Editor’s! What are they good for?! UGH!

I ended my last column with a promise to tell a story about artists who found out what we do at DC Comics in the Pre-Press room.  This is a story of some artists that reacted much differently then Darwyn Cooke did when I told him about being a bullpen artist.  One night, we had a after work get together as we sometimes do, and many freelance artists came to hang out.  It was at a local bar just before a convention, so a lot of artists were in town.  As the night went on, a coworker and I meet a bunch of artists, much of whom are favorites of mine.  Talking with them, they finally got a round to asking what it is we exactly do there.  My fellow production artist told them, and instead of saying, “oh, that’s cool,” like Darwyn did, we got a much different reaction.  They told us, “oh, that was you!  How dare you change my artwork.  I couldn’t believe it when I saw the finished book that my art was changed.  I was wondering who did that.  Don’t ever touch my work again, or we’ll have a serious problem.”  My coworker and I were shocked.  I didn’t want to get in an argument with the one artist (name withheld) most enraged, but my coworker stood up for us.  He told him, “well, next time draw it right, and we wont have to change anything.  That’s between you and your editor.  Our editor tells us what to change and we change it.  If you have a problem with that, then talk to him, and maybe draw things right next time so i don’t have to fix it.”  The artist was none to happy to hear that.  Sometimes, what we do is frowned upon by the freelance talent, because they feel it’s their art.  And they have a valid point.  I for one would not want my artwork retouched, or changed either.  That is the artist’s sweat and blood, and it’s totally understandable that they would be upset that someone had changed something they drew.  It’s a fine line sometimes.  What we do does affect the finished product that goes out to the consumer.  But, much like every job, there are editors, and editors make changes.

That brings up today’s topic.  Editors!  One of the most important aspects abut working in the Pre-Press Department at DC Comics or any publication based company for that matter, is being able to work with your superiors and your coworkers.  But unlike most jobs, where you have a manager and big boss to answer too, our job is a little more complex then that.  Not only do we have our manager and boss to answer too, we also work directly for the editors, much like the freelance talent working on each particular periodical does.  We don’t answer to them directly about our job, but because we work directly on the books themselves, we work hand in hand with an editor to do whatever corrections he or she needs.  This is a blessing and a curse.  No one really likes to have one boss let alone 25, so you can imagine how tough it is sometimes.  Don’t get me wrong, I try not to ever take my job for granted, because as I’ve said before, I love the work I do and have done in the past.  But having to work for that many editors is not something for the weak at heart.  Especially when everything we work on is a “SUPER RUSH JOB!”

A lot of the stresses come from the fact that every editor is different, and it takes a very long time to get to know how a particular editor likes to work, and what their intricacies are.  Some editors have been here a long, long time.  Some editors are brand new, and don’t know what they are doing yet.  Some editors have assistants that are amazing, and some assistants are really annoying.  I’ve been at DC for nine years, and therefore, I’ve seen a ton of editors come and go.  Much like my department, sometimes there is a lot of turnover.  Over the course of that time, editors also switch books, and even more so then that, switch talent and creative teams.  This makes it hard for us as bullpen artists because it takes a lot of time to get to know how a particular editor likes to work, and what kind of things they need us to do.

Some editors like to make the most minor, inane corrections you can think of, like moving balloons a fraction of a centimeter to the left (like that will make a difference to the overall quality of the book).  Some like to change the colors of clothes or costumes more then others.  Other editors make little to no corrections, when we know they should because I like to read every book I work on if I have enough time.  I say editors are a blessing and a curse mainly because it’s hard to keep track of which editor likes to do what kind of corrections.  We usually have to anticipate what the editor of a book will be looking for and what kind of corrections we will most likely have to make.  For example, one editor loves to use various shades of gray for sound effects.  Another editor loves to change the art on facial expressions of character’s mouths.  It’s great when an editor and I are in sync and are on the same page because it makes the corrections go that much quicker and the book can go out much faster.  When we know what corrections that editor usually makes, we can make the changes before he or she even has time to mark it up on the proofs.

