Greg Rucka speaking to Mark Millar’s CLiNT on his decision to leave Marvel and DC:

I’ve reached the end of my Work-For-Hire rope. I’m enjoying The Punisher, but that’s not mine, it’s Marvel’s, and l knew that going in. I have spent a lot of my comics career in service of other masters, and I’ve had enough of that for now. I’m sick to death of the way the Big Two treat people.

I gave seven very good years to DC and they took gross advantage of me. That’s partially my fault, but not entirely. At this point, I see no reason why I should have to put up with that. I can sink or swim on my own.

You are seeing a grotesque Hollywoodisation of the two main companies. There was at least a period where I felt that the way they wanted to make money was by telling the best story they could; now the quality of the work matters less than that the book comes out. There is far less a desire to see good work be done.

Dan DiDio has gone on record, and this is the same man that said Gotham Central would never be cancelled as long as he was there, telling people what a great book Gotham Central was, but it never made any money.

Well, take a look at your trade sales! That book has made nothing but money as a trade. What I’m now being told is, ”lt was never worth anything to us anyway.” So you know what? They can stop selling the Batwoman: Elegy trade and stop selling the Wonder Woman trades and everything else I’ve done, because clearly I’ve not done anything of service and those guys aren’t making any money off me.

Right now, where the market is, I have no patience for it.

My run on Punisher ends on #16, and we are then doing a five-issue mini called War Zone and then I’m done. That’s it! The Powers-That-Be at Marvel, without talking to me, decreed that he’s going to join a team on another book.

That’s their choice, they own him, but I don’t have to be happy about it. I am glad I had the opportunity to work on the character and I’m proud of the work I’ve done.

Despite what the publishers say, their interest in the talent is minimal now, the interest is only in promoting the financial worth of their properties. That was not the case as of two or three years ago, when there was an ‘Exclusives war’, but that’s all gone by the wayside now. Ultimately, they are saying, “We don’t need you" because they can get a million more just like you.

For every person who passes on the opportunity to write Spider-Man or Superman, I guarantee there are 5,000 hungry writers who would give their eye-teeth to do it. But just because they want to do it, it doesn’t mean they are capable of doing it. It comes down entirely to Warner Bros. realising what they owned but had not exploited. At the end of the Harry Potter franchise, they went “Oh, crap, we need something else fast." and looked over at Marvel’s very very successful film program.

DC are playing catch up with Marvel because of things like The Avengers breaking six hundred million domestic. That’s a lot of money. I don’t begrudge Warner Bros wanting to make bank, it would be like blaming a shark for eating, but l do think that the pursuit of that financial windfall bears a detrimental effect on the creative and artistic side.

This isn't Greg Rucka's first public poke at The Big Two, but it's a lot less subtle than last time. On his Lady Sabre blog, Rucka wrote a good article (here) encouraging people to buy for quality of the stories, rather than blindly following your favorite character(s). After reading that some weeks ago, it's come as little surprise that he's joined the recent creator revolt against The Big Two.

It's interesting that just a few years ago, Marvel and DC were fighting each other to lock in the creative talent with lucrative exclusive contracts.

Now the Big Two doesn't give a shit. As long as their ever-weakening products crank out more or less on time, their corporate parents truly don't care about the quality of the contents. We need five Batman titles on the shelf this month, period, and to hell with whether they're any good, much less worth four dollars each.

We all sort of snicker when slackers like Jim Lee tell the Big Two to drop dead and take their ball and go home. But Greg Rucka, George Perez -- some of the pros who are fed up are respected talents.

I reckon you could go back over the last 10 years or more and get similar comments like this made by other pros. It's hardly some amazing insight, is it? If he's only just realized that this is what Marvel & DC are like these days, he's an idiot.

Erik Larsen would agree with you.

At DC, anyway, management's attitude toward creators seems to be shittier than it has been in ages, so maybe that's noticeably worse now.

But Larsen always snickered when a comics pro complained about shabby treatment by the Big Two. Larsen would point out that it all started with Siegel and Shuster getting screwed. Anyone who didn't predict their own buggering wasn't paying attention, he says.

I'm not going to defend the editorial policies at DC or, especially, Marvel and I won't criticize Rucka if he's decided he's had enough. There are a couple of points that everyone should keep in mind.

1. Rucka started out writing actual books and indy comics. It's hard to believe he went to Marvel or DC for "creative freedom" or "fulfillment".

2. I don't know for certain, but I'd imagine he's been compensated fairly well for his work at the Big 2. At least far better than previous generations of comic writers, like the guys who created The Punisher in the first place.

3. Let's see what happens 5 years from now if his current career plans don't work out quite as well as he now expects.

Mike

Those aren't really points, and there's really no reason anyone should keep them in mind.

And three is not "a couple."

Haha!

I think Rucka will be okay, career wise. Unless he goes on some mad public racist rant or something, he's a big enough name to continue being successful.

Oh, I forgot.

MARVEL BAD! DC BAD!

That better?

Mike