From the digital mouth of Jim Shooter. Read the whole thing.
Sometime in February, 1984, my secretary (it was okay to say “secretary” in those days) the wonderful Lynn Cohen told me that Bill Sarnoff was on the phone. Not his secretary, Bill Sarnoff himself, holding for me.
Great Scott!
Bill Sarnoff was the Big Cheese, I forget his exact title, of the publishing arm of Warner Communications. Among the operations under his purview was DC Comics.
Bill introduced himself, as if that was necessary. What he wanted to talk about was licensing the publishing rights for all DC characters to Marvel Comics.
Holy hegemony, Billman!
How’s that tickle your alternate-history bone?
I got linked to Jim Shooter’s weblog by some guys who did a podcast on the Transformers comics. There is some fascinating reading there!
I’m now imagining what the 90’s would have looked like when Image jumped ship.
What if Image got a handful of writers in addition to all of those artists?
You mean, if John Byrne or Frank Miller or any of the guys who had worked for First had gone to work with the Image guys?
Image started in 1992, First exploded in 1991. Can you image how much more awesome Image would have been if they had invited Ostrander and Baron and Wagner?
Looking over the Image titles from 1992 and 1993, I’m reminded more that they needed managers infinitely more than writers (I had forgotten Trencher!).
Image really needed something other than, “Mwah, I’m taking my zawzome characters and going to my *own* sandbox”.
The only moment I found vaguely interesting in any Image comic was the cameo by Cerebus. And it made no sense whatsoever in the story.
That’s the lesson from Image, isn’t it? Management is necessary. Creative talent actually needs that whip. I would say that recent events at DC suggest that even apart from day-to-day management, putting creative talent in charge of creative development is an iffy proposition. Corporate adds discipline.
I miss First Comics. It had real potential.
I might lose all my old X-men, or my Spideys, and it would make me sad but I’d get over it.
The Dynamo Joe and Grendel would cause me real pain.