If you've bookmarked only my weekly blog section, you may be unaware that I've added a message board, despite my earlier reservations! A lot of my fellow creators have said I was crazy to throw myself at the tender mercies of armchair fan editors (as opposed to armchair quarterbacks), but so far it's been going great. I think the secret to message board happiness is the restrictions I've placed on it. You read that correctly... I know some may say :"So much for free speech, man!" Well, my site isn't free even if my board is, and besides this is MY treehouse, MY castle, MY rules, MY gameshow, and if you want to antagonize people, go somewhere else! My no-politics or vulgarity edict may lessen my traffic, but you know what, I don't NEED those clowns who start flame wars for sport. If you allow it, your site can easily degenerate into three people hurling insults and your name is at the top, condoning this nonsense. Look at the crap John Byrne's gotten himself into this week. I-yi-yi!

   I'd like to thank first, J. Morgan Neal aka (Bat)Neal and Taylor Warren Millard aka Mister President for offering their services as moderators. And Erik Burnham, who slapped together a message board almost as fast as it took to request it. And finally, my long-suffering Webmaster Chris for linking the train cars together at the last minute. Heroes all!

   Also new art has finally been added! The promised Joe Bennett Defenders two-page spread graces both the home page and a new commission page! Also, Bob McLeod, more Ron Frenz goodness, Tony Moore and a JLA jam, festooned with heroic images by America's favorite funnybook artists (I was just looking for an excuse to write 'festooned')!

   I'm starting Spider-Man/Torch #5, the final issue of the miniseries, soon to be in digest form, so reserve your copy now! The penciller, Ty Templeton likes what I'm doing very much (As an inker, you are always looking for approval from your penciller. I don't know if it's a 'love me daddy' syndrome or just having another penciller who'll remember you for their next project -Probably a little of both!). Ty has a refreshing attitute about drawing comics. He actually told me feel free to ink it as I saw fit! He just wants me to make the pages look how I'D like to see comic pages inked, with his blessings "to add or eliminate rendering as I see fit", in his own words. He believes in the inker contributing, not just tracing the lines He told me he'd prefer to be inked by someone who lets you know he was there! Wow, every inker loves getting a blank check like that! It's a shame this is the last issue of the series.

   #5 is going to be more detailed than the previous issues, as it spans the '90's-today. Issue #1 covered the '60's era, #2 was the late '60's, #3 the '70's, Spider-Mobile and all, #4, Spidey's black costume and the Black Cat, etc. My favorite scene was in #3, Spidey doing donuts on the walls of The Daily Bugle, outside of J. Jonah Jameson's office! If I'd managed to ink the series from the start, I would've deliberately inked each issue different. #1- Ditko shadows, #2- Romita/Sinnott, #3- Andru/Esposito (with lots of Romita thrown in), #4- Joe Rubenstein. #5- McFarlane. But since the first few issues were inked similarly, it'd be too jarring to do a McFarlane riff, so I'm just going to go with a more modern style.

   Well, Sunday was a bit of a wash-out. I never hardly go anywhere anymore, let alone a concert, but when I found out that one of rockabilly's guitar legends, Link Wray was playing at Skipper's Smokehouse, I had to get tickets. Frankly, I didn't even know that Link was still alive, and that he's celebrating his 75th birthday this week! I got to know his music from his daughter, who I worked with at an advertising firm in Maryland. She had made me a tape - this was before home computers became standard home furniture, and the internet was just something your brainy friend would rave about. She hadn't seen Link in years, as Link's been living in Scandinavia, where he is extremely popular, since 1980. She really hadn't gotten to know him since she was a child, as she stayed in Maryland with her mother and extended family. I haven't seen her in ages, so I don't know if she ever reunited with Link.

   The tape Belinda made me had various Link Wray songs, including the single, "Rumble", which he recorded in 1958 and sold over a million copies, in spite of being banned from many radio stations (juvenile deliquency, gangs. Rumble was alleged to incite gang fights)! Despite it's place in history, Rumble still doesn't get played on the oldies stations, but when I heard Belinda's tape, I remembered the distinct guitar riff, basically the first ever power chord. Link used distortion as a deliberate technique, predating Pete Townshend by at least five years! I had cautious anticipation, as I didn't know if could still play as he did almost fifty years ago!

   Plus I was thrown a curve. One of my commercial art clients contacted me to do work on the weekend. Yippie. But he's a good client and I never hesitate to work for him. So I take a break from my working weekend to take a 40-minute drive to northern Tampa to make it when the doors open, 4:00 pm.

   Skipper's Smokehouse looks really rundown, but in the best possible way. In Tampa, it's become something of a local attraction since 1980, the same year Link moved to Scandinavia. So charming is Skipper's, that it's actually a AAA recommended hovel! It's an outdoor venue where you have to brush the spanish moss off the beat-up wooden tables. The smoked oysters were incredible!

   The opening act, Midnight Bowlers League, was tight and knew how to work a crowd. Lots of onstage carisma, showmanship and blistering guitarwork combined with a heart-pumping rhythm section. They covered all the greats, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly and they rotated singing duties, all displaying polished vocals. They play with vintage equipment, too! Even the wandering live rooster seemed to be enjoying the show from the tin roof of the stage, much to everyone's amusement!

   A half-hour later, they came back out to do a second set, informing us that Link was running late. Karen and I sat by the soundboard operator, who informed us that Link was three hours late back at the same venue in '02. I went from slight anxiousness to hopelessness, when the sound op suddenly remembered that Link was a no-show at another venue in recent years.

   At 7:00, there was an announcement from the stage: Link was at least two and a half hours away if we wished to stay. If not, they'd refund our tickets. A third of the crowd joined us in leaving as Midnight Bowlers League resumed playing their hearts out. I just couldn't gamble that Link would show POSