Now, I really like Rich Johnston – I’m sorry, the half of the internet who have now decided that they hate me for that – but was I the only one surprised by this statement in yesterday’s LITG?:
Some people have asked my policy on spoilers of late, due to my reluctance to spoil the One More Day plot or the Skrulletra/Skrull Invasion Of Earth stories (although eagle eyed viewers may have seen ELEKTRA IS A SKRULL written out in the beginning of sentences last week). It’s this: I’ll run such stories past the publisher to see if they mind, and pull them if they do – unless they or the creators have gone and spoiled the stories themselves. Then it’s fair game.
Rich! What’s going on? When did you sell out*?
(* – Not that there’s anything wrong with selling out, you understand. I’d do it myself in a second, if someone was offering the right amount of money and/or prestige. But still, wasn’t that oddly blatant?)
June 19th, 2007 at 11:04 am
I think it’s more about giving publishers a bit more respect. All The Rage has been doing it since my friend Steve took over the column (not sure about the policy before that) and I don’t know for sure if that’s been Rich’s policy all along, or maybe he’s just trying to mend bridges he might have burned in the past.
June 19th, 2007 at 11:20 am
yay for the moz reference, boo for spoilers.
June 19th, 2007 at 11:39 am
Graeme,
If you run everything by me, I won’t tell the internerd your secrets.
And I’ll give you a dollar.
June 19th, 2007 at 11:39 am
I’m perfectly fine with Rich’s policy. He really covers what’s going on behind the scenes. Releasing spoilers just hurts everyone.
June 19th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Who wants a noble Enquirer?
LITG used to be THE industry gossip column. Now it often struggles for content, layers on the filler…
I t used to be fun.
June 19th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Here’s the problem. Go to his “Elektra is a Skrull” column and make an attempt to find the sentence in…
WLAMTLNITTTITIAATVMTIYAATWESIHDELEKTRAISASKRULLTIAMITTWA
Seriously, Rich. If you’re going to slip some crap in like that, do invisotext or make it a tad more obvious, though next time you start prefacing your sentences with wacky proclaimations, I’m sure I’ll pay more attention. Just don’t do it as a fake-out.
June 19th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
As an aside, I chalked up crap like “Lovingly”, “Krikey” and “Krivvens” as wacky British euphemisms.
Those wacky Brits.
June 19th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Never sold out. It’s called being polite. And it’s what I’ve always done. Business As Usual.
Now Graeme, tell everyone about the stories you’ve had dropped/significantly changed because you write through Newsarama…
June 19th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Michael, this week an honest expose on the inner workings of DC and the machinations therein (including Dan’s contract, the editorial moving for Countdown and a new role for Waid, the until-now hidden lead for Waid’s Flash, plot world points for Ray Palmer, DC editorial guidelines to creators, TokyoPop’s upcoming chance in content and the hot San Diego party to be at.
I reckon that’s as good as it’s ever been.
June 19th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Rich,
If it was business as usual, why have people noticed a difference? Because it isn’t business as usual.
You say your column is about gossip and rumour. Well, if you run everything by the company the info is about, it ain’t gossip or rumour anymore. You might as well as just take spoilers off the table completely.
Still read the column…but it has changed, for better or worse. To say it hasn’t is a lie, man.
June 19th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Now Graeme, tell everyone about the stories you’ve had dropped/significantly changed because you write through Newsarama…
I admit it: I knew that Captain America was dying and put all those copies on eBay. I’m sorry.*
As much as I know I’m going to regret saying this, I’m not sure the two things are analogous, if you’re saying that I can’t write the same things here as I could/would on FBR…? My point, as much as there was a point, was that it seemed as if you’d shifted the goalposts within LITG, not between Rich’s Ramblings (? That was what it was called, right?) and LITG…
(Which isn’t to say that there’s not a conversation to be had about what you can and can’t write for yourself against for someone else. I just don’t think that that’s the subject we were talking about.)
* – This may not be true.
June 19th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Please God, don’t let me be the one to point out the inference relating “Rich(‘s column) has changed” and “Rich’s reluctance to spoil the Skrull invasion of the earth”.
Shit. Why does my creator hate me?
