Jim Lee Finally Completes Something!

Jim Lee has become notorious-- nay, infamous for the delays on his books in 2006. At a myspace sponsored "secret panel" at the New York Comic Con, he addressed this issue directly speaking to fans.

When asked about All-Star Batman and Robin (which has not come out since issue 4 hit stores in May, 2006), Lee surprised all present by pulling a portfolio with all the art for issue 5 out and letting a fan look through it. Of course, series writer Frank Miller is currently out of commission after a hip injury, so who knows when the book will actually hit shelves. Possibly sometime this year, if we're lucky.

Lee also promised that he's fighting to get WildStorm's release schedule back on track. WildCATS #2, originally supposed to come out November 15, 2006, is now set for the end of March. That's a third of a year's delay on a "monthly" comic, for anyone keeping score.

Making light of the sitaution, he joked that WildStorm was introducing a series called "365", with a new issue every 365 days. Ha-ha. Any fan waiting months on end due to his less-than-snappy art style probably failed to see much humor in that.

Hopefully Lee's promise to work harder at getting WildStorm's stuff together is genuine, otherwise a huge drop in readership seems likely. Consistently late is not the same as dependability, and I expect readers to start pointing this out to comics companies more and more.

But, hey, at least Civil War is over.

-Elizabeth