With the announcement that Hugh Jackman is developing a comic for Virgin Comics, a question I remember being discussed 6 years ago in the DC editorial offices has raised its head again. At the time, we were asked to start brainstorming TV & movie writers and developers we could ask to write and create comics for us. This was a new way of thinking back then (relatively speaking), while today it's pretty commonplace at every major mainstream comics publisher.
A year after that, I remember talking to a freelancer about the situation. He felt that this practice crowded the traditional comic writer out, and made jobs harder to come by.
With directors, screenwriters, novelists, and actors being enlisted in increasing numbers to script and create comics, has the amount of gigs at the major companies for traditional comic book writers really been reduced?
Not that I am at all criticizing the decision made by comic companies to turn to this route. Well-known names like Jodi Picoult, Joss Whedon, and Hugh Jackman are going to be an asset to these publishers. If we are concerned about reaching out past the niche "superhero" crowd and attracting the "masses," this is certainly one way (though not the only way) to do it.
But, the amount of really good comic writing gigs (by which I mean, ones that actually pay a steady paycheck) has been relatively small to begin with. Perhaps this really does reduce an already-small playing field.
There is a similar situation in another area, voice-work for animation. With the advent of big-name stars voicing animated movies and TV shows, traditional voice actors have found that they have less jobs (for a discussion on this in their own words, watch the extra features on the DVD Comic Book: The Movie).
To be fair, comic book writer Marc Guggenheim is working with Jackman on the Virgin Comics project. But again: Guggenheim also does work for TV. Perhaps the key is for comic book writers to diversify their skill set so they are working in multiple media anyway.
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