Q: "Do you think the comic book industry, and its principal players, should be subject to the sort of public scrutiny and (at times) gossip that others in the entertainment field are subject to?"
Erik Larsen: "Sure. It would be fun to know who's dating who and what goes on in every
one of their empty, pathetic lives."
"WHAT HAPPENS IN THE COMIC BOOK INDUSTRY, STAYS IN THE COMIC BOOK INDUSTRY"
If I had to guess, I think the lowest point in online comic gossip must have been the night I had an email discussion with two other columnists regarding "The DC Insider." We had all apparently been included on his (or her – you never know) mailing list, receiving a range of accusations about DC Comics personnel that was also published on a (hastily made) blog. The discussion concerned whether or not we should cover the story in our columns, and eventually the question was asked: "What if someone kills himself over the information being public?" It was as I read those words from my fellow columnist that I realized I was witnessing the lowest point in the history of online comic industry gossip. Because it all went back to the following refrain:
"It's f**king
comics, for crying out loud! Comics are supposed to be FUN!"
And if we in comics had our lives examined as closely as those in the "traditional" (mainstream?) entertainment world...could we really handle it?
But you see, I'm not exactly the best judge of what is "too much." I can count on one hand the secrets I have left to impart to the world about the minutest details of my empty, pathetic life. I'm pretty open, and I don't really give a damn. But not everyone is like me, or should be. The majority, it seems, cherish/need their secrets and their honor. "Keeping up appearances." But paradoxically, there are also so many who would jump at the chance of finding out about the dishonor of others. I think the recent death of David Carradine highlighted that for me. (Carradine was a badass, by the way, and f**k the haters).
The primary reason, however, that I themed this column "gossip, rumors, and spoilers" is in recognition of one of the most popular comic industry rumor columns of all time, Rich Johnston's "Lying in the Gutters," and its apparent successor,
Bleeding Cool. I remember myself and a number of colleagues at DC waiting anxiously for the next installment of Rich's column to post; and if it featured our company, all the better.
If I had to explain why we enjoyed that column so much, I would say that it helped us "blow off steam." Years later, after I published the series of posts,
"Goodbye to Comics" on my blog, I experienced this need to blow off the steam first-hand, as I was continually stopped at comic conventions and the like and told Dan DiDio stories. You never saw people more earnest, telling these stories; it was like they were talking to an analyst. Here is one of the functions of gossip, both told and heard:
catharsis.
As part of an interview that will run in full on my blog
Occasional Superheroine, I asked Rich Johnston if comic industry people should be scrutinized and publicly gossiped about as much as other celebrities:
"I can't see why not. Hell, it exists in all trades, entertainment or otherwise. Plumbing, carpentry, accounting, legal, shopfloor... why not comics too? Especially when the industry's profile is at an all time high."
"Lying in the Gutters" will remain for me, not only the quintessential comics gossip column, but comic book column, period. "Bleeding Cool" has a lot of that same spark, though, for the necessities of a daily website/column, he has taken on a wide range of topics and material other than rumors.
It's not that rumors are hard to come by in this industry. At any given time, I am probably sitting on a dozen or more true gems...that I can't write about (though I'm a big fan of "canned" gossip, if anybody has any of that they can lend a sister). Some because I just know too many damn people and don't want to get anybody in trouble, and some because they have entered the realm of
Verboten.
Fact: there are some industry rumors that are so Verboten that to merely speak of them will make you light up and burst not into flame, but directly into airborne ash. "The DC Insider" fell into this category. In fact, I was taken to task both publicly and privately for even
acknowledging that the Insider even existed. One industry person wrote to me that if we all stuck together on this and didn't acknowledge the Insider's existence, it would be like it never happened. (I heard that works well with sexual harassment incidents, too.)
"What happens in Fight Club, stays in Fight Club."
