Paul Stock of Librairie Astro in Montreal, Canada has been following the story of the Chris Roberson and DC Comics dust-up (see "Chris Roberson Leaves DC" and "DC Speeds Roberson's Departure") and had this to say.

I've taken passing note of the resignation/firing of this Roberson fellow from DC ("I quit." "You can't quit--you're fired!").  What is it about this industry that causes even the slightest disruption to send shock waves from one end of the blogospere to the other?

This is just another disgruntled employee leaving a company.  Probably happens 1,000 times a day.  I've seen comparisons with that exec who had left Goldman Sachs while decrying their ethics.  He was a big shot. Roberson's the equivalent of a guy on a production line. T his takes nothing away from the importance of production guys.  Without them, nothing gets produced, and there's no need for executives and directors to command companies that produce nothing.

But DC doesn't seem to be suffering any shortage of production guys, nor does any other significant publisher, for that matter. Nonetheless, good "production guys" are always in demand somewhere, and I'm sure Mr. Roberson, having proven himself simply by virtue of having made the "major leagues" should be able to find himself a new berth at one of the many other publishers out there.  That they probably share (if not outright aspire to) DC's ethical standards is just his tough luck.  I'm sure nobody pointed a gun to his head forcing him to be a comic book writer.  It's just something he wants to do.

Modern memory spans being what they are, I doubt that Roberson's doing himself or DC any significant harm.  He'll find a new job soon enough, and given a very little time, this current "cause celebre" will be completely forgotten. No big deal.

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