Buddy Scalera is a comic book writer and self-publisher.
He is best know for his co-writing work on Deadpool and his solo story in Weapon X. He has contributed to X-Men Millennial Visions, X-Men Unlimited and other comics. He co-wrote and self-published Necrotic: Dead Flesh on a Living Body. He also recently published a multimedia CD-Rom titled Visual Reference for Comic Artists. Currently Buddy has a two-issue arc of Agent X in stores.
Scalera worked at Wizard Online for many years as the original Online Editor.
Mark Waid is a sissy. Yeah, I said it. So is Garth Ennis, Brian Michael Bendis, Kurt Busiek, and all those other guys I used to admire as writers.
I mean, not for nuthin`, but those guys can`t WRITE. I mean, really. Big whoop, so they can jot down a story once a month and sit back to get big fat royalty checks. Like I should be impressed.
You know who the REAL comic book writers were? Guys like Gardener Fox, Robert Kanigher, and John Broome were writers. True grit, baby.
Pick up one of those old DC Archive Editions that reprint classic stories from the Golden and Silver Age. These books are a window into a time when editors made writers work for their scratch.
Back then, writers created stories under the direction of tough, gruff editors who smoked cigars and used bad words. I can just imagine working at DC in the 1960s. Legendary editor Julie Schwartz would call his writers in for a meeting...
[IMG2R]"Okay, men, it`s fat month," Julie would say, and nobody would snicker at his girly-man name. "And fat month means all of our superheroes are fat. Busting at the seams fat. Flash will be too fat to run. Superman will be too fat to fly. You know what I`m getting at, men. Now go write."
"Aww, Julie, that`s ridiculous," someone would invariably moan. "Fat superheroes will seem silly to the reader, and..."
And Julie would toss him out the window of a skyscraper to his death. Just to make a point.
And everyone ran back to their typewriters and wrote stories about fat superheroes, and didn`t even complain that they were now short one writer. That was true grit.
Later, when Julie was closing the lights and going home to his family, the men kept on typing. They typed hard and fast about fat superheroes and all the trouble it caused. And in the morning, when Julie returned, they were excited that Julie wanted super-smart gorillas in every issue. Because they were writers.
[IMG3R]They wrote vigorously about superheroes in space. Superheroes in the future. Superheroes in the Old West. Superheroes who get amnesia. Superheroes who have been shrunk down in their own apartments.
Today, we would call these events, and no writers would plummet to their death. I call them sissies. All of them.
Plus, back then, an artist would draw something because he liked it or it looked cool, and the artist would have to come up with a story line to match the pictures. One of my favorites is `Superman-Red and Superman-Blue`. Some artist or editor said, "Hey wouldn`t it be not-at-all-stupid-or-implausible to split Superman in half by COLOR?!?"
And the artist would say, "Yeah, that`s great! Let`s tell the writer to make up a story!"
[IMG4R]And the editor would say, "Nah, just draw it and we`ll figure out the story later." (NOTE: This historic technique was used many years later with stunning success on Youngblood.)
Do you think that Joe Kelly or Jeph Loeb would do a Superman issue if Mike Carlin told them "The cover is already drawn and Superman has to be a big fat guy this month"? Not likely. They have, whachamacallits... oh yeah, "ethics and artistic integrity". (Which I have found to be overrated.)
Do you think J. Michael Straczynskinopolous would write an issue of Amazing Spider-Man because Stuart Moore told him "He`s gotta be silent for the whole issue"? Don`t be ridiculous.
[IMG5R]Writers today are not real manly men, like they were back in the Silver Age. They`re not willing to take a bullet for their art form. Writers today say to have a good story, you need to open a vein and "bleed on the page".
In the Silver Age, writers really meant it.
RANDOM THOUGHT: Fanboys and geeks who love classic fanzines will love the stuff being released by TwoMorrows (soon to be renamed ThreeMorrows) Publishing. The group has brought back an element of wide-eyed respect and love to the fan press. A few years back, they started with the Jack Kirby Collector and have grown to include Comic Book Artist, Comicology, Alter Ego, and Draw! Their library of stuff appeals to hardcore readers and fans of all ages. Print fanzines are a dying breed, and there is very little that bridges the gap to super slick mags like Wizard. The latest issue of the Jack Kirby Collector is a giant treasury-edition size monster packed with gigantic reprints of original sketches and pages by `The King`. The colossal double-page spread is a fitting tribute to the late, great legend. The Internet may be the future of publishing, but there will always be a place in my heart for a good-quality fanzine. Bravo to TwoMorrows for keeping the fire burning.
Buddy Scalera is the current co-writer of Marvel Comics` Deadpool series. He`s also the former online editor for Wizard. And he`s cute as a button.
