CBR: Industry Reacts To DC E-i-C Bob Harras

**CBR News** · 09-27-2010, 04:36 PM

On the opening of a new era for DC Comics' editorial team, some of the biggest names in comics from Joe Quesada to Kurt Busiek and more weigh in with their impressions, congratulations and predictions for what's next.

Full article here.

**botmaster2020** · 09-27-2010, 04:59 PM

So everything will have 'Industry Reaction' news page from now on then? Sad really.

**Ilash** · 09-27-2010, 05:07 PM

So... nothing from Mark Waid then?

**daveageallen** · 09-27-2010, 05:11 PM

really?weneed a thread about a lot of people saying the same thing?

i wanna see a creator say"screw that guy he doesnt deserve it, I deserve it!"

or something funny like that

**Nevets F** · 09-27-2010, 05:24 PM

Originally Posted by botmaster2020

So everything will have 'Industry Reaction' news page from now on then? Sad really.

Well, this one deserves it. DC has it's first EiC since 2002, and it's a former Marvel EiC, one of the most successful EiC's Marvel ever had at that.

**daveageallen** · 09-27-2010, 05:35 PM

mark waid...

Word has it that you’re no longer welcome at Marvel after a statement you made on my Forum about Bob Harras. What’s your take on Bob’s time at Marvel in your experience?

Yeah, that’s at least temporarily true. Apparently, the fact that Bob was fired for unfair and wrong reasons one September rather than for all the tens of hundreds of RIGHT reasons he’d racked up in the seven years PREVIOUS gave a lot of staffers a sudden change of heart. Amazing. Overnight, they forgot what a two-faced, cowardly liar Bob had been and what crap they’d all had to suffer through because of his shortcomings as a manager. Instead, everyone was lighting candles for Bob. Jesus. You want to know the truth? In my humble =koff= opinion, Bob did as much to help destroy the comic book industry during the 1990s than any other single human being alive. Yes, even more than Gareb. I’d even let Ron Perlman out of Hell before I’d pardon Bob. For years and years and years, the editorial philosophy at Marvel was to make each and every comic book as labyrinthine and confusing as creatively possible. Marvel had the single highest-profile comic book in the Western hemisphere–X-MEN–and Bob did everything imaginable to make it completely incomprehensible and inaccessible to new and/or casual readers. Everything.

“But, Mark…” I hear the whine. “But, Mark, Bob kept the X-books best-sellers in the industry during his tenure.” Technically true–but let’s look at the sales figures. Over the last six years, the sales margin between the X-books and their nearest competitors has dwindled from about three-to-one to barely 1.5-to-one. Woo-hoo. Cigars, everyone.

Here it is in a nutshell: Did you see that stupifyingly atrocious piece-of-crap X-MEN sampler comic in TV GUIDE? My rage had no words. It was a textbook example of how NOT to write and draw something a prospective first-time reader could possibly understand or enjoy or want to see more of. Hell, I’ve been reading comics for 34 years and I had to read it three times to figure out what was going on. TV GUIDE. Eight million households. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for new market exposure. And everyone connected with it failed miserably. Fire them. Fire them all. We’re DYIN’ here. We cannot afford to blow ANY opportunity to find new readers.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/09/...ten-years-ago/

**ACS** · 09-27-2010, 05:43 PM

Originally Posted by daveageallen

really?weneed a thread about a lot of people saying the same thing?

i wanna see a creator say"screw that guy he doesnt deserve it, I deserve it!"

or something funny like that

^This^

**Ilash** · 09-27-2010, 05:53 PM

Originally Posted by daveageallen

mark waid...

Word has it that you’re no longer welcome at Marvel after a statement you made on my Forum about Bob Harras. What’s your take on Bob’s time at Marvel in your experience?

