Yea this is the one thing that baffles me about comics over the last decade, it’s the hiring of all these slice of life comic strip writers being hired to write superhero comics, makes absolutely no sense. But this is what happens when you don’t hire on merit, but different traits.
Plus the attempts of catter to women, i know that women can like Superheroes too but... Slice of life stuff is a very femenine media. See the memes Stephanie Williams made. I don't dislike common life Moments of Superheroes, but need to be A PLUS, not the Main story.
It baffles me too. Is it some factor of how cheaply some of these folks will work? If they’re trying to find an audience, why not try to hire people _already_ writing successful web comics that actually have a female or queer or whatever audience already. Why hire people whose entire resume is a few posts on Instagram or something? Or do people already making decent money on Hiveworks or Webtoon want page-rates commensurate with 2020 instead of Marvel and DCs 1990 page-rates?
I blame Webtoon. Webtoon has become the go to reading source for young kids online and is filled to the brim with slice-of-life Webtoons/writers. DC has been trying to figure out how to connect with the newer generation for a while. Thing is, any webtoon writer worth their salt can make more money on Tapas, Webtoon, or going solo than they can with Marvel/DC.
@@andresanguianozuniga6798 here's the thing, the women who like superheroes don't like slices of life, otherwise they would be reading that. So there was absolutely no need to destroy the industry in order to cater to women in general. The women who like superheroes will stop buying comics too.
The pay is a major reason. They are no longer paying enough for good writer to make a decent living. So what happens the quality drops, and also attracts a lot of activists to write the comics because they are not there to make a living writing the comics. The pay is not issue to activists as getting out their personel message is more important and would write it for free if they could.
@@longsan3 Well, with these activist types, any editorial pushback, alterations, or criticism would be seen as "erasure", or "silencing of (insert identity label) voices", or any of the "-isms' and "phobias" they love to accuse people of.
Most modern comic writers are terrible because they have no life experience. Lot of these folks write what they know. And most of these folks know nothing at all. Worse, they refuse to do research on their subjects. Sad part is talented writers who have been around for years can't get a callback.
100%if you want to tell a good story you need inspiration look to history look to the classics look to mythology but look somewhere other then your politics and sexuality and race none of those are interesting to anyone other then your self
They never almost died from a softball-sized brain tumor. Or having to be in the hospital for months after surgery and doing physical therapy to regain balance and stamina.
I haven't bought marvel or dc since 2006. The only new comic I've gotten are the gargoyles ones but they're written by the creator, still in today's age that is rare. I hear I missed that whole mess over there😂
It must’ve been 2017 when I stumbled over Zack and his criticisms, and lo and behold, here you are and matters have deteriorated even more. 100% with you. No editor would’ve hired them in the good old days.
The lack of true superheroes writers is one of main issues that are killing Marvel and DC in latest decades. They prefer write a slice of life or a comedy books instead. These people never liked or understand the heroes concept. I miss guys like Roger Stern,Tom DeFalco,Bill Mantlo,Denny O'Neal,Len Wein and several anothers veteran writers that how know make great superheroes storylines. Everything is so empty,so devoid of life in modern Marvel and DC in nowadays.
I think there’s too many female writers. Also all these writers are basically the same person with the same life experiences. They have the same politics and personal beliefs. So all their works end up being the same. Take away the top couple of writers for the big two and tell me 90% the comics don’t have the same tropes and the same tone.
It’s just that when you have a left wing writer they HAVE to put their personal beliefs into the story, because their beliefs IS their life, it’s their entire being, and they simply can’t help put it into their comics. Whereas centre & right writers will just write a fun engaging story.
Yeah because they did that stupid me too movement in comics and was like oh we're going to dedicate time and effort into hiring women so we can be inclusive bump that most women don't give no damn about no comic books and yet face it hey let's give all of these women with no experience and comic books no liking of the geek stuff you know access just because they want to try to be inclusive and it just shows how unprofessional everything is
Im not even remotely surprised by this, such is the state of the industry today Only thing is I do blame Stephanie Williams as equally as the publishers. Same goes for Vita Ayala for the New Mutants run, Kelly land Lanzig, Leah Williams, Danny Lore etc etc If they had any sort of self awareness and humility whatsoever, they would never write comics, because they would admit they are awful at it and go do something else. I’d LOVE to write comics, but I know I’m not good enough. I don’t have the required ear to write top dialogue, I don’t have the idea generation to keep coming up with stories on a regular basis. So I’ve never tried. It is her fault. She should be aware of her limitations and find a job more suited to her skill set. If she was well read enough she’d know how far off the mark she is from competence.
I don’t think you should never try just because you don’t think you’re as good as a professional. You’ll for sure never be able to if you never do it; those writers all started somewhere. Sure I agree with the general point in that these people should know their limits and have some self awareness, but someone saying ‘I love this thing. I’ll never be good enough though, so I won’t ever try’ is kind of sad. If you want to make something, make it. Even if it’s only for you. If you don’t enjoy doing it, that’s another story. If you never try you’ll never know.
Both the shortcomings you mentioned are to do with practice. That’s somewhat of a defeatist attitude, if you love something go do it, even if it’s only for you. Sure companies shouldn’t be hiring these people so mismatched for their jobs but I hate the idea that someone who loves something won’t even try to do it because they’re intimidated by the talent they admire.
This happens when industries are no longer doing work to make money, but are instead like the children of wealthy parents, expecting to collect money for nothing.
Another solid perspective, Wes. Bottom line is though, that we are a hell of a long way from the legacies of guys like Jack Kirby, Chester Gould, Dave Graue and Carmine Infantino. These current 'writers' aren't capable of producing comics NOR comic strips. A good editor might be able to mould some of these people into potential talent, but that takes time. Meanwhile, we suffer through years of unreadable comics. Creator owned projects, omnibuses and back issues look better and better every day.
It now clearly explains to me when I got back to buying comics in 2018 I felt the storylines had a major disconnect with the readers as well as not understanding the characters.
I remember trying to break into comics in the 80's. I was in the scene and knew a lot of people in the business, we even had Alan Moore pushing us. My partner and I were lifelong devoted comic fans and we had read everything. We tried out for DC, Marvel, 2000AD etc - wrote proposals and test scripts, story outlines, concept art etc. We didn't get in - the writing standards were SO high, you had to push and push and really work very hard at it to get through the door. I knew guys who worked for years, building relationships with editors and refining their craft before they even got a small break with a short story in an anthology title. Now look at these companies, no wonder they are losing money.
