Just finished inking the covers to both The Burning Man #2 & 3 for DBPro. Eisner-nominated colorist and Terror of the foozeball table, Jason Keith did an amazing job on the colors. I'd share the image with you, but I gotta wait until Previews solicitations. Sorry. Looks like I'll be inking the interiors as well for the rest of the miniseries. DBPro, otherwise known as The Dabel Brothers are great to work with. As Bogey said: "I think this is the start of a beautiful relationship".

   Let's roll back the mists of time (cue dream-sequence/flashback music)....

   After I had been at Crossgen a year or so, and more and more employees started to fill the office, there were increasingly-frequent table/cubicle rearrangements to accomodate everybody. I honestly expected the innovation of the bunkbed cubicle to be a'borning, as we were practically on top of each other in the last year of CG. The private disciplines and concentration that all art requires, whether it be pencils, inks, colors, letters or production was increasingly difficult for a lot of us. I began getting flashbacks of an old noisy printing warehouse I once worked at.

   I would crank my headphones, the 'big can' ones that cup your ears entirely, to drown out all the racket around me. I taped large pieces of black foam board to the right and left of my table to eliminate the stream of images in my peripheral vision. People would routinely shout from one cubicle 'quad' to another. Occasionally, another cubicle dweller would shout: "Shut up! I'm workin' here!" and things would quiet down for a time. Add that to the danger signs that the company was bleeding money like a stuck pig, and it made for quite the stess factory. Despite the increasing hardships, some were unflappable, like Mike Perkins, penciller of Marvel's new Spellbinders series. Mike is the kind of guy you want around during a crisis. It's no coincidence that he's nicknamed 'Perky'.

   For a few weeks, during one of the temporary cubicle arrangements, I sat back-to-back with Brad Vancata, who'd begun inking the first couple issues of Brath. I was working on Sojourn's #10 & #11, my last with Greg Land. Brath, I mean, Brad was actually one of Marvel's Romita Raiders back in the day and had some cool war stories from that era. We shared a common passion for rock music, and Saturday mornings, when few were at the office, he and I would ramble non-stop about bands and loan each other CDs. We had similar musical tastes, so there wasn't much of that discomfort you get from having friends force their crap on you.

   Brace yourself for Drew's latest heavy-handed musical recommendations:

   One band Brad got me absolutely hooked on was The Jam. The Jam was a punk/new wave band that started out loud and angry enough to be favorably compared to The Clash. In a few short years of the early '80's The Jam transformed itself into the blue-eyed soul Style Council ("My Ever-Changing Moods"). On 80's CD compilations, the occasional later-period Jam pop tune like 'A Town Called Malice" or Beat Surrender" will show up. At the end of last year, a DVD of The Jam's electrifying videos was released.

   I recommend Compact Snap!, their greatest hits... well they had college radio hits in the states, but were quite big in their native England. They weren't above the occasional cover tunes, but they chose well! On The Kinks' original version of 'David Watts', Ray Davies woefully longs to be like 'the Captain of the Team' to a military perididdle rhythm.

   "And when I lie on my pillow at night,
   I dream I could fight like David Watts
   Lead the school team to victory
   Take my exams and pass the lot."

   The Jam's version is full of the immediacy of anger, with a beat that sounds like it's punctuated with punches on a speedbag, the speedbag filling in for the fictional David Watt's face. Paul Weller, The Jam's lead singer, didn't just want to fight like David Watts. He wanted to kick his ass! Ah, to be an angry young punk again..

   The Who's 'So Sad About Us', another unlikely cover, from the pre-Tommy era, splashy and proudly shrill, is featured on The Jam Extras, which is loaded with unreleased songs and B-sides (remember those?). What are you waiting for? Go get 'em! Now there I go, imposing MY tastes! tee hee.

   Now, changing gears drastically, it's time for the sensitive side of Drew Geraci...

   DISCLAIMER: SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU'RE NOT A DOG LOVER:
   Well, we got an early Easter present Saturday, a six-year old 22 lb. black poodle named Valentine. We'd applied to several Florida poodle rescue websites, and, after a month or so, there was a match found for us. She'd been out in the streets for fifteen months, even through last year's hurricane season, but was caught by poodle rescue on Valentine's Day, hence the name. The rescue folk who served as 'foster parents' said we could change the name. I had favored Primrose Romijn-Stamos Zeta Jones, but she responds to Valentine, so why invite more confusion in her life? We've taken in strays and pound dogs before, so we're quite patient with the adjustments the dog has to make. Most of these pooches had some trauma or another, and tend to be very skittish. But lots of TLC and time fixes everything. One of the greatest simple pleasures in my life is watching a dog drink water, especially a long drink, just shlorping it all over. I'm such a pushover...

   I'm not even angry at David Watts anymore... Unless he was mean to a dog! Then there'd be some trouble a' brewin'...