Dismissed Creators: Do They Have A Right To Speak Out?
Valerie D'Orazio over at Occasional Superheroine (which is quickly becoming my favorite industry blog ... besides Pink Kryptonite of course!) wonders about the situation that broke out last week between Chuck Dixon and DC. Given the public image of the creators, is it right that they speak out against the company after an issue like this or should they just let the work speak and leave it at that?
While your first response is probably along the lines of, "Of course they should speak up," there are other sides to the coin. In a small industry like ours, it's best not to burn bridges (even if certain bridges will probably be replaced soon enough anyway). Of course, one has to watch out for themselves in the now as well.
Dixon busted his ass for decades in comics, and now he's going to just sit back and be silent while people report that he was suddenly yanked from his books? Honestly, if I had read that news and heard nothing from Dixon, I would have assumed he had f**ked up somehow. Was he late? Did his "political views" get him canned? Maybe he just wasn't a good writer anymore. Who knows? You don't know.
It's an interesting topic and one more and more people have to think about in today's market. Joe Quesada has been the head of Marvel for a long tim enow. If there were someone that refused to work with him they'd have been shut out from one of the Big Two for a long time now. Not that you have to work for the Big Two, but it's more financially secure (usually).
Head over to the Occasional Superheroine to check out the full article, then come back here and let us know on which side you fall on. Is talking to the press cutting your nose to spite your face or is it just protecting yourself from bad PR?
Goblin
Posted to Comics on 19 June 2008
Other stuff like this: Chuck Dixon, DC, Joe Quesada, Marvel
