Definite must-read of the day is Chris Eckert’s oral history of DC’s Countdown to Final Crisis, constructed from various interviews given about the project by those involved with its creation in one way or another, along with commentary giving historical context from Eckert:
[Editor Mike] MARTS: For the first four books, we’ve brought in Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, Adam Beechen, Sean McKeever, and Tony Bedard. These are our key writers who will be working with Paul in the beginning, but also that doesn’t stop us from bringing other writers in to work on the project… If we choose to crossover with another storyline or a book which is being driven by another writer, we can allow that writer to come onboard and tell their portion of the story inside Countdown and working with Paul. That way, there will be a real feeling of cohesiveness between the series and Countdown, but it also allows the writer to maintain some level of input and control over the character they’re writing on a monthly basis.
In case anyone is curious, this never happened.
MARTS: [The artistic lineup is] pretty much set…the artists that readers will see over the first ten or so issues are for the most part our “core” group: [Jim] Calafiore, Lopez, Saiz and Magno.
Calafiore drew four issues (50, 45, 39, 36), Lopez drew parts of three issues (48, 43, 37), Saiz drew six and part of a seventh (51, 46, 38, 34, 30, 19, 12) and Magno drew eight (49, 44, 42, 33, 27, 25, 22, 8). In all, the “core” group had art appear in only 21 out of 51 issues, with the bulk of the series drawn by eleven other pencillers and a total of sixteen inkers.
It’s a brutal, spectacular, depressing look at a series that sums up what may justifiably be called DC’s lowest point in recent memory. Seriously, go read and feel bad about comics.
May 14th, 2012 at 1:57 pm
LOL, listen to these hacks try to justify their retched output.
MORRISON: The way I see it readers can choose to spend the rest of the year fixating on the plot quirks of a series which has ended, or they can breathe a sight of relief, settle back and enjoy the shiny new DC universe status quo we’re setting up in the pages of Final Crisis.
That’s right, don’t focus on how terrible and inconsistent Morrison’s writing is. Focus on the “new status quo” which is just going to be retconned in a few years anyway!
May 14th, 2012 at 5:17 pm
He was talking about Countdown, you nit.
May 14th, 2012 at 7:57 pm
Ah, who cares? If you bought it and read it; it’s done. If you didn’t buy it but read it; it’s done. If you didn’t buy or read it; it’s still done. If you loved it; good for you. If you hated it; oh well too bad for you. It could’ve been a contender; but it wasn’t. All of which brings me back to the opening question: ah, who cares?!
May 15th, 2012 at 11:37 am
He was talking about inconsistencies between his own book and Countdown, which were marketed as constituent parts of the same ongoing story. The hack is trying to deflect criticism from his own book onto Countdown even though they are both two halves of the same broken, incoherent narrative mess.
May 15th, 2012 at 1:07 pm
I feel bad for Sean McKeever.
May 15th, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Why? he was just as complicent as anyone else..— i always love how when there seems to be a title or series that misfires the “fan fave or likable creator” remains blameless while the scapegoat creator gets the blame… McKeever i dont feel bad for because his writing was just as bad as the direction in this case… he didn’t rise above it. sorry but that is the fact he was part of the team.