Acts of Creation Part 3

Editor, Managing Editor, Editor In Chief, Publisher.

Different titles for different jobs, but they overlap and it's where they overlap the trouble normally comes.

I know this is a community of artists but it doesn't hurt to understand who the people are that you are approaching for work.  What follows is a brief description of what each normally have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. This is by no means a complete list of their duties but are usually at the core.

EDITOR – Overall they are responsible for keeping the book on a timely track while balancing the editorial requirements of the company and the abilities and desires of the creative teams.

MANAGING EDITOR – These guys watch the editors and are usually responsible for their performance while at the same time having responsibilities of their own.

EDITOR IN CHIEF – This is the person who usually deals directly with the publisher. Their responsibilities lie primarily with making sure the above do their jobs as well as setting the creative direction for the company/line. He makes sure that the editors follow his direction and that the creators have what they need. The EIC sits in on all major decision making meetings concerning the editorial direction of the company titles. He is also held accountable by the publisher for keeping to or below budgets.

PUBLISHER – This is the man who is usually in the hot seat. He has to make sure that they are doing everything the owners and shareholders expect of the company. They work in close contact with the EIC to make sure that profits are high, costs are low, yet keeping creators and staff happy.

Until about ten odd years ago, all shared one responsibility. The books had to get out on time. No excuses, no delays. Most of us remember at one time or other a book where the regular storyline would be interrupted by the sudden appearance of either a fill in story that no relation to the ongoing plots or a reprint edited down with possibly a new framing sequence. Back then there were no Internet message boards for the fans to voice their disapproval. But then they didn't have such convoluted storylines that were intertwined with so many other titles that made those issues so important that their deadlines had to be met and the reprint issues went away.

Nowadays comics are three or four dollars not fifty or seventy-five cents, making a reprint fill-in unacceptable to both retailers and customers alike. The market has gone from reliance on newsstand sales to direct market sales. As that market has changed so has the amount of copies purchased. The casual buyer has almost complete disappeared as editorial shifted emphasis to pleasing and capturing a market that preferred a more soap opera approach to their stories.

Shifting that emphasis from stand alone stories to longer more complex storylines that appealed to customers of the Direct Market meant losing the casual buyer. The casual buyer wasn't just someone who might buy two or three issues a year, it was also the reader who maybe bought just the stories they liked, maybe anywhere from six to eleven issues a year.

The shift in editorial meant a different mindset from both the creators and the editorial staff. Titles that once did well on the newsstand disappeared as they proved the opposite of what the Direct Sale market wanted. All those great anthologies such as 'The Witching Hour', 'Weird War Stories', 'Strange Adventures', 'Where Monsters Dwell', 'Tales to Astonish', 'House of Mystery' and so on, were gone. Editors like Julie Schwartz and Archie Goodwin, who could oversee a story where more happened in eight pages than now happens in six issues, watched the world change around them. Heroes became more complex, as did their villains. Eventually the villains went from threatening death and destruction to accomplishing such feats.

If Marvel and DC were in the real world, most of the villains would have been put to death by now. No pleas of insanity would have stopped the Joker from being fried by now.

Making sense of these worlds has fallen into the hands of the current crop of publishers and editors. How do you create realistic stories for the 21st Century with characters that were created for a completely different time?

Truth is, you don't. What you endeavor to create is the suspension of belief that makes the reader enjoy the stories. You pull them in by making them care about characters in situations that would be impossible for any normal person to escape from.

You take characters that the audience can identify with in some way and create adventures both close to home, in urban city environments, as well as fantasy stories set light years away from earth.

These characters work best in consistent worlds. That meaning that we know what their characters are like and we know them so well that they will always act or behave in a certain way. Occasionally longer stories take place where it is necessary to shake things up for the main protagonist. A family member or close friend gets killed or betrays them. Someone reveals a secret, such as a hero's secret identity to someone else. The main character must undo the damage in whatever way they can.

These stories are most effective when written and drawn by a single and creative team.

Over the years what has become almost commonplace is that occasionally they will be unable to make their deadline. At three or four dollars a pop, fans do not want a reprint fill-in issue. We have seen many examples where a change in creative teams mid-run can hurt a book. We have all read a comic at one time or other has had five or more different artists handling the chores to make sure it ships on time.

But now things change again. Publishers realizing that the newsstand is not the main market any longer are reevaluating how they sell their titles. The Direct Sale market has become a place to promote your wears before launching it into the book trade. This seems to be the "New" Direct Market. A place to sell books at an even higher cover price to a larger market.

If you eventually want to sell your stories as large, one hundred page or more books, then the last thing you want to do is break them up by change of artists or look halfway through. Even if that costs you money in the short term.

This brings me back to the editors and publishers. They are the ones making these decisions. What would you prefer? Quality over quantity? Everyone says Quality, but if retailers don't get quantity, they have nothing to sell and readers don't get their weekly fix.