We aren't counting the chick who got hired because she called a marvel editor a racist, or the chick marvel hired because she had the same hair do as a character? The Hiring practices in comics bar is very low. Good vid
Marvel and DC should just bring back the slush pile, open submissions, and hire a panel of retailers to pull out the more promising pitches. People who submit are actually interested in writing comics, and retailers know a hell of a lot more about what’s likely to sell than the editors, that’s for sure.
Pretty much any large business that deals with the public has this same problem. Whether it’s trying to sell them things or provide a service, the people who make the decisions have no idea what their customers actually want anymore.
Thing is to suggest that the low level guys might have a better idea of what’s going on than the highly paid idiots running the place into the ground is sacrilegious.
Hate to argue with you... but YOU REALLY SHOULD TRY ! The industry needs you now more than ever (and hey, being female gives you a chance at getting noticed at least).
Diversity of everything but thought is the way of it, and they don't want to write comics, they want to write egoist screeds with self inserts and work out their personal issues.
I think this further highlights the "industry's" general disdain for the material they are invested in and working on. I think Hollywood suffers from this as well. When you have no respect for the medium as an art form, or the steps that the medium took to get to that place of respect and prestige, I think this is the result. The ppl who are green-lighting projects like these are not fans of the industry they are a part of, so there is a disconnect from the fan base and their writers. If you essentially don't give a damn about the hero's journey or what makes SpiderMan who he is (hint...it ain't the costume!!! lol), then the product that gets chucked out the machine will reflect that. The line that separated fan fiction from cannon has been all but erased, when for a long time, any fan with two eyes could see why they were different in the first place. It's not to hate on shippers or fanfic, but when you have writers with little experience in the way of a succeeding medium, looking at stories like this and connecting the dots becomes way easier.
Well Wes the people who ran Marvel/DC in the 70s/80s/90s/ are all gone now and what you have in place are people who have no interest in keeping comic books as they had been. It's really sad to me that superheroes can no longer be heroes as they had been.
They need to keep writers in their lane. Williams is writing the Oni Press Sesame Street and that’s really good. Same with Zdarskey and King. They keep taking writers from what they’re good at and shoving them into superheroes and IT. IS. NOT. WORKING.
As a 47 year old butcher that's never written a comic book but has been a huge X-Men fan I guarantee I could write a better X-Men book than we have had since HOX and POX.... Karkoa was mud but this new stuff absolutely sucks..
Everything written after HoX/PoX feels like the least planned out X-Men storyline that ever graced the pages of this franchise and sadly makes up more than half of the content that was ever published for it. If someone told me the plot points for a plotline were chosen through a randomized sorting game, I'd believe them : There's no way to explain the kind of retconing, contradictions and rewriting pulled from one run to the next for a same plotline to get to the endgame they supposedly always had.
@@EvandroACruz The thing is, before Krakoa, you could have still easily explained how a world like Age of Apocalypse came to be because it still worked as an alternative reality that beached out of 616. With Krakoa, AoA can no longer be a direct 616 alternative reality. That's how much the 616 setting was changed to accommodate Krakoa and its retcon. Not even the characters are the same in their fundamental aspects.
@@spinningtornado4543 Yes, I can't remember another Marvel run that messed with continuity so much. Krakoa was worse of the vast majority of post 2000 retcons. And Bendis changed the continuity so much in that time.
I think it's hilarious that this is the "modern age," of comics, and that shows and movies with DEI are made for a "modern" audience. I think this is one of those times where a word will slowly shift to have a new meaning. It'll still mean the present, but there'll also be instances where people see something horrible and call it "modern" as an insult.
Amazing how Marvel and DC went from recruiting writers that paid their dues to lowering the standards where they give you a job if you create unfunny terrible memes.
Comic book fans are not afraid of politics in comic books but it has to be written well. For example, when written well Captain America’s ideals is what makes him a compelling character… not who he supports.
As a fan, I walked away from the big 2 back in the early oos. Long live indy comics, this is the same problem that's destroying tthe MCU, tone, audience, quality & craft. The editors of both corps are chasing a fantom audience & have abadoned the ips target audience straight males. The Ips are for straight males. Power fantasy & scifi. Oh welll, spend my flow on some else of quality for a better price point like Manga. Great commentary.
Back in the 90s for fun I used to create characters and make their origins. But, no way would I ever show them to anyone. I’ve done graphic design, writing ads and I’m a watercolor painter. But, I don’t think I’m a good writer. I might think of something that might make a good plot, but it would be pure luck if it was good. I don’t have any interest in writing. I’m a better visual thinker than I am putting words down. It’s too bad they are just hiring someone who has a few funny ideas and not looking for serious writers.
What i hate the most is that there's a lack of variety now I hate how they just stop Eternals comic book. Where are they now? Who cares right? Here's an X Men, Spider Man and Venom book. I swear X Men, Spider people, Symbiotes, Wolverine, Deadpool are the bane of my existence right now It's painful for Marvel fans who demand variety. Now? Everyone is a mutant, Spider people or having a fucking symbiotes. I'm sick of this shit. I mean, with the amount of money Marvel hoarded from their character that they owned without giving a penny to the creator, you would think that they would take risk a little but nope. Here's an X Men book, they sell. No matter how shitty the writting is
see, sometimes i get in conversations w peers on X about this, personalities like this end up disappointing me, you know why cause they don't love this medium. this medium is a vehicle for a come up for in alot of cases the newer tier of women in comics, they can't articulate when they began reading books, what issue dazzled their mind and how much effort it has taken them to get there. meanwhile every sentence is " coded " meaning whatever she is saying she is not directly saying. MEANWHILE somewhere in this country there is a boiling hot prospect trying to find their way in and they just can't because the breaks are never provided for that prospect. it's like these personalities are being mutually manufactured every few quarters, Like i can't grasp this theory in the way we see it.. how do these " creatives " GET. IN. ??? - it's like someone is walking down 7th ave in manhatten and they just tap em on a shoulder.. you like comics.. your hired! and we also need to give the massive side eye to every one of these editors around them... they should all be in a marvel fanfare book or a back up or a Annual - hey good vid wes.. let me stop complaining..,. LOL
I think it's maybe, because they aren't writers? I have seen the kids mashing action figures together with better plot, characterisation and actual passion.
