DC Comics Creators JUMPING SHIP! Top Batman Writer QUITS for Substack!

[geektalk]

DC Comics’ top creators are jumping ship, including Batman writer James Tynion IV. Could this be why Jim Lee did that weird interview claiming everything was fine at DC Comics last week? How many more viable creators will exit the Big Two for Substack, ComiXology or crowdfunding before it’s too late? Will DC be left with nothing but more ‘I Am Not Starfire’ from here on out?

 

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wow okay hey guys welcome back to

clownfish tv this is neon we’re going to

talk about dc comics and the

ever-changing

mainstream comic book industry batman

writer james tinian is moving from dc to

sub stack sub stack right it’s like a

blogging platform well they’re doing

comics now

this is after we had some other creators

jumping ship for comixology

amazon

uh you know other deals netflix deals

all this jazz it seems like if you’re

doing really really well in comics right

now the thing to do is pull an image

circa 1991 92 and uh go work on

creator-owned projects whether or not

that’s uh you know through

an app or you know through a company

like amazon

or you know going out and crowdfunding

this this is what you have to do you

have to jump ship and i think the

creators who are capable of jumping ship

or jumping ship and everybody else while

they’re out there on gofundme looking to

pay their rent that’s kind of situation

that that comics creators find

themselves in now either

um you’re you’re getting by

you know in the mainstream or you’re

going out and starting uh starting to

work on your own projects and and that’s

where the creativity is gonna come from

comics has been lacking in creativity

for a long time uh because of you know

corporate mandates and and uh creators

being afraid to create new characters

for these companies because they know

they’re not gonna get paid much we’re

gonna we’re gonna talk about that uh

yeah so before we get into it any

further please subscribe for more pop

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thank you for the support geeky is

