>Hey comics journo friends: we should definitely be asking Marvel and new EiC CB Cebulski on why he chose to use the pen name Akira Yoshida in the early 2000s to write a bunch of "Japanese-y" books for them.
A quick cheat sheet for you on the people involved:
CJ Cregg - CB Cebulski Leo - Tom Brevoort Glenn - Bill Jemas Jed Barlett - Joe Quesada Toby - Mike Marts Josh - Gregg Schigiel Donna - Mackenzie Cadenhead Will - John Barber
>Hey comics journo friends: we should definitely be asking Marvel and new EiC CB Cebulski on why he chose to use the pen name Akira Yoshida in the early 2000s to write a bunch of "Japanese-y" books for them. Oh we can sick tumblr on them like a hound after a fox
Cameron Ortiz
>we should definitely be asking Marvel and new EiC CB Cebulski on why he chose to use the pen name Akira Yoshida I fail to see any kind of problem or """"controversy"""" here. Explain pls
Isaiah Baker
Among other things, he used this totally fake persona with this whole ~story~ about bringing a JP perspective to capeshit to get around the prohibition on both being an editor and writing for Marvel at the same time and gamed the system into writing jobs that way.
John Diaz
when Marvel tried to do their Manga line, they hired a long time Marvel employee and had him write under a pen name rather than go more authentic and hire an actual Mangaka
I assume its some sort of cultural appropriation controversy
Zachary Robinson
Who cares. The marvel weeb initiation will arrive.
Julian Cook
Yeah this is bullshit but we'll never see punishment or consequences from it. how shitty is it that i'm glad it was just stealing a couple of jobs and not assaulting anyone
Eli King
That's scummy but honestly feels very minor among what we're usually served as contoversies these past couple of years
Borderline non-issue
Is that really it?
Adrian Perry
If you listen to the podcast (I know, tl;dr) the story gets more tangled with respect to lying to people and reportedly passing on the personal info of freelancers
Ayden Robinson
Not really. Cebulski was editorial in the Marvel Manga line, right? And Marvel editors were not supposed to be writers by company policy.
So what Cebulski actually did is impersonate a freelancer from Japan, who he was the contact for, and give himself writing gigs/pitches for the region he was responsible for.
The actual comics are also hilariously weeb, so there totally is a "publish under this name to not seem inauthentic" line to it and if was only that, whatever. But he absolutely took advantage of the system to get himself writing credits and cash over genuine freelancers.
Also, if you read the Bleeding Cool article that originally broke this back in August - Cebulski is probably Rich's Marvel source.
Matthew Wood
Ghost Rider Manga is a legitimate classic, bring it back Cebulski
Camden Taylor
So it's basically a new form of the writer/editor scam. Jim Shooter is rolling in his crypt.
Joseph Bailey
Jim shooter and Tom deflaco both wrote and edit at the same time and many more did too.
Fakes names are also nothing new and died out years ago.
John King
If I wasn't in my cert class I'd listen to this now, it's super interesting
Ryan Murphy
Jim Shooter isn't dead mate.
Carter Evans
Yeah but he's probably living in a crypt anyway
Angel Anderson
Are you literally Cebulski mate? Why are you pulling this much damage control for what was clearly one editor's manipulation of Marvel's system & policy for personal gain, at the expense of others?
Writing and editing at the same time aren't a problem. Writing and editing at the same time under a pseudonym aren't a problem. Impersonating a fake "authentic Japanese person" for "authentic Marvel Manga comics" when you are the Asia contact editor for Marvel in order to make yourself secret $$$ on the side to the detriment of genuine writers pitching kind of is. Especially when you become editor-in-chief later, kek.
I'm not even getting into this shit which is shady even on a corporate level.
Brayden Ward
Time to commit seppuku.
Matthew Green
It had to come out eventually, C.B.
Luke Green
My fave part of this is how C.B. looks just like one of these hopeless katana-collecting fatasses you get.
Christian Hughes
So many BC articles are top kek now if you assume CB has been Rich's guy there. Like...
Holy shit he slashed it so fast it won't even fall apart for another ten seconds
David Lee
also there was a rule that they COULDN'T Freelance and be an editor.
Gabriel White
>Writing and editing at the same time aren't a problem. Actually YES this is against Marvel policy and was part of a whole deal with Tom DeFalco/Bob Harras in the '90s that caused major problems. That's why this was done originally.
