I never really noticed that DC Comics might have had something of an aversion to letting creators both write and draw books simultaneously. I just always assumed that work from writer/artists like Frank Miller’s two Dark Knight Returns-iverse books or Paul Pope’s Batman: Year 100 were few and far between simply because the company, like Marvel, had been producing comics continuously since the days in which the assembly line-style specialization of writing, penciling, inking and so on was established.
At least until I read this post from Evan Dorkin a few years ago, in which he shared the only two pieces of art he was allowed to do in for his 2000 Elseworlds one-shot, Superman and Batman: World’s Funnest.
Dorkin, himself a talented and experience writer/artist, wrote the book, and it was illustrated by an all-star roster of artists, each taking a different dimension or “Earth” as Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite battled one another through the DC Multiverse, destroying each setting they passed through in the process.
It’s a great book, and if you haven’t read it yet, I’d highly recommend you look for it. Dorkin’s script is hilarious—I still giggle every time I think about who greets Perry White in heaven—and there aren’t a whole lot of projects in which you get work from Dave Gibbons, Jaime Hernandez, David Mazzucchelli, Bruce Timm, Frank Miller, Sheldon Moldoff, Scott Shaw, Alex Ross, Phil Jiminez, Doug Mahnke and others between the same set of covers.
Anyway, Dorkin discussed the fact that he wanted to be one of the many artists to draw at least a page of the book, but had difficulty finding a way to do so at the time (Remember, this post is two years old, and the project’s over ten years old now):
Long story short, part of which has been covered here before: DC has a clause that prevents folks from writing and drawing material unless said person is on the payroll or incorporated. Fear of lawsuits from freelancers claiming their work-for-hire entitles them to ownership of Batman or whatever the hell under some newly-inaugurated copyright laws or whatever the hell. I guess based on DC’s history they fully expect people to try to do whatever underhanded thing they can to chisel money and ownership of other people’s characters when the opportunity even vaguely arises. Or whatever the hell.
End result, I wasn’t allowed to draw a page of World’s Funnest even though I tried to get around it by various means, all of which went bust. Can I have someone else write the page I would draw? A hassle, apparently. Pretend Sarah wrote it? We’d get in trouble and the world would break in half. Use a pseudonym? It could mean jail time and Siegel and Schuster regaining control of Pete Ross. Sign an agreement that I wouldn’t pursue my questionable rights to the DC empire if I drew a goddamned page of a comic? No, no, a thousand times no. They wouldn’t put me on the payroll for a lousy single page, and I wasn’t going to incorporate for a lousy single page, so, no go.
The mental image of a room full of lawyers worried about the fate of Pete Ross, or a rule book at DC HQ in which it says no creator can both write and draw the same page or they might end up owning Pete Ross, was strong enough and funny enough that it’s stuck with me ever since I read Dorkin’s post, and I think about Dorkin and Pete Ross whenever I see someone both writing and drawing their own stories at DC or Marvel.
In the case of the former, it seems to have happened an awful lot in the decade since World’s Funnest, and more and more lately. In addition to Vertigo original graphic novels and miniseries (Jill Thompson’s manga-style Sandman stuff, Kyle Baker’s books, Paul Pope’s 100% and Heavy Liquid, Dave Gibbons’ The Originals, Rick Vietch’s Can’t Get No, etc) and even a few ongoings (Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth, Vietch’s Army @ Love, David Lapham’s Young Liars).
In the DCU proper, there was Jeff Smith’s Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil, Kyle Baker’s Plastic Man, Batman minis or story arcs by Matt Wagner and Sam Kieth, Billy Tucci’s Sgt. Rock, plenty of Jim Starlin cosmic stuff, Dan Jurgens’ Booster Gold run, some Mike Grell Warlord, Tony Daniel’s Batman: Battle for the Cowl and the Batman run that followed it.
Now it looks like we can add J.H. Williams III’s Batwoman ongoing to the list. (Jeez, I really took my time backing into this one, huh?)
DC announced that the artist who worked with Greg Rucka on the first Batwoman arc in Detective Comics would not only be drawing an upcoming Batwoman monthly as was originally announced, but would also be writing it, after the recent news that the previously announced Rucka wouldn’t be writing it after all…or anything for DC for a while, as he spent some time working on his own characters and stories.
