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Joe Zhang
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 12857
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| Posted: 25 September 2005 at 11:51am | IP Logged | 1
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From a reader's POV, late comics are just not fun to wait for. And if
you're not having fun, what is the point of reading comics?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 134102
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| Posted: 25 September 2005 at 11:53am | IP Logged | 2
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I have said for years -- many times here -- that many of the problems currently vexing the industry are brought on by those "professionals" who are not able to leave their fanboy attitudes in the lobby. This pertains not only to the kinds of stories they tell -- remembering here Len Wein's famous observation that the first story you'd tell as a fan sould be the last story you'd tell as a pro -- but also to the attitude toward the characters and the work of other professionals. In the nearly 20 years I read comics before I entered the field as a professional, I only once saw anything that I would qualify as one professional using his work to make an "editorial comment" about another professional's work, but that is something that has become commonplace. And that, alas, the most vocal segment of fandom (as represented on the ultimate instant gratification machine, the internet) encourages. The notion that, for example, Writer A could do a story in Book A, and see that story eviscerated in Book B by Writer B a month or so later -- this would have been unheard of before the major influx of fans-turned-pro.Comics have functioned best -- and seen their greatest (legitimate) commercial success -- when the "clubhouse" mentality had been present in its smallest quantity, and the professionals have been... professional!
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John Mietus
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 9697
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| Posted: 25 September 2005 at 12:40pm | IP Logged | 3
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I'd look to Frank "One year between Ronin 5 & 6" Miller before I pointed
fingers at Todd McFarlane (who is just as guilty, don't get me wrong).
No, now that I think of it, that's not fair. Miller was maintaining his monthly
schedule on Daredevil while doing Ronin, even though he stopped doing the
one around the time the other was completed. Never mind.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 134102
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| Posted: 25 September 2005 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | 4
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I point to the Toddler because he is the one who
actually coined the "growing roses" term --
managing in his characteristic way to insult everyone
who had ever produced a monthly title -- from Jack
Kirby on down -- in the process!
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Anthony J Lombardi
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 January 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 9366
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| Posted: 25 September 2005 at 12:51pm | IP Logged | 5
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I chock up his comments J.B. to ignorance and immaturity that goes with youth.
Both his saying it and my accepting it as a fan at the time
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Darren Taylor
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 22 April 2004
Location: Scotland
Posts: 6033
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| Posted: 25 September 2005 at 12:52pm | IP Logged | 6
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Ahhh, the old "Backhanded" compliment.
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Anthony J Lombardi
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 January 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 9366
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| Posted: 25 September 2005 at 12:56pm | IP Logged | 7
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I think the biggest measure of a man is for him to think back on the things he has said and done when he was a bit younger and be man enough to admit he was wrong in what he said and did. Even if he was certain at the time he was right and everyone else was wrong.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 134102
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| Posted: 25 September 2005 at 12:57pm | IP Logged | 8
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Something I have noted before -- but something that is worth keeping always in the forefront of our minds when this discussion arises -- is that monthly comics, at least as we know them, are a fairly "recent" invention. If we take the American Comic Book in its present form as having originated in 1934, then the monthlies began to make a serious presence felt in the industry about 30 years later. Before that, comics had been mostly bi-monthlies, twice-quarterlies and quarterlies -- and in each of those, there were usually several stories by several different creative teams (usually about different characters). The "themed" books, where one character was not only the lead, but featured in all three or four stories, was the exception, not the rule, until Superman and Batman and their assorted spin-offs started to take hold of the industry. But it was really Marvel Comics, as personified by that superhuman mutant, Jack Kirby, that made the monthly comic as we know it today the "norm". And even Marvel did not start with monthlies. I spent an inordinate amount of time explain to people that, no, we had not miscounted and, yes, 236 really was the 20th anniversary issue of FANTASTIC FOUR, not 240. The book had begun as a bi-monthly, and many Marvel titles kept that schedule thru-out their runs. (UNCANNY X-MEN was bi-monthly when I took over, and it was only my speed that allowed it to be "promoted" to monthly. Meanwhile, IRON FIST had been one of the last, if not the last twice-quarterlies, being published 8 times a year). I have thought -- and expressed here, I am sure -- that it might be a good idea to return to the bi-monthly and twice-quarterly schedules, expecially with characters like Superman, Batman, X-Men and Spider-Man appearing in multiple titles. A monthly presence would be easy to maintain, even without monthly titles. Unfortunately, I know the reality is that a writer or artist assigned to a twice-quarterly would soon be producing 7 issues a year -- and swearing the missing issue would be "worth the wait" because he was "growing roses".
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Darren Taylor
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 22 April 2004
Location: Scotland
Posts: 6033
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| Posted: 25 September 2005 at 12:58pm | IP Logged | 9
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In the important thing I guess, Anthony! But then if I was to go back
and apologise for all the things I said in my youth...I'd be here for a
very long time;-)
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 134102
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| Posted: 25 September 2005 at 12:58pm | IP Logged | 10
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Ahhh, the old "Backhanded" compliment. **** "Anybody can shit out a book on a monthly schedule" is not a compliment, backhanded or otherwise.
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Darren Taylor
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 22 April 2004
Location: Scotland
Posts: 6033
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| Posted: 25 September 2005 at 1:02pm | IP Logged | 11
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Ahh but then He's saying that -he- isn't just "anybody" isn't he. Which
compliments himself in a backhanded way, whislt insulting everyone else.
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Thomas Moudry
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 5060
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| Posted: 25 September 2005 at 1:03pm | IP Logged | 12
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Marvel is rather lauding the arrival of the next issue of Spider-Man/Black Cat in the latest solicitations. Completely unprofessional. If I were an EoC, I wouldn't accept a project from Kevin Smith until it was completed. If it's an ongoing series, I wouldn't accept it until a full year was in the can.
To be perfectly honest, given his current record, I wouldn't hire him to do another thing.
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Topic Closed)
