Who are the most creative creators?

[Martin Gray]

Going back to my ongoing plea that today's comic creators spend less time on flatlining 'events' and more on creating new characters and concepts, who are the writers and artists looking to the future rather than constantly raiding the past? I don't know much beyond Marvel and DC, but from those companies I'd give credit to Gail Simone for her surprising work with the storylines on Secret Six and Wonder Woman and creation of such characters as Misfit, Junior and Jeanette; and Paul Cornell for the likes of Faiza and Captain Midlands in Captain Britain and MI13, and the new kids in Dark Reign: Young Avengers. Storywise, his Vampire State has been a terrific read.

[Rich Lane]

The problem we're going to run into when it comes to new creations is that I think that most creators aren't going to give up potentially lucrative ownership of a character just so it can play in the same sandbox with Superman or Spider-Man. What needs to be done is for DC and Marvel to come up with a licensing agreement that allows creators to retain their rights to a character while letting it interact with the shared universe of the company. The only time I can recall that being done at either of the big two was with Claremont's Sovereign Seven.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

DC's agreement with Neil Gaiman giving him prior approval of any uses of his Sandman characters is similar. DC owns the rights, not Gaiman, but they behave as if he owned them (in most ways).

[Batmatt Beyond]

Matt Fraction dumped sand into a whole new sandbox by giving Iron Fist a Phantom-like legacy. Alas, it seems that sales-wise not too many people want to play. :(

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

I'd say that Dan Slott is pretty creative. He's breathed new life into Spider-man.Before that he took a whole bunch of new and z-list characters and made Avengers the Initiative one the best Avengers book for a while. He's gone on to bigger and better things now but his co-writer Cristos Gage has taken the ideas that Slott started with and ran with them.

I agree with Martin regarding Paul Cornell, Captain Britain has been a fantastic series and Vampire State has been edge of your seat entertainment at its finest.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

I think Ed Brubaker would be up there as well. From writing the X-men, Captain America, Gotham Central, Iron Fist, Criminal, etc. He does it all.

[Cavaliere (moderator emeritus)]

There was a time when it seemed that Chuck Dixon was writing half of DC's line. Not only that, but he wrote GOOD stories while doing it. His stories for CrossGen were fresh, innovative, and (sadly) doomed.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I think Monolith was done with a similar arrangement -- as was the much-missed (by me, at least) Bloodhound.

[Lumbering Jack (M'odd-R8-Tr)]

I think you hit the nail on the head here. It doesn't pay for a writer or artist to offer up his/her creations to the corporation. It's been proven that just about any character or concept (see Men in Black or Barb Wire), no matter how small, can get the eye of Hollywood and its merchandising machine. Sure a creator can give that up for the glory of interacting with Mr. Fantastic, but that paycheck is chump-change when compared to Hollywood money.

[Rich Lane]

Exactly. Look how many 3rd string characters appeared in the new Wolverine movie. Hell, Pyro got a pretty decent part in the last two X-Men movies.

Pyro.

[Batmatt Beyond]

Rob Staeger said:

I think Monolith was done with a similar arrangement -- as was the much-missed (by me, at least) Bloodhound.

I miss Bloodhound simply because the first issue was set in Ringgold, Georgia, a town I've actually visited. Plus those sweet, sweet Dave Johnson covers, IIRC.

[Mark Stanislawski]

Rich Lane said:

The problem we're going to run into when it comes to new creations is that I think that most creators aren't going to give up potentially lucrative ownership of a character just so it can play in the same sandbox with Superman or Spider-Man. What needs to be done is for DC and Marvel to come up with a licensing agreement that allows creators to retain their rights to a character while letting it interact with the shared universe of the company. The only time I can recall that being done at either of the big two was with Claremont's Sovereign Seven.

I brought this up in the old forum somewhere. I'm not sure being "creative" constitutes creating NEW characters that Marvel and DC own. Rich hit it on the head saying that comic companies need to come up with some kind of agreement that allows the Creator of a character to retain the rights...or somehow share the rights.
Gail Simone, Geoff Johns, Matt Fraction all are highly "creative creators", in their own way. I'm sure there are more but those are the ones that immediately come to mind.

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

Right. I think being a creative creator means doing work that makes a character seem brand new. I think immediately of James Robinson's Starman. There are many many more, but man, to me, it's like that character never existed prior to 1994.