In his dreams Alan Donald is a multi-award winning
writer of comic books, animation, theme park shows and rides, children’s books,
novels, television, internet animation and more.
In real life Alan writes this column,
which has been described as
more than a lifestyle than a
weekly column. He used to write
SBC's All The Rage.
Seven weeks in and I'm finally getting over that All the Rage thing that infected me for all those months. Welcome to The Final Draft, a magazine within a magazine. Read on and hopefully you'll find something that you enjoy. If so tell your friends and come back again, if not tell me and I'll do something about it.
Without any further delay we'd better get this show on the road.
This Week
Not much caught my interest in this week's comicbook news.
The headline: Vertigo`s Y: THE LAST MAN optioned by New Line Cinema
The history: Y: The Last Man has been a runaway success for Vertigo and being a critical success and a firm fan favourite.
Personally: I really, really should read this series.
The story: Cinescape has learned that the hit science fiction comic book series Y: THE LAST MAN has been optioned by New Line Cinema as a feature film...
...Furthermore, the 4Filmmakers website, a film industry resource website, posted a new listing for a Y movie only yesterday. Listed as producers on the Y film are J.C. Spink and Chris Bender, Mason Novick and David Goyer. New Line Cinema is listed as the studio where the project is set up. Production companies working on the movie are Benderspink (the Hollywood development firm owned by Spink and Bender) and Phantom Four Films, Goyer's own production company.
Opinion: Cool. Any comicbook film is a good thing for the industry and a series with a premise as original and successful as this one will make a great film.
The Panel
Nine very different people from different parts of the comicbook industry, with different experiences and ideas on the industry come together to answer your questions. Jock, the New Boy just breaking through internationally; Peter David, the Old Boy, he's been there and done that, a comicbook superstar; Evil Rick Shea, the Retailer, he's on the front line pushing comics, listening to fans; Paul Davis, the fan, he supplied this week's question; Shawna Ervin-Gore, the Editor, she's Dark Horse's newest Editor; Joe Quesada, the Publisher, he's the Daddy at Marvel; Lee Dawson, Dark Horse's Publicity guru; Craig Lemon, the Hack, SBC's second-in-command, he edits loads of columns and runs one of the most respected review sections in the industry; and me, The Columnist because I really ought to get involved lazy bugger that I am.
This week's question is:
"Which creators do you think don't get the recognition they deserve? Why do you think some creators produce fabulous work but never get the recognition of Alex Ross, Jim Lee or Mark Millar [for example]? Surely it isn't simply all down to fan reaction?"
New Boy: "The work by the creators you mention all have a fairly 'showy' style... the kind of stuff you could show a guy on the street and he'd be impressed by. Certainly for the artists anyway- all very well crafted work. I haven't read any Mark Millar though...as for creators that I think are up there with them? I think guys like Eduardo Risso, Duncan Fegredo, Sean Phillips, Ted Mckeever, Kent Williams, Mike Carey, John Wagner, Brian Azzerello, Ed Brubacker etc etc all deserve masses of praise."
The Old Boy: "Any creator who has been producing steady work on a timely basis for longer than ten years usually doesn't get the recognition they deserve. Lateness and short runs on titles get far more attention than month in, month out production of work on a professional level. That goes for both writers and artists. They are perceived as old hat, yesterday's news.
In order to get high level recognition, it helps tremendously to work on an already-existing high profile character. The characters, not the creators, are what get the big attention and major retailer support. Do the best work of your life on a second or third tier character, and it's an uphill climb, whereas even just adequate work on a top level character can and will garner major attention."
