People ask all the time about the number of editorial credits on our books. The snarky ones even go so far as to phrase it, "With however-many editors credited, you'd think that somebody would have caught such-and-such."
Much like everything else, each editorial office tends to handle such things differently. I know that, in some offices, there aer specific assistant editors for specific books. But in my office, I like a more free-flowing system, with everybody working on everything according to their abilities and specialties, so that if anybody happens to need to be out of the office, the remaining staffers can carry on without missing a beat.
I also believe in crediting the people who do work on the books. I can remember a time when assistants didn't get any credits whatsoever. Very specifically, there was an instance when that cheesed me off. It was on the X-MEN ANIMATED GRAPHIC NOVEL, a photo-novel based on the first X-Men animated pilot from back in the late 1980s. Work on turning it into a graphic novel had been started back befoer I was in that particular editorial office, but the project was left to languish. And then, all of a sudden, it was thrust onto the schedule and needed urgently.
It was a different sort of project, in that there wasn't a penciler, inker or colorist. Instead, there was a reel of film from which we'd select still images to use as the individual panels. Basically, it was a huge production job, requiring us to grab the right frames, create a mechanical FPO board to show the printer what went where (this was back when we still did all of this by hand, before computers changed the way we all worked), and the book had to be lettered so that the balloons would line up properly with the images once they were in place. It ate up most of a months' worth of time, and I ended up having to stay late on a number of occasions with the project's designer to finish it up.
I didn't get a credit in the book.
That was Marvel policy at the time. I thought that was unfair then, and I think it's unfair now. So now that things have changed, I try to make sure that the folks responsible for doing the work get credited, even if that sometimes means the editorial credits go on for a while.
And that also means I don't take a credit on the books Andy Schmidt, Molly Lazer or Aubrey Sitterson directly edit unless there are special circumstances, even though I do a decent amount of work on all of those titles as well, in addition to similar consulting on the Marvel Universe books in the Mark Paniccia office. Because those folks are the editors in question of those projects, and while I might be overseeing them, most of the decisions made about those books on a day-to-day basis are made by them. The editor takes the crap, so the editor makes the rules. These are some of my rules.
More later.
Tom B
I still think that Molly Lazer has a cool enough name that she should have been one of the Sentinel Squad ONE characters or soemthing.
Only think more comic book than having a light-based weapon in your last name that is aliteration.
Posted by MattDiCarlo on 2006-06-26 15:37:54
k wat's the mean in of some of the things u say
Posted by tarhaun on 2006-06-26 16:10:21
>_ Well I'm glad you aren't as unfair as it was back then. Everyone deserves their credit, no matter how much or how little they do.
Posted by TwilghtDragon on 2006-06-26 23:14:02
Galactus Mr. Brevoort - I don't remember if you're over the Annihilation event or not, but I know you're over the Fantastic Four, so I figure you're as good a guy to ask as anybody... Did I miss a Galactus story between Waid's Rising Storm towards the tail end of his FF run and the new appearances over in Annihilation?
Posted by MayorBigRig on 2006-06-27 00:02:45
Galactus He's returned to Galactus a week after that story Arc in Oeming's Beta Bill Ray Story, StormBringer. Waid particularly wrote that arc with a huge out since he didn't believe it would be status quo for very long.
Also, thanks for the Blog, Tom. I'm a big fan.
Posted by kolee on 2006-06-27 07:25:03
Cover Artists Tom, I agree with your thoughts on credit. The only inconsistency I see at Marvel in regards to this is with the cover art. There seems to be a wide degree of variance over whether a book will have the cover artist listed or not. I keep track of my collection and like to note the cover artist for each book I have. When that isn't readily available, it's a little frustrating. More so, it seems like the cover artist should be credited. I'm seeing this resolved more and more at DC, but it's pretty sketch there as well.
Also, I tried posting this over on your thread at the CBR forum but it was deleted (boo...). I really appreciate you taking the time to answer all the questions you have over there. You've shown a huge amount of patience and you've been really intentional in interacting with your fans, and I think that is a pretty cool thing. So thanks a lot!
Posted by PercussionMasta on 2006-06-30 17:58:02
cover artists i think that everyone that works on a comic deserves credit especially the great artists that work on comic covers
Posted by piedude on 2006-08-02 16:42:56
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About this blog: Ramblings and musings from the mind of Tom Brevoort. "It won’t be clean. It won’t be fun. It mostly won’t be coherent."
About the author: Tom Brevoort is Executive Editor for Marvel Comics, and oversees such titles as New Avengers, Civil War, and Fantastic Four.
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