There is a sad lack of professionalism at all levels. Publishers and editors who make unrealistic projections as to when a book will ship are guilty of a combination of greed and wishful thinking. Frankly, I wish the greed would dominate. Then they might work harder at getting the books out on time!

You simply cannot put a timescale on dealing with matters like this - some people bounce back quickly, others don't. I'm sure neither of them wanted to be away from their work, since as freelancers no work = no income, but in those situations getting a comic book out on time is way down the priority list, and quite rightly so. I'd defend someone until my death breath for putting their family before their work.

Wrong. Wrong. And wrong. If you have a job, and the job can't be done by anyone else, then it's up to the employee to continue to work or the company finds someone to do the job until the employee can work again. And frankly I don't expect anyone to do my work for me. Unless I had a wife raped and murdered and I have a revenge trip to take or I just witnessed an alien invasion and no one will believe me, I'm probably going to go to work. Why is the world full of people who have to cease all function in grief? Grief is horrific, but what the hell else IS there but life? Go to work. Function. Endure, I guess. Or have someone fill in. Otherwise it's just another excuse not to work in a society that rewards that sort of thing, and also doesn't reward hard work. Which is why society is the way society is, in these here United States.

Realistic lead time, and a few inventory jobs in the drawer, and editors can afford all the "sensitivity" in the world. Schedules are supposed to be planned assuming something will go wrong. I've mentioned that I work to my own schedule, usually ahead of what the editors ask for. I also plan a ten month year. That way I have down time built in automatically.

Why can't the fill-in stories be good stories?  If the creators try hard enough, they should be just as entertaining as the "regular" storyline.  As noted, if a creator cannot produce the books on schedule, don't schedule them that many books.  (Have them draw on or two arcs, not all 12 issues, or don't publish the book monthly.) 

The worst ever idea was publishing reprints when the regular team was behind schedule, however.

In all fairness to Mr Larsen, he did turn IMAGE into a decent publisher - I never read an IMAGE comic till Larsen came on board - he brought some great names to IMAGE. 

And also - and here's where it shifts - Larsen is correct in that it's unfair to place such weight on something uttered in ignorance or jest - but here's the sticking point - if he meant it or not, the effects of the statement - the mindset that is now so ingrained in the industry - maybe not because everyone wants to follow Todd McFarlane's wise advice per se, but because there wasn't an outcry over it when said, and to this day, people are so quick to defend it's logic that it's now considered the norm.

Like - I see Andrew's point too - I noted upthread that I was pissed to get the She-Hulk fill-in - but I also acknowledge that I'm not the key audience, or shouldn't be. 

Ah, but that leads to the next odd point - we do a lot of talking about how comics, as a business model, do best with the revolving door of 9 - 14 year old boys, but speaking of bells that can't be unrung... those kids are gone, and is there any way to get them back? 

Comics were an amazing fantasy escape for me and my friends when I was that age - you know, it was cheap, there was a built-in community, and it was bigger than any movie or toy or game.

But, you know, that doesn't hold up anymore on any level.  They're not really any sort of fantasy escape, they're not cheap, the community is a bunch of creepy middle aged shut-ins, and movies, toys and games are so much cooler than comics.

So, like it or not, they really are just creepy nostalgia for middle aged guys at this point.

The question is - what next?  Does it die when the generation after me dies?  (I think they were the last new readers.)  Or does it go in a different direction?  Things change.  Business models change.

Like - do they do away with the periodical model?  Follow what Larry Young did with AIT and publish as if it were a book publisher - complete full length stories?  Or do they move to a Japanese anthology model? 

Or - this is the exciting thought - maybe something we haven't thought of yet.

Kind of key to what's going on with the economy these days.  Computers and technology have changed the way most companies do things.  The ones that survive this wild west economic era will be the ones who "think different" as the ad says.  I have to say - we could be on the threshold of some great new ways of doing things.  150 years ago, they wouldn't believe what we've seen in the last century, you know?  That might be what we have in front of us - a whole new way of doing things.

So.  Who's got the new idea?  You know?  Put on your thinking caps.