Not a comic review. The following does not represent the views of Brian or John or this website or its affiliates, only the author, who is a broken person who had to get some things typed out after some recent events.
ISSUE
Recently the comics website Bleeding Cool published an article entitled “Why are We Still Complaining about Dan DiDio?”, a defense of DC co-publisher Dan DiDio, written by Milestone co-founder and “mentor” Michael Davis.
Why are we still complaining?
For many years, I know I’ve complained about Dan DiDio, and this has seemed like an especially worthy topic to discuss given recent events. So below is some of my own reasoning that I’ve had in believing that Mr. DiDio should have been removed many years ago from his position at DC, a belief I only feel more urgently given recent events. In an ideal world, he would be promoted higher in a corporate hierarchy to a position of irrelevancy, to a position that actually utilized whatever strengths Mr. Davis and others might see in him, while removing him far from the day-to-day nuts & bolts of the mainstream comics industry, where I will argue below he is unsuited.
All the Usual Disclaimers:
I am not writing from nearly the position of authority as Michael Davis– I’m not a mentor, by any means. I tried to mentor inner city black children once by telling them that Shakespeare was the first rapper, but none of them would get in my van.
My reasoning is not based on a sound understanding of business or finance or even comics — only my own limited understanding of various facts, colored by my own irritation with a number of matters others may have long forgotten. You are certainly welcome to contest my ignorance as to the following.
Nor can I claim this is an exhaustive set of reasons why Mr. DiDio is unsuited for his job, or examples supporting those reasons. There are perhaps others who I would respectfully suggest may have additional reasons to add to this list, people better equipped to make this case who can not given the ordinary politics of mainstream comics. While there are examples where comics’ culture of unrelenting silence leads to absurd results, the guy who co-runs DC isn’t someone you usually want to piss off, and any silence respect thereto is ultimately understandable.
I’m a serious person in my daily life and for that reason, am typically not inclined to be serious when talking about comic books. I will try to stay on an even path when making this case, given the gravity of what we need to discuss, but can not promise not to slip up occasionally. My apologies for those who don’t enjoy the whole “levity” thing
I’m going to talk a lot about “comics” but herein, comics shall be understood to refer to “mainstream comics”. Comics are bigger than that industry, of course, and my apologies as ever, if I inadvertently upset the guy who makes Ziggy when discussing comics. I promise to love you forever, Ziggy.
Everything stated herein is an opinion offered purely for entertainment purposes. Nothing written below should be understood to be a representation of hard facts — only opinions.
RULE
To begin, we should establish a criteria for judging Mr. DiDio.
How do we determine whether he is doing a good job?
Let’s use a neutral third party– the website Tech Republic lists 10 criteria for a good manager. Some do not seem pertinent here (e.g., “be technically proficient”), whereas others seem redundant (“put your employees’ needs first” and “Encourage teamwork”). I will distill their list to at least the following five criteria:
1) Be a Team Leader
2) Be a Visionary in your Industry
3) Be a Good Communicator
4) Put your Employees’ Needs First
5) Do Something Special
Based upon this five-factor test, how would Dan DiDio fare?
APPLICATION
FACTOR 1 — Be a Team Leader
To begin, how do we evaluate Mr. DiDio’s work with his team of editors, assistant editors, etc., at DC Comics?
First point:
I would argue that the most pressing evidence about Mr. DiDio’s handling of his employees is simply not very good, at all.
I refer here to the fact that DC Comics, under his charge, “allegedly” maintained a sexually hostile work environment for many years– one that not only opted to protect a perpetrator of multiple incidents of sexual harassment, but more importantly, reportedly instituted an unwritten policy to not allow women to work in the high-profile Superman office.
If true, this arguably crippled the career development of DC’s female employees. After all, in discussing that unwritten policy, let us acknowledge the career trajectories of others who have worked on Superman properties. For example, Paul Levitz, former editor of Adventure Comics? Future President of DC Comics. Mike Carlin, former Superman group editor? Future executive editor of DC Comics, and present Creative Director of their Animation division. An argument can be made that a trip through the Superman office is a key step in a DC editor’s career growth– one that female employees were “allegedly” deprived of at that company while Mr. DiDio has been in charge. This is without even noting the symbolic value of such decisions, or the unnecessary distress female employees have had to “allegedly” suffer as a result of such an unwritten policy.
