As for Quesada. His art does draw me to a book. I think he is one of the best and distinctive artists I’ve ever seen and the only reason I wish he wasn’t EOC at Marvel was so he could be back to drawing a regular series.

“Even a complete unknown would, at the very least, not have any fans turn up their noses and thinking, “Oh, this is by the guy who personally shot Ted Kord in the head, spit in Kyle Rayner’s face and beat up Wally West…no thank you.””

Contradicts or at least undermines this one:
“The direct market that specializes in selling single issues of Big Two super-books like those that DC publishes is largely fan-driven, and fans tend to be fans of creators more than characters or concepts at this point (And no wonder either, given the amount of choices available to them these days).”

whereas this observation seems to be the most relevant to the post:
“if you love something the company does, you’ll probably credit the writer involved, whereas if you hate it you’ll blame the editors and management.”

I think part of the reason for the above is that people inherently don’t really understand what an editor does at companies like these: they’re equal parts editor, talent scout, producer, etc. They have an astonishing number of responsibilities that their detractors refuse to accept. And that’s a shame.

…

http://www.americanreadingglasses.com/

As for the DeFalco, Grunwald comment….Tom and Mark are first rate writers. Tom wrote THE best Spider-Man run in my eyes (along with Stern)and other than Uncle Walt and Amazing Thor! His FF…ehhhh….

Mark’s Cap was phenomonal up until Galactic Storm ended. Same with Quasar. Then something changed. Squadron Supreme is better tha Watchemen in my eyes

As for a crossover lets go for something a little different… how about Animal Man and Blade?

Yeah that was me, a Titans fan saying that a Didio story was ok after years of ripping the man…hell might have frozen over..lol

im guessing it would be something like
Countdown to Cry for One more day

or something like that

That said, I think Dan has some great story ideas and I think Joe q is one of the best artists out there and a fantastic storyteller with his art. There was a reason when I got the superboy gig years ago I asked dan to co-write it with me…and there was a good reason I worked so long with joe on so many interesting projects.

I think the safest thing you can do as a consumer is base your like or dislike on the actual work presented to you and not what you are guessing is going on behind the scenes.

JIMMY PALMIOTTI

He’s not a good writer, as proven here in Western Tales, and he SUCKS at his job in DC. He does what he wants as the head strong, arrogant prick he is. He doesn’t care about the fans and cares even less about the great characters he’s “in charge of”.

He does what he wants and that’s it, and the rest of the Editorial team only bow down and respecfully kiss his… well maybe not, but apparently they do whatever CRAP he has in mind… Didio has meant disaster for DC, and I surely hope he gets (another job elsewhere and get paid better there…) FIRED from DC.

Fingers Crossed….

OUCH!!!

I bought and read Weird Western Tales on Wednesday night. I found it to be an interesting idea for a story, but so-so in the dialogue and character development. Having Turnbull’s descendant be a main character was an inspired choice, and including Simon Stagg and the Ray show up made for an interesting mix.

Since I care less about “continuity” than most fanboys, there’s no complaint there, but in the book itself I found that the opening bit of exposition on the first page wasn’t necessary or particularly pleasing to read; and there was one piece of information that was presented twice, once as a caption and once in someone’s speech balloon. If I’m going to read something, don’t make me read it twice, especially if both times the information isn’t particularly relevant.

There also seems to be some confusion about where this takes place. “The South” does not encompass the entirety of the lower half of the United States. The characters SEEM to talk as if they’re in the DEEP South, where some people are still p.o.’d about the Civil War. However, if you look at the art it looks like the Southwest, like Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. I would like to say that it was nice to see Renato Arlem’s art again.

As for Didio as a writer: while I don’t get PARTICULARLY excited seeing his name headlining a book, it doesn’t turn my stomach either. He’s just another writer that needs to prove he has longevity and the ability to improve his writing along with his creativity.

It doesn’t really seem like the same thing as the guy in charge giving himself assignments because he feels like it. I find it hard to believe that any objective editor at DC really thinks Dan Didio is the right man for the Outsiders.

That’s an unfair summation of Caleb’s comments.

Honestly, he’s taking the same tack that both DC and Marvel did before the modern age of writers as rock stars. He’s putting himself on lower-tier titles where less is expected so he can do the least amount of damage, which exactly how many new writers broke into the industry up until the mid-90s.

The argument can be raised that Weird Western Tales wouldn’t have seen the light of day and The Outsiders would have been canceled if anyone other than the boss had decided to save them. But it could also be said that he’s just letting the audience become more acclimated to him as a writer before taking on larger projects (if he had decided to take on JLA instead of The Outsiders, I think we all know what the fan reaction would be).

The few bright spots under his watch – Blue Beetle, Secret Six – have been marred by complete f-ups of every major event since Graduation Day and dying-on-the-vine atrophy of once good titles like JLA.

I completely agree with you that this is nothing but a vanity project that should have gone to another writer.

One thing I did contemplate when The Outsiders was announced – with the induction of Diane Nelson as the new DCE President and Levitz pushed to the side I was left wondering if this was a first step to him being ousted, uh I mean stepping down, from this position. As EIC’s go, his 6 year reign of terror is getting long in the tooth. Even if people think he is doing a decent – I would laugh at anyone who claims he’s doing a great job – change is always good in a creative medium.

Outsiders is the last of the books suffering from the rampant revamping DC was guilty of for a long time. It’s one of those titles that everyone remembers liking back in the day, and people want it to do well again. They try adding more of the original team back in, and spinning the idea a bit, but ultimately it comes out feeling like a machine that’s missing a part. So again, he’s taking a chance with a lower-level book, albeit one with a lot of good will. If he were putting himself on Superman you could make an argument that he was letting his ego take charge.

I don’t think there are that many people who are SO against Dan that they’ll refuse to buy anything with his name on it. If there were, they’d already not be buying any DC titles since his name’s in all of them. Let’s see what happens. He may well have some solid ideas for the team.