That’s great news, as Williams’ contributions were the best part of those TEC Batwoman comics, and certainly the most positively remarked upon aspect of those stories. It’s also great to hear that the publisher is apparently finally going to publish that Batwoman ongoing that they had announced way back in 2006. And, of course, if it’s one more example of an artist getting to both write and draw their own stories (Well, Williams will be working with a co-writer, W. Haden Blackman), that’s a good thing.
If the fate of Pete Ross is no longer in jeopardy, then perhaps we’ll see much more of this in the near future… maybe even another Dorkin-created story featuring some of DC’s imps.
April 15th, 2010 at 9:20 am
Um… this makes no kind of sense. John Byrne was writing and drawing TWO Superman books, following up on a NEW ORIGIN that he also wrote and drew, and this was well before “World’s Funnest.” Or was he “on the payroll or incorporated” in some way at the time?
Anyway, Williams Batwoman is definitely good news.
April 15th, 2010 at 10:59 am
I always wondered why a cartoonist would write one piece in Bizarro Comics and draw another.
April 15th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
I’m pretty sure Walt Simonson also both wrote and drew Orion back in the day. And Tony Daniel has been pulling double duty on Batman. And Duncan Rouleau (sp?) also wrote and drew a Metal Men mini a few years back. Plus Jim Starlin on Death of the New Gods.
April 15th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Mr Walker -
It makes sense because the procedure wasn’t in effect when Byrne was doing those books. Or when Mike Sekowsky was doing the New Wonder Woman, for that matter. Semi-recent policy.
To flesh it out a bit more, for a sustained or substantial project, DC would be willing to put a cartoonist on the payroll. Or, the cartoonist is incorporated, as I believe Kyle Baker and Frank Miller to be. The paperwork necessary to put a creator on the payroll for a few pages is not worth it. Incorporating to do a few pages is not worth it. The policy is so stringent that my art for the World’s Funnest promotional buttons could not be used for the buttons pictured on the back cover of the comic — they used pick up art from inside the book, instead. Pretty strict, and pretty paranoid, as Marvel has no such policy. Which is why, for example, Marvel’s Strange Tales has comics by solo cartoonists, and DC’s Bizarro Comics, in general, does not (again, Kyle Baker being the exception, iirc). Which covers Josh F’s comments — everyone split the duties because that was the way it was, and small press artists are generally not incorporated.
From what I understand, this policy was a result of legal huffing and possible from those lawsuits some folks sent DC’s way a while back over supposedly having ideas from pitches stolen. It’s blurry at this point. But the policy is real, and didn’t come into place until the late 90′s or so.
Interestingly enough, I heard from a friend at DC a few weeks ago that this practice might be coming to an end. Who knows.
April 15th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Superman: Dan Jurgens wrote Action/Superman and penciled them, and then wrote and illustrated the following Limited Series and OGNs regarding Doomsday back in the early 90′s. DC had no problems then.
What about Jimenez writing/drawing Wonder Woman not-so-long-ago during?
I can see where DC would want to avoid any situation that is litigious – but not sure this holds up as a ‘universal policy’ for them.
April 15th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
I’m not getting the gist of some of these comments — are folks listing solo creator DC work for the sake of making a list — or disputing the existence of the policy? Because the policy is quite real. Yes, DC had no such policy in place in the early 90′s. Yes, some projects are still being written and drawn by one person — as I’ve stated, there are two reasons this has occurred under DC policy. Payroll or incorporation. Walt Simonson is working on another writer/artist project as I type this (or eating a sandwich, you know what I mean). The “Solo” series was largely done by one person acting alone in the writing/drawing capacities. Darwyn Cooke’s work. That Wonder Woman strip in Wed Comics was by one person, iirc. Etc, etc. Payroll or incorporation. Unless I and others have been victims of a prank played on us by DC editors for the past decade or so. Which I doubt.
I mean…they wouldn’t, really –?
April 15th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Didn’t mean to confuse anyone or inspire a need to argue…I was just trying to pass on a DC announcement by talking about a funny post regarding a funny comic from a while back.
I think it’s safe to assume that Evan Dorkin is an authority on Evan Dorkin’s experiences working on Evan Dorkin’s books.