Diana Schutz

Diana Schutz (b. 1955) is a comic book editor, most notable for her continuing tenure at Dark Horse Comics, for whom she has worked since 1990. "She is Frank Miller's editor on Sin City and 300, Matt Wagner's editor on Grendel, Stan Sakai's editor on Usagi Yojimbo, and Paul Chadwick's editor on Concrete", and known to her letter-column readers as "Auntie Dydie". She is also an adjunct instructor of comics history and criticism at Portland Community College.

She was married to Bob Schreck (now amicably divorced), and lives in Portland, as does much of her family (including her sister Barbara, who is married to Grendel-creator Matt Wagner).

Childhood & comics

Born on the 1 February, 1955, Shutz read comics as a child, drifting towards Romance titles by her early teens, and then away from comics altogether until she began studying Philosophy at college. Finding comics including Steve Gerber's Howard the Duck a welcome diversion from - if ultimately not a polar opposite to - "Plato, Bertrand Russell and Immanuel Kant," she found herself pulled back into the world of comics. Frequenting comic shop "The ComicShop" (owned by Ken Witcher and Ron Norton) in Vancouver, British Columbia, she ultimately dropped out of graduate school (with an undergraduate degree in Creative Writing) to move (in 1978) from being one of ComicShop's few female customers to being one of its few "counterpeople," where she says she found herself "learn[ing] social skills I never learned in the ivory tower of academia."

Witcher, Norton and The ComicShop swiftly proved able sources for Diana to discover comics including "Barry Windsor-Smith's "Conan"; Jim Starlin's "Captain Marvel"; Craig Russell's "Killraven"; Dave Sim's "Cerebus"," of which she was "one of the first 2,000 readers to actually buy issue 1." Schutz worked in comics stores for six years, moving from Vancouver to California and from ComicShop to Comics & Comix in 1981. By 1982, she was making the move from retail towards publishing be means of a "bimonthly, 32-page "newsletter" that [she] put together for Comics & Comix" entitled The Telegraph Wire which was modeled on The Comics Journal (each issue containing an interview, reviews, news and adverts), and its production swiftly became her role at C&C.

Networking and early roles

Working on The Telegraph Wire "put [her] in touch with creators whom I would interview [and] publishers from whom I would solicit advertising to help underwrite the cost of this "newsletter" that we would give out for free at each of the 7 Comics & Comix stores." These contacts were added to by her attendance of an increasing numbers of conventions, including the Creation Conventions and the San Diego convention:

"Creation, at that time, used to run a comic book show virtually every weekend in some part of the country. It was then that I met my future - now divorced - husband, Bob Schreck, who was working for Creation in those days."

In addition to meeting and mingling with publishers, distributers, promotion teams and all manner of creators, Schutz started freelance work for "various other fan publications", including Comics Buyer's Guide, The Comics Journal, Amazing Heroes and Comics Scene, from which she graduated to a very brief - four day - job with Marvel Comics as an assistant editor.

Recommended by friend Chris Claremont, Schutz was to be (at age 29) "Ann Nocenti's assistant editor on the X-Men, but found herself entering her new job with "unrealistic expectations"; ultimately handing in her notice after a mere four days. Several months later (in 1985), she (and Bob Schreck) began work at Comico, which "with its opportunities for creator ownership, and the fact that it was much smaller and more personable, was much more [her] style". Having picked up in her brief tenure at Marvel some knowledge "from Virginia Romita how to create and enforce production schedules", Schutz took over as Comico's primary editor. (Schreck oversaw "all the marketing and publishing type aspects".)

