Not Career Suicide, but it is Judgemental
I took a trip down the rabbit hole, sort of. Bear with me.
While checking out the latest updates on the Sullivan's Sluggers Kickstarter fiasco -- I didn't pledge to that project, but and saddened to see the writer behaving so poorly -- I came upon one person's reviews of projects he's supported. One he ranked lower was Ashes. The names sounded familiar, so I dug a little. Lo and behold, I remembered this bit of drama.
It's a long he said she said story that seems to boil down to a clash of personalities, pride, ego and unclear definitions of each contributor's roles/say. After reading one person's vague "hoo hoo if only I could say more but I won't" type of posts on a forum my opinion was swayed in favor of the other side. His well written interview started to sway it back, but I noted he broke his "silence" soon after declaring he couldn't say anything. The retort by the other side made me conclude I'll probably never know for certain who was "right" or "wrong" without knowing more about each individual on a more personal level. I'm not sure I really want to, so I chalked it back up to "personality clash".
However, among the comments was this one:
GossipQueen says:
01/19/2012 at 7:40 pm
I seem to remember Di Campi on a gossippy comics message board describing her disappointment at the Vertigo office when she went there looking for work. The way the Vertigo editor dressed and wore her hair completely offended Di Campi, who spoke at length about this editor’s lack of style and attractiveness as some sort of detriment to her character and profession.
Now I was curious. I did a little a bit of digging. The VHive forum linked to underwent some changes over the years, so the original URLs were useless. So I turned to the every so useful Wayback Machine. (emphasis mine)
From: Alex de Campi (ALEXDECAMPI) 2 Jul 17:50
To: Brian Wood (BRIANWOOD) 2 Jul 18:07
It was great, in that it made me realise that I really have no interest in making any further efforts to get published by Vertigo, ever. There's just nobody there I click with.
When Shelly came out to get me from Reception I swear to God I thought she was the floor security guard. Black man-trousers, sensible shoes. skinny red stripy tie and white blouse. I was like NO I WASN'T TOUCHING THE KRYPTONITE, HONEST MA'AM oh you're Shelly? HIIIIIII.
When we got to her office, Shelly dismissed all my ideas out of hand - the pitch-book that Federica and Bertozzi and I took like two weeks to make, without even looking at it - then asked me if I wanted to write a pitch based on a newspaper article she had read that morning.
I know people produce some great work there, but oh dear heavens, not my kind of place.
The Minx freebies were so bad, I left them at Haspiel's place as I couldn't be arsed to take them home.
From: Brian Wood (BRIANWOOD) 2 Jul 18:13
To: Alex de Campi (ALEXDECAMPI) 2 Jul 19:16
"it made me realise that I really have no interest in making any further efforts to get published by Vertigo, ever."
heh, well, making fun of how the senior editor looks is probably a good place to start in that noble quest. :)
seriously, yeah, getting a book going at Vertigo is a total trial by fire, and one of the reasons I think its such an exclusive shop. spending 18 months writing a couple dozen drafts of a proposal tends to separate the wheat from the chaff. that's why I didn't bother from the time my first Vertigo series ended in 2002 and when I tried again in 2004... i couldn't bear to go through that again. but it got better, or i got more used to it.
A lot of people at the time equated her words to "career suicide". That was an exaggeration. In fact, she seems to be doing okay now, however I'm bothered by the bolded bit, because it comes off as a snarky criticism of the senior editor's femininity. I'd go so far as to suggest de Campi was implying the woman was "butch". Despite her high level position as senior editor, she was deemed unworthy due to her attire. I can't say for certain as the rest of the thread wasn't archived, but I didn't find any indication de Campi was apologetic or embarrassed for her snap judgement.
Knowing that, and seeing her persona now, I wonder what is the truth and what is fiction. What does she really believe in? Do her actions match her words?
While checking out the latest updates on the Sullivan's Sluggers Kickstarter fiasco -- I didn't pledge to that project, but and saddened to see the writer behaving so poorly -- I came upon one person's reviews of projects he's supported. One he ranked lower was Ashes. The names sounded familiar, so I dug a little. Lo and behold, I remembered this bit of drama.
It's a long he said she said story that seems to boil down to a clash of personalities, pride, ego and unclear definitions of each contributor's roles/say. After reading one person's vague "hoo hoo if only I could say more but I won't" type of posts on a forum my opinion was swayed in favor of the other side. His well written interview started to sway it back, but I noted he broke his "silence" soon after declaring he couldn't say anything. The retort by the other side made me conclude I'll probably never know for certain who was "right" or "wrong" without knowing more about each individual on a more personal level. I'm not sure I really want to, so I chalked it back up to "personality clash".
However, among the comments was this one:
GossipQueen says:
01/19/2012 at 7:40 pm
I seem to remember Di Campi on a gossippy comics message board describing her disappointment at the Vertigo office when she went there looking for work. The way the Vertigo editor dressed and wore her hair completely offended Di Campi, who spoke at length about this editor’s lack of style and attractiveness as some sort of detriment to her character and profession.
Now I was curious. I did a little a bit of digging. The VHive forum linked to underwent some changes over the years, so the original URLs were useless. So I turned to the every so useful Wayback Machine. (emphasis mine)
From: Alex de Campi (ALEXDECAMPI) 2 Jul 17:50
To: Brian Wood (BRIANWOOD) 2 Jul 18:07
It was great, in that it made me realise that I really have no interest in making any further efforts to get published by Vertigo, ever. There's just nobody there I click with.
When Shelly came out to get me from Reception I swear to God I thought she was the floor security guard. Black man-trousers, sensible shoes. skinny red stripy tie and white blouse. I was like NO I WASN'T TOUCHING THE KRYPTONITE, HONEST MA'AM oh you're Shelly? HIIIIIII.
When we got to her office, Shelly dismissed all my ideas out of hand - the pitch-book that Federica and Bertozzi and I took like two weeks to make, without even looking at it - then asked me if I wanted to write a pitch based on a newspaper article she had read that morning.
I know people produce some great work there, but oh dear heavens, not my kind of place.
The Minx freebies were so bad, I left them at Haspiel's place as I couldn't be arsed to take them home.
From: Brian Wood (BRIANWOOD) 2 Jul 18:13
To: Alex de Campi (ALEXDECAMPI) 2 Jul 19:16
"it made me realise that I really have no interest in making any further efforts to get published by Vertigo, ever."
heh, well, making fun of how the senior editor looks is probably a good place to start in that noble quest. :)
seriously, yeah, getting a book going at Vertigo is a total trial by fire, and one of the reasons I think its such an exclusive shop. spending 18 months writing a couple dozen drafts of a proposal tends to separate the wheat from the chaff. that's why I didn't bother from the time my first Vertigo series ended in 2002 and when I tried again in 2004... i couldn't bear to go through that again. but it got better, or i got more used to it.
A lot of people at the time equated her words to "career suicide". That was an exaggeration. In fact, she seems to be doing okay now, however I'm bothered by the bolded bit, because it comes off as a snarky criticism of the senior editor's femininity. I'd go so far as to suggest de Campi was implying the woman was "butch". Despite her high level position as senior editor, she was deemed unworthy due to her attire. I can't say for certain as the rest of the thread wasn't archived, but I didn't find any indication de Campi was apologetic or embarrassed for her snap judgement.
Knowing that, and seeing her persona now, I wonder what is the truth and what is fiction. What does she really believe in? Do her actions match her words?