Breevort calls out Dan Slott.

[Cyclops]

Theres tough love, and theres there singling out. Wheres his rant againt Millar and McNiven. They are now pushing back theri biggest summer event to a fall/winter event. This also pushes back the new Thor title, Mighty Avengers and all titles spinning out of Civil War. To me thats abigger deal than they ship books a week late which no one is buying.

You don't call out Millar for being late for the same reason you don't call out Oprah for anything. Millar's a SUPERstar. Slott's not quite one.

IE Brevoort was picking on an easy target.

 

[BrianWilly]

I hate it when books are late and I can completely understand Brevoort's frustration at something like that and his willingness to call out a guy on a message board. We've all had friends or peers who's done unspeakably stupid things before and for whatever reason we wanna just forget about decorum and shout, "WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU??" to their face even when it's completely inappropriate; I think that fueled a lot of Brevoort's attitude in that post. He has a point, and he's very entitled to that point, and good for him for making it.

On the other hand, I completely agree with Dread as well; the fact is that there are dozens upon dozens of higher profile Marvel books that suffer from lateness time and time again. Making a huge fuss about Slott, who I honestly wouldn't even have noticed was periodically late if I hadn't read this thread, while shrugging off the legions of more higher-profile writers who are far worse offenders just makes Brevoort look like an instigator at best and a hypocrite at worst. I don't care if he was responding to a specific question on a message board; Darth and Cyclops are completely right, he didn't have to. He could have just ignored the question and move on; Buffy knows we've all had to do that with a lot of the posts here.

Where was the "We're Marvel and we're a professional company!!" spiel when all the suits were busy making excuses for Hitch and for Finch? Whenever big name books get delayed, people either ignore it or make awkward jokes about it. It's not just Marvel either; DC's All-Star Line, especially Batman and Robin, is becoming a running gag at conventions.

Especially considering the recent Civil War delays, Brevoort's whole spiel becomes even more ridiculous; I feel for Millar if it's the Crohn's affecting his work, but damn...the comic was supposed to come out tomorrow and we're just hearing today that it's been delayed for more than a month?? That can't nearly be blamed on just Millar alone, a situation like that has to have been due to unprofessionalism from a lot of people.

 

[Not Jake]

Why does your sig say "the hype sucks now", Not Jake??

because the hype sucks now

 

[Harlekin]

You all miss the fact that that post (as Slott himself also states) was made months ago? I figure this is a done deal and all that.

 

[gildea]

On the other hand, I completely agree with Dread as well; the fact is that there are dozens upon dozens of higher profile Marvel books that suffer from lateness time and time again. Making a huge fuss about Slott, who I honestly wouldn't even have noticed was periodically late if I hadn't read this thread, while shrugging off the legions of more higher-profile writers who are far worse offenders just makes Brevoort look like an instigator at best and a hypocrite at worst. I don't care if he was responding to a specific question on a message board; Darth and Cyclops are completely right, he didn't have to. He could have just ignored the question and move on; Buffy knows we've all had to do that with a lot of the posts here.

Answering a question in one post is NOT making a huge fuss.

Again you (like everyone else) are treating this as if tom b was making a stand against lateness and making general comics commentary. You're critisising tom B on the basis of something else.

Criticise him for unproffesionalism by making this public sure but the idea that because he answered a question about slott with an answer about slott translates into him giving other writers a free pass is incredibly wrong headed.

anyway as harlekin said this is two months ago

In other news the cw delays are an art thing, perhaps we can stop the ill founded judging of mark millar regarding cw?

 

[hippy fascist]

I read it, can I go crazy now?


I agree with Corp, we were discussing this before on AIM. Just seemed pretty harsh, also considering how late Mark Millar's Ultimates and now Civil War are.

Well I can tell you that I work in sales and therefore generate my company income. If I meet or exceed expectations on new business I can pretty much get away with anything I want. If I'm not selling I'm out the door, it's that simple. Is this fair, no but it's the job I'm paid to do so I make sure I'm selling by putting the extra hours in. Sometimes I don't get home till 10pm but I'm supposed to finish at 5:30. Why do I do this, because my job is to sell.

As long as millar is selling like crazy he can do what he wants, if his sales slip, he will get *****-slapped.