Dave Sim and Cerebus

Having been one of the small core of readers who bought the first issue of Dave Sim's Cerebus, Schutz got to know the man himself, and began working for him as a proofreader, first unofficially, and then officially from the "middle of '94" until early 2001. She explains that she "never proofed the book itself," "[j]ust the text, the typeset text" feeling that her respect for his abilities outweighed any potential "qualms" about the book's often-contentious content. Schutz's stated stance (which has largely held sway throughout her entire editorial career) is that her role is not to interfere with an artist's story, merely to make sure that their work is "as grammatically clear as it could be". This she did for Sim for several years, baulking only when Sim sent her a "boxing challenge to proofread" which she felt was a personal attack on a friend (and one introduced to her by Sim himself). Schutz promptly resigned in January 2001, and Sim even published her resignation letter in Cerebus #265. This issue also included a "20-page anti-female diatribe," and Schutz remains mildly aggravated over this juxtaposition, since she thinks some readers might equate the two - she did not, and found herself having to explain that she had no problem proofreading "an argument, no matter how faulty, in which Dave believes," whatever her personal views, and had resigned over the challenge itself from #264. Indeed, even while Schutz was performing proofreading duties, she did so via fax, and had very little - if any - personal contact with Sim himself.

Dark Horse

By 1990/91, Schutz began work for Dark Horse Comics, rising (by 2001) to the position of Senior Editor, having various held the roles of Managing Editor and Editor-in-Chief. In December 2001, she was the fifth-most-senior staff member in terms of length-of-employment (after, respectively, Mike Richardson, Randy Stradley, Neil Hankerson and Cary Grazzini), but stated that she relinquished actual seniority of position "because what it did is it put me in meetings all the damn time, writing memos and holding people's hands and I wasn't able to make good comics anymore".

Frank Miller

With Bob Schreck's departure from Dark Horse (to DC), Frank Miller found himself without an editor, and called Schutz - the two are friends - in the hopes that she would agree to edit his subsequent work. Initially reluctant, thinking that the professional relationship could jeopardise their friendship, she ultimately agreed to a "trial run of six months," which extended into an editor-writer relationship of several years.

"Maverick"

Schutz instigated the "Maverick" line at Dark Horse Comics in July 1999, for the purpose of "providing a home for creator-owned properties -- providing a certain identity to those creator-owned labors of love that distinguishes them from Dark Horse's licensed books... to provide a kind of identity or specific line for those sorts of individual creator visions." Part of the purpose of having a separate imprint was to noticably separate Dark Horse's output into discrete sections, and, as Schutz notes:

"having a section in Diamond Previews can't help but solidify that [separate] identity a little bit. It reminds people that Dark Horse really does publish creator-owned books... people often see the company primarily in light of our licensed books, and Lord knows we do publish a lot of them, but the roots of this company are with creator-owned books and Maverick was an attempt to underline that aspect."

The aim of the "Maverick" line was to "push the medium a little bit," although Schutz recognized that such titles are often a hard sell. To help address this, the Maverick Annual anthologies (published from 2000 as Dark Horse Maverick and later under such subtitles as Happy Ending and AutobioGraphix) put newer creators (Farel Dalrymple, Gilbert Austin, Jason Hall, Matt Kindt) alongside established names such as Frank Miller and Sam Kieth.

The first title was Frank Miller's Sin City: Hell and Back (and Miller suggested the "Maverick" name), edited by Schutz, and the first year's worth of output saw "Maverick" "consolidate.. [Dark Horse's] creator-owned, creator-produced titles under one roof -- such diverse titles as Mike Mignola's Hellboy, Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo, Paul Chadwick's The World Below, Matt Wagner's Grendel, and Sergio Aragonés' Groo, to mention just a few," bringing in new titles such as Rich Tommaso's The Horror of Collier County and providing a home for such projects as P. Craig Russell's adaptation of The Ring of the Nibelung. Ultimate control over which titles best fitted the imprint lay with Schutz and Dark Horse owner-publisher Mike Richardson, with input from others including Phil Amara (who "signed up Eric Drooker to do a reprinting of his seminal graphic novel Flood," and worked with Scott Allie on Scatterbrain). The eclectic titles had one thing in common, according to Schutz - "it has a lot to do with the particular project being a labor of love for the individual creator," despite the logical oddity of "attempting to unite the unique visions of each individual creator," which she termed "a paradoxical enterprise at best". The titles featured design work by Cary Grazzini, and each featured an individual variation of the distinctive Dark Horse "horse head," an idea of Mike Richardson's to "truly reflect.. the spirit of independence that is Dark Horse Maverick".

