Open Letter to the Fans of DC Comics
Hey gang! I haven't had a chance to write this up, too many things going on and I never had a chance to sit down, think, and take a breather to organize my thoughts.
As many of my fellow long-time Roy Harper group members and other fan-friends know, Kansas City has Planet Comicon every spring and I usually wind up with tons of art swag of our archer. Well, this year there were some surprise last minute guests, including Gail Simone, who writes Birds of Prey. I don't think there's anyone who DOESN'T like Gail's take on the BoP and she's well-known for her "Women in Refrigerators" coin of phrase in reference to Kyle Rayner's "traumatic incident" forcing him into taking the Green Lantern ring on his introduction to the DCU as well as the use of needless death of women or children to facilitate character change in comic books (for us 'Lian was fridged'). Phil Hester, now taking over writing Wonder Woman, is always at Planet Comicon as he's an Iowa boy, and is best know for his art run on the last Green Arrow series that began with Kevin Smith's relaunch of the character post-resurrection. Yannick Paquette (artist currently on Batman Inc.) and everyone's favorite artist from the animated continuity, Rick Burchett, were also panelists.
Comic Geek Speak, a podcast, hosted a question & answer session that was eventually opened up to the floor. A question was posed to the panelists at one point about the difficulty of taking over characters that had been killed off and resurrected or messed with so much that the character essentially would need a re-boot. Gail's clean-up of Catman was used as a perfect example. They all put in their two cents regarding the trials, tribulations and fun of doing so, we laughed at a couple jokes made and the questions went on.
When it was time to open questions to the audience, of course my hand went up. I could almost see Phil Hester grin and cringe at the same time. He knew where this was going. (lol) We've had lively discussions in the past regarding Roy's character and place in the DCU. So I asked Gail when she was going to get permission to take over Roy Harper and please FIX HIM. She was rather taken aback, and there was a decent little discussion in regards to how and when one author can work on a character. It wasn't anything fans haven't already surmised (editors are god at DC for the most part), the depth of the emotional involvement fans have with characters and how fans feel when something this bad happens to them without apparent rhyme or reason, and that a lot of the rules regarding character use is confusing as there are now two DC offices (California and New York). Gail stated she'd love to get her hands on Roy, but when I pointed out that the fandom (and a lot who normally wouldn't care about the character) was universally agreed that "Lian was fridged", she winced at the phrase but on-stage could not agree and didn't seem to have the ability to disagree either.
HOWEVER, off-stage the next day when I had her sign a couple of my favorite BoP issues, she agreed, stating that Lian was fridged, no doubt about it, and badly done too. However, not having any creative control over Roy (and did not seem to indicate any in the future either, darn it), there was little she could offer in way of hope. (double darn it) She did suggest that if the fandom felt this strongly, we could pull the old-fashion write in campaign to DC to express our displeasure. When I expressed skepticism that this would work in today's internet laden world, she gave me a sly look and the comment of "You might be surprised."
So that got me thinking. We are now a world of the internet and email, with blogs, websites, mailing lists and self-publishing. Any yahoo with an opinion can now voice that opinion and be lost in a mob of opinions, their voice never heard or easily ignored. The question that stumped me was, can a write-in campaign of the likes that brought about the third season of the original Star Trek television show in the 1960s still work in the modern age? My answer: quite possibly. Think about it. They restarted the letter columns in the back of issues at DC comics, thus they are inviting mail, are they not? They are asking for the fans' opinions on the comics so I say, let's give it to them! If they have to hire a new mail room worker just to handle mail coming in complaining about the treatment of one of their characters, I say, go team Roy Fans! (plus we're helping get someone a job!)
I invite ALL Green Arrow, Titans, and Roy Harper fans (or just plain COMIC BOOK FANS) disgusted with the treatment of this long-time player in DC's character stable to be either revamped completely or at least have a decent retooling as much as possible back to something we'll want to read, buy and keep in our little boxes forever and ever. I will think up a decent form letter that can be printed and sent, or used as a model. We are the fans. We are the customers. We are their paycheck. Gail's right, we need to make our voices heard where it will make the most impact. Flood the mail room. Hit the bottom line of the profit margin. If it worked for Stephanie Brown, it can work for Roy Harper!
