What does 'incompetent' mean?

[yendi]

The best thing I'm taking away from Jim Shooter's latest blog post?

The fact that Marvel's bookkeeping department couldn't spell "bookkeeping."

Note: As a general rule, take Shooter's blog with a whole bottle of salt. It's ego-driven and self-serving, with large amounts of hearsay, but it's also a hell of an interesting look at one of the most important -- regardless of what one thinks about his abilities -- figures in mainstream comics during the '70s and '80s.

Comments

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

Shooter is several flavors of asshole, not least because of his corporate behavior during the whole Kirby scandal, but I have to admit the blog is entertaining.

[jeff-morris.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, it's definitely worth reading, albeit with severe skepticism. I wish he'd talk more about his early DC days, but I get the feeling those are memories he'd generally not recall.

[yendi]

Yup. My sentiments exactly.

[yendi]

In fairness, he was like 2 when he sold his first DC book, so he might not remember it.

[lokilokust.livejournal.com]

ayup.

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

I sat there and read the whole fucking thing, which is time I'll never get back, but as an anecdotal (if highly suspect) account of what it was like in the Marvel offices during the Bronze Age it's pretty diverting. I tend to prefer the stuff that has no political component (i.e. what would he have to gain by making shit up, unlike his accounts of the Gerber or Kirby affairs), like the watergun fights or the poker games or all the ways the bullpen pissed off Jim Galton. In short, when he talks about the fun behind the scenes.

I actually wouldn't mind an oral history of Marvel, though of course it would be full of wildly contradictory accounts, like most cultural oral histories.

Have you read Shock Value (the one about horror filmmakers, not the John Waters book)? I thought it was amusing for about the day it took me to read it. A lot of it seemed to be pitched at the Dan O'Bannon fan club; everything he ever did was awesome and everyone he ever worked with fucked him over.

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

You forgot to mention he was 2 when he sold his first DC book just in time to buy surgery for his mom who was blind in three eyes and he also used the paycheck to put out a fire that threatened to burn up the rolled-up newspaper he and his family of 27 lived in.

The man tosses in just enough self-deprecation to make you aware of how shrewd he still is about his image.

[dangerdean.livejournal.com]

This maybe the first time I've seen a random Highlander quote on a Livejournal post...