DC's real problem

[Güicho]

Would she have been the only woman involved in the entire process? It may not have been intentional, but it does have some implications to that effect.

That's what I asked.
Who was there! What other book editors and creators, were and weren't there.
And what she was contracted for.
Who else wasn't invited, the Bat books are numerous.
Or did they just single out the only book written by a woman?
These facts matter.

[Godlike13]

Not necessarily, cause DC has so few female creators in general. So they have to be more aware, and make more of an attempt that the female creators they actually have don’t feel excluded because of this general disparity.

[skyvolt2000]

Until those "facts" come out-this is more bad PR for DC.

If she was the only person left out-that looks bad. It does not matter if she was there for one issue or whatever-she was still working on that book.

If they were talking about the direction of the batman cult for the year that includes her as well.

Wrong is wrong.

And it sends a NASTY message to other writers-especially those who dealt with it at DC too.

That this editorial department at DC doesn't seem to know what it wants to do.

It cost us McDuffie's complete JLA. A decent Static book and who knows what else.

Stuff like this is going to cause Lifford to HOUSECLEAN. 3 of the issues are gone in Dan, Harvey & Eddie. Who else needs to go?

[batnbreakfast]

Can we bring Gail Simone back? Maybe as group editor? Writer? I don't care which

[superduperman]

Wonder if stuff like this happened under Jeannette Kahn.

[lemonpeace]

if this even a surprise anymore? when you have a company that's storytelling culture is reliant on propping up old archetypes and lip service to progressing with the sensibilities of the times, it's not a surprise that their storytelling ain't the only thing about their corporate culture that's behind the times. look at the treatment of DC's characters, the continuity of their books, and the disjointed "directions" their books always find themselves in. it makes perfect sense to find out they'd have this sort of "good ol' boys" over everything mentality.

[Frontier]

I don't think this is only a DC problem. Has anyone been reading about the issues with the creative teams on Spider-Gwen?

[kjn]

I know that Seanan McGuire is writing Spider-Gwen right now, and (a) she won't take crap from anyone, (b) she's a large enough name that she can walk away from Marvel without hurting her career any, (c) and cause a big stink doing so.

But yes, this is endemic throughout, and not limited to comics in any way.

[kjn]

A long and thoughtful blog post about this: Empty Seats at Busy Tables: Comics Publishers Only See Men

So it’s arguably incredibly important that she (edit: Mairghread Scott) gets advance notice on what’s happening next, and a voice in the room where people decide the next big storylines and what it means for each character. As you can see from Scott’s tweet, though, women aren’t often in the room where it happens. That suggests a number of things. For one thing, it says that the writer of Batgirl has no say over the long-term future of the character she’s currently writing, and will get told what to do by her editors – on the suggestion of all her fellow writers of the time. Assuming the writer of Detective Comics was invited to the summit, he would have more say over the long-term future of Batgirl than the actual ongoing Batgirl writer… at the time when she was just starting on the series. Both the character and the series was out of her control from the very start.

[Frontier]

I know that Seanan McGuire is writing Spider-Gwen right now, and (a) she won't take crap from anyone, (b) she's a large enough name that she can walk away from Marvel without hurting her career any, (c) and cause a big stink doing so.

But yes, this is endemic throughout, and not limited to comics in any way.

She's not writing Spider-Gwen anymore (unless she has another book planned after the current one just ended) but she recently talked on twitter regarding the difficulty and sexism she has experienced with editors before.

[kjn]

She's not writing Spider-Gwen anymore (unless she has another book planned after the current one just ended) but she recently talked on twitter regarding the difficulty and sexism she has experienced with editors before.

*looks into the whirlpool that is Seana's twitter, I swear she, Ursula Vernon, and Gail Simone are like firehoses there*

Seems like the book is cancelled in a rather Marvel-like fashion. As for her experiences with editors and sexism, remember that she is a veteran of the science fiction and fantasy field, and such stories are much more likely to come out from there.

[iron chimp]

"You know the day I knew I’d never be able to make it big in comics? The day I bumped into another writer in an airport and accidentally learned he was heading to DC’s Burbank"

Maybe you should have realised it was when you couldnt take one of DCs underperforming characters and make the book a break out and add good numbers to sales....?

Or maybe you could have thought... you know what im not doing much at DC, I will try making a go of my own original work somewhere.

But no.. its because someone who managed an unremarkable run of 13 issues of batgirl couldnt attend the summit on the future of the line...

Welcome to art world.. you live and die by your sales and you didnt have much going on.

[kjn]

"You know the day I knew I’d never be able to make it big in comics? The day I bumped into another writer in an airport and accidentally learned he was heading to DC’s Burbank"

Maybe you should have realised it was when you couldnt take one of DCs underperforming characters and make the book a break out and add good numbers to sales....?

Or maybe you could have thought... you know what im not doing much at DC, I will try making a go of my own original work somewhere.

But no.. its because someone who managed an unremarkable run of 13 issues of batgirl couldnt attend the summit on the future of the line...

Welcome to art world.. you live and die by your sales and you didnt have much going on.

Perhaps the reason it was unremarkable was because she began with a plan for great storyline or two, but they had to replaced by mandated storylines without any warning, and she had to pull together several issues on short notice and without compensatory pay?

That's setting up someone for failure.

[iron chimp]

Perhaps the reason it was unremarkable was because she began with a plan for great storyline or two, but they had to replaced by mandated storylines without any warning, and she had to pull together several issues on short notice and without compensatory pay?

That's setting up someone for failure.

thats literally how corporate comics work. Every single person working for dc and marvel has that story to tell.

If you dont like it, and literally thousands of creators dont then go write your own work for another publisher.

If yr expecting an invite into event planning or the future direction of a topline character while on trial on a side book... yeah you are grossly over estimating your importance. You are temporary freelance chump until your work proves otherwise and youre going nowhere near highly confidential topline strategy planning to fight off x-men and push the multi billion dollar flagship franchise forward into the next decade. You'd have to be an idiot to think otherwise.

[skyvolt2000]

"You know the day I knew I’d never be able to make it big in comics? The day I bumped into another writer in an airport and accidentally learned he was heading to DC’s Burbank"

Maybe you should have realised it was when you couldnt take one of DCs underperforming characters and make the book a break out and add good numbers to sales....?

Or maybe you could have thought... you know what im not doing much at DC, I will try making a go of my own original work somewhere.

But no.. its because someone who managed an unremarkable run of 13 issues of batgirl couldnt attend the summit on the future of the line...

Welcome to art world.. you live and die by your sales and you didnt have much going on.

It's not about a so-called unremarkable run. Because if she was a white male with an unremarkable run-guess what she would have been there.


Maybe editorial inference help make that book not sell. Because it seems to be a running trend with that book-from Chuck Dixon's Cassandra Cain run to Gail Simone's run to Burnside's run to Hope Larson's run to now.

Who is the common factor?


Also that is a book under the batman banner-any meeting over Batman books REQUIRED all members of any book being done under that banner.


So a discussion could be made to try to fix sales instead of losing yet another creator. Who is now popping off. And like a growing number of former Dc folks doing their own stuff and LOL finding success.

She is not living or dying by her sales that DC book that is in need of yet another writer is. She will find work. Who knows her new work might be competition to DC later on.

Like Ms Marvel-Dc ran off her co-creator G Willow Wilson (the person who did Vixen's mini).