Over on CBR, they've posted "The Greatest Scott Snyder Stories Ever Told". Although Snyder may be DC's highest profile writer currently, he's still pretty new and most of the entries wound up being American Vampire and Batman, (with Swamp Thing and Severed sneaking in); Batman titles took the three top spots.
This got me wondering, can anyone remember another comic writer that shot to this kind of prominence so quickly? If so, did they continue to improve, stay prominent for a long while, or did their work just peter out?
It seems to me that with Snyder, he's built himself up with horror stories, hit super stardom with a suspense filled Batman/Gordon story in "Black Mirror", and has since shifted his writing style to extended, inclusive epics, (or less charitably, decompressed cross-overs). Can anyone think of other comic writers who's work evolved this quickly that stayed prominent?
Replies
His rise was certainly meteoric (sp?)
His first published anything in 2006 got him noticed by Stephen King and within 5 years he was writing top-selling Batman stories regularly, which is as high as you can go in superhero comics, by a certain way of looking at it!
Jack Kirby is a comparison. First newspaper strips in 1936. Co-creating and co-producing the first 10 block-busting issues of Captain America at Timely in 1940, and then moving to National where the million-selling Boy Commandos was National's 3rd best seller by 1942. It looks like he was a cornerstone of National's publishing output by 1943 when he was drafted.
Of course, the contexts are wildly different. We'll have to see if Snyder will have Kirby's incredible staying power.
Snyder has certainly produced the goods in the medium term, but it seems to me that DC had no choice but to promote Snyder as a big name before he actually was that, because apart from Morrison and Johns, DC had alienated practically any and all big name writers from working for them by the turn of this decade.
Jonathan Hickman also burst on the scene in 2006 and rose as quickly as Snyder, taking the indie comic route. I find his work more interesting than Snyder's, at least with his creator-owned stuff, but I couldn't argue that he's now on the same level as Snyder in terms of professional clout. It's funny how he and Snyder have both become producers of long interminable decompressed epics in their superhero work. Too bad!
Matt Fraction had a slightly slower rise, and similarly to Snyder, was pushed forward by Marvel as a great writer, when that might have been a bit presumptive. His Iron Man and Thor work are really hollow and empty in my view. The consensus hasn't been kind on Fear Itself. Fraction mightn't have been ready for such a project at that time. He really needed to work away and learn a bit further from the spotlight for a few years. Marvel had the right idea to match him with Brubaker for a while on Iron Fist when he began with them. Fraction seems to have hitched his professional wagon to Marvel's cycles of hype and marketing, rather than concentrating on producing really great comics. But that's where the money and the fans are.
Keiron Gillen is the most interesting writer to me of this new batch. He seems to be concentrating on his craft more than the others, and seems to be harnassing his time as a mainstream superhero writer onto a longer professional and artistic gameplan. He'll always be worth reading, but I'm not sure he's interested in 'playing the game' of hype and marketing long term that will make him a huge seller.
Interestingly, in a recent interview he admitted that Marvel's cranking up of the double-shipping model has meant that he hasn't been able to concentrate on his creator-owned stuff as much as he'd have liked to recently, so Marvel are indirectly affecting the production of more independent comics just at a time when non-mainstream comics are starting to get more interest.
Regarding Border Mutt's closing question, perhaps Steve Englehart in the 70s, and Brian Bendis more recently?
Have you been reading American Vampire? Lots of original ideas there, even though it's in the well-established vampire genre.I haven't read any of his work on DC characters yet, but I will be reading his Swamp Thing as soon as a library copy becomes available.
Oh, and Figs, have you read any of Fraction's creator owned work? That's how he got Marvel's attention. I'd highly recommend Casanova, which is a crazy sci-fi spy series.
Wandering Sensei: Emeritus said:
Luke Blanchard said:
I deliberately didn't mention Bendis because his rise was much slower than Snyder's. He really hit the heights Snyder has hit in about 2004, perhaps later but he'd been working on more culty stuff since the mid-90s. He's certainly had staying power in terms of popularity. Johns is his counterpart 'across town' and Johns rise probably mirrors Bendis' in terms of speed and height reached. Whatever Johns' official role is at DC, Bendis' looks to be virtually the same at Marvel. But neither can match Snyder for sheer speed of their ascent.
No I haven't read Casanova. It was 'one to read' a while ago, but Fraction's dopey and decompressed stuff at Marvel has deincentivised me from reading it to some extent. With all these writers, something is going on once they start to write mainstream superheroes, that causes them to put in less than their best work. Bendis included here too. Perhaps they are writing down to how they perceive the market? Contempt would explain a lot.
As for Englehart, I'd love to see a discussion of the arc of his career, including how bankable he was thought to be at his height.
I've only read Snyder's Bat-work up to the end of Black Mirror. That particular storyline worked pretty well as an accessible noir superhero 'novel'. Snyder is a good writer, no question. For me it fell down somewhat as a superHERO tale because, whereas the villain was wonderfully realised, with his psychopathy and all, the Grayson-Batman wasn't drawn with as much conviction. As if Snyder didn't really believe in someone dedicating his life to that level of altruism. Snyder was all over the villain but wasn't interested in how tough it is to be a good man. I'm going to guess that Snyder is much more comfortable with the return of 80s borderline psychopathic Batman, now that Wayne is back in the cowl and they KILLED HIS SON!!
I was in the lcs a few weeks ago going through the back issue bin and got to talking with a customer who -as he was looking at a title from the 1990's- said that he felt that comics now were in a writer/star bubble and he thought that it would collapse at some point. I don't know but I do feel things were better when the writers names weren't on the outside of the title.
Thinking back though I can't think of a writer who stepped in and made an immediate impact, but I think some artist have.
Wandering Sensei said:
While I'm becoming increasingly disenchanted with some of the directions DC is taking, I don't know that I'd really consider them to be floundering. Of the Big 2, I think I'd be more likely to consider Marvel to be in worse shape. The Marvel NOW!! titles are getting some big initial numbers but it seems to me it's more because they've doubled down with the alternate covers. Most of their titles don't seem to have any staying power and regardless of the creative quality, if it doesn't have a strong Avengers connection, it plummets all the faster. Sure, the bottom section of DC's titles seem to be getting tossed as quickly as fast food wrappers but Marvel doesn't seem to be able to keep a solid base on its top tier titles.
Luke Blanchard said:
Luke, were you thinking that Englehart's style changed very quickly or just that his popularity skyrocketed in a short time?
Figserello said:
I think that might be the horror writer coming out in him. Flesh out the villain to really drive the horror home while only gradually fleshing out the protagonist through the action. Alternatively, flesh out the victim while learning next to nothing about the villain, just make them a seemingly unstoppable force. Since a new Batman not only has to win but can't be seen to be overmatched, he went with the former. That's my theory anyway.
In any case, that scene with Gordon and his son in the diner was incredibly well done. He definitely showed his writing chops. There's no question in my mind, that's what gave him all the rope he currently has.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next