Where it's black & white, and life aint pretty...

   No, I haven't seen Sin City yet, although I'm bursting at the seems to see it. Y'see, I have a Marvel deadline due by mid-week. I almost suspect I got the gig because everybody else had to see Sin City this weekend. The Cinderella syndrome. In fact, I have to turn in my blog early because Webmaster Chris is going to see Sin City Tuesday! Can't post my blog without the midwife!

   It's pollen season here in Fla. Not as intense on the sinuses as Georgia was, but enough to get yellow ick all over your car every other week. I have to wash my hands every time I come indoors, and as a result, my hands get dry and cracked. I'd use hand cream, but you can't ink with greasy hands. There's may be a lot of greaseless creams out there, but I don't want to take the chance on smearing pencil with some substance that won't react well to ink. Remember, ink comes first! So I live with the discomfort and try to apply lotion when I'm done for the night.

   I'm not complaining, really. The movie will be there when I check it out Wednesday (and I'm savvy enough to avoid spoilers) and I fully expect to love it.

   The Marvel gig? Seven pages of Spider-Man/Human Torch minisereies written by Dan Slott, pencilled by Ty Templeton.

   Dan Slott recently inked an exclusive deal with Marvel, and I think the fans will be the true winners. I currently purchase out of my own coffers everything he writes INCLUDING the Spidey/Torch mini, She-Hulk, and starting this week, the mini, GLA (Great Lakes Avengers). She-Hulk only lasted a year, but it will be back in the fall with Dan on board. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of the Marvel Universe, but doesn't drown you in continuity. In fact, he has fun with the more, uh, questionable storylines (like the Spider-Mobile) that have occasionally surfaces over the past 40 years and makes everything work! #3, featuring the Spider-Mobile explains why Spidey would even bother doing such a crazy venture, and the Spidey/Torch friendship deepens. Spidey, still reeling with guilt over the death of Qwen Stacy, opens up to Johnny Storm about a lot of things he can't tell his non-superheroic friends. This mini spans the head-knocking friendship of these two and adds a depth to The Torch that rarely is seen.

   I met Dan Slott briefly at Crossgen, of all places, when we were shopping around for another in-house writer. This was during a time when we were expanding the titles so much, we realized too late we were canibalizing our own sales ("I like this new El Cazador, I think I'll drop Crux"). It turns out that we never hired another writer-more impending situations were arising...

   If you faithful bloginistas will turn to the page marked 'July 27' in your leather-bound collection of blog printouts, you'll recall I praised Templeton's 80's comic, Stig's Inferno. Ty has done many other comics since, like Justice League International and in 2002, the graphic novel Bigg Time. He's also busy with animation work. Needless to say, he's a joy to ink!

   It's weird inking pages from a book you buy regularly, because it spoils the issue for you somewhat. Even though I miss lettering on the original art boards, I can still read the script for the first time when the issue (#4) comes out! And Slott never fails to elicit big loud laughs from me in his stories.

   Last week, when my Legion of Super-Heroes interview with Waid & Gibbons was posted, I'm reminded how I change my lexicon during an online interview. When asked about the short story, I originally wrote: "It's a very touching back-up story which serves the purpose of letting the readers get more familiar with Karate Kid and Phantom Girl, so it's definately not filler". Right before I sent this comment and others to Jen Contino for inclusion of the interview, I changed the word "touching" to "cool". For some reason, I thought the term touching sounded very un-cool to the hipsters and wannabe-hipsters in the reading community, like I was when I was a teenage fanboy. Cool is one of those go-to words when you want to descibe something you want others to check out. Besides, I thought it WAS a cool AND touching story, so I wasn't misleading, so there! I just didn't want it to sound like those TV commercials for sitcoms that have "a very special episode" dealing with social ills instead of laughs.

   I've gotten some very positive feedback on my inking Gibbons, and it's been appreciated. Hopefully, we'll work together again...