Priest Week – December 6!

By Dave Van Domelen December 3rd, 2017, under Comics

The final issue of Inhumans: Once and Future Kings (#5), the first Priest-written issue of Justice League (#34), and a neither first nor last issue of Deathstroke (#26) all hit stores this week!

Statement regarding “Whiteface” accusations

By Dave Van Domelen November 29th, 2017, under About Me, Comics

In the wake of the revelation that new Marvel Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski admits to having created a fake (Japanese) identity in order to get around the restrictions on editors working as freelancers, some people have started playing “whatboutism” and accusing Priest of having done “the same thing” himself, including reviving rumors that he and Michael Golden had gotten fired for similar things while working as editors at Marvel.  Priest’s been really busy catching up on writing, but he gave me permission to post and share the following statements.

On the Golden rumor:

“There’s a story that you and Michael Golden got into trouble at some point for hiring each other as freelancers. Is there any kind of real story there?”

No.

I have no idea what this is about, first I am hearing of it. Please LMK where to find this so I can shut it down.

At the time I was on staff at Marvel, it was perfectly fine for editors to hire other editors. But I never worked for Michael Golden and, to the best of my recollection, never hired Michael for any projects I was editing.

There was no policy against staffers freelancing. In fact, the exact opposite was true. Jim Shooter would actually insist “full” editors, specifically, do some kind of freelance work– writing, art, coloring, etc. It was Shooter’s policy, one with which I strongly agree, that learning the discipline of meeting deadlines as creative talent is the best way to help editors understand the challenges and frustrations of our creative pool.

You really can’t manage freelance talent if you’ve never served on their side of the desk before, a chronic problem with today’s corporate environment. I would imagine as high as 90% of editors working in comics today have never themselves worked as freelancers, and as a result far too many editors simply don’t understand what that life is like and therefore cannot efficiently manage their talent pool.

Michael is, today, a close and valued friend. The only reason I never hired him as creative talent was everybody else was hiring him as creative talent. I would loved to have hired Michael and would work with him, today, on absolutely anything he wants to do.

On “Whiteface” accusations:

I really wish people would stop inventing nutty things about me. The worst rumor about me and “whiteface” was the silly (and enduring) rumor that I was using the pen name “Peter David” (presumably because the writing was too good to have come from some guy in Marvel’s sales department).

Other than that, oh, please. I was born with the name “James.” At Marvel, everybody (then and now) called me “Jim.”

 

Note: Priest is on tour and stuff

By Dave Van Domelen November 6th, 2017, under About Me

He’s been really busy doing promotional stuff, working on JLA, and other projects, hence his lack of presence here.  Sorry about that.  (A few people tried to fake being him, but didn’t get past moderation.)

November Comics Thread

By Dave Van Domelen November 2nd, 2017, under Comics

Deathstroke #25, Inhumans: Once and Future Kings #4, and anything else that might pop up this calendar month.

October Comics Thread

By Dave Van Domelen October 5th, 2017, under Comics

Deathstroke #24 (of COURSE Wally has an external monologue), and once it’s out Inhumans Once and Future Kings #3.