Hart Fisher vs. My Chemical Romance/Gerard Way/Dark Horse part 2
You may have seen this post yesterday, in which we detailed how Hart Fisher of Boneyard Press feels he’s not getting credit for Gerard Way’s first comics work, and claimed that Dark Horse was
touting these books by Gerard as his first foray into comics.
When contacted for statement, both Scott Allie, Senior Managing Editor of Dark Horse Comics and Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance and the creator in question, gave an initial response. Please note they had not, at time of comment, seen the exact posts where Fisher made his claims.
Scott Allie:
I don’t see anything online where Hart says that we’re trying to suppress the fact that Gerard worked for him. Hart published Gerard’s first comics when Gerard was fifteen. I don’t think we’ve ever said Umbrella Academy is the first comic Gerard did—he did something for DC when interning there, but we haven’t talked about that. It looks to me like Hart’s had something on his website for a while about Gerard working for him—we haven’t tried to suppress it; no one’s brought it up.
When Gerard first told me about the project he did for Hart, he said Hart was generous with him, even though Gerard was a real young kid with no background. What I can find online with Hart talking about this, he seems to be pretty positive about it. I don’t see him looking for a slag match here.
On one hand, there’s some bragging rights for having a writing credit at 15—but it was a long time ago. If anyone ever asked Gerard what his first published work was, I’m pretty sure he would’ve told them about Boneyard Press. Mostly interviewers have asked about his art background, and his music. If Hart actually has a beef about this, please ask him to drop me a line.
So, Hart, if you’re reading this, drop Scott Allie a line.
Also, Gerard Way had this to say:
I sent [Hart] an email years ago, before we finished ‘Revenge,’ thanking him for believing in me, and never got a response. I think I emailed him once again as well…never heard anything back. I’m not ashamed of what I did for him, and wanted to see him in person and thank him. I’ve never had the chance.
Way is currently on tour with My Chemical Romance in South America, and may be difficult to reach for further comment.
Dark Horse has been contacted again with links and quotes of the original posts. Look for further update as it comes.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:24 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 26th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
ok i just have to say that it took him long enough time to complain. i mean come on he release the first issue in like july of 2007 and now he decides to complain… and when ever gerard is asked about the comic he says some thing to the effect of ” yeah i just release the new one” i never recall him saying anything about this being his first comic.. also gerard and mcr have made it clear that they didnt want the comic to be related to the band in any way at all.. of course their are going to be some buyers who buy it because of the band but im sure not all of them… its not his fault that he is known for the wonderful band called my chemical romance… i personally think hart is using this as his 15 minutes of fame because i think we all know damn well that if gerard wasnt in this band hart probally would never have complained and would be proud of gerard… its a shame honestly
February 27th, 2008 at 9:59 am
according to the guy’s blog, he hasn’t published comics in over 10 years. now he’s some kind of wannabe pornographer. he rants how his own brother screwed him over. sounds like everyone the guy ever met has turned against him. Paranoid Psychotic???
Gerald Way is just his latest victim.