Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Waid Wednesdays #15: What Matters

There used to be a Triangle Rule in comics. I first heard it from one of my mentors, the brilliant writer/cartoonist William Messner-Loebs. I've repeated it many times since, and God only knows who first articulated it, but it supposed this:

There were three qualifications for making good in comics--talent, personality, and the ability to hit a deadline. That was your triangle. The theory was that very few comics professionals were gifted with all three of these super-powers, but as long as s/he possessed any two of these traits, steady work was all but a lock. If you were insanely talented and likeable, you could probably skate by for a while on the punctuality hurdle; there was a point where Neil Gaiman was so overwhelmed that he was faxing Sandman scripts in one page at a time, which he could get away with 'cause he was Neil Gaiman. Likewise, comics was crammed to the rafters with C-level-talent drinking buddies who were unbelievably reliable about getting their scripts or art in on time, and clockwork geniuses who had the social skills of a filing cabinet, and they all got by--maybe not on the A-list assignments, but they put food on their table.

Before you whoop up and down that you've just snagged a career because you're two for three--you're always punctual and your friends tell you you're a hoot--I warn you that the 21st Century has not been kind to the Triangle Rule. First off, FTPs and e-mail have become such a part of the work-delivery process that human interaction and visits to the office to get face-time with your editor are rarer than ever, so your winning personality counts less. Secondly, yes, we're still in the periodical business--even with one-off graphic novels, someone somewhere is depending on you to make an eventual deadline, even if it's just your landlord--so missing a deadline is never, ever cool, but so long as you stay in contact with your editor and keep the lines of communication open rather than ignore phone calls or e-mails, you can probably work something out. (Just remember, it is a thousand times more forgiveable to blow a deadline if you alert the editor ahead of time that you're having trouble than it is to drop off the radar and leave the editor hanging.)

But most importantly, there are very few places in comics these days to build your career and quietly hone your skills, so it's not enough to be talented. You have to be talented right now, out of the gate. Part of that's because a bunch of jerks like Grant Morrison, Darwyn Cooke and Ed Brubaker went and drastically raised the bar on the definition of the word "talented." Part of that's because readers expect way more from a comic that costs twice what it cost six years ago. Part of that is because, chances are, your work will be collected in a trade paperback that will stay in print a long, long time. And part of that is because there now are far, far more comics reviews sites online than there are people who actually love comics and are not willing to snark your reputation to a bloody pulp just because snark is easier to write than actual criticism.

Wait, it gets worse. You have to be talented right now, and you have to sustain that talent. Not only is competition for the gig is at an all-time high, but the economy isn't exactly encouraging readers to be patient with comics they might grow to love. Sorry to add to the pressure, but one or two bad jobs can take a fast toll on your career.

Mark Waid the BOOM! Editor-In-Chief just wrote 400 words on how meeting deadlines was your most important reputation-builder, and he wants to scream bloody murder at Mark Waid the Freelancer for throwing them out in lieu of what I'm about to say--because no one else says it, ever--but while you don't want to be a prima donna with your attitude and you don't want to get fired for never delivering on time, the God's honest truth is that, in the long run, the quality of your work is all that matters.

Long, long ago, when I was a Boy Editor at DC, I once asked my boss, Dick Giordano, about what it was like to work with Neal Adams, who he'd long been partners with and who had a legendary reputation (earned or not) for never, ever, ever, ever meeting a deadline. "Didn't editors lose their minds when Neal would do his disappearing act?", I asked. Dick just chuckled and said, "Yes. Yes, they did. And they'd be furious with him, and they'd swear never to hire him again. But six months later, they wouldn't remember how late his work was. All they'd remember was how good it was."

This was, frankly, kind of a dangerously stupid thing to tell an impressionable young editor working in the periodical business...but (a) Dick's gift for candor was one of the qualities that made him the best and most valuable mentor I ever had, and (b) he was right. And he's just gotten more right in the intervening two decades. I cannot name names without embarrassing them, but I can just off the top of my head think of at least a dozen freelancers who hit every deadline ever asked of them, even if that deadline was changed on them without fair warning... who were pleasant to work with and always professional even if their editor was a jerk...and who always did exactly what their editors asked them to do, even if it was obvious to a blind man that the quality of the finished work was lessened, because they were trained to believe that their first priority was to serve their editor and do so in a timely manner.

