Credit where credit's due: Markisan Naso loves following the message board antics of Rob Liefeld. Someone has to, I suppose. In this week's "All the Rage," Markisan chronicles the back and forth on Millarworld about Liefeld crediting Kurt Busiek with writing Bloodsport: Genesis instead of plotting it. Here's a frustrated Busiek:

"Rob knows I only plotted the book, and he agreed to credit me that way. But his word isn't worth much, and he's been crediting me as 'writer' for years, in a transparent attempt to fool people into thinking I did more than I did. First, he claimed that since they hadn't settled on a scripter yet, it was fair to list me as sole writer (why was he soliciting it if he didn't have a scripter?), then that I'd co-written with others (except that those were correctly credited) and now, apparently, he thinks (or will claim) it's not confusing to credit both a 'writer' and a 'scripter' (when's the last time you saw that?). Or maybe he'll claim he's just kidding around, to see if I'll jump when he pokes me.

"... At this point, I'm annoyed enough by Rob being such a weasel about this that I'd like to ask anyone who's a fan of my work not to buy YOUNGBLOOD GENESIS. Nothing against Brandon Thomas, who's a nice guy, or Chad Walker, who I've never met, or Dan Fraga, who's always been a good guy to talk to. I hope they find better work elsewhere. But if Rob won't keep even simple promises that don't cost him any money to live up to, it would be nice if there was a price to it."

Liefeld, of course, feigns surprise at Busiek's reaction, then offers a condescending lesson in writing terminology:

"To the point, Kurt wrote the plots, yes, otherwise known as the STORY. Without a plot, there is a blank page with no character interaction, no ideas, period. The artist has nothing.

"Arguing back and forth about the credit is just tiresome, Kurt is credited as plot in both books, but the plot was written by a writer who happens to be Kurt Busiek. The Walkers drew the story from the verbal word pictures that Kurt imagined on his written page. Some pages have dialogue and in many cases, Brandon Thomas used that same dialogue. So the fact that I'm in the habit of saying that Kurt wrote the book and Brandon scripted is not intended to set off Mr. Busiek. I look at pages he wrote and I refer to him as writing them, seems all too reasonable to me. Certainly not the stuff of firestorms. ..."

Markisan then updates the exchange with an apology from Liefeld to Busiek "for any ill will created by my mentioning him as writing the Genesis book."