Two weeks ago Gerry Conway made headlines after claiming DC Comics’ equity policies were “obnoxious and despicable”. Conway complained that the current policies meant that he would not be getting payment, or creator credit, for the character Killer Frost who will be appearing the CW’s The Flash. Conway, alongside Al Milgrom, created the original version of the character in 1978.
In response, DC issued a statement claiming that their policies were not currently as Conway suggested. Several head DC staff, including Dan Didio and Geoff Johns, also reached out to Conway to discuss his concerns.
Since then, Conway has written a public apology to DC. He stated that although he stood by his core complaint against DC and their policies concerning ‘derivative’ characters, he admits that he had not been fair to the people involved in creating those policies.
“Let’s just say I ascribed motives to people that were 180 degrees opposite to their actual intentions. Geoff, Dan, Jim, and Larry sincerely want to do the right thing by creators. I didn’t give them the proper credit for that; I interpreted a disagreement about process as evidence of malign intent. In so doing, I hurt people who didn’t deserve it, and offended people who were trying to help me.”
Conway left DC on bad terms back in the 80’s and left the comics industry soon after that. He admitted in his apology that when he returned to comics he was looking for “the same DC Comics [he] fought with thirty years ago.” Conway says he is now reconsidering his own contribution to the collapse of his relationship with the company, calling himself “a jackass”.
“So– Geoff, Dan, Jim, Larry– I’m sorry. Deeply, truthfully, painfully sorry. You deserve more respect and consideration than I’ve given you. I hope this very public apology makes that clear.”
You can read Conway’s full apology here.