All of those people have been unemployed for years.

In the long run, the quality of your work is all that matters. That is your only resumé. Be professional. Make sure your editor or publisher can always reach you. Do what's asked of you if your conscience can bear it. But know that, five years from now, as fans or prospective employers are looking over your published pages, no one will care that this story sucks because the publisher moved the deadline up or because the editor made you work an android cow into the story. All they will care about is what they see in front of them, and they will hold you responsible for it, no one else.

Don't be defiant. Don't be difficult. But the Triangle Rule no longer holds, so most of all, don't think that if you simply jump through enough hoops and fetch enough drinks, that'll still buy you a career. Be good at this above all else. Stand up for your work, and never, ever let anything get in the way of you doing your very best. You may end up crossing swords with an editor and leave him or her thinking you're difficult or unhireable. That editor may even be me. But if you never listen to another thing I ever say, listen to this: the Career Graveyard is fence-to-fence full and three deep with freelancers who believed that making a positive impression with their editors was more important than making a permanent impression with their work.

******
End of lecture. A couple of other bits of business:

(1) If you like what's said here, I refer you to my daily blog over at markwaid.com, where these essays (reposted a day or two later) are accompanied with podcasts, videoblogging, and other various bits of commentary. Come for the funny pictures, stay for the sense of moral outrage.

(2) I'm all over the comics shops in the next few weeks if you're inclined to pick up one of my books to see if I'm really even remotely qualified to pen how-to's like these. Potter's Field: Stone Cold (a detective story with artist Paul Azaceta) hits today; The Incredibles #1 (with art by Marcio Takara) hits next Wednesday; and Irredeemable #1 (with artist Pete Krause), the story of how the world's greatest superhero became the world's greatest supervillain, debuts two weeks from today. There'll be more coming. You can get 'em at your favorite comics shop or order them directly from BOOM! Studios.

67 comments:

  1. Dude, you're writing new Incredibles stuff!?

    AWESOME!

    Weird thing is, I seem to remember telling my friends when we first saw The Incredibles that if they ever made a comic, you were the perfect writer for it. And now you ARE! That's so frickin' cool!

    Yay! :D

    Also: cool post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Mark,

    I think it should be noted that, even for the thoughts on lateness over quality, the two things that come to my mind on Wednesday are "New Comics!" and "Waid Wednesday!", especially the latter - your columns are always well written and informative.

    Thanks for the advice on the quality of work. I've got my first piece being published in an indie comic anthology next year - time to make my mark!

    -Brian

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous3:18 PM

    Of course people like Kirby, Byrne, Simonson, Romita and a whole slew of others managed to meet a deadline and turn in top quality work. Too bad the same can't be said of most of the talent today. I hope you don't honestly believe that the work of Jim Lee on the always late All-Star Batman is even close to being on par with anything Jack Kirby ever drew?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Normally, I wouldn't respond to anonymous pot-shots, but I'm having an Epic Fail day, so you get to be my punching bag, Anonymous Guy:

    No one here is impressed by your reading comprehension skills. Of course, those men you named turned in great work on deadline (though Romita isn't your best example--he's my favorite living American comics artist and an idol, but he was never as fast or clockwork-reliable as the others you cited).

    But you apparently skipped over the giant block of text I wrote where I carefully explained why the industry today is, for good or ill (and I think we all know where you'd come down on that debate), different than the industry of 1966. So you get a zero there. Why is it so absolutely impossible for some people to allow for even the idea that the playing field, the expectations of buyers, and the nature of a medium just might be somewhat different than it was back when "comics were still good," phone calls were a dime and mommy was still alive?

    Also, I refuse to participate in the game of "I hope you don't honestly believe that [insert name of modern, not page-a-day guy I hate] is as good [page-a-day guy I have a boner for]," because that's less about proving a point than it is about trying to take the piss out of people who like Frank Quitely/Jim Lee/George Perez/whoever's the current poster child for "deadline nightmare." By their logic, Larry Lieber was twenty times the artist Neal Adams was.

