Jim Shooter is back in comics, and ready to start something, as Wizard finds out:
The art in comics [today] is generally better than ever, the writing is often clever and glib, but in spite of that, far too many comics are utterly unreadable. Even hardcore fans find many comics daunting to follow! The craft of comics storytelling is all but lost. A who’s who of industry big shots have privately agreed with me when we’ve discussed exactly this subject, but it’s a tough problem to fix, given the often huge egos of the creators, general creative anarchy and lack of trained editorial people. I’m happy to say that where I work now, DC, appears to be taking the lead in bringing back the craft. My editor, Mike Marts, is really good. He knows what he’s doing and makes you make it right. A lot of good stuff is happening at DC. I’m back where I started 42 years ago…and very happy to be there.
Shooter also talks about Legion at the link.
September 10th, 2007 at 9:40 am
It’s a shame they didn’t have a chance to press Shooter on that last point. It reads like the start of something, to me, rather than a profound closing statement.
//\Oo/\\
September 10th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Cut the guy some slack there, he didn’t say they “suck” he said they were unreadable. I totally agree with that.
September 10th, 2007 at 11:00 am
I agree, Matthew. That last comment sounds like the beginning of a very interesting discussion. Too bad he didn’t go into more detail.
September 10th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Oddly enough, Marts doesn’t exactly have a track record of presiding over ‘readable comics’
September 10th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Neither does the man behind Secret Wars if you want to get right down to it.
September 10th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
I disagree — at least in thee sense Shooter means “readable” — i.e. comprehensible. He always put out comics that were clear and easy to understand. (He’s been hit-or-miss for me, excitement-wise, but I’ve always been able to grasp what he’s trying to convey.)
September 10th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
“Even hardcore fans find many comics daunting to follow!”
Really? Because it seems to me like most of the books are being written FOR THEM. It’s the casual readers who might have a hard time reading comics IF he’s talking about the decompression/writing-for-the-trade phenomenon but he’s kind of being weasely and vague so who knows what he meant. Except he also said this:
“The craft of comics storytelling is all but lost.”
“far too many comics are utterly unreadable”
Sounds to me like he IS saying most comics today suck, and that he comes across as a bitter man talking out of his ass. Think about it, this guy was head honcho at Marvel and now he’s lucky to get a gig writing a third tier title that gets canceled and relaunched every couple of years.
September 11th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Sounds to me like he IS saying most comics today suck, and that he comes across as a bitter man talking out of his ass.
As far as I’m concerned, both you and Shooter are correct.