Reading this great interview with Priest at BleedingCool (sh

>>85659192
I agree.

Editors are there as support and to make sure the writers behave (I.e Mark Millar), it shouldn't be shit like enforcing continuity or events.

I'm not to happy with the editors of Marvel, they seem to be forcing writers to do outrageous stuff in order to generate news.

Certainly.

It's not unique to Marvel or comics in general. It's clear, more and more, that these inner-circle positions (editorial for comics; executives in TV/film; in general, people who have the power to greenlight, approve directions, etc.) are being filled by people who've only worked and studied to get exactly those positions. They have training in business, management, etc.

But they RARELY have training in any kind of art, which means they usually affect the artistic output in a negative way. The worst state of affairs (which is now commonplace) is for these inner circle people to literally not give a fuck about quality and only care about possible profit.

>>85659192
>Priest
I hope this nigger doesn't write Deathstroke the way he writes Quantum & Woody, with those retarded titles every two or three panels.

>>85659302
They either do that or just let writers write the most trite bullshit with no effort to punch up the stories, dialogue, action, etc.
They also make no effort to curtail the shitty "commentary" on social issues that are crowding the shit out of their books

>>85659430
That's not really true of the Marvel editors (and likely DC) at all, most of them have English Language Literature degrees. However comics aren't just literature, they're also art, so knowing prose doesn't really help very much. However, you can't study comics outside of a fine arts school, where you will mainly learn the artistic portion. It's too niche to actually get training in off the job.

>>85659445
You know Priest wrote like dozens of comics, right? Why would he write a modern comic the way he did one 20 years ago?

>>85659723
Because after writing Q&W that way he did the same with Black Panther.

>>85659742
Except he didn't? Can you post an example of what you're talking about, this is an imageboard

>>85659742
They both have sort of a "television" style writing to them I suppose.Q&W was intended to feel like an offbeat sitcom, and BP had its own TV procedural feel. still, that's two titles out of many and not exactly the same anyway.

>>85659742
Its funny you mention that, because if you actually read the OP link..

>So I wrote the first issue of Black Panther – which I ought to post somewhere sometime – and Joe and Jimmy read it and they called me up and they rejected it. I wrote a very traditional, straight forward plot.
>They said “No, no we want you to do what you’re doing in Quantum and Woody. We want it episodic, we want those little title cards and we want you to tell the story out of sequence.

>>85660406
Well, that sucks because it works in a book like Q&W but in BP it is simply tiresome.

>>85659192
Karen Berger and Shelly Bond weren't comic writers. From the current editors, Andy Khouri isn't a comic writer. Priest was an editor, and has always claimed he was shit at it. Old writers were editors too, because they would just edit each others books.

>>85661030
So we've got what 3 good examples here?
Obviously there are going to be some good non writer editors (Berger is a GOAT) but as a rule, all non writer editor staff is bad

>>Now working at Marvel was like working at a frat house. It was swinging from the rafters – it was so laid back and casual. Jim Shooter wanted us to reinvent the wheel every month so he was listening to ideas, he was encouraging innovation. He was often heavy handed in crafting his vision. That was his effort to raise the quality of the books and he got a flack for it, but man, it was fun over there.
What went wrong?

>>85661988
Bob Harras and subsequently Ike Perlmutter.

>you will never be transported by bus by Christopher Priest ;_;

>>85663544
That bus shit is wild, I can't believe the guy didn't ask what he likes about bus driving so much
Priest is so based

>>85661988
Having interned there it's really sad that it's not like this anymore. Most of the interns were straight edge nerds too. Damn shame

>>85661988
I'd say a big part is that not very many writers are in the New York offices outside of the annual/semi-annual writer summits. It's mostly editors wrangling writers and artists via phone and email with some interns and office types.

>>85659192
>I think this is a fundamental problem with the big 2 today, editors that do not write.

I don't know about Marvel, but at least on DC side the problem has been the opposite: editors like Didio believing they're writers and forcing actual decent writers to conform to their own shitty ideas of what makes for a good story.

>>85659302
>Editors are there as support and to make sure the writers behave (I.e Mark Millar), it shouldn't be shit like enforcing continuity or events.
What exactly do you think editors are supposed to do?

>>85666254
Didio hasn't done that in like 10 years

>>85659192
The comic companies have made a conscious choice to separate editing and writing. When Priest joined Marvel there was almost no separation - all editors were encouraged to do some freelance writing for other editors. (Partly because editing didn't pay much and the guarantee of writing work was kind of a kickback.)

Today there is an understanding that writers write and editors edit.

I think the separation of editing and writing has some good points. In the '90s at Marvel the editors were constantly hiring each other to write their books and it all started to seem like a racket.

On the other hand editing experience helps a writer know how to write this kind of comic.