| Posted: 15 September 2025 at 7:54am | IP Logged | 6
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Growing up in the 70's and becoming a teenager in the 80's, I watched creative people whose work I loved (Kirby, Ditko, Starlin, Chaykin, and Grell, and then Neal Adams started his own company) move from work-for-hire on established Marvel and DC series into good and successful creator-owned Independent works. This seemed like a natural progression and the way things should go.
The next step would have been (akin to a television actor "graduating" into doing movies) for these legends to leave behind the monthly grind of series and move into doing high quality graphic novels as frequently or infrequently as they liked.
Aside from Will Eisner, this didn't really happen, as least until much later with Jim Starlin crafting a number of THANOS original hardcover graphic novels for Marvel. At the same time, Neal Adams seemed to have a free hand returning to DC to do brand new limited series for BATMAN, DEADMAN, and SUPERMAN. (Not graphic novels or creator-owned, but clearly something Adams was enjoying.)
And that's it. Eisner and Adams have sadly passed away, and Starlin was actually fired from future THANOS works, even as movies based on his work made billions. How is this possible?
How in the world has some publisher NOT invited all the surviving legends to do SOMETHING?!? Original graphic novels, limited series, even one-shots--just something a step removed from the latest Marvel or DC $5 comic written and drawn by unknowns and selling 10,000 copies?
Edited by Eric Jansen on 15 September 2025 at 7:58am
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