CBR: Defining DC's Dwayne McDuffie Tribute

[CBR News]

Former Milestone creator Tommy Lee Edwards has spoken up about a lack of charity efforts tied to DC Comics incoming "Static Shock" special tribute comic to the late Dwayne McDuffie as DC clarifies their intent.


Full article here.

[Anxy]

Very lame of DC. Even Marvel would show more heart than this.

[Squashua]

I am surprised at this poor choice of marketing.

[The Spire]

And DC stays true to form by missing out on a golden opportunity to try and do right by the guy they very publicly screwed over.

Stay classy, DC.

[JosephS]

Sooo...DC is cashing in on McDuffie's death? Stay classy.

[Sean Walsh]

Wait, I'm confused, though I confess I don't know the particular finances of doing tribute comics I guess.....can't the creators just donate what they're paid instead?

[JosephS]

Wait, I'm confused, though I confess I don't know the particular finances of doing tribute comics I guess.....can't the creators just donate what they're paid instead?

Sure they can. But Edwards doesn't want to take part in DC capitalizing on McDuffie's death. Usually when talent waives its fee it's because all proceeds are going to charity.

[Sean Walsh]

Sure they can. But Edwards doesn't want to take part in DC capitalizing on McDuffie's death. Usually when talent waives its fee it's because all proceeds are going to charity.

Ah, ok.

Yeah, not a good move on DC's part. Hopefully the company just cuts a big check after the orders start coming in for that amount (and more). :-/

[Schnitzy Pretzelpants]

Why should I be surprised.

Though, I guess their solicitation was very carefully worded:

"A special one-shot paying homage to Dwayne McDuffie and the world of Milestone Media, with tribute material from Milestone co-founder Denys Cowan and other Milestone alumni."

But, I gotta say - it does read more open-ended. Though if it were a fund-raising book it would have clearly said that.

Still: NO CLASS.

[Scavenger]

Hey, that DC is pocketing the money rather then giving it to say James Robinson or the NAAWP is a step forward for them.

[Doug Strange]

I can see them not planning it that way from the start, but when it's brought to light, the smart (and RIGHT) thing to do would have been to say "Tommy Lee has a great point, and so now we've decided to donate the money." Coming out and saying "Sorry you guys thought we might actually do something nice" is pretty dicky.

Not gonna be buying now.

[greatmetropolitan]

I'll be honest...I don't see what DC's done wrong here.

They just said that "This Special is our way of acknowledging the industry’s loss. It is not a tribute comic intended to raise proceeds for charity."

When Julie Schwartz died, I'm reasonably sure all he got was a back page dedicated to him. On hearing of Dwayne's death, it seems DC's response is to release a special comic to highlight the new ongoing series of an important character he created.

Whether you see this as DC cashing in or not depends on your view of human nature I suppose. I'll admit I can be naive that way. This could be DC cashing in or it could be DC making a bigger deal about a man's creation in order to honour him after he died. Even if its not true, I'd feel better believing the latter.

[Anxy]

So Edwards was saying "DC isn't donating any proceeds to McDuffie's family", so DC followed up with a statement basically saying, "yup, that's about right."

I'm sure it'll be followed by a buncha boo-hoo from DC about "comics aren't cheap to publish" and "it's a tribute to him that we're even publishing this one-shot" and blah blah blah...

C'mon DC. Show some class.

[Roland Gunner]

Sure they can. But Edwards doesn't want to take part in DC capitalizing on McDuffie's death. Usually when talent waives its fee it's because all proceeds are going to charity.

But DC isn't asking him to waive anything. They planned on paying him just like any other book. It would have been nice for DC to donate the proceeds to charity but they never made any claim that they were doing that.

[flavioeldritch]

Well, looks that someone is trying to get an exclusive contract with Marvel....