Angel Clark
bring back DeFalco
Landon Moore
Even Tom would say that's a bad idea
Josiah Johnson
>Cebulski is such a weeaboo he has a Japsona YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP
Wyatt Baker
>>Hey comics journo friends: My name is David Brothers and I don't really have a career in comics even though I've tried to have one for over a decade now. So I was thinking that maybe we could pretend to be journalists and "break" a race-oriented "story"? Because even though I'm black, probably we could fool a bunch of white idiots into thinking that because I'm non-white I should have final say-so on who can use a Japanese penname. Let's attack some white guy at Marvel who's never done anything to anyone, even though most of the POC comic "creators" on Twitter are actively racist against white people everyday. Sound good?
Dylan Lewis
Has Marvel always had that policy?
Xavier Jones
Yeah remember the really "terrible" days in the late '90s when the biggest problem in Marvel's creativity department was a conflict of interest between Tom DeFalco and Bob Harras writing some comics even though they were editing others?
Remember when the faintest cry of "Bob writes Avengers but edits X-Men?" amounted to a major problem.
John Gomez
Fuck off, Rich.
Alexander Gonzalez
to write, not edit
Isaac Gutierrez
>David Brothers this name is really pulling some strings but I can't place it
Nathan Jenkins
He works for Image in their marketing department, you stupid ignorant dumbass.
Isaiah Collins
It was actually BC that broke this story, although it seems to have been a weak attempt to deny it at the same time.
Mason Wilson
He wrote the X-men cartoon continuity comic that nobody read from Secret Wars. Also worked for Comics Alliance and had, shall we say, controversial opinions.
Oliver Foster
Remember when david found a security hole in marvel's servers that people were using to get comics before they were being printed and a week later Stephen Wacker was stalking/harassing him on twitter and his blog because he complained about double shipping hurting sales of marvel comics he was buying.
Camden Long
That's Chris Sims, moron.
Connor Reyes
That's Chris Sims user.
Eli Ortiz
Brothers works for IMAGE and does the IMAGE+ magazine
>Yoshida’s next miniseries, “Elektra: The Hand,” was actually a project he pitched when he first met with Marvel. “I pitched this book to Marvel back in 2003. It was one of my first pitches to Marvel, along with a Red Ronin series I am still trying to get off the ground, Remember that there was new Red Ronin in Loners
Easton Hill
>To begin with, Yoshida grew up in Japan reading manga. Since his father was in international business, he spent parts of his childhood living in the U.S. where he learned English by reading superhero comics and watching TV and movies. As a child, the writer said he always wanted to work in either the Japanese manga or American comics industry. Fortunately, he’s had the privilege of doing both as an adult. This doesn't even sound real.
Ryan Nelson
Youngblood is the best team book these days, he's a good writer
Chase Smith
4letter blog
He did that piece about artists and twice-monthly marvel schedule where Wacker had a breakdown in the comments
Jose Morris
That's Chad Bowers.
Luke Cook
>the new Marvel EiC will be a bigger Jew than Ike
Luke King
>One area where I will unfortunately have to pass the baton is talent recruitment. I will no longer be the guy out in the artist alleys at cons looking for pencilers, painters, inkers, colorists and designers. Someone else will soon be stepping into that position. But I’ll still be out there on Twitter offering advice when and where I can and doing my best to help people get their foot in the Marvel door. That’s just something that’s in my blood. I’ve had all my dreams come true by working at Marvel and still want to help others have the same experience.
This was said back in June 2014.
I seem to remember complaints about talent quality nosedive getting louder in the last three years.
Jaxson White
Brothers did write a little for CA waaaay back
he hasn't written big 2
Nathaniel Wilson
Was this the beginning of Wacker being an asshole on random websites and forums?
Logan Anderson
>and a week later Stephen Wacker was stalking/harassing him on twitter and his blog because he complained about double shipping hurting sales of marvel comics he was buying. >He did that piece about artists and twice-monthly marvel schedule where Wacker had a breakdown in the comments
I remember this. People may claim that Marvel still had high sales so Wacker should be allowed to get in fights with fans, but I say that it's not the case since they kept having to do stunt after stunt at an increased level than before.
Asher Turner
No, he was being an asshole on CBR during BND, which happened before he went onto 4thletter.
