Getting Respect, by Dennis O’Neil

Dennis O'Neil

Dennis O'Neil was born in 1939, the same year that Batman first appeared in Detective Comics. It was thus perhaps fated that he would be so closely associated with the character, writing and editing the Dark Knight for more than 30 years. He's been an editor at Marvel and DC Comics. In addition to Batman, he's worked on Spider-Man, Daredevil, Iron Man, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern/Green Arrow, the Question, The Shadow and more. O'Neil has won every major award in the industry. His prose novels have been New York Times bestsellers. Denny lives in Rockland County with his wife, Marifran.

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7 Responses

  1. Rick Taylor says:

    Denny,Kind of the same feeling I experienced when I got caught reading comics at school and I was given the 'don't read that crap' tude.Now people are happy kids are reading…anything.

  2. John Tebbel says:

    I'm trying to remember if I saw anyone wearing a necktie at San Diego last year. Coming up empty.I know I see them at biz funerals, at least on the departed, but you can't blame death on comics. Sex, maybe.

    • Mike Gold says:

      There were a few people at SDCC wearing ties last year, not counting those who were in costume. That's pretty dangerous: with the massive crush of humanity, somebody could easily get Isadora Duncaned. As Gertrude Stein said, affectations can be dangerous.

      • John Tebbel says:

        And I didn't know that Gertrude Stein had even heard of me; now she's nailed my writing style.Glad to know you're off crushing humanity massively on behalf of all the fearless readers.

  3. Joe Chiappetta says:

    I completely agree with your outsider mentality of comics as a medium. It is still a fairly strong perception today that comics are the outside medium and only when the story becomes a movie does the concept and the cartoonist become "former outsiders." As a subcategory of comics, webcomics have an even stronger outsider feel even though they may have wider visibility in many cases. I find it a bit odd that when a webcomic becomes a print comic, that in itself is newsworthy — because printed matter is more "respectable" than online material. What if a webcomic goes to a medium that is "less respectable?" Would that be newsworthy too? Now however I am wondering what is less respectable than a webcomic? I will ponder that while I continue working on my own webcomic Silly Daddy.Joe Chiappetta http://sillydaddy.net

  4. John Tebbel says:

    So you probably don't want to hear my pitch for a comic inscribed on the torsi of random attendants at a tattoo conference.

  5. Russ Rogers says:

    "And besides, don’t respectable gents have to wear neckties?"No. But, I'm sorry, Denny. They do still have to wear underpants.I think respect for comics has also come with their sometimes surprising recognition by mainstream awards. "Maus" getting the Pulitzer. "Sandman" getting the Hugo. "Watchmen" making Time's Top 100 Novels. "Persepolis" nominated for an Oscar.It's nice that educators have recognized comics as being another doorway into literacy, instead of the backwaters of reading or worse, the gateway to degeneracy. For instance, it's nice that Scholastic Books is publishing comics … and good comics too! There's nothing less "educational" than when adults try to foist second rate material on them in the name of "education." Yeah, money talks. It helps that Comic Book Movies are raking in skidillions of dollars. But sometimes success breeds it's own level of contempt. I think it's also nice when you can point to a movie like "Road to Perdition" or "History of Violence" and people are stunned that the source material was a comic.It's nice that comics, like "Persepolis" or "The Tale of One Bad Rat," now have a diversity that wasn't around when I was a kid. Heck, the quality and diversity here on ComicMix is more than what I saw as a kid! Comics have gained respect, in part, because there are a wider variety of respectable comics. It's hard to make blanket criticism of a media form that is producing more and more exceptionally good work in a widening array of genres.