Posted: 17 December 2018 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | 4
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Why in the past were scripters writers and artists who plot not credited as writers?____________________
If I may add, don't forget that they were coming out of an era where NOBODY got any credit! And also they were coming out of the 50's short monster stories, where the stories were pretty simple. Stan not only introduced credits, but he also pioneered the Marvel Method, which was modified depending on which artist he was working with. Historically in comics, artists were always the stars anyhow, so he probably figured the simple "Writer" for "scripter" and "Artist" for "visual storyteller" credits were enough. At a certain point in the flagship FANTASTIC FOUR title, the credits were simply "By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby," leaving who did what to the reader's imagination.
Just based on the time it takes to do the work, one might say that the artist is more important than the writer. That may have shifted in the last couple of decades as the writer seems to be the star these days and artists are often interchangeable (how many modern collected editions have you seen lately that have 4--or 6 or 10!--different artists?). Neal Adams returning to Batman or Superman should have been the biggest news in comics in decades, but because he wrote the stories himself, they're overall not that great, and his writing is derided. Imagine if Adams put all that amazing work into stories that were actually good! Stan Lee's scripting was SO entertaining and really held the burgeoning Marvel universe together, I have no problem giving him equal credit on all the books he did. Don't forget, Steve and Jack may have been doing the extra work of plotting, but Stan did a lot of extra work too--editing, art directing, company cheerleader, world architect--and none of that got mentioned in the little credit box either! Aware of what he himself brought to the table, Stan probably thought the credits of "Writer" and "Artist" were enough, simple and clean.
Still, Neal Adams probably added enough to his four issues of the Kree-Skrull War that he should get a "co-plotter" credit in any collected editions, but he should not be going around saying he wrote the thing.
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