He sure sounds bitter!

OUCH.

Even tough Dixon’s a great writer. I can’t say that I agree with him. I don’t think there is no need to go around insulting other people on the network. And definitely, if you are gonna take a shot at someone you should at least be direct about it.

What a let down.

He sounds very bitter and just spilling over with sour grapes! I’m gonna go ahead and take these rantings of his with a huge grain of salt.

Yow. Chuck doesn’t seem too worried about burning bridges so they must have already been demolished behind him.

I’m getting kinda tired of this, he needs to either stop feeding the fire so high with half explained bits of information, or put up a full explanation somewhere…because, at this point, it almost feels like his reasons for getting fired maybe weren’t all incompetence on DC’s part.

It feels like he’s hiding the real, much simpler reason behind his termination, and letting us imagine it as much bigger (than it is) in our heads. I mean, its not like he’s trying to save professional face by not bad mouthing his ex-employer (cuz he’s not, and has been). Its starting to feel like, with all of Dixon’s vague, gorilla warfare style digs at DC, that he wants us to imagineer all the “horror” of his situation ourself.

I actually mean this post with no venom, I do not care much about DC at all, and have absolutely nothing against Dixon..

I know his story keeps getting bandied around, and Dixon may feel the need to defend himself in comment sections of blogs covering it, but sooner or later he has to come out with the whole truth, because these half comments feel childish, and hurt not only his rep. but everyone’s involved.

WHO are you blaming, WHY did this happen..

I did not have coffee today, please forgive the poor grammar and sentence structure, lol.

Hmmm…the plot thickens.

Dave, i don’t think we’ll get the full story because it really seems like it deals in some way with the fallout of either Batman RIP or Final Crisis or both. Dixon could be a dick and reveal it, and that would REALLY screw DC, but i doubt he’d want to do that. It seems like he is a professional, and doing that would just screw everybody at DC, not just the tyrant in question.

Let’s be honest his current Robin run along with Chris Bastia hasn’t been that great. Is he a talented writer? Heck Yeah! I enjoyed so much of his work. But sometimes you can’t go back home. Hopefully Adam Beechem can return, he was doing some really cool stuff with Robin. Also Chuck isn’t the only writer to have problems with the editors/higher ups at DC recently . Everyone should listen To Mark Waid’s current WordBalloon interview.

If he was REALLY being professional he would leave it at No COMMENT
Right now he is half feeding information - leading people to0 believe half the story and extrapolate BASED on his side alone what the story was.
As an employer if DC let Dixon go they cannot comment (either Way) thus making Dixon’s comments highly unprofessional.

And can anyone tell me what titles Dixon wrote under Shooters editorial at Marvel?

If Dixon has a personal or professional problem he need to keep it to himself and just say NO COMMENT. That is the only was anyone would be professional.

Anyone?

So I guess this means the solicited issues of Robin for the past two months will be written by someone other than Chuck Dixon? That is mighty sucky. I’d like to get proper solicits on this sometime soon so I can know what I’ll be reading. For that matter, this better not be another Bart Allen swerve, where they release false solicits and then kill the character or make him something else (Batman), because Tim as Robin is, in my opinion, one of the best things DC has going right now.

Real damn shame.

I do want to point one thing out–Chuck Dixon is not a first time, novice writer–He is a sesoned author with more years in the business that some of us have been on this green earth. He has worked on many titles and is dedicated to a run and not fancy free, I’m only going to do 2 issues and run away like alot of other writers. I can guarantee that he is not being bitter but just frustrated to see the incredible potential of this medium continously horse fu%$ed by guys who should not be in charge.

I know “seasoned” is spelled incorrectly, but let’s not loose sight of the point.

Thanks.

–”Dave, i don’t think we’ll get the full story because it really seems like it deals in some way with the fallout of either Batman RIP or Final Crisis or both. Dixon could be a dick and reveal it, and that would REALLY screw DC, but i doubt he’d want to do that.”–

He doesn’t have to release plot points, just make it clear that they didn’t give him heads up on what Morrison was doing to change the status quo (I’m assuming), and that he wrote issues way ahead (I’ve heard and am assuming), and that there was irreconcilable differences in their visions for the books (after he had so much of Robin and BATO layed out in advance), and that he was why he was let go.