During it's second year, Schutz highlighted Maverick's "trades program" as standing out, both for collecting previously-published materials, including Neil Gaiman and Alice Cooper's The Last Temptation, and also debuting new work by new faces and such greats as Will Eisner. Somewhat ahead-of-its-time, Schutz mentioned in 2001 the "financial obstacles" that go hand-in-hand with the declining numbers of people reading comics, but maintained that:

"..the future of comics resides in the kinds of projects that are going to appeal to a more adult reader. For instance, of the kinds of projects that have gotten a lot of play in the past year, two come immediately to mind, and both were published -- at least originally -- by Fantagraphics. One is my pal Joe Sacco's Safe Area Gorazde, and the other is Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan collection. Both of those books have gotten a lot of play in the "mainstream" press; they've been written up in the New York Times for instance... It's that kind of more adult material that will help us break out of the sort-of superhero-bound, direct-sales specialty market. And I strongly feel that if comics have any future whatsoever, that's what we have to pursue, and in large part, that's what I'm hoping to do with the Maverick imprint."

Format changes delayed the release of Neil Gaiman and John Bolton's Harlequin Valentine, which Schutz had originally "planned to [publish] as a 32-page comic book with no ads", but, after seeing the artwork decided the she wanted:

"to make it a perennial publication -- always available and always on the stand. How can I do that in our current marketplace? There's only one answer -- I turned it into a book. It will now be a 40-page hardcover book, featuring a 30-page comic-book story and an eight-page backup text piece written by Neil with some single illustrations by John. That way, we can present it to both the direct-sales specialty market and the bookstore market and, again, keep it perennially available. Because it's so beautiful, it demands that kind of treatment."

The annuals not only featured established and new names, but managed to entice work from semi-retired individuals such as Will Eisner, J.R. Williams and Denis Kitchen. Kitchen is perhaps better known as a publisher, but as Schutz notes, she is "old enough to remember a time when Denis was not merely a publisher but was also an artist and was one of the early crew of underground cartoonists. And he was a fabulous cartoonist, but simply has been pursuing other interests". Kitchen agreed, during a CBDLF cruise in 2000 to contribute a story to Dark Horse Maverick 2001 called "My Five Minutes With God." Shutz also wanted to spotlight little known French individuals Phillipe Dupuy and Charles Berberian, beyond their normal Drawn & Quarterly audience.

Output

Titles published under the "Maverick" imprint included:

• Sin City by Frank Miller
  • The Art of Sin City
• Hellboy by Mike Mignola
• Sock Monkey
• Too Much Coffee Man
• Grendel: Red, White, & Black, American Splendor: Unsung Hero
• The Complete Pip and Norton by Dave Cooper and Gavin McInnes
• Eisner/Miller
• Billi 99 by Sarah Byam and Tim Sale
• Pubo by Leland Purvis
• Harlequin Valentine by Neil Gaiman and John Bolton
• Last Day in Vietnam by Mike Richardson and Will Eisner

Although Schutz initiated the line, and had a large say in what was published, she did not edit all titles (indeed, some titles - i.e. Hellboy - simply changed impint without any changes in the editorial team working on them), instead she "over[saw] the whole line", as she "couldn't possibly handle editing every single book published under the imprint." The imprint, Dark Horse's second attempt at a creator-owned imprint (after "Legend") was relatively short-lived, publishing around 43 titles between 1999 and 2002.

Awards and nominations

She has won an Inkpot Award and served as editor on books receiving the Eisner Award and Harvey Award. She has also been nominated as "best editor" for Eisner Awards in 1992, 1994 and 1995 for her work on various titles.