There may be details of this story that are not to your liking (i.e., you somehow may believe that DC’s knowing retention of a two-time sex-shenanigan thug didn’t somehow constitute a “slap on the wrist”). But everyone must admit that in our highly charged times, DC has suffered a public relations disaster as a result of this choice by DC to “allegedly” protect the career of a perpetrator of sexual harassment at the expense of women (which logic requires that we attribute in major part to Mr. DiDio, as one of DC’s top managers). We are now seeing the fall-out of Mr. DiDio’s choices being widely reported outside of the four corners of the mainstream comics industry– consider the following headlines in recent days:
Paste Magazine: “How Shelly Bond’s Dismissal became a War Cry Against Harassment“.
Video game website Polygon: “DC Comics responds to outcry about sexual harassment, after dismissing female editor– After three weeks of silence, DC Comics comments on swelling online discussion“.
Daily Dot: “DC Entertainment responds to turmoil over sexual harassment claims.“
Vulture: “DC Entertainment Responds to Sexual Harassment Allegations.”
DC has attempted to issue a “statement” about the situation, but (a) their statement was respectfully lacking in either substance or reassurance, (b) many of these articles have agreed, often describing the response as “vague”, and (c) in Vulture’s words “DC’s critics haven’t been satisfied.”
The situation involving the editor at issue is not an issue just about that editor. These things “allegedly” happened while Mr. DiDio was the proverbial “captain of the ship,” one of the supervisors in charge, an individual with an ethical and perhaps legal duty to prevent harassment. Even if you believe, somehow, through some kind of logic, that DC took sufficient action to remedy the situation, the fact remains Mr. DiDio allowed a public relations nightmare to be created on his watch rather than take the remedial efforts at the appropriate time that could have avoided that very same public relations nightmare.
If protecting the public image of your company is not one of your priorities as a manager, where can you even be said to be leading your team?
Second point:
Have there been losses of editorial talent while he has been in charge?
Answer: absolutely yes.
There are any number of names we could mention here, most of whom would probably prefer that they not be drug into my circus-world– excellent, excellent people who have found work elsewhere, including work at DC’s competitors.
Let’s at least consider the most recent Image Expos: part of the favorable press that has been obtained for Image Comics has been because they are now working with former high-profile DC editors.
Karen Berger (a DC Employee of such repute that her decision to leave the company was the subject of a New York Times article) is working on Surgeon X at Image with Sara Kenney and the (weirdly underrated in comics) John Watkiss– and press for that book focused more on Berger, than Kenney or Watkiss!
Similarly, Before Watchmen group editor Will Dennis is now working on an Image Comic with other Before Watchmen “creators”. While employed by DC, Dennis had spearheaded projects like 100 BULLETS and the LOSERS (a property made into a movie of the same name); picked Jason Aaron out of a submission pile; arguably had the kind of success that a comic publisher would ordinarily value.
Indeed, Image can be seen reaping the benefits of these defections in a number of ways. Consider this description from Peter Milligan (formerly a prominent DC creator) as to how his new Image Comic The Discipline came to be conceived: “After a lunch with then-Vertigo Editor Will Dennis, where we talked about doing a sexy, dark project, some of my earlier thoughts came into focus.“
In comics, the talent matters, and editorial talent is arguably as much a talent as writing, drawing, etc. In that respect, DC has arguably suffered major losses under Dan DiDio. And Dan DiDio’s losses in editorial have generated favorable press and buzz for Image Comics, one of DC’s key competitors at the moment.
Dan DiDio joined DC in 2002, and became Vice President – Executive Editor in 2004.
Consider DC and Image Comics in 2004, at the time he became Executive Editor, as compared to the present:
DC’s market share in 2004 was 30.63% dollar share and 32.23% unit share.
Image’s market share in Year-End 2004 was 3.90% Dollar Share, and 3.94% Unit Share.
Consider DC and Image Comics today, after Mr. DiDio became a prominent figure at DC:
DC’s market share in 2016 is 22.16% dollar share, and 24.02% unit share.
