This'll be another inconsistent week for blogging, as we've got editorial meetings scheduled for the rest of the week, and then comes the Christmas holiday. But so long as I'm here, I'll do my utmost to get you something to read every day.
We did a conference call with a number of our retailers today, talking about all of the assorted things we've got coming up out of CIVIL WAR. Which led, inexorably enough, to some questions about how shipping delays can be avoided in the future. And, unfortunately, there isn't any one magic answer.
Part of the problem is that not every reader wants the same thing. You can find people who'll ask why so-and-so the penciler who can draw 12 issues a year isn't getting more work. But you can also find people who, when you give so-and-so an assignment, simply aren't that interested, or who feel even more strongly and hate the work. "Just hiring fast guys" doesn't seem to be the magic solution. If it was, then it wouldn't matter who drew THE ULTIMATES, it would sell just as well.
But especialy these days, with the rising cover prices of most comics, the bar is set pretty high. In my day, back in the late 70s and early 80s, I could afford to buy pretty much the entire Marvel line of books, as well as just about everything from the competition, and still have some cash left over for back issues. No more. And that means that every comic needs to give more value-for-money to its readers. I can't tell you how many mediocre-to-bad issues of GHOST RIDER or DEFENDERS I purchased back in the day, simply because they were there and I could afford them. We don't have that luxury today.
Also, I think there's a misunderstanding about the work-habits of most of the artists doing comics. The typical picture one gets is of a guy who eats up tons of time playing video games, and only works when he has to. And while that might be the case in some instances, it isn't the norm. Our artists work hard, because the demands have changed. Heck, coloring is practically an entirely different discipline these days, and adds so much to the finished book that it can't easily be crapped out by a dozen guys with markers when the deadline looms, as was sometimes the case in the 90s.
Finally, there's a great deal of difference in terms of the financials associated with comics--meaning that our creators these days earn a good living wage. Jack Kirby would draw two or three comic books a month, but the reason for that was that that was how many pages he needed to produce to keep his family fed, and it meant working 14 hours a day often seven days a week. Kirby was no slacker, but if he had been freed from the driving need to produce, produce, produce, he'd likely have done far fewer comics, because that need wouldn't have been there--but he'd have been able to spend a far greater amount of time on each comic he did do.
So it's a conundrum. While you can find fans who'll align with any side of the issue, there are fans who'll stop buying if you go to a fill-in, and there are fans who'll stop buying if the delays get too great. So we need to make decisions on what steps to take on a case-by-case basis, at least until some other, better solution presents itself.
More later.
Tom B