Yeah, that’s at least temporarily true. Apparently, the fact that Bob was fired for unfair and wrong reasons one September rather than for all the tens of hundreds of RIGHT reasons he’d racked up in the seven years PREVIOUS gave a lot of staffers a sudden change of heart. Amazing. Overnight, they forgot what a two-faced, cowardly liar Bob had been and what crap they’d all had to suffer through because of his shortcomings as a manager. Instead, everyone was lighting candles for Bob. Jesus. You want to know the truth? In my humble =koff= opinion, Bob did as much to help destroy the comic book industry during the 1990s than any other single human being alive. Yes, even more than Gareb. I’d even let Ron Perlman out of Hell before I’d pardon Bob. For years and years and years, the editorial philosophy at Marvel was to make each and every comic book as labyrinthine and confusing as creatively possible. Marvel had the single highest-profile comic book in the Western hemisphere–X-MEN–and Bob did everything imaginable to make it completely incomprehensible and inaccessible to new and/or casual readers. Everything.

“But, Mark…” I hear the whine. “But, Mark, Bob kept the X-books best-sellers in the industry during his tenure.” Technically true–but let’s look at the sales figures. Over the last six years, the sales margin between the X-books and their nearest competitors has dwindled from about three-to-one to barely 1.5-to-one. Woo-hoo. Cigars, everyone.

Here it is in a nutshell: Did you see that stupifyingly atrocious piece-of-crap X-MEN sampler comic in TV GUIDE? My rage had no words. It was a textbook example of how NOT to write and draw something a prospective first-time reader could possibly understand or enjoy or want to see more of. Hell, I’ve been reading comics for 34 years and I had to read it three times to figure out what was going on. TV GUIDE. Eight million households. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for new market exposure. And everyone connected with it failed miserably. Fire them. Fire them all. We’re DYIN’ here. We cannot afford to blow ANY opportunity to find new readers.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/09/...ten-years-ago/

Haha. Mark Waid telling it like he sees it. Don't get me wrong, it's just one guy's opinion so I'm not going to suddenly jump on the anti-Harras band wagon. Still, if there are two things to take from this is that sadly it looks like it is going to be even longer before we see Waid working for DC again and that I really want Waid to remain in the business for a long, long time. Not just because he's one of my favourite superhero writers but because if he was like this 10 years ago can you imagine what he'll be like in 10 or 20 years time? Alan Moore look out!

**Neutrino** · 09-27-2010, 06:16 PM

This guy is the one who did X-Men in the '90s. Ooooohhhhh boy. Green Lantern, I see much in your future. Much badness.

(Why do we have to get ex-Marvel talent for DC EiC? Couldn't we get somebody from the DC roster? I know Tomasi is well into being a writer, but he would have been a good choice and could probably still write one book a month.)

**hondobrode** · 09-27-2010, 06:26 PM

Originally Posted by daveageallen

really?weneed a thread about a lot of people saying the same thing?

i wanna see a creator say"screw that guy he doesnt deserve it, I deserve it!"

or something funny like that

Oh Dave, I wish YOU could be the new E-i-C !

You're so full of great ideas

**Jared** · 09-27-2010, 06:34 PM

What has Ron Perlman done to deserve Hell? He's a really good actor.

**The All-Seeing Eye of Agamotto** · 09-27-2010, 07:35 PM

During Bob Harras's reign at Marvel, the quality of their comics sank to the lowest it has ever been. Those early nineties comics were unreadable and are embarrassments to this day. During Harras's reign, the quality of the X-Men and Avengers comics, especially, tanked. They stunk up my collection.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Harras the man at the helm that drove Marvel into bankruptcy? I'm thinking whoever hired him at DC didn't do a background check.

This is bad news for DC, but they don't know it yet. It's good news for those of us who are trying to save money and need to drop some titles.

**Shellhead** · 09-27-2010, 07:49 PM

Originally Posted by daveageallen

really?weneed a thread about a lot of people saying the same thing?

i wanna see a creator say"screw that guy he doesnt deserve it, I deserve it!"

or something funny like that

I'm glad that you posted those remarks from Mark Waid, because otherwise, the industry reaction, the one for public consumption anyway, is boring. Almost nobody still in the industry is going to speak freely about either of the EiCs at the Big Two, because they don't want to alienate an employer or future employer.