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Topic: Am I Retired? (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 30 June 2022 at 5:40pm | IP Logged | 1  

Up front, I don’t care for the word. Too geezery!

Sure, I’ll be 72 next week*, and it’s been a long time since I’ve collected a salary of any kind. (Royalty payments are something else.) But does that really make me “retired”?

I joke that I prefer “unemployed”.

Opinions?

———

* Save the salutations for the day, please.

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Joe Smith
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Joined: 29 August 2004
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Posted: 30 June 2022 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | 2  

Yes.

The Unemployment office is very strict about that word, as well.
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Michael Penn
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Posted: 30 June 2022 at 5:50pm | IP Logged | 3  

I have a friend who used to be in marketing, had a "real" job, 9-5, in an office. But over the years he bought several rental properties and eventually he had enough income from them to quit his marketing job. At first, he lived in the same city as his props, and he self-managed. But then he married and moved to a state hundreds of miles away. Since then, he used a manager. Does he overall supervise? Surely. But day to day what does he really do? Not much.

He spends the morning drinking coffee and reading the news. Then he'll go to the post office or some other chore. Then he'll take a walk. Then he'll say something like (just today!) his wife got some chopped meat to make sliders and maybe they'll have that for dinner. And he complained that you really must know what movie or show you want to watch beforehand because searching through a service like HULU just takes up too much time and, boom, it's 10 pm and you're too tired to watch.

When I tell him he's retired, he gets upset. "I own props! They are like kids!" Listen, I have FOUR kids (and from my parents rental props too). Only kids are kids. And I have a job, a boss (several). Only a job is a job.

My friend is over a decade younger than you, JB, but if he's retired -- and he is -- then... enjoy your retirement!

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Paul Wills
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Posted: 30 June 2022 at 6:20pm | IP Logged | 4  

'retired' puts connotations in my head of sitting in the back yard on a bench drinking lemonade and watching the birds fly by everyday. As long as you continue to be productive, I don't feel it applies. Might as well wait until 92 to officially retire (:  (actually, some people still work at 92! maybe they consider death retirement).
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Jason Scott
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Posted: 30 June 2022 at 6:54pm | IP Logged | 5  

(actually, some people still work at 92! maybe they consider death retirement.)

------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------

Like William Shatner! Still a very active guy, who doesn't seem interested in slowing down!

As for JB's question. You're only that if you want to be. Nobody can slap a label on you for these sort of things, and have it be the truth of the matter. As I have this belief that people are what they consider themselves to be in that regard. That's my two cents anyway, for what it's worth.
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Kevin Brown
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Posted: 30 June 2022 at 7:29pm | IP Logged | 6  

You're only retired if you want to be.  If you feel like you want to work and get paid for it, do it; if you don't, then don't.  IMO, you're only retired when you no longer feel like putting in any time to earn a salary.  

So enjoy whatever it is that you want to call it, JB.  Your time is own to do what you desire.
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Matt Hawes
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Posted: 30 June 2022 at 7:32pm | IP Logged | 7  

Well... it's a question of semantics, I guess, but it does seem that when one is unemployed by choice, then they have "retired". "Unemployed" would seem to suggest that one can't get work, not that one turns it away. A younger person who turns away employment is usually looked upon as being a loafer. We know you aren't THAT, JB. Heck, I think you've worked more in the past few years on "fan fic" than many working/employed professionals these days.


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Michael Penn
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Posted: 30 June 2022 at 7:38pm | IP Logged | 8  

Another non-alte kaker perspective to consider, JB, would be that to retire originally meant to withdraw one's armies. It seems to be fundamentally true that you are no longer at all interested in fighting, as you would call them, the Powers That Be in whatever the comicbook industry is.
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Peter Martin
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Posted: 30 June 2022 at 8:21pm | IP Logged | 9  

If you're producing new artwork and Jim Warden is selling that new artwork for you, then you are a freelance artist and not retired.
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Oliver Denker
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Joined: 18 August 2018
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Posted: 01 July 2022 at 8:33am | IP Logged | 10  

Were you ever truly employed by Marvel or DC. I mean on staff or bullpen or did you freelance for them?
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 01 July 2022 at 9:28am | IP Logged | 11  

I was briefly under contract to Marvel in the Eighties.
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Peter Hicks
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Posted: 01 July 2022 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | 12  

Are you still drawing for money?   If not, I would say you are retired.

Are there no further projects you would want to do with IDW (or anyone else)?
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