Also it's worth noting that marvel's big agenda for the last few years has been about drawing in new readers and miller is doing this in spades, slott is a great writer and I like his work but he's mostly a favourite among seasoned collectors

 

[roach]

We have this saying in the Navy "Praise in public. chastize in private". I could almost see doing it if any of Slott's books were "Batman and Robin late". The point that everyone is bringing out is that he isnt the only late writer. To single out one writer because of it seems hypocritical. You want to call out lateness call out all of it at Marvel.

 

[Harlekin]

Also, for the love of Pete folks, the guy's name is Brevoort, not Breevort, Beervort, or any deratives of that.

 

[iloveclones]

Like Spider-Man in CW, we all sell our souls for a few dollars and a roof over our heads, and we all choose to become someone's slave so we can afford our trinkets.

When you have a mortgage and a family, come back to me, and tell me if you still believe that. Because, believe me, my responsibility to them far outweighs any notion of "remaining true to Peter Parker's true character", or whatever the daily gripe is. I mean, we're not talking about selling state secrets to buy your family a mansion here. We're talking about comic book characters.

 

[Doc Destruction]

Calling people out is also a way to make yourself feel better and to cover your own dumb mistakes.

Either way, it's pretty damn lame.

Ahhh, it feels good to be back.

 

[Horrorfan]

Chronic lateness is something that plagues the modern comic industry, especially Marvel in this regard. Heck, their hot "summer" event, CIVIL WAR, will be delayed starting from the midway point and not finish until early '07 at this rate. There've also been delays of Top 20 calliber books like ASTONISHING X-MEN, NEW AVENGERS, MOON KNIGHT, etc. that go on and on. And after years of this, who does Bevroot single out?

Dan Slott. A great but poor selling writer whose books rarely get any support from Marvel except when they need them for a crossover event, sort of like when the pimp wants the aging madam to do "one show, because I be in a jam, dawg" and then it's back to beatings and tribute every other night. There are far, far, FAR more notoriously late books, books that are IMPORTANT to Marvel's sales, moreso than Slott's, unfortunately. SHE-HULK isn't a Top 10 book. Neither was THE THING or GLA or whatever. I can't count how many Top 20 Marvel books were late or have been late for issues at at time.

Does Bevroot dare speak ill of Quesada, whose own ignorance of his own life and schedule has caused BOTH of his pet projects, NYX (which too many people forgive him for) and DAREDEVIL: FATHER to be endlessly late? Does he utter a word about Kevin Smith, lest they keep their souls available for another stint with him? Does he dare raise a finger about some other late books that I won't mention? No. He chooses a writer whose work, no thanks to Marvel, is lucky to sell within the Top 50 on average, and lays into him.

And about Slott's "comfort level"...he's been honest online about him only being able to handle maybe 2 ongoings a month. Yet some months he got overloaded. Why? Does he choose to overwork himself, or does Marvel dump in the work? And if Slott takes on more than he can chew, don't the Marvel staff know him well enough to go, "Wait, you're busy, you can't do all this, don't kill yourself"? It's not like he lives in F'ing Europe like some writers and has that distance to complicate matters. Or does Marvel just pile on as much work as a writer or their editorial staff wants and then only barks when it crashes? That's the equalivent to a bartender serving drinks to someone who is well over the limit and then not expecting any responsibility when that drunk gets hurt because of it. Not calling Slott an abuser, but I'm saying that as both professional workers and artists, shouldn't Bevroot have a healthy idea of what is beyond Slott's comfort level and not offer him beyond that, even if he asks?

I'd believe Bevroot truly gave a damn if he ranted so furiously about late writers/artists who are higher on the Marvel food chain than Dan Slott. He hasn't, and that's very telling.

To be fair to marvel, it's not them who are really the reason for people not picking up his titles....I picked up a tpb of she hulk by slott, and I thought it was ok, but not worth reading as a regular title. Marvel had nothing to do with me making that decision, the title just wasn't that omterestomg. and the writing wasn't on par with Millar or Kirkman's work.

I will say though that there are much, much worse writers in terms of lateness (whats that about ultimate hulk vs wolverine?) and it's gotten so bad it's basically the norm now. Marvel should have got a reign on htis a long time ago.

 

[Doc Destruction]

They would if they gave the EDITORS the power instead of the WRITERS.

 

[Darthphere]

To be fair to marvel, it's not them who are really the reason for people not picking up his titles....I picked up a tpb of she hulk by slott, and I thought it was ok, but not worth reading as a regular title. Marvel had nothing to do with me making that decision, the title just wasn't that omterestomg. and the writing wasn't on par with Millar or Kirkman's work.

