Gerard Way’s first comic was NOT Umbrella Academy- Hart D Fisher tells the story- Update 1
On his LiveJournal, Hart D. Fisher, the head of Boneyard Press, wants to set the record straight about Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance, and his first comics work. It started with this:
On Raven’s Wings is Gerard’s (lead singer of My Chemical Romance) first published work when he was 16 years old and in high school. He’s denying it now, but it’s true. Gerard is avoiding me, and is lying to the public about his work in comics. I’m confused and hurt by this.
And then went to this:
So did a big company like Dark Horse knowingly commit fraud on the public in their advertisements touting these books by Gerard as his first foray into comics, or were they unknowing dupes. How many kids bought this comic book, The Umbrella Academy, because it was the FIRST. It’s a well known fact that the first issue of any new series is the best selling, or the first issue of a celebrity’s FIRST comic ever published. You see where I’m going with this? Sales for a book like that are going to be much higher than for a an old comics pro coming back to the fold now that he’s famous. You think Dark Horse had any part in this, I’ve already shown motive.
…
I’m coming clean with it very, very publicly this week. I have video proof that anyone else could find… You know, the kid I knew as Garry was a smart, sensitive teenager who was overly concerned about what other people thought of him. He worried way too much about his appearance and his image. I do not know why he is lying. I remember being very sincere in my pride in his work for Boneyard Press. You can’t tell me he didn’t do store signings with all of his buddies at the local comic book store.
…
A fucking rock star who forgot just who was in his corner and encouraging him when NO ONE else was, when he was just another fat kid with a bowl haircut who got pushed around at school, who was building you up then Garry? Who went on the record and pumped you up in print for the world to see? Who was that guy on the other end of that phone when you needed him?
Why’d you do me like that Garry?
Why’d you do the Boneyard Crew who fought for you?
Tell your fans why you lied to them.
There you have it. Gerard Way’s first comics work was for Boneyard Press, not Dark Horse, as it was allegedly billed. Now, granted, his Boneyard Press work was never publicized (by Dark Horse), but Dark Horse doesn’t appear to make the claim of Umbrella Academy being his first comics work, either. From an interview between Scott Allie, DH Editor and Gerard Way:
Scott Allie: When the proposal for Umbrella Academy first came to me from a big rock star, I was skeptical, and I think it might have sat a little while on my desk. I’m probably not the only person who’s gonna be a little skeptical of a rock star slumming in comics-but you’ve actually got the background for it. You interned at DC. How did that go?
Gerard Way: It was a great experience. I was in SVA at the time, in New York City, and I worked in DCU editorial. Joey Cavalieri helped get me the internship, and Andy Helfer got me my first paying gig doing a page in the Paradox/DC book The Big Book of the Weird Wild West. It was really tough, actually, and I worked forever on it. I spent as much time as I could up at Vertigo because some of my favorite books at the time were being made there, like Preacher and Kill Your Boyfriend.
None of the press releases or resulting coverage directly say this is his first comics work.
However, in several interviews, including the Newsarama.com one mentioned above and two from ComicBookResources.com, he goes into detail about his internship with DC. The only mention in any of these of any writing comes in the second CBR interview:
You’ve obviously poured yourself into comics your whole life, but I’m assuming before this you haven’t scripted comics that much before getting into “The Umbrella Academy.”
I haven’t. I was much more a designer and when I was doing comics my scripts were always very loose because I was drawing them.
More on this story as it develops. We’re awaiting comment from Dark Horse at this time.
Update 1: Dark Horse will be making an official comment, and is contacting Gerard Way as well.
February 23rd, 2008 at 12:39 am
Wow…that’s some really good reporting. I’ll be staying tuned to see what else comes up in this, Mr. Siegel. :)
February 23rd, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Ooooh, scandal.
Seriously, though, I don’t see the big deal. I mean, yeah yeah, that Boneyard Press comic may be his FIRST comic, but Umbrella Academy is THE COMIC BY THAT GUY FROM MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE — something the former doesn’t have going for it.
Also, I hardly think that a comic Way made when he was 16 qualifies him as an “old comics pro”.
February 23rd, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I’d agree, Michael…but when one party wants to make it a controversy, it does make for interesting reading. :)
It sounds like a “why aren’t you pimping out the work you did with me as a teenager so I can sell a bunch of issues” or “I took a chance on you back in the day, why can’t you at least mention the book now when it would sell and help repay me for giving you a shot”.
February 25th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
really, nobody’s going to go “i’m going to buy umbrella academy- wait? what? its not his FIRST published work? nevermind, i’m not buying it.”
I don’t see why Fisher doesn’t just mention that it was Gerard Way, of My Chemical Romance, who wrote the book on his website or something, instead of trying to make such a big deal out of it.
February 26th, 2008 at 4:45 am
Where did all this come from!?
February 26th, 2008 at 10:26 am
In the words of psychochip or Tab:
First of all, Boneyard Press is pulp slash comics that most comic shops don’t stock. I visit upwards of 5 different comic shops (I’m counting the Coliseum of Comics chain as 1) in the greater Central Florida area (radius of about 150 miles around Orlando) for HI duties, and only one of them carries this stuff, and that’s a porn shop that sells comics on the side so that they don’t have to call themselves an “adult” store. (I don’t go there much) Maybe Acme keeps some of it in the back room with the smut comics, but it’s certainly not front of house material. I can see it as something that a young, impressionable Gerard, who was enthralled with horror movies, would see as cool half his lifetime ago. It would be resume fodder for an aspiring writer. Read the Hart guy’s musings on his blog. He’s like the Howard Stern of comics. He knows he publishes smut and worse, he’s proud of it. He throws out a bunch of big name artists and writers like they’re best buddies, but you don’t see him going after them the way he’s going after Gerard. Why? Simple. They don’t have as much money or as much clout in music, which makes insanely more than comics (and believe me, comic artists are VERY WELL paid if their contracts are written well).