June 19th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
>If it was business as usual, why have >people noticed a difference? Because it >isn’t business as usual.
No, because this is “Viz isn’t as funny as it used to be” syndrome. The column remains the same, you have changed.
>You say your column is about gossip and >rumour. Well, if you run everything by >the company the info is about, it ain’t >gossip or rumour anymore.
Yes it is. LITG always has.
>You might as well as just take spoilers >off the table completely.
Spoilers have never been a central aspect of the column. It’d usually been upcoming projects, creator changes, internal politics, non paying or non crediting, unacknowledged swipes. If it were spoiler central I’d just print the last pages of First Look titles every week.
>Still read the column…but it has changed, for better or worse. To say it hasn’t is a lie, man.
Check earlier columns. Really? Sure you aren’t just creating a “best of” in your head to compare it against?
June 19th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
“it seemed as if you’d shifted the goalposts within LITG”
No, business as usual.
June 19th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Hey, President Nixon is it ok to publish this story about this little break-in I heard about through a reliable source? No. Ok we’ll just hold onto it then.
June 19th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Could it be that publishers are asking Rich not to run spoilers more now than they used to? Maybe it’s not that Rich’s policy has changed, but that the publishers’ policies have changed?
June 19th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I think LitG is different but not markedly different. It does seem more tame these days…rumor mill types of stuff never stay flush with information–because people get wise and stop talking as much.
Anyone who doesn’t want to “sell out” doesn’t want to be successful–plenty of people have sold out first and “found God” afterwards and that’s fine–makes room for the rest of us who are willing to play by the rules.
Don’t cry about selling out folks…the only reason you haven’t sold out yet is because someone hasn’t named your price yet.
And we all know–everyone has a price.
June 19th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Shane: That wouldn’t happen. Did you read this week’s column? Dan And Jann Show and Spaff Page alone…
KentL: No, same old, same old.
Steven: Again, did you read this week’s column? I am not paid by any publisher to run or not run anything.
June 19th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
KentL, that could be possible…but then Rich wouldn’t be referring back to past columns to demonstrate that things haven’t changed. Publishers making the request is behind the scenes stuff that the column wouldn’t show.
Rich: “Sure you aren’t just creating a “best of” in your head to compare it against?”
Yup. You do love to lean on that “‘best of’ in your head” concept a lot when people suggest your column isn’t as interesting as it used to be, though.
June 19th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Rich-
I wasn’t saying that anything was wrong with your column by any means…
I’m just saying it’s been less acerbic lately–that’s just my perceptions though.
If you were “selling out” it wouldn’t bother me in the slightest.
I’m just not as entertained as I used to be–nothing more nothing less.
June 19th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
So, you never answered my inferenced question; do many Brits use the euphemism “Krivvens”?
June 19th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
I must be the only one here who read LITG yesterday and thought that was Rich’s policy all along. And I also think the column is essentially the same as its always been (at least I still enjoy it as much as I always have), although I do kind of miss the longer pieces Rich did as an experiment a while back before reverting back to the blurbs (by popular opinion if I recall). Any chance for some additional longer pieces in the future, Rich?
June 19th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
I think the column has changed.
So has Rich Johnston.
June 19th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
American – “Crivvens” is a Scottish term, if you believe noted language expert Paw Broon. It’s normally preceded by “Jings” and followed by “and Help M’Boab.”
June 19th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Steven – I hear what you’re saying, I guess I just think “spaff page” is probably the most acerbic I’ve ever been.
Kevin – It wouldn’t be particular to my column, certainly.
Let’s choose some random columns, one form each LITG year:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg&article=1450
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg&article=1662
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg&article=1969
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg&article=2208
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg&article=2406
How do they stack up against this week?
Joseph – the vote was against.
June 19th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Oh come on Rich–
You Brits are the masters of passive-aggressive behavior…I think you don’t give yourself the credit you’re due…
*smirk*
June 19th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Fine, Graeme: $2. It’s not a… gargantuan sum, but.
June 19th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
I think LITG has changed, has changed for the worse and went from essential reading to inconsequential. I think this is because it “became part of the establishment”.
