Posts tagged Facebook Comic Con

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NOTE: Martin Pasko comments on this post, which renders its thrust completely superfluous. I’m leaving it as is, however, so as to keep the exchange coherent. A follow up response to and about Martin here.

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I’ve been watching this since the first press release for Kobra: Resurrection appeared a few months ago. Now that the book is out and the solicitation has remained the same, it makes me wonder somewhat. Here’s how DC lists the graphic novel (color highlight is mine):

Written by Martin Pasko, Jack Kirby, Greg Rucka, Eric Trautmann and Ivan Brandon; Art by Mike Nasser, Jack Kirby, Joe Bennett, Julian Lopez and others Cover by Andrew Robinson

This graphic novel features the secret origin of KOBRA, the epic tale of their battle with CHECKMATE, the original KOBRA tale with Art by Jack Kirby and more. Collected from KOBRA #1, DC SPECIAL SERIES #1, CHECKMATE #23-25 and KOBRA: FACES OF EVIL #1.

The GN reprints the first issue of Kobra, created, written and drawn by Jack Kirby, undisputed all time king of the comics narrative, along with other stories, including the Batman/Kobra: Dead on Arrival Conspiracy I drew back in ’76-’77 for DC Special Series #1, written by Martin Pasko and inked by Joe Rubinstein.

One would wonder why the solicitation carries the credits in the order it does. It’s clearly more appropriate to have Kirby’s name appear first in the main blurb. He was creator of the character – and artist/writer of the first story in the book. Kirby towers much higher in stature and marketability over all the other contributors,  and would certainly have more appeal as a top billing, such as was given in the description byline.

Some might suggest that such credits are often ordered arbitrarily and don’t necessarily indicate much intent, which really isn’t true considering how a solicitation is compiled. Credits, whether in such listings, or in the comic books themselves, or even in other media such as television and film, are always meticulously crafted and ordered for a variety of reasons, the first of which is to achieve maximum promotional appeal. The order of credits in such a solicitation helps define the desirability a book will have on the market. It is usually a thoroughly considered decision and rarely made in haphazard fashion.

One possible reason for this is that someone has an ax to grind with Kirby, but it’s not a convincing assumption because it rubs the grain of commercial concerns. Regardless what the considerations were, it’s not likely that such an arrangement was arrived at out of any personal issues towards the Kirby legacy.

Another possibility is that someone thought the names Pasko and Nasser are also popular enough to help sell the book, and thus worthy of top billing. This must, however, be based on some reality in the comics scene. Martin Pasko is barely heard of these days. His name doesn’t appear often in the comics web community. And although I have a relatively persistent presence due to publicity from projects such as the campaign to save J’onn J’onzz or founding Facebook Comic Con, it still leaves me wondering somewhat.

Whatever the reasoning behind it, or whether it was done without any reasoning, the muse is that some good folk at DC are favorably remembering my work these days. If this leads to a good comics project with the publisher I’m most identified with, then we can perhaps overlook downplaying Kirby’s importance in this case. The King is no longer with us, after all. He’s certainly not a candidate for an upcoming project at DC and his impeccable reputation doesn’t suffer from this in the slightest.

As for myself and an entire generation of colleagues who aren’t working much in mainstream comics these days… well, we can certainly make use of any opportunity to enhance our visibility in the industry.  More so, it was especially nice to find a royalty payment today in the mail from DC Comics for this reprint. Good to know I’m still in the address book. And much appreciated.