Maybe that’s what he was doing, at least on some level. Too many people who jump right to the “what did he expect with that behaviour” argument fail to even consider this.
Pissing off the boss enough to fire you is a time-honoured and perfectly legitimate way to resign when you’re displeased with the way he does things.

Oddly enough, that happened online as well (though not in a company-supported website); in point of fact, McDuffie (and Milestone)’s kind of infamous for blackballing anyone and everyone who makes such ‘behind the scenes’ comments about ‘their’ beloved company, hence my ‘name’ – Try comparing the names of creators listed in the Milestone Wikipedia entry with a list of everyone who ever did more than 3 issues’ worth of work for them and you’ll discover some really fascinating, difficult to explain omissons…

Funny how these things come around…

“But if I remember Valerie D’Orazio’s case correctly; staff personnel may not have any rights either. ”

Any time you mention Valerie D’Orazio, you have lost the argument.

Basically, all corporate books are done under the direction of an editor. If you don’t like it, go write your own stuff. Please.

I also think that if Dwayne was unhappy, he could have quit. As a freelancer, that’s his right.

Regardless, he has plenty of work and won’t be missing any meals, so no harm done.

Plus he’ll have more time to do that JLU movie. I hope!

This seems more than a bit unrealistic. Geoff Johns is writing, what, six titles (Adventure Comics, Flash: Rebirth followed by Flash, Green Lantern, Blackest Night, Tales of the Corps, Superman: Secret Origin, possibly one of the other Blackest Night minis)? If he’s writing JLA, then I have to believe they forced it on him because I don’t believe its a title he was actively seeking to get.

Well other than the rumors that he’s been seeking it.
And you’re pretty much assuming that he’s still with Green Lantern after Attack of the Zombie Lanterns finishes.

(I’ll grant you can replace with Johns with Morrison, btw).

I figure Didio is just hoping no one points out that he fired the black guy for getting uppity.

Nitz: McDuffie mentioned on his blog that he’s still quite busy with the WB animated, Alien Force, antoher Ben 10 series, Evolutions, as well as a DC Animated movie. Here’s an interesting little nugget for you…McDuffie brings in much more $$$ for papa Warners than Didio does. Keep that thought in mind.

DC has been screwing over talent since the Major was running things. It’s always been a petty and pompous company. But the fans – for the most part – don’t care about anything but the comics, no matter how much they claim to hate them – and the talent knows DC’s checks won’t bounce.

One last point on you comment, you seem to imply that the fans saying they hate the comics is an empty threat. It really is not. It is true that since the sixties, fans have stuck with comics longer and longer. However, it is also true that during that time sales for top titles have fallen ninety percent during a time when the population has doubled. “Superman” used to average a million issues per month and now “Flash: Rebirth” is supposedly a huge hit at 100,000. That is huge loss of readership.

I promise you that prior to the DC Implosion or the collapse of the ’90s collector bubble, people were complaining before they stopped buying the product. Then, a good chunk of those folks left and never came back. The difference between then and now is the Internet. One would hope that DC has P.R. folks reading fan comment threads and summarizing them for management. It would give them why people are opting not to use their entertainment dollar on DC Comics.

The dynamic of editor needing to sell books vs. writer who just wants to write a good story can’t work when one side dictates everything; and the relationship makes it so.

Not necessarily.

To me, it is a question of trust. DiDio came from television, but not any TV with which I was familiar. He seems to want the DCU to operate like a soap opera with several different threads all weaving the same story. That is not the type of comics that interest me personally, but I get why he is interested in doing that. It is a logical extension of what Jim Shooter was trying to do at Marvel in the eighties.

In that model, the various writers are not telling their own stories. They are doing threads within the larger story of the DCU. Again, this is not my taste. I became a DC fanboy in large part because I could chose to read Superman, Batman, the JLA and the Flash while safely ignoring the stuff that didn’t interest me (i.e. Superboy). Every time I tried Marvel for a few issues, it seemed like the title would cross-over with Thor. I thought Thor and his silly helmet were lame, so I dropped the title. In that fashion, I dropped Spider-Man and the FF after a few issues. Only the Claremont-Byrne X-Men were safe from the dreaded Thor.

However, it is a valid way to run a comic book line. DC loses most of my business, but they probably more than make up for it with a few extra pulls from the every Wednesday person.

That said, readership needs to trust that they are being told a story they want to read. DiDio has no track record to support that assertion. It is not as though Warners backed the Brinks truck up for Bruce Timm and asked him to turn the DCU into his animated universe. Nor did they haul in Al Gough and Miles Millar to recreate their “Smallville” style in the comics. You only have the stories DiDio has created in his five years at DC to indicate what is coming next.

On the plus side of the ledger, we have Darwyn Cooke’s “New Frontier”, Morrison and Quitely’s “All-Star Superman”, parts of the Geoff Johns on “Green Lantern” and Gary Frank on Superman. On the minus side, we have Sue Dibny being raped and murdered, Ted Kord getting shot in the head, “Dark Mary” Marvel, Countdown, Final Crisis, McDuffie on JLA, Heiberg on “Wonder Woman”, the hash that has been made of “The Flash”, and etc. Maybe I am missing something, but it seems like the stuff that is good is the stuff that is the furthest from the core DCU story. Conversely, the stuff that is the worst is the stuff that is closest to that story.

In other words, maybe DiDio just doesn’t know how to craft a compelling narrative despite having the power to force his ideas on the DCU.

The solution, as always, is to just stop reading until things change.

In that particular case, the inking job was so very poor, I’d say she had an excellent reason to speak out about it.

They wouldn’t let him write what he wanted, rather they wanted him to write stories they’d thought up instead…

When I hear stuff like this, all I can think of is the floating Julie head in Ambush Bug Nothing Special explaining who has all the power…

Seriously, the reason I skim superhero comics off the rack rather than buy them anymore is because of the fact that editorial will make sure that nothing permanent will happen for any length of time (i.e., the status quo will be maintained because they’re afraid of lost sales…nothing I’ve ever seen regarding editorial has ever indicated to me that sales is not a driving force over creativity, though I’m sure there are some who want both). Oh, you may have a different character take up a mantle for a while, but sooner or later there will be a big event where the “original” returns (I’m looking at you Bruce Wayne and Steven Rogers…If Hal Jordan and Barry Allen can’t stay dead…) and we go back to square one with a different twist [or, the powers get altered, only to return to status quo later on, etc.]. The dynamic of editor needing to sell books vs. writer who just wants to write a good story can’t work when one side dictates everything; and the relationship makes it so.

And yeah, I know the sales argument is an old bit, but frankly, it’s a sad truth…the irony is, if they just let the writers write solid stories that take the characters to logical ends and develop them within plots that make sense rather than trying to make everything an epic, they’d probably find that the books would sell fine. I swear that I sometimes feel like I’m reading through the 90′s again without the foil covers, bagged comics, or holograms…

This seems more than a bit unrealistic. Geoff Johns is writing, what, six titles (Adventure Comics, Flash: Rebirth followed by Flash, Green Lantern, Blackest Night, Tales of the Corps, Superman: Secret Origin, possibly one of the other Blackest Night minis)? If he’s writing JLA, then I have to believe they forced it on him because I don’t believe its a title he was actively seeking to get.

As far as this…I’ve said all I care to say on this subject at Robot6.