That would be a suitable living memorial to the memory of such a great man.

If DC really wants to create a memorial to Will Eisner, and not merely pay lip service to the man and his career, it is time to fire all the prima donnas who cannot get their work in on time. It is time to boot the arrogant asses who are "growing roses" and restore, as much as we can, the industry Will Eisner helped create.

I agree. One of the reasons I drifted away from comics a few years back was because I lost patience with artists who could not complete their workload or get it done on time. This either delayed the publication of the book, or the publisher had to find someone else to finish the work, thus disrupting the continuity of the artistic vision. Aesthetically, it is ugly because the integrity and harmony of the work is destroyed; professionally, it is inexcusable because it shows a lack of consideration and courtesy to both the publisher and the readership.

On the other hand, I do think certain projects might require longer than usual to achieve the perfection of the artist's vision; but these ought to be special projects, not part of the monthly grind, and they ought to be finished or substantially finished before they are solicited. It is plain common sense: solicit the work when it is complete or close to completion, not before.

Moralitas: For a monthly publication one must be a professional artisan; for a special (or even vanity) project one can be an artiste.   

I bet late penalities would get those pencil stubbers popping. Wait til those 30 day nets become, in direct proportion to their lateness, 60 day nets for late pay.

And if Im late with my bills, I gotta pay 'late fees" so why not "late penalities"?

Of course anyone who whines about filling up 32 pages a month and being unable to deliver is simply "not professional" in my book.

Darragh Greene wrote: I do think certain projects might require longer than usual to achieve the perfection of the artist's vision; but these ought to be special projects, not part of the monthly grind, and they ought to be finished or substantially finished before they are solicited. It is plain common sense: solicit the work when it is complete or close to completion, not before.

Well said.

That latter is a word I would like to see the consumers add to their lexicon, and use as often as applicable. The prima donnas have had their time in the sun. Let the professionals back in.


*It is this ignorance and unawareness which so often leads to know-it-all (really know-nothing) "fans" holding forth on their perception of the quality of various books, assuming them to have been produced on a schedule that has nothing to do with the reality. Those who noted that OMAC looked "rushed", for instance, since it was delayed in shipping and so came out at the same time as a bunch of other stuff I had done over a protracted period. The assumption of the know-nothings was that everything that came out at the same time was done at the same time. The other end of this demented spectrum is those fools who genuinely believe the "growing roses" crap, and who think a book that ship six months late has got six months more work put into it. I recall an article in CELEBRITY magazine that referred to one of the rock star artists "taking a full day" to produce a page. Looking at his chronic lateness I commented that I had no trouble believing he produced only one page per day -- but looking at those pages, I refused to believe he actually invested a full working day in each.

Charles Valderrama wrote: JB, is anyone at DC aware of the 'challenge'? i think it IS time for DC to step up and enforce real deadlines for their products. Bring back professionalism in honor of Eisner. -C!

I witnessed JB challenge Paul Levitz at the Eisner memorial. So, yeah they're aware of it.

This reminds me of my old broadcast copywriting class.  We had an assignment due on a Monday, but one of the guys in class had some excuse (legit or not) about not having his, and said he would bring it in on Wednesday.  Come Wednesday, he went up to the professor and proudly handed in the paper.

The professor promptly dropped it in the trash can.  "The deadline was Monday.  This is old news and doesn't mean anything now."

I think everybody in class learned something that day.

John Mietus wrote: The point is that there is an overwhelming lack of professionalism throughout the industry -- artists, writers, editors, management -- that is utterly appalling.

But it starts with management. From my own experience of working on IT projects, if the management is professional and competent then the project will be a success.

Management has allowed a culture of unprofessionalism to seep in to the industry. It's their job to put it right. I have disagreed with JB in the past over the fan-turned-pro idea, but maybe he is onto something if we take it a step further and say the problem is caused by the fan-turned-manager/editor.

I agree, JB.  In all of my news classes, sickness, hell, DEATH, was not an excuse to BLOW a deadline.  If you blew a deadline, you more or less failed the class.

Man...imagine all the people that would no longer be on monthly books, or even working period, if they actually fired all the people who don't meet their deadlines.

More work for the likes of John Byrne, Denny O'Neil, Jim Aparo, Frank Miller, etc. who actually know HOW to meet a deadline.

Bravo to you JB.  I hope that the powers that are at DC accept the challenge.

Matthew Hansel
matthewphansel@mac.com

John McMahon wrote:  Joe Zhang wrote: Which is why JB is challenging DC to stop playing that game with those fools.  It's a business.  "Those fools" as you call im, are money in the bank - DC are getting stomped badly enough by Marvel without firing the few real big names they have working for them!

Good business is more than money. It's also, as JB pointed out, professionalism. I own a business and will often make decisions based on factors other than money. We take pride in what we do, and we profit from delivering good service, on time, consistently.

And they are fools. The amount of money they may or may not generate does not change that one bit.