Former comic book creator Mark Waid has come out on a recent blog post and bashed both Marvel Comics and DC Comics. According to Bleeding Cool on Oct. 4, a lot of responses from within the industry have come in about his comments.
Waid, in his blog post, said that he feels bad for the way freelancers are treated and that he is glad he is not in that position now. His blog post gave examples of horror stories that freelancers face where they are often ordered to do re-writes for free if the editors change their minds and are treated terribly for minimal pay.
That caused Kyle Baker, an Eisner and Harvey Award winning writer-artist to lash out at both DC Comics and Marvel Comics, saying that if he had not already quit working for them, he would quit again. Baker, who helped revitalize “Plastic Man,” said that there are much better opportunities for creative people today in television, game companies, streaming and digital media and more, and the comic industry does not deserve the best based on the way they treat their writers.
Shane Davis, an artist under contract with DC Comics, said there are some really bad editors in the business, men who use unscrupulous means to demean and push down artists and writers. He did say there are also good editors, and in a single day he will get one editor bullying him while two others are praising him.
Legendary artist Rob Liefeld said that everything Waid said in his post was absolutely true. Liefeld said he left DC Comics on good terms, and is still on good terms with them. However, he said his work schedule and the demands were so harsh at times that he would hate to see how a newcomer is treated.
