I know I am really going to come off as a snob, but guys like freddie are just whiney because they've never really had a big break and they wont because they aren't that good.
Hey, Freddie is actually doing fine, he's got a few comics to his name now. But let's use MAD! as an example. MAD! tried so hard to break through the barriers, even in the 90's and just didn't get any sort of breaks, yet he managed to get lucky with Battle Chasers (Just to give one major title) and made a huge name for himself. There's several artists that I know of that are good enough for the major leagues, but just are unfortunate in their promotion and exposure to the public, and this is what I'm talking about. There's so many people yipping at the shins of the big dogs (marvel, dc, what have you) that some of the real contenders sometimes get lost in the noise.
When you have guys like Greg Land and Jim Cheung making such great art at Marvel and you didn't even know who they were 5 years ago I think your arguement goes right out the window. plenty of NEW talents are coming up and art in comics is better than ever right now in my opinion.
Hey I knew of Jim Cheung long before his stint at Marvel, in fact his work on Scion, issue #6 (the first one I saw with him in it) was simply beautiful, I tried to follow him closely and was rather overjoyed to see someone break through, especially after seeing his cover for the "What if Magneto had created the X-Men with Professor X" (or however that title goes). That's what I want to see more of, some really great artists breaking through.
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