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Hello BC readers, it’s been a while. I’ve been off working on comics (The Freeze Vol 1 trade from Image Comics/Top Cow is in stores now…) but after
Posted in: Comics | Tagged: batwoman, dark horse, jh williams, scott allie, WH Blackmon
Scott Allie Tweets His Thoughts On Editorial Interference In The Wake Of JH William Leaving Batwoman
On his twitter feed today, Dark Horse Editor-in-Chief Scott Allie responded to the story of JH Williams and Haden Blackman leaving Batwoman. He questions the initial reaction some folks have to the story and he talks about the job of an editor and how changing things at short notice or arbitrarily is failing at it.
Promoted to Editor-in-Chief back in October of 2012, Allie has experience on both sides of the desk having been the editor for Hellboy, Buffy, Cal McDonald and many other series while also scripting The Devil's Footprints, Solomon Kane as well as issues of Star Wars and BPRD.
I keep seeing posts about @JHWilliamsIII 's departure being "crucially" to do with the gay marriage thing. Did he or Haden say that?
— Scott Allie (@ScottAllie) September 5, 2013
I thought he said it was more global and ill timed editorial input that prevented him from telling good stories.
— Scott Allie (@ScottAllie) September 5, 2013
That's consistent with what we've heard from other creators; it seems like other people want to make it "crucially" about the gay marriage.
— Scott Allie (@ScottAllie) September 5, 2013
As an editor, I think I've done the job well & I know I've done it badly. Sometimes you have to give a creator direction.
— Scott Allie (@ScottAllie) September 5, 2013
Sometimes you can't let them tell the story they want. You're dealing with corporate properties. Or whatever–I've had to tell someone…
— Scott Allie (@ScottAllie) September 5, 2013
…They're writing @artofmmignola 's guys wrong, or doing something he didn't want. I needed @artbaltazar to change something in Itty Bitty.
— Scott Allie (@ScottAllie) September 5, 2013
It didn't make me evil or bad at my job. How you handle it is everything. Coming in at the last minute to change it is bad.
— Scott Allie (@ScottAllie) September 5, 2013
Doing it arbitrarily is bad. Inconsistently, & doing it later than you could've. I bet @JHWilliamsIII would tell you that if they'd been…
— Scott Allie (@ScottAllie) September 5, 2013
…given thorough guidelines from the outset, he could've done the book to his satisfaction.
— Scott Allie (@ScottAllie) September 5, 2013
What editors & DC need to learn from this, and everything else in the last couple years of this, is how to get the best work out of people.
— Scott Allie (@ScottAllie) September 5, 2013
That should be our jobs. I've failed many times, not out of malice–not lately anyway–but by making poor choices and not thinking ahead.
— Scott Allie (@ScottAllie) September 5, 2013
It seems from the very distant outside like editorial direction at DC sometimes changes with the wind, and I know for a fact that THAT…
— Scott Allie (@ScottAllie) September 5, 2013
… makes it impossible for creators to tell good stories–moreso than any disagreement over any one storyline, no matter how significant.
— Scott Allie (@ScottAllie) September 5, 2013
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