I will say though that there are much, much worse writers in terms of lateness (whats that about ultimate hulk vs wolverine?) and it's gotten so bad it's basically the norm now. Marvel should have got a reign on htis a long time ago.

lawl.

 

[Horrorfan]

Robert Kirkman has made MTU into a must read, did the brilliant marvel zombies and walking dead is one of the best comics out there.

Mark Miller is the superstar at marvel. Helped launch the ultimate line up, and writes the Ultimates, arguably marvel's best title at the moment.


Dan Slott writes an average comic with a few good ideas.

That's the difference.

 

[Darthphere]

Robert Kirkman has made MTU into a must read, did the brilliant marvel zombies and walking dead is one of the best comics out there.

Mark Miller is the superstar at marvel. Helped launch the ultimate line up, and writes the Ultimates, arguably marvel's best title at the moment.


Dan Slott writes an average comic with a few good ideas.

That's the difference.

To you perhaps. Id take slott over Millar and Kirkman anyday. Theyre all fine writers however. Except Millar, he relies too much on shock and awe.

 

[Darthphere]

This whole thing reminded of the Big 3 podcast at comic-con from DC. Someone asked why Wonder Woman was so late and they gave a nice political answer. something along the lines of "Heinberg is a perfectionist and hes not going to turn in a bad product. It might get to you late but were going to make sure the book is the best thing youve read." Wow, look how easy that was.

 

[Harlekin]

I'd hardly call MTU a must read. I enjoyed League of Losers but it certainly didn't blow my mind. Kirkman still rocks though.

 

[lceman]

Here is one thing that I get from this that I don't think anyone has said:
When you look at the books that are late there are two reasons it can be late. Either the writer is behind or the artist. When Tom was speaking he only was talking about the side when the writer is late. Many of the late books that people are saying are more consistently late than Slott's books (Civil War, New Avengers) are due to the art not the story. It is stated in the story Newsarama had about Civil War being late is due to the art needing more time (they did not want to use a fill in artist, Ex. Infinite Crisis.)
When speaking about the books that are late because of the writer I think the reason that Tom is hard on Dan is because is main job is to write comics for Marvel. Other books that are late due to the writer (Ult. Iron Man, Spiderman/Blackcat, Daredevil Target, Young Avengers, Daredevil Father) are all written by people who have another job that takes precedence over actually writing comics.
That said I think of the writers for Marvel books Dan and Millar are the two writers who's full time job is comic writer. For Millar it is well documented the battle he has been having with illness. For Dan the reason he is late (which he said is just him being to hard on himself) can be corrected.

 

[Darthphere]

You say that the reason hes hards on writers is because its their job to write for Marvel. And that most of time is the artists fault. Isnt it the artisits job to draw quick enough as well.

 

[lceman]

You say that the reason hes hards on writers is because its their job to write for Marvel. And that most of time is the artists fault. Isnt it the artisits job to draw quick enough as well.

I am not saying that he should not be hard on the artist's as well but just saying that he is speaking about the writes in this case. It does seem though that artists do get much more slack on timelines that the writer would by both the publishers and the fans.

 

[Darthphere]

Not from me they dont.

 

[Phoney Bone]

Yeah Breevort seems to be unfairly calling out a fan-favorite just to make him look bad. If we wanna talk about lateness, CONSISTENT lateness, let's talk about Millar, Bendis, Hitch...Quietly.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

As gildea keeps pointing out, Brevoort was answering a specific question about Dan Slott. It's unfair to rag on him for answering the question asked instead of ranting ad nauseam about lateness in general.

I am not saying that he should not be hard on the artist's as well but just saying that he is speaking about the writes in this case. It does seem though that artists do get much more slack on timelines that the writer would by both the publishers and the fans.

To be frank, it usually does take more time to draw a comic page than it does to write one. Visuals take longer in just about every medium where the two are combined.

That said, I still don't condone lateness from either side. Again, fill-in writers and artists exist for a reason.

 

[Darthphere]

As I have pointed out, he didnt have to answer the question, or gave a more political response like that one I posted about the lateness of Wonder Woman.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, but he did answer the question, which was just as much his prerogative as dodging it or giving a "no comment." It's not fair to decry his not mentioning other writers arbitrarily in a question specifically related to Slott.