sending this one out she worked pretty

hard last couple days and she’s not

really interested in this topic

uh even though we make comics we don’t

make superhero comics and uh you know

we’ve actually been fairly successful

with our own stuff here and there we’d

like to ramp that up a little bit but uh

yeah you know to to follow up on the

video we did a couple of days ago if

you’re going to make comics you want to

make comics for yourself or at least

work with an independent publisher i

think because marvel and dc are

getting close to the end of the line

right just to bring up jim lee in this

uh damage control interview he did

a week or so ago

that uh you know dc was fine

everything’s fine warner’s not gonna

shut us down

uh it’s all fine here guys hey why don’t

you do some creator-owned stuff for dc

probably because they knew that uh

tinian was gonna leave

they probably knew he was gonna leave

so

you know they’re like hey guys it’s okay

over here and this i remember marvel

doing something similar i don’t remember

exactly what the deal was but i know

when they had a lot of people jumping

ship for image back in the day they were

trying to wheel and deal to keep the

remaining talent with them

but you know it was it was kind of a

burning building at that point marvel

back then was doing way better than

they’re doing now

i mean there really is no

advantage to working for marvel or dc

long term because the future is bleak

overall

uh you know

you know these characters get turned

into a billion dollar movies

you know if you’re lucky and you might

get five thousand dollars

for that for characters you created now

i’m not talking work for hire i’m

talking about characters that you

yourself

created you might get a five thousand

dollar thank you from a company like

disney well we’ll talk about that later

but here we go batman writer james

tinian is moving from dc to sub stack uh

while the writer’s creator own books

will continue he’s leaving dc comics and

pivoting

to the career-based subscription

platform i’m not even 100 sure

what sub stack is sounds like a cross

between a blog and patreon and i always

thought it was more of a tech thing

so things of dc comics seem a little

different in the coming months it’s

because james tinian iv is leaving he

announced today he’ll exit batman after

issue 117 in november and the joker

after issue 14 in april 2022

where is he headed well he’ll be moving

his talents exclusively to sub stack

with no immediate plans to write any

other superhero comics in the near

future

the announcement was made appropriately

enough on his sub stack which will

become a subscription-based site where

opinion will basically have complete

creative control to do whatever the heck

he wants

and that begins in september with the

publication of blue book an original ufo

comic

ooh ooh i like the sound of that uh blue

book yeah i might i might check that out

uh again this is coming from gizmodo io9

formerly io9 rolled into gizmodo it’s a

lot to digest but the writer goes deep

into all of it over on the sub stack

basically had to choose between a new

contract from dc and another from sub

stack the difference being sub stacks

was the best contract i’ve ever been

given in a decade as a professional

comic book writer a grant from sub stack

to create a new slate of original comic

book properties directly on their

platform

that my co-creators and i would own

completely

with substack taking none of the

intellectual property rights or even the

publishing rights

um

yeah so this is actually a good time to

leave you know let’s be honest this is a

really good time to leave because

warner media

is merging with discovery and despite

jim lee

and daniel daniel cherry iii

saying everything is fine to the

hollywood reporter

things aren’t fine they’re really not

fine

over at dc i mean there was a massive

round of layoffs last year and we don’t

know what state dc is going to be in you

know in the previous video we talked

about how

you know jason kawar at warner does seem

to be a comic book fan and he’s kind of

you know uh keeping the flame alive i

guess

defending

the continued existence of dc comics as

a comic book publisher when frankly all

of these characters all these ip

could be jobbed out or licensed out to

other comic book publishers and they

could wash their hands of it and same

with with marvel comics and disney

so they were trying to do some damage

control it’s probably because they knew

this was going to happen and if one

leaves

others are going to leave as well and

what we’re going to be left with is a

bunch of i am not starfire

you know that’s what dc is going to be

left with uh massively massively

downvoted uh trailer by the way uh

people just are not excited about that

comic at all

um yeah other than to to

poke fun at it so sub stack will cost

seven dollars a month with other options

and discounts depending on how long you

choose to buy in

the more you support this newsletter the

larger the budget i have to start

building the next wave of big cool ideas

that i’m dying to try out so yeah it’s

basically a cross between

patreon

and

uh a blog you know you’re paying for

blog content in this case you’re playing

you’re paying for um

you know graphic novel content comic

book content

so there’s no upper limit uh he also

writes outside of dc clarified on

twitter that none of his creator-owned

work at other publishers will be

affected by the sub-stack deal the

writer actually gave a breakdown i

launched my highest selling original

comic book series yet with the nice

house on the lake at dc black label news

got out that my best-selling horror

comic something is killing the children

is in development netflix with mike

flanagan and trevor macy’s intrepid

pictures and we announced that boom

studios and i are launching the first

spin-off title in the slaughter verse

slaughter verse with house of slaughter

uh he’s got something going on image too

this is what’s gonna happen

oh he’s also got a young adult series

because everybody does now right

everybody does now

so this is interesting of course the

whole creators going to sub stack thing

has been a rather controversial one over

the past few months money problems

uh issues with who is on the platform

and who isn’t

uh and the list goes on and on so this

move might not end up being as clean and

easy as it sounds no what’s gonna happen

is other comic book professionals are

gonna piss and moan and make him feel

incredibly guilty for looking out for

himself and and jumping ship while he

can this happened with image comics too

todd mcfarlane rob liefeld and jim lee

uh they all left they left marvel at the

height of their careers at marvel and

they went and they formed image and they

made even more money

they made even more money and todd

mcfarlane in particular

is still reaping the rewards of that

decision talked about him the previous

video you know he he took his comic book

fame and he he pushed it over into

starting a toy company he pushed it over

into you know getting uh an animation

deal you know i love the spawn animated

series on hbo i used to watch it all

time

and uh you know it’s apparently there’s

another spawn movie coming out one of

these years i i don’t know

but you know that’s what i’m saying like

they got out while the getting was good

and they looked out for themselves and

they’ve been able to have

careers for decades because of it you

know if todd mcfarlane and rob liefeld

and jim lee had all stayed at marvel

doing page work you know who knows maybe

they would be on gofundme now

looking to pay their bills because they

didn’t know when to get out

it’s like the gambler you know you got

to know when to hold them and no one to

fold them and know when to walk away and

know when to run in and uh tinian he’s

he’s running away running away from dc

and i think we’re going to see a lot

more

top shelf comic book creators leave

because they have to

the direct market is not sustainable

it’s gonna get worse

as uh manga eats into its market share

you know it’s it’s gonna get worse guys

so you gotta look out for yourself so

i’m gonna wrap this one up please

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