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Posted by:

TOMM_GABBARD

Date:

July 2nd, 2008 11:25 AM

Header:

Another mildly entertaining rant from tomm

Bulletin:

OKAY, MORE RANTING!!
actually a clarification rant, lol

TOMM'S BEEF WITH SMALL PRESS ARTISTS

not all of them, just a bunch of them,lol but i thought the title would grab your eyes.
too many young,untested, unproven, artists have that "i don't work for free, or spec." attitude
they don't feel that they should have to pay they're dues.

i'm going to use a few names here, so i apologize to them if they are embarrassed by it.

but there is a difference in me contacting chris mcjunkin, or steev willhite, (two very talented, small press artists,) about a project,
and having them reply that they are just too busy with paying jobs,
to work with me at the moment,
and having a young unknown, who may or may not even produce the work in a timely fashion, tell me "i don't work for spec"

steev, and chris, are both established pro's
both are very nice guy's, both do great work, and are very professional in thier attitudes.
and both are known to happily work for spec, or even free, if the story is interesting, and thier schedule permits.

hell, if it takes 8 mos, for them to do an 8page story in between paying gigs, then that's just fine!
thats what it takes to get guys of that caliber on the project.

at no time, have i ever heard either man utter the least professional statement an artist can ever make,
"i don't work for spec, or free"

too many "rock star wannabees" in small press right now.

the industry dies every now and again,
all the "rock stars" go elsewhere, and the tried and true industry pro's stick with it,
working solely for the love of the medium.
that is exactly what we are speeding towards right now.
and you know what? i hope its sooner than later.
i'm sorry that some smaller companies may pay the price,
but it will clear the landscape a bit. prune the dead wood, so to speak.

dimestore has weathered the storm in the past,
and i am confident that it will again.
no dead wood here,

but we need to weed out the "rock star wannabees"
we need to go back to the days of doing comics for the love of the medium.
not using comics as a springboard to hollywood,
or what have you.

i do comics because i love doing comics.
i write because i love writing,
i ink because i love inking,
i occasionally pencil, because i occasionally love pencilling. lol

i won't turn down a paying job! im not that stupid. lol

but i take a gig for the merits of the work,
NOT for how much i will be paid.

thats all for now.
till something else aggrivates me.

tomm gabbard

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