Best Trend of 2007
Doom DeLuise says: less Countdown crossovers!
Since it started, we’ve been having less and less tie-ins with Countdown. After they threw that entire, “This is the backbone of the DCU,” PR line out the window, they’ve trended away from tie-ins, which means my regular monthly DC stuff hasn’t been tainted with the awfulness of that dreadful, mind-numbing, hatred-inducing pile of dog poo.
Jim Doom says: Killing off Jack Kirby!
Jack Kirby was great for his time and definitely deserves credit in the proper context. But that’s IT. Jack Kirby made a whole lot of crap, and 2007 was a step toward putting that stuff in its proper place. The problem is, a lot of it might have been accidental.
Whether it was Marvel accidentally exposing The King with the misguided and overpriced Avengers Classic series or DC building a company-wide crossover on Kirby’s 1970s crap (including killing off all the New Gods), I really doubt that Kirby will be spoken of in the same untouchable holy manner after 2007.
Doominator says:
Writers and artists meeting deadline.
Fin Fang Doom says: multiple artists on one title!
Sadly these days, comic artists that can produce twelve issues in as many months are the exception rather than the rule. Most of the time, this results in comics shipping late so that publishers don’t break up a careative team’s run. But in 2007, publishers started to catch on to a great remedy that I’ve been advocating for quite a while now: expanding the creative team so they can meet a monthly deadline.
The best example I can think of in 2007 was Captain America. Cap actually had three artists working on it this year: Steve Epting, Mike Perkins and Butch Guice. The book shipped on time (except for when it was editorially mandated to ship late), and each issue had the same level of quality art. Technically, Epting was considered the “penciller” and Perkins and Guice were considered “inkers,” but I’d be willing to bet that those duties were swapped around a bit without anyone noticing. These three guys have such simlar styles that I doubt you’d realize they switched unless it was listed in the credits. I remember at one point in 2007, that exact thing happened on Daredevil. In issue #94, Lee Weeks stepped in for regular artist Michael Lark, and Jim Doom said in his review that “I wouldn’t have noticed if I didn’t recognize Lee Weeks’ name.”
The trick is getting artists with styles that are similar enough that it’s not distracting when it happens. Love them or hate them, Humberto Ramos and Chris Bachalo mesh well on X-Men. Billy Tan and Clayton Henry on Uncanny X-Men…not so much. But if you can’t get artists with similar styles, you can always alternate arcs like Marvel is doing on the upcoming tri-monthly Amazing Spider-Man and did when Salvador LaRocca filled in on Uncanny X-Men this summer. If the series features stories told in different time periods, like Immortal Iron Fist does, it opens up yet another possiblilty for splitting up the art chores.
I’m glad that publishers are finally realizing that getting books out on time is actually important to readers, and are starting to take positive steps to fix what’s been a problem in the industry for way too long now. Although now that I think of it, all my examples were of positive steps Marvel has been taking…
Fin — I completely agree, but I would add to your implied point that Marvel has done a great job with pairing artists, but DC hasn’t gotten a clue yet.
Jim — If we’re ever in the same city, you need to borrow the Fourth World Omnibus. That stuff is pretty cool in places, but lots is so inexplicably bad. Part of the reason I’ve disliked Countdown so much (other than it being terrible) is how closely it has hewed to the Fourth World stuff. They’re on a perfect parallel of nonsense.
It’s almost a return to the studio system, where the artists themselves don’t matter as much as the look. In addition to being a good marketing tool due to the consistency of the art, it’s also a good labor ploy for Marvel. Publishers have a lot more power when they don’t have to work with rockstars.
I had just been wondering about how payment works in situations like that.