Former Marvel Comics Writer Rick Remender Blasts Mainstream Comics As "Heaterless Profit Driven Corporations"
Major comic creators propped up by Marvel and DC Comics over the last decades are turning on the companies. After Dustin Nguyen blasted Marvel Comics, writer Rick Remender blasted the big-2, implying they’re “heartless profit driven corporations.”
Marvel and DC Comics have been known for mistreating creators for a long, long time. They disrespect fans regularly with their top editors ignoring concerns and calling fans names instead of addressing them, and it seems since Rob Liefeld started taking shots at the company when he was ignored for a premiere of Deadpool & Wolverine, despite having co-created the character.
The industry is known for near-abusive treatment of their talent dating back to the Golden Age, where even the creators of Superman had to sue DC Comics to get their due. Over the years, the companies have left artists nearly destitute and until Jack Kirby filed his own lawsuit against Marvel Comics in the 1980s, they didn’t even give artists back their original artwork.
Not much has changed. Creatives are working for sub-minimum wage in many situations, and even when companies have contracted royalties they’re supposed to pay, they often don’t pay them out. Creators are urged to keep their mouths shut, because there are thousands of aspiring comic creators waiting in the wings behind them to take their spot should they step out of line. A comment can ruin a career and get someone blacklisted for any number of reasons. The comic book industry is beyond toxic.
Earlier in the week, artist Dustin Nguyen put Marvel Comics on blast in an epic rant against their bad business practices, and now Rick Remender, famous for his work on X-Force and The Punisher at Marvel Comics, has entered the arena in promotion of a new creator-owned venture.
He posted to Instagram:
CREATOR OWNED OR DIE
COMICS ARE BETTER WHEN THEY ARE OWNED BY THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE THEM. HEARTLESS PROFIT DRIVEN CORPORATIONS DO NOT LOVE YOU. ALLOWING THEM TO CONTROL THE BLOOD OF YOUR LABOR IS A SHORT-TERM GAME THAT LEAVES YOU WITH NOTHING IN THE END. IT IS BETTER TO PLAY GREAT MUSIC TO AN INTIMATE AUDIENCE THAN TO FEED BULLSHIT TO AN AUDITORIUM. I AM DEDICATED TO MAKING GREAT COMICS OWNED BY THE PEOPLE WHO CREATE THEM. I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL.
Giant Generator wave 3 is underway exclusively at our wonderful home, the most dedicated publisher to the promise of pure creator owned comics, Image Comics.
A small teaser of the next line of amazing books I co-created and co-own with:
@steveepting
@daniel_acuna_perez
@andrelimaaraujo
@gregtocchini_art
@yanickpaquette
While his sentiments hold weight that corporate comics are soulless and the companies do mistreat creators and fans, it’s ironic because Rick Remender would hardly have a following if he didn’t work for Marvel Comics for a long time, propped up by them.
Remender has also been a large part of the downfall of the comic industry as he infamously told Trump supporters not to buy his books. He posted in 2020 to Twitter, saying, “If you still support this president it’s okay if you unfollow me and stop supporting my work. I’d prefer it.”
With the comic industry small as it is, one would wonder why someone pushing independents would be in lockstep with the whole corporate mentality that Marvel and DC Comics push constantly, targeting a large portion of the audience. Most independent creators, unlike Remender, are happy to have anyone reading their work.
While the comic industry continues eating its own tail, it appears as if more and more creators are getting fed up with what Marvel and DC Comics have to offer.
What do you think of Rick Remender attacking Marvel and DC Comics? Leave a comment and let us know.
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Rick says he wants to write to an intimate audience.
He's taking steps to make it very, very intimate.
Enjoy the quiet of your intimacy, Rick.
There's a profoundly sad tragedy that many a US Comic book pro is suddenly now going back to creator owned works after turning their back on that very same movement back in 80's to the 90's. Part of what killed the creator owned movement in the early aughts was due to the Marvel Movie/DC boom attracting artists and writers in the vain notion that one idea they might have in a run would get them royalties in a Marvel/DC film.
And yet who are the ones thriving once again when it turns out the "Big Two" once again are screwing the creators (again)? The ones that don't pick fights with their audiences and roll their own and make their own comics once again.