From: rhr9081@hertz.njit.edu (Ray Rich)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Re: Writers vs Artists (Re: Prolific Writers)
Date: 14 Dec 92 15:51:22 GMT
Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, N.J.

In article <10DEC199213182583@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov> sewon@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (WAYNE WONG) writes:
>In article <1992Dec8.202401.6056@njitgw.njit.edu>, rhr9081@hertz.njit.edu (Ray Rich) writes...
>>In article <7DEC199218344728@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov> sewon@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (WAYNE WONG) writes:
>>>
>>>How about John Byrne?!!
>>>  [...-writing, pencilling, inking, lettering a bunch of stuff ...] 
>>>all in one month.
>>>Not to belittle writers, but in general, pencilling 
>>>and even inking consume much more time than writing.  
>> 
>>	Ok, I believe you when you say you didn't mean to belittle writers,
>>but I think you are way off base.  .....
>>It's easy for an artist.  His work begins when his writing
>>utensil or paintbrush hits the canvas or paper.  It ends when he sets down
>>his ink/pencil/whathaveyou.  When does a writer stop working?   Most writers
>>are always working.  When I'm in the shower or driving to/from school or
>>waiting for my food to be ready, I'm thinking of plots and working out
>>stories and characters.  Every free minute, I'm basically writing.  
>>	We may not spend as much time putting pen to paper, but give us 
>>some credit.
>
>I give plenty of credit to the writer, and am well aware of the writer's 
>contribution to the creation of comic books.  I agree with everything you 
>say about writers being "on the job" even when they are not typing.  
>
>What I disagree with, is what you say about the artist.  In many respects, 
>your comments about writers apply equally well to artists.  Artists spend 
>plenty of time away from the drawing board thinking about layouts, how best 
>to depict a scene, different designs for characters, furniture, whatever.  
>In addition, the artist (the good ones, at any rate) usually have to do a 
>lot of background work looking up visual references, etc.  George Perez has 
>commented on his book shelves bursting and groaning under the weight of all 
>his reference material.  Often, a script will call for scenes that the artist 
>might not have a reference for, which means a lot of searching at the local 
>library.
>
>In addition, the artist spends a lot of time at the drawing board which 
>never shows up in the comic page:  preliminary layouts, designing and 
>re-designing characters, etc.  Although I don't think you meant it as such, 
>your comments about the ease of the artist's job implies that the artist is 
>a machine that punches out whatever the writer wants.  I don't agree.  
>Although the inker usually has less creative input into the final product, 
>the good pencilers often have just as much to contribute to the book 
>creatively as the writer.  Further, the artists have to spend just as much 
>time as the writer doing preliminary work in preparation for working at the 
>drawing board.
>
>(PAD, what are your thoughts on this topic?  I was not at the convention 
>mentioned earlier in this thread.)
>
> - Wayne.
>    W     A     Y     N     E     .     A     .     W     O     N     G
>                                                SEWON@LIMS01.LERC.NASA.GOV

	Okay.  
	Fair enough.
	I guess it's true that artists work even when not at the drawing
board, but given the current "hot" artists, this doesn't seem to be the case.
Rob do research?  Rob look at the proportions of a human thigh?  Then again,
given the mostly dismal writing present in comics today, I guess the same
argument could be made against writers. 
	Basically, the whole argument is that you can't really pay writers
"by the hour".

	PAD won't answer, btw.  The subject line doesn't contain PAD, sex,
or nudity.

							Ray