Posted in: Recent Updates | Tagged: dc comics, erik larsen, mark waid, Marvel Comics, marvelman, miracleman, neil gaiman

The Tenth Annual Rumour Awards – HAVE A GO IF YOU THINK YOU'RE HARD ENOUGH AWARD

HAVE A GO IF YOU THINK YOU'RE HARD ENOUGH AWARD

So, who's had the acid tongue these days? Well Mark Waid has been on point talking about DC employees attacking Grant's work.

The 'net hate over [Final Crisis] is unlike anything I've seen in a long, long time, and it's only fueled by the fact that DC editorial staffers were making fun of Grant in public ON THE NYCC DC PANEL, which is really reprehensible and unprofessional behavior. Really, you'd think Grant had somehow Destroyed DC Comics. I'm cranky about it on Grant's behalf, because I generally believe that hate and vitriol should be reserved for people who deliberately try to do you harm, not people who try and sometimes fail to entertain you.

Then there was Mark Waid on Dan Didio's attitude to 52.

EIC Dan Didio, who first championed the concept, hated what we were doing. H-A-T-E-D '52.' Would storm up and down the halls telling everyone how much he hated it. And Steve [Wacker, editor], God bless him, kept us out of the loop on that particular drama. Siglain, having less seniority, was less able to do so, and there's one issue of '52' near the end that was written almost totally by Dan and Keith Giffen because none of the writers could plot it to Dan's satisfaction. Which was and is his prerogative as EIC, but man, there's little more demoralizing than taking the ball down to the one-yard line and then being benched by the guy who kept referring to 'Countdown' as '52 done right.'

There was Erik Larsen's decision to wade in over the Marvelman debate – which as an officer in a company that still owes Gaiman $40,000 in a court judgment might not have been the most sensible move.

Neil Gaiman is a dick. Neil "created" Angela and then sued Todd over accounting (even though, according to the records–Todd had overpaidhim) –Todd offered to trade Miracleman for Angela which Neil had initially agreed to but then he backed out–choosing to keep his fingers in Angela even though she is a clearly derivative character–designed by Todd–that he couldn't do anything with–and yet he hopes Todd doesn't sue?

What an asshole.

Alan Moore almost claimed co-authorship of Blackest Night in a move that saw many eyebrows raised in disbelief.

I was noticing that DC seems to have based one of its latest crossovers in Green Lantern based on a couple of eight-page stories that I did 25 or 30 years ago. I would have thought that would seem kind of desperate and humiliating, When I have said in interviews that it doesn't look like the American comic book industry has had an idea of its own in the past 20 or 30 years, I was just being mean. I didn't expect the companies concerned to more or less say, "Yeah, he's right. Let's see if we can find another one of his stories from 30 years ago to turn into some spectacular saga."

I increasingly get a sense of the comics industry going through my trashcan like raccoons in the dead of the night… That's a good image, isn't it? They weren't even particularly good ideas.

Pick up those ideas and do something new with them. Make them shine again. But, I think that it's been a long time since the comics industry had any talent that was capable of doing that.

I tend to see the people who run the comics industry as being largely like some variety of tapeworm or some other parasite. But, they're not very good at it. Any self-respecting tapeworm or parasite never kills the host.

I very seriously doubt whether the comics industry as we know it is going to be here in even five years' time.

I think the lights are going out all over the comics industry. A lot of this is the fault of the publishers, a lot of it is the fault of the artists and writers, and I think, as you say, some of it is the fault of the readers.

Marvel's CB Cebulski went on the offensive against Wizard.

More shoddy, sensationalistic reporting in the new Wizard. Let them retweet that as it seems this is where they're getting all their "news".

And Matt Clark got quite narked on not being announced as the artist on Doom Patrol at NYCC.

So pretty pissed off. I've had a few rough months with DC and this really puts the capper on it. I so don't give a fuck anymore, they pretty much broken my spirit. I have waited months for this book starved, had to cancel doctors appointments and skip medications. I've always tried to keep my chin up that it will get better. I guess I was wrong. Wondering what good is it being under exclusive contract?

There was Dwayne McDuffie's posts on working at DC, but we'd probably not even go there. Moose and Ethan having a gloriously restrained fight over why Moose is not on Flash: Rebirth

I think I just explained it fairly well. He had work obligations that prohibited him from turning in the work we needed, and so he was unable to color FLASH. He directly told me so. Nobody is happy about it. Geoff and I looooove Moose's work. But life is full of unpleasant realities, and that's what we were forced to deal with.

Wow. Not quite how I remember things going down. It's a shame you lost my phone number, I could explain it all to you again… I'm pretty sure Dan DiDio is pleased with himself. We know how he "has a problem with Moose. Your turn now. I know you have to have the last word here.

Then of course there was Green Lantern fan and popular blogger Ragnell on yours truly,

He did surprise me during this by IMing me personally and obsessing over me a bit. I mean, seriously, the guy has enough fame he should be secure enough to ignore someone who won't deal with him right? He'll go away after a few days, right? Wrong. Seems that when the King finds himself unable to faze his opponent by lobbing bullshit he whines to his vassals about the big meanie in his weekly roundup.

But the king, the glorious king, was Scott Kurtz letting rip on Wizard and all it stands for, after it had its own strop, scheduling next year's Big Apple Comic Con against the New York Comic Con in some kind of kamikaze attack.

Your conventions are total horseshit, so it's wise to stop branding them with the name Wizard. But no amount of polishing is going to make me want to attended any of the 5 turds your company is going to crap out in 2010, especially when you schedule them against other shows in some bullshit dick measuring contests that serves no other purpose but to fracture an already dying industry that I have nostalgic ties to.

Give Dushku my best. She's pretty hot and Dollhouse is alright. Otherwise, shove everything else up your ass.

Yeah, he could just sit on Gareb Shamus without noticing.

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