Thread by @IAmBradWalker

THREAD!

Just scrolled twitter for maybe five minutes and saw tons of tweets by fans and comics journalists, praising this book or that, and crediting them as "X comic book by: writer". And the writers retweeted them. (1 of ?)

Look. I know I bang this drum a lot, but this is an industry-wide problem that's only getting worse. Through whatever series of events that led us here, the general readership really regards the art in comics as a support role in the creation of the product. (2 of ?)

As is, a large portion of the fanbase seems to think a comic they enjoy by a certain writer would be equally appealing to them, no matter who drew it. (3 of ?)

At most, they may have an awareness they prefer the way this or that artist draws Spider-Man's eyes, or the way this one draws Wolverine's boots, but more or less, when they draw a comic, they're just translating the writer's thoughts, and it's pretty interchangeable. (4 of ?)

It's never been lost on me that, for whatever reason, they also regard writing stories as something anyone could do, so by virtue of having an imagination stimulated by reading & watching stories, many identify as undiscovered writers. (5 of ?)

That, alone, seems to give them a tribal attachment to the writing part of the process. (6 of ?)

This is something that's been building for 20/25 years. After the boom of the artist in the 90's, there's been a slow growing lack of understanding about what the artist is actually bringing to the table. (7 of ?)

And the majority of us that chime in are the artists, & the response is usually that we're just being sour grapes, wanting credit for something the audience just knows is the contribution of the writer. I've even had fans clap back at me when I post to credit the artist. (8 of ?)

They will often angrily inform me that there's just not enough room or time to credit everybody that worked on the book. Or that the writing is "the only part they really care about", so that's all they credit. (9 of ?)

There's a fundamental misunderstanding of the medium that does a disservice to the whole thing. (10 of ?)

If we perpetuate this idea that comics r just stories merely translated w/ interchangeable pictures, no wonder they're being considered mere ways of quickly introducing I.P.'s to be mined by "more important" mediums, & the quality of this initial step is insignificant. (11of?)

This medium is NOT that. It's a very unique way of telling a story. It's a marriage of words and pictures that can do things other mediums can't. (12of?)

The artist and the writer are joined together in a synergistic capacity to tell the story in a way that grabs the viewer that other mediums can't do. (13of?)

And that's not to underscore the role that inkers, colorists, letterers, or the production staff bring in making this a package of clarity and artistic quality. Or even, in intricate ways, to facilitate the storytelling, themselves. (14of?)

That's very inside baseball stuff that I'm not going to detail in this post, but it's essential, to those of us that work on these things, and the work is best when we all communicate at all steps of the process. (15of?)

I implore this community to push back against these misconceptions. Fans, journalists, & ESPECIALLY writers. When someone posts art and doesn't credit the artist, please start either crediting them, or asking the poster for an art credit and put the leg work back on them. (16of?)

It will get people talking about the visual storyteller, and change the dialogue about what this medium actually is. (17of?)

And it will stop making the artist sound like they're just whining for credit in things that literally wouldn't exist without their 7 day a week job that they break their body and their life to produce. Thanks.

End (18 of 18)