You know what I would like to see? I mean, really LOVE to see?!!

   A website that would be devoted to tracking the history of comic book artists' studios. This site would be a genealogy of sorts, showing what artists moved, quit, got the boot, or left to form other studios.

   I'm not talking about company studios, such as Wildstorm or Top Cow, which have non-'creator' personnel, such as receptionists and sales staff. I speak strictly of comic book creators, who pull their resources and money together to rent a space and groove on each other's work. Some hardcore fan who knows his way around the comics business and the internet could contact various artists and establish a timeline. It would be very educational and fascinating. "Well, why don't you do it, Drew?" Well, I've got my own site to work with plus deadlines. I'm just throwing it out there-let someone else get the glory! I'm laying out the basics, free of charge!

   This 'genealogy site I envision would be an ever-morphing schematic, as more information would be updated. It would take some time to refine as some artists are harder to get a hold of than others. A lot of artists such as myself, started as assistants to other artists. As I've recounted many times, I began assisting Dave Johnson, but until now, I haven't had the occasion to add that he was in a studio with Derec Aucoin called Kudzu Tech at the time.

   Before then, Dave was a member of Atlanta's Gaijin Studios, probably the most well-known American comics art studio of the past decade, who's members have included , at one time or another, Brian Stelfreeze, Karl Story, Cully Hamner, Adam Hughes, Jason Pearson, Joe Phillips, Tony Harris, Jason Martin, David Spade (oops, that's the Saturday Night Live cast-my bad), Georges Jeanty, Stine Walsh plus one or two or seven people I'm sure I've forgotten about.

   Crossgen Comics might be the only exception my rule about company studios, as many artists who joined CG had also belonged to their own studios with other comics creators. Also, some creators who stuck it out assisting for Wildstorm enough to go pro elsewhere like Ale' Garza, who hopped around several publishers until his latest gig, Batgirl. Since Wildstorm's now an imprint of DC, Ale's gone home again in a roundabout fashion.

   Way up in Oregon was Studiosaurus, aptly named because it was a house fulla comic book folk. Aaron Lopresti, Matt Haley, Karl Kesel and a bunch more I don't recall off the top of my head. Aaron later joined Crossgen. Tony Harris, formerly of Gaijin, started Jolly Roger Studio, of which I was a member for two years before I myself headed to Crossgen Make no mistake, free use of studio space was another part of the equation to get us to move to Tampa. John Dell and Derec Aucoin (remember him from Kudzu Tech?) packed up Bone Machine Studio from Louisiana to migrate east. Derec was never a CG employee, but freelanced for both CG, DC and Marvel and was, like a lot of us comics guys, looking for the unique fellowship usually found only at conventions.

   If you REALLY want to be ambitious, you could go back to the early 1970's when Larry Hama, Bob Layton and many other pros got their start by assisting the great Wally Wood. In the mid-70's, Hama joined Neal Adams' Continuity Studios with Dick Giordano and even MORE name artists!

   Now...If you want to be CRAZY ambitious, you start at the birth of comics, with the Eisner/Iger shop, Bill Everett at Funnies, Inc., etc. There's a wealth of history to be sought! I think both Roy Thomas (with his scary encyclopedic knowledge of Golden Age & Silver Age creators) and Gaijin Studios would be good sources to start from both ends of comics' timeline, the Alpha and Omega. Okay, maybe not Omega, that sounds too fatalistic.