It’s been relatively quiet, but apparently there has been some controversy behind Superman #703. For those not paying attention to the Man of Steel, he is currently walking across America in an effort to reconnect with the planet he calls his home. With the next issue, #703, Superman will be walking into Cincinnati – but despite what the cover might show you, it apparently is not as happy as one might believe.
The story starts with retailer Kendall Swafford. Swafford owns a comicbook store named Up, Up, And Away, and he was absolutely shocked that no one from DC was doing anything in promotion of this tale for their city. No promotional posters sent, no one was hired to play Superman for the day in order to help promo the comic – nothing. Swafford wrote quite a lot on the subject, letting out a lot of frustration on the company for the lack of promotional material. But determined to share his own love for the character, Swafford went to work making quite a lot of press for the book himself. According to an article from Robot 6 (which is our source for this), Swafford “teamed up with organizers of Saturday’s Cincinnati Comic Expo to promote the issue in Cheviot’s Harvest Home Parade, hired a Superman actor, printed banners, sent out a press release. Cheviot Mayor Samuel Keller even declared Sept. 15 as ‘Superman Day.'” Wow. That’s quite a bit of leg work.
But the bad news? The book was delayed. In fact, the book won’t come out until October. How come? Well, Swafford blames J. Michael Straczynski by name and very bluntly:
Naming names got me a lot of hate mail last time, but … I know for a fact that as of August 18th, the day DC’s The Source blog announced that Cincinnati was Superman’s next destination, there was no script. 28 days to go, and J. Michael Straczynski had not turned the script in. Gotta be penciled, inked, lettered, colored, printed and shipped in 28 days. This is the same J. Michael Straczynski that has very publicly proclaimed his love for Superman, who can’t/won’t/didn’t turn the script in on time. Famously late on Thor, never finished The Twelve, loves Superman more than any other comic character, and he isn’t living up to his end of the deal. Straczynski made me a Thor fan, and I didn’t think that was possible. So I was genuinely excited to see him move to DC and take on the Man of Steel. But if you can’t stand the pressures of delivering twenty-two pages every thirty days, write someplace else. […] Ultimately, I think it’s about taking responsibility. DC can’t get the script in on time? Fire the guy. He’s one writer. A very good writer, perhaps, but just one writer.
Oof. Pretty harsh!
I personally haven’t heard any of the cities that Superman has walked through doing anything in promotion of the story. I could be wrong though, and it’s a cool idea. Swafford seems rather intensely into this, and if what he’s telling is all the facts and DC has rather been shunning him and his want for a promotional deal with this, then it’s actually kind of sad. His comic book enthusiasm is certainly to be applauded, but I would guess that there is more to this story than I have with information. It certainly is an interesting little debate Swafford has sparked, though.
(source)
