Hey guys, I’m currently at Fan Expo so I’m going to make this a bit brief, I promise I will expand upon it on Thursday’s regular column.
Marko’s words were pretty much what everyone is reporting on the net. I don’t think even he’d deny that.
What troubles me is the tone everyone is placing on the workshop itself.
How do I know?
I was the one moderating the damn thing.
Marko did not hijack the panel. Hickman was running late due to a late flight, Marko had views on Marvel that he needed to share, I let it go on for two reasons.
1) I needed time to fill. It was a 50 minute panel and with the possibility of Hickman not making it, I needed time. And this is not to say I have a ton of ego or anything but had I wanted to cut Marko off, I would have.
2) What the internet isn’t reporting is that the panel WAS NOT A PANEL. It was a workshop. specifically it was a workshop on collaboration in comics using the current FF book as the example. When Marko started into his dialogue, I’ll admit I was a little worried but I felt that Marko had the right to speak his mind and I felt that his views showed a very real side to the collaboration process especially in the big leagues of Marvel and DC.
Hickman and Steve Epting both pointed out they were happy with their work there and happy with the company and respected his opinion and Marko in turn respected their opinion. At no point did Marko call them idiots for working with Marvel or anything of that nature, he said his piece, they said theirs. I don’t feel he cut anyone off or was rude to any of the other workshop partcipants. In fact both Epting and Hickman asked Marko questions.
To be quite frank, Marko made the workshop a ton more interesting and wouldn’t you rather be intrigued then bored at these things?
More on Thursday.
Thanks for honestly reporting on this. Seems like everyone would rather bash someone for the sake of making news than report truthfully. Thanks again.