I'm pretty busy today — amazing, considering I'm on strike, right? — but I'm going to take breaks and answer a few questions. Here's one from Chris Carlisle…
Does the WGA represent comic books, and animation writers? Can you still write comics and animated programs, or does this strike only involve live-action tv and movies? I know this is a stupid question.
It may be but it's one I've received from a number of folks. The answer is that the WGA is only on strike against the specific areas that it covers and for which the contract has expired. It has nothing whatsoever to do with comic books or with writing novels or plays or software or magazine articles or newspaper columns or cute little predictions that appear in fortune cookies. It does pertain to some animation writing because the WGA has deals to cover some animation writing. So if you're writing cartoons, you need to check with the Guild.
A lot of people have also written to ask if I thought the strike meant that a flood of folks who previously made their livings on live-action TV shows and movies would come streaming in to write comic books and animation during the strike. Maybe some will.
I get the feeling that many WGA members aren't looking for other markets because they're still somewhat disbelieving in some ways that this strike could last for many months. Intellectually, of course, we all know that. Our last one in 1988 went 22 weeks, after all. But the purpose of Management not making a deal with us right now is to try and soften us up…scare us into accepting worse terms at some later date. And this Guild is so "together" — I still haven't heard one member say we should have taken the last offer — that we know that 60 or 90 days down the line, we will be no more likely to bite on a crummy deal than we are today. By then, we may even be more militant…if such a thing is possible.
And since we know that, a lot of us are wondering: How can they not know that? Some may think the Producers are swine-like greedheads but even folks who feel that way think we're up against shrewd swine-line greedheads who know to crunch numbers and make money. So you'd think they'd realize that all they're going to do by waiting to make a deal with us is cost themselves a lot of cash and further destroy their audience shares. You'd think they'd find some face-saving excuse to get back to the bargaining table soon and make the deal that they'll be prepared to make in January.
My guess is that some within the coalition of Producers want to but that they need to reach unanimity and haven't yet. The answer to the question, "How long will this strike last?" probably has everything to do with how long it takes the six member companies within the AMPTP to all get onto the same page. If rumors are true, in 1988, some of them were ready to settle pretty rapidly and one or two weren't.
Anyway, I don't think a lot of live-action writers have gone looking for comic book or cartoon work yet because though they're prepared for this strike to last a long time, they still don't feel like it will. If it does, we may see some low-level flooding.