Thought for the Day

[bcholmes]

The commercial comics of today are the product of their history. A history of terrible mistakes, of crimes, lies and fuckery, in large part. But we learn from them. We make new mistakes, sure. But Jack Kirby and everyone else taught us to read those contracts, to find that new ground, to recognise that bullshit, to keep moving and to keep trying to do anything. It can seem silly, now, that people might have been angered by someone redrawing Jack Kirby’s Superman heads. But it speaks to a management notion that artists are interchangeable, artists are flunkies, artists may not speak in their own voice even when servicing corporate assets for a passionate audience, artists are just cogs and wheels and should shut up. It’s things like this that should raise a whole range of questions in the head of the young creator who wants to draw Superman one day.

— Warren Ellis on Jack Kirby and Superman's head.