George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards #6

[superboyprime]

"Another thing that sets Wild Cards apart, I think, is the fact that we have had a single consistent continuity from the very start. If I may be permitted a fanboy moment here, as an old time comics reader, there is nothing that enrages me more than the endless retcons, reboots, and continuity changes that the majors have inflicted on all their characters over the past quarter century. As a reader, I feel cheated when stories, events, and characters I read about and perhaps cared about are suddenly retroactively swept away by some new writer or mega-event. That will never occur in Wild Cards, not as long as I am the editor. The things that happen in our stories will never un-happen." - George R.R. Martin



















The back-up story, "Jokertown":

Comments

[cyberghostface]

Reminds me of how he called out Marvel on One More Day:

"I don't follow comics closely these days, but do buy an issue from time to time, and of course I do have still have huge affection for the characters of my lost youth. So I was puzzled recently when one of my readers emailed me to ask what I thought about what Marvel had done to Spider-Man. I didn't know what Marvel had done to Spider-Man, but I was curious enough to Google, and pretty soon I found out. Bloody hell. I hate this, and judging from the discussions I am seeing on various blogs, I am not alone. Retconning sucks. Leave the goddamned continuity ALONE, for chrissakes. What happened, happened. Take an old character in a new direction, fine, cool, but don't go back and mess around with the character's past. It's a breach of trust with your audience, as I see it. The DC universe has never really recovered from the Crisis on Infinite Earths, despite all the Crises that have followed, and I think the Marvel universe, and Spidey in particular, will be a long time recovering from this decision. So that's my two cents. In a nutshell: boo, hiss, shame on you, Marvel. If I had a rotten tomato, I would throw it."

https://grrm.livejournal.com/31198.html

[laughing_tree]

Martin is one of only two professional writers I'm aware of who are staunch continuity purists. The other is the fantasy novelist Kelley Armstrong.

By purist, I don't mean writers who don't break continuity, of which there are plenty, but writers who express active distaste for stories that do.

[bradygirl_12]

The DC universe has never really recovered from the Crisis on Infinite Earths, despite all the Crises that have followed,

I agree with this. Pre-COIE, you knew the characters' histories. Writers built on what came before and there was some character development. The Bronze Age was especially good at this. As a reader, you knew where you stood. Imaginary stories were used for OOC ideas instead of calling it a reboot. Or retcon. Or whatever.

Now, you have no idea about a character's history. Was this point retconned out? Was this past event brought back? Who knows? Comics are more confusing than ever!