Late Breaking News
There's been an increasing trend over the past few years, really since the inauguration of the execrable "Image Age of Comics" for schedules to be considered, oh, friendly suggestions rather than actual, y'know, schedules.
The news that, after about a year of late issues, Marvel is doing something to catch up on the Marvel Knights Daredevil title is so sad, so pathetic, as to be nearly comical. Rob Haynes stepping in for an issue as penciler is a solution that will please no one, and frankly, solve nothing.
There are a number of factors at play here, most of them vitally important to the issue. Firstly, Daredevil under editors/artists Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti has been pretty good. Kevin Smith pulled a Watchmen ending on his 9-issue story arc; the final revelation of the villain and his motive was extremely disappointing in relation to the intensity and excellence of the set-up. In case ya missed it, Mysterio found out he was dying, and wanted to take revenge on someone before he died. Spider-Man, his actual nemesis, was unavailable because, well, the Clone Saga. So, Mysterio picked Daredevil to torment. Among the many misdeeds he committed was the murder of Karen Page. The utter stupidity of this motivation actually was muted a great deal by the frequently excellent storyline that led up to it. Like I said, sorta like Watchmen.
Another factor that's important is the upheaval that has affected the lives of the MK office. Joe Quesada's mother passed away and he got married around the same time. So you can see where that might slow things down. Joey da Q also claimed there were printing problems, but I don't know that that's ever been substantiated.
All these factors seem, well, to fade into the background in the face of a simple fact: Quesada was well known in the industry for having deadline problems long before he ever took over Daredevil. Really, the lateness of the title should have come as a surprise to no one, even without the personal issues he was dealing with.
The surprising thing, to me, is that after many months of frustration at this situation, I gave up being outraged and just enjoyed each issue whenever it happened to pop up. So, of course, Marvel has now gone and decided to hire a fill-in artist to try to catch up on the schedule. Very few people seem pleased with this option, me among them.
The fact is, these deadline problems are more and more common. The Cliffhanger books were announced to great excitement and have blown deadlines left and right. Travis Charest impressed everyone with his work on the latest Wildcats series, then turned it into, well, the latest Wildcats series. Many, many mainstream titles recently have missed a month or hired fill-in writers and artists to allow the talent time to catch up.
I don't know what the problem is, really. Sure, some gifted artists historically have played fast and loose with deadlines, but for the most part, comics have come out on time with the expected creative teams since I began reading comics in the early 1970s.
In this era of runs of comics being collected into trade paperbacks on a regular basis, it seems to me fill-in artists are not a very good idea. When the David Mack-written DD run is collected, as it almost certainly will be, will the fill-in issues, by another artist, be included? Surely, no matter how much they try to shoehorn them in as harmlessly as possible, these issues will stand out like a sore thumb. So do you not include them, thus driving completists up the wall?
It's a difficult problem, and there may be no easy solution. I know there's a lot of talk about modern artistic techniques blah blah blah slowing things up, but Jesus, if Jack Kirby, the best, most talented artist in the history of the medium could pencil multiple titles for years and years and years and never miss a deadline, all the while getting better and better and breaking new ground and establishing in large part the language of the medium of American comics, well, how is it some of these lesser lights today just can't keep even one title on track?
I have to wonder if it isn't, to a certain extent, the fact that some of these guys may be "spoiled," to coin a phrase. Skyrocketing royalties for an elite few have probably convinced them the money will always keep rolling in, and some of them have chosen to cash in completely, farming out all the work to other artists while remaining the figurehead of a given title or line in name only. Jack Kirby made his deadline because, well, he had to, or his family would have gone hungry.
So I'm guessing artistic temperament may have a lot to do with it. A lack of discipline.
In my line of work, radio broadcasting, a certain creative, well, flightiness, is occasionally tolerated. Creative people by their very nature are living in a world all their own. But the fact is, radio is a business. You're given a few passes now and then, but the kind of perpetual deadline-blowing being seen in comics today absolutely would not be tolerated in my or any other industry I can think of.
At a time when mainstream comics are selling only a small percentage of their historic numbers, you would think the natural reaction would be to tighten up and try to turn out the best product you can, on time, every time. Ain't happening.
It's ironic, too, because some of the best comics in the history of the artform are being produced today. Hell, in the case of Daredevil alone, it's better than it has been in years. But I find it very hard to believe DD hasn't lost some readers because of its lateness.
Undoubtedly, some readers checked it out because they liked Quesada, or Kevin Smith, or David Mack. But how much of the ground gained has been lost because of the lateness of the title over the last year? We'll never know for sure, but the situation can't have been good for the title. I'd venture to guess the sales it's had would have been even better had a new issue, by a stable creative team, been released every month. The same goes for the perpetually late Cliffhanger titles.
I don't mean to pick on Quesada here; he's done a good job as penciler on Daredevil and the situation clearly hasn't been completely his fault. But this is a time when comic book companies need to step up to the plate and work to save the industry in the face of increasing competition from other media. A solution to the problem is needed, and if you're gonna wait a year to address the issue, I think you could think of something better than a fill-in artist. I mean, come on, you've had nearly a year to figure something out! And that's just in this one case!
Is the solution to do away with monthly comics altogether? Wait until you have 6 months or a year's worth of issues before even announcing a schedule? I dunno.
I do know this. Some of the best comics in American history only come out occasionally. American Splendor, I think, comes out once a year. Eightball is semi-annual. But they have an audience, and they have maintained production for years.
I'll take quality over quantity any day. I'd rather have 6 or 8 Quesada-drawn issues of Daredevil of the quality we've seen so far than any fill-in issues. I'd rather have 6 or 8 issues of JLA by Morrison and Porter than the somewhat substandard fill-in issues we've seen in that case (although somehow they've spun it better than Marvel has managed to).
But it would be nice, too, if the artists and creators that have discipline problems would rededicate themselves to their chosen artform. If you sign a contract, fulfill it. But make sure you're as honest as you can be up front about deadlines before the contract is ever signed. Don't say you can do a monthly title if quarterly is all you can truly handle. If you have talent, if you can generate and sustain an audience, they won't turn away. And if you're honest about these things up front, they won't be angry either.
Everybody wins.