New reader - do writers talk to each other?

[rubberhedgehog]

Hi everyone.
I have recently started reading comic books - the New 52 pulled me in and launching digital comics was a huge help with me.
I'm 25 and the only previous exposure to comics was the old Commando comics from the UK.

I'm a bit puzzled by the way some of the books are being published.
Do the writers in each of the 'families' talk to each other and set the ground rules?
For example, we see in Action Comics that Superman can't breath in space, and yet Supergirl apparently can.
Batman has different gadgets depending on which comic you read.

The major storylines pull together (such as the latest Batman and Nightwing with the circus), but it's the medium details that seem to be blurry between various authors.
I would have thought that they would sit down, set the details in stone and then construct stories with these in placem rather than each having their own interpretation....

Thoughts?

Thanks :smile:

[FoxMulder2012]

I'm sure there's a lot of different ways that this stuff happens. Each family has an main editor who is supposed to keep track of everything and make sure that there is stuff that's more or less consistent. Now, that doesn't always happnen (in fact, it usually doesn't). Most people just assume that the stories are more or less happening at different times. And I know that a lot of writers talk quite a bit on a personal and professional level. Scott Snyder (Swamp Thing) and Jeff Lemire (Animal Man) are pretty good friends and they talk a lot, which is aiding to their series' connecting. Also Snyder and Kyle Higgens (Nightwing) are friends as well, so their titles are connected. It does have to go through an editor, but a lot of the times the creators do talk to each other.

As for Action Comics Superman not breathing in space and Supergirl can, I think that has to do with Superman not being fully developed yet. He doesn't have all of his powers were Supergirl does. That's an easy one and Batman having different gagets, I think that's just the idea that he has a lot of stuff at his disposal and he brings out different ones depending on the mission. That's not really a continuity error.

[CTpitch]

As for Action Comics Superman not breathing in space and Supergirl can, I think that has to do with Superman not being fully developed yet. He doesn't have all of his powers were Supergirl does. That's an easy one and Batman having different gagets, I think that's just the idea that he has a lot of stuff at his disposal and he brings out different ones depending on the mission. That's not really a continuity error.

I don't want to get off topic but wasn't supergirl holding her breath while in space.

[Buried Alien]

I imagine that today's comics writers don't talk to each other as often as did the ones of generations past. I imagine that in earlier decades, comic book artists worked in the same office/studio daily, and if he (and in those days, it was "he" more often than not) wanted to consult with another writer, the other writer was probably just a few doors down the same corridor.

These days, I imagine writers working largely at home and not seeing their fellow writers as often. Even with cell phones, email, and social media easily at hand, I imagine they reach out to each other less frequently than their counterparts a generation ago did.

This is my impression; I don't work in the industry, so I could be entirely wrong about this.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[FoxMulder2012]

I don't want to get off topic but wasn't supergirl holding her breath while in space.

I don't know. I haven't read Supergirl after the first issue, but I assume that she is more developed in her powers than Action Comics Superman. I could be wrong though.

[FoxMulder2012]

I imagine that today's comics writers don't talk to each other as often as did the ones of generations past. I imagine that in earlier decades, comic book artists worked in the same office/studio daily, and if he (and in those days, it was "he" more often than not) wanted to consult with another writer, the other writer was probably just a few doors down the same corridor.

These days, I imagine writers working largely at home and not seeing their fellow writers as often. Even with cell phones, email, and social media easily at hand, I imagine they reach out to each other less frequently than their counterparts a generation ago did.

This is my impression; I don't work in the industry, so I could be entirely wrong about this.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

I think that's partially true to a certain extent. Back then you had a lot of comics written by a few people. There was a time when Stan Lee was plotting every single Marvel comic with his brother scripting some and like five artists at most. From what I can tell it wasn't too much different at DC Comics. Just a little bit more in the way of bureaucracy through Julie Schwartz and others. That probably didn't take a lot of work to keep things consistent. But that didn't allow for all the voices in comics that we have now.

The advent of the Fax machine probably helped a bit and allowed comic book writers to spread out, but that probably hurt communication unless they flew in. Either way, I do think the internet and social media helped a lot. I run a shared universe fanfiction website and while it's no where close to a real comic book company, the writers spend a lot of time on skype, emailing, private messaging each other, I know several of us have Google Docs for co-written series'. So, I really do think that social media is helping a lot. And that's not even close to some of the bigger inventions in mass communication, such as video conference calls and what not.