I think its probably that simple, and is reasonable if a writer’s vision conflicts with editorial, and the main books (of that particular line [Batman]) that he be let go. Unfortunately this is commercial art, that stuff happens when protecting the brand.

All these vague comments he’s posting, seem like he’s trying to make the situation seem much larger than it is (and maybe it is).

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to Lying in the Gutters later today, lol.

And my apologies to Dixon if he did get royally screwed by DC, they have been quite the cluster f**k lately.

Any chance this will start a groundswell against DiDio?

No.

There should be a groundswell against Dido. He and Joe q are destroying marvel and dc or letting it happen. Left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing at DC. As the morrison interview gave away. If it’s a problem with direction Batman Books is going and the overal DC Universe then welcome to the light side Chuck Dixon. To me DC jumped the shark the moment Blue Beatle was shot and killed. (God I hated the end to last weeks Booster Gold. :()

I personally think that DiDio has done a good job overall. He’s made a few mistakes this past year and time will tell if he’s starting to lose it. Dixon and DiDio probably have conflicting personalities and perhaps just didn’t get along. Regardless, letting Dixon go was another mistake made by DiDio this year. I have faith that Final Crisis and Batman R.I.P. will turn out to be great because Morrison is writing them, but I’m not sure about the tie-ins and aftermath as there seems to be a lack of communication/coordination between Morrison and the other writers.

From a selfish fan standpoint… the current run on ROBIN is the best that book has been since, well, since Dixon was on the first time around. I was really enjoying it, and enjoying that he brought back… whichever character he recently brought back (not spoiling).

I hear there are more Bat-book related changes coming, including the Robin costume, which I’ve really liked since Infinite Crisis. I also think NIGHTWING is horribly ignored and underrated, when it should be a hit book.

I wish Mr. Dixon best of luck in the future, and I hope whoever takes his place does a good job. I also hope that a new creative team for ROBIN does not mean the book will be cancelled or relaunched before #200.

Oh, hey, does this mean we can stop pretending to care about Spoiler? Because if so, RIGHT ON.

“To me DC jumped the shark the moment Blue Beatle was shot and killed.”

You can’t blame DC Editorial for Mark David Chapman, man.

I for one, think that Mr Dixon really does speak the truth, as much as he’s a gentleman to divulge.

And I can’t help but agree with him too, he’s pretty much right on the money in my book.

And this certainly hasn’t hightened my view of AOL/Warner and their puppet Didio.

I might contradict everything I’ve just said with the next part tho… But it would appear as if economically, Didio is doing no true wrong.. because DC is still the #2 publisher, and looks to remain that way for a loong, looong time.

Don’t look to see them as the #1 publisher any time soon tho, because they haven’t been that since the year 1962, and everybody knows why, and what happened then.

I’m sure they wouldn’t disagree that this is one of the saddest days since the loss of Jack Kirby in 1994.

I would like to register my disagreement in the strongest possible words, but I’m pretty sure the profanity filter wouldn’t allow me to.

I guess it’s easy for some DC hardcore fans to easily dismiss Chuck Dixon, but much of what he is saying has been obvious to me for quite some time. The main books have been suffering — due to orchestrating all of these events — most of which have been disappointing.

Too many stories are editorially dictated (not the way editorial traditionally should run).

DC is losing readers — while the main competitor is gaining readers.

It’s time for a change people!

Say what you will about how much Joey Q sucking, but Marvel is doing pretty well under his “ruinous” reign. I don’t have sale figures on ASM, but I’m betting the 3 times it goes a month sell more than ASM, FNSM and SSM combined. Meanwhile, DiDio’s reign seems to adversely effect DC. Something is seriously wrong over there, and I think this stuff with Dixon is just the tip of the ice berg.

I have trouble believing given his recent history that Grant Morrison already had Final Crisis done. Or that they had any idea when RIP would be finally ready to roll. And I think that might be a big part of the problem here..

“Don’t look to see them as the #1 publisher any time soon tho, because they haven’t been that since the year 1962, and everybody knows why, and what happened then.”

