My friend John Gholson shares the best timeline I've seen for the seismic shift in DC Comics's relations with creators over at Gutters and Panels.

The abrupt announcement/unannouncement/"we never planned to do X" culture over at DC troubles me in the same ways John describes his own feelings in the article. There are some great stories being told at DC, but the treatment and respect for creators has seemed to go off a cliff.

I love DC characters, and I love a fair amount of work being done there. Scott Snyder, Gail Simone, Peter Tomasi, and Bill Willingham (and occasionally Geoff Johns) have been pulling off some outstanding storytelling, among others.

It's tough to be as excited about them as a brand when they bring in an ostensible "brand person" (Diane Nelson) who spends four years doing an abominable, high-profile job of brand management.

If I'm not careful, I might pull a Horace and do an objective comparative analysis of Marvel and DC, cross-indexing sales data, editorial shuffling, and cancellations.