phunengames = fan

Using the same venom to fans that you criticize them for using towards Didio. Clean up your own room before you condemn someone else’s.

PS. You say my argument was weak yet you don’t even know what I wrote to Didio. For your information, it was about One Year Later, the project that failed.

It was also about DC’s problem of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman being chronically late and possibly turning off readers.

You know, the one where a year ago, Didio went on record saying late comics don’t matter. People vote with their wallets and they buy them anyway. The ones where people like you condemned people like me, saying we’re just whiney and we want our comics on time.

As Didio said in the interview: he’s in the periodical business, it means things come out on a periodical basis. Not well, whenever.

You know, this was the weak argument in my letter where I reiterated what Didio said in the Newsarama interview about the lateness of their 3 banner brands: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, a major problem that effects not only sales on their titles but on the rest of the line as well.

Not all readers are as toxic as you or the ones wearing shirts claiming Didio should whatever. Some of us are well educated individuals who can read, clear signs in the road about the direction DC is heading.

They say, Wrong Way.

I forgot how comic EIC must leaner the ways of kissing fan boy butt. EIC must feel fan boy pain. To me fans should be respected but their every request should not.

With stuff like:

“People like phunengames will turn around and say ‘So what you wrote a letter, do you think you deserve a response? Who the heck are you? Do you think all the companies should cowtow to the demands of every fanboy who writes a letter?’”

You are saying you have a weak argument and really need a strawman. To me you do not just want to be heard. You just want your way. The way Mr. DiDio handled the he must die t-shirt seems to show he has more class that many of his haters.

The only reason I would asks Mr. DiDio to “tone it down” is to reduce the whining from his haters.

The thing that makes this so bad is the person who made the post does not care one way or the other. They just did it to start a crap storm. I will say this again it is the fans that have advocated for the memorial that of turn this in to a sad joke.

Actually, THIS is garbage. Joe Q. and Dan D. are the ones who seem to be crass and crude. And they revel in it.

Hi! Believe it or not I did write a letter (stamped and mailed) to Dan Didio just before One Year Later, about the whole direction of DC and their promoted One Year Later line.

I actually received a response from a DC assistant which stated Mr. Didio is too busy to read fan mail but he appreciates your interest in DC Comics.

It was on DC letter head. I wasn’t looking for a job. I have no interest in working in comics at all.

Your advice was intelligent and well taken nonetheless. Tell DC how you feel by writing a letter. It’s what many people did back in the day when companies cared about their readers and even encouraged letter writing for feedback.

People like phunengames will turn around and say ‘So what you wrote a letter, do you think you deserve a response? Who the heck are you? Do you think all the companies should cowtow to the demands of every fanboy who writes a letter?’

I don’t think I deserve a personalized response or that my or any readers every word should be taken as gospel. But I don’t think readers should be callously dismissed the way Didio dismisses them either, especially since readers aren’t children anymore but, mostly are intelligent well educated adults who would simply like some quality in the product they buy.

That said, ironically the day before this news post, I wrote, stamped and mailed another respectful letter to DC, this time, to Paul Levitz. Out of courtesy, I sent a copy to Dan Didio.

can i ask a favor? i want you to think about something, just for a moment. i want you to entertain the notion, however briefly, that you might NOT have any real idea what is going on inside Mr. Didio’s psyche. That maybe, just maybe, you have lost sight of the fact that there’s no way you can guess what is really going on inside the mind of a person, a human being, that you have never met. and that it might well be total folly to assume such a person’s thoughts.

ok, that’s enough. back to what you do…

I left Wizard to take a job at Marvel as assistant editor of Marvel.com a couple months ago.

Yes, I’m of a position where I stand in defense of Elongated Man, the Atom, and BOTH of their wives, and I think it’s an incredible shame if nobody stood up for them. The same goes for Ted Kord. No matter how third-tier the characters, I believe that any damage that was done to them should be repaired.