Well, if you’re hinting at Marvel beating DC in sales you’d be wrong. Marvel didn’t overtake until the beginning of the 1970ies and one of the main reasons beyond content was DC raising prices of their comics before Marvel did.

Here’s a link to John Jackson Miller’s Comics Chronicles site. As you can see DC easily outsold Marvel during the 1960ies.

http://www.comichron.com/YearlyRankings/1960s/tabid/195/Default.aspx

“I need a pair of rose colored glasses like that.
Regardless of what Dixon’s beef with DC is, lots of people are complaining. Just a couple examples off the top of my head: Action Comics Annual #11 (written by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner) and Countdown to Final Crisis and all of its tie-ins (and there were a lot, especially for a story that we are now supposed to ignore).
Where was editorial? Why were writers allowed to continue using Chris Kent in stories that took place AFTER Annual #11? How was there almost no communication between Morrison (or his editors) and the rest of DC for Countdown and its slew of tie-ins?”

Please provide the links where Geoff Johns or Richard Donner complained about DC in any way, let alone that it is run by a tyrant. My comments were aimed at pros saying the things that Dixon has been; you know, insiders with actual knowledge, not fans with endless rumor mongering and baseless speculation.

Dixon worked on Alien Legion during Shooter’s tenure. It was under Marvel’s creator-owned Epic banner and was spear-headed by the illustrious Archie Goodwin.

Dixon’s comments appear to me to be “spot on”. I have always believed Shooter got the short end of the stick when it came to his editorial reign. Did he piss people off?–I’m sure he did. His primary concern was the health and well-being of the character, as well as being a proponant of creator’s rights. If you ask me, he was ahead of his time. If he were currently in control at Marvel, they would be faring a lot better, in my opinion. Especially, in light of what they are doing with there film properties. Shooter’s big thing was “accessibility to all”. He wanted every comic to read like it was the reader’s first…Marvel should take more cues from him. There are real problems when Marvel’s best books are NOT set in the traditional Marvel U: newuniversal, Supreme Power/Squadron Supreme, Criminal, Book of Lost Souls, etc.–and of course, none of these can ship on time! It gets much worse when they can’t/won’t keep tpb’s in print that are perennial best-sellers. nor do they make an effort to know when things are going out-of-print; until it’s too late–

I digress–it seems that both Marvel and DC seem to believe that their sustained growth lies in variant covers, earth-shattering company-wide crossovers bogged down in so much continuity that when one ships late it ruins the entire story…Bagh!!!

Well let’s see Dixon was writing a book during the last few months of Shooter s riegn and the book wasn’t directly under Shooter it was Goodwin.

So Dixon was on his was into marvel the last 3 months Shooter was there.

Not exactly a first hand authority on how Shooter handled himself during the other 108 month that he held the post.

Dixon has really crossed the line here and from the looks of its either did something that directly contradicted his employers wishes or his mouth got him trouble by saying something he shouldn’t have and was dismissed, and as someone said Dc can’t comment due to legal reasons. But Dixon has taken it upon himself to spout half truth and inuendo that leads us to believe he did nothing wrong.

cut he implies that Dc did something wrong without actually coming out and saying it Very sly. Very Crass and VEry Unprofessional.

On Dixon’s professionalism or lack thereof, I agree that he hasn’t handled it the best way. You either say “no comment” or have the balls to put out a statement noting your dissatisfaction. He needs to take a leaf out of JMS’ book, who left Spider-Man on less than the best terms, but had the balls to make the reasons for his irritation clear, but in a professional, respectful way.

Dixon appears to basically be saying Didio couldnt organize a booze-up in a brewery and has no direction for DC - which I agree seems to be the case. Given Marvels continued publishing success, along with their recent movie hits, I’m surprised there has not been a move at Warners to take DC and make it an entire entertainment division for those characters, rather than just a publishing company - and with the added attention would hopefully come better leadership at the helm…

This is truly a loss for the fans.

“At the end of the day the behind-the-scenes antics just takes the fun out of comics. I’m more interested in a good story vs. a bad story, and right now I’m finding more good stories at DC.”

Agreed, I am sorry to see Dixon let go, but it will not stop me from buying DC comics I do enjoy.