An editor and publisher must take the responsibility on their shoulders to know what a creative team can handle. Creators always say they can handle whatever is thrown at them, but this is often what is said to secure a job and they just hope that they can deliver. Editors need to be able to sense when a writer or artist may not be able to deliver. This is extremely difficult but there are clues to be seen, especially if they have done work for you already.

Creating a publishing schedule that works for everyone helps. If it takes a creative team three months to do a book, so be it. Just do your best to deliver when you say you will. A book is more than just a writer or artist, an editor or letterer, there are market forces at play all the time, including weather and acts of god.

If I am the editor on a book where I know the creative team are a little slow, but the publisher wants the schedule a certain way and will not act on your suggestions, I can only do my best to keep them on track. But when it comes to taking the blame? If the publisher says the editor who is he to argue? Does the editor go online denouncing his employer, knowing the most likely outcome is his severance?

He might have a wife and family to support. He most likely has to suck it in and take it, the true story coming out only at the bars during convention season. Most editors I've known won't even talk about it there. They took the job and accepted whatever came with it, including health benefits and 401K plans.

Editors are in a very difficult place. They cultivate new talent, often becoming friends with many of them. This often makes it difficult for creators who leave one company for another. Often editors and publishers take it personally, but the truth is everyone has to grow. That might mean drawing Spider-man one year, but drawing Batman the next.

Editors make the move from company to company as well. They cannot be too vocal against other companies because things are always subject to change and they may need to find a job elsewhere when circumstances change.

An editor's employment can be seriously affected by the trust they put in the creators that they work with. If a team says they can produce on time the editor has to decide if they can trust them. It isn't about belief, they usually know that the creators believe what they are saying, what the editor has to decide is does he let them try or does he try to work out an alternative.

Editors at Independent companies often face very different problems. Some smaller companies often run into financial problems. Some can be overcome, others can't. If you are being paid a salary, yet you know the company is having some cash flow problems, how do you handle the questions creators ask? Your employer is telling you that the problem is only going to last another month at the most, but you may feel otherwise, and he is telling you to continue commissioning work. Work from people you have to know very well and want to work with again.
Difficult situation, isn't it? Now you may not think so, but let us go to the scenario of the editor with a wife and children that rely on his income. Other than he should be getting his resume in order, but comic book companies are few and far between, what should he do?

Most editors will do their best to give their creators strong hints on what they feel the situation is. If their creators trust them, they should be able to trust them in return. Tell them as much as you feel comfortable doing. If they have a good relationship with the publisher/president/owner they should ask questions and get their answers in writing if possible.

Now, how about the editorial direction of the titles? The publisher is usually the person who approves or directs the general editorial policy. EIC's often come up with the suggestions and possible choices, then keep everyone focused on them once approved. Problems sometimes come up with editors who are either overachievers or wannabe writers. The best editors are the ones that are there to help you deliver the best possible story YOU are capable of achieving. They act as sounding boards for ideas and make multiple suggestions or offer different paths the stories can take. These ideas should be meant to give you ideas or just indications of how much room you have to change characters and their situations.

Ultimately the best results come from creators who are excited and happy with what they are producing, knowing that they have someone they can call upon for advice and help.

Comic publishers are looking at trade paperbacks today in the same way the film industry looks at DVD's. Additional income coming from material published years ago as well as additional sales on a project that can mean the difference between loss and profit.

Like film and TV with DVD's, the trade paper back is currently the final form for the medium. Once the TPB is out people will stop seeking the floppies. The TPB's can then be kept in print often with 'extras' not seen in the comics such as concept sketches and initial character notes.

So if the TPB is the final form this material is going to be seen, the publisher will make every effort to achieve a consistency to it. One team all the way through. If they are late then in an effort to keep the final product as a whole, they will most likely just ship late. It may hurt them short term, but their sights are most likely on that long term TPB selling through several printings, especially as many people hold out for the trade.

Today there are many people who watch less network TV but buy/rent many more DVD's as they too wait for the collection. The effort made to watch TV on a regular basis and a set time slot seems more and more archaic as we are given options to download TV episodes, without bothersome commercials, just the following day.

Will network TV suffer the same fate as comic books? If a show's second season had delays will they effect the sales of the DVD that is to released next week? We'll have to wait and see. The delays with one season may just push more to wait for the collection.

With comics being produced with the collection in mind these days, editors have to be like story supervisors in TV and keep each issue exciting while not taking their eye off the finished form. If they are ultimately meant to be read as a whole then the collection can't read like a kids chapter book. What may have seemed like major cliff-hangers in the series must read a little smoother in collected form.  Although we are hearing now that DC comics are planning to roll back their approach to trades and go back to making each comic worth picking up as they are released, making more stories self contained.  

Editors today are having to learn a slightly different skill set as they deal with several taskmasters. Their employers, the creators and the public. It's a tough job and they often have to make a silk purse out of a sows ear, so next time you have a gripe about your favorite book - go easy on them. Remember, s#*& always travels downhill, so be sure that someone has already dumped on the editor before you do here.