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Martin Redmond
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 June 2006
Posts: 3882
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| Posted: 25 February 2008 at 9:22am | IP Logged | 1
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I'd frankly love to get 6 issues by Marc Silvestri or Whilce Portacio a year. I know they can draw even faster than that.
Edited by Martin Redmond on 25 February 2008 at 9:26am
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133580
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| Posted: 25 February 2008 at 9:30am | IP Logged | 2
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Using an example from animation, I was asked to do a 300 page
storyboard for a show in two weeks, on account of an incompetent
production manager (standard for the industry is to allow artists a
minimum of 4 weeks to do a 'rough' board).
Somehow I managed to complete the work (a bit delirious at the end, I
must say), but the director hated it because it wasn't 'clean' enough. I
found out that artists on the same team had handed their work in over
two weeks late on account of the impossible deadline.
I was shown the door, and the 'slow' artists who delayed the entire
production continued to get work.
••
Most of you have probably heard the tale of The Amazing Three-Day
Spider-Man.
I was sitting at my drawingboard, up in Canada, one day, when the phone
rang. It was Roger Stern, by then a staffer at Marvel. "How'd you like to
be the guy who saves Spider-Man?" he asked.
Part of Roger's job back then was processing vouchers. He was doing the
final processes for an issue of AMAZING, and discovered that the letter-
column voucher had no title listed for the issue. So he asked around, and
discovered there was no title for the issue. The recently departed
writer had left without turning in what was supposed to be his final plot.
We were, at that point, about three weeks from shipping.
So Roger whomped up a plot, read it to me over the phone, and over one
weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I penciled 17 pages. I got it into the
mail on Monday, and it arrived in the Office on Wednesday.
And then it sat on Shooter's desk for two weeks while he looked for an
inker.
The book -- AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 206 -- did ship on time. But only
just!
(When people imagine they can tell by looking at it when my work is
"rushed", I suggest they check out this issue.)
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133580
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| Posted: 25 February 2008 at 9:34am | IP Logged | 3
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Incidentally, the Grand Comicbook Database lists me having done
"breakdowns" on that issues, and Gene Day doing pencils and inks. Not
correct. I did what Roger called "flakedowns" -- halfway between full
pencils and breakdowns -- and Gene did finishing inks, not pencils.
No copies of my pencils for that issue survive, unfortunately, but they would
have looked sorta like THIS.
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Howard Mackie
Byrne Robotics Security
Armed and Dangerous
Joined: 16 February 2005
Posts: 666
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| Posted: 25 February 2008 at 9:35am | IP Logged | 4
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<<I'd frankly love to get 6 issues by Marc Silvestri or Whilce Portacio a year. I know they can draw even faster than that.>>
But NOT on a MONTHLY book. When a publisher says that a book is going to be MONTHLY... isn't that an implied contract with the readers? There are PLENTY of artist who just don't seem to be able to pencil monthly titles... so they shouldn't. There are graphic novels... trades... one-shots... limited series(that should NEVER be scheduled untilt he last issue is done)... and all sorts of ways for you to get your 6 issues a year. They, and the publishers, should just not promise the readers something else.
H
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133580
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| Posted: 25 February 2008 at 9:36am | IP Logged | 5
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How are these books described in the indicia, these days? Are they called
monthlies anymore?
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Joe Hollon
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 08 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 13705
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| Posted: 25 February 2008 at 9:41am | IP Logged | 6
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I've noticed the indicia of DC books say "published monthly by DC comics" even on titles that they don't intend to put out monthly. BRAVE AND THE BOLD was pointed out to me as a book that was "supposed to be late."
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Bruce Buchanan
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 14 June 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4797
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| Posted: 25 February 2008 at 9:42am | IP Logged | 7
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Wow! That's an amazing story, JB. I hope you got paid a little extra for the quick turnaround!
By the way, I recently re-read Amazing Spider-Man #206 (I just got the Complete Spider-Man DVD-ROM, so I'm reading a lot of back issues these days). I couldn't tell that it was an emergency rush job - I never would've known had you not told us.
Interesting to note that Uncle Rog had to wait two days for the pages to arrive in the mail. It's something we don't consider in the days of electronic communication and overnight delivery service.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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Posts: 133580
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| Posted: 25 February 2008 at 9:43am | IP Logged | 8
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Wow! That's an amazing story, JB. I hope you got paid a little extra for the
quick turnaround!
••
I got my breakdown rate. Marvel/Shooter acknowledged only breakdowns
and full pencils, so my "flakedowns" were considered the former.
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Bruce Buchanan
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 14 June 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4797
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| Posted: 25 February 2008 at 9:44am | IP Logged | 9
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Does anyone know the story of why the original script never was produced? Marv Wolfman was leaving the book at the time, but I find it hard to believe he would intentionally leave the editor hanging like that. Was it just a miscommunication?
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Bruce Buchanan
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 14 June 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4797
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| Posted: 25 February 2008 at 9:46am | IP Logged | 10
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I got my breakdown rate. Marvel/Shooter acknowledged only breakdowns
and full pencils, so my "flakedowns" were considered the former.
***********
That stinks. Given that you bailed the company out of a really tight spot, Shooter (or whoever was handling pay at the time) should've at least given you credit and payment for full pencils on that issue. I mean, that's just common courtesy.
Edited by Bruce Buchanan on 25 February 2008 at 9:47am
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133580
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| Posted: 25 February 2008 at 9:47am | IP Logged | 11
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Interesting to note that Uncle Rog had to wait two days for the pages to
arrive in the mail. It's something we don't consider in the days of
electronic communication and overnight delivery service.
••
I have long maintained that the "speedier" ways in which we can
ship/transmit stuff has served only to make us slower.
Consider -- in the days before express mail, FedEx and fax machines, if
you had a Tuesday deadline, and were not planning on hand-delivering
the job, you had to make you got it to the post office by no later than
Friday of the previous week.
FedEx meant you could have it done Monday.
Fax means you can have it done Tuesday morning!
And most push that as hard as they can!
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 25 February 2008 at 9:48am | IP Logged | 12
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Does anyone know the story of why the original script never was produced?
Marv Wolfman was leaving the book at the time, but I find it hard to believe
he would intentionally leave the editor hanging like that. Was it just a
miscommunication?
••
Suffice to say it was not "miscommunication".
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