“He needs to take a leaf out of JMS’ book, who left Spider-Man on less than the best terms, but had the balls to make the reasons for his irritation clear, but in a professional, respectful way.”

I would argue that doing the deed,cashing the check,then letting the howling legion of internet fans screaming for your blood that you were ‘just following orders’ isn’t more professional then saying ‘no comment’.

Can no one spell anymore? I mean comic readers are supposed to be a semi-literate population but look just at what is on these blog comments alone:

ejulp: It’s “guerilla warfare” not gorilla warfare; no monkeys are involved in this type of fighting; also it’s “Final Crisis” not “Final Crises” and this is not a simple typo since the “e” key and the “i” key are on separate hands/sides of the keyboard.

supermutant2099: Apparently has never seen the English word “Beetle” before despite apparently having read about the hero. May I also suggest the adventures of Bahtman and Wundar Womin.

We all make typos and mistakes and no one uses formal grammar in this setting, but these don’t look like that at all. If you can’t spell a word or don’t know its meaning don’t use it.

On topic: I really enjoy Dixon’s work and don’t know why Didio made this decision. Still I’ll cancel Robin and Outsiders off my pull list and also throw in Teen Titans and Titans which were teetering. Just for sheer revenge I’ll drop Birds of Prey as well which I had decided to keep despite Simone and McKeever leaving. Complaining does little good; not buying the comics does have some small impact. I’ll also let my local comic shop know I won’t be picking them up so they can quit ordering so many of them.

glad to see him go. Never read Robin and have hated all his Batman and the outsiders issues. No way operations planned by Batman would get as screwed up as they have in that title thus far.

Its amazing how everyone jumps on JQ’s back about what he is doing to the Marvel U but he is helping keep Marvel at # 1 - Between AOL/TW at the helm working those great big budget movies… oh yeah outside of Batman Begins - they are non existent and DiDio running the publishing into the ground - its a bad day for DC fans…. make that a bad decade.

I applaud Dixon for speaking his mind - its what a lot of us fans guessed was going on and now we will see some more creators add to the “get rid of DiDIo” fire.

Hopefully he will be gone before he burys the Black Lanterns under his great new crossover - Teen Titans Go invades the DCU

One more perfectly viable creator is fired for no apparent reason. Don’t you guys know by now that this is typical behavior for DC and Marvel (not to mention corporations of all types these days)? Doesn’t DC care that they’re putting creators’ families through such unnecessary and undeserved hardships? (Answer: obviously not.)

Is this behavior reflective of the fascists’ economic attitude of “social darwinism” which has polluted the human spirit of our culture?

Is it taboo even to ask such questions now?

Man, it really gets my goat when grammarians start deciding who should and shouldn’t post words based on whether or not they are spelt correctly. Being a non-phonestic language makes English one of the hardest to master, especially for people with learning difficulties. Should dyslexic people be prohibited from posting? See past the spelling mistakes - surely the purpose of communicaiton on a message board is understanding and you, Julius Brown, have clearly understood these people so please keep your keyboard fascism in check.

On topic: only Dixon and DC know the truth, and both parties will ahve their perception of said truth. Dixon is behaving unprofessionally, perhaps DC is unprofessionally run. Dixon is a loss, fact.

Im with Dixon here. He was part of the best era of Batman books and DC has been a house of crappy stories since O’neil left the Batbooks as Editor and Jurgens left Superman.

Yeah, thats 10 years.

Julius Brown said: “…not gorilla warfare; no monkeys are involved…”

Julius, gorillas are apes, not monkeys. As long as we are making corrections…

I think the black armbands is a fabulous idea Alan. I’d go you one better, and say that we should commit acts of “civil disobedience” and pour oil paint and rubber cement on any issue of Robin or BATO unwritten by Chuck Dixon. It’s about time that DC understood how much power us Dixon-ites really have. It might help if we wore hoods as well.

If you don’t believe a company can be run like ass, look at the way Marvel Films is treating Jon Favre and Robert Downey Jr. after they made MILLIONS for them. As for other creators speaking against Marvel or DC–Why would they lash out at their current employers? This is a very tight industry and for Dixon to be this vocal about the incident it must have been pretty bad.

