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When the story broke about J. Michael Straczynski replacing Ben Templesmith with CP Smith, as artist on his Image series Ten Grand after Templesmith went into extreme radio silence, many wondered if Templesmith was okay.

We reached out to him and he emailed back to say he had apologized to JMS, and the communication breakdown had been entirely his fault. He explained he has just been through, in addition to some personal matters, “a rather catastrophic move to Chicago where a bunch of my stuff is missing and I got other people’s things, that only finished yesterday. It’s been a rather stressful time.” All this took him off the grid for a while.

But, he continued, “I’m the only one to blame and am apologetic.” He promises to get back on social media soon after he gets the rest of his affairs sorted and wishes Smith and JMS luck on the book.

If we can break into our own endorsement here, while it doesn’t change the Ten Grand problem, and it was an extreme example, these things happen. Templesmith is known as a fast and reliable (and excellent) artist most of the time, and moving sucks. Hopefully everything will be back on an even keel for him very soon and we wish him the best.

UDPATE: And JMS Facebooked:

Finally heard from Ben today…we had a great email exchange, very positive, we’re moving on but remain on really good terms regarding future work on other projects…more later.

18 COMMENTS

  1. “…but why would anyone willingly move to Chicago?”

    Or because it’s one of the great cities? Second City, Wrigley Field, Lake Michigan. the el, the Billy Goat, and on and on…

  2. I can’t help to think all this could have been prevented if each party had the other’s cell phone number…

  3. lol, ok guys. Keep pretending Chicago isn’t the one of, if not THE, most violent and corrupt cities in America.

  4. Chicago is a great city to be based out of. Not only are you already smack dab in the nation’s 3rd largest city, you’re not really that far from anywhere else, flying wise. You’re kinda in the middle of everything.

  5. Am I the only one who wonders why this is unfolding in the “social media”? I know, I know, I’m old…

  6. Johnny, you need to quit watching the Fox News and right wing hate machine. Chicago is a wonderful city, and even though it is high up in current crime stats, ALL violent crime is way below the levels of the 70’s and 80’s.

  7. Good Lord, you’re right! Chicago looks just like Baghdad in 2003, with rebels using sarin gas on government troops.

  8. @Johnny Memeonic : I spent a year in Phoenix, just got back about two weeks ago. I thought the passive-aggressive bigotry of the North West was terrible, but I was wrong. Over all, I have worked as a Sys Admin in places like Atlanta, GA, and at Providence, RI at Citizens Bank, Redmond, WA at Microsoft, in Dearborn, MI at Ford, and my latest this past year contracting at Honeywell, and at Dell in Phoenix / Tempe, AZ. While out-sourced labor from India has people working in the USA who are able to cooperate, tolerate, and train/learn from each other, ‘Americans’ obsess on two things: First trying to figure out which co-worker is liberal or conservative, gay or straight, from the city or the country, who is single or married, who drives a car or a bus,… And Second, ‘Americans’ obsess on how to act subversive and/or abusive to others different in either passive-aggressively, or assertively. I have heard other ‘Americans’ say things about other ‘Americans’ in such twisted and scary ways, one example that is general, but common in today’s multi-national corporate run former-USA: “The ‘populist’ vote is the city, so we have to decimate if not hinder city life, because they are all liberal…”. Wow, these are people in the work-place believing this… -you know, “the work place” -that place you go to that is now like walking in an embassy or consulate; as in, you are no longer in the USA, as in your status as an “American citizen” becomes forfeit.

  9. @Ben Templesmith: I am sorry that everyone has to know your business. Everyone reading this has had to go through sh!+, but w/out it being speculated and nit-picked a part on the Internet; w/out their co-workers and bosses becoming aware. Your art speaks for itself, so you are not going any where … which is nice,… I think… ;-)

  10. @Johnny Memeonic : I forgot to mention -whether someone is in a city like Chi-town, or in suburbanite sprawl like Phoenix / Tempe, AZ (the bigotry in Phoenix/Tempe reminds me of the Balkans in the late 90’s -even the whites hate other white people in Phoenix to the point of killing each other over lifestyle / political beliefs), any way you cut it, urban or rural, 9 out of 10 ‘Americans’ you meet will not be able to indicate how their ‘democracy’ works, but they will know everything about sitting in traffic, brands names associated with fast food, sports franchises, TV shows, and just about anything that has to do with emulating information that promotes the mass consumption of plastic in the form of merchandise. The former-USA is a bunch of *consumers* walking around calling themselves “Americans”: none of them know *what congressional district they live in*, *who is their congressman*, *who makes up their local legislature*, *what gerrymandering is or what it has to do with data mining, and predictive analytics*, *what the WTO is and what is has to do with out-sourcing labor and manufacturing, and what the WTO has to do with how the Walton Family (Wal-Mart) owns 40% if the wealth in the USA*, nor does any ‘American’ know how to explain *how a bill gets passed*. The movie “Urbanized” depicted Phoenix / Tempe, AZ as the poster child for sprawl while our cities are decimated in the USA. All ‘Americans’ know is traffic, fast food, sitting in a cubicle getting dignity sh@+ on, and emulating TV shows / news. Look at this website for example, they have to do a story about speculation in Templesmith’s life instead of real * journalism*. ‘Americans’ only have access to “news”, and nothing is enabled to allow / facilitate *journalism*. Your comment, Johnny Mnemonic, is no surprise. It is like another fly too many against a vehicle’s windsheild -time to clean up.

  11. @Snikt Snakt in reply to it’s comment on 09/06/2013 at 12:06 pm :

    You Snikt: that is a good comment, but you have to consider that this site is N O T *journalism*, if it was, the writer would had been thorough enough to have indicated info on that -even if it was a simple “comicsbeat was unable to receive comment on why no one exchanged mobile phone numbers to prevent this…, or if Ben was just not answering his phone…” -But then again, if this site had actual journalists then they would not even be writing a lame duck story about someone moving, and instead contact the publisher, editors, and management to find out why they let this happen. Hey, if you got talent doing something like *relocating*, then you better make sure this talent is going to get their work done on time or late, follow-up with your talent. Accountability of corporations is reliant on good *journalism*.

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