Steven Grant wants to tell you how it is between publishers and creators:

At least at the top level of the American comics industry - Marvel, DC, Wildstorm, etc. - creator-publisher relations are about as cordial as I can remember. Which isn’t to say they’re anywhere near perfect, but the ground rules have stabilized, everyone pretty much knows what they’re getting into, and the people working for them seem more or less happy to be there, within reason. Editorial fiat is still something of an issue - micromanagement and “top down storytelling” have become bigger deals at Marvel and DC than ever before as Big Events have once again taken center stage and its Universes Uber Alles - but anyone who doesn’t recognize that game going in needs to work on their basic perception skills.

And the paychecks generally come when they’re supposed to. Which gets to be a big deal once you’re past the age of, oh, 23. Creator rights aren’t even that great an issue anymore; both Marvel and DC have branches where talent can publish creator-owned properties (like Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips’ CRIMINAL, which you should be reading) with a few restrictions should they convince the respective company they’re worth it. (At least at Marvel it tends to be something you work your way toward; at DC all you really have to do to publish through Vertigo is convince Vertigo to take the project on. Still much easier said than done.)

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 at 8:57 am and is filed under Creators, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.