Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, dan didio, dc, dc comics, entertainment, Gerry Conway, jim lee

Gerry Conway Publicly Apologises To DC Comics

Recently, veteran comic book creator Gerry Conway made some comments regarding DC's policies over remuneration based on comic book characters being adopted by other media. They went far and wide.

But now Conway has issued what he calls "A public apology to Geoff Johns, Dan DiDio, Jim Lee, and Larry Ganem."

Ganem, while he may not be as familiar to readers of Bleeding Cool, is DC's senior talent manager, of DC's CB as he is sometimes referred to as. Conway writes,

Why do I keep having to learn the same lessons over and over?

Those who follow my blog know that in recent weeks I posted some hot-headed remarks regarding my perception of how DC Comics treats creators. While I stand by at least one of my basic points – I think DC's policy concerning "derivative" characters is self-defeating – I need to walk back pretty much everything else, especially my characterization of the motives of the men involved in developing, explaining and implementing DC's creators equity program.

I need to apologize to Geoff Johns, Dan DiDio, Jim Lee, and Larry Ganem.

I've been an ass.

After detailing previous life experiences of being such a thing, he writes,

I didn't leave DC on good terms in the mid-80s. At the time, as you might now guess, I blamed DC for that (and still feel the people involved might have handled things better). But as time has passed, and particularly after my humiliating encounter with my old high school friend, I've reconsidered my interpretation of that leaving, and I've accepted my own considerable contribution to the collapse of my business relationship with the company.

Unfortunately, my head doesn't always communicate with my heart. And because I left the comic book business just a few year after I left DC, and spent the following twenty-five years doing other things, when I returned to the field it was as an emotional Rip Van Winkle. My mind had moved on but my heart was stuck in an angry place. Unconsciously, I was looking for proof that the DC Comics of today was the same DC Comics I fought with thirty years ago.

Like I said, I'm an ass.

As Geoff Johns very kindly pointed out to me when I tried to explain my reason for carrying a grudge over the last dealings I had with the company, "Gerry, you're talking about things that happened when I was twelve years old."

It was a horrible, humiliating lightbulb moment.

I'm not just an ass, I'm a jackass.

So– Geoff, Dan, Jim, Larry– I'm sorry. Deeply, truthfully, painfully sorry. You deserve more respect and consideration than I've given you. I hope this very public apology makes that clear

It does, Gerry. Though it is worth pointing out that as a result of your piece, plenty of meetings happened at DC Comics and the issue about the right hand and the left hand at DC being at odds has been raised. And, it seems, being attended to. It might not have happened with such speed and devotion without your diatribes…

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