LogFAQs > #946302169

I_Abibde posted...

The entire discipline of editing -- in chief, or otherwise -- seems to have gone down the toilet since the '80s, be it for comic book franchises, video game series, or individual books, and I cannot put my finger on the why of it. I always thought it was a thing that could be taught, but ... perhaps not?

Zeus posted...

I'm sure at least part of that can blamed on industry disruption and the lack of traditional gatekeeping. And, of course, to some extent the fact that disinterested editors have been replaced by hobby enthusiasts who don't necessarily adhere to the same standards.

I'd agree with this - there's been an argument for years that the "inmates running the asylum" is a large part of what's been killing the "mainstream" comic industry for years (ie, basically Marvel and DC).

In the old days, you'd have professional writers who'd spent most of their lives reading actual literature and who had aspirations to become respected authors someday slumming as comic writers to make money. This meant a lot of the best writers were people exposed to a lot of well-written stories and with a strong grasp on storytelling. But these days most writers and artists who wind up in the comic industry are fanboys who grew up reading comics, who wanted to grow up and work in comics - so you sort of get this incestuous ouroboros where you're not really getting new ideas, just recycled old ones, being pumped out by people who don't really have a strong point of reference outside of comics.

Basically, we're getting the equivalent of Internet fanfiction that's been canonized as "official" by publishers that no longer care, because they're mostly focused on the massive infusions of cash coming in from the film and merch departments. It doesn't really matter if your comics suck if no one is reading them anyway.

Though I'd also be tempted to say that creator rights and IP control are another huge part of this, once they started becoming a major issue in the 80s/90s. Because it encouraged the growth of a auteur creator who works on their own title, which they retain the rights to. Which spurs them to keep their IP separate from any shared universe, and prevents them from using existing characters. Which leads the actual talented people who get into comics to focus on their own titles, their own ideas, and their own IP.

...which leaves the people who aren't good enough to do their own personal projects to work on the shared universes. So you get substandard work from substandard creators, because the real geniuses or workhorses will make more money doing their own thing.

I feel like this is also part of why editorial has been so handicapped. Starting with the Image exodus from Marvel, lots of name artists and writers have been able to walk away from the Big Two, and many of them would cite editorial interference as one of the reasons they wanted to leave (and then we saw the hot garbage they produced without editorial oversight, and we realized why they NEEDED it in the first place). But upper execs probably took that to heart, and told editors to not rock the boat if it meant potentially chasing away name creators, who could sell issues on the strength of their name alone, and who now had alternative places to go if they were throwing childish tantrums over having their creative genius stiffed (and make sure to read that last part with as much disdain and sarcasm in your voice as you can for full effect).

"If Grant Morrison wants to tell disjointed stories that don't mesh with anything else and ruin things for future writers for years to come, just let him. He's a name, he's got critical cred, and he sells books. Who gives a shit if any of this makes sense? It's just comic books."

So the years where Jim Shooter ruled over creators with an iron first and they produced some of the best stories ever, but where a number of prima donnas screamed about how much they hated him and left for DC or just kept bad-mouthing him years after he was gone, are now gone. Because no editor since has ever cared anywhere near as much, or been willing to take the flack. Just let the children play, and if they shit on the floor we can always figure out how to clean it up later.

Creator rights may also hurt things in a different way as well - if I'm a comic writer, and I come up with a brilliant idea for a character, am I going to use that character in whatever Marvel or DC comic I'm writing (at which point, that character is their property, forever, and I'm unable to ever use it anywhere else)? Or am I going to keep my really great ideas to myself, on the off-chance that I might get around to working on my own book someday, that I own myself, and can license out for merch? And then I'm just giving Marvel or DC my lame ideas, the ones that aren't good enough for me, or I'm just sticking exclusively to reusing old characters and constantly recycling old stories because I don't own any of that anyway.
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