‘Super’ writers lecture on comics industry

Comic book writers Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick gave a presentation in the Visual Arts Theater on Wednesday as a part of the Mouths of Others speaker series at Mt. Hood.

Aside from being colleagues, the duo is also married. After being introduced by Humanities instructor Chad Bartlett, they started their presentation talking about each other’s career paths.

Fraction told the story of DeConnick. She was born in Ohio, was raised on Air Force bases as a child, and then pursued theater at the University of Texas, Austin. She went to New York City with her friend to pursue theater where she met playwrights and “realized she didn’t want to be a professional anorexic” her whole life, said Fraction. DeConnick became a writer because of her outspoken nature.

DeConnick told everyone Fraction’s path to the comic book industry after jesting that “this is how we’re going to get divorced.” Fraction went to art school and dropped out to pursue film, but then dropped out of there as well. He was doing some work with advertising, and both writers were into comics and regularly contributed to websites where they would review and critique comic work.

Fraction and DeConnick met through the comic book fan circles.

Both artists write for Marvel Comics. They also do some independent work. Fraction is best known for his work on The Invincible Iron Man, The Uncanny X-men, and Hawkeye. The last of which earned six Eisner awards for Fraction and company.

Deconnick’s best known works are Captain Marvel, Avengers Assemble, Ghost, and Bitch Planet.

While the two have written several story archs for brand-name companies, they said that they try two write two solely artistic pieces for every big industry piece they do.

They spent a lot of time talking about “creator owned” work. When a writer comes up with a superhero or idea that isn’t one that’s been around for 70 years like Superman, Spiderman, or Ironman, then that new idea is almost always pushed and endorsed by the creator.

DeConnick talked about the difference between the medium of comics and the genre of superhero comics.

Fraction said that aside from the costumed superheroes, “there is another industry that has grown outside of the comic book shop,” with titles that include “The Walking Dead” and “Maus.” “Comics have had to move around the comic book stores and the superheroes to grow up.”

“Democratization,” seemed to be the operating function when Fraction talked about the comic book industry. He stressed the growing availablity of the market. DeConnick added to that effect, by asking the audience who owned a smart phone, (nearly the entire audience raised their hands) and then said that everyone has an entire comic book shop in their pocket.

DeConnick said that creator owned work is the best strategy for a writer in the industry because “Marvel and DC are the two largest shared universe publishers in our industry, and they are now corporate entities,” so they each set up charities “to support the older creatives in our industry who put years of work into these characters, but they were paid work for hire. They don’t own any piece of these characters.”

“Every time they endorse their paycheck, there is a miniature contract that says by signing this paycheck so I can deposit it, I am relinquishing all rights to the corporate entities of DC and Marvel,” said Fraction.

“So, it is on us who are coming up in the industry right now to make sure that we don’t find ourselves in that position,” because a lot of them don’t have healthcare. The duo works on their own creations, but they also contribute to material for DC and Marvel. “I’m not twenty anymore… we have to be thinking about the next generation,” said Fraction.

With their job being artistic in nature, Fraction and DeConnick stressed the fact that they still had to work. “If you are going to wait for the muse to inspire you to make your art, then I hope you have a day job. You don’t have the luxury of that,” said DeConnick about the discipline required for the field.

“People who do this for a living produce. That’s the difference between a pro and an amateur,” said Fraction.

They talked about the difference between having ideas versus producing work. “Ideas don’t matter, I have hundreds of ideas every day, and hundreds more will come. Ideas are not goals. Your limiting resources are time and courage. More ideas will come,” said DeConnick.

They ended their talk with a Q&A and autograph session. Again, the couple were relatively jovial, joking that they would “Literally sign anything. It doesn’t even have to be one of our books.”

The next Mouths of Others event will feature Jerry McGill, author of “Dear Marcus: A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me.” MCgill has been wheelchair-bound since the age of thirteen when he was shot by an unknown assailant at random.