Jerry Ordway, on getting old in comic book industry

Ironically ran across a link to this blog while trying to figure out twitter, instead of taking a Microsoft Excel tutorial I need to be upwardly mobile...
http://ordstersrandomthoughts.blogspot.com/2013/03/life-over-fifty.html

Yeah, another sad comics story. Unbelievable. Ordway deserves better.

After having just read the Don Rosa piece a few weeks back, this is really starting to bum me out.

http://career-end.donrosa.de/

Hey didn't Jerry Ordway draw a creator-owned retro pulp book with those guyx who wrote the Flash TV show?

It was called Red Menace. He mentions it briefly.

I reread his letter. And I'm not sure what it is he expects to be done here.

He admits no one owes him anything, and that he freely worked in an industry that never claims to offer any long term protections. He dismisses the notion of working for publishers other than DC, because it would mean lower page rates, (are no other options available at IDW, Dynamite, Image, etc...

It sounds like the only option he'll accept is things going back to the way they were. There are a lot of people in many industries, making that wish these days. But its not going to happen

At this point it does sound like he's just venting, without a clear goal in mind. Which is fine for him to do. Maybe it will help others, even if it does not help Ordway directly. I certainly hope he works out some way to move forward with his career, at DC or elsewhere.

No turning back the clock for sure, but I really think DC Editors have shot themselves in the collective foot not utilizing Jerry Ordway more. He's just that good. In 2005 he was the artist for a one-shot graphic novel of Top Ten created by Alan Moore & Gene Ha for America's Best Comics. I really believe there are only a handful of comics artists who are up to the challenge of taking on a book like that with a cast of more than fifty characters, keeping them on model and making the reader actually not miss the artwork of Gene Ha and Zander Cannon very much at all. I guess George Perez comes to mind, but not many more. In fact, team books often are not artist's first choice, they're too much work.

Can't worry too much about the guy though and hope some of the animus is out of his system now. He may or may not be drawing Superman soon, but I'm sure he'll have a large number of projects to choose from for the forseeable future. It seems a little like heresy to me, but it would be interesting to see an inker with a more currently popular style on Ordway. Maybe that's all it would take?

edquinby001 wrote:

...He may or may not be drawing Superman soon, but I'm sure he'll have a large number of projects to choose from for the forseeable future.

I hope you're right. But I don't think working on someone else's character like Mighty Man, or Supreme would really solve the problem in the long run. The guy has name recognition, he has fans. He should try and exploit them!

Instead of waiting around for work to be given to you, I think the guy would be better off steering his own ship or partnering up with a writer of similar vintage and go the creator owned route. Shop it around to Dark Horse , Image, Dynamite IDW, ....

Alex Ross and Joe Jusko are both doing some great work at Dynamite on old classic Public Domain and Pulp characters. I'd love to see him on a classic character but like I said he would be better served going the Mignolia route.

Look at Mike Allred, he's an older guy too, but his creator owned stuff keeps him relevant and he gets him offers at Marvel and DC often. If Ordway was doing a great fun creator owned book, hell even a Liefeld style blatant homage, of Superman or Shazam, of his own creation, he might not even want to take any Marvel or DC work it'd cut into his creator-owned business

And I would love to see Ordway's work with some Bob Layton or Pablo Marcos inks, have they ever worked together?

Hell why not work with Alan Moore even. What's Warren Ellis up to?

I agree Jerry's better off going outside the big two and gearing up a new legacy.

You both provide more ways that Ordway can land on his feet despite DC. He's written plenty of his own stories, so a creator owned book would be a natural for him. Although he's not completely irreplaceable or anything, the only real loser here will be DC if they don't keep him too busy to explore all those other avenues.

Agreed.

edquinby001 wrote:

He's written plenty of his own stories, so a creator owned book would be a natural for him.

Precisely right. And if he didn't want the burden of carrying the book himself, he's got the name and connections in the industry to easily hook up with a writer and inker. Raging at the wind doesn't make him any money. Unless maybe the whole public letter thing was just maybe his way of making the big announcement, hoping like minded old school creators will approach him about working together.

edquinby001 wrote:

Although he's not completely irreplaceable or anything, the only real loser here will be DC if they don't keep him too busy to explore all those other avenues.

Everybody is replaceable. But a huge part of success is just showing up. That's how so much crap gets published. I've heard people talk about how they'd d better comics than what's out there, but they never make any.