@Thousand:
I find the entire situation bizarre. You said it yourself robby, Jump is a cut-throat industry yet they tolerate what Togashi does. I figured they wouldn't give a shit be it illness, back-pain whatever. If he doesn't provide, they fire his ass. It's definitely weirdO_O
Like I said. He's got some sort of special circumstance. (or possibly blackmail photos) We don't know the details, and the reason has never been made public, so its probably private, and some sort of illness fits the criteria well. Supposedly thats the official explanation that was given out before, with no further details, but, if he's ill… he's ill.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2005-11-16/hunter-x-hunter-on-hiatus
However whatever he has doesn't excuse the fact that he doesn't take on assistants. Doesn't matter that he has his pride or whatnot,
That's all pure conjecture and you can't back up any of it.
If it was JUST a matter of getting assitants, they would have taken care of that by now. If it was JUST a matter of him taking 3 weeks to do a chapter they probably would have pushed him to the monthly magazine by now. If it was JUST a matter of him playing too many video games, they WOULD have fired him by now, if it was JUST pride, I can't believe they'd allow that consistently, no matter how well it was selling. It might have something to do with his wife, or where he lives, or, you know, an illness that leaves him bedridden for huge lengths of time.
This sort of thing does happen in the art field all the time. In American comics, they don't give a shit and just throw a new artist onto a series to keep it going. The manga, they give more respect to the creative vision (usually) and do their best to keep the same storytellers involved the whole way through.
Nodame Contabile had similar delays due to the artist becoming pregnant, and then later ill. In Beet the Vandel buster the artist messed up hs hand and it had a year long hiatus, and then it came back and ran a while, before being cancelled completely. The Guin saga, the author died. But then, the series had run a bajillion volumes. And I could go and pull up dozens more examples if I looke,d but those are off the top of my head.
Jump needs to consider profit not one artist's whims and Togashi should be thinking of the fans not just himself. I don't know how the executives tolerate THAT of all things.
When Hunter DOES run in the magazine, it consistently gets rated among the high runners, and the collected trades sell really well, so the frequent hiatuses don't seem to hurt it that much, if at all. (If anything, it makes it an event when it comes back.)
Now, if Hunter went on a hiatus, and then came back, only to be rated 18th or 20th for its entire 10 weeks, and the trade only sold 40 copies, then there'd be a problem. But it breezes right back into the top 5 without trouble every time, so obviously, they're okay with it.
I also think the 40 million copies the book has sold also have some say in the matter.
Whatever the circumstances and agreement thats been worked out, its okay for everyone involved.
Except impatient fans who only think about themselves.
The hiatuses suck, especially when its such a long ongoing story arc (the ant saga has been like, half the series by now, but it seems to be nearing an end) And we've still been generally getting more than 10 chapters a year, which is basically a monthly. Our perception is just thrown off because its weekly for a huge stretch, then gone for a huge stretch.
But in the long term of the final product of the story?
When in 10 years people just have the trades and have no idea the hiatus was ever there? It won't matter. The story will still be there. The hiatuses, won't. I'd rather he keep doing it, at whatever pae he needs to do it, than get another YuYuHakusho ending. Or a Dragonball syndrome where it goes on well past the point where the author cares because theres a mandate to produce more every week. Or more chapters full of ill defined scribbles simply so it can be weekly.
Waiting a couple months and then getting a batch is a pretty good solution. You can even wait a little longer and read all 10 released chapters at a time, treat it like an annual trade release. thats what I did last go around, and would have this time too, if I hadn't been so interested in seeing the king fight.