Imagine being the top two comic publishers and not having the mindset or resources in hiring new, talented, and intelligent writers that can carefully write and safeguard your books and characters while paying respect To what came before.
they allow anyone to came and do what ever they want with their ips,mostly in DC by allowing nicole who is a total amateur writer to write the son of superman and force her self insert on him,since they were bought they stopped caring on hiring good writers.
Not “Untalented” just not into superheroes. They keep trying to make a male centered,action/drama into a female centered slice of life/ drama and it’s not working. I don’t blame the writers. They’re trying to get a check. It’s Marvel/Disney, and DC/Warner deciding on the direction and hiring these people.
I do blame the Stephanie Williams, Mags, Vita, etc., as well as the Marvel and DC editors. Ok it's clear they'd rather make slice of life comic strips, but if you're hired to make super hero comics, then you gotta do that, stories with action, adventure and super heroing, not frickin slice of life stories with superheroes, but they don't want to even put in the effort of learning how to do that well
This is an example of why horrible editorial teams at Marvel and DC has driven off the previous quality known names. Now you have a huge number of unqualified, non-talented hacks. Its why I feel like the big two give no shits anymore about their comic lines, other than as means to promote their characters in other media, like their movies and video games.
Thanks for the video! It's cool to find out I'm also qualified to write comics! Based on my online interactions I'm probably best suited for either Dept. Of Truth or the next Impossible Man summer special.
When you said "Stephanie Williams" I thought you were going to say Eve Ewing. Ewing was/is a college professor and political commentator on social media who got recruited to write Ironheart because she and Riri were both black women from Chicago with the same haircut. It's funny how this keeps happening.
Місяць тому+1
But - again - Ewing's 'Ironheart- was a lot better than Bendis' stuff.
one of the biggest problems with this generation, they don't want to tell imaginative and engaging adventure stories. They want to tell their stories, which is the same story again and again about their own mundane existence super-imposed on formerly interesting super heroes. They tank the book and blame the audience for being discriminatory and get hired again as an apology for all the "-ism" they faced on the last book. Meanwhile they lose another generation of potential readers that should be keeping their business afloat.
They do a lot of self insert stuff: the story of them in their comic book as the hero or the wise adviser. But yeah they are hiring writers due to social media clout and webcomic presence, hoping to cash in on their followers. And they work cheap.
Comics are a place for them to play out stories that are trying to convince themselves that what they want to believe is somewhat entertaining dealing with issues they are interested in
Williams fits the primary criteria. She'll work cheap and be thankful for it. It seems to me these comic companies understand they're only going to sell so many copies of even their most popular titles, so they come out with a huge stream of cheaply produced comics that they can sell a modest number of copies. Add those modest numbers up and you get decent sales figures, at least enough to keep them profitable.
F it,I say make a dude king of the Amazon's,why it gotta be a woman!? Huh sexism,racism,misogyny??!! 😅😅😅 Give these F tards a taste of their own medicine! Make 1 dude in a big harem running and rubbing all the amazons!!!🎉🎉🎉
Yes, there were some bad stories in "W.I.", and they had some issues where they just goofed around. But they also produced some of the most interesting, alternate, versions of known Marvel stories and characters. To see it turned into this is just depressing.
It's a major league problem, and it's probably not going to get better. I wonder if it's the contracts, with creators, or their estates, that material has to keep being published. Every book now is either a "deconstruction", aka "Let's tear down the hero, and just not build them back up", gay love connections, or Greg Berlanti style feelings in hallways, or dinner tables, or wherever, all with some "humor" thrown in. It completely leaves out what we love about the heroes. The action, the rescues, actual friendships and relationships based on respect, rather than who looks like what or who sleeps with who. There's no money to hire actual writers, sticking to maybe one writer with any experience, surrounded by keyboard warriors with zero experience, because someone got the bright idea to start hiring friends, and not being the boss. And things like Robot Chicken, Family Guy, and the like. Sure, it has an audience. A separate audience. The movies have drifted to the extremes, too. Sad, mopey style, like Matt Reeves' The Batman, or jokey, everyone is an asshole style clownshow, like James Gunn's DC projects. There's no middle ground, anymore. Heroes and villains can't be heroes and villains. From self inserts, to faux intellectual allegories, they've effectively killed the art form. Will it improve, ever? Doubtful, at this point, as long as people like this keep getting work.
They hired Zoe Quinn to do a vertigo book - just before that line was canceled the first time. They're not even trying to tell good stories that their audiences want to read.
That's easy , you can tell when a new "writer" is a crappy one, when it starts to desecrate the image of the characters just for some rage bait. Unlike social media, the bad publicity is not welcome among the fans.
You forgot one more incredible aspect of the Stephanie Williams origin story: she made $14,500 on Kickstarter publishing a slice-of-life comic filled with characters to which she had no legal rights! And think about the convenient advantages she was afforded due to the policy of 'equity': Kickstarter should have never approved her project which used licensed characters without permission; and Marvel should have questioned her ability to keep the $14K while profiting off Disney properties. Her approach is comparable to the local hardscrabble artist at the Comicon who can't create any original ideas, so he fills his booth with sexy drawings of Harley and Ivy making out, selling them for $30 a pop. That's where Stephanie Williams should be: selling her fanfic in booklet form at a Comicon booth instead of writing for the Big 2.
i do not understand modern comics. they're trash. i also get upset at real comic fans obviously getting fake hype over more of the same old junk. people shouldn't tolerate the subpar propaganda that gets put on the racks every week. i do not understand how the books literally dont move but theres still magically new books week after week on the shelf printed on more wasted paper. so frustrating as i am a regular that wants to buy cool stuff! im literally only buying old collected editions. i get physically ill at the newest art style/color direction. no one wants this and yet the creators double down. the majority of indie comics in shops look the same. please tell me how something as massive as the MCU literally cannot move a book off of my local barnes and noble graphic novel section. im not even kidding i go all the time and the same stuff is sitting there. meanwhile the manga stuff blows off the shelves. the gatekeeper fools of the comic industry that want more of the same do not understand that the true fan wants something with depth. something with meaning. no more leaning into the caricatures of comic books. surface level dwellers crank out more of the same goofy stuff week after week. real writers need to tap into the soul of their humanity and pull out real stories. comics came from stories. the heroes arose from the need for a hero. the pictures arose from text and the text came from the need to tell a story. the art sells the comic package! thats what makes it stick out! comics are supposed to be COOL and FUN. the western comic book industry should be prospering . we have the coolest heroes in the story of the world at our disposal. literally look at manga. they do not cater to what people that dont like manga would like to read. they do everything in their power to engage the reader! theyre not aiming to appease legal loyalists of the genre, people that actually hate the artform or people that might pick up the book. they're aiming for the people that love this stuff. it honestly seems so simple. MAKE AWESOME ART AND GREAT STORIES. STOP SUCKING
& a lot of the greatest don't want to work for them anymore even if they did pay, or were run out of the industry due to wrongthinc. . .too many eggshells to avoid on the daily for accomplished professionals of yesteryear. There are a lot of mandatory ideological straightjackets required to work for either DC or Marvel right now -- if your career is established elsewhere and/or mostly behind you, why risk working for busybody apparatchiks who live to attack people that don't agree with them about everything on all topics at all times smh
Twitter should be treated like porn. A person should be ashamed of using it. You should get fired for using it at work. Your friends and family should be concerned about you if you use it too much.
