Jeffery Klaehn on Pop! has an interview up with Brit comics writing legend Alan Grant, mostly (although not entirely) focussing on his work for DC Comics; here’s Alan on the way publishing was different and more flexible back in the day:
“Yes, the industry was very open to new ideas. Basically, the publisher wanted anything that would sell, the editor wanted anything that would look cool, and the writer and artists wanted something they’d enjoy working on. We were left pretty much to our own devices, with only the occasional story or character suggestion from the editors.
When I began writing Batman, around 1987, editor Denny O’Neil’s policy was to leave me to do what I wanted with the character, and to leave artist Norm Breyfogle to depict it as he saw fit. I was able to bring a flood of new ideas to superhero comics, weird UK ideas, that US readers had never seen before. An artist like Breyfogle was able to go to town.
I suspect the comics biz is in a worse state now. Because of editors’ increasing reluctance to read submissions, coupled with a dread of being sued for plagiarizing, most US companies won’t even look at unsolicited material. You have to wait until they ask you to submit something to them. I see their problem, but it’s a very short-sighted way of dealing with it. I mean, maybe the new John Wagner, or Alan Moore, or Pat Mills has just sent in his or her first rough, but potentially brilliant, ideas. They’d go straight in the trash.” (link via Dirk at Journalista)
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