I’ve tweeted a few times recently about how the freelancer system that comics operates on is inherently discriminatory. It’s a system that relies on the people in power promoting equality just because they want to. We know that doesn’t work, ever.

It’s also a system that relies on the vast bulk of the workforce being essentially financially independent. And again, we know who that is, mostly.

Anyway: I’ve seen people talking recently about how it feels like comics has moved backwards in terms of diversity along most vectors. There definitely used to be a lot more big names who were women or people of colour, back in the 80s and early 90s.

You may be thinking “well, it was a freelancer system then, too! It worked then, it can work now!”

Well, here’s the thing: one thing that has changed massively in the last 30 years is that the divide between creative and editorial staff has become much more concrete. It used to be quite common for editors to write and vice versa.

Editors, of course, haven’t ever been freelance, for the most part. They’re permanent staff.

Now I want you to think about who those big names in the 80s were, that weren’t white men.

Dwayne McDuffie, Ann Nocenti, Louise Simonson, Christopher Priest, Larry Hama, Jo Duffy. What’s the one thing they all have in common?

They were all editors. They all had full time, permanent jobs at a major publisher.

Just a little something to think about, while we watch the inherent power imbalances within the industry destroy it and ruin hundreds of lives in a multitude of ways.

I don’t have a solution. I know what I think the industry *should* look like, but I have no idea how we get to there from here, without it collapsing completely, going away for a while, and then starting again from scratch with better principles in play.

Either of the main publishers could change everything basically overnight. But they won’t, because there’s no (short term) financial gain in it, and a huge amount of risk and (short term) cost.

The only way I could see it happening is in response to a really large-scale strike, but unionisation is basically impossible within the freelancer system too (which is why it exists), so that’s not going to happen.

Also, there’s the fact everyone with the will to change it is, of course, already pretty much excluded from the discussion, by dint of them not being able to afford the entry fee of several years unpaid work to get a career in comics, or by having been forced out by abuse.

Which is why you’re seeing a lot of discussion of HR departments (good!), barcon (I mean, ok, but a bit beside the point), and educating rookies in spotting predators (WTF kind of victim blaming bullshit is that?) and not this.

As long as the avenue to employment is entirely based on networking, and as long as there is no job security for most of the workforce, comics will remain an inherently toxic industry, because that is basically a Petri dish for predators.

“Come on Dave, are you saying you think that Marvel and DC should put out ads when they need an artist or writer and people should have to go through a standardised application process with interviews and references and all that?”

Yes. That’s EXACTLY what I think.

There’s going to be four Batman books every month from now until the end of time, apparently. There’s no good reason the people making those books shouldn’t just be on staff.

To be honest, I think if any creator with a major platform (as opposed to, well, just me) were to start saying this, they’d get massive pushback from their peers.

Because, well, any creator with a major platform has, by definition, found a way to make this system work for them. They don’t need the stability the change would bring the way those further down the ladder do, and might even lose out financially.

It is, of course, worth noting that most of the BIGGEST names do in fact already have this set up for them, on an individual basis. That’s what an exclusive is, yeah? So there’s no real incentive for them to fight for it for everyone else.

Why do they get that treatment? Because they’ve reached a level of fame (comics fame, anyway) that actually gives them as much power as the publisher. So there’s no reason for the publisher not to give it to them.

Of course comics is also full of “temporarily embarrassed millionaires”- creators who aren’t at that level, but believe they’ll get there any day now. They won’t want the system to change either, they’re banking on it staying this way.

Most of them will regret it eventually.

But... if a publisher were to start working on this basis, and they were pleasant to work for, I think things would change pretty fast. People need to actually SEE the benefit, I think.

Anyway, I’m rambling now, so I’ll stop.

TL;DR, comics is fucked and no one wants to fix it