AN OPEN LETTER TO PAUL LEVITZ
Hello Paul,
It's been a while since we've had a heart to heart talk about the comics and I have been thinking about you lately, so this is as good as time as any, I suppose.
I'm writing you this letter because we want to recruit you back to our ranks. Back to the ranks of the comic book creators.
We all know you're a creator at heart. Heck, why else would you cast your lot in with A.C.T.O.R., an organization dedicated to the welfare of comic book creators?
We've all scattered about all over the place, I know. Most of the creators of our time are nowhere to be found in the comics anymore. All lost in the jungles of this world looking to find a place which resembles home. We all know the comics are our real home, though.
Did you hear Neal Adams' idea for reviving Hal Jordan, Paul? I'm betting you didn't. DC didn't even give him this minimal courtesy, knowing how instrumental his work was in making that character what he is. Bit of a shame, really.
I wonder where Denny O'neill is these days. Len Wein. Gene Colan. Rudy Nebres. Larry Hama. Mike Kaluta. Alan Weiss. Bob McCloud. Jim Sherman. Mike Grell. Carl Potts. I wonder what happened to everybody. I suppose we're all still hoping for things to change. Seems our whole class of the 70's has been left out in the cold while the comics go from one fad to another as if each fad is the best thing ever to happen to the comics. Until another fad comes along to replace it.
Pretty silly, considering the dismal condition the comics industry remains in at the hands of DC and Marvel. Oh, we know the big publishers are doing well. aren't they? They don't really need a healthy comics industry, after all. Not as long as they know how to pimp what the creators give them to Hollywood and the merchandisers. They can allow the comics industry go to hell and still come out smelling like a rose, it seems. And they do it all on the backs of the creators.
You'd think the publishers would show a little more imagination by now. They can't, can they, Paul? I guess it's because all the imagination was given to the creators. That's why I know you're one of us and not one of them. You see, it's the creators who've made this industry what it is. Not the publishers.
I am sorry to say this, but the publishers have proven to be little more than opportunists taking advantage of the creators only to discard them into the cold when they find a new fad to replace them. Just the way a bloody rag is replaced and discarded. Thing about blood, Paul, is that it keeps on flowing. That's what's happening here. The blood is flowing hot and strong and the publishers will soon run out of rags.
Doesn't it bother you, Paul, when a comics reporter the caliber of Tom Spurgeon, says that the record for the treatment of comics creators by the publishers is frequently depressing, extends back through the history of the medium, and is too long for an article on his web site. That it's one thing for publishers to value fair play, but quite another thing to be dragged kicking and screaming into enforcing it in your contracts and conduct, over the course of decades. That if comic books were a comic book, it's pretty clear who the heroes and the villains would be for the majority of the title's run. I know this must bother you a little bit, for publishers to be seen as villains by the industry press. I'd hope so anyway.
Well you know, Paul, we're not taking this sitting down anymore. You see, we know we have the power. We know we have the key with which to change things. Not the publishers and the pathetic situation they've driven the comics into. The only key the publishers have is to leading everyone astray into believing they run things. We're the ones who run things, Paul. The creators. That's why we want you to come back to us.
Remember that day I came into your office at DC in 1978 and wrote a note to you on your memo pad saying that you're coming to Titan with us in a spaceship one day? Pretty hard to forget something like that, I know. That's why I did it, so you'd remember the creators today. So you'd remember you're one of us and not one of them.
Did you see the pictures of Titan from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan, Paul? Did you see them? I'm guessing you must have, with that note which is hard to forget and all. Did you see the clouds there? The mountains and rivers and oceans and the topography? Did you hear the astronomers and scientists squirming in their seats trying to tell us how there can be no life there? Man, some of these guys can be the joke of civilization sometimes. Last I heard, they're theorizing that a giant meteor must have hit Titan at some point to melt it down so as to form the rivers and oceans they now see it has. I mean, how stupid do they think we are? Whenever there's something they can't explain with their wacky theories they start telling us fairytales about meteors crashing into planets. Like how the dinosaurs became extinct. How stupid. Sometimes I wonder if the scientists don't think they're publishers.
That's right, Paul. I knew all this about Titan back in 1978, that's why I wrote you that note. I knew this because I have the power, Paul. I have the power, I have the vision, I'll change the way things are done in this world. It's not just me, though, Paul, it's all the creators. We all have the power.
Neal Adams has it. He's figured everything out. He's got this whole world figured out, scientifically, how it works and how it came into being. You should really look at his science project on his web site to see what I'm talking about. You know why he was able to figure it out? Because he's the master creator, Paul. The same Neal Adams without whom DC would be in the gutters of the comics today. He's the master creator. The same Neal who saved DC's ass back in the late Seventies with his ideas for Dollar Comics is the same Neal whom DC can't look in the face today because of the thankless attitude of the people running things there. The master creator himself who showed us creators that we have the power. Not the bumbling publishers. The only power they have is the power we give them. No matter how much they brag and wallow in their self-importance, we're still the ones who give them the power.
That's why I want you to come back to us. You see, we're finally coming together as a union of the creators as we should've long ago. It's never too late, you know. We're finally forming the Comic Book Creator's Guild, Paul, and we want you to join us.
I'm about to give you an incentive to join us, Paul. You see,we're putting together an idea for a DC Universe saga led by Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman which will change the way the world looks at the comics. This idea comes from the creators and we're not selling it cheap. I'll make billions for DC. It'll be the basis for the movie which will give back to DC the leadership that Marvel took away in Hollywood. It's an idea which comes from the spirit of all the creators who've given life to the comics and we intend on enticing you to defect back to our ranks and to hear us out.
I know what you're thinking, Paul. You're thinking that if we have so much power, why do we need DC? Well, we don't, really. We just want to bring all the properties they strong-armed back to their rightful owners - the creators who made them. That's what we intend on doing, Paul. And if DC doesn't Like this idea, we'll buy out DC Comics. And if Warners opens their yap, we'll buy Warners also. We plan on buying the whole world anyway before we're through with it. How else did you think we were going to make it to Titan?
The publishers have always needed the creators to be strong and creative, Paul, and that's what we're doing now. We're being strong and creative and we have big plans. Unlike the comics publishers who can't seem to plan an inch past the corporate cobwebs they make, which are strangling the comics industry.
Regardless of how the publishers see things, Paul, we're still the ones with the power - and we're waiting for you.
Good to have this heart to heart talk with you after all this time.
Michael Netzer and your brethren The Creators.
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