If you want young women to read comics you need these type of daily , funny , ordinary but quirky days in the superhero lives. But the solution is to have two book series. One for her Missions and fighting and true super hero stuff and another maybe monthly that dives into the quirky girlie stuff.
Funny, I've always said that some comic book writers write like they're tweeting, I didn't think it could be so true. As usual jokes come true with these people. Think of all the artists who go around bringing their portfolios for a chance to work at Marvel and DC only to have to draw the stories these people write.
A great example of a female writer who did bring a different perspective to comics: Ann Nocenti. Even while reading her work, I could sense her non-traditional writer's voice. Yet time again, she made up for it by producing intriguing characters interacting in thrilling stories. For the new comic writers: be like Ann Nocenti.
I saw the February solicits for DC and there’s a guest writer on Shazam - Sinah Grace Guess who’s making an appearance in Shazam Gay Jon Kent I mean can these writers only write sexuality? Oh we need to add a gay character to the book better find a gay writer 🙄 Fucking tired of it all You’re spot on all these people have no individuality, they are their sexuality, their pronouns their race or gender. Its their whole being and it’s exhausting
Why can’t these hacks just be given an alternate universe so that their contract can be short 🤣 the fact there was a domino effect of a customer complaint that lead to her having a job as a comic author is just embarrassing to the medium.
I subscribed to your channel when I found a video on Heather Santos. Then I wasn't getting any notices. Somehow, I was unsubscribed. UA-cam is getting evil.
So I've finally started watching the 'Doom Patrol' series and I have to say they had the kind of writers that the whole host of modern comic creators wish they were. The characters in the show are layered, tragic, and sympathetic in a way that is simply not happening in comics today. There is this queerness that was already there in the Grant Morrison run that they are pulling from and instead of being tiresome and preachy, it is beautiful and heartbreaking and really, really good. If the jackrabbits they keep giving flagship books to could write half as well the crew from 'Doom Patrol' we'd be way less dissatisfied with the current offerings. If you have avoided the show like I did because it sounded like the same old box checking garbage, do yourself a favor and give it a chance, it's an unheralded genius bit of work.
That's what they did to "What If..?" How awful. When it first premiered back in the 70s, and ranging through it's various incarnations, I really enjoyed a lot of "W.I." stories. But just turning it into satire?
But do you belong to one of the currently fashionable social groups? And do you feel absolute disdain for superheroes and people who read about them? If the answer to either of these is "No", you can't be hired at Marvel.
Storytelling DOES belong to the few… the few that can actually tell stories. Brunstad couldn’t find a story if it were her ass and she had her hands in her back pockets.
Yea this is the one thing that baffles me about comics over the last decade, it’s the hiring of all these slice of life comic strip writers being hired to write superhero comics, makes absolutely no sense. But this is what happens when you don’t hire on merit, but different traits.
Plus the attempts of catter to women, i know that women can like Superheroes too but...
Slice of life stuff is a very femenine media.
See the memes Stephanie Williams made.
I don't dislike common life Moments of Superheroes, but need to be A PLUS, not the Main story.
It baffles me too. Is it some factor of how cheaply some of these folks will work? If they’re trying to find an audience, why not try to hire people _already_ writing successful web comics that actually have a female or queer or whatever audience already. Why hire people whose entire resume is a few posts on Instagram or something? Or do people already making decent money on Hiveworks or Webtoon want page-rates commensurate with 2020 instead of Marvel and DCs 1990 page-rates?
I blame Webtoon. Webtoon has become the go to reading source for young kids online and is filled to the brim with slice-of-life Webtoons/writers. DC has been trying to figure out how to connect with the newer generation for a while. Thing is, any webtoon writer worth their salt can make more money on Tapas, Webtoon, or going solo than they can with Marvel/DC.
@@andresanguianozuniga6798 here's the thing, the women who like superheroes don't like slices of life, otherwise they would be reading that. So there was absolutely no need to destroy the industry in order to cater to women in general. The women who like superheroes will stop buying comics too.
@@andresanguianozuniga6798 Vast majority of women ain't into superheroes. And the ones that are, are considered weirdos by that majority.
They hired her for her fashionable identity. They kept her because she works for pennies, and counts as a trophy.
Which is extremely bigoted when you stop to think about it. It's all self hating projection from there people.
The pay is a major reason. They are no longer paying enough for good writer to make a decent living. So what happens the quality drops, and also attracts a lot of activists to write the comics because they are not there to make a living writing the comics. The pay is not issue to activists as getting out their personel message is more important and would write it for free if they could.
Let's add that editors are not putting the effort in to clean up scripts and rough pages before going to final production
@@longsan3 Well, with these activist types, any editorial pushback, alterations, or criticism would be seen as "erasure", or "silencing of (insert identity label) voices", or any of the "-isms' and "phobias" they love to accuse people of.
Most modern comic writers are terrible because they have no life experience. Lot of these folks write what they know. And most of these folks know nothing at all. Worse, they refuse to do research on their subjects. Sad part is talented writers who have been around for years can't get a callback.
PREACH!
100%if you want to tell a good story you need inspiration look to history look to the classics look to mythology but look somewhere other then your politics and sexuality and race none of those are interesting to anyone other then your self
Also they lack imagination, they can't think beyond the confines of a small garden tent.
They never almost died from a softball-sized brain tumor. Or having to be in the hospital for months after surgery and doing physical therapy to regain balance and stamina.
