I think the trouble some artists have is that they work from home. Having a studio or work place away from the distractions of home may help some of these slowpokes. I know I'd rather eat popcicles and watch Judge Joe Brown in the afternoon, rather than do actual work when I'm at home. But if you kick me out of the house I feel more active and I do my job in anticipation of eating brownies and watching Gilmore Girls when I get home. Now I understand everyone isn't like me but I wonder how many comic folks are.

But how many of those books actually shipped late?

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Which brings to point that maybe the real problem isn't that atists are slow or lazy, but that the artists (and editors) fail to realize their limits.  Jim Lee knows damn well he can't do a monthly book anymore.  So why was he doing All STar Batman and Wildcats plus Infinite Crisis covers and that game he is working on....have some balls and don't be afraid to know your limits and say 'no' if you aren't going to be able to reasonable achieve a deadline.  Most of the guys whose books are late are the same old culprits.

Could he ever? And that is not sarcasm.

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Hmm.  You know, maybe not.  I think when he was doing Uncanny (and those first few issues of adjectiveless) he probably did not do morethan 2-3 in a row.  I guess it is less glaring because back then the companies were less hesitant to put a fill-in artist in the mix rather than cater to the 'superstar' artist's schedule.
Can't vouch for his Alpha Flight output.

This was something I noticed in TV, before it became so common in comics. A show like MOONLIGHTING, we would be told, would take as much as 10 days to produce. The question then would be, how can you possible call this a weekly series? We saw what happened there, and with other "rose growers". Now (and for a while) it's happening to comics.