The Comics Reporter interviews Valerie D”Orazio and she clears the air on a number of topics. The interview also makes you realize how seldom anyone who has worked in the mainstream comics industry in the “modern” era ever talks about it in an analytical way:

D’ORAZIO: When you are an assistant editor — at least from where I sat — your contrary opinion is not encouraged. And, if you’re female, that contrary opinion is not just discouraged — it’s seen as downright gauche. At any rate, you can be replaced pretty easily. You stay because you hope and dream you will be promoted. You see how cut-throat things are and you vow to swim with the sharks and get-ahead. Always there is this fear that if somehow you “screw up” and lose the job, you will never find another one in this small small industry — and that you are only competent to edit comic books. And that, in your sort-sighted view, no job could possibly be as cool as working in comic books. All this fosters a very conservative viewpoint, at least as far as work is concerned.

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