Image’s current market share as of 2016 is 9.67% Dollar Share, and 10.99% Unit Share.
There are various ways we can interpret these numbers, certainly — there has been a growth of the audience in those years, and market share is obviously less important than gross revenue (where numbers are obviously not as effortless to come by). In other words, no one should mind having a smaller share of a bigger market, if that means more money overall.
But perhaps these numbers merit some consideration when evaluating Mr. DiDio’s job performance, given the simple fact that Marvel’s numbers were not affected so dramatically. Marvel has held relatively steady, going in Dollar Share from 36.54% to 44.38%. Image’s gains have not been a loss for Marvel in the way they have been for Mr. DiDio’s DC.
Third Point:
How would we describe the editorial culture at DC under Mr. DiDio?
I think there’s evidence in support of those who would use the phrase “Editorial Chaos.”
Here’s one of the most promoted New 52 creators Rob Liefeld talking about why he left DC in 2012: “Massive indecision, last minute and I mean LAST minute changes that alter everything. Editor pissing contests… No thxnjs.”
Or there was the time that DC editorial in New York “stepped in” to alter a comic handled by DC Entertainment in California — after its contents had been promoted in TV Guide, which was reported by Wired.
Or there was a report in April 2014 of Mr. DiDio stating at a retailer summit that he couldn’t tell them about a September event because “only about half the teams have been confirmed” at that late date, adding also that a 3d cover promotion from the year before had lead to DC destroying “125,000 copies due to blurry proofs and some had cover dimples due to heating issues in production.” Long-time readers might remember an article written by Brian Hibbs covering that 3d cover situation — an article entitled “The staggeringly epic incompetence of DC Entertainment.”
Or consider this paragraph from an otherwise satirical March 2013 Outhousers article:
“DC Comics has had a rough week. The beleaguered publisher came under fire on Wednesday when news broke that Andy Diggle was walking off the creative team of Action Comics on the same day previews of his run were published in DC’s weekly comics. Series artist Tony Daniel was announced as his replacement, but Daniel had to find out via Facebook post. Joshua Hale Fialkov walked off his job as writer of Green Lantern Corps and Red Lantern the same day, and it later came out that he did it because DC was planning to kill prominent black Green Lantern John Stewart. “
That was all in one week!
Want to know the funny thing about that week in March 2013? It was a month after a February 2013 article from Bleeding Cool entitled “Did Dan DiDio apologise to DC Creators?“:
“Before the recent top-secret DC creative summit, Bleeding Cool ran a suggestion box, printing suggestions from actual DC comic creators about how they’d like to see things change. Whether it was because of that list, or because of those sentiments also being expressed face-to-face, I don’t know. But I’m told that at the summit, Publisher Dan DiDio apologised to creators gathered around. With President Diane Nelson to his side, DiDio admitted that there had been problems in the editorial chain, apologised for the repeated back-and-forths on people’s scripts and art, and committed to reducing such editorial inputs once an editorial direction has been agreed upon and approved.“
All that chaos was after Dan DiDio had quote-unquote “apologized”!
You might know that Mr. DiDio and Ms. Nelson both recently attended another summit quite recently, at least again according to the Outhousers:
“After a widely expressed belief that the company failed to properly handle sexual harassment complaints and instead discouraged victims and witnesses from speaking out, DC Comics has released a short statement to Comic Book Resources. […] The statement followed an “all staff” meeting Friday led by DC Entertainment head Diane Nelson about sexual harassment.“
Question: How many summits does Dan DiDio have to have with the employees he’s failed?
Question: How many summits could be avoided with another manager in his place, one actually suited to lead people?
Remember that suggestion box Bleeding Cool mentioned in 2013? One suggestion stands out:
“It is okay for someone other than Dan DiDio to have an idea. 52 books means 52 writers have been hired to write 52 books every month. That is a huge creative pool to draw from. So why does every idea have to get bottle necked through one man?“
Here, we can see first-hand evidence of DC in 2013: a creative person anonymously observing editorial dysfunction — editorial dysfunction that Mr. DiDio not only tolerated but was apparently personally responsible for.
