Bonus
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Doing it yourself is great but you have to know what’s involved
The DIY philosophy is an appealing one: we are our own boss, we don’t answer to anyone about the editorial turns our comic is taking. It lets us cut out the middlemen, like publicists (“…That’s the Spice of Life, Bud: The Todd McFarlane Interview,” The Comics Journal, n° 152, August 1992). When it’s put that way, it may sound like a choice, but at the same time, we have to be honest and acknowledge that we have to adopt this approach because traditional channels don’t embrace our projects.
In any case, whether or not we voluntarily adopt the DIY philosophy, it’s important to assess all of its implications. Steve Morris summarizes the stages of production for a comic (script, design, illustration, inking, colouring, lettering) (“Interview: Stephen Mooney Goes Creator-Owned for ‘Half Past Danger’,” April 2, 2013, http://comicsbeat.com). We would add a few others: bibliographic research, validation, corrections and translation. For the Web, where posting regularly is the name of the game, the production cycle becomes very long, which requires the creator to also take on the role of project manager.
And on top of that, we must also develop promotional skills, which isn’t something everyone takes to (Hannah Means-Shannon, “On the Scene: WonderCon 2013, Indie Marketing Tips from Comixologie, Dark Horse, IDW, Archia, Valiant,” March 31, 2013, http://comicsbeat.com). So, even when we want to go it alone, it quickly becomes apparent that teamwork still has to be involved.
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The vagaries of writing (The Miracles Can Wait)
We confess that we didn’t quite know what to do with the fact that Markham injected himself with a mixture prepared by Andraski. Valasquez finds out by accident, and then, Markham can’t find his box and goes to the lab. In this story, we decided to keep our eye on the long-term and to leave a maximum number of options open for future story developments.
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Internet, format and action
Mark Waid introduces two interesting ideas that, in our opinion, become conflated. The first isn’t really new: “Remember: this is what media does. Radio up until the 1960s was two or three formats. Now it’s a million formats. Television? Same thing. Three channels becomes a hundred channels. Any medium eventually fragments out towards a wider base of people where each individual fragment does what it has to do to survive on its own. It doesn’t have to appeal to the wider base. In retrospect, it’s kind of amazing and surprising that something that’s been around for 75 years like print comics hasn’t sort of gone through that same dissolution. Instead it’s put all of its eggs into the one basket.” (“CR Holiday Interview # 22 – Mark Waid,” January 10, 2013, www.comicsreporter.com). This promotes the fragmentation of tastes, where a consumer can more easily find something that appeals to him or her. However it also makes for smaller markets, which then brings up the issue of profitability, or more concretely, of how to limit costs on these projects.
However, from a writing point of view, the story should be compatible with its publication format. And here is where Waid brings up his second point, a more original one: “That’s what you have Marc Guggenheim for. That’s what you have comics writer Marc Guggenheim slash lawyer Marc Guggenheim for. He’s on speed dial. I take the same approach that Stan and Gerry Conway and a lot of other guys who’ve written Daredevil in the past have taken, that is that you want to try to be very, very faithful to the law, but not to the point where it stifles your story. And you kind of have to give it some leeway. Especially nowadays, nobody wants twelve pages of Matt Murdock in a courtroom, because comics don’t do that well, television does it better and for free.” (Christine, “Mark Waid talks Daredevil at Baltimore Comic Con”, September 7, 2013, www.theothermurdockpapers.com). This would imply that some formats are better adapted, or more natural, for exploring certain themes or certain types of production. That’s certainly something to think about.
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Character origins: Eva
We like to provide the illustrators with locations or people on which to base their drawings. Eva is loosely based on the actress Jodie Foster in her role in Silence of the Lambs.
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Can heroes ever find happiness?
Heidi MacDonald (“Why Andreyko’s Batwoman run starts with issue # 25,” September 09, 2013, www.thebeat.com) was questioning the cancelation of Batwoman’s upcoming wedding by the DC editorial team: “Meanwhile, it seems that marriage itself has been banned from the DCU, given DiDio’s ‘heroes can’t be happy’ dictate.”
We understand this point of view. We have often stated our admiration for James Ellroy’s noir fiction, which rarely end well. They say happy people don’t have interesting stories. Maybe it’s necessary for drama to dwell in the shadows of the heroes’ psyches to create viable scripts. We’ll say again that authors should use their effects in careful measure. Otherwise they run the risk of falling into the Little Mermaid syndrome (not the Disney version, natch.)