Secondly, I looked into this “On Raven’s Wings” that this guy is claiming is Gerard’s first published work. I’m going to assume, due to lack of any credits on the cover, that it’s an anthology. Maybe Gerard did a short story that may have been included in it, I don’t know. But he didn’t get cover credit, so even if it were in a comic shop somewhere, a teenie couldn’t spazz out “zomg! Jerald madee diz comxi! I haz to haz it bcuz i lurvez hem and wzomg!” Not to mention, if this guy is that pissed about it, you would think he would take it out of the vault, dust it off, and republish it with “WITH A STORY BY GERARD WAY OF MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE” on it so that the fans would go nuts and buy it. Of course, he’d have to ensure that Gerard got his proper share of royalties, depending on how his contract was written (or if it’s even in effect, Gerard being a minor at the time, or if it had a perpetuity clause, which given the work, I highly doubt it) but that’s neither here nor there.
Thirdly, Gerard has never claimed TUA as his “first published work.” It’s been advertised as his first series, which is correct. If this guy can find a piece of advertising that says that, I will take that back, but every advertising piece I’ve seen touts it as “a new superhero team conceived by” or “a new comic series written by” GERARD WAY OF MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE. (and that pisses me off. Let the work prove itself on its own merit. It can stand on its own without the constant references to a band which has nothing to do with the story.)
It’s common knowledge that he interned at DC, and I know people who remember him working there. DC published a short comic that he had drawn (I wish I could remember the name, it escapes me, but it was a western-style comic) as part of another anthology. Throw in The Breakfast Monkey (which I’m sure Cartoon Network has sitting in a vault of rejected ideas somewhere) and that puts three things ahead of Umbrella Academy, and nobody sees DC with their panties all in a bunch (then again, I’m not entirely sure DiDio even gives a shit about it, since Gerard interned under a different editor) nor do you see Cartoon Network climbing through their vault to revive Breakfast Monkey.
We all know that when someone gets famous, dirty little secrets come crawling out of the woodwork, people who used to treat you like shit are all of a sudden your best friend from high school, and nothing in your life is sacred (i.e. Team Let Gerard Shit In Peace). It sounds to me like, here is this guy with a piece of Gerard’s very early work, who wants his fifteen minutes of fame. More than likely, he just wants to get his crap publishing house in the news for some free publicity.
And just for shits and giggles: You don’t see Kevin Smith going out of his way for this Hart guy either, because now that Kev’s working for Marvel, I’m sure that he wants to forget the quick cameo that he gave to this jackass in “Chasing Amy” — proudly wearing his “Marvel Can Suck My Cock” tee-shirt. Sorry, honey, Marvel can’t publish every little piece of trash that crosses their desk. Try to take rejection with a little bit of dignity, or at the very least, with a little bit of maturity.
February 28th, 2008 at 1:41 am
DON’T YOU GET IT??? The dude Hart is looking for free press/5 minutes of fame by associating himself with Gerard. From what I’ve read so far, this press lable is not widely circulated.
February 29th, 2008 at 5:03 am
After reading this guy’s Livejournal, I’m going to rule out the “jealousy” motive and just go straight for old-fashioned greed.
Honestly, he sounds like a whiny geek whose glory days were over years ago, and suddenly, whoa, there’s a new opportunity to seize some public interest and he’s jumping on and riding it for all its worth.
Obviously, “Garry” was a kid who found a mentor in HDF, and was lucky enough to get some little piece of work published. Good for him. Then he moved on. HDF sounds like he never gave the kid a second thought until whoa, shit.. suddenly “Garry” is famous, and airing anything that sounds the least little bit like “dirty laundry” is going to grab a whole lot of attention.
Gerard has never claimed that UA was his first comic. His first series, yes, but definitely not his first published work. He’s had bits published in “The Big Book of the Wild West*” (*don’t quote me on this title, I believe it’s correct but I’d have to go searching around) and little bits and pieces elsewhere that he himself has never outright mentioned. Just little things that fans and press have dug up over the past four or five years that Gerard and his band have been gaining popularity.
Gerard has even publicly stated that he is not ashamed of his work for “On Raven’s Wings” and has attempted to contact HDF in the past, without success. If Gerard wanted to deny ever knowing the guy, or deny ever doing the work, he had an opportunity.
If Gerard were outright denying this despite proof to the contrary, or if there were some sort of actual proof (besides the half-crazed ramblings of this guy on his LiveJournal, which I don’t take as solid proof - if he ripped you off, surely you have some examples to give us right off the top of your head, and you don’t have to go through and search for them, especially if you’ve been attempting to contact Gerard for a year) that Gerard had ripped off some previous work, then maybe there would be some point to this. As it is, HDF comes across as a really bitter person who’s just a little miffed that “some kid” he helped back in the day happened to make it big.
March 5th, 2008 at 12:51 am
rofl, this is hilarious. This dude’s just jealous/bitter that Gerard made it big and isn’t crediting it all to him.
So many people try to bring Gerard down, but it’s not possible. He’s invincible.