PAUL JENKIS: "DC ES UNA MIERDA AHORA MISMO"

¡Este hombre es mi nuevo ídolo!

Pasa como con Liefeld: para escribir guiones NO SIRVE, pero como "CHIVATO" no tiene precio. ;-)

Una entrevista en BleedingCool revela que, por supuesto, ha sido su paso por DC lo que le ha hecho "estallar". Aunque aprovecha para culpar a Disney de "idiotizar" Marvel.

Como en la vez anterior, su testimonio es muy valido, salvo en la parte que a él le toca: Sigue sin entender en qué consisten los personajes Marvel y DC y echa de menos los tiempos de Bill Jemas donde cada guionista era un mundo aparte y él hacía lo que le daba la gana.

Osea, es como si en 15 años dice Jeff Lemire: "Yo es que con Didio estaba mejor..." ;-)

Os dejo con una selección de sus declaraciones, que merecen ser degustada por entero.

Curiosamente, el entrevistador le dice exactamente lo que yo pensé: "La gente va a decir que no quieres las uvas por que están verdes", citando sus fracasos en Marvel.

Armando semejante jaleo, Jenkis va a ser más útil a DC y la industria fuera que dentro.

Por otro lado, lo que da razón de la gravedad del problema es que A DC NO LE IMPORTA que todas las semanas uno o dos autores se despachen con lindezas como esta.

"I will never forget what Bill Jemas once said during an early editorial meeting (Joe’s first, actually): he told the editors to make great books, and that the marketing department’s job would be to promote and sell those books. He told his staff to have courage, to believe in the quality of the work."

"He made it crystal clear that the marketing of the books would not trump the creative decisions. Well, that was all fine back in those heady days but I noticed a very obvious shift a number of years ago. And that shift, I can now see, coincided with Marvel’s negotiations with Disney. So it really became about events and crossovers, and I am probably not their guy at that point."

"Editorial differences occur every day in the creative industries but rarely are they so profoundly driven by such egotistical arrogance on the part of the publisher. I have seen a few creators attempt to openly display their frustrations recently with DC, and I feel for them. Certain creators have tried to enlighten fans and media about the Machiavellian bullshit they are encountering, and I think those freelancers are a little freaked out that this is the new status quo."

"But DC is a different matter altogether. Why am I willing to describe certain specific events during my brief encounter with them for the New 52? Because I am appalled at the way in which creators are being bullied, and somewhat freaked out at the things I saw in my own time there. I encountered more lies and veiled threats – more attempts to justify dysfunctional behavior and systems – than I have ever encountered in my career."

"There are not always two sides to every story – not if one side fires a gun and the other side gets hit with a bullet."

"Contrast that to the manipulative behavior demonstrated by the people behind the Dark Knight book, and it leaves one rather puzzled: why would one series be untouched and another be micro-managed with absolutely no creative direction whatsoever? I think there are some obvious answers but I would prefer people draw their own conclusions. Suffice it to say that the fans are not getting the creators in these books – they are getting an unpalatable product, which is destroyed by editorial interference perpetrated by unqualified project managers."

"I said recently to a fan at a convention that there’s little chance DC would want a guy like me to write the Flash. I would have him lose a leg to a roadside bomb, then write about the personal issues that would naturally dominate his life for a while. If I pitched that, it would be rejected. But that is the kind of story I could have pitched in the Knights days, and which would have been accepted."

"The most notable example I can possibly give is the editor who told me (with a straight face) that if Alan Moore pitched a book like Watchmen now – the broken relationship being no factor – that DC would probably not publish it."

Look, I feel this way: the fans are not getting what they want, and what they want to be paying for.

"Perhaps if I sent you the actual script that I wrote for Dark Knight #5 to compare against the pile of turd they published? I don’t know. Perhaps if I told you that I refused to rewrite #6 when it was handed in because I had already written the script a few times and then reworked it to fulfill editorial requirements prior to the penciling, only to have a completely different story handed to me? If you read the credits you will see that someone is given credit for “dialogue assists.”"

"That’s actually quite unfair on that creator – I told DC to take my name off the book. It pained me that they did not do so, nor on #7. Issue #8 of that series was begun as a five-part story. It was then pared down to two issues by me when it became clear the relationship was not working. It was actually published as one issue. That’s what the fans paid for: my name, and a reworking of the issue done without my knowledge, where I was alerted to the fact only when the issue hit the stands. What a repulsive mess. Shame on the editors and shame on the publisher."

"DC is in the toilet right now. It reminds me of the way Marvel was just before we did Marvel Knights. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about the similarities and connections. Suffice it to say they have created a culture of dishonesty that affects too many creators. And the worst part of all is that they bully their creators. They tried to bully me, and I told them to go to Hell."

"The horror stories are many and varied. I have a few of my own, and I have heard way too many of them from various creators who are being beaten into submission with the threat of losing their jobs if they do not play ball. DC seem to have developed a culture where they think “professionalism” is screwing a creator in some fashion, and then pretending to be friendly at a convention."

"Here’s what pisses me off about this situation: it does not take a rocket scientist to see that there are a lot of very unhappy creators at DC lately. Well, can you imagine how many more are unhappy that we don’t know about because they feel if they speak out they will be blacklisted? Can you imagine the miserable conditions some of these creators are subjected to? (Disclaimer: not all creators, I am sure. Some are perfectly happy. Just not me.) The point is that DC has begun to act like a bully, to subject people to shitty working conditions as if it is doing them a favor."

"Marvel is a different story. (...) They are having a lot of success, and more power to them. I am not particularly a crossover guy, and I am not fully versed in what is happening in each issue of the various series. I have a particular style that I feel works for me, and it probably doesn’t fit Marvel right now."