Then Grand #5 was released today, with cover art by Ben Templesmith............... and the remainder by his replacement, C.P. Smith. For those of you who enjoy comics, you know that the artist's work needs to reflect the writer's story; it's essential to the title's success. What drew me into Ten Grand in the first place was Templesmith's art. What made my buy the first issue, and continue buying each release, was the story... coupled with the art. J. Michael Straczynski (creator of Babylon 5, if that means anything to you) tells a very dark, sad, and cynical story about a man who was killed with his wife by an agent of Hell. He was brought back to life by an angel on the condition he does as they tell him; if he dies "righteously" he will have five minutes with his wife, after which he will be resurrected to continue working. It's gritty, it's rough around the edges, and the duo made the story everything it possibly could have been.
That is until Templesmith went off the radar. He disappeared for a while, and instead of waiting it out, Image comics, and Straczynski for that matter, decided that deadlines were more important than quality comic books. They replaced Templesmith with Smith, and went to work as if nothing happened. But something did happen: the title suffered.
Shigeru Miyamoto said it best: "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad." Deadlines should be less important to producers than giving fans quality products. It would have been in Image's best interest to work something out with Templesmith diplomatically, or just end the title prematurely.
I don't know what Image thinks of its titles, but it surely wants this one to die. Straczynski's story works perfectly with Templesmith's art. Smith's looks like an online Flash web comic. If Templesmith doesn't return to the title (Smith is on until Issue #12) it won't have enough fans left to keep it alive. Image needs to get its shit together and work something out with Templesmith. Otherwise... they've lost me.