She says that:

"..one of the best moments of my life, before I ever began working with Will Eisner, was accepting an Eisner Award from him on stage and having him kiss me. I was standing in front of the microphone, dumbfounded, and my acceptance speech went right out of my head. All I could say was, 'Oh my God, Will Eisner just kissed me!' "

Quotes

On many Comics Editors
"Editors often get a bad rap for good reason: because this industry is full of too many wannabe creators who become editors by default - and not very good editors as a result. Because that's not what they want to do. What they want to do is become a writer or an artist, but they aren't good enough to cut it so they wind up becoming an editor. Swell. And that the reflects on all of us - very poorly, I'm sorry to say.

So when I have been in a position to hire people and I sniff out the fact that somebody interviewing for an editor's job really wants to be a writer or an artist, I tend to discourage them from pursuing an editorial career. By and large, those people don't make very good editors. Why? They're jealous of the creators they work with. They get in a script and they don't edit it; they rewrite it. That's just not the way to approach the job - in my opinion."

On the Editorial role
"Editorial work, to me, rests very much upon personal interaction. Again, particularly in the arena of creator-owned projects, where the creator has the final say. That doesn't mean that I don't give story feedback. That doesn't mean that I don't give critical feedback every step of the way. But it's up to the creator how much or how little of that feedback they want or are going to take."

On Dave Sim
"What do I believe? I believe that Dave is an extraordinary human being, extremely talented and that means that he deviates from the norm. Is he fucking nuts? Any more than any other artist? I don't know. I think he's very, very serious about his interests and his beliefs. When he focuses on something, it tends to consume him."

Bibliography

As writer

• Grendel: Devil Child
• "Tuesday Night at the Jazz Club" in Dark Horse Presents #97
  • reprinted with minor corrections in AutobioGraphix (2003)
• "Knox" (adaptation) in Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor (1995)
• Contributed to FantaCo's Chronicles Series #4: "The Avengers Chronicles" (Fantaco/Tundra Jun 1982)
• Grendel: Devil Child #1-2 (art by Tim Sale) (1999)
• "Season's Greeting" in Robotech The Macross Saga #35 (1984)
• "Young Love" in Solo #1 (Tim Sale) (2004)
• Usagi Yojimbo #100

• "Introduction" to Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller, Volume 2 (Marvel, Apr 2000)
• "Introduction" to Supergirl Archives, Volume 1 (DC, Nov 2001)
• 'Resignation Letter' in Cerebus #265

As Editor at Comico

• Mage: The Hero Discovered #1-15 (Comico, 1984 - Dec 1986)
• Next Man #1-5 (Mar-Oct 1985)
• Robotech The Macross Saga #3, 5-19, 29-36 (May 1985 - Feb 1989)
• Robotech Masters #1-15 (July 1985 - April 1987)
• Robotech The New Generation #1-6, 11-16 (July 1985 - June 1987)
• Elementals Special #1-2 (Mar 1986, Jan 1989)
• Justice Machine featuring the Elementals #1-4 (May-Aug 1986)
• Jonny Quest #1-8, 12-31 (Jun 1986 - Dec 1988)
• Grendel #1-23, 26, 27, 29-31, 34-39 (Oct 1986 - Jan 1990)
• Elementals #11, 17-29 (Dec 1986 - Sep 1988)
• Justice Machine #1-11 (Jan-Nov 1987)
• Star Blazers #1-4 (Apr-Jul 1987)
• Gumby's Summer Fun Special #1 (Jul 1987)
• Grendel: Devil's Vagary one-shot (Oct 1987)
• Space Ghost #1 (Dec 1987)
• Robotech Special #1 (May 1988)
• The Jam Urban Adventure #1 (May 1988)
• The Rocketeer Adventure Magazine #1-2 (Jul 1988, 1989)
• Ginger Fox #1-4 (Sep-Dec 1988)
• Comico Christmas Special #1 (Dec 1988)
• Ribit! #1-4 (Jan-Apr 1989)
• The Amazon #1-3 (Mar-May 1989)
• The Trouble With Girls #2 (Mar 1989) #2
• Trekker Color Special #1 (Jul 1989)
• Silver Back #1-3 (Oct-Dec 1989)

