Why Some Not-Comics Deals May Be Worth Noting For Comics

I was personally happy to see that the writer Ed Brubaker had scored a couple of television series pilots as was reported the other day. I like Ed, I have an idea stretching back to the Seattle years how hard he's worked at becoming the writer he is today and having the success he's enjoyed, I think this is something he very much wants to do, and this site has personally benefited from his willingness to speak on the record about issues that other mainstream-oriented professionals avoid altogether. I had a hard time seeing it as comics news, though, although I think that barring a site having a TV area or devoted companion site most comics-related news clearinghouses reported it that way.

It struck me early this morning that there probably is a comics-aspect to stories like this and it's not exactly "comics person or former comics person scores sweet gig." In cases like this, I think the person enjoying some measure of not-comics success -- particularly those that keep a hand in comics, like Brubaker -- ends up, like it or not, as an aspirational model for a lot of creators just starting it. In other words, the still-shadowy world of what people make and how people make a living is shaped by public figures as much as any understanding that comes from talking to one's peers or paying close attention on details of page rates or royalties being reported. I don't think, for instance, comics has even enjoyed the rough language prose publishing uses to describe the size of an advance. So if Ed Brubaker -- or Mark Millar, or Robert Kirkman -- ends up with a deal big enough to make the Hollywood trades, that's going to offer a model of something that can happen to creators just starting out or early in their career development. It's hard to deny that success of recent vintage like that hasn't benefited Image Comics, for instance. So these kinds of not-comics deals can shape the comics market, albeit in slightly more abstract fashion.
 
posted 8:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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