Andy Diggle has left Action Comics. His first issue was #19. The whispers I’m hearing from high places are that Tony Daniel will be taking over as writer (in addition to artist) with issue #20.
Here’s how it played out on Twitter:
Sadly, I’ve decided to walk away from Action Comics for professional reasons.
— Andy Diggle (@andydiggle) March 20, 2013
It was the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make, especially with Superman’s 75th anniversary and Man of Steel on the horizon. — Andy Diggle (@andydiggle) March 20, 2013
But it was the right decision. No regrets. Onwards! — Andy Diggle (@andydiggle) March 20, 2013
Sincere thanks to Matt Idelson for inviting me to follow Grant Morrison on Action Comics. I hope we still get to work together someday.
— Andy Diggle (@andydiggle) March 20, 2013
Thank you to all the fans who’ve expressed their enthusiasm in anticipation of my run.
— Andy Diggle (@andydiggle) March 20, 2013
I wish nothing but the best of luck to whichever new creative team picks up the red boots and cape. — Andy Diggle (@andydiggle) March 20, 2013
Meanwhile find me on DOCTOR WHO for @idwpublishing, THIEF OF THIEVES for @skybound, UNCANNY for @dynamitecomics and SNAPSHOT at @imagecomics — Andy Diggle (@andydiggle) March 20, 2013
With confirmation from DC’s Alex Segura:
Regarding ACTION COMICS – artist Tony Daniel will be expanding his role and taking over as writer and artist for the remainder of the arc.
— Alex Segura (@alex_segura) March 20, 2013
That’s quite a turn of events. I was very curious to see what Diggle was going to do with Superman, but those tweets suggest some serious creative differences. Tony Daniel surprised a lot of people with his sales on Detective Comics. (Remember how many months Detective #1 kept showing up in the top 300 comics?) It more when he was going to return to writer/artist than if.
What does this mean for the future? Daniel is confirmed as writer for remainder of the _arc_. It’s possible Daniel winds up as regular writer and it’s equally possible DC is shopping for a new writer as you’re reading this.
A developing situation and we’ll wait for the official announcement on issue #20.
What is going on in that Superman office? First the Brian Wood debacle with New 52 Supergirl. Then George Perez walks off Superman. Now this.
Not just this, but Supergirl showed up today with a prior solicited team of Mike Johnson and Mahmud Asrar. The cover even had those credits…the inside credits read: Frank Hannah/Robson Rocha (W/A).
There are also rumors that Joshua Hale Fialkov has left GLC and Red Lanterns.
This isn’t unique to the Superman office, it has been going on for some time across many of the DC editorial offices.
What’s the point of having a creative summit if editorial issues are going to cause folks to jump off? DC hired these creative people, they need to trust them to do what they were hired to do. Otherwise, why not just have the editors write the books themselves and save all concerned a lot of grief?
Just another in a long, long line of similar problems at DC. If it was an isolated incident here and there, you could easily chalk it up to “creative differences.” But this has been happening from day 1 of the New 52, so even though I’m not there and don’t know the business dealings going on, the project manager in me can plainly see it’s a top-down management problem.
Perhaps the “WTF” event should just be extended to year-round and labeled on all DC comics? Seems appropriate, given how they’re running their business.
*Tony Daniels suprrised a lot of people with his sales on DETECTIVE…*
On the other hand, HAWKMAN.
And another one bites the dust.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/03/20/235086/
If DC doesn’t want writers to do any more than transcribe (ever-changing) Editorial Mandates why do they bother hiring good writers who won’t put up with being treated like that in the first place?
@caleb – Yeah, Hawkman was mess.
@Dara – You sure do hear a lot of stories like that. (See: Liefeld) It does give the impression there’s a lot of second-guessing on going somewhere up the chain of command.
When was the last Marvel incident of someone walking off a book?
I don’t understand why these creators accept work from DC and then bail immediately or after a few issues. Did they not ask exactly what the job would be when they took it? It’s starting to seem almost as unprofessional on the freelance side as it has been on the editorial side.
I imagine this is especially frustrating for retailers who order copies in advance, often basing sales on the creators involved, just to get a big LOL J/K for their trouble.
Also, does Joshua Hale Fialkov look like John Byrne to anyone else?
@Steve – I’m going to go with the JMS departure on that.
@Johnny: “Did they not ask exactly what the job would be when they took it?”
I think they did, but before they could even get their first issue out, they were told it was something different. Then they were told a third thing. then a fourth change was foisted upon them.
Speculation on my part, obviously. But the many, many stories (including candid interviews, tweets, blog posts, etc.) seem to corroborate this. I can’t believe so many different professional freelancers (ones, we can assume, who would rather have a paying gig) are walking off of books because *they’re* the unprofessional ones.
Why don’t they hire Jerry Ordway? He’s written Superman before and would probably appreciate the work!
Matt Idelson sure has a good track record of keeping talent on books (sarcasm)
Simply ridiculous. DC really needs to get their act in gear. This sort of thing is happening way too often. Makes one wonder what the heck is going on in the DC editorial offices these days.
And while not a big Andy Diggle fan, I was interested in reading his take on Superman. Tony Daniels? Eh, not so much.
time to fire dan didio and his team of idiots, time to clean house at DC, wtf is going on at DC?
I get it now. WTF is what the writers say every morning.
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