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Lately I’ve been seeing an unsettling trend within the comic industry, I seem to be seeing more and more big name artists doing ‘Drive byes’ on comics. A drive bye is where a creator will only stay on a title for a couple of issues and then leave again, on to other things, like a kid with adhd that can’t concentrate longer than a few seconds.

This happens a lot when a company is putting out a new title or trying to bolster sales. They will put an ‘A list’ artist on a new title to garner interest and add more hype to the title and then after three issues the artist is gone and a new artist appears. From a business standpoint I completely understand why they do this, the better creative team on a book and the more buzz and excitement surrounding it will generally equal higher sales, their logic can’t be faulted on this point. But as a fan however it can get really bloody annoying, the last thing you want is to get interested in a comic because of the creative team, invested in a title and a story and then the reason for you reading the comic in the first place leaves. It can be very jarring to say the least.

In case of some creators the reason for the short runs and frequent shifts is due to them being unable to keep up with the schedule, where in the past creators where able to stay on a monthly schedule, now we see the schedule changing to fit around the creators more and more, the days of the fast artist are almost certainly behind us. Nowadays it’s not uncommon to see companies have comics in productions six months to a year before the comic will even be announced, just to ensure that the book can keep a monthly schedule.  Another point could be made that these high profile creators have risen to a point in their careers where they are so sought after that the money and jobs follow them, where they can pick and choose what they want to do.

The reason I’m even writing about this is because this happened recently for me with three new titles that I was really stoked about, yes you read that right, THREE! Joe mad on Avenging Spider-man, he’s doing 3 issues and then another artist will jump on for three issues and then Mad is back for three issues.

Then there was Chris Bachalo on Wolverine and the X-men, three issues and he’s gone.

Finally Mark Silvestri on The Incredible hulk, three issues and he’s off the book. Not to mention the fact that the three issues he did were full of other artists ‘helping’ out on pencils assists, He couldn’t even get one issue out without help.

That last one really pisses me off, I pay good money for a book by a certain artist and he can’t even do it. What a rip!

Ooh I almost forgot, now we find out there is a fill in artist taking over for Jim Lee on JLA#7

I mean c’mon, can’t the industry do better than this.

Mason