Don't forget the great Howard Mackie!

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Mr. Mackie, I humbly, humbly apologize.

JB, I respectfully withdraw my request as I feel my (unintentional) slighting of Howard Mackie renders my unworthy of the consideration.

Bring back the bi-monthly tag. Companies shouldn't promise a monthly comic by a guy like Adam Hughes or Stephen Bissette or Bill Sienkiewicz. Keep the monthlies running with the John Byrnes and the bi-monthly or tri-monthly stuff by the meticulous cats. It's like the difference between a safety and a free safety, they seem like the same player in weight and height but the nuances of coverage versus run-support specify their role. At least football teams don't LIE to the public about what those men are capable of or how they will produce.

By the way, that is one sexy Wonder Woman by Adam Hughes. Are those Lynda Carter eyes?

Although highly rendered, this is one of the few times I'd say that the colorist did not go overboard, but worked with the artist to achieve a certain look.  To me, those pages look like some sort of Renaissance paintings.  Wonderful!

It is wonderful to read the posts in this forum by professionals who truly ARE professional in every sense of that word, who understand the balance between their individual creative freedom and their contractual responsibilities.

I think fans understand that life happens. On the most recent Jon Sable mini-series Mike Grell got behind the eight-ball with an unrealistic schedule coupled with a personal tragedy. One of the issues shipped late. But, like a true professional, he worked his rear off not to lose any further ground and got himself back on schedule. I can admire and respect that.

The real issue at hand here is expectations. If something is promised to be delivered monthly, it should arrive as promised. That's a contract the talent makes with the publisher, and the publishers in turn makes with the distributor, the retailer and their customers. Setting realistic and regular schedules is the key to managing those expectations. It's those long, unexplained gaps between issues 3 and 4 that always cause me the most grief, and perhaps they could have been avoided if the book had started it's life as a bi-monthly.

Which begs the question whether we still need to be slaves to a monthly schedule. Years past we seemed to do quite okay publishing bi-monthly and eight times a year. With some books today, that’s the de facto schedule, even though we consider them monthlies. (On a personal note, I was really irritated by the trend a few years back to up the production schedule in the summer so there were 15 X-Men, Superman and Batman books a year rather than 12. Like DC and Marvel just had to wring every last penny they could out of my pocket...)

I'd also like to know how many books ship late due to economic reasons, either getting bumped from the press time for a more profitable book or getting held-up in the hopes additional orders might come in. It surely can't be the talent's fault all the time.

Thanks for posting the pages, but I had to add them myself.  DC printed them WAY oversaturated; here's how they looked when Laura and I colored them.

The issue of the Amazon Competition is one I'm actually wrestling with.  Back in the Golden Age, when WW was only strong enough to lift a car, and NEEDED to deflect bullets with her bracelets, it was OK to have the contest.  She was one Amazon among many.

Nowadays, with her having near-Superman levels of strength & toughness (and Superman being WAY beyond leaping tall buildings, etc), I have to decide if she's a unique Amazon with the powers of a goddess, or if we have an island full of Kryptonian-level Amazons.  Since I dearly WANT to have the Amazon Contest, I'm wracking my little brain on a good way to make it all work in the context of her classic origin.

Thanks to the level head that pointed out this was just a two-page origin.  I'm working on the 2-pager origin for Power Girl right now, and if you think Mark Waid and & I are answering questions that a whole 4-issue JSA miniseries couldn't, well, I have a bridge in NY I'd like to sell you.

AH!

Here's a thought: on Themyscira, the Amazons, Diana included, do not age past specific a level of physical maturity. So, the powers the Gods gave Diana would develop only to a certain point, making her a "super Amazon" but not in Superman's class. Once she left Paradise Island and began to age normally (even tho it's only been a few years) the powers would have escalated dramatically. Faster even than Superman's developed.