As Editor at Dark Horse

Grendel

• Grendel: War Child #1-10 (Aug 1992 - Apr 1993)
• The History Of Grendel one-shot (1993)
• Batman/Grendel: Devil's Riddle #1 (Apr 1993)
• Batman/Grendel: Devil's Masque #2 (May 1993)
• Grendel: Devil By The Deed one-shot (Jul 1993)
• Grendel Tales: Four Devils, One Hell #1-6 (Aug 1993 - Jan 1994)
• Grendel Tales: The Devil's Hammer #1-3 (Feb-Apr 1994)
• Grendel Tales: The Devil in Our Midst #1-5 (May-Sep 1994)
• Grendel Tales: Devils and Deaths #1-2 (Sep-Nov 1994)
• Grendel Tales: Homecoming #1-3 (Dec 1994 - Feb 1995)
• Grendel Tales: Devil's Choices #1-4 (Mar-Jun 1995)
• Grendel Classics #1-2 (Jul-Aug 1995)
• Grendel Cycle #1 (Oct 1995)
• Grendel Tales: The Devil May Care #1 (Dec 1995 - May 1986)
• Batman/Grendel: Devil's Bones #1 (Jun 1996)
• Batman/Grendel: Devil's Dance #2 (Jun 1996)
• Grendel Tales: The Devil's Apprentice #1-3 (Sep-Nov 1997)
• Grendel: Black, White & Red #1-4 (Nov 1998 - Feb 1999)
• Grendel: Devil Child (with Matt Wagner; also writer) #1-2 (Jun-Aug 1999)
• Grendel: Devil's Legacy #1-12 (Mar 2000 - Feb 2001)
• Grendel: The Devil Inside #1-3 (Sep-Nov 2001)
• Grendel: Red, White, & Black #1-4 (Sep-Dec 2002)
• Grendel: God and the Devil #0-10 (Jan-Dec 2003)
• Grendel: Devil's Reign #1-7 (May-Dec 2004)
• Grendel: Behold the Devil #0-5(on-going) (Jul 2007- >Mar 2008<)

American Splendor

• American Splendor #17 (Jul 1993)
• American Splendor: Windfall #1-2 (Sep-Oct 1995)
• American Splendor: Comic-Con Comics #1 (Aug 1996)
• American Splendor: On the Job #1 (May 1997)
• American Splendor: Music Comics #1 (Nov 1997)
• American Splendor: Odds & Ends #1 (Dec 1997)
• American Splendor: TransAtlantic Comics #1 (Jul 1998)
• American Splendor: Terminal #1 (Sep 1999)
• American Splendor: Bedtime Stories #1 (Jun 2000)
• American Splendor: Portrait of the Author in His Declining Years #1 (Apr 2001)
• American Splendor: Unsung Hero #1-3 (Aug-Oct 2002)

Maverick

• Sin City: Hell and Back #1-9 (Jul 1999 - Apr 2000) - launch title
• The Horror of Collier County #1-5 (Oct 1999 - Feb 2000)
• The World Below: Deeper and Stranger #1-4 (Dec 1999 - Mar 2000)
• Dark Horse Maverick 2000 #0 (Jul 2000)
• Last Day in Vietnam OGN (Jul 2000)
• The Last Temptation TPB, by Neil Gaiman, Alice Cooper and Michael Zulli (Nov 2000) - reprint of the Marvel Music issues (1994)
• Dark Horse Maverick 2001 #1 (Jul 2001)
• Ancient Joe #1-3 (Oct-Dec 2001)
• Harlequin Valentine OGN (Nov 2001)
• Dark Horse Maverick Annual: Happy Endings #1 (Sep 2002)
• Will Eisner's Hawks of the Seas OGN (Jul 2003)
• AutobioGraphix OGN (Dec 2003)

