This Should Not Be

Photo by Bruce Guthrie

Here's a sad story about the current financial condition of a very good guy, William Messner-Loebs. Here's what I wrote about Bill last year when we presented him with the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing…

Bill Messner-Loebs has been a cartoonist and writer since the 1970s. He has worked for DC, Marvel, Comico, Power Comics, Texas Comics, Vertigo, Boom!, Image, IDW, and the U.S. State Department (for which he produced a comic about the perils of land mines). He has written Superman, Flash, Aquaman, Mr. Monster, Hawkman, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, Dr. Fate, Jonny Quest, Spider-Man, Thor, and the Batman newspaper strip. He wrote and drew Journey: The Adventures of Wolverine MacAlistaire and Bliss Alley, and he co-created The Maxx and Epicurus the Sage. He has also delivered pizzas, done custom framing, been a library clerk, sold art supplies, and taught cartooning.

A guy like this should not be in the precarious situation he's in. Everyone reading this who reads current comic books can name a whole bunch that would be better written if the editors had hired Bill Loebs to craft some of his always-fine stories. If I were a publisher right now, I'd seize on this chance not just to help someone down on his luck but for strictly selfish reasons — to get more good books into my line by grabbing onto this fine and available resource.

Read the story. Think if there's anything you can do to help. A donation to the organization helping people in his predicament would be nice but what Bill needs is good, steady employment. Anyone out there got any?