When I asked
"Unthinkable" (#2 out this week!) writer Mark Sable what he thought about whether comic industry people should be subject to gossip and public scrutiny, he had a lot to say:
"This probably won't go over well with my fellow pros, but yes. This is an industry that was built on hypocrisy, publicly extolling the virtues of heroism while exploiting creators behind the scenes. The fact is that while the industry has made great strides, that dynamic still exists to this day.
I mean, you have industry professionals - on both the creative or business sides - who on the one hand contribute to worthy causes like the Hero Initiative to help ailing legends, but on the other refuse to consider unionizing or giving up some of their earnings so that today's freelancers can have health insurance. Supporters of the CBDLF that rail against government censorship but maintain a wall of silence about more insidious corporate censorship or blacklisting. Advocates of "creator's rights" who take advantage of the artists in their employ. I could go on and on.
It doesn't help that much of mainstream comics media are cheerleaders that just put out glorified press releases. I don't blame comics journalists - they are underpaid and they pay a price in access for saying anything even remotely critical. But that makes GOOD comics journalism all the more necessary. Only very rarely is a creator going to speak out on his or her own, and if they do, they run a high risk of never working in this too-small business again.
So yes, I think we could benefit from more, not less public scrutiny, especially when it comes to the question of creator's rights, sexual harassment and bad labor or business practices.
When it comes to gossip, or getting into a creator or editor's personal life...that's a grayer area to me. If it's journalistically substantiated behavior that affects the industry, it MIGHT be newsworthy. And to the extent that any public figure puts something personal out for PR purposes...I think they MAY be making themselves fair game by blurring the line. Someone's salary...probably it's their business, but if they make statements that mislead aspiring creators into thinking this industry is lucrative for more than a handful of top creators...there is a case to be made for calling them out on their exaggeration.
But other than those exceptions...I think someone's personal life is their personal life. Comics creators by and large are extremely accessible and I don't think we appreciate what a gift that is. When was the last time a professional athlete or filmmaker took time to answer your letter or chat with you in public?
All that said...if we're going to have muckrakers, I expect them to be held and hold themselves to the highest standards of journalistic ethics. No blind items, rare uses of anonymous sources, and, well, less laziness. Re-posting tweets without context or without any attempt to contact the author...you can't expect respect for those tactics."
What follows is the input from a number of industry pros, bloggers, and fans on this issue. I got such a huge response on this topic that it will probably have to spill out onto my blog; if you don't see your words here, don't worry.
AGAIN, THE COMICS-OP QUESTION OF THE WEEK IS:
"Do you think the comic book industry, and its principal players, should be subject to the sort of public scrutiny and (at times) gossip that others in the entertainment field are subject to?"
Kevin Huxford:
Ugh. This is a tough one. I understand and respect (whether anyone believes me or not) an individual's right to and desire for privacy. But I think anything that can be seen as impacting the product we consume can be argued as fair game. If a creator is being stifled or gets run off a book, I want to know. If the quality of a book suffers for some reason, I'd like to know the source of the problem so that I can make the proper adjustments as a consumer or critic. I don't want to be put off someone's work for a disappointment that wasn't really their making. For instance, in movies, the recent Terminator movie was distinctly different from what was originally intended due to Christian Bale using his star power to force changes. I'd like to know that I shouldn't necessarily avoid future films from McG or the script writers. If something similar happened in comic books (like a star writer causing significant delays while the artist publicly falls on his sword for it), I think it is fair game to report. What level of detail one goes into is where it all becomes questionable.
Scott O. Brown:
Absolutely! A little scrutiny and gossip can go a long way to keep companies and people honest. We've been pushing for legitimacy as a medium for decades, and I think it should be part of the progression. Toss in a paparazzo or four, and I'm all in!
@JSousa:
Personally I think they SHOULD, Val.
In my opinion there are MANY bad habits in the industry that would ABSOLUTELY be DROPPED if the people who have those habits lived with at least a tiny bit of FEAR of meeting a LEGION of paparazzis when they were leaving home for work in the morning.
