This is a lot of what I was getting at with this topic. Artists like Kirby et al were great but clearly nowadays we're working with much different standards in terms of pencil/ink detail and coloring quality and htat sort of thing. Basically what I was wondering here was the extent to which people think those standards and the time they take to produce or whether they'd be okay with or even prefer the simpler techniques that lend themselves well to producing work on-deadline.
DBM's answer is pretty illustrative, he clearly outright prefers the simpler*, more illustrative style of a JRJR to the more rendered look of a Hitch or a John Cassaday. I don't know where exactly I fall personally, I actually really enjoy a cleaner, more simplified approach in a lot of instances but I can't say that the effort of say, a Dave Aja doesn't add something really special to a book.
*Just to be clear "simpler" isn't meant as any kind of perjorative here.
It ultimately comes down to style, but you will notice some of the artists who can meet a monthly schedule, such as Romita Jr. or Mark Bagley or others, have different styles than Bryan Hitch or Cassaday. It call comes down to the individual, of course. Some can maintain and some can't.
But be that as it may, I never stopped liking a comic back in the 80's and 90's because of the color dots. I never asked for glossy pages. It was ironic when MIGHTY AVENGERS had that bit where Sentry, Dr. Doom and Iron Man go back in time and everything is "old school colors" and I thought, "it didn't take 2-4 weeks to color comics when they did it like this".
I'm not saying that I don't enjoy modern techniques, too. But as the prices of production rise and the sales fall, is the trade off still worth it?
I like all kinds of different art styles, but it's just inexcusable to take months or years to finish a single issue of a major publisher's periodical. If it's your own creator-owned magnum opus, by all means, take your entire bloody life. But ongoing series at major publishers need to have regular releases; that's how the medium operates. I'm sure the extremely artsy-fartsy artists might not want to accept that there's simply a maximum level of detail you can squeeze in under the monthly time/detail ratio, but there is. Just like you wouldn't expect a TV show to delay an episode because they're trying to get the special effects up to super-duper-realer-than-photorealistic quality, comic readers shouldn't expect that their books are going to be delayed willy nilly to appease some egomaniacal artist's need to get things just right. They work in a time-dependent medium. If they don't like it, well, that's what creator-owned graphic novels were made for.
Good point.
In the long run, who really remembers delays? What if Kingdome Come, or Watchmen, or even something like Hush came out a few weeks late? Does it really matter now? The art lasts forever. The memories or anger of books coming out fades.
Do I think to myself, man Secret Invasion took forever to come out, it sucks. No. Will I think Final Crisis is going to be wierd because of the artist fiasco. Yes.
I'll tell you a true story. I've gone back and re-read some of the Whedon/Cassaday ASTONISHING X-MEN run for research purposes and while it is hardly the pinnacle of X-Men storytelling, it is still is a solid adventure tale that probably wasn't worth some of my venomous reviews (although I haven't reread DANGER or TORN). But what I haven't forgotten was that it took over four years to get 25 issues worth of story.
The "it doesn't matter" argument is pretty much what the editorial uses as an excuse. Let's apply it to other mediums. What does it matter if TV episodes were late all the time in the era of downloads and the DVD Box Set?
What matters is pacing, which requires regular issues come out. And it also stands to reason that trades and box sets may eventually outpace the weekly/monthly audience, but it will take a very long time. Finally, not every delayed work is of the caliber of WATCHMEN or whatnot. Just like for every BIO-SHOCK, there are a dozen lackluster, "barely worth a rental" games.
And ironically, the very reason that SECRET INVASION has been so successful against FINAL CRISIS is because of timely issues. Maybe people like professionalism sometimes.
BrianWilly said:
I think my answer is ultimately no, I would not trade it, because I don't think there's any reason why we can't have both. There's hundreds of artists out there who can do quality work on an average schedule. Everyone's going to have one or two late deliveries which is unavoidable and to be expected and dealt with, but if you're just consistently later than every other artists who can do your job in half the amount of time you can, then why in the poop are you hired for the job instead of those people?
Same exact situation with writers. If you can't deliver timeliness...then, well, there's a literal line of other writers, probably just as talented as you, who are just waiting on bated breath to have your job.
A sound point. The problem is this is not an industry that supports new blood. Name-power can be everything. Not all the time, but over 50% of the time.