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COMICS: High-profile writers and artists are leaving the “Big Two” in favor of independent work.
By Desmond Ho, Staff Writer
Being a comic book writer or artist for major publishers like Marvel and DC seems like a pretty lofty position. After all, these multimillion-dollar companies are more popular than ever, mostly due to comic-film adaptations like The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man. Building upon characters that everyone knows and loves is the perfect dream job. You would have to be a fool to leave such a position. Or so it would seem.
Departures of employees in the last several months have shown that the job might not be as great as most people think. Writers and artists are leaving big-name books for their own, creator-owned projects. Action Comics writer Grant Morrison, arguably the most high-profile writer in the industry today, recently announced his departure after an 18-issue run. Morrison is known for his takes on Batman, New X-Men and Animal Man, as well as his own outlandish works such as The Invisibles, Flex Mentallo and We3. In an interview with Comic Book Resources, he said:
“I don’t have any plans for monthly superhero books for a while… I’m not saying that I’ll never write superheroes again. It’s just that my relationship with them has changed especially after finishing the book and I’m not sure if I want to maintain the same kind of relentless level of production.”
Morrison has been writing Batman stories in some form since 2006, and took over Action Comics (the title Superman debuted in 1938) in September of last year as part of DC Comics’ company-wide relaunch, when every series was rebooted to issue #1. He is, however, not the only writer who’s leaving a premier title of a major publisher. Ed Brubaker has been writing the Captain America character since 2004, but is leaving his Marvel-published books (Captain America and Winter Soldier) in favor of his own series Fatale. In an interview on the Word Balloon podcast, he said that he needed to let it go after so long of a run. He also talked about how creators who work for Marvel or DC don’t actually own any characters they create – the companies do. Generally, creators get their name out in the public eye by working freelance for the major publishers, and then move on to their own independent work, where they actually own their properties. Regardless, Brubaker still plans on working for Marvel in the future.
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MonkeyBrain Comics founder Chris Roberson left DC Comics after criticizing the company’s unethical business practices.
However, not all recent departures have been as amicable. DC writer Chris Roberson publicly expressed his grievances with the company earlier this year, declaring that DC treats its creators poorly. Naturally, he was fired for his statements, but he went on to form his own publishing company, MonkeyBrain Comics, where writers and artists retain full ownership of the properties they create. In an even more hostile departure, writer/artist Rob Liefeld went on a tirade on his personal Twitter account, bluntly criticizing his editors and DC management. He claimed that editors were unreasonably demanding and inconsistent with what they wanted him to do. This is not the only instance of editor criticism within DC; classic artist George Perez (who wrote the first six issues of Superman during DC’s relaunch) said in a Q&A that he had to do constant last-minute rewrites that resulted in mediocre feedback from the readers and that he “couldn’t wait to get off Superman.” Renowned writer and current writer of The Punisher, Greg Rucka, recently announced his departure from the “Big Two,” saying that readers are “seeing a grotesque Hollywoodisation of the two main companies” in an interview with Mark Millar’s CLiNT magazine. He claims that the companies are less focused on putting out quality books than they are on getting a piece of The Avenger’s box-office action. Rucka also revealed that DC promised him that he could write a Wonder Woman graphic novel. Despite their alleged deal, the project was given to someone else, leading to his eventual resignation from the company.
Lately, it seems as if independent comics are on the rise again. In the early ’90s, several famous artists quit Marvel and formed their own studio called Image. Image is still up and running today, publishing hits like The Walking Dead, Invincible, Savage Dragon, Spawn, the aforementioned Fatale and Grant Morrison’s new miniseries, Happy. While DC’s “relaunch” project has attracted many new readers to comics, several longtime fans are switching to independent comics exclusively. Some are just disillusioned by DC and Marvel’s treatment of creators and mediocre books as a result of poor, inconsistent editing. With these changes, it looks like we might soon see another creator-owned revolution. Perhaps writing for corporate comic companies is not so grand after all.
Courtesy of entertainmentdesigner.com and www.badhaven.com