Comic fans who love industry drama should head over to this post about DC’s recent editorial snafus, mostly because the very-recently-fired Chuck Dixon shows up in comments and completely rags on Dan Didio without ever actually saying the name “Dan Didio.”
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Bridge? Meet fire.
“Bridge? Meet fire.”
Not necessarily. Chuck Dixon is a respected writer in the industry whose stuff is generally of quality. Which does mean something. Dixon’s last big act prior to being booted from DC was to undo a generally (almost universally) reviled writer/editorial decision. And given that he’s said NOTHING derogatory about the editors who were directly above him, he’s aiming to make sure all the shit lands squarely on Dan Didio’s smock. The readers seem all too eager to follow suit.
The fans are blaming Didio for DC’s titles and how lopsided they are–the core titles are stronger than they were for most of the mid-nineties to early/mid 00’s, thanks in large part to solid writers like Chuck Dixon–and I can’t blame them. Why is it for every Blue Beetle or Dixon Robin run, for Grant Morrison and Paul Dini himself writing some nice Batman comics for you, you have to throw Shazam! comics to Judd Winick or produce a Death of the New Gods? Where is the logic in this?
I’m pretty sure that if there was big money to be made, the bridge could spontaneously uncombust on both sides.
Not surprised fans are going straight the Didio with the shit, but none of the good stuff.
“Warners? Trust me, most days they don’t even KNOW they own a comic company much less take an interest in running it.” – Chuck Dixon
Sadly, that seems to be very true.
Ultimately the fans are (re)acting as if the buck stops on Dan Didio’s desk. He is the Head Editor–he is the boss. It’s been brought up in the discussion floating around this very topic–when comics go right, the writer gets lauded. When comics go BAD, the writer gets burned but so do the editors.
The assumption implicit in that is that writers fuck up–writers do stupid shit, misread a character, drastically rewrite a character to push their political agenda, push a character who’s just not ready to be given the top spot–but when a comic book writer fucks up, the editor is supposed to be the quality control. And the Head Editor is supposed to be the last control, the final failsafe if you will.
What fans are reacting to is a perceived lack of quality control. What Chuck Dixon has been saying/implying is just confirming what a lot of readers already think–most of the quality controls that are in place are just fine. The last failsafe, however, is busted. Or so the fans think.
To wit: Fans are blaming Didio for the shitty books DC is putting out rather than lauding him for the quality books, because they assume it’s an editor’s job to make sure all the material a company publishes is as high-quality and as consistent as it can possibly be. When the readership is not getting consistency, the editors get blamed along with the writers, and the head editor gets blamed most vociferously.
Comic book fans can be really immature–this is a fandom with elements that have resorted to death threats. But that doesn’t make fans stupid and the editors impeccable-but-misunderstood. If people continue to blame Didio the way they are… then he’s probably doing something wrong.
So what was the disconnect between FC1 (which I didn’t pick up) and the other minis (which I also didn’t pick up)?
“Directionless gladhander with a ouija board”? Ouch.
One thing not covered in the article; didn’t DC hire someone around 6 months back specifically to be the continuity editor? I recall getting a few emails jokingly saying that I should’ve applied for such, as well as a piece by said continuity editor on the DC house page about his hiring.
Pretty much confirms what I’d been thinking, ever since I saw Carlin’s responses to some questions, that not only made no sense, but completely contradicted the book he was supposedly editing. The esteemed Mr. Dixon seems to be confirming that the situation at DC is not merely a couple of running decapitated chickens, but a running decapitated Hydra. Ewww, no wonder it’s messy.
@motteditor – Final Crisis #1 (and ostensibly the series) sets up a plot revolving around Dan Turpin investigating the mysterious death of a major DC icon. This would be trademark good Morrison stuff ™… except that the character in question already died months ago in ‘Countdown”. In a huge fight in the middle of Metropolis. Witnessed (and commented on) by the literal “cast of thousands”.
So the fact that none of those hundreds of people feel like handing Turpin the issue in question and letting him know “yeah he was killed by this individual right here… go ask Superman about it… he was standing right there.” Is kind of weird.
What Greg Hatcher’s column makes clear is that the problem isn’t that mistakes happen – it’s that no one a DC seems to feel it’s weird to put out an editorial in every single one of their comics about how important their continuity is and then have a 52 episode series called “Prelude to a certain event” contract that event immediately out of the gate.
I’m by no means a continuity Nazi (I decided around the time Waid killed off Ice on JLA that, for my own mental health, I would just start maintaining my own personal continuity that discarded whatever “cannonical” events I thought were stupid… which has served me quite well to date) – but the last year of DC has just reeked of rapid ill thought out editorial mandates and changing plans mid-stream – and this (and Chuck’s comments at the link) would support that.
Sad to say, but even though I know how important editors are to the success of a book, I only really think of them when I’m holding a complete piece of dog shit book that screams out “I didn’t have an editor at all!” (See well over half the books put out by Baen since Jim Baen died.)
When done properly, an editor’s work is invisible, leaving only the great bits of the writer’s work for you to enjoy.
As far as comics go, I seem to recall back in the 90s reading about DC having yearly conferences of all the editors and major writers in which they discussed and hammered out the “big event” crossover for that year as well as other continuity issues. Setting aside my dislike of huge crossover events, it would seem like this would be a common sense thing to do, sit down with everyone and write the “bible” of the event, then give everyone copies so you’re all on the same page.
Maybe DC is trying to save money and put out product so quickly that there isn’t time or funds to get everyone together like that anymore?
I don’t recall Orion dying in COUNTDOWN. Didn’t he kill off Darkseid, instead?
One thing not covered in the article; didn’t DC hire someone around 6 months back specifically to be the continuity editor?
I thought it was further back than that, actually. Weren’t they talking about that back when 52 came out?
Wasn’t it Geoff Johns that got that gig?
Didn’t they actually lose their real continuity editor when Steve Wacker was hired to oversee Brand New Day?
Hey Brad, I think it was Dan Vado, Not Mark Waid, that killed off Ice.
No, it was Waid. Said later that he kind of regretted it.
Amusingly enough, I’m pretty sure it was Morrison himself who DC hired to be their continuity guy.
You sure, Chris? I’m pretty sure it was Geoff Johns, aka “Busiest guy in comics since Stan Lee.”
I could have SWORN he was, but now I’ve been Googling around, and can’t seem to find anything to back it up. I must be thinking of something, but maybe I’m just finally going crazy…
Ah, here it is: http://www.dccomics.com/news/?nw=8656
One Ian Sattler, whose position is Senior Story Editor and describes it as “As Senior Story Editor, one of my responsibilities is to read every comic DC publishes each month and help keep track of our continuity and our characters. ”
House page for Oct. 10th of last year, so I’d guess he’s been around for nine months or so now.
And it wouldn’t have been Geoff Johns (too busy writing) or Grant Morrison (Not the best use of his time and likely too expensive for such). Both are more in the position of establishing or retconing continuity rather than researching and keeping track of it.
That’s right… I think that Johns had a similar position a couple of years ago, but it was specific to helping get everything geared toward Infinite Crisis.
Dan Didio did call Geoff Johns “continuity guy” and Grant Morrison “makeover guy” respectively in an interview sometime after Infinite Crisis came out, but I’ve always been under the impression that this was more of an informal title at best, a somewhat humorous description of their work in the context of the greater DCU, rather than an actual, additional job position for them.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a superhero look more constipated than the pose that Superman is taking on that cover for Death of the New Gods.