That being said... I don't think that will EVER happen. As soon as the global economy is sound again and Hollywood starts taking more chances script-wise, I think the "comic movie fad" will pass.
ESPECIALLY if they keep putting out cool-but-not-so-great movies like X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Cheryl Lynn:
Comic creators should be treated just like their counterparts in other forms of literature, television and film. That means that their professional lives become public knowledge and their private lives remain private. If a well-known writer throws a tantrum on the set of a popular television show, that news might leak out on message boards devoted to the show. That's a risk that writer took by behaving unprofessionally. However, if a writer cheats on his wife? Or an artist's father passes away? Those are private matters that I don't think the public should be made aware of. Period. It's none of our business what a creator does once he or she walks away from that keyboard or steps out of that office or walks off the convention floor.
Todd Seavey:
I think you should have Rich Johnston's abandoned post, if that's what you're asking, yes. Also, I think they should have all three Flashes smoosh together and become one guy at the end of that current miniseries, like in "Kingdom Come".
David Spira:
I was given backstage passes to meet a band that I was a huge fan of. Upon getting backstage I met their bass player (a legend among bass players), and he was a total bastard to his fan. Now, whenever I listen to the band that memory pops in my head.
As it pertains to comics, it's nice to be able to read a story and divorce it from the person who created it. I frequently don't read the personalized gossip because I don't really want to have a story I like tainted by the creator's poor behavior. However, I think the truth should be published for people who do want to know - especially in the case of industry celebrity creators. If a creator is making money off their name alone, then I think they are ripe for scrutiny.
Shannon Smith:
When it comes to deals, dollars and deadlines then sure. That's the business of the business and it affects the dealers, distributors and customers. If it's news then it's news. The personal stuff and personal scrutiny? As far as that goes, I think any blogger, journalist, news outlet etc. should be asking themselves "is this news or am I just pandering to my audience?" I personally have no interest in that stuff unless it affects the comics. If a writer thinks an editor is a jerk it's no big deal. If a writer thinks an editor is a jerk and therefore quits writing my favorite book then that's a bigger deal. I guess the cause is only interesting if the effect is. Comics are less like film or television and more like the literary and arts industries. If an actor turns up drunk in a ditch and causes a stop in production then that affects a lot of people's dollars. That is news. If a writer or an artist is found in a ditch, people just step over them.
Chris Boehm:
Any public industry should expect public conversation about it. People who love astronomical tracking software and talk about it with other people that love astronomical tracking software follow what happens in the astronomical tracking software industry. They go to message boards and talk about what happened when Developer A at Company X had a falling out with his boss, so it impacted the way you follow Sirius in leap years.
Faulkner wrote a novel that was a kind of meta-discussion of gossip. The core of
Sanctuary is a story about how gossip destroys several people in this little town. When the book came out in the 1932 Modern Library Edition, Faulkner wrote, "To me it is a cheap idea, because it was deliberately conceived to make money. ... I took a little time out, and speculated what a person in Mississippi would believe to be current trends, chose what I thought would be the right answer and invented the most horrific tale I could imagine and wrote it in about three weeks and sent it to (Harrison) Smith, who had done 'The Sound and the Fury' and who wrote me immediately, 'Good God, I can't publish this. We'd both be in jail.'"
In writing that, Faulkner torpedoed the book. What killed the sales of it (and its place in the canon of his books) was his comment,
which gave reviewers license to pan it. In this, gossip, and not the story itself, killed his book.
Gossip is not new or original, and not specific to the entertainment industry. Ignore it at your own peril.
AND THIS HAS BEEN...
...the third installment of COMICS-OP, your destination for the stuff I should have been posting at my blog but didn't because time is money.
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Valerie D'Orazio is a former editor at DC Comics, is presently president of the Friends of Lulu and is probably best known as the Occasional Superheroine
Comics-Op is ©2009 Valerie D'Orazio
