Who Really Writes These Comics?
These words spoken by Mark Waid in this "Wizard" interview caught my attention:
"The other thing is that when the pitch was first made to me by DiDio..."
This is in reference to the new "Flash" series, by the way...
Anyway, let me get this straight.
The editor (or editor-in-chief, or some other such entity) pitches the story to the writer.
The writer doesn't pitch the story to the editor.
The editor pitches the story to the writer.
I suppose this shouldn't surprise me. I guess this is the way things are done.
"Editorially driven" comics.
How much of the mainstream comics we read are the product of the writer, and how much of the editorial team?
On the other end of the spectrum we have writers like Frank Miller who do whatever they want with little or no editorial interference. They have "earned" this privilege by virtue of the $$$$ they have earned the company.
I dunno. Was "World War Hulk" editorially driven? I'm enjoying that event.
I guess it depends on who on the publisher's side is doing the pitching.
As big events come more and more back into vogue, I think editorially-mandated story lines are going to become more and more coming.
ReplyDeleteCivil War, for instance, was was put together by Marvel editorial and a number of their bigger creators sequestering themselves at a retreat and not coming out till they had (literally) hacked it all out. 52 was pitched to Morrison, Rucka, Waid, and Johns by editorial, but when the writers decided to take the story in a considerably different (and better) direction, the folks upstairs let them.
I think it's safe to assume Planet Hulk/WWH and Annihilation were decided on upstairs, but I feel like (and could be totally wrong about this) there was a bit more freedom involved, as if they were told "here's how it starts, and here's what the board should kinda look like when it ends." My biggest worry about WWH is that too many characters are involved that have movies coming out soon, and that narrows the number of ways this can play out a good bit. Cynical? Yes, but also probably right - this is the same company that leapt through a number of rather stupid hoops to ensure Spider-Man was back in the black suit while SM3 was running and looks to be taking him back out as quickly as possible.
i think if an editor has a good idea, they should voice their opinion...
ReplyDeleteJLA bringing back SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wally was obviously editorial, althought Brad made it work