The Tease of Things I Don't Need

A good cause for the fans

Thanks to Tony Collett for this notice.

Honestly, I didn't realize Bill Messner-Loebs and his wife were not only still in dire financial straits, (I'd contributed to a fund for him a long while back, when they were in danger of losing their home, after which there had been no word so I'd thought the best -- talk about proving me wrong!) but are in worse condition than ever.

This article is from late January, and the situation's only gotten worse since then. While I don't care a bit about Clifford Meth (though I only know him via this piece, which irritates me at several ultimately unimportant turns -- I find his style and approach abrasive and affected -- but none of that is important) the bottom line thrust of the piece is solid.

I briefly met Bill back when he'd just taken over Flash following Mike Baron's run, and found him to be an intelligent, interesting guy who was making his way in more mainstream genres of comics. He was approaching the new work in a very professional manner, researching the character backgrounds and talking with the fans to get the best feel for the characters.

His best work, IMHO, was his Journey series (that link goes to an Amazon page for the second volume; the first volume was titled Tall Tales, but appears to be out of print. Some of his other, in-print work is seen here) set on the North American frontier of the early 1800s. He wrote and illustrated those Journey stories in a highly distinctive style that quickly grew on me. It was one of those efforts that rightfully garnered critical acclaim but never became a financial success.

While I can strongly recommend his work mentioned above, I see that buying those won't help him directly due to the nature of his contract for that work; he was paid for it earlier and won't see a dime for it now -- though that seems very wrong when it comes to the Wonder Woman work, since that was done in the '90s and contracts were generally better by then.

Still, the best way to help him remains via a direct contribution. Contributions can be made via PayPal, directing it to his bloebs@yahoo.com address. He can be written to directly at that address, or through the mail via:

Bill Loebs
PO Box# 558
Pinckney, MI 48169-0558

There's also an e-petition directed at comics publishers that appears to have been created by people who forget that he's a writer as well as an artist. I love his graphic style on his own, unique creations, but trying to get him mainstream work for his graphic style is like picking the steepest slope to climb when one's goal is to get to the top. Here's an odd panel (it was the handiest one I came across online, which spared me having to scan something) of his Journey work...

...which should underscore my point. It's a distinctive and interesting style, but not the easiest one to place. Besides, a new writing gig is more likely to get him a paying contract more quickly.

In the end, the man's a worthy cause. I hope to have better news to report on his situation in the weeks to come.