THR: DC Cancels Comic Book, Notes Conservative Political Pressure; Creators Cite Rights Return

Here. It involves a narrative starring Jesus. This article at The Beat says that Second Coming was a title announced with a Vertigo relaunch, although at this point there have been so many relaunches and Vertigo is such a obscure footnote in my own comics-reading efforts I couldn't contextualize that for you in terms of dates or publishing history.

I can't tell quite yet, but there may also be some dispute over the nature of the actions involved in exorcising Second Coming from the DC section of Previews, as tweets from the creators pulled together at that Beat link focus on a rights-reversion request over a cancellation. THR seems really comfortable calling it a cancellation, though, and I trust writer Graeme McMillan's judgment on that part of the industry.

I don't quite understand how something like this works anymore given the overall media landscape. Satan has a featured role on a couple of TV shows these days, or did recently -- in fact, I think those shows both come from Vertigo comics. I would assume there are more. There have been TV shows starring Jesus or at least a Jesus analog I can even bring to mind in the dim hours of this morning. I guess a comedic take on the character might be at issue? These protests seem toothless, too, and at best publicity-enablers. One thing that's been added to such controversies in recent years is that conservative Christians will now sometimes equate satirical portrayals of Jesus with satirical portrayals of Muhammad and complain about a kind of general unfair treatment by media, Resentment Politics 101, but outside of what I'm sure are a few comments threads I haven't seen that here as of yet.

Another thing that seems different from the way things used to be is that the publisher gets a lot of praise for handling things at the editorial, rights-return and personal level. Maybe that is an extraordinary experience, I don't know, and I'm sure DC employees do their best when presented with a difficult situation. Still, let me say that no matter how cordial the process might be, or how exactly the process unfolds, allowing barely-engaged outside forces to have any effect on editorial policy or to duplicate standards and processes on your own that lead to such an outcome, either thing is really, really horrible.

I hope for a last-minute shift in the narrative. With Jesus, all things are possible.

Writer Mark Russell and artist Richard Pace plan to release Second Coming with another publisher, and I don't think one will be difficult to find. The popular series Boys enjoyed a similar migration.
 
posted 3:35 pm PST | Permalink
 

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