Thanks, Glenn, my bad. NEVER threatened an artist... thought here were a few...

H

12 issues that sell, say, 12,000 vs 1 issue that sells 100,000. Hm.

"That is why Neal Adams became a giant in the industry instead of Sal Buscema. Neal produced a fraction of what Sal did in his career but the perceived value of Neals work is greater."

Speak for your own goddamn self.

Yeah, a lot of fans love Neal Adams work. Shame there's so little of it to go around. When Neal couldn't deliver, if there hadn't been other great artists capable of producing work quicker in order to fill in the issues he had to skip, there would be no famous Ra's al Ghul saga (Thank you Irv Novick!), no Kree-Skrull War (Thank you John Buscema!) because the books would have been cancelled. Back, then you didn't skip publishing for several months if you wanted titles to survive.

Yeah, Neal Adams' work was great. Fans loved it, pros loved it, but the books had to come out on time and someone had to pick up the slack. He's not the only artist who was slow, but whose art was loved by Fans, pros and editors. If you're slow that's how you survive.

Fans might have griped and cursed every time there was a fill in for Neal Adams, but it would have been even worse if they had missed out on their monthly fix. The diminishing fan-base would have started shrinking a lot worse several decades earlier.

And maybe Neal Adams is a giant in the industry, but he's dwarfed by people like Joe Kubert, Jack Kirby etc who produced great work, lots of it and on time.

(And I like Sal Buscema's comic book work a hell of a lot more than that of Neal Adams. Not saying he's technically a better artist, but his comics read better to me.)

Doesn't alter the fact that Frank used to be a maniac about getting the stuff in and out on time -- nor does it make the points he raised on this subject any less valid.

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True.  Those points are definitely valid.

I just wish he was still a maniac about his stuff getting out on time.

I agree with what Eric said - readers& retailers vote with their wallets and they do not care if books are late. Most high profile late books still sell very well. So if publishers have no financial incentive to get books out on time they wont do it.

Especially if you factor in perenial trade sales - i recently discovered Alan Moore's Top Ten series via trades - i think the singles shipped late (not sure) but as a trade reader i am happy that it has consistent artwork by Gene Ha throughout..no crappy fill ins.

Lets also not forget that 12 unprofitable issues are seen as much worse than a handfull of very profitable issues by a high profile creative team.

In JB's example above he forgot to mention that the cost of producing a comic that only sells 12,000 copies a month will ensure its cancellation. The 100K selling comic produces a much higher profit margin for the publisher. AND will also ensure long term trade sales.

(DC recently dropped the ball by having 5 different artists draw the 5 part Titans tomorrow story..it was horrible..a real mish mash of styles and zero consistency..the trade will never sell..a shame because the story was decent).

QUOTE: (DC recently dropped the ball by having 5 different artists draw the 5 part Titans tomorrow story..it was horrible..a real mish mash of styles and zero consistency..the trade will never sell..a shame because the story was decent).

I thought that was one of the reasons that I found "THE OTHER" unlikeable (apart from the atrocious premise).  I imagine that sold pretty well, though.