Another reason I say working with an editor is a blessing and a curse is because every editor is very passionate about the changes that they want made to their books.  They care about them as much as everyone who works in comics, and therefore are very, very picky about and anal about them.  Thats not a bad thing at all, but it sometimes can get very monotonous and tedious when the book has to go out the door and they are making insignificant changes.  I remember the first book I ever worked on at DC Comics in production.  It was Superboy #89.  The creative team was Joe Kelly, Eddie Berganza, and Carlo Barberi.  It was lettered by Comiccraft.  I remember the that the editor, Mike McAvenni had marked up the book so much, they’re was a ton of corrections.  One of which, was page three I think.  Or whatever the page was with 10 tons of stuff that I needed to fit on a 2 ton page.  This page had to have the title, credits and maybe like 3 or four panels of art.  I remember that Mike wanted me to completely rearrange the page by shrinking down the credits and art in places, add a bunch of captions, and re-letter balloons and captions.  I remember I also had to fit in the indicia, and the masthead as well.  (Back then, we had to put all the legal mumbo-jumbo somewhere in the interiors of every book, and they usually wound up on the credits page.  Now it’s in the back on our DC Nation page).  Anyway, I looked over Mike’s corrections, and felt that he didn’t really know what he was talking about.  I thought I knew better on how the page should be reconstructed, so I did it differently then he wanted me to.  My coworker warned me not to over-ride the editor like that, just do it how they want it to be, but I said, no, I like my way better.  I thought It worked better my way, and the editor will agree.  So I took it up to the editor for first round corrections.  Later in the day I got a call from my manager, who called me in his office and told me that Mike came down, and said, “who worked on this book?  They didn’t follow my corrections, and the book is a mess.  It needs to be completely redone.  How the hell did this guy get this job, he’s terrible!”  Well, let me tell you, I was so scared after that.  I thought I was gonna fail at this job, and I was so nervous I was gonna screw it up, my life long dream job.  I redid the book, and after about 5 rounds of corrections, finally did it like Mike wanted it.  He said thank you, and ever since, Mike and I have been friends.  he totally thought me so much about working with editors.

The lesson there is that we need to follow the editor’s instructions.  No matter what they want, we do it.  We can argue another way to do it, or suggest that maybe it should be done another way, but usually, the editors know what they are doing.  That is their job after all.  One of the things I like now-a-days, is that the editors who work in comics now are very friendly.  They treat us like equals much more then they used to.  We used to be their slaves back in the day, like factory assemblymen.  The editors didn’t really give us any respect or credit.  They felt we were a dime-a-dozen, and that a monkey can do our job.  But not so anymore!   They actually listen to us and give us a lot of freedom on making changes, and respect our opinion.  I like to think I had somthing to do with that, but it was all of us in the Pre-Press Department.  The editors know we love these comics as much as they do, and they really do try to make these books look the best they can.  Sometimes they even ask us, “what would you do with this here, how can we make this read better?”  Or they will say, “I trust you, go nutz!, make it work.”  In essence they do a good job of incorporating us into the process, for they know we work on about 3,000 pages of comic book art a month.   They trust us now because, working on that many pages, we know what we are doing as well.  What works in comics, what doesn’t work.  What reads well, which panel should be flopped.  Things like that, where we are editors and proofreaders in our own right.  We know mistakes when we see them, and the more we can eliminate them in our comic books working together with our editors, the happier everyone is.  And that is basically the job of the production artist!

I am happy to say that having 25 bosses is not all that bad.  I do think some editors make some of the silly corrections sometimes, but I guess it’s better then just signing off on a book without changing anything.  Nothing is perfect, and we all make mistakes.  It’s the good editors that work with their pre-press artists to make the right corrections that really do add to the comics that make the readers say wow, that was great, and these issues look amazing.  You never want anyone to say, “oh, look at that page in Batman, all the lettering is off, and this character’s costume is colored wrong.”  By working with editors, we want these books to be mistake free.  We have a board at work that says, ‘MISTAKE FREE SINCE ______’, and we always try to beat our record.

Until next time,

CjB signing off.