I haven't bought a new comic in over five years. The characters I fell in love with decades ago have been replaced with changelings.
yup. Sad but true. Any new stuff I have is indie now.
I haven't bought marvel or dc since 2006. The only new comic I've gotten are the gargoyles ones but they're written by the creator, still in today's age that is rare. I hear I missed that whole mess over there😂
It must’ve been 2017 when I stumbled over Zack and his criticisms, and lo and behold, here you are and matters have deteriorated even more. 100% with you. No editor would’ve hired them in the good old days.
The lack of true superheroes writers is one of main issues that are killing Marvel and DC in latest decades. They prefer write a slice of life or a comedy books instead. These people never liked or understand the heroes concept. I miss guys like Roger Stern,Tom DeFalco,Bill Mantlo,Denny O'Neal,Len Wein and several anothers veteran writers that how know make great superheroes storylines. Everything is so empty,so devoid of life in modern Marvel and DC in nowadays.
I think there’s too many female writers. Also all these writers are basically the same person with the same life experiences. They have the same politics and personal beliefs. So all their works end up being the same. Take away the top couple of writers for the big two and tell me 90% the comics don’t have the same tropes and the same tone.
AKA Hollywood.
It’s just that when you have a left wing writer they HAVE to put their personal beliefs into the story, because their beliefs IS their life, it’s their entire being, and they simply can’t help put it into their comics. Whereas centre & right writers will just write a fun engaging story.
Yeah because they did that stupid me too movement in comics and was like oh we're going to dedicate time and effort into hiring women so we can be inclusive bump that most women don't give no damn about no comic books and yet face it hey let's give all of these women with no experience and comic books no liking of the geek stuff you know access just because they want to try to be inclusive and it just shows how unprofessional everything is
Also too many effeminate men.
@@Slitheringpeanut No. AKA The entire publishing industry
Im not even remotely surprised by this, such is the state of the industry today
Only thing is I do blame Stephanie Williams as equally as the publishers. Same goes for Vita Ayala for the New Mutants run, Kelly land Lanzig, Leah Williams, Danny Lore etc etc
If they had any sort of self awareness and humility whatsoever, they would never write comics, because they would admit they are awful at it and go do something else.
I’d LOVE to write comics, but I know I’m not good enough. I don’t have the required ear to write top dialogue, I don’t have the idea generation to keep coming up with stories on a regular basis. So I’ve never tried.
It is her fault. She should be aware of her limitations and find a job more suited to her skill set.
If she was well read enough she’d know how far off the mark she is from competence.
I don’t think you should never try just because you don’t think you’re as good as a professional.
You’ll for sure never be able to if you never do it; those writers all started somewhere.
Sure I agree with the general point in that these people should know their limits and have some self awareness, but someone saying ‘I love this thing. I’ll never be good enough though, so I won’t ever try’ is kind of sad.
If you want to make something, make it. Even if it’s only for you. If you don’t enjoy doing it, that’s another story.
If you never try you’ll never know.
Both the shortcomings you mentioned are to do with practice.
That’s somewhat of a defeatist attitude, if you love something go do it, even if it’s only for you.
Sure companies shouldn’t be hiring these people so mismatched for their jobs but I hate the idea that someone who loves something won’t even try to do it because they’re intimidated by the talent they admire.
This happens when industries are no longer doing work to make money, but are instead like the children of wealthy parents, expecting to collect money for nothing.
Another solid perspective, Wes. Bottom line is though, that we are a hell of a long way from the legacies of guys like Jack Kirby, Chester Gould, Dave Graue and Carmine Infantino. These current 'writers' aren't capable of producing comics NOR comic strips. A good editor might be able to mould some of these people into potential talent, but that takes time. Meanwhile, we suffer through years of unreadable comics. Creator owned projects, omnibuses and back issues look better and better every day.
It now clearly explains to me when I got back to buying comics in 2018 I felt the storylines had a major disconnect with the readers as well as not understanding the characters.
I remember trying to break into comics in the 80's. I was in the scene and knew a lot of people in the business, we even had Alan Moore pushing us. My partner and I were lifelong devoted comic fans and we had read everything. We tried out for DC, Marvel, 2000AD etc - wrote proposals and test scripts, story outlines, concept art etc. We didn't get in - the writing standards were SO high, you had to push and push and really work very hard at it to get through the door. I knew guys who worked for years, building relationships with editors and refining their craft before they even got a small break with a short story in an anthology title. Now look at these companies, no wonder they are losing money.
We aren't counting the chick who got hired because she called a marvel editor a racist, or the chick marvel hired because she had the same hair do as a character? The Hiring practices in comics bar is very low. Good vid
Marvel and DC should just bring back the slush pile, open submissions, and hire a panel of retailers to pull out the more promising pitches. People who submit are actually interested in writing comics, and retailers know a hell of a lot more about what’s likely to sell than the editors, that’s for sure.
That'll never happen
I hope that does happen. Make comic books like the 90s all over again.
Pretty much any large business that deals with the public has this same problem.
Whether it’s trying to sell them things or provide a service, the people who make the decisions have no idea what their customers actually want anymore.
Thing is to suggest that the low level guys might have a better idea of what’s going on than the highly paid idiots running the place into the ground is sacrilegious.
Reasons why I figured not to bother trying. They don't want to hire an actual female comic who loves the characters.
Hate to argue with you... but YOU REALLY SHOULD TRY ! The industry needs you now more than ever (and hey, being female gives you a chance at getting noticed at least).
The problem is basically that they hire posers who never liked comicbooks to begin with and they want to change the into the weird fanfics they like.
She's just a woke activist.
Definitely.
Not woke, just bad.
No to be an activist you have to fight for something she just screams her ideas at everyone in an atroucios comics
You can tell by the hair
Diversity of everything but thought is the way of it, and they don't want to write comics, they want to write egoist screeds with self inserts and work out their personal issues.
I still can't believe that "Bia", a man, is allowed to reside in Themyscira. Also, Hypollita will always be the Queen of Amazons.
Hippolyta*
You knew the *had* to do it. 😂
I think this further highlights the "industry's" general disdain for the material they are invested in and working on. I think Hollywood suffers from this as well. When you have no respect for the medium as an art form, or the steps that the medium took to get to that place of respect and prestige, I think this is the result. The ppl who are green-lighting projects like these are not fans of the industry they are a part of, so there is a disconnect from the fan base and their writers. If you essentially don't give a damn about the hero's journey or what makes SpiderMan who he is (hint...it ain't the costume!!! lol), then the product that gets chucked out the machine will reflect that. The line that separated fan fiction from cannon has been all but erased, when for a long time, any fan with two eyes could see why they were different in the first place. It's not to hate on shippers or fanfic, but when you have writers with little experience in the way of a succeeding medium, looking at stories like this and connecting the dots becomes way easier.