JOIN THE 'MAKE ROY HARPER A HERO AGAIN' MOVEMENT!
Wolfie
As many of my fellow long-time Roy Harper group members and other fan-friends know, Kansas City has Planet Comicon every spring and I usually wind up with tons of art swag of our archer. Well, this year there were some surprise last minute guests, including Gail Simone, who writes Birds of Prey. I don't think there's anyone who DOESN'T like Gail's take on the BoP and she's well-known for her "Women in Refrigerators" coin of phrase in reference to Kyle Rayner's "traumatic incident" forcing him into taking the Green Lantern ring on his introduction to the DCU as well as the use of needless death of women or children to facilitate character change in comic books (for us 'Lian was fridged'). Phil Hester, now taking over writing Wonder Woman, is always at Planet Comicon as he's an Iowa boy, and is best know for his art run on the last Green Arrow series that began with Kevin Smith's relaunch of the character post-resurrection. Yannick Paquette (artist currently on Batman Inc.) and everyone's favorite artist from the animated continuity, Rick Burchett, were also panelists.
Comic Geek Speak, a podcast, hosted a question & answer session that was eventually opened up to the floor. A question was posed to the panelists at one point about the difficulty of taking over characters that had been killed off and resurrected or messed with so much that the character essentially would need a re-boot. Gail's clean-up of Catman was used as a perfect example. They all put in their two cents regarding the trials, tribulations and fun of doing so, we laughed at a couple jokes made and the questions went on.
When it was time to open questions to the audience, of course my hand went up. I could almost see Phil Hester grin and cringe at the same time. He knew where this was going. (lol) We've had lively discussions in the past regarding Roy's character and place in the DCU. So I asked Gail when she was going to get permission to take over Roy Harper and please FIX HIM. She was rather taken aback, and there was a decent little discussion in regards to how and when one author can work on a character. It wasn't anything fans haven't already surmised (editors are god at DC for the most part), the depth of the emotional involvement fans have with characters and how fans feel when something this bad happens to them without apparent rhyme or reason, and that a lot of the rules regarding character use is confusing as there are now two DC offices (California and New York). Gail stated she'd love to get her hands on Roy, but when I pointed out that the fandom (and a lot who normally wouldn't care about the character) was universally agreed that "Lian was fridged", she winced at the phrase but on-stage could not agree and didn't seem to have the ability to disagree either.
HOWEVER, off-stage the next day when I had her sign a couple of my favorite BoP issues, she agreed, stating that Lian was fridged, no doubt about it, and badly done too. However, not having any creative control over Roy (and did not seem to indicate any in the future either, darn it), there was little she could offer in way of hope. (double darn it) She did suggest that if the fandom felt this strongly, we could pull the old-fashion write in campaign to DC to express our displeasure. When I expressed skepticism that this would work in today's internet laden world, she gave me a sly look and the comment of "You might be surprised."
So that got me thinking. We are now a world of the internet and email, with blogs, websites, mailing lists and self-publishing. Any yahoo with an opinion can now voice that opinion and be lost in a mob of opinions, their voice never heard or easily ignored. The question that stumped me was, can a write-in campaign of the likes that brought about the third season of the original Star Trek television show in the 1960s still work in the modern age? My answer: quite possibly. Think about it. They restarted the letter columns in the back of issues at DC comics, thus they are inviting mail, are they not? They are asking for the fans' opinions on the comics so I say, let's give it to them! If they have to hire a new mail room worker just to handle mail coming in complaining about the treatment of one of their characters, I say, go team Roy Fans! (plus we're helping get someone a job!)
I invite ALL Green Arrow, Titans, and Roy Harper fans (or just plain COMIC BOOK FANS) disgusted with the treatment of this long-time player in DC's character stable to be either revamped completely or at least have a decent retooling as much as possible back to something we'll want to read, buy and keep in our little boxes forever and ever. I will think up a decent form letter that can be printed and sent, or used as a model. We are the fans. We are the customers. We are their paycheck. Gail's right, we need to make our voices heard where it will make the most impact. Flood the mail room. Hit the bottom line of the profit margin. If it worked for Stephanie Brown, it can work for Roy Harper!
JOIN THE 'MAKE ROY HARPER A HERO AGAIN' MOVEMENT!
Wolfie