Busiek to DC Bigger Than I Thought?

I didn't have anything to say yesterday regarding writer Kurt Busiek signing one of those "exclusive" contracts with DC Comics. I'm not sure if the fact it was a slow news day played into it, or if DC/Marvel's struggle is at a really high tension point right now, but most mainstream-leaning comics sites made full commentary or talked with the writer directly. You can find some of those pieces here, here and here. Reading these pieces, I have to say I probably missed the boat not putting the signing into some context yesterday. Kurt Busiek is a bigger name than the bulk of those receiving such contracts, and his leaving Conan at Dark Horse, one of the few comics that sold in the stranglehold the biggest companies have on the high end of the marketplace right now, is a story in and of itself. Busiek is also one of the comics professionals who can speak eloquently to how his industry works and why, which makes the above linked pieces much more interesting than usual.

There are a lot of side factors, too. I think if you see exclusive contracts equally as "you will not work for the other guy" contracts, then Busiek's signing by DC makes sense considering that his skill set would seemingly have more value for what DC's doing right now, with its ambitious overall line plans, than what Marvel's doing, with its revolving auteur approach. I also think a lot of Busiek's comments point to seeing the exclusive contract as less a play for favored creator status than a commitment to doing a certain amount of work for a company in a certain period -- in other words, I think it's an orientation towards work that's at play in a lot of cases equal to or more than the security of the arrangements involved, or the bottom-line value of the inducements themselves. Finally, my hunch is that the exclusives have more of an effect stablizing the middle-thirds of lines as much as they have with locking in top names which market concerns would keep in place without the exclusive construct. But what it does uniquely is keep certain middle-performing titles from losing up and coming artists that could be lured with bigger assignments elsewhere -- where that principle applies in this case is that despite the weight of his name I think Busiek bolsters the DC effort rather than alters it dramatically. (For you sports metaphor fans out there, DC is signing Robert Horry, not Shaquille O'Neal.)

I could be totally wrong about that last one, though. I could be totally wrong about everything. It's Friday before New Year's; bite me. I do know that both Busiek and DC will likely benefit under the announced relationship.

Art from Superman: Secret Identity, a sequel to which being one of the projects planned by writer Kurt Busiek under his new relationship with DC Comics.
 
posted 8:04 am PST | Permalink
 

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