FACTOR 2 — Be a Visionary
First Point:
How do we evaluate whether someone in charge of content is a visionary? I think the answer has to be based upon the talent they work with. If Mr. DiDio is a visionary, one would expect that he would attract to DC the visionary talent that would drive DC into a new era.
So: what about Mr. DiDio’s relationship with the creative personnel of comics– the quote-unquote “star” members of creative teams that arguably can drive audiences to their books by virtue of their names and personal brands?
Here, the first example of Mr. DiDio’s reputation that first springs to mind is his work on 52, a weekly series that fans received warmly and indeed, would serve as a model for multiple weekly or “bi-weekly” DC projects thereafter.
Except listen to how 52 co-creator Mark Waid describes Mr. DiDio’s involvement on that project in 2009:
“The biggest challenge was actually, wisely, kept from us by Steve. EIC Dan DiDio, who first championed the concept, hated what we were doing. H-A-T-E-D 52. Would storm up and down the halls telling everyone how much he hated it. And Steve, God bless him, kept us out of the loop on that particular drama. Siglain, having less seniority, was less able to do so, and there’s one issue of 52 near the end that was written almost totally by Dan and Keith Giffen because none of the writers could plot it to Dan’s satisfaction. Which was and is his prerogative as EIC, but man, there’s little more demoralizing than taking the ball down to the one-yard line and then being benched by the guy who kept referring to COUNTDOWN as ‘52 done right.’”
Mark Waid currently writes the Avengers for Marvel– one of its highest profile titles.
Mr. Waid also has 84.1 thousand twitter followers. By comparison, Mr. DiDio has no twitter account because he cancelled his, (perhaps coincidentally) after it became clear DC had “allegedly” maintained a sexually hostile work environment.
Or there was Paul Jenkins in 2013:
“DC is in the toilet right now. […] Suffice it to say that the fans are not getting the creators in these books – they are getting an unpalatable product, which is destroyed by editorial interference perpetrated by unqualified project managers.”
Paul Jenkins was the author of an Inhumans run that would have likely been the model had Marvel gone forward with a planned Inhumans movie.
Here’s a key point that I hope is clear: comic creators prefer to be silent when something has gone wrong, and to simply talk among themselves as to that situation. No one wants to stick their neck out. So when we see people still manage to say that things have gone wrong at DC– we are only ever seeing the tip of a very dysfunctional iceberg. We are seeing truly strange weather. That anything is being said at all is remarkable.
Second Point:
Subsequent to 2004, among fans, my own personal observation as a comic blogging weirdo with some level of communication and observation of the fanbase? It has been that fans have felt like the talent has been more at Marvel than at DC, that Marvel had the “deeper bench,” and that Marvel, far more than DC, was a route to being a “Bigger name” in comics for a comics writer than DC.
Who have been the big name authors under Mr. DiDio’s regime at DC? Scott Snyder. Grant Morrison. Geoff Johns (though arguably an equal or superior to DiDio in the corporate hierarchy and thus “doesn’t count”). Gail Simone. Those four names come to mind first, for me, at least.
By comparison, just going through some of the “big name” writing talent on the Image Comics website— just writing talent:
Robert Kirkman— also worked with Marvel, arguably most famous writer in mainstream comics right now, god help us;
Mark Millar— also worked with Marvel, poor relationship with DC;
Ed Brubaker— also worked with Marvel;
Kieron Gillen— also worked with Marvel;
Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick— both also worked with Marvel;
Ales Kot— except for a couple issues of Suicide Squad, mostly worked with Marvel;
Brian Wood— sex monster;
Marjorie Liu– also worked with Marvel;
Rick Remender— also worked with Marvel
Jonathan Hickman— also worked with Marvel;
Warren Ellis— also worked with Marvel;
Nick Spencer— after a brief stint at DC, has worked with Marvel;
Jason Aaron— picked out of a submission pile at DC, but still mostly worked with Marvel and the guy who picked him out of the submission pile is gone instead of DiDio or the guy who “allegedly” grabs at creator’s girlfriends.
That’s at least 13 names, not counting Brian Wood– more than three times as many!