Xavier Hernandez
>4thletter that's what it was, memories of the what if? reviews are flooding back to me now
Jackson Foster
>Has Marvel always had that policy?
IIRC, the policy came about sometime after Marvel's post-bankruptcy restructuring in the late 1990s. Part of the problem with editors also writing titles is that there's a pretty clear conflict of interest... what may work creatively in terms of writing may not be the best thing for a book in terms of the larger editorial scope, and vice versa. And an editor may also—intentionally or subconsciously—unnecessarily interfere with the writers on the books he edits; i.e., if a book he edits but does not write competes for sales with a book he does write, it may affect how he oversees the former. It's just a situation best avoided.
Elijah Edwards
Samefag here. Now that I think about it more, I think the "editors-can't-be-writers" policy might have been in place even before Marvel's bankruptcy. I remember sometime in the late 1980s/early 1990s several long-time Marvel editors leaving their staff positions to become freelance writers for Marvel (e.g., Larry Hama, Louise Simonson, Dwayne McDuffie, etc.), although I don't know if this was a matter of policy or simply coincidence.
Henry Jones
Shooter did it when he first came in because people were editing their own books and getting 2 checks from it. But I can't remember details (how long it lasted. if they couldn't do it or just didn't get 2 checks. etc etc)
James Murphy
It was definitely a Shooter thing. There was a whole blow-up when Roy Thomas quit because he couldn't edit his own book.
Asher Phillips
Editors definitely couldn't edit the books they were writing by the time Shooter came along as EiC, but for a period under Shooter, they were still allowed to "freelance" on Marvel titles as long as they didn't edit those specific books. I remember Larry Hama was the editor on a couple of Conan titles even as he was writing G.I. Joe in the mid-1980s and for a time, Ann Nocenti was editing Uncanny X-Men while simultaneously serving as the writer on Daredevil.
Josiah Taylor
Rich: >Now, CB Cebulski is a very good man, and talented, and handsome, and a great guy, and of course has a massive dick. But I swear I know nothing about any of this Yashida business, and definitely don't have any sort of regular contact with CB, despite the fact that he is such an extremely talented and attractive gentleman.
Benjamin Clark
yeah from what i remember it was a lot of early 70s guys who did the like cosmic books
Daniel Price
Technically, its fraud
Not a good start as e-i-c
Henry Long
Blacks are the most pussy race on Earth, no question
Angel Carter
>hating on David Brothers
Dude seems pretty chill to me, plus he digs Lupin III
Chase Evans
In what manner was the Marvel Adventures line remotley wapeanese-y? It was just an all-ages book with bland house-stlye art and decent and very standard writing.
Nolan Davis
He's talking about Mangaverse, not sure why he used a MA page though.
Angel Campbell
Don't forget about marvel hired Ron Richards, an alleged harasser/abuser, right when DC got rid of Berganza.
Eli Young
Who's Roberto Mendosa supposed to be?
Charles Johnson
He used an MA page because the writing credit was "Akira Yoshida."
Ryan Evans
Akira Yoshida.
Evan Cox
What international business did Mr. Yoshida WORK in? Like, was he the guy who came to the US and tried to get American workers to work like Japanese ones like in that one movie or something?
Mason Parker
So, what I gather from this that CB has a direct line to Ike and enabled his kikeking
Colton Thompson
>work at marvel >be a shaddy, scummy asshole >get to fall upwards
It checks out
Cameron Kelly
I don't think Ike really gives that much of a shit about the comics division. He owns the entire company, he's busy thinking about all the high level shit. He only goes down to the comics offices to jew around and complain about people spending money on office supplies.
Cebulski has probably sucked Quesadilla's dick enough times to earn him the promotion.
Kayden Wood
I see a lot of mentions of collaborating with Pat Lee. What a """""coincidence""""""
Camden Hall
Gross, he's a weeb
Leo Morgan
>I fail to see any kind of problem or """"controversy"""" here. Explain pls
David Brothers, the comics """""journalist"""""" trying to start shit is a former editor for Comics Alliance. That should tell you a lot about his motivations. He's sees racism and prejudice and bigotry in everything and anything, so long as it gets him clicks.
So a white writer using an ethnic penname is "cultural appropriation" and Brothers wants to crucify him for it.
Charles Torres
I for one hope that pussy ass nigger david brothers gets aids and dies a terrible, terrible death.
