True, but they haven't lured you back to work for them yet, without loosing face, have they?

There is a swedish saying:
"You don't miss the milking cow until it's gone".

QUOTE: "Put up or shut up" is another way of saying "Put your money where your mouth is." In other words, stand behind what you say with action, not merely words.*

Ah, thanks.  I was thinking of "put up" in the sense of "endure."

It's a bit pathetic from both sides of the fence in my opinion. Maybe it goes back to the whole "don't give the fans what they think they want", because it's pretty clear that a lot of fans would love to see JB back on a monthly Marvel book. Throw in a decent writer, an inker who knows what he's doing and a colourist who grew up in the pre-Photoshop-filters era and I've got little doubt that such a book would easily sell beyond the break-even levels.

Will it happen? I doubt it. All this "M****l" stuff is petty, and Tom expecting you to call him is petty. Does he have your number? If not, can he find it? Can he use a telephone? So why can't he call you? Honestly, it's like two young kids who need their heads banging together, it's just ridiculous. There has to be some common ground to be found, but neither party seems willing to make the first sensible move.

I don't see how Tom B has done anything wrong by posting on his blog. He's responding to a challenge in the public domain, with a counter-challenge in the public domain. And speaking purely as a fan of comics, I can't argue with what he's said regarding Perez and Simonson. George Perez is working for DC and I'm eagerly buying said work. If JB was working for DC or Marvel, I'd be buying said work, without hesitation - as I have for the past 20-odd years on an almost religious basis - and I wouldn't be alone. But Star Trek from IDW? Sorry but it doesn't interest me, nor would it if Perez was working on it, or some of my other favourite artists - Gary Frank, John Romita JR, Alan Davis, to name three.

At the end of the day, everyone has to be happy with what they're doing. If JB is happier working on Star Trek than he would be on a Marvel or DC comic, then good for him because job satisfaction is important, especially for an artist. But I look at the commissions which are posted here, and I can see the true love he still has for those characters. Those characters are still around (mostly), they're just not quite the same as they were 15 years ago. Unless someone comes in and takes them back to their roots, or in a different direction again, then nothing's going to change is it? There are those who think, and those who do.

I'd just love a world where John phones Mr Brevorrt (or Ralph Macchio) and, after he's picked his jaw off the floor, he listens to John pitch DOOM WAR! for the FF.  And then a SPIDER-MAN arc with Marc Guggenheim.  The only thing better than that would be more NEXT MEN.

Ah, I can dream can't I?

Andy