When Archie was Pure Heart, in that orange costume with the blue cape, I haven’t thought about that in years!
Blame the people that own Marvel and DC. Disney. Everything they touch turns to shit.
Well Wes the people who ran Marvel/DC in the 70s/80s/90s/ are all gone now and what you have in place are people who have no interest in keeping comic books as they had been. It's really sad to me that superheroes can no longer be heroes as they had been.
They need to keep writers in their lane. Williams is writing the Oni Press Sesame Street and that’s really good. Same with Zdarskey and King. They keep taking writers from what they’re good at and shoving them into superheroes and IT. IS. NOT. WORKING.
As a 47 year old butcher that's never written a comic book but has been a huge X-Men fan I guarantee I could write a better X-Men book than we have had since HOX and POX....
Karkoa was mud but this new stuff absolutely sucks..
Seeing the X-Men like sadistic killers in Fall Of X killed my interest in these characters for me. Forever.
Everything written after HoX/PoX feels like the least planned out X-Men storyline that ever graced the pages of this franchise and sadly makes up more than half of the content that was ever published for it.
If someone told me the plot points for a plotline were chosen through a randomized sorting game, I'd believe them : There's no way to explain the kind of retconing, contradictions and rewriting pulled from one run to the next for a same plotline to get to the endgame they supposedly always had.
@@spinningtornado4543 Yes Krakoa Age would work better like a elseworld just like Age of Apocalypse.
@@EvandroACruz The thing is, before Krakoa, you could have still easily explained how a world like Age of Apocalypse came to be because it still worked as an alternative reality that beached out of 616.
With Krakoa, AoA can no longer be a direct 616 alternative reality. That's how much the 616 setting was changed to accommodate Krakoa and its retcon. Not even the characters are the same in their fundamental aspects.
@@spinningtornado4543 Yes, I can't remember another Marvel run that messed with continuity so much. Krakoa was worse of the vast majority of post 2000 retcons. And Bendis changed the continuity so much in that time.
Don't forget Stephanie William wants to write slice of life online comic strip
I think it's hilarious that this is the "modern age," of comics, and that shows and movies with DEI are made for a "modern" audience. I think this is one of those times where a word will slowly shift to have a new meaning. It'll still mean the present, but there'll also be instances where people see something horrible and call it "modern" as an insult.
Notice how he didn't even say her race, but they will still lable him 'racist' that word is meaningless now.
I agree with your take and think you explained your position really well.
The Ironheart writer got the job by being from Chicago and having the same haircut as Riri.
If you mean Eve Ewing: her Ironheart series was more than decent.
More than decent. What a compliment. Damn take that white guys. Eve Ewing Sucks hard.
Why would they dare pay a professional? 🍸
Amazing how Marvel and DC went from recruiting writers that paid their dues to lowering the standards where they give you a job if you create unfunny terrible memes.
Jesus....what has happened to the industry I used to love
Comic book fans are not afraid of politics in comic books but it has to be written well. For example, when written well Captain America’s ideals is what makes him a compelling character… not who he supports.
I remember the days of Marvel having Louise Simonson writing for Marvel. She and Walter were a power couple.
As a fan, I walked away from the big 2 back in the early oos. Long live indy comics, this is the same problem that's destroying tthe MCU, tone, audience, quality & craft. The editors of both corps are chasing a fantom audience & have abadoned the ips target audience straight males. The Ips are for straight males. Power fantasy & scifi. Oh welll, spend my flow on some else of quality for a better price point like Manga. Great commentary.
Back in the 90s for fun I used to create characters and make their origins. But, no way would I ever show them to anyone. I’ve done graphic design, writing ads and I’m a watercolor painter. But, I don’t think I’m a good writer. I might think of something that might make a good plot, but it would be pure luck if it was good. I don’t have any interest in writing. I’m a better visual thinker than I am putting words down. It’s too bad they are just hiring someone who has a few funny ideas and not looking for serious writers.
What i hate the most is that there's a lack of variety now
I hate how they just stop Eternals comic book. Where are they now? Who cares right? Here's an X Men, Spider Man and Venom book.
I swear X Men, Spider people, Symbiotes, Wolverine, Deadpool are the bane of my existence right now
It's painful for Marvel fans who demand variety. Now? Everyone is a mutant, Spider people or having a fucking symbiotes.
I'm sick of this shit. I mean, with the amount of money Marvel hoarded from their character that they owned without giving a penny to the creator, you would think that they would take risk a little but nope. Here's an X Men book, they sell. No matter how shitty the writting is
This is what happens when corporations get invaded by activists. Gatekeeping is the way to prevent this problem of ever happening.
see, sometimes i get in conversations w peers on X about this, personalities like this end up disappointing me, you know why cause they don't love this medium. this medium is a vehicle for a come up for in alot of cases the newer tier of women in comics, they can't articulate when they began reading books, what issue dazzled their mind and how much effort it has taken them to get there. meanwhile every sentence is " coded " meaning whatever she is saying she is not directly saying. MEANWHILE somewhere in this country there is a boiling hot prospect trying to find their way in and they just can't because the breaks are never provided for that prospect. it's like these personalities are being mutually manufactured every few quarters, Like i can't grasp this theory in the way we see it.. how do these " creatives " GET. IN. ??? - it's like someone is walking down 7th ave in manhatten and they just tap em on a shoulder.. you like comics.. your hired! and we also need to give the massive side eye to every one of these editors around them... they should all be in a marvel fanfare book or a back up or a Annual - hey good vid wes.. let me stop complaining..,. LOL
meritocracy used to mean something. sigh those were the days.
I think it's maybe, because they aren't writers? I have seen the kids mashing action figures together with better plot, characterisation and actual passion.
Imagine being the top two comic publishers and not having the mindset or resources in hiring new, talented, and intelligent writers that can carefully write and safeguard your books and characters while paying respect To what came before.
they allow anyone to came and do what ever they want with their ips,mostly in DC by allowing nicole who is a total amateur writer to write the son of superman and force her self insert on him,since they were bought they stopped caring on hiring good writers.
