Hi, Gail. Just wanted to say that I really enjoyed your work on The Movement. You bring so much to DC Comics! I hope you have a long and happy career there, because the quality of books instantly rises with you on them.

Thank you so much!

DC has been my home for a long time. I love it there. I love the people, I love the characters, I love the support and I just adore the DCU proper and always will. To me, it’s an honor to get to add in some small way to the tapestry of that massive story. I love it.

DC let me work on the characters I have loved and been inspired by since childhood. They have universally supported my passion for inclusion, in both characters and creators. They have given me the best artists to work with, they have listened to my complaints, and I have watched them make changes for the better over the years.

I am very proud to write for DC.

When I first worked there, I couldn’t believe it, I was pinching myself every day. It was like being a Star Wars fan and suddenly having a working lightsaber. I got to work on books like Birds of Prey and Wonder Woman and Secret SIx and many others, and say what you like, I don’t think we would have been able to do the things we did with those books anywhere else at the time.  

When the New52 happened, we seemed to be pulling in different directions and there was a lot of friction between myself and DC. Some of it was on their side (most of the people I really struggled with are gone), but some was on my side and I have to take responsibility for it. It was a rough couple years, the way it is sometimes with family, where nobody means ill, but bad feelings are generated nonetheless. And again, I didn’t handle it well.

And we had that weird situation happen where I got fired from Batgirl that made such a big fuss. Which felt like a weird train wreck to observe at the time, I felt it was a crash where I was a passenger watching it happen, somehow.

It was also a rough time personally, as we had some family crises (my own family) that made everything very stressy and I now believe I was suffering a bit from undiagnosed and untreated depression. My house got robbed, our identities stolen, my son was attacked, our dogs died within a week of each other, my brother was hit by a car and had to have extensive help, just stuff kept piling on.

But here’s the thing. DC didn’t give up on me, and they absolutely could have. They’re a business, they have to keep the trains running and I was in a rough way. 

But they didn’t give up, and everyone from the top levels down was just incredibly kind. Diane Nelson, Dan DiDio, Geoff Johns, Jim Lee, Jim Chadwick, Larry Ganem, Mark Doyle, Shelly Bond, Bob Harras, they (and many more) all spoke to me personally and offered kindness and support and advice. They helped me get through the rough patch, they reminded me that I was still valued there, and they offered me exciting, fun work they knew I would enjoy. When Secret Six shipped late (my first late-shipping DC books ever, due to a huge confluence of horrible stuff hitting the entire creative team), everyone at DC pitched in to help us get back on track when they could easily have just given up.

I have not always worked in comics. I’ve had some shitty jobs for rotten employers. I know very few companies where everyone would be encouraging like that. And it means a lot to me. Not everyone has that luxury. 

I think of how, whenever I talk to Bob Harras about a new project, he always asks if we can be sure to include lots of characters of color, of different ethnic backgrounds. That’s his key issue, he wants a DCU that looks like the readership. I love that.  I think of how I went to Dan DiDio with a list of reasons why we needed a trans character in Batgirl, only for him to agree immediately, concerned only that it not be  exploitative.

I remember having an hour long conversation with Jim Lee about a future product and just being astounded at the guy’s endless creative vision. And hearing Diane speak eloquently about how comics can do good in the world beyond just telling stories. 

We obviously haven’t agreed on everything, and I have made myself quite the pain in the ass over it at times, but again, DC was publishing out and proud lgbtq superheroes when Marvel wouldn’t even mention out loud. 

The past year or so, maybe a little more, DC has made a lot of changes for the better, for the books and for the creative teams, and it’s exciting to see. I am delighted to see them going after new talent, and actually developing mentorship programs. I love the resurgence of Vertigo. I love that every day, I am working in the same universe as people like Scott Snyder and Greg Pak and Pete Tomasi. 

I have always felt that DC published a much wider spectrum of material and genres and formats than Marvel (I love Marvel, don’t get me wrong). And that’s pretty lovely, too.

It’s been an exciting, rebuilding year for DC. They’ve had some happy successes and some unfortunate setbacks, but I am very excited for the stuff I have seen coming up. It feels far more forward-looking than elsewhere, and that’s where I always want to be.

When things were great, DC was there for me, but when things were crappy for me, they were there still. And that means a great deal, and I won’t forget that. 

Right now, I really want to see DC succeed. I love the universe best of all fantasy universes, and I love the people, and I want them to kick ass. 

I’m having a blast working with other companies. But I hope I will always have a spot at DC, because it really is home.