[...] in October, Image announced that Paul Grist’s Jack Staff series would be going monthly starting January 2008. The Jack Staff Special would appear January 16, followed by issue #14 in [...]

I don’t think Johanna was “kicking him when he’s down”. I do think she was mocking that horrible press release. According to the press release, he’s “longed to put out a monthly”. Meanwhile, he hasn’t completed two books solicited YEARS ago, and Kane’s been stalled for a while. Those two facts get neglected in the press release.

Now he wants retailers to pre-order a monthly book, even though he doesn’t mention his terrible track record. Does this make sense to you? I’d love to see retailers support Grist’s work, but if you were a retailer, would you take a piece of your budget to support this, even though it’s even money that the book won’t come out?

No artist is owed an audience? I’m not 100% sure i agree about that (I’d argue that some artists are important enough that maybe they are), but I’ll go with it, since we’re not talking about Da Vinci here.

But by the same token, no artist really owes their audience any more than what they’ve already paid for. Which of course raises the question of whether Johanna pays in advance for the books she pre-orders; if so, then I have morre respect for her stance.

However. There is a difference between getting pissed off about waiting for an artist you like to produce new work, and publicly kicking him when he’s down. If Johanna couldn’t be bothered to talk about his last two books, why take the time now to stage a public attack?

That said, when and if Grist puts out new Kane material, I’ll buy it in whatever format it appears.

Oh, and Dave, if you ever find that world, can you tape seasons two through seven of Freaks and Geeks for me? Much thanks.

No artist is owed anything by their audience. No artist is owed an audience, period. The best anyone can hope for is to put their stuff out there and hope enough people like it that they can justify continued activity.

I would love to live in a world where Paul Grist was one of the highest paid creators in the business, where variant covers by Paul Grist were touted as big selling points in the solicitations by major publishers and Michael Turner was doing caricatures at a theme park somehwere. (This would also be the world where the Raspberries are as highly regarded by the music-consuming masses as Led Zeppelin and where Freaks And Geeks is now in it’s seventh season.)

Unfortunately, I don’t. But I feel your pain.

As for your other point, we can only debate about whether or not buying monthlies hurts if those comics actually come out. And as someone who waited two years for the just-cancelled Burglar Bill final issues, yeah, I hope it does hurt. Because nothing else has seemed to teach the lesson “solicit only if you can release when promised.” I’m not demanding “go monthly or I quit buying”. I’m saying “you set these deadlines for yourself, and erratic as they were, you still couldn’t live up to them. Why should I believe you now?”

As a customer, I don’t care if Grist is a lovely person (I’m sure he is) or what else he does outside of comics. I care whether I can buy the products I want when promised at a reasonable price. And Grist has burned his bridges hundreds of times now. We’re not talking about someone who ran into problems in the last year or so. We’re talking about someone who’s been doing this since the 90s. I don’t know if he’s lazy or overcommitted or spends too much time helping orphan puppies. All I know is, I will not preorder work that I don’t believe will arrive. There are better ways to commit my funds.

bashing Land was a cheap shot, but it was to make a point- Grist is an indy creator with no contracted work to fall back on, and he’s not working on a well known property with a bulit in audience. So he’s starting from a disadvantage; unlike other artists who get derided for a lack of talent, while people continue to support their work.

Johanna- you’re denying your support by publicly stating you’re not going to buy his comics any more. And like I said, no point waiting for a treade that won’t come if no-one buys the monthlies.

I’m irritated by your stance on this because you seem to be coming from the standpoint that Grist doesn’t exist outside of his comics work, and that if his stuff doesn’t come out regualarly he must be a lazy bum, rather than because maybe he decided that paying the rent was more important than not disappointing you. It’s the indy equivelant of newsarama kids bitching about delays on Civil War… except that you should know better.

I’ve been following the page-a-day reprinting of Hepcats online. Snowblind Part 1 is nearly done. I really wish he could find a way to put out the rest of the book. Damn, Wagner pisses me off. I’d give anything to draw like him, and yet he’s squandered that talent. Ugh.

David, I sympathize, but there’s a great deal of “he made this bed” here. I’m making a big deal of it in hopes others will learn from the situation. There’s at least one in every generation: before Grist, the poster child was Martin Wagner. Who’s still promising more Hepcats online, but once again has disappeared from view.

Grist announced trades only for Kane witb new material promised for January (it may have been 2006, but let’s be charitable and assume this year). Didn’t happen. How am I “denying my support” if he doesn’t put out the books he promises?

First of all, it’s Grist. You’d sound more convincing if you got his name right.

I don’t think any of us said we wouldn’t support him. I’ll continue to buy trades of his work. But monthlies-that-aren’t-monthlies? Why bother? When his work is collected, it’s a fantastic read, but when it comes out every six to eight months (or in the case of Burglar Bill, not at all after years of waiting), it loses steam.

Put it this way- if I see a new Grist collection in Previews, I buy it. Every time. How am I not supporting him? And why do we have to bash Greg Land to praise Paul Grist? I’m not a fan of Land, but that exercise seems silly.

It’s one thing to give up on highly marketed “event” comics because of delays, as those books have a built in market of loyalist fans. But in this case, it’s a case of simply spiting the creator, and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, to be honest.

And there’s not much point in waiting for a trade that won’t come if no-one buys the comics.

But yeah, why should we give a genuinely innovative and talented story-teller like Girst our money or support? Let’s just carry on making sure that Greg Land stays in work, and giving as much money as we can to companies that reprint and remarket properties that have already been tried and tested in other countries.

(And I wish he’d do more Kane, too…)

But I’m not asking for faster, I’m asking for “when promised”. And that’s the great chicken/egg dilemma of comics, how to balance release schedules and sales.

[...] Johanna Draper Carlson is sick of waiting for Paul Grist. (Above: sequence from the first issue of uncompleted miniseries [...]

Ray, that’s a difficult line. On the one hand, it’s none of our business why a creator is late, whether personal issues out of his control or simple bad work habits. But on the other, this has been going on for years and years, so yeah, something more than just “it’ll be different this time” would be nice.

But as much as I enjoy them when they do come out, I can’t say I ever think of them inbetween, wonder where they have gone, or give Grist any credit at all. And that should worry him, if he expects an audience to support a monthly.

I loved his work when I saw it but the time between was so much that I switched to trades. Honestly it became out of site and completely out of mind, as I hadn’t even thought of him in years until I saw this post.

Ah well. Despite this, I am hoping we do get more work out of him.