Roger Langridge Gonzo From Marvel, DC

If you’re a casual comic book reader, you probably have no idea who Roger Langridge is. Here at the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office, however, we are big fans, mostly due to his work on Boom Studios’ The Muppet Show comic back around 2009, when a Muppets movie revival was only the bulge in Jason Segal’s BVDs, and when reading a comic based on a childhood favorite TV show was a pleasant diversion from our constant morning joint pain.

(Digression before the meat of the story: if you are a Muppet Show fan, you owe it to yourself to find those issues. I don’t know how Langridge did it, but he distilled a visual show with a heavy musical element into a standard comic book, and he captured the tone flawlessly. Disney buying Marvel, meaning Disney suddenly had their own comic publisher for the Muppets and therefore could pull the license from Boom, has been, to us, the biggest tragedy of that merger to date).

Since that book folded, Langridge has been doing some work for Marvel on their John Carter books (See? Goddamned Disney merger fucks up all kinds of shit…), but no more. Following in the footsteps of Chris Roberson and announced, via the Internet, that he will no longer be working for either Marvel or DC due to “individual conscience”:

Marvel and DC are turning out quite problematic from an ethical view to continue working with…

I think it’s down to everyone’s individual conscience but I think those of us who have options, and I do have options, I’ve got a working relationship with a couple of other publishers, I’ve go tillustration work I can fall back on, I’m not beholden to Marvel and DC for my bread and butter. If you do have the option, you maybe should think hard about what you’re doing and who you are doing it for.

I was writing the last issue of John Carter when the news came that Marvel had won a lawsuit against the heirs of Jack Kirby and Steve Bissette wrote an very impassioned post about the ethics of wokring for Marvel under those circumstances. Pretty much then, I figured I should finish the script I was writing and move on.

It’s not like Marvel need me. It’s no skin off their nose if I don’t accept anything from them in the future.

I think it’s beholden on the creative community to ask themselves what kind of industry they want and act accordingly.

Personally, I applaud this kind of stand. I still believe that, if you believe you might be treated unfairly, you shouldn’t sign the contract in the first place, and if you think you are being treated unfairly? Don’t bitch about a bad deal; just fucking quit. Do your work where you’re appreciated.

I believe that anyone who thinks that creators sometimes get the shaft from comics publishers should be behind this kind of concrete, ethical stance. Because I have always believed that, no matter what some people might say, the real American Dream isn’t to own a home, it’s being able to say, “Fuck you, I quit.”

Wait, what’s that? Langridge is from New Zealand? Jesus, even the Kiwis are better Americans than we are these days…

(via Bleeding Cool)