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Stuart Moore was an editor for DC's Vertigo books and was also behind
the Helix line that brought us Warren Ellis's Transmet. He has
recently resigned from DC and is now working on a new Venture.
In this interview, we get Stuart to answer some questions about recent
Vertigo controversies and get some info about the job of an an editor.
Coville:
What are the differences between editing a Vertigo book vs.
a normal superhero comic?
Moore:
I've only ever edited a handful of superhero comics, so I may not be the
best person to ask. You certainly have to put on a different set of mental
filters when you're editing a "mature readers" book, because different
kinds of material are allowable and appropriate. There are all kinds of
superhero comics, and I don't like to generalize about them too much, but
certainly the subject matter dictates that there'll be more action and
usually a faster pace than in Vertigo titles. Vertigo books are also
almost always written full-script, as opposed to the Marvel-style
plot-first method used often in superhero titles.
Coville:
Some retailers report that Vertigo gets more female readers than
normal superhero comics. Did you plan or forsee this?
Moore:
I've always wanted that and worked toward it, and I know Karen Berger has.
To be honest, though, I'm not sure it's true, except for a few books like
SANDMAN which clearly have large female readerships.
Coville:
Preacher is very far away from typical mainstream comics, how
did it manage to get approved?
Moore:
I walked straight into management with the proposal in my hand and four big
guys with boards and rusty nails behind me, and I said, "Boys, we got
somethin' to discuss."
Seriously...it's an extreme title in many ways, and that was clear from the
start. But Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon were coming right off a highly
acclaimed and commercially successful run on HELLBLAZER, so everybody
trusted them to produce a good book. It's very much to DC's credit that
they both approved a title like that in the first place, and stuck with it.
Coville:
It's known that Garth Ennis does not use the internet. Does this
make things more difficult for an editor?
Moore:
Actually, no. Garth's an extremely conscientious guy and he faxes most of
his scripts in. He's always accessible.
Coville:
Some editors at Marvel have to handle several titles all at once,
what do you think is the ideal number a books for an editor to take
on?
Moore:
There's no simple answer to that, because each book takes up a different
amount of time (if you're doing your job right). Rule of thumb at DC is
that an editor should be producing about four books a month. That seems
right to me; I've done more, and it gets a little hairy, but I could handle
it when I had a really good assistant who was up to speed on everything,
like Julie Rottenberg was for a while and like Cliff Chiang was for a year
or so before I left. It's kind of tricky at Vertigo, though, because the
imprint is more heavily weighted toward miniseries than most comics
operations -- so you can have a hell of a lot of minis in the works for a
long time without much actually coming out, and then everything gets
published at once.
Coville:
As an editor you must get a large number of proposals for new
series pitched to you by professionals. How do you decide which ones
will become published?
Moore:
Well, obviously you look for something interesting, something with a point,
something different. I've always liked fiction of any kind -- movies,
books, TV, comics -- where there's an author showing me something I've
never seen before, or telling me something I've never thought of. Recently
I was also trying to keep an eye on what might be commercial, how to
establish a GOOD writer as a COMMERCIAL writer, how to get new readers in
to Vertigo.
I also place a lot of importance on people who want to work together; if I
can see that a writer and an artist are clicking on something, that means a
lot to me. Beyond that, Karen does all the approvals at Vertigo, and she
has some very specific ideas about what's appropriate for the imprint, so
that was always foremost in my mind.
Coville:
How do you deal with the 'slush pile'; the submissions and
proposals mailed in from comic fans?
Moore:
Well, I always meant to be better about that than I was. I instituted
something we used to do in book publishing called a "slush party," where
we'd all stay late and go through a big pile of submissions, but in
practice what it meant was you'd end up putting aside anything interesting
and never getting to it anyway. You always want to be good about this
stuff, but in practice it becomes a very low priority because your first
job is to put the books out -- and that work expands quickly to fill the
available time. That said, the internet's been a big help to me. We never
accepted e-mailed submissions at Vertigo, but it sure made it easier to jot
off a quick note in reply.
Coville:
Have there been any titles published at Helix or Vertigo that came
about through mail-in proposals?
Moore:
That's a tough one...I was developing one, but I never got it together.
I'm sure there have been, but I can't think of any off the top of my head.
Coville:
I know editors don't read fan fiction, but does doing it and
meeting deadlines help writers when looking for freelance work?
Moore:
If by fan fiction you mean prose works about comics characters, probably
not (at least in the kind of comics I do). If you mean small press or
self-published comics, definitely yes. I always encourage prospective
writers to just get something published, even if you do it yourself and
even if you're not working with the best artist in the world. It gives you
something to show around that shows you can work in the medium, and it's a
hell of a lot easier to get an overworked editor to read a comic book than
to read a script or a proposal.
