When his name was missing from October’s solicits as writer of Suicide Squad, and Matt Kindt’s was on, people naturally wondered is Ales Kot was gone from DC?
He confirmed it on Tumblr:
Since the solicitations for October’s DC titles came out, I was repeatedly asked if I am no longer writing Suicide Squad. Yes, Matt Kindt is writing SS #24 and I am no longer writing Suicide Squad. Matt’s “3 Story” is one of my favorite graphic novels I read in the last few years and I look forward to reading “Mind MGMT” when I finally find the time to buy the first hardcover collection, which you can find here. Matt Kindt is a very capable storyteller who is doing exciting things in the comics medium and I wish him great things.
I killed my deadlines, I wrote my best, and I have no regrets whatsoever.Thank you for the ride, for your support, for everything.
Have wonderful days and nights.
Kot has already made a reputation as one of the more flamboyant newer writers out there, and as part of the “Image INvasion” at DC Comics he fit right in. For a little while.
ZERO, his book for Image, comes out in September. The creative team includes Michael Walsh, Jordie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles.
So I finally pick up DC’s Suicide Squad (New 52 style) because a new writer jumps on, and Patrick “Why did I leave Shadowman for Suicide Squad?!” Zircher’s artwork, only to have the writer “leave” the title after two issues (both getting rave reviews) and DC putting Patrick on their lame Forever Evil Rogue’s mini-series. Ugh, DC.
In the future, only little girls will ride ponies. And DC’s Nü52 will have 13 books apiece written by Geoff Johns, Scott Snyder, Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt.
Looking forward to Zero, though.
@Nathan – I was just about to say the same thing. Plus the enthusiastic interviews Kot gave – and then just like that, DC fumble the ball. I can imagine Marvel snapping him up.
DC’s making it pretty hard to give them the benefit of the doubt about this all being “totally normal and creative changes happen all the time,” etc.
@Jon – A general rule of thumb is this: the more enthused a DC creator is to be working on a book, the shorter the creator’s run on said book. See James Robinson for details.
I’m done with this title. It degraded severely under Glass to the point where I dropped it. Kindt has talent in his own books, but has become DC’s pinch hitter (along with Lemire, Fawkes and Soule) – I will be shocked if he is on SS for more than an issue or two. Plus the last time he took over a book I liked – Frankenstein – there was a severe drop in quality followed by cancellation. Barring DC putting Ostrander or Simone on as regular writers or a reinstatement of Kot, I don’t see anything getting me back on board after this shabby treatment of readers and writer. Frankly, I’m not committing to a run if DC can’t commit to a writer and a storyline. This is reminding me why I dropped all non-creator owned books for a long time – complete lack of consistency. I may need to re-institute that policy.
Used to be a huge DC fan. I just really like their characters more. But they are not making it easy to want to stick with them. I heard nothing but rave reviews about Kot’s SS. So much so, that I’ve been meaning to add it to my pull list. Glad I didn’t end up picking it up. It seems like every other week they are stooging some new creator. And their only redeeming feature of late, their pricing, is now just as bad as Marvel. More Indy work for this reader.
I agree with James. For whatever reason, I am a DC guy, simply drawn to its stable of characters more than Marvel’s.
However, from where I am sitting, DC refuses to permit their writers (or writers not named Johns, Snyder or Lemire, to be sure) to tell their stories without consistent and pervasive editorial interference. I believe there is simply too much smoke regarding editorial interference and creator terminations for there not to be a raging fire somewhere. The editorial interference has the effect of diluting or derailing the writer’s vision and, therefore, the story.
I don’t want to read editorially-driven crap stories, even featuring my favorite characters, so I have been cutting a number of DC titles from my pull list.
Marvel, on the other hand, appear to let their writers tell the stories they want to tell, and the story-telling quality of their comics are, for me, materially better than DC’s. For the first time in 35 years of collecting comics, I am getting more Marvel titles than DC titles. The double-shipping is wearing me out a bit, but the overall quality of their line currently sparkles, at least for me.
Wow, as a DC guy, never thought I’d be saying this. :)
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