Brody Lee
He corrected the use of we in the next tweet because he's no longer a journalist and hasn't made a single mention of the "controversy" since then.
Kinda hard to start shit with a single tweet and then moving on to other things.
Julian Myers
Except it wasn't just a penname, it was a totally falsified identity, complete with made-up backstory and fake interviews, created to lend more credibility to these manga titles.
And in addition, he was using it to get around rules so he could be an editor while collecting freelance checks for writing and having free reign to write wherever else he wanted under this invented identity. The worst part is he was denying other writers work by giving his fake name these gigs, all while getting patted on the back for "bringing in new talent".
If it was just him using a fake name to write, that wouldn't be a big deal. But the whole thing is a lot deeper than that. And though Brothers naturally wants to turn it into a race thing, it really isn't, it's simply about being a disingenuous, self-serving and shady guy.
Justin Anderson
>he learned English by reading superhero comics Cheeky bastard.
Elijah Hall
I mean, still better than the guy going out.
Noah Brown
UMMM ... racist much???
Julian Williams
He has to return his kahtahnah to its sheath for the cut to happen first.
Mason Thompson
>Toady to ME
Jaxon Scott
>So, CB, what exactly did happen to Akira Yoshida? >"He had the ability. But he didn't have the attitude."
Carson Gray
Yeah, and while we're at it why did Kazuhiko Kato call himself Monkey Punch while writing Lupin III. Neither of those sound Japanese-y to me! Fucking westaboos need to stay separate but equal if you ask me.
Jaxon Phillips
There's a difference between having a penname, and having a fabricated backstory and fake interviews
David Hughes
>being retarded
Kevin Smith
I disagree. Having a fake persona to shill books is simply an extension of having a pen name that's necessary in the modern era. You try a pen name today and people would be saying "Who's this George Elliot guy? I can't find him on social media anywhere!" I don't think creators are required to give you an accurate rendition of their past or personality. The work should stand or fall on it's own merits.
Gavin Cox
So if the work stands on its own, why even have a pen name?
Carter Wood
Not that guy but IIRC during this era, editors writing things was a no-no so if he were an editor then that's why he did it
Isaiah Sanders
Yes, which is shitty because his job as an editor (by his own admission) was to bring new people into the industry, one of whom was supposedly Akira Yoshida, who was actually just himself collecting paychecks.
Christopher Sanchez
Interesting. There was always speculation that Yoshida was the pen-name for another writer, fuelled by the lack of any pictures of him, or any evidence of his career before or after Marvel.
Reminder that "Akira Yoshida" also wrote pic related, probably his highest-profile work, and also maybe his worst work. All he had to do was give readers a mid-1990s nostalgia fix and they would have been happy.
Noah Perez
Man, if this is C.B.'s high water mark of quality we are not in for a good time with him as EiC. Then again, how could it get any worse?
Nathaniel Miller
Please see this actual photograph of the supposedly fictional Akira Yoshida.
Thomas Wood
This user is right: Shooter-era policy was to stop people being writer and editor of the same book, because the writer needs to have someone above them who can say "no" when it needs to be said.
Editors continued to write other books, and this was widespread at Marvel until the mid-1990s. It almost entirely died out under Bob Harras as EiC. Harras quit writing books when he was promoted to EiC, and a number of others who had been both an editor and a writer chose to leave editorial positions and focus on writing Marvel books.
Under Quesada, it seems to have become an official policy that editors couldn't also be writers.
Elijah Watson
He also edited this masterpiece
Joseph Miller
>A literal decade ago, some Marvel editor used a Japanese pen name to write some manga-inspired Marvel Comics and get around Marvel's rule of editors not being able to write I genuinely hope that anyone who finds this newsworthy, controversial, offensive or anything other than an interesting bit of trivia trips on a rock and breaks their neck.
Kevin Murphy
>Man, if this is C.B.'s high water mark of quality we are not in for a good time with him as EiC.
The best work by "Akira Yoshida" was his "Kitty Pryde goes to Japan" series.
CB is better known as a talent-scout, the Loners miniseries is one of the few things he wrote for Marvel.
>Then again, how could it get any worse?
From where we are now, it may be impossible to see how it could get worse. But it always can, and we may always be asking how it can get worse.
It might be a good sign that they didn't promote Brevoort or Amanat, if they replaced Alonso, it's unlikely things would change much.