On his blog, Dwayne Mc Duffie confirmed that he has been fired from JLA.
This probably isn’t surprising given the frank comments McDuffie has been making about his frustating experiences writing the book. McDuffie confirmed that is the reason he was fired:
“Nope, it was my own doing. I was fired when “Lying in the Gutters” ran a compilation of two years or so of my answers to fans’ questions on the DC Comics discussion boards. I’m told my removal had nothing to with either the quality of my work or the level of sales, rather with my revelation of behind-the-scenes creative discussions.”
McDuffie went on to explain where things were headed before he was fired.
“I have to say I’m a bit disappointed, because next summer was planned to feature a JLA-driven crossover, where my book’s story line would have been the driving force. I’m distressed by where I left Black Canary, as my intention was to use the current subplot to strengthen her character and relationships with the new membership, and instead I’m leaving her at the bottom of a hole I’d intended to rebuild her from. I was also just about to get a regular artist for the first time since I’ve been on the book, which would have been nice. That said, I’m sure DC’s going to put together a creative team that will generate major excitement around JLA, which is as it should be.”
It’s definitely a shame he left Black Canary where he did. I hated seeing the character portrayed as that weak and ineffective of a leader. I would have liked to have seen McDuffie get a chance to rectify that. But, oh well.
Interestingly enough, Rich Johnston of Lying in the Gutters fame posted the following response:
“I am gutted.
Obviously not as much as you.
I’m so so sorry. I certainly thought that since comments had been published by, you know, DC’s Message Board, without being removed or edited… well, I don’t know what I expected but I didn’t expect that.
I know many people found your forthrightness enlightening, interesting and thought provoking, which is why I wanted to share them.
Indeed, I didn’t get any kind bitterness or anger from you. Just an valuable, insightful, explanation of the way things work in commercial art. Compared to, say, Mark Waid’s comments on working on 52 and about Countdown, they hardly seemed as offensive or critical. Just accepting.
Damn.”
Okay, I’ll grant you that McDuffie’s comments were unusually honest. And DC didn’t come across especially well. But it was obvious reading Justice League that this sort of thing was going on. Maybe not to this extent, but you could tell that McDuffie was working under extreme editorial control.
Should he have been fired? It’s hard to say. In my line of work, I’d definitely be fired for making negative public comments about my employer. But as a creative field, comic books are different. I will say that DC is giving itself even more of a black eye. First they came across badly for not letting McDuffie write his own book. Now they come across as petty for firing him for speaking up about it.
McDuffie really strikes me as a class act. (Dan Didio, not so much.) And I’m glad for him in the sense that he has plenty of other projects to work on. And I doubt any of them will be as frustrating as working on Justice League under Didio.
My review of the McDuffie’s last issue of JLA can be read here.
But was he really being that “negative”? Look at the thread where Mr. McDuffie spoke. 70 pages of posts. 1049 replies at the moment, many of them questions or replies to questions. A lot of it is just chatting (and some of it is McDuffie dealing with extremely rude fans in a way that does him credit).
And there were responses along the lines of “well I had planned to do something, but couldn’t because of something happening in another book. These things happen, it comes with the job.” Individually they were all perfectly harmless, things you’d expect almost any writer in the business to feel free saying.
The trouble is that when you added up all the times he said things like “I had planned ____ , but couldn’t because ____. It’s not DC’s fault, these things happen,” and looked at those comments alone, it became an ugly picture, and showed an absurd amount of interference in the book. He was perfectly civil, he was never accusatory, and all the questions he replied to were reasonable ones that most creators would feel safe answering. This was not a man griping or really even being particularly negative. Spread out from Sep 2008 to May 2009 he just answered some questions in a friendly and fairly honest way.
The problem isn’t that he was being open. He was being no more open than any number of other creators.
The problem is that even being open to a reasonable degree, answering questions in a friendly manner, not blaming anyone for anything, you could still tell that there was something extremely wrong going on.
Just opening his workplace’s window a crack, not really more than many other creators, we were able to see his abysmal and unreasonable working conditions. Things had gotten that bad. He wasn’t being unusually open, it’s that the problems were unusually frequent.
And the sad thing is, nobody is ever going to be punished for this except Dwayne. Some hot new creative team (probably Johns or Morrison, or someone else that has the pull to do the things they think would make for a good story) will be put on the book and make the company money, fans will get stories they like, and none of the people actually responsible for this fiasco will ever be punished for it.
That’s shameful.
Thanks for the very detailed and well-reasoned response. You’re right. McDuffie is a class act and he wasn’t being “negative”. But the truth he was telling did reflect negatively on DC. It is shameful that they took this action. I’m really surprised. It’s had me in a funk all day.
I’m glad you posted this. I was going to, but your post is better than mine would’ve been.
It’s weird to me that DC is destroying its own flagship title. I don’t really know why.
There’s been some interesting stuff at DC for the last year. Rumors of DiDio being fired. All of the Batman RIP/Final Crisis suspicion. Jim Shooter being unable to conclude the Legion the way he wanted, and instead, putting out a book with a fake-named writer at the head. And now this.
Interesting stuff.
Also, not to say that McDuffie is a bad guy, but I’m not sure he’s a class act. I have a friend who has worked with him, and he was very difficult to work with.
Anyway, I’ve heard rumors about Jim Lee, Geoff Johns, and even Grant Morrison on an upcoming JLA run. That would certainly redeem things.
If, of course, they got creative freedom.
I have no doubt that Johns or Morrison would get creative freedom on the book.
From what I hear, DiDio’s job is safe as aces. And maybe he’s doing a good job. I’m no insider. But as a fan, I find myself questioning a lot of his decisions. Countdown and OYL were train wrecks that had his finger prints all over them. He’s chased off Peter David, Mark Waid, Chuck Dixon and now Dwane McDuffie. Some of these guys are hard to deal with. But it seems like he’s burned some bridges.
I do wish we’d gotten to see McDuffie’s best work on JLA. It had to be better than what we got. I wonder if it could have been great.
Oh, and check your email, DC.
Yeah, I saw your e-mail. Just haven’t gotten around to responding. I’m cool with doing stuff like that. Lists aren’t really my strong suit, but I’d be willing to contribute however I can. Just let me know what you need from me.
I never really heard the Waid thing. Something about 52? It seems weird that Waid would leave DC. He loves those characters.
“Yeah, I saw your e-mail. Just haven’t gotten around to responding. I’m cool with doing stuff like that. Lists aren’t really my strong suit, but I’d be willing to contribute however I can. Just let me know what you need from me.”
No worries. You make me sound like your boss. Sorry about that. Another thing Seventh mentioned was like a commentary sort of thing. I think we’re all reading Batman and Robin, Detective Comics, Secret Six, Wednesday Comics, and Blackest Night. Hell, you and I could have a back and forth on GL.
What do you think of that?
I’m up for whatever. Usually if I have an idea and the time to write it up, I just go for it. But if there’s a project someone wants to collaborate on, I’m happy to do so.
Ok. I’m kind of liking the collaboration on Batman and Robin idea. I’ll email Seventh about it and let you know.