    I do think it's bullshit and dismissive to say that "most of the talent working today" can't draw a page a day. A lot can, some can't. But whether older readers like it or not, the industry for a long time has been moving away from revolving solely around the monthly paradigm--and, judging by the indisputable fact that both trade paperback sales AND industrywide comic book sales have been rising over the past few years, successfully moving away. (Yes, most if not all Marvel and DC comics sell less of what they used to, but overall, when you add together the sales from all companies, sales have been on the rise throughout the decade. So someone's doing something right, and just because your favorite superhero comic isn't selling what it used to does not mean that comics are doomed.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. ...there are very few places in comics these days to build your career and quietly hone your skills...

    The Web is one of those places. There are any number of web comics by people who started out with the crudest of skills and have turned into excellent writers and artists.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Also: back in the day, an average monthly book was 17 pages. Today it's 24. Output could be a lot less and still hit monthly.

    We won't even discuss how much more complicated books have gotten from, say, 1969 or 1979 to today, back in the days when Carl Gafford could color five books a month because colors were flat. Rendering? Gradations? More than 64 colors? Hah!

    Re: personality-- while good personalities may not get you work, a bad one will kill any chances of you getting some. There are a few people I'm never going to work with again, because they've been incredibly unpleasant to work with. There is only so far talent will take you if you are working for-- or with-- someone else.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh, and since your MarkWaid.com blog doesn't have comments: O'Leary's cow, Balaam's donkey, Pigasus the presidential candidate, Checkers the dog, and depending on your definition of farm, Balto the sled dog.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous4:49 AM

    Penyakit ini umumnya muncul karena penderita mengejan terlalu keras pada saat buang air besar. Dengan mengejan terlalu keras, maka pembuluh darah di sekitar anus dapat melebar dan pecah menimbulkan infeksi dan pembengkakan yang berakhir pada masalah wasir atau ambeien tersebut.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Penyakit kencing nanah bisa disebabkan oleh beberapa faktor seperti seks bebas, penularan, virus hpv, lingkungan, gaya hidup dan lainnya, Maka dari itu kita harus waspada dengan penyakit kencing nanah ini, karena penyakit kencing nanah sangatlah berbahaya, Namun untuk anda yang menderita penyakit kencing nanah, maka anda tidak perlu khawatir,

    ReplyDelete
  10. Bukan hanya pengobatan medis saja tapi ada juga pengobatan rumah alami yang dapat digunakan untuk menyingkirkan penyakit kutil kelamin ini. Intinya, karena kutil ini muncul di daerah yang sensitif, maka anda harus mencari pengobatan yang terbaik pada kulit Anda dan jika diperlukan juga dibantu dengan tenaga medis yang professional. Sebab dokter akan menjadi sumber informasi yang baik untuk mengobati penyakit ini.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sekitar Vagina Tumbuh Daging, Berbahayakah? Kutil Pada Kepala Penis mirip bunga kol atau jengger ayam, Merupakan Penyakit Yang diakibatkan Oleh Virus.Kutil kelamin, atau disebut juga condyloma acuminata, adalah kutil atau daging berwarna kulit atau keabuan yang tumbuh di sekitar alat kelamin dan

    ReplyDelete
  12. penyakit yang ditularkan melalui hubungan seks : vaginal, oral dan anal. Juga dapat menular melalui persentuhan kulit dengan daerah yang terinfeksi.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Sebelum kita membahas tentang pengobatan ambeien, dalam kesempatan ini
    saya ingin menjelaskan sekilas tentang ambeien, agar kita semua bisa
    memahami benar apa itu penyakit ambeien

    ReplyDelete
  14. obat wasir, Adalah  Obat alami berkhasiat dalam bentuk kapsul yang berasal dari tanaman herbal seperti daun ungu, mahkota dewa dan kunyit putih, diberikan pada penderita jika penyakit masih dalam tingkatan stadium ringan

    ReplyDelete
  15. Jangan bandingkan orang yang mencintaimu dengan masa lalumu. Hargai dia yang kini berusaha membuatmu bahagia.

    ReplyDelete