awesome is my ground state

iamdavidbrothers:

good grief, is the simpsons always this emotionally devastating?

Not always, but the best episodes are often both hilarious and devastating.

morganjeske:

A thing that you can pre-order here

This is the cover of the trade by me and Sloane.

Great, great, great comics. See those four names there? Kot, Jeske, Leong, and Brisson? I have yet to be disappointed by anything I’ve read that they’ve been involved with. You should check em out.

mercurialblonde:

whoooooa.  NOT okay.
If my only contribution to a comic book was that I wrote the thing I would be beyond mortified to see something like this. 

Artist’s should consider this type of thing when they are thinking about drawing someone else’s story.  In today’s comic climate you’re about two years from not even having your name anywhere on the work.  Why would any artist want to work with a writer in this kind of environment?  What exactly are you gaining?  Page rate at best—but considering no one is going to know your name—or care about your work—that’s probably not the best long term strategy, since you’re basically some nameless droog that can easily be interchanged with some other nameless droog for pennies on the dollar.

I like Avatar.  But this?  This is fucked up.

And don’t tell me some sob story about book design and what sells or doesn’t sell.  I’ve seen dynamic comic covers that have not just the writer and artist name’s on it—but also the colorist and letterer. 

Pfft.  I dunno, this is exactly the kind of thing I worry about whenever one of my artist friends is working with a writer on a book.

Yeah, Avatar failed pretty damn hard here and it makes sense to be pissed about that, but pointing the finger at writers and the collaborative process? Really? Denigrating the writer’s contribution to the book may be viewed as turnabout considering that serial comics tend to treat artists more like cogs, but it’s far from fair play. (seriously, how pissed would you be if someone said “well, if their only contribution to a comic was [drawing, inking, coloring, lettering, take your pick] it, then…”? It’s a collaboration; everyone’s role matters.)

The industry being very writer-centric is a huge problem, one that is exemplified by this cover, but asking why an artist would want to work with a writer in this environment? Maybe for the same reason they would want to in any other environment: they like the story the writer wants to tell and want to be involved. Or maybe they need the paycheck. Maybe the writer approached them directly and said “I think your style can make this idea take shape better than anyone else.” It’s probably some combination, but this anger feels like it should be directed at the publisher, perhaps even the readers and critics who perpetuate the writer-centric nature that seems to dominate comics right now, not at writers or collaboration.

Whether it’s Marvel wanting to ship 18 books a year or Avatar knowing full well that slapping Hickman’s name at the top in big letters is going to drive sales far more than Amorim’s will, they are the ones at fault here. Good writers, good collaborators, they know full well how important everyone on the book is. And from what I can tell by Hickman’s response to this, he’s one of the good ones.

johndarnielle:

ladythatsmyskull:

Ad from Wanted Comics #24 (April 1950).

IT LOOKS EXPENSIVE

SOLID eternium, not plated!