On collaboration and credit
The comics I write rely on collaboration and most especially my collaborators. I write projects specifically for the people that draw them – and oftentimes color and letter them, too.
Without David Aja there would be no HAWKEYE.
Without Annie Wu, Kate would not have gone west. Without Matt Hollingsworth, Lucky would not have solved a crime. Without Chris the Winter Friends wouldn’t exist and nobody would’ve said anything in any of the books anyway. Without Steve Wacker there would be no book at all.
Without Chom Zduggitty there is no SEX CRIMINALS. I literally would not write the book. The only excuse I have for not saying his name on national television when I spoke about the book on national television is that I was *on national television* and was losing my goddamn mind with nerves. For what it’s worth I allowed my hair to be styled so that I looked like the guy from Flock Of Seagulls’ assassination decoy and also forgot to sign the release that allowed them to broadcast the show and had to do it that evening before air well after I’d left the studio. I was nervous and I blew it. That’s on me. It reflects neither the truth of the situation or the reality of debt and joy I feel towards my partner Chim. Cham? Something like that. He’s great.
Without Bá and Moon, there’s no CASANOVA. Without Howard – literally – there’s no SATELLITE SAM. And who other than Christian Ward could possibly create ODY-C with me?
And that doesn’t even mention colorists, letterers, assistants, flatters, editorial or producorial hands on the wheel.
I write for my partners. I write with them and to them. I seek collaborators and co-conspirators rather than employees. I share ownership of the books I do (HAWKEYE obviously an exception) with the artists for whom I write as a rule. They make more than me, too, as a rule, and they earn it. Comics are a visual medium; to quote Mark Twain, “Thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the job.”
It is a high class problem at all that anyone wants to write critically about a book I write and I understand that, but I find it fatuous at best and disingenuous at worst when any book I write gets referred to as “mine.” These comics result from the work of “us.” One may as well write a restaurant review without referring to the actual taste of a meal, or a piece of music solely by its duration.
To not refer to the artists I am lucky enough to write for and co-create these books with reflects a morally (or at least intellectually) criminal neglect and ignorance of the process from which the books get made –thus casting any other commentary suspect while robbing attention and praise from those that deserve it.
Love the books or hate the books there is a group behind their production, sometimes moving heaven and earth in ways you’ll never know, and any commentary should reflect that partnership.
I cannot and do not speak for others but as far as the books I write goes, as far as “my” books go – well, there is no ‘my’ books. They’re all “ours” – legally, financially, morally, ethically, and most of all, creatively.
Chip! Shit, his name is Chip. Now I remember.
(Pls forgive any typos or obvious omissions in the above. I’m typing on my thumbs from a cardiac ICU during a few quiet moments.)
