Chuck Dixon’s recent comments about “tourists” (writers from TV/movies/novels who are invited to become top talents at comic companies) gave me mixed feelings. For those of you who missed it, here is what Chuck wrote on his message board:

Tourists

It bothers me when they don’t know anything about the craft of writing comics but they’re still going to show us all “how it’s done.” I can’t tell you how many know-nothing novelists have tried to lecture me on how to write comics or explain to me a character I’ve been writing for a decade.

Hey, do I come out to Hollywood and tell you what Alien #3 should be saying?

I’m also annoyed that my entire career of writing comics can be trumped by some guy who wrote an episode of Reba. Or who APPEARED on an episode of Reba.

When J. Michael Myshowwascancelled does not allow his artists to speak to him directly and refuses to be edited I get a little steamed.

It’s a rare example when someone drops in from an outside medium and gets it right. Bob Gale comes to mind.
And if hiring novelists and TV writers and character actors and game show winners to write comics moved the sales needle to an appreciable degree I’d concede to them and go open that laundromat I’ve always dreamed of and leave this silly business behind. But the truth is that they don’t really move that many more comics and there’s little impact outside of the already committed comic book fans.

The bottom line is that most people think that writing comics is easy. But writing GOOD comics is hard. You don’t see any of these guys being asked to DRAW a comic, do you?

I’ve got a talent, a weird nearly-useless talent for telling stories in a series of static pictures. I’ve sold millions of comics doing this. I will never be a Stan Lee or Archie Goodwin or Denny O’Neil. But I take comfort in the fact that Kevin Smith will never be a Chuck Dixon

I certainly object to some of the “awesome power” that gets granted to big names who are handed huge projects before they’ve really been tested as comic writers. It is unfair to those trying to work their way in. And I can see why Chuck would have such an attitude. When you’ve had a good book like Green Arrow suddenly canceled because a movie director who has written a couple comics mentions that he might, whenever he gets around to it, be willing to write Green Arrow…well, that would tend to wrankle.

Still, I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world. We can all name some lousy “tourists” who get way too much leeway in the industry at the moment, but there are some whose work I’ve enjoyed.

I think my favorite so far is Patton Oswalt’s “JLA: Welcome to the Working Week” (don’t blame him for the HORRIBLE title that replaced what was originally “JLA: Workweek”). The book was full of geeky trivia (Plastic Man knowing monks, Baytor being the bartender at a party, the fighting villains getting a “Task Force X” style offer from Wonder Woman, etc.) that showed Patton was a big DC fan from way back.

The down side is that it’s sort of a typical fanboyish story, the kind I saw all the time when I ran Fanzing.com magazine, about how interesting the personal lives of superheroes must be when they sit around having conversations instead of fighting supervillains. Of course, this is also its selling point, so it’s hard to complain about that. If you buy “My Dinner With Batman” and the whole books is Batman eating and talking, you can’t claim misrepresentation.

In the end, I wouldn’t mind seeing another Oswalt work. I just wouldn’t want him to be given control of Superman or holding the reigns on a summer crossover simply on the basis of being a B-list standup comedian and a supporting character on “King of Queens”. Of course, he’ll probably get the chance to do another DC Comic in 2007 just so they can put a monster blurb: “From the Voice of Pixar’s Ratatouille!”

How about you guys? Any “tourists” from other media whose comics you’ve enjoyed?