Heidi writes about online comics journalism, specifically in relation to Newsarama’s new deal with Imaginova, but the real action is in the comments section, where there’s a lot of discussion about why there aren’t any comics hard news reporters.
Ed Mathews:
“There are plenty of roads to take to get to a story and not all of them involve the official outlets. In fact, if everyone didn’t kowtow to the companies or creators and actually asked hard questions, then comics journalism might be a worthy pursuit. However, it is clear that the general audience doesn’t care. Seriously, it’s also clear that most of the comic journalism sites don’t care. And why should they when even veteran comics journalists can be caught saying ‘hey, man… it’s only comics’ and dismissing hard news items so as to either not lose that precious access or to not embarass the subject of the piece. It’s fascinating that the best comics journalist runs a rumour column and refuses to call himself a journalist. The field needs more Rich Johnstons and less Mike Sangiacomos.”
Jamie Coville:
“I’ve done very, very little ‘hard journalism’ but when I’ve tried I find very few people willing to go on the record to say anything. It appears a lot of people want hard journalism, until *they* are part of the story. Then it’s ‘I don’t want no trouble!’ Then you get the reader response, a lot of whom just want to read their batman comics in peace and not be bothered by this stuff. If you’re not getting paid to do this, then there doesn’t seem to be any point in doing it. Calling people, getting your facts straight, double checking it all and writing it takes a lot of time and some money. It’s no surprise nobody is doing it for free.”
Marvel’s Nicole Boose:
“It seems that the same qualities that make someone a true and objective comics journalist - willingness to ask tough questions, be critical, and be disliked - are the very qualities that could shut you out from the industry itself. In my view, the unwillingness to do that isn’t always necessarily butt-kissing, it’s a form of self-preservation.”
Rich Johnston:
“The main difference between LITG and other comics reportage is that I routinely break stories without the co-operation of the publishers and creators involved. I’m the equivalent of Private Eye, Popbitch, Guido Fawkes and the diary column of every major newspaper.”
It’s an interesting conversation, and parallel to one going on over at Dick Hyacinth’s blog, which is well worth reading, especially Dick’s initial post:
Comics are so insular that I’m not sure if there’s any hope of achieving real investigative journalism on a regular basis. Johnston has complained in the past of Marvel and DC trying to plug leaks, making his job harder. When you’re talking about two relatively small publishing enterprises, leak-plugging isn’t that hard. You occasionally get someone like Valerie D’Orazio, who quit the industry and is thus willing to shed a little light on the inner workings of the mainstream publishers. But that’s still fairly rare; it seems that most fired employees hope to land positions at some other comics publisher, and thus keep their mouths shut. Creators are in an even more tenuous situation; it’s no surprise that the most vehement critics of Marvel and DC are freelancers who have little hope of receiving future assignments from either company. And really, their inside information is less valuable than that of people who actually work(ed) in the corporate offices.
Here’s something that I always wonder about this subject, though; how much real hard news is there in comics? I’m not talking about gossip, or inter-office politics, I mean real actual news…? Yes, I’m genuinely asking.
(Related: Steven Grant on online comics journalism, Newsarama and Imaginova.)
October 11th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Here’s something that I always wonder about this subject, though; how much real hard news is there in comics? I’m not talking about gossip, or inter-office politics, I mean real actual news…? Yes, I’m genuinely asking.
I was wondering the same thing. What is there that’s going on in the world of comics that people have a real need to know about? Not much, I suspect. Comics are entertainment; we want to know stuff about them because we’re interested, not because the information is any use to us. This is what separates comics and entertainment and even sports from politics and economics and science.
Investigative journalism in the world of comics. What exactly would it investigate? What lids need to be blown off? What are we not getting that we should be getting?
I’m not saying that everything’s fine in the world of comics reporting. I just don’t know what our criteria are for saying whether things are fine or not.
October 11th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
I’ve kind of wondered the same thing. For that matter, I’ve also wondered: do other media (prose novels, for instance) have such a preponderance of hard-hitting “real journalists” that the absence of ones specifically dedicated to comics is all that remarkable?
October 11th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
It takes a good journalist to see what’s going on and present the story from an interesting angle, I think. There’s probably not muck-raking to do, but there are stories.
What about the relationship between Hollywood and comics? Not the usual superhero movie of the month story. Why not track down one of those Hollywood Guys trawling at Comic-Con and see what’s up there? What about looking at independent publishers being used as “incubators” for DC’s Vertigo and Minx? Surely James Lucas Jones and I aren’t the only ones who have noticed that.
Why not look at how submissions for Eisner Awards are vetted? How much influence does Jackie Estrada have?
What about creators’ rights? What do various comics contracts entail? With the launch of Zuda that has become a topic of interest, but most of the more in-depth coverage of their contracts I’ve seen has been from independent bloggers not associated with any comics news sites. Why not consult with some creative rights lawyers, look objectively at the contracts and report on how people who are knowledgeable view them? This requires research. It requires building relationships with sources outside of the comics industry — and maybe it will help the industry be less insular.
Prose books may not have a lot of hard-hitting reporting, but take a look at the average book review at The New York Times, for example. There’s an acuity and depth to the criticism that is not often found in comics reviews.
October 11th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
PopImage changed its focus to reviewing comics and showcasing webcomics, so it really wasn’t our focus, but when I was asked to find a source by a friend for a story, I pointed them toward this.
Bill Jemas was not an officer of Marvel for more than 6 months before anybody in the comics journalism sites bothered to figure it out. All it took was to look at the corporate filings to notice his signature on them one year and conspicuously missing the next year and then BOOM, big undeniable story with solid evidence. You didn’t even need a quote from any Marvel representative as their public filings were on their website.
It’s not that tough, folks. It’s not even on the level of college homework.
October 11th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Here’s some investigative reporting in the entertainment industry: Nikki Finke’s reporting on Warner Bros. prez Jeff Robinov saying that there will be no more WB movies with women in the lead. After Robinov tried to discredit her, she stood by her reporting and told everyone why: http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/the-reality-behind-jeff-robinovs-denial/
If only there were someone like Finke who had that kind of determination to uncover something worth reporting on, eh? Instead, when Quesada blathered about the sexist imagery his company uses being all in people’s heads, Newsarama was totally sycophantic. Why was that?
WB owns DC, by the way. The movies and comics are completely separate, but this incident could be an impetus to put someone at DC on the spot about women-led comics. Just sayin’.
October 21st, 2007 at 4:58 pm
As I’ve stated elsewhere, I think part of the issue is 90% of comic journalists aspire to work in comics themselves, so doing hard reporting might alienate them from the publishers they desire to work for. I’m no different as I aspire to those things, but on the same hand as far as interviews go, I do sometimes ask the hard questions. But more times than not, those questions are either avoided or skirted. So I’m not sure what the solution is.