A thought on stunt casting

[edg]

This is in response to a Websnark post from yesterday on stunt casting.

I'm not going into Eric's point here; once I got it, I mostly agree. But there is an aspect I'm not sure of: the use of "stunt casting" to refer to the placement of non-comics writers on comic books in order to draw fans.

The thought, which is brief and superficial even by my standards, is that using "stunt casting" that way can lead to an ugly inference: that the speaker feels that the only people who are "allowed to be" comics writers are comics writers, and that getting outside writers into the field is "stunt casting".

This is not true of Eric, I know, and it misrepresents his position horribly. "Stunt casting", as I presume Eric means it, is specifically the act of comics companies hiring well-known outside writers to write their comics in order to draw in the fans of the author. But the inference is still there to be drawn when the term is used - especially since it's almost impossible to tell whether a comics company is hiring a well-known writing first for his talent and second for his fame, rather than the other way around.

I don't know where I'm going with this - it's just a random observation, and I don't know if it'll even make sense to anyone else.

Comments

[vaultedthewall.livejournal.com]

I dunno, recently, with the comic Darkness they got an actual writer to do the writing for it. I figured I'd try it anyway, because, let me tell you, it can't get any worse for Darkness. As they say, you can't fall off the floor.

I actually find myself intruiged by the story now and am greatly awaiting the next issue for more reason than futile hope of Wenders being brought back.

[demiurgent.livejournal.com]

I think there's nothing wrong with "actual writers" getting to write comics. Stunt casting is when they then heavily leverage the fact that a non-comics writer is writing comics, with the undertone that somehow it's innately better than when real comic book writers write it.

[edg.livejournal.com]

Which is what I thought you meant.

I just tend to get the impression (throughout comics fandom, I might add) that comics writers writing comics are inherently better than non-comics writers doing the same thing, and was being thoughtful on the subject.