Coville:
Was there any cancelled Helix or Vertigo book that you thought was well
above average and should have done really well?
Moore:
Well, most of the Helix line was pretty dear to me. I had really high
hopes for VERMILLION -- I think the second half of that run, in particular,
holds up beautifully -- and GEMINI BLOOD was really hitting its stride,
too, after a slightly shaky start.
Coville:
If you had total control over the Vertigo line, would you have
removed the letter pages for more ad space?
Moore:
Well, I understand the move, but no. I think the space could have been
made available on a when-necessary basis. But the ads are crucial these
days.
Coville:
Should the industry move towards doing returnable comics for the
direct market?
Moore:
That's a big question. The direct market's a funny beast; it wasn't
designed to function under the current market conditions. I think there's
probably a sort of record-industry-style middle ground of partial
returnability that might benefit everyone in the long run; but with most
publishers scraping by, it's understandable that they don't want to give on
this. People think the major publishers are short-sighted, but -- well,
Marvel's a whole unique, weird situation, but I don't think that's a fair
description of DC at all, otherwise they wouldn't be publishing the variety
of material they do.
I think it's probably a better use of everyone's time to explore
alternative distribution and delivery systems than to try to "fix" the
direct market. There are a lot of great retailers, and they're absolutely
crucial to comics publishing. But you also need to think about other ways
of getting comics out to people. Of course, there are also direct market
retailers involved in internet sales ventures themselves, and that's great
too.
Coville:
Recently there have been a number of changes on both DC and
Vertigo books because of a possible media/public backlash. Would you
have made those same changes? (why or why not?)
Moore:
I haven't read Warren Ellis's unpublished HELLBLAZER issue, so I can't
really comment on that. I thought the decision to replace the PREACHER
cover made sense -- it wasn't exactly a crucial scene in the series, and
given the timing, it's an image that very easily could have been taken out
of context. And I've said repeatedly, as have the creators, that the
FINALS situation has been blown way out of proportion - the editor
suggested a change based on how the book would be perceived in the light of
the Columbine shootings, the creators agreed, and the creators came up with
a scene that worked better for the book.
In a larger sense, though, I certainly wouldn't shy away from controversy
the way DC management does. But they also have pressures on them that I,
or a smaller company, wouldn't. It's the tradeoff you make for working at,
or being published by, a company with deep pockets and a reliable record of
actually publishing your work.
Coville:
Did the decision to make a 5th week event featuring pre-Vertigo
characters as a superhero team influnce your decision to leave?
Moore:
Considering it was my idea, no. Actually, the fifth-week event, V2K, is a
series of millennial-themed one-shots and miniseries, of which the book
you're talking about, TOTEMS, is one. (The others are creator-owned.)
TOTEMS is great; Tom Peyer really came through on the script, and Duncan
Fegredo and Richard Case are doing the art. It's sort of a gift to
Vertigo's long-time fans. Tom jumped at it, since he was one of the
founding Vertigo editors. (And the characters aren't EXACTLY a superhero
team.)
Coville:
Some people worry about the fate of Vertigo once Preacher ends. Do
you think another key title will be found in time to draw readers
to the line?
Moore:
The big gamble about a line like Vertigo is that its success is tied very
strongly to specific projects controlled by specific creators. There's no
X-MEN franchise to keep it going once Garth and Steve decide PREACHER is
over. That said, Vertigo's had a pretty strong record, and there are a lot
of new monthlies about to start up, so there are a lot of possibilities.
Coville:
Can you tell us about what freelancing projects you still have
left at DC.
Moore:
I'm working on a miniseries I can't talk about yet. I just wrote the
chapter introductions for the MYSTERY IN SPACE trade paperback, reprinting
old DC sf stories. That was a fun little gig.
Coville:
You've already said the new venture your working on will be doing
comics and multimedia, will the comics be similar content to the
Vertigo and Helix books you edited at DC Comics?
Moore:
I can't really talk about the new venture yet.
Coville:
What do you think the likelyhood is of a Vertigo comic being made
into a movie?
Moore:
There are a hundred answers to that. About a year ago, there was a lot of
motion on various Vertigo projects; then they all seemed to kind of stall,
all for different reasons. But as I always tell people, even when I was on
staff at Vertigo, I would usually find out about this stuff from WIZARD or
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY.
I do hope Garth and Steve can pull off that PREACHER movie, though they
don't seem too optimistic about it right now. And Warren Ellis has had
some very promising interest in TRANSMET. But you never know. If there's
a crazier business than comics, it's got to be Hollywood.
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