Not “Untalented” just not into superheroes. They keep trying to make a male centered,action/drama into a female centered slice of life/ drama and it’s not working. I don’t blame the writers. They’re trying to get a check. It’s Marvel/Disney, and DC/Warner deciding on the direction and hiring these people.
The wrirers are pretty useless though.
I do blame the Stephanie Williams, Mags, Vita, etc., as well as the Marvel and DC editors. Ok it's clear they'd rather make slice of life comic strips, but if you're hired to make super hero comics, then you gotta do that, stories with action, adventure and super heroing, not frickin slice of life stories with superheroes, but they don't want to even put in the effort of learning how to do that well
I once got a writing job because I had previously asked the creator for a commission of said character. 4 issues! 😃
This is an example of why horrible editorial teams at Marvel and DC has driven off the previous quality known names. Now you have a huge number of unqualified, non-talented hacks. Its why I feel like the big two give no shits anymore about their comic lines, other than as means to promote their characters in other media, like their movies and video games.
Thanks for the video! It's cool to find out I'm also qualified to write comics! Based on my online interactions I'm probably best suited for either Dept. Of Truth or the next Impossible Man summer special.
When you said "Stephanie Williams" I thought you were going to say Eve Ewing. Ewing was/is a college professor and political commentator on social media who got recruited to write Ironheart because she and Riri were both black women from Chicago with the same haircut. It's funny how this keeps happening.
But - again - Ewing's 'Ironheart- was a lot better than Bendis' stuff.
I remember the Nubia comic. I dropped it after the 1st issue. Too slow, especially since Nubia is usually quick to act when presented with a threat.
Well said.
Waller: Weasel wrote a comic. The word balloons are filled with paw prints.
DC:"We should hire that sexual deviant, he seems making cool memes, hope he isn't white - we already hit our white quota"
one of the biggest problems with this generation, they don't want to tell imaginative and engaging adventure stories. They want to tell their stories, which is the same story again and again about their own mundane existence super-imposed on formerly interesting super heroes. They tank the book and blame the audience for being discriminatory and get hired again as an apology for all the "-ism" they faced on the last book.
Meanwhile they lose another generation of potential readers that should be keeping their business afloat.
Wow.
Could it have been because she was cheap due to not having any experience?
This stuff actually damaged existing black characters
They do a lot of self insert stuff: the story of them in their comic book as the hero or the wise adviser. But yeah they are hiring writers due to social media clout and webcomic presence, hoping to cash in on their followers. And they work cheap.
Comics are a place for them to play out stories that are trying to convince themselves that what they want to believe is somewhat entertaining dealing with issues they are interested in
Williams fits the primary criteria. She'll work cheap and be thankful for it. It seems to me these comic companies understand they're only going to sell so many copies of even their most popular titles, so they come out with a huge stream of cheaply produced comics that they can sell a modest number of copies. Add those modest numbers up and you get decent sales figures, at least enough to keep them profitable.
Wonder Woman should be queen of the amazons like it used to be, not under Tom king but at some point we need to go back
F it,I say make a dude king of the Amazon's,why it gotta be a woman!? Huh sexism,racism,misogyny??!! 😅😅😅 Give these F tards a taste of their own medicine! Make 1 dude in a big harem running and rubbing all the amazons!!!🎉🎉🎉
I feel like this was an attack on Calvin and Hobbes 😂. Kidding, but that strip is a titan. Just obviously not superhero comics.
Yes, there were some bad stories in "W.I.", and they had some issues where they just goofed around. But they also produced some of the most interesting, alternate, versions of known Marvel stories and characters. To see it turned into this is just depressing.
It's a major league problem, and it's probably not going to get better. I wonder if it's the contracts, with creators, or their estates, that material has to keep being published. Every book now is either a "deconstruction", aka "Let's tear down the hero, and just not build them back up", gay love connections, or Greg Berlanti style feelings in hallways, or dinner tables, or wherever, all with some "humor" thrown in. It completely leaves out what we love about the heroes. The action, the rescues, actual friendships and relationships based on respect, rather than who looks like what or who sleeps with who. There's no money to hire actual writers, sticking to maybe one writer with any experience, surrounded by keyboard warriors with zero experience, because someone got the bright idea to start hiring friends, and not being the boss.
And things like Robot Chicken, Family Guy, and the like. Sure, it has an audience. A separate audience. The movies have drifted to the extremes, too. Sad, mopey style, like Matt Reeves' The Batman, or jokey, everyone is an asshole style clownshow, like James Gunn's DC projects. There's no middle ground, anymore. Heroes and villains can't be heroes and villains. From self inserts, to faux intellectual allegories, they've effectively killed the art form.
Will it improve, ever? Doubtful, at this point, as long as people like this keep getting work.
They hired Zoe Quinn to do a vertigo book - just before that line was canceled the first time.
They're not even trying to tell good stories that their audiences want to read.
That name is just cursed
I think I'm the only person who thought nubia actually had potential. Too bad
That's easy , you can tell when a new "writer" is a crappy one, when it starts to desecrate the image of the characters just for some rage bait. Unlike social media, the bad publicity is not welcome among the fans.
My thought is that their experiences are of a progressive nature and therefore their stories are preachy, uninteresting, and cringy.
Whatever happened to good vs evil ?
Hot take Cantwell's Iron man is great!d Great to see Tony Stark back to the deamon in the bottle era. Loved that run
You forgot one more incredible aspect of the Stephanie Williams origin story: she made $14,500 on Kickstarter publishing a slice-of-life comic filled with characters to which she had no legal rights! And think about the convenient advantages she was afforded due to the policy of 'equity': Kickstarter should have never approved her project which used licensed characters without permission; and Marvel should have questioned her ability to keep the $14K while profiting off Disney properties. Her approach is comparable to the local hardscrabble artist at the Comicon who can't create any original ideas, so he fills his booth with sexy drawings of Harley and Ivy making out, selling them for $30 a pop. That's where Stephanie Williams should be: selling her fanfic in booklet form at a Comicon booth instead of writing for the Big 2.
