*The Negative Burn Anthology short story I will be working on with Ron Marz and Dan Jurgens has been delayed, not cancelled, for a variety of reasons. Ron & family are moving back to New York, but temporarily transitioning between not two, but three houses. The Marz-zes sold their house, but the NY one isn't ready yet, so they're renting another house for a few months, so much of their stuff is packed away. In the middle of all this, Ron still has to write his regular books for Top Cow and Dark Horse. Once 'Top Horse' Ron gets settled in NY, I think we'll be ready with our story for inclusion in future volumes of NB.

   *Still working on The Burning Man for the Dabel Bros' DBPro. I recently finished the cover to #3 for Diamond's solicitations, which is colored by one of my favorite colorists, Jason "BamBam" Kieth. I'll be getting the pages to B.Man #3 soon. Unlike a lot of smaller publishers, DBPro doesn't solicit stuff prematurely and they have reasonable deadlines as a result. A lot of people are still unaware of their operation, but in a year, I believe they're going to have much more prominent visibility in the comics industry. I base this on discussions with Les Dabel, one of the two Dabel brothers. My wife had the hilarious idea that everybody they employ should take on the surname Dabel, like the Ramones! I'd be Drew Dabel!

   *My own creation, Hotwire, previously Livewire, is still on, if I can kick the artist Craig Andrews in the ass to go faster. But I know all too well the difficulty of producing while you have your day job. I'm working on an upcoming interview with Jen Contino about Hotwire, and why I'm changing the spelling to Hotwyre. Long story, and I'll provide the appropriate links when the time comes.

   *I get asked by readers "When will you add new art to the site, already?" I've got a batch that'll be posted next week, blog-time. One of the major showpieces will be an unpublished Joe Bennett two-page spread of the Defenders circa #4 of the original series. It includes Hulk, Dr. Strange, Sub-Mariner, Silver Surfer, Valkyrie and The Black Knight! I spent forever and a day on it because it's so chock-full of detail, I had to take special effort to separate the images and fill in all the tiny black areas

   Onto more 'weighty' issues...

   I was a skinny, but active teen and didn't put on any real muscle until my last year of high school, when I found an outlet for my youthful anger in weightlifting. Nothing helped blow off steam after school better than cranking The Clash while doing reps. I filled out a bit after a while and maintained my regimen to aid in my endless persuit of those mysterious creatures of the opposite sex. In my early twenties I joined the corporate world. It was then that I, like a lot of people, began to lead a sedentary lifestyle behind a desk.

   You fool yourself into thinking: "I haven't worked out in ages, but I can pick right up where I left off any time I want". Weeks become months. Before you know it, years pass, and working out becomes less of a priority than getting a promotion. One day, you reach down on the floor while still in your seat, and you feel this speedbump on your side that you swear wasn't there yesterday. That speedbump is a new fold of fat introducing itself to you.

   When I was a year into working at a certain Tampa-based comics company, I maxed out at 195 lbs (I'm 5' 10"). Even though the office was only seven miles away from home, I had gotten into a bad habit of eating fast food a lot. It was lazy of me. Much as I loved the camaraderie at the office, as the months progressed (and more employees filled the building) I began craving, not only comfort food, but some alone time. I'd park my car somewhere private and eat in peace and quiet. Fast food was much easier to grab in your car than microwaving leftovers and setting up a mini-meal in your car.

   Then there was a local owner of a pizza place who would surprise us every two weeks or so with over a dozen FREE large pizzas and cheesesteaks of all varieties. He'd always drop by unexpectedly and it would always be 3:00 pm, after most of us had already eaten lunch. I'd be all proud of myself if I ate a light lunch of tuna sandwich sans oil and mayo, until I pigged out shamelessly at the irresistable smell of pizza. Pizza is hard to resist, and FREE pizza seems almost criminal to pass up! I noticed over time that a lot of us were packing on the pounds. We all worked hard, and needed fuel to keep producing the high-quality work we did while not missing any shipping dates.

   The summer of 2003, when the company's rot was setting in, new dubious announcements and promises were dangled before us like carrots in front of our collective nose, despite evidence of increasing problems and belt-tightening. I was losing patience, irritated by increasingly-frequent marching orders for employees to maintain brave faces amongst each other. I needed an outlet for my anger as I began experiencing back problems at the time which I now know were stress-related. I would tend to internalize my anger, which manifested itself in back pain. Every evening, when I would come home from work, I'd go swimming for an hour, which, over a period of months, did wonders for my physical and mental health.

   I'm currently at a much healthier weight of 170 and my back is doing great with the lighter load and the contentedness that I'm again in control of my career. Heck, I've since gotten to work on Captain America, Thor, and this week, I'm inking the final issue of the Spider-Man/Human Torch miniseries, #5!

   So I can't complain these days. And if it seems like I'm complaining about the past, I'm really not. Just offering some advice to anybody who's either unhappy with their job or caught in a holding pattern of bad eating habits: There's a better way.