This is garbage. It is like the sports fan who feels they can be an absolute pick because they paid for a ticket. Yes people in some jobs, that they choose, might implicitly say you may have to give up some privacy, but it does not mean give up the right to be treated with decorum and respect. Having a group of fanboys interrupt your kid’s birthday party to say why you suck is beyond the pale. A fan gave a Mr. DiDio and “DiDio must Die” t-shirt had he took it in stride and rolled with it. Mr. DiDio says something about Spoiler and many of the people who loved the t-shirt want to call a jihad. People need to grow up.

You want “crass and insensitive” look at the average post on comics. If you are looking for higher quality, look for fanfic of Power Girl and Wonder Woman hooking up. Yes I am so happy that the internet gave so many the ability to write sooo much “hot girl on girl action.” Yes we live in the Golden Age of FanFic and the people that hate it the most seem to be the biggest supporters of it. No matter if they believe it or not, because they are the first to whine about the state of comics today. Mr. Tolino I read the piece by Mr. Grant and the postings you made seems to have missed this.

“The fact is that any time you approach comics from the position of “this is what they’re supposed to be,” you’re running behind, you’re already hidebound though it might take awhile to catch up to you. They aren’t supposed to be anything, they just are what people choose to make them.” Alan Grant 12/19/2007

Looking at that, I hope DC keeps doing their best like Mr. Ingle said. If they do, I will be happy.

Mr. DiDio gives as good as he gets. In the past at cons a fanboy would stand up say why everyone one sucked or pitch a weird idea, the panel would nod smile politely and the and boy would sit smug and happy. From what I have seen Mr. DiDio every now a then will call Fanboys on their BS. Can it get ugly? Yes, but I am sick a tried of fanboys who think they are the center of the Universe and rulers of all that is good and bad in comics. Most of the time Mr. DiDio is saying what most of the people in the room would like to say to the angry fanboy. You all have a very, very, very long way to go and I hope to god DC or Marvel stops feeling that they must as they do to your every fanboy whim.

To me it is DC that looks bad in this Spoiler thing. It is the fans that have advocated for the memorial that of turn this in to a sad joke.

We love comics, it’s the current trend of publishing material that reads and looks like fanfic that most of us don’t like.

That said, if you don’t like what people post, don’t read the postings.

When I saw this article, my first thought was “Stephanie + Lazarus Pit = Dark Spoiler… ugh”. Hopefully she’ll get a better chance at being accepted into the Bat-family boy’s club.

Huh. Maybe she’ll become the next Batgirl…?

And then over at Marvel we’ve got Molly Lazer, Nicole Boose and Lauren Sankovitch to name but a few representing the female demographic in the editorial bullpen.

Jamal,

You guys may be trying to tell the best stories possible (and we give you credit for trying) but…. you all have a very, very, very long way to go.

And while I’m not a fevered fan of the Spoiler character like some, I think Didio’s comments were a bit insensitive to the paying customers who are.

His tact is oftimes crass and insensitive to readers, to the point where other DC staffers have had to tell him to keep quiet at DC con panels. I mean c’mon, this is the guy who ruined the ending of 52 in a DC Nation column.

Didio may ‘think’ he’s cutting edge but in public, he doesn’t come off as the sharpest knife in the drawer.

But this is just another sign of the times.

People refer to the dawn of comics as The Golden Age, then there was the Silver Age followed by The Bronze Age. Finally, the 90’s were known as the Dark Age. This, this is the dawning of a new time, a brand new era… as Steven Grant said in his recent CBR column, echoing the sentiment of many… this is the Golden Age of FanFic.

Didio’s wish-list write-in clearly reads as an intentional jab at those for whom this is a symbolic issue.

Trying. Succeeding? That’s up for debate.

Mark: “I do empathize with having to deal with hundreds/thousands of angry fanboys/girls all wanting an answer to why their particular ox was gored …”

I empathize up to a point. Many of us would like to be in this field. Nobody told Joe Q. or Dan D. that they MUST serve as editor-in-chief. If they don’t like being the center of attention, being the celebs at panels, and autographing several hundred books … well, they could always step down and just write/draw/whatever.