i do not understand modern comics. they're trash. i also get upset at real comic fans obviously getting fake hype over more of the same old junk. people shouldn't tolerate the subpar propaganda that gets put on the racks every week. i do not understand how the books literally dont move but theres still magically new books week after week on the shelf printed on more wasted paper. so frustrating as i am a regular that wants to buy cool stuff! im literally only buying old collected editions. i get physically ill at the newest art style/color direction. no one wants this and yet the creators double down. the majority of indie comics in shops look the same. please tell me how something as massive as the MCU literally cannot move a book off of my local barnes and noble graphic novel section. im not even kidding i go all the time and the same stuff is sitting there. meanwhile the manga stuff blows off the shelves. the gatekeeper fools of the comic industry that want more of the same do not understand that the true fan wants something with depth. something with meaning. no more leaning into the caricatures of comic books. surface level dwellers crank out more of the same goofy stuff week after week. real writers need to tap into the soul of their humanity and pull out real stories. comics came from stories. the heroes arose from the need for a hero. the pictures arose from text and the text came from the need to tell a story. the art sells the comic package! thats what makes it stick out! comics are supposed to be COOL and FUN. the western comic book industry should be prospering . we have the coolest heroes in the story of the world at our disposal. literally look at manga. they do not cater to what people that dont like manga would like to read. they do everything in their power to engage the reader! theyre not aiming to appease legal loyalists of the genre, people that actually hate the artform or people that might pick up the book. they're aiming for the people that love this stuff. it honestly seems so simple. MAKE AWESOME ART AND GREAT STORIES. STOP SUCKING
We live in a world where going viral is enough to get you hired. 😢 Standards are dead.
Things move on. Maybe a lot of comics are not now for our demographic? Harsh reality check - just pick what you do like and read that
They have no money to hire good writers.
They have all the money in the world that they can have and yet they ignore them? Seriously?
& a lot of the greatest don't want to work for them anymore even if they did pay, or were run out of the industry due to wrongthinc. . .too many eggshells to avoid on the daily for accomplished professionals of yesteryear. There are a lot of mandatory ideological straightjackets required to work for either DC or Marvel right now -- if your career is established elsewhere and/or mostly behind you, why risk working for busybody apparatchiks who live to attack people that don't agree with them about everything on all topics at all times smh
DEI hire. DC & Marvel love to play woke games and win stupid prizes.
Twitter should be treated like porn. A person should be ashamed of using it. You should get fired for using it at work. Your friends and family should be concerned about you if you use it too much.
If you want young women to read comics you need these type of daily , funny , ordinary but quirky days in the superhero lives. But the solution is to have two book series. One for her Missions and fighting and true super hero stuff and another maybe monthly that dives into the quirky girlie stuff.
I didn’t know Williams was black, I thought she was white.
Yeah, I didn’t know either. But doesn’t matter. Bad writer is a bad writer.
I think I had her name conflated in my head with the debutante jet setting trust fund gal of European ancestry lol
Funny, I've always said that some comic book writers write like they're tweeting, I didn't think it could be so true. As usual jokes come true with these people. Think of all the artists who go around bringing their portfolios for a chance to work at Marvel and DC only to have to draw the stories these people write.
yep I feel for the artists who are talented being saddled with so much inane drivel
A great example of a female writer who did bring a different perspective to comics: Ann Nocenti. Even while reading her work, I could sense her non-traditional writer's voice. Yet time again, she made up for it by producing intriguing characters interacting in thrilling stories. For the new comic writers: be like Ann Nocenti.
I saw the February solicits for DC and there’s a guest writer on Shazam - Sinah Grace
Guess who’s making an appearance in Shazam Gay Jon Kent
I mean can these writers only write sexuality? Oh we need to add a gay character to the book better find a gay writer 🙄
Fucking tired of it all
You’re spot on all these people have no individuality, they are their sexuality, their pronouns their race or gender. Its their whole being and it’s exhausting
Why can’t these hacks just be given an alternate universe so that their contract can be short 🤣 the fact there was a domino effect of a customer complaint that lead to her having a job as a comic author is just embarrassing to the medium.
They are fast tracking people who've achieved 'peak crayon scribbling'.
Stephanie Phillips Dad is a big shareholder at Disney. So that should tell you how she got her job
I subscribed to your channel when I found a video on Heather Santos. Then I wasn't getting any notices. Somehow, I was unsubscribed. UA-cam is getting evil.
What happened to the days at Marvel that you had to earn your way into working on a flag ship title? You used to have to work your way up. 🤔
Wait, hol' up
If the Queen of the Amazons is a trans woman, then the Amazons are being led by a genetic male
Awkward 😅
So I've finally started watching the 'Doom Patrol' series and I have to say they had the kind of writers that the whole host of modern comic creators wish they were. The characters in the show are layered, tragic, and sympathetic in a way that is simply not happening in comics today. There is this queerness that was already there in the Grant Morrison run that they are pulling from and instead of being tiresome and preachy, it is beautiful and heartbreaking and really, really good. If the jackrabbits they keep giving flagship books to could write half as well the crew from 'Doom Patrol' we'd be way less dissatisfied with the current offerings. If you have avoided the show like I did because it sounded like the same old box checking garbage, do yourself a favor and give it a chance, it's an unheralded genius bit of work.
It's funny because Energon is just "playing with the toys" but it's doing great and everyone loves it
That does explain alot. Smh.
That's what they did to "What If..?" How awful. When it first premiered back in the 70s, and ranging through it's various incarnations, I really enjoyed a lot of "W.I." stories. But just turning it into satire?
I have one self published novella and am a dungeon master for hire... but I'm pretty sure I'm more qualified than some of these writers at the Big 2
But do you belong to one of the currently fashionable social groups? And do you feel absolute disdain for superheroes and people who read about them? If the answer to either of these is "No", you can't be hired at Marvel.
@kaczok1985 look what you did to my feelings! They hurt😢
@@vernonhampton5863 On the other hand, you do sound like a lot like a Marvel writer when you put it like that XD
How the heck does liking Archie or Calvin and Hobbes comics translate into writing superhero comics? 🤯
Forget about Marvel and DC, read Indies. Even many writers who suck at Marvel write great stuff at Image, Boom, Dark Horse and the other Indies.
"Look, that Twitter thread is technically a comic and we are one fat semi-literate black woman short of the quota. Get her in!"
DC probably
Storytelling DOES belong to the few… the few that can actually tell stories.
Brunstad couldn’t find a story if it were her ass and she had her hands in her back pockets.
The dude from the last episode of Cerebrocast
Never heard of her but she sounds like she would be perfect writing scripts for the star trek and star wars tv shows.
I think they call this a "DEI" Hire. FACTS!