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Originally Posted by Sabrinaset
That...that's incredible. It's like telling George Lucas that after American Graffiti, that he'd be no good at Sci-Fi, and better forget about that Star Wars thing.
Do you ever get that kind of stuff at Marvel? Would you work for DC again given that attitude?
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I can TOP that. There was an editor at DC who once told me that I could pitch him some Elseworlds ideas. Now I LOVE "What if?", Elseworlds, and ANY kind of Alternate Realities-- AND I had a TON of Elseworlds ideas in my notebooks. So I was JAZZED! I was PUMPED! And I was ready with some SWEET proposals!
So I set up a meeting with the guy. I went over to DC, arrived at the agreed upon time, and was left waiting in the lobby for over a half an hour. The editor came out, quickly apologized for being late, said he was super busy, rushed me to his office-- and one by one, quickly shot down ALL of my Elseworlds ideas.
He told me where he thought I was going wrong. And that I should go back to the drawing board. He saw SOME promise, and was willing to give me another shot. Was I up for it? I told him I was game. And we set up another time for another meeting.
I went home, and busted my @$$ coming up with more Elseworlds stories. Came up with a few gems. Ran 'em past the "think tank" (guys like Tom Brevoort and Ty Templeton), got the thumbs up, and wrote up a whole new stack of proposals.
The next meeting? The guy leaves me waiting in the lobby for over half an hour AGAIN! Quickly apologizes. Says he's a busy man. Takes me into his office. Shoots down all of my Elseworlds proposals. But says, this time, that I'm on the right track. And with a little re-tooling, some of my proposals can be saved and worked into something. Am I game? Sure. So we set up another meeting.
I go home. I rework the proposals, following all of the editor's notes. And, the next week, go in for our meeting.
The guy leaves me in the lobby for close to half an hour AGAIN! This time though, I get on the phone in the lobby and make some calls. When the editor finally comes out to the lobby to get me, I motion to the phone-- that I'm wrapping up a conversation. I wrap it up. And when I hang up the phone, the editor tells me that HE'S an editor, his time is valuable, and I shouldn't make him wait for something like that. (It was under a minute-- I was WRAPPING UP a call!) Now that he's pissed, the editor rushes me to his office, immediately shoots down my revized Elseworlds proposals-- without really listening to them-- and gives me "The Speech."
He tells me that he's been thinking about ALL of the ideas I've been pitching him. And, on the whole, they're too grand, too epic in their scope. I point out that they're all very character-driven. And he agrees, but he says that the backdrop that they're played out across is just too big and operatic.
"You see, I want BLADERUNNER," he tells me, "And you're giving me STAR WARS."
I will NEVER forget those words as long as I live.
I sat there a little stunned. Then I pointed out that STAR WARS was one of the greatest mass market successes of all time. And that it far outperformed BLADERUNNER. And why would he want to be the editor that turned down STAR WARS?
He said I had a point. But, in the end, he was the editor, and if he wanted BLADE RUNNER then THAT was what was important.
I told him that, hey, if he wanted BLADERUNNER, I could give him BLADERUNNER.
And to that he said, that no-- he didn't think that I had a BLADERUNNER in me. He thanked me for my time and said that he didn't think we needed to take any more meetings in the future.
Years later, I was talking to an editor at DC-- and found out that HE was editing Elseworlds. I asked him if I could pitch him some stuff. He said sure. So I dusted off a bunch (not all) of my Elseworlds pitches. As I was pitching idea after idea to him, he said he was impressed by how MANY ideas I had for Elseworlds. I told him that I had EVEN MORE if he wanted to see them-- and different versions of the earlier pitches too. When he asked how THAT came about, I told him that I'd originally pitched them to that OTHER DC editor (who was no longer working at DC at the time).
The editor was confused. He told me that the OTHER DC editor was working UNDER him back when I made those Elseworlds pitches to him-- and that he HAD NO AUTHORITY TO TAKE OR APPROVE ELSEWORLDS PITCHES AT THE TIME!
I was stunned. For the rest of the meeting, I couldn't think of anything else other than how that OTHER editor had jerked me around and wasted WEEKS of my life.
About a year after THAT, I was walking down the street, thumbing through a NEWSWEEK, when someone called out to me. It was the FIRST editor. He asked if I remembered him. I said I did. He congratulated me on the ARKHAM ASYLUM LIVING HELL mini-series. Said it really surprised him, was very good, and that he had me pegged all wrong. Without provocation, he said he was sorry for wasting my time all those years ago. It was all very surreal. I thanked him and said I had to go.
He pretty much did all of the talking. Outside of saying that I did remember him, thanking him, and saying that I had to go-- I didn't really say anything else to him. And I went home.
Some day, I really WOULD like to do a couple of those Elseworlds. I always thought they were pretty good.