Other

• Aliens vs. Predator #0, 1-4 (Jun-Dec 1990)
• Aliens: Earth War #1-4 (Jun-Oct 1990)
• The Terminator #1-4 (Aug-Nov 1990)
• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis #1-3 (Mar-Jul 1991)
• Predator: Big Game #1-4 (Mar-Jun 1991)
• Deadface: Doing the Islands with Bacchus #1-3 (Jul-Sep 1991)
• The Terminator: One Shot #1 (Jul 1991)
• The Terminator: Secondary Objectives #1-4 (Jul-Oct 1991)
• Batman Versus Predator #1-3 (Dec 1991 - Feb 1992)
• The Eyeball Kid #1-3 (Apr-Jun 1992)
• Deadface: Earth, Water, Air and Fire #1-4 (Jul-Oct 1992)
• Dark Horse Comics #1-2 (Aug-Sep 1992)
• Nina's All-Time Greatest Collector's Item Classic Comics #1 (Aug 1992)
• Rio at Bay #2 (Aug 1992)
• The Terminator: Endgame #1-3 (Sep-Oct 1992)
• The 1001 Nights of Bacchus (May 1993)
• Aliens/Predator: The Deadliest of the Species #1-7 (Jul 1993 - Aug 1994)
• The Jam #6-8 (Oct 1993 - Feb 1995)
• Indiana Jones and the Arms of Gold #1-4 (Feb-May 1994)
• Concrete: Killer Smile #1-4 (Jul-Oct 1994)
• American Splendor Special: A Step Out of the Nest #1 (Aug 1994)
• Bacchus Color Special (Apr 1995)
• Superman Vs. Aliens #1-3 (Jul-Sep 1995)
• Indiana Jones and the Sargasso Pirates #1 (Dec 1995 - Mar 1996)
• Usagi Yojimbo #3, 24-30, 33-35, 37, 39-109 (Jun 1996 - Jan 2008)
• Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor Quarterly #1 (Aug 1996)
• Barry Windsor-Smith: Storyteller #1-9 (Oct 1996 - Jul 1997)
• Batman/Aliens #1-2 (Mar-Apr 1997)
• Tales to Offend #1 (Jul 1997)
• Bad Boy #1 (Dec 1997)
• Martha Washington Saves the World #1-3 (Dec 1997 - Feb 1998)
• Star Wars: Crimson Empire #1-6 (Dec 1997 - May 1998)
• 300 #1-5 (May-Sep 1998)
• Madman/The Jam #1-2 (Jul-Aug 1998)
• Sin City: Just Another Saturday Night #1 (Oct 1998)
• Star Wars: Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood #1-6 (Nov 1998 - Apr 1999)
• Dr. Robot Special #1 (Apr 2000)
• Madman Comics #17-20 (Aug-Dec 2000)
• Star Wars Tales #10, 14, 16, 20 (Dec 2001 - June 2004)
• Flaming Carrot & Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman #1 (Dec 2002)
• Star Wars: A Valentine Story (Feb 2003)
• Michael Chabon Presents... the Amazing Adventures of the Escapist #1-8 (Feb 2004 Nov 2005)
• Creatures of the Night OGN (Nov 2004)
• Concrete: The Human Dilemma #1-6 (Dec 2004 - May 2005)
• De:TALES OGN (Jun 2006)
• The Escapists #1 (Jul-Dec 2006)
• Martha Washington Dies #1 (Jul 2007)

As Editor, collected editions

• Dirty Pair: Sim Hell TPB (Dec 1994)
• Martha Washington Goes To War TPB (Nov 1995)
• Sin City: Family Values TPB (Oct 1997)
• Sin City: Booze, Broads, & Bullets TPB (Dec 1998)
• Too Much Coffee Man's Amusing Musings TPB (Dec 2001)
• Billi 99 TPB (Oct 2002)
• Frank Miller's Sin City Vol. 1 (Dec 2004)
• Frank Miller's Sin City Vol. 5 (Mar 2005
• Frank Miller's Sin City Vol. 6 (Mar 2005)

Other

"Diana Schutz" appears in issue #23 of Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Oeming's comics series Powers (collected in fifth trade paperback, Powers: Anarchy), the owner of Dark Horse Coffee.

External links

• Diana Schutz at the ComicBook DB