The Editor: "I don't think that comics is different than any other medium. By that I mean that the best-selling, most popular, most celebrated work isn't often the best or most innovative. In fact, our culture in particular seems to reward mediocrity and things that are easily palatable -- and you need look no further than Britney Spears and the glut of terrible reality shows that get astronomical ratings to know what I'm talking about. And before I start getting hate mail, let's be clear that I'm not saying this is the case with the artists you named, although I do think the word "palatable" fits... Which simply means that if you were to show an Alex Ross page to the average person (not a comics fan), and a Kelley Jones page to that same person, I'd bet a million dollars that person would prefer Alex's work because it's easier on the eyes. But in countless ways, I think Kelley's work outshines what Alex does. There are always other elements to consider -- how books are marketed, the public profiles of creators, the books themselves (very few people get the lucky break to work on a top-selling DC or Marvel title, and suddenly having a huge, built in fan base can do A LOT to raise a creator's profile), but I'd still chalk a lot of this up to palatable = popular. My fave overlooked artists, here's a very brief, throughly incomplete list: Steve Lieber, Galen Showman, Mark Schultz, Jay Stephens, Guy Davis, Lark Pien, and Frankie Chan."
The Publisher: "Mr Q was unfortunately swamped kicking Spider-Man's ass, swiping DD's white stick and seeing if that Alias bird would do for him what she did for Luke Cage [um, OK, Alan. Why don't we just say he's busy running Marvel and leave it at that, eh? - Craig]."
The Publicist: "Yikes! Too many to mention but I'd sure love to see Jan Duursema get more credit for her amazing work.In any artistic medium there will always be great creators whose work will forever go unrecognized. We all have that book, cd, movie, or comic that we love but no one else seems to know about. Citizen Kane, considered by many to be one of the best movies ever made, was not a hit in its time and director Orson Welles spent the rest of his career desperately trying to get money to make more films. Now he is recognized as a ground breaking genius. Certainly fan reaction can create awareness to creators both good and bad, but that's just one small part of the equation, ultimately it's the cultural zeitgeist that often dictates who will be chosen for recognition at any given time, both for the talented and not so talented!"
The Retailer: "Although I think a lot of it does come down to fan reaction, it also comes down to drive on the part of the creator. Some creators phone in some of their scripts and do a half-assed job, while others give 110% every time and that will eventually pay off. Keep in mind every comic could be someone's first and every comic could be someone's first exposure to that creator as well. First impressions are everything, and in this industry, more people are following their favorite creators now than ever.
I know it's hard to believe he might be underexposed, but Brian K. Vaughan is one of the most talented writers that not enough people have really checked out yet. Other that that, the rest of the list is artists who I'll follow anywhere that don't have as big a following as they deserve: Lee Bermejo, Oliver Coipel, Tan Eng Huat, Michael Gaydos, Gene Ha, Phil Hester, Zach Howard, Stuart Immonen, Phil Jimenez, Jeff Johnson, Scott Kolins, Greg Land, Alex Maleev, Karl Moline, Phil Noto, Paul Pelletier, Damion Scott, and J.H. Williams. Not that half of those names aren't already pretty well known, but if you haven't already checked out their work, do yourself a favor."
The Hack: "James Kochalka. Jessica Abel. Chris Ware. David Lapham. Nabiel Kanan. Jason Lutes. Joe Sacco. Quiz for you - name works (without checking via Google!) of each of these.
Because they aren't published by Marvel or DC or Image. Because they don't do spandex (although Kochalka draws “Spandy”...). Because they don't push themselves forward via the internet. Because they can write AND draw their own work and it takes as long as it takes, there's no sacrifices made to hit a monthly schedule. Because they have total creator control over their own work. Because they (predominantly) publish in black-and-white. And because most retailers are too blind to the "mainstream" of comics to see the quality that is out there."
The Fan: "I'm not very good with names and I wonder if that is part of the problem. I keep reading about the same few creators and I'm not really a fan of any of them. I can never remember the artists and writers I really enjoyed and I find it hard to get any information on them."
The Columnist: "Up until recently I would have included Bucky (Mark Buckingham) and Chris Weston on my list but through his recent work on Ministry of Space and The Filth Chris has gained the recognition he deserves. Bucky on the other hand was the artist on Shadow of the Bat and then (together with Paul Jenkins) he rejuvenated the then-dying and stagnant Spider-Man franchise with great art, pace, action and humour. Despite this Bucky was all but ignored by the popular press such as Wizard. Bucky's now found his niche as the main artist on Fables.
2 people that do jump very much to mind are Alan Grant and Mike Collins.
