If you ask any die-hard NBA fan what the “Jordan Rules” were, you will potentially get two different answers. Both are “correct,” and both are connected not only to the current state on the NBA but to the idea of the sport (and the Nation as a whole) “needing” Superstars.

In 1988, Coach Chuck Daly of the Detroit Pistons realized that to get to the NBA finals, they needed to get past Michael Jordan. Not MJ AND the Bulls, mind you- they needed to get find a way to limit Michael Jordan from scoring, because he was the only real threat on the team at that time. What Coach Daly did was create a defensive scheme that was solely based on stopping 1 player- a defense which was run on the “Jordan Rules.” This scheme was more than just physically double teaming Jordan to make him pass the ball- what Coach Daly did was create a system where every action of Jordan’s was met with a series of potentials that MJ couldn’t predict, thus making him less effective and more prone to missed shots and mistakes.

The outcome of that set of “Jordan Rules” led to another set of rules- this time, however, the rules were laid down by the NBA. The new “Jordan Rules” were changes to how defensive players could defend against and make contact with offensive players. On the surface, the rules were set forth to make the sport more “fair,” but in reality, everyone knew that the league saw what Daly’s defense did to Jordan and they took that plan apart step by step.

The result?

6 rings for Michael and the Bulls.

Why would the NBA change the rules of the entire sport, however, to favor 1 person?

The answer to that has nothing… and EVERYTHING to do with Comics…

Today’s lesson in Failure is:  The “Rules” Aren’t Meant To Help You.

True story: I used to follow the Twitter feed of someone who works for a major publisher, and one day I saw a Tweet where this person says that they are tired of explaining submission rules again and again when all the information is clearly written on their website. This person follows that up by saying that they were going to pick someone who sent in a “proper” submission packet & followed all the rules and give that person work.

While I won’t claim to be a close friend of the aforementioned person, I did have contact with them on a few occasions & had their personal email, so I sent a quick note mentioning that putting an open call on Twitter like that is going to give them 100X the work they had before. In less then 5 minutes, I got a reply- There was no “open call,” and in fact, the editor in question had already hand picked a person. That person was being asked to send in a packet which followed “the rules,” but was essentially already hired. The point, I was told, was to shut people up who say they follow “the rules” but never get anywhere doing so…

For reasons you probably can imagine, I can’t tell you who this person whom I no longer follow on Twitter is. What may surprise you, however, is that the story told above is not only NOT an abnormality, but it’s pretty much how things work in the Comics industry.

YES, many companies have “submission guidelines,” but the real truth is that almost nobody is ever picked up from following those guidelines, and most people who find work or have their Creator Owned books picked up really DON’T succeed in doing so by following standard submission protocol.

How DO those people “succeed?” And why even HAVE “submission guidelines” if you know that you are almost grading on a FAIL/FAIL scale?

Comic Companies do it for the same 3 reasons that the NBA set up rules to help Jordan win Championships…

First of all- Both Comic Companies and the NBA have one major thing in common, and that is they are both vying for your Entertainment dollars. Yes, Basketball is a “Sport,” but it’s also a form of Entertainment, and while there are some rules that are basic to the game and some which are meant to curb cheating or avoid injury, the NBA also has some rules to try and make the game more “fun” to watch.

In the early ‘90’s, the NBA decided that More Scoring= More Fun, so they built rules which allowed their most prolific scorer to score even MORE points. To be fair, other players also benefited from the “Jordan Rules,” but all of them were also flashy, point scoring “Superstar” players. And in EVERY form of Entertainment, a “Superstar” is easy to market, so in every form of Entertainment, there are “Rules” designed to stack the deck as much as possible in favor of people with “Superstar” potential.

What this means for the Comic Book Industry is that companies want people with a Resume of doing  comics and the longer the Resume the better. They not only want that because if you have done a dozen Comics you have proven yourself, but if you have done a dozen Comics, then you most likely have SOME name recognition and you being a part of the equation will bring people in to buy their books.

The other side of that is that if you have done a dozen or however many Comics before, most likely the bulk of your work falls into some genre or basic vein. That’s important to think about, because if you have done 20 issues of “Chainsaw Killers Vs. Helpless Nuns,” you probably aren’t getting picked to write the next Little Lulu revival book, no matter how big a Little Lulu fan you may be…

(Cont.)

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