Michael Cavna interviews Roger Langridge about his recent decision to no longer work for Marvel or DC comics over ethical concerns about poor treatment of comic creators like Jack Kirby and Gary Friedrich.
MICHAEL CAVNA: Can you describe how you came to this decision, Roger? What were the motivating factors and compelling forces – and was there one proverbial “last straw”?
ROGER LANGRIDGE: Marvel’s shabby treatment of its founding creators, particularly Jack Kirby, has been a bone of contention for a lot of people since the 1980s, at least, so that underlying sense of discomfort was always there. It was the legal decision against the heirs of Jack Kirby last year that was the thing that made me think, “You know, I probably shouldn’t be doing this.” (Note: Marvel tells Comic Riffs it can’t comment on matters involving Jack Kirby due to ongoing litigation.) The cartoonist Steve Bissette wrote a very articulate and passionate blogpost that was widely circulated at the time of that ruling, and I read it and nodded my head and thought: Yeah, it’s probably time to get out. I didn’t make a big noise about it at the time because the thing I’d just written for Marvel, “John Carter: A Princess of Mars,” hadn’t yet come out, and I didn’t think it was fair to drag my collaborator on that book, Filipe Andrade, down with me if there was a backlash. I didn’t feel it was my place to make that decision for him.
It must be a difficult decision when you work in an industry dominated by just two or three big companies. It’s not only tougher to find work at the other houses, but more likely that the abuse you’re trying to take a stand against is systemic through the whole industry.
Just a guess of course, I wish Roger all the luck in finding work he feels right about.