Over at ComicBloc, Christos Gage goes Inside The Writers’ Studio and gets honest:
My best skill is getting work done on time. I’ve gained a reputation as someone who hits tight deadlines without doing hack work and it’s helped my career a lot. I don’t know that I’m my own harshest critic, I’m sure you could find someone who hates my stuff more than me. But you have to self-critique or you’re doomed. Handing in something that’s not ready is always a bad idea. There’s definitely an impulse to hand something in when you’re excited about it, because you want to see what other people think, but you have to kind of take a step back and look at it with a critical eye. When possible, I like to take a day or two away from a comic book script before polishing it and then handing it in.
And then there are times when you hand in World War Hulk: X-Men, just for the hell of it.
November 16th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
ooooh, SICK BURN!!
Harsh, yet fair.
November 16th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
No, not fair at all, i love WWH:X-men, it was my favorite WWH tie-in, and Chris Gage is one of the best writers working in the industry nowadays.
So…I disagree
November 16th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Sounds good to me.
As for the WWH: XM dig, I think it was unfair too. Sure, I didn’t care for the story either but I think insulting Gage’s stuff and work ethic gives creators who are late and do crappy work credence to continue doing so. But then again, this is the internet where insults are king…
November 16th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Christos Gage has written plenty of good books, but WWH: X-Men was not one of them, sorry kids.
November 16th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
What on earth was wrong with WWH:X-men?
It had pretty much ALL of the X-characters, written well. It had some great, interesting fight scenes. It had the Juggernaut act like the Juggernaut and a great fight between the him and the Hulk. The ending was a tad schmaltzy, but the book was hardly bad. I think its everything a tie-in book could hope to be honestly.
I have yet to hear any real criticism on this book, just “its bad”.
November 17th, 2007 at 4:26 am
This is the first time i have heard anyone not liking WWH X-men
November 17th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Count me amongst those that liked WWH: X-Men. It wasn’t always cerebral, but it wasn’t supposed to be. It could have possibly been boiled down to one issue less, but that’s an editorial decision, not the writer’s.
November 17th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
i liked wwh x-men & wwh iron man. I think Gage is a helluva writer
November 17th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Sorry Graeme, though it probably stunk of a cheap cash-in to you, Gage did a great job with it.
November 17th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Hey, Graeme, leave that nice Gage boy alone. Isn’t there some Millarworld thread you need to link to or something?
November 18th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Because it takes much more skill to post a one-line dismissal of a guy’s work without any substantiation, of course.