Scott Dunbier, who is presently between editing/managerial gigs in the comic book business, tells the story of a freelancer with a great way to deal with the fact that he didn't have his work in. Go read Scott and then come back here to read the rest of this item.
Back so soon? Okay. I recently heard of what was probably even a better excuse. A certain artist did not have his work done. He sent his editor an e-mail and to it he attached a photo of an extremely beautiful model-actress wearing almost no clothing. The message said, "I had the choice between getting your assignment finished and having sex with this woman. What would you have done?"
The editor wrote back, "Congrats. You did it to her and me at the same time."
By the way: Scott quotes what he says is an old saying in the comic book industry about how to get steady work, a writer or artist must have two out of the following three qualities: He (or she) just be very good, very fast or very nice. I often cite that as an "old saying" in the business — I say "very reliable" instead of "very fast" — but I actually don't think it's an old saying. I think I made it up, sort of. There's a sign one often sees in print shops that says you can have Quality, Speed or Value…pick any two. I believe I modified it for the comic book industry. At least, I never heard it anywhere before I started saying it and I'd much rather have the credit for that than for Scrappy Doo.