These are just off-the-top-of-my-head names, back of the envelope math. Sure, there are people we could argue over, debate whether or not they are “stars”. We can argue over Charles Soule or that Tom King guy, I guess. But I don’t think that would result in a significant change in numbers unless you got desperate and started yelling that Jeff Lemire‘s a “star” to someone somewhere. (And I think he might be at Marvel now, too…?).
Or yes, there are people hard to classify: Kurt Busiek— worked for everybody; is beloved. Brian Vaughan— worked at DC… but at Vertigo, which was run by Karen Berger; his big superhero comics were at Marvel. But I also ignored all the people who just work for Marvel, e.g. Brian Michael Bendis, or, uh, Ta-Nehisi Coates(?). DC does not have talent of their equivalent fame in its line-up.
Look: this is not to say DC didn’t work with talented people in recent years. Your pal-in-comics Graeme over at the Wait What podcast has had nice things to say about Rob Williams or Genevieve Valentine or others, say. (I thought Valentine had some moves– didn’t keep working for DC). But DC has arguably not been the route to fortune and glory during Mr. DiDio’s tenure, not as compared to a comparable gig at Marvel Comics.
Consider G. Willow Wilson— worked at DC on a Vixen limited series, a Vertigo series, a smattering of DC titles. But fortune and glory? From the outside at least, it seemed like that’s been generated far more off her work for Marvel, and her contributions there reaching their audience far more than was true at DC.
Can we really say that’s meaningless? And can we really say Mr. DiDio has no responsibility, zero, zilch over that state of affairs? Would you actually try to tell me that Marvel just “got lucky“? That would all simply to defy common sense.
And final note on this point: Gail Simone? On at least one occasion, during Mr. DiDio’s leadership, Ms. Simone was fired off a Batgirl series that was “performing well” — by e-mail. Treatment Ms. Simone then described as “baffling and sad.” If Baffling and Sad is how DC under Mr. DiDio’s supervision has treated its stars, is it surprising he can’t attract more of them?
Third Point:
Eagle-eyed readers will notice the one name I have left off that list is Greg Rucka, a writer whose recent return to DC Comics generated significant buzz.
But Rucka present a curious case. Here he is in 2012, edited for your patience:
“I gave seven very good years to DC and they took gross advantage of me. That’s partially my fault, but not entirely. At this point, I see no reason why I should have to put up with that, I can sink or swim on my own. […]There was at least a period where I felt that the way they wanted to make money was by telling the best story they could; now the quality of the work matters less than that the book comes out. There is far less a desire to see good work be done.
Dan DiDio has gone on record, and this is the same man that said Gotham Central would never be cancelled as long as he was there, telling people what a great book Gotham Central was, but it never made any money. Well, take a look at your trade sales! That book has made nothing but money as a trade. What I’m now being told is, ”lt was never worth anything to us anyway.”So, you know what? They can stop selling the Batwoman: Elegy trade and stop selling the Wonder Woman trades and everything else I’ve done, because clearly I’ve not done anything of service and those guys aren’t making any money off me.”
This is DC’s highest profile writer, at the moment.
Fourth Point:
“But wait wait wait,” I hear you say– “Maybe it’s not a question of whether DC has failed to attract strong creators. Maybe Marvel and Image are just doing a very good job at attracting talent, and DC has had to compete but done a good job in light of that competition.”
Except: then that raises a pertinent question– has DC under Mr. DiDio had practices in place that would actively keep star talent from wanting to work there, or impaired its ability to break new talent?
Arguably yes.
“Even besides allegedly keeping around editors who will thrust their tongues down your girlfriend’s throat right in front of you?”
Again, arguably yes. Actual editorial practices.
Consider Greg Rucka’s new role on Wonder Woman– (1) a job he “allegedly” took on the condition that he not have to work for a perpetrator of sexual harassment whom Mr. DiDio has protected and (2) a job that he “allegedly” got after DC had promised the work to a female writer… and then took it away from her at the last minute.