Mike Collins has been doing great work for a variety of titles for an absolute age, he is a consistent and very high quality artist who hits his deadlines. Recently I spoke to someone with intimate knowledge of DC Comics’ Editorial processes. He spoke of having wanted to use Mike Collins to do some cover work for DC but being told flatly he couldn't and being forced to use the then hot artist (who lacked Mike's professionalism).
Alan Grant wrote or co-wrote some of the best Judge Dredd stories ever. His work on Lobo is the best example there is of that style of comicbook. And then there's his Batman work. Years upon years of excellent stories heck he was the man for Batman for years and then one night (allegedly) he was fired by fax. All this brilliant work and still very few people know who he is yet Frank Miller does 2 stories (excellent though they were...oh and that not so good one...) and Alan Moore does 1...
As for why this happens? I really don't know. I believe that the blame is shared with Editorial staff, Publicity staff, the Press, the Fans and the Retailers, who has the most blame is irrelevant we can all do our bit."
Digging Deeper
This is an occasional column where I dig a little deeper into a story from the last month or so.
This week I've been digging a little deeper into Bill Rosemann's move from Marvel to Crossgen. In part one of the interview I got a few background details:
1) When did you first get into the comicbook industry? I got into comics in the first grade by reading the paperback-sized reprints of issues #1 - #21 of Amazing Spider-Man that Pocketbooks published many a moons ago. I got into the comics industry in '93 when I started writing for the House of Idea's inhouse hype mag Marvel Age. That led to a freelance spot writing Marvel's catalog copy. Fortunately for me, the woman that was doing that full-time never returned from her maternity leave and I was offered her job full-time. So that became my strategy to stay in the biz: don't get pregnant!
2) Why did you get into the comicbook industry? I blame a radioactive spider that bit me on a class field trip. Also, what else can you do with an English major?
3) What have you been doing for the last 10 years in the industry? I planned, wrote and edited Marvel's monthly section in the Previews catalog...planned, wrote and oversaw all house and outside ads...invented the "Your Man @ Marvel" secret identity and wrote a weekly online column...did all I could to make their convention appearances professional and fun...worked with journalists to generate and manage media coverage...worked with editorial to help maximize sales...wrote the four-issue Superhuman murder mystery Deadline (that the great Guy Davis illustrated)...joined the terrific team at CrossGen, morphed into "Your Friend @ CrossGen" and started repeating all my Marvel efforts for them...and made a ton of great friends!
4) What do you love about the industry today? The people and the characters. Both are hard to top in any industry!
5) What do you hate about the industry today? Not enough monkeys!
I'll be back with more from Bill next time when we'll talk about his time at Marvel.
Noticeboard
From the biggest comic con to a signing in a shop the size of a postage stamp by the guy who edits a self published magazine on wanking printed on toilet paper, we'll promote them all. All you have to do is email me to let me know. The noticeboard will be here every week to promote your events.
Only one thing on my mind this week.
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY - THE UK COMIC FESTIVAL!!!
Any European readers (or rich readers from around the world) this is our big shout out to you, it's this weekend, it's the biggest thing for comics since sliced Alan Moore...
COMICS 2003
Visit www.comicfestival.co.uk for all the details.
Don't forget that SBC will be there so do come and say hello!
Remember I need you to be sending in your announcements, signings, events and such like to pin up on the Board. Meanwhile you should check out previous week's Notice Board as many of the announcements on there will still be current.
Right that's me sorted out the leaflets for the Festival along with a sneak preview of the two self published comics I've got coming up (huge thanks to co-creators Glenn and Neil), a couple of boxes of comics sorted out for us to sell cheaply and...well if you can make it you'll find out.
Have a good week and if I see you at Bristol I'll see you, and if not then I'll see you here in seven days.
Many thanks for reading.
TTFN - Alan Donald signing off to try and get some sleep before the big weekend...
The Final Draft, its contents, it's style and the concept in general are the intellectual property of Alan Donald. All contributions remain the property of the contributors who have given Alan Donald permission to use them in this format. The views expressed herein by contributors are theirs alone and not necessarily those of SBC nor the columnist. Conversely the views expressed by the columnist are not necessarily shared by the contributors, SBC or even the columnist himself.
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