Art Adams couldn't get the job done. JB didn't make promises that he didn't intend to keep with those projects. Like I said, mitigating circumstances for JB, unprofessionalism for Art Adams.



Big fan of Universal Monsters & I grabbed up all of the comics that Dark Horse produced (The Mummy, Frankenstein, Dracula & Creature from the Black Lagoon). Great stuff.

Haven't read the Gumby stuff, though. Good eh?

Yep. Won awards too if I recall correctly.

Not sure I'm following you here.

Byrne said,
"Art Adams drew an adaptation of the old Creature of the Black Lagoon movie that was inspired!
***
Let's calculate how many issues of MONKEYMAN & O'BRIEN didn't get drawn while he worked on that."

How was it "unprofessionalism" as you say, for Art Adams to draw an adaptation of the old Creature of the Black Lagoon instead of his creator owned book, but it's not hypocritical (or at the very least just as, if not more disappointing) for Byrne to not produce creator owned stuff, while not even working on anything else, but commissions or message board posts?

It sounds to me like Adams made a business decision, one book prioritized over his own creator owned work. Isn't that his call to make, not Byrne's? (But I'm just going from the info here, is there more to it?)

Actually, it sounded like Fred was enjoying his dream book just fine until Byrne told him how wrong he was for doing so.

It's good to see you can get the internet over there in Fantasyland.

Yep, Art Adams, (with writer Bob Burden), won the 1988 "Best Single Issue" Eisner Award, for Gumby Summer Fun Special.

Just because a "right" is there doesn't mean it needs to be exercised. For Byrne the call of the soap box will forever usurp the need for class or discretion.

That was my thought also, except I'm wondering how many issues of ROG-2000 didn't get drawn. Answer: all of them.

To be fair (and for the record, My Honor!), when JB stopped Next Men & Danger Unlimited, etc. around 1995 he followed up working for DC on Wonder Woman for 3 consecutive years, as well as working on New Gods/Jack Kirby's Fourth World.
Then JB returned to Marvel for Spider-Man on Chapter One & Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel: The Lost Generation, Hulk (albeit briefly & mostly forgettable) & X-Men: The Hidden Years before the itshay hit the anfay in 2001 (6 years after JB's decision to "postpone" Next Men).
He returned to DC with some JLA stuff, Doom Patrol, Blood of the Demon, Action Comics & All-New Atom (for 3 issues, darnit!). That brings us up to 2008.
From 2008 on JB's been working for IDW on FX & various Star Trek & Angel projects.
IIRC 2007 wasn't a very productive year for JB in terms of published projects.

In any case, when JB started working for IDW I started pondering that it was only a matter of time before Next Men made some sort of return & sure enough the B&W reprints appears & most recently an announcement for new Next Men.

Wow. That turned into a diatribe didn't it?

Anywho, the bottom line (whew!), as I already stated, was that JB had mitigating circumstances as to why he decided to postpone Next Men & even though I disagree that the market was as bad as JB thought it was back then, I don't blame him for being paranoid after encountering the few instances of retailer idiocy that caused him to come to his decision.

In regards to Art Adams & his Monkeyman & O'Brien commitments, Legend was created to showcase creator-owned projects & that's why Art Adams was allowed to join that group. He promised to deliver Monkeyman & O'Brien & while there were a few appearances published, Art Adams ultimately decided to go with other projects. I certainly don't blame him for wanting to go where the easier money was to be made & perhaps he did most of those side projects for fun as well (I know they were certainly fun reads), in essence he turned his back on Legend & I don't imagine JB (& the other Legends) appreciated that very much (understatement in regards to JB).



I agree that it was a very sound business decision to make. I think what happened was JB sets a very high bar for professionalism in this business & it's a mistake on his part to expect others to follow his lead. It shouldn't have come as a surprise really because prior to Art Adams joining Legend, he didn't exactly have a reputation for projects that lasted any longer than mini-series length (at most).

I missed the posts where Fred mentioned that he stopped enjoying his dream book.