Brad Meltzer feature on CNN.com

[BIGROD]

Meltzer article (http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/09/05/meltzer.fate.jla/index.html)

and

Cool little audio/visual slideshow on the making of JLofA #1 (http://www.cnn.com/interactive/showbiz/0609/slideshow.superheros/)

[Mike225]

Look! At that bookstore. It's a political suspense author. It's a superhero comic book writer. It's Brad Meltzer.

As a comic fan, I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that you just can't get enough of writing like this. Inspired!

[Paul Sanderson]

He should stick to the books.

[alschroeder]

Any older readers finding it really odd to see people like Meltzer and others who have made it good in other media, actually WANTING to write comics? I'm so used to being in the cultural ghetto, it's odd to see people really WANTING this. The guy who wrote Buffy, for instance, doing X-Men and Runaways, Meltzer doing JLA, etc.
---Al

[Scott Story]

It does seem odd, having all these other successful people want into comics. Comics has to be a huge step down in audience for each of them, but offer creative freedom they might not have elsewhere in movies or tv. Plus, we don't know how well they are paid in comics: It must be OK money to make it worth their while.

[Paul Sanderson]

It does seem odd, having all these other successful people want into comics. Comics has to be a huge step down in audience for each of them, but offer creative freedom they might not have elsewhere in movies or tv. Plus, we don't know how well they are paid in comics: It must be OK money to make it worth their while.

Rucka, Meltzer and those types are paid top dollar for what, for them, is relatively easy work. It's easy money, that's why they do it.

[kdmelrose]

Rucka, Meltzer and those types are paid top dollar for what, for them, is relatively easy work. It's easy money, that's why they do it.

"Top dollar" by comics standards is nowhere near what it is in other entertainment industries (prose publishing, TV, film, video games). If they wanted "easy money," there are certainly other places to find it.

You're implying they write comics out of greed, which is patently ridiculous.

[dano]

"I've always said that every 13-year-old boy wants to date a Playboy centerfold and write a comic book," Meltzer said. "Only one of those is worthwhile."

end of argument

[Paul Sanderson]

Not necesarily greed, but hey, like I said, it's easy money without much outlay for them. They already write, adding on a comic book or two to their schedule ain't that hard for them, and it's a very nice supplemental income for them - they make a tidy sum indeed. The comic industry embraces them with open arms; indeed, they fawn to their every whim, which doesn't happen for them in other industries/avenues, which is why a lot of them turn to comics in the first place. Like I said, easy money...

[kdmelrose]

Not necesarily greed, but hey, like I said, it's easy money without much outlay for them.

You make it sound as if they're banging out a comic in between going to the mailbox and putting clothes in the washer.

Greg Rucka is currently writing 52 and Checkmate -- plus, I imagine, working in advance on other DC titles (and perhaps Queen and Country). That hardly qualifies as "without much outlay."


They already write, adding on a comic book or two to their schedule ain't that hard for them ...

Again, it's not like doing laundry. ("Oh, I'm already washing whites -- go ahead and throw your T-shirts in.") It takes time and effort. Rucka, for instance (again), is one of the architects of the post-Infinite Crisis DC Universe, which means meetings in New York and L.A., among other things, in addition to the ordinary planning that comes with scripting a monthly comic.

The comic industry embraces them with open arms; indeed, they fawn to their every whim, which doesn't happen for them in other industries/avenues, which is why a lot of them turn to comics in the first place. Like I said, easy money...

Yes, yes. Dan DiDio fans them with palm branches while Joe Quesada feeds them olives. Then Paul Levitz and Avi Arad take turns giving them piggy-back rides.

:rolleyes:

Come on. Brad Meltzer is a New York Times best-selling author whose fans include President Clinton. I'm sure he's accustomed to being fawned over (without the added Internet bitching).

[Scribe]

What a lot of people don't realize is that a novelist might only get paid three or four times a year, so a monthly paycheck that comes with benefits and a 401K is an attractive source of income. Additionally it exposes them to new fans which increase the sales of their books generating more royalty payments, its synergy.

I really don't think turning in comic book scripts on time is difficult for a pro like Meltzer, Geoff Johns says his series are routinely plotted a year out, so he probably has the scripts ready to go a month or so before his deadline so he can write them at his leisure.

I picked up the first two issues of Justice League today and found them to be rather slow moving and a pedestrian remake of JMS' Squadron Supreme #1, which itself isn't all that original.

[kdmelrose]

What a lot of people don't realize is that a novelist might only get paid three or four times a year, so a monthly paycheck that comes with benefits and a 401K is an attractive source of income.

Typically, only those creators who sign exclusive contracts receive benefits. I believe Rucka is DC-exclusive, but Meltzer isn't.

EDIT: I take part of that back; Meltzer is DC-exclusive.

[Paul Sanderson]

And he makes big money, both with his books and his comic book work, which is what I said before. And, relatively speaking (also as I said before), the comic book work is the easier of the two, by far. Easy money.

[kdmelrose]

Frank, you may want to check the needle. It's skipping again ...