That phrase touched a nerve, huh?

Wasn’t point where he couldn’t be arsed with drawing it the same time as he was promoting the heck out of the movie version of Wanted?

Hmmm.

Having pride in your work is rushing it out to meet deadlines? That’s the opposite to me.

This isn’t the same situation as what we’ve seen with All Star Superman and Astonishing X-Men – artwork delays were tolerable as they were self-contained stories. This isn’t even the same situation as Marvel’s Civil War, as it was only really the last issue of that series which was delayed – J.G. is stuck & he’s barely halfway through the series as it is. Whatever DC may say of the “planned break” between FC #3 & FC #4, the fact is that Lenil Yu churned out twice as many issues of Marvel’s Secret Invasion story in the same time period!

J.G. deserves to feel bad as he seems to be contributing to an ongoing issue at DC where the top artists cannot be expected to contribute their work in a timely fashion (Anyone remember ‘Last Son’?). And I do put the onus on the artists, not the editors, for this state-of-affairs. Have some pride in your work, for God’s sake. If an artist is given enough advance notice, they should be able to deliver on time – every time.

…yes, that may or may not be the factor that contributed to his lateness. All I have to say is really, DC? Really, JG? Nobody stopped to think that maybe, just maybe it would’ve been much better to have had a seperate inker, especially considering his track record. But no, I guess getting another inker would’ve totally ruined what made Jones’ work so great, I mean it’s not like the alternative would’ve been a couple of artists taking over for him. DC editorial really doesn’t think things out, do they?

Yep. That’s exactly right. Who are the “baby men” to complain when they’ve been spending $3.99 for the books? Right. Who are the “baby men” to complain that have invested the money in this series only to have it change in midstream? Right. It’s only a comic book, right. It’s not like they payed for it or anything like that.

Oh, wait. The “baby men” are paying for it? Gee, I guess that means that, since it’s not at all free, that the “baby men” have a right to complain when you ask for their money and then don’t deliver what you say you are going to deliver when it’s supposed to be delivered by who you say was going to deliver it.

Non related: I remember when comic books used to be fun. They are very close to not being that way anymore. The companies have something to do with it; the creators have a bit to do with it; the fans have a lot to do with it. More’s the pity.

I feel a little bad for the guy too. It seems like lately the exchange goes:
Artist: “There is no way I can work in this time frame”
Editor: “Sure you can, no problem”
Artist: “No really, there aren’t enough hours in the day”
Editor: “Here, have more money. Now you can work faster”
Artist: “Umm.. thats great I still can’t do it”
Editor: “Here, have twice your page rate. Do it on time”
Artist: “….. okay”

Basically, its an offer that they can’t refuse. I may be way off base here, but I seem to recall very slow artists knowingly working outside of their ability and I can’t think of any other explanation.

On the flip however, Marvel seems to be doing what DC could never….going from one big event to the next, launching some successful titles, leading to another big event and so on. Their changes affect most of their line to varying degrees and it works for them. What happens when FC is over at DC? There has been no hint at any lasting ramifications. They hobble their events together and hope that people won’t notice that they really don’t connect (or often times contradict each other: Countdown, New Gods…)

As for Mr. Jones, he will bounce back somewhere else, and will do fine. Talent is talent. That being said, he was horribly matched to this assignment IMO, but to each their own. What confuses me the most, is that Countdown lasted a year, 6 months at least was countdown to FC, so why is FC late at all? Why would they start work so late? Someday someone will have a great story to tell about how DC manages their work, or doesn’t.

I heart this phrase

Kudos to DC editorial for showing once again that they have no planning skills whatsoever.

Jones hasn’t lost a fan (I still like his art), but Final Crisis and its tie-ins have definitely lost me as a customer. I’ll pick up the rest of this shark sandwich at a dollar bin next year.

Jones is right; he would have ruled on this script from issue 1.

Jones never had a timely track record, and no matter what they say they can do or how excited they are to work on a project, the artists record speaks for itself.

And DC needs a good kick in the ass for promising the book to come out on time.

Both DC and Jones are culpable on this, even though Jones does seem upset by it.

Then again, he kept saying the book was “on time” and “up to script” when he was doing the convention jaunts (again, a stupid move on both Jones and DC’s part)

Mahnke is awesome though.

I also thought it odd that Pacheco was the guy assigned to help Jones out, since Pacheco has has plenty of deadline problems of his own. Mahnke is a solid pro and will probably wrap up the series with style….but I don’t envy him being assigned to such an awkward situation with so much baggage and bad feelings tied into it.

DC (specifically editor Eddie Berganza) seems incapable of managing the publisher’s most high-profile projects.