My Love-Hate Relationship With Publishers

Yeah, I know, I was SUPPOSED to write a retrospective on Five Stevetastic Years, but Life got in the way, as is its wont. I PROMISE I will have it for you by Christmas at the absolute very max.

There are certain publishers whose work and commitment to excellence I respect, among them Marvel and DC who made comics what they are today and recognize the need for sophisticated graphic storytelling, and The New York Times Company, because, of course, it publishes THE template for intelligent, impartial journalism and continues its century-plus-old mission to report "without fear or favor."(Google also counts as a publisher to a certain extent,otherwise, why would you be reading this?)

As for the publishers on my shirt list, (You know me, I don't want to offend anybody!) they include certain parties that will go unnamed but either (A) rejected some of my greatest literary efforts or (B) charge a G at least for one of the great oxymorons of our day, "self-publishing." I used to self-publish books all the time! I used to scribble a few words, add a few pictures, (OK, so they weren't Picasso!) and voila, books written and published by me, myself, without having to pay a king's ransom. Also on that list are the entities that axed some of the greatest papers I had the pleasure to read, the World Journal Tribune, the Trib, the latter-day iteration of the Sun, and The National Sports Daily. Today, it is my extreme DISpleasure to welcome tronc (sic, and they make me VERY sic), who fired half the editorial staff (including many of America's most respected sports columnists) of the New York Daily News, New York's Hometown Newspaper. The News never hesitated to tell you not only the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, even if it DID P.O. a lot of people, including a certain president. More than just a local paper, it was a cultural icon, immortalized by Broadway tunesmith Frank Loesser, inspiring Superman's employer, the Daily Planet, and introducing beloved Sunday morning funny page characters such as Dick Tracy, Moon Mullins, Smokey Stover, and one of my all-time faves, Brenda Starr, Reporter. The News should have been sold to a company that TRULY cares about a free press and not just telling both sides of the story, but ALL sides, (I'm talking to you, Google! Why didn't Sergey and Larry mount their white horses, ride up to 4 New York Plaza, and save the day?) but, instead, it was gutted by some knuckleheads from Chicago, a city that has made no secret of its hatred for us New Yorkers.

For taking the New York out of the Daily News, (Daily SNOOZE is more appropos now!) tronc, you are now one of Steve's Publishers Who Can Pucker Up On Steve's Posterior/ (Wish you could do SOMETHING to change my mind!)

Yours For Happier News, (Especially in Toronto, ON)
Steve