a flush. Until next week. Do for self.