The idea that they were all in the same studio definitely makes sense, but with all these new inventions, I can't imagine communications gotten worse. Even if it hasn't gotten better, there's no way it's gotten worse.

[CTpitch]

I don't know. I haven't read Supergirl after the first issue, but I assume that she is more developed in her powers than Action Comics Superman. I could be wrong though.

No you are technically right about Kara being more developed in her powers. I've been reading her series and I remember her saying she was holding her breath and had a few minutes of air left

[CagedLeo730]

I don't want to get off topic but wasn't supergirl holding her breath while in space.

Speaking for those who actually read the book and can clearly recall it, YES, she was holding her breath.

[BohemiaDrinker]

I'm a bit puzzled by the way some of the books are being published.
Do the writers in each of the 'families' talk to each other and set the ground rules?

Sort of. They don`t "necessarily" talk to each other, as each family has an editorial team responsible for the oversight and consistency and, as I undesrtand, before the issues are fuly written, an outline of major events in them, characters used aand such stuff is submitted to DC. Which doesn`t mean that they can`t, or never talk to each other. Events like the current storyline in Batman, which will affect all the titles in that family of books, frequently have collaborations between writers (I`d think mostly by e-mails). Some years agio, the writers of "52" had frequent meetings, and so on.


For example, we see in Action Comics that Superman can't breath in space, and yet Supergirl apparently can.

According to Supergirl`s current team, her powers are not exactly the same as Superman`s. Also, "Action Comics" is set five years in the past, and Superman did not have his full powerset yet.


Batman has different gadgets depending on which comic you read.

Batman has all the gadgets.


The major storylines pull together (such as the latest Batman and Nightwing with the circus), but it's the medium details that seem to be blurry between various authors.
I would have thought that they would sit down, set the details in stone and then construct stories with these in placem rather than each having their own interpretation....

Sort of. There are "bibles" of characters and franchises, but the day to day process, I believe, is more focused on not having comics in the same family contradicting each other directly, be itin events, tone or characterization. Anything else, I believe, is fair game.

[Buried Alien]

I think nobody did the "shared universe" tighter or more effectively than Marvel did under Jim Shooter during the 1980s. In those days over at Marvel, if Captain America spilled coffee onto the carpet at the Avengers Mansion in an issue of AVENGERS, then Reed Richards would see Jarvis cleaning out the stain if Reed were visiting the mansion in the same month's issue of FANTASTIC FOUR. It was *that* tight at Marvel during the Shooter days.

Unfortunately for me, since that's where and when I began my comics fandom, I came to have the unrealistic expectation that *all* comic book universes should have such tightly cohesive continuity. Shooter's Marvel, however, was a unique beast in this sense.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[DarkKnghtJared]

I imagine that today's comics writers don't talk to each other as often as did the ones of generations past. I imagine that in earlier decades, comic book artists worked in the same office/studio daily, and if he (and in those days, it was "he" more often than not) wanted to consult with another writer, the other writer was probably just a few doors down the same corridor.

These days, I imagine writers working largely at home and not seeing their fellow writers as often. Even with cell phones, email, and social media easily at hand, I imagine they reach out to each other less frequently than their counterparts a generation ago did.

This is my impression; I don't work in the industry, so I could be entirely wrong about this.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

It might not be so much that they don't communicate as often--anyone who follows several creators on Twitter will tell you that isn't the case--I think it's more that, as anyone who frequents forums can tell you, communicating via e-mail or IM isn't as deep or as all-encompassing as seeing the person's face or hearing their voice alongside the words. But, stuff like Skype and video chat could help better substitute that as things go on.

[glennsim]

The other issue to consider is that, being writers, they probably talk about different things than we might expect (or want) them to. They are less worried about continuity and more concerned with themes and characterizations and plots.

[Raye]

As has been mentioned, if you follow multiple writers on Twitter, you can see that they do talk with each other. I mean, they obviously don't talk story ideas on Twitter where everyone can see, but you can see them say things like "talked with X today about Y" or they just chatter away at each other in a way that indicates they are clearly friends or at least know each other and are in contact. Especially Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire... and if you look at Swamp Thing and Animal Man, there is a lot of shared stuff there, with the Rot and all, which they coordinated together. But I think the difference between now and what was going on in the 80's and before is that the writers are collaborating with each other only if they WANT to for the most part, editorially mandated crossovers are not as common, and when they do happen they are more loosely connected than they used to be.