JMS on Usenet

Message

Subject: Re: Late comics
Date: 20 Dec 2001 04:07:37 GMT
From: jmsatb5@aol.com (Jms at B5)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

>I was wondering if JMS has or will promise that future issues of any
>comic he writes will be on time.

I was wondering if some readers will promise to understand that things happen
that are outside anyone's control, and that I would rather have it out *good*
than have it out *Tuesday*.

Sure, I could make that promise...and abide by it...and be unable to guarantee
the quality of the work.  

For most of the MN and RS run, I was the one chomping at the bit to get this
thing out on time, despite delays by factors outside my control (as in an
artist leaving at the eleventh hour without telling anyone he was going to do
it, which put everything back).  I have no control over that.  The scripts up
to that point were always there in advance.  At one point the scripts were
piled up 4 issues in advance of what was being drawn/published.

What hit after that was the hardest period of work in my life, something I
hadn't counted on.  It's not that I'm sitting on my ass getting the comics out
when I feel like it...I'm shooting episode 10 of a 20 hour commitment on the
single biggest TV series I've ever undertaken, bar none, in terms of logistics,
planning, scripts and prep.  On Jeremiah we're shooting out in rain and awful
conditions 5-6 days out of each 7 day schedule (the norm for most series is 3
days out and 4 days in) all over the Vancouver area, combined with all the
regular hassles of mounting a new series, and inventing a new world.  There's
not just the writing and the producing but the editing, the PR, the music and
sound spotting, the casting...everything.

There's Rangers on top of that, the Rising Stars screenplay (which is finally
finished and looks like it's heading into actual production for next year), the
new Polaris project for Sci-Fi, Spider-Man, Midnight Nation, and Rising Stars.

I began those projects not anticipating that I would be in *this* deep shit.  I
could have pumped out the comics, but I didn't want to have inferior work come
out under the Joe's Comics imprint.  The TV work was time-critical because
there's nearly $30 million invested in schedules, director's timetables,
production deadlines, airdates that have to be met...I had to pick something
that wasn't as time critical to push back.

The comics were the only thing that could get pushed.  Now that we're up to
speed on the series, with the RS screenplay finished, and past the midway point
on scripts for Jeremiah, I've been able to turn my attention back to the
comics, with a new MN coming out last week, the next RS finishing colors and
lettering and probably out in the next week or so...the next MN script is
already in and being drawn, and I'm working on both the next Spider-Man and RS
issues as I speak.  The Delicate Creatures hardcover graphic novel has been
done for a while now, don't know why it isn't out yet.

It is my intention to get the comic scripts out as expeditiously as possible,
and have all the scripts done quickly, once again getting well ahead of the
artwork.

As for some of the folks you cite...I have little patience for people who
demand in others a perfection they do not deliver in their own lives, and who
do not understand that their needs for immediate gratification will not always
be immediately gratified.

Better something should done right and a bit late than done poorly and on time.

 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2001 by synthetic worlds, ltd., 
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine 
and don't send me story ideas)