This is a story we’ve heard time and again about the modern DC under Dan DiDio. Creative teams simultaneously working on pitches, not knowing that they were competing with other people for jobs. Consider just this recent February 2016 article from Bleeidng Cool, entitled “DC Comics Rebirth: What Happened to the Old DC Comics Pitches?“:
It’s a hard time pitching at DC Comics right now. Everyone’s at it, everyone’s in competition with each other – even those who don’t know they’re in competition with anyone.[..] “Tumultuous” is the word I’ve have heard used. And its not just an issue for DC Comics. As a result of the upheaval and unsureity, record numbers of comic book professionals have been contacting editors at Marvel Comics, and publisher of Image Comics Eric Stephenson than ever before…
Or consider writer Warren Ellis in 2011:
“I’m hearing a lot lately about writers being put into foot races on gigs. And not only do they not know who else is running for the job – but many of them seem not to be told they’re in a foot race at all. Writers who assumed they were writing the gig are being told that they never had the gig at all, that other writers have been run parallel to them. Even though they were put through multiple drafts. They didn’t know they were in competition.
[…] They are finding new and interesting ways to piss off more people than they’re hiring. Now, comics has no shortage of resentful people – but do you really want to create exponentially more? People who can identify the exact individuals who fucked them over, and wait?
Commercial comics can be enough of a snakepit even in relatively benign times. But bringing back a process both demeaning and creatively inferior, and just fucking lying to people about it? I don’t like what that says about the next cycle in the field. I guess the Nineties really are coming back.
At relevant times, DC under Mr. DiDio has apparently utilized practices condemned by the top talent in comics. If we ask why DC does not have stronger relationships with the talent in comics, how can we start our blame with anyone other than Mr. DiDio?
Fifth Point:
This one is a little theory I have — that there’s a fun game that I imagine comic creators like to play called “What’s it going to be like when I get older?” My theory is that comic creators likely want answers to that question that aren’t terrifying– and for that reason, I imagine they pay close attention to how veteran talent is treated, how loyal DC artists are treated, so as to imagine how they themselves might be treated someday if they work hard for DC.
How’d veterans make out under Mr. DiDio’s watch?
Listen to Kevin Maguire— an artist I’ve associated with what makes DC Comics great, my entire goddamn life– in August 2013:
“I think I was just fired. […] I don’t know what there is to get in front of. I don’t know what’s going on. This morning I had something to work on and now I don’t. Right now, my primary concern is to have something to do starting tomorrow that pays the bills.”
Mr. Maguire ultimately did do something “tomorrow.” He started working for Marvel on a high-profile Guardians of the Galaxy comic written by Brian Michael Bendis. “Not good enough” for the DiDio regime turned out to be plenty fine for one of the most high-profile creators in comics at DC’s competitor.
Theoretically, I imagine this served as a lesson to others– loyalty and effort at DC are not rewarded. At least, not under Mr. DiDio. Again, ask yourself: would you expect someone with that on their track record to be able to attract real star talent?
Sixth Point:
Does this argument overstate the importance of the creative people in comics? DC has Batman– does it matter who writes it? Many charts can be shown suggesting that for the most part, perhaps it doesn’t.
I would argue with those charts, however, based upon a movie I saw recently entitled Captain America: Civil War.
Sure, some would say that movie was based upon a crossover, the kind of crossover that Mr. DiDio made comics safe again for; that Civil War was Marvel’s response to the Infinite Crisis crossover and side crossovers that Mr. DiDio would point to as one of his big successes in comics.
But that would ignore what that movie seemed far more to evidence, which is how much the movies have taken inspiration from the contributions of a few key creative people at Marvel, at the right place, at the right time, at a company that understood the value of their contributions. People remember Civil War not because it’s a crossover– no one fondly remembers Secret Invasion or Siege the way they do Civil War. No, Civil War seems to me far more a Mark Millar comic, a Millar comic through and through, thematically, in terms of how he thinks about character, in terms of how he thinks about what appeals to audiences commercially. Hollywood has successfully made movies of a half-dozen Mark Millar comics now, so that hardly seems coincidental. And the Avengers in that movie? Unmistakably inspired by his Ultimates run.
And of course, the movie people didn’t stick to Millar’s work– no, they refocused Civil War to address… the Winter Soldier, Ed Brubaker’s key contribution to the Marvel “lore.” The entire Marvel Cinematic Universe is impossible to imagine without Ed Brubaker– a DC writer who left for Marvel, and I will note here the co-creator of Gotham Central.
You can see the other co-creator talking above about how he felt about Mr. DiDio.</spa