Did Jeff Lemire Tease His Green Arrow Gig Via NYCC Clothing Choice?

[db8coach]

I think if you can get 2-3 arch per writer thats pretty good

So 8 to 12 issues basically?

[db8coach]

Does fill-in art disqualify a book? Because Wonder Woman has been Brian Azarello and Bernard Chang with some fill-ins to keep up with the schedule.

That's part of the issue, is that with DC's hard-line 'no delays' policy, you sometimes have to run the regular artist off to keep up with schedule, especially if artists are none for taking longer to finish work. Your options then become have a rotating stable of high-caliber artists who can rotate over time, or have occasional fill-in artists if you want to keep artists on a particular book. Obviously there are more writers who have been on a book from 1 to 14, but that's less uncommon.

And personally, I think that having some diversity in art can be a good thing. Another example, Greg Capullo has done an amazing job on Batman save for issue 12 which was done by Becky Coonan, and the annual by Jason Fabok. But those books benefitted from having a different artistic interpretation, as their tones were radically different from what was happening in the main storyline. It set them apart rather than detracting from the story.

A "fill in" is cool with me. But when the fill in artist becomes "as regular" as the regular penciler, that is when it stops being just a "fill in". I'm talking John Byrne doing Fantastic Four for...what was it 70 issues? Or even Mark Bagley on New Warriors or Thunderbolts, not to mention Ultimate Spider-Man.

[Joe Kalicki]

Are 4 to 6 issues enough to tell if something is or isn't working? Imagine some of the great comics runs that would have been axed if you based future interest on the first 4 issues?

Yes, it is. When books are getting cancelled by issue 6 or 8 you need to move fast.

Also, all the great runs on books had fill-ins, except the Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four.

[Cavemold]

So 8 to 12 issues basically?

For DC thats pretty long. Batman 1-12 one arch, 0 , 13-19 another arch. Nightwing 1-7 was one arch

[db8coach]

Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen's run on Legion of Super-Heroes...Legion of Superheroes #281-313, Legion of Superheroes #1-5
Roger Stern and John Romita Jr.’s Amazing Spider-Man... Amazing Spider-Man 229-252
John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake’s The Spectre...The Spectre #0-62

[Cavemold]

Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen's run on Legion of Super-Heroes...Legion of Superheroes #281-313, Legion of Superheroes #1-5
Roger Stern and John Romita Jr.’s Amazing Spider-Man... Amazing Spider-Man 229-252
John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake’s The Spectre...The Spectre #0-62

DC post reboot

[Indo Jimbo]

Nocenti's GA is horrible. I swear, I don't even know whats going on half the time I'm reading it.

[Tom Strong]

It's a dense and challenging read. It has it's flaws, but the fact that it's not straight forward doesn't make it horrible.

[paulski]

Outside of I...Vampire, has there been a new 52 title that has had the same two main creators on it for the 14 issue run?

I stand to be corrected, but I think even I,Vampire had a fill-in during the crossover with JL Dark (I'll try and check my issues tonight after work). Plus, Liefeld made some kind of claim that his was the only DC title (Hawk & Dove) that had remained unchanged over the first 8 issues.

[Captain Comet]

Outside of I...Vampire, has there been a new 52 title that has had the same two main creators on it for the 14 issue run?

Off the top of my head, Aquaman. Even the Prado-heavy Mera issue had Reis breakdowns.

But yeah, I, Vampire has been the only one without a change in the TWO creators, but very few books have sustained runs where the artist draws every issue. They're pretty rare in comics history. "Long sustained runs" are usually driven by the writer. Lets face it, a writer change impacts a book more dramatically than an artist change. Looking at the New 52, there are a good amount of books with a consistent team of artists that work with a writer to create a good unifed run. Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern, Justice League, Batman and Robin and Batwoman, amongst others, have provided a consistent narrative with a stable creative team. The low selling or secondary books are always going to experience a lot of creator shake up, because DC's (and Marvel's) top priority is to SELL. If a book isn't maximizing its potential, then hell yes they should change the creative team.

Bottom line, and I'm just ranting in general now: it's easy to look at the history of comics and rattle off a couple dozen long runs. But in the grand scheme of things, those runs are few and far between. The majority of comics often change hands creatively, and for good reason. They're usually not very good. It's easy to look back on classic runs with rose colored glasses, but at the same time I find those who do that often miss out on the history that gets made right before them. There are some pretty great runs happening in our midst.