————-
err Rich, I know the little book says otherwise but don’t you think your insistence on repeating the “right” message is getting a bit tedious? Admittedly, attempting to drag the other side down into a discussion of detail is a nice touch as the average reader will either glance over the nuanced argument or register a win for you if someone refuses to engage. Except, you’re doing this every time, and it’s always the same flurry of posts, short, simple, general comments avoiding specifics and inviting the other side to get bogged down.
Frankly, from where I’m standing it’s gone from looking smart to looking overly defensive and insecure.
June 19th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Ed Cunard wins. For reasons that can never be shared on Newsarama, or any other website, for that matter.
June 19th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
in all this discussion, one thing seems to be assumed: that what Rich writes is correct. why does anyone assume that Rich is “correct” in what he runs? cause he’s not. maybe that’s why he now works “with” publishers…
someday, someone has to give him that job he so desperately covets—don’t they?
June 19th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Ha. It’s dogpile on Rich’s ethics day? I had no idea.
I’ve read Rich’s column for a few years now and always find it entertaining. I remember a while back Rich stating that he will pull a story if the involved party asks him to, and I assumed this was just standard personal policy.
I have no idea what Rich’s column was like back in the Good Ol’ Days of the Internet, but I enjoy his work now just fine. So I say keep it up man and thanks for giving me a comic column I can look forward to reading each week.
June 19th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
“Shane: That wouldn’t happen. Did you read this week’s column? Dan And Jann Show and Spaff Page alone…”
Actually yeah, I read it every time you post a new one. This week was a little better than usual, but it does seem different than it did a year or so ago. The last few months haven’t been as hard hitting as the column used to be. Actually I think it seemed to change a right before you conducted that “journalistic experiment” a while back.
June 19th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Rich,
This week’s column was a bit meatier than usual. In my ever so humble opinion since the NewNuMarvel regime took you to task publicly a while back (unfairly IMO) LiTG has become far less the watercooler column it once was.
It went from ruffling some publisher’s feathers every other week to a benign blip in most circles. I don’t think it’s been completely castrated, but it’s not feeding the barbarians to the lions as often as it used to.
EIC’s no longer throw hissy fits over a column. That’s a sign in and of itself. Friendlier, gentler… the herbivores rumour column.
June 20th, 2007 at 4:47 am
I see no one actually compared this week’s column to a random selection over the last few years.
Markus – I think if you ask anyone at DC this week, no one there will
agree that LITG has become part of the establishment. Also, what book,
what right message? And detail is the only thing that matters here -
what better way to counter that the column has changed in attitude or
got worse than to compare it to said previous columns? Except no one
has chosen to do that. How can I get bogged down in details AND avoid
specifics? Oh and LITG has *always* been overly defensive and
insecure.
Shane: Let’s have a look at a year ago.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg&article=2495
Thoughts?
Fanboy – yup, standard and open practice.
Michael – I promise you LITG ruffles publisher feathers *every week*. This is Ellis’ take:
http://www.the-engine.net/forum/?webtag=ENGINE&msg=9508.1
June 20th, 2007 at 4:50 am
Walter – I don’t work with publishers any more now that I did before. Also, I work in advertising – comics couldn’t afford me. And even if I wanted to, having written LITG would bar me from most publishers out there. I wouldn’t recommend it as a How To Get Into Comics route.
June 20th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Well, you picked a column when you were out of the country, so there wasn’t a lot going on. This part was pretty interesting and relates a bit to this post though.
“Earlier last week, Marvel was threatening comic book websites that they would withdraw cooperation with any future Marvel articles, stories or features if they published the “Civil War” 2 spoiler that Marvel let out themselves in the in First Look editions of “Thunderbolts” #103.”
Maybe I just don’t personally see LITG as hard hitting as it used to be. It used to be my go to source for rumors and information. Maybe the fact that blogs and other sources sometimes have the information first has lessened the importance of LITG for me.
June 20th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Shane, you were the one who said a year ago, not me…
Note that I published a very similar story about Marvel only a couple of weeks ago. And in this week I make the point about when creators or publishers self-spoil.
Might indicate that the column is exactly the same in tone and attitude as it was a year ago.
And LITG only publishes on a Monday. Unless it’s a Tuesday. All sorts of things can happen in the intervening week.