Let’s not forget either, Chuck Dixon has been writing comic books since most of us were still sperm and has always been professional and delivered the goods on time and in the zone.

DBird- I think you meant Jon Favreau.

You’re on to something though… Maybe we can get Brett Favre, an “Iron Man” himself, to play Tony Stark if things fall through with Favreau and Downey for IM 2. Favre’s got time on his hands now.

Back on topic, I don’t know what to think of the Dixon/DC fiasco. Didio seems like a nice enough guy in interviews and his “chats” with fans at cons, but I haven’t been a fan of his editorial decsions. I don’t like all the confusing mega-events that have driven DC during his reign, I loathed the return of the multiverse (I know, I’m in the minority there), I think bringing Jason Todd back from the dead was one of the worst decisions ever, and Didio’s attempt to retcon the DCU by reviving so many Silver Age concepts falls flat with me.

I’m also unhappy about his letting Morrison basically reshape the DCU in his own fashion. When Morrison’s on, he’s awesome. When he’s not, and I include his Batman run in that category, I find his stuff a confusing, unweidly mess. So it is for Final Crisis, I’m afraid. I’m steering clear of that.

I have to wonder if Morrison’s free reign to rewrite the DCU is what caused Dixon to balk. Morrison’s work is directly affecting two of his titles: B&OUT and Robin. If his work is being undermined, I can’t blame him for being pissed off.

I certainly don’t care for Mr. Dixon’s politics, but I didn’t know anything about that until reading it here on the ‘Rama, not all that long ago. But, in spite of that, I respect him as a writer and I’ve generally enjoyed his work over the years. Despite his public words about sexuality in comics, he seems to have handled the female couple on B&OUT with class. At least, I haven’t found his writing of the characters to be cliched or mistreated in any way. Kudos to him.

I could do without Dixon’s vague comments about the leadership at DC. If you have a beef with Didio, come right out and say what the problem was. Unless there’s some kind of settlement that precludes Chuck from saying anything. In which case, perhaps it’s best not to say anything.

I’ll wait and see where B&OUT goes before I drop it. The book was starting to drag for me recently anyhow, but I want to see where the story is going before I make any decisions. If I do end up dropping it though, it’ll be one of just many DC books that have fallen off my list in recent months. I only got back into comics a little more than two years ago, but Didio’s run at DC has been slowly turning me off again. Month by month, it seems.

With the economy in the crapper and other costs rising all the time, it’s not really hard to drop titles that just aren’t enjoyable. I’m not enjoying all that many DC titles these days.

basically it seems to be that the older writers are less inclined to accept editorial mandate than the younger crop. (johns, bendis, etc.)

I will have to say I am glad to see that Didio’s screwing with the DC continuity and bringing back crap from the pre-crisis era and just basically ostracizing those of us that have read their titles for decades, is unacceptable. I mean they make J’onn J’onzz interesting and well rounded, and what do they do, kill him off, I think thye need to boot Didio out before there’s nothing left of the DC family. I dumped all my books from DC and will not be picking up final crisis, and they lost a long time Superman and Legion fan, possibly for good.

to Chuck, I do not know if you’ll be reading this, but I am glad that you are standing up for the fans, and your ideals.

No special insight into the mess. Just amused that in the post complaining about the misspelling of “guerrilla” it was spelled with one r: “guerilla”. Alanis Morissette would find it amusing.

Happens to the best of us!

and just a little off topic here the Irony in the song Ironic is that NONE of the examples of Irony that she listed are actually ironic

It IS ironic that Dixon is being replaced by Fabian Nicieza since Nicieza was given the same unceremonious boot off Gambit by Marvel a few years back.

The way he talks about Shooter, maybe they should give ol’ Jim a shot at the top EIC title. I’d be down for that. Although after all the crap that followed him after his run at Marvel, I doubt HE would be.

Also - after all the interviews and stories I’ve read about Jim Shooter’s rise and fall at Marvel, I see him as the good guy in the whole mess.

Ooooh, the Shadow knows! Yah. How are we to evaluate your claims if you don’t even have the guts to reveal your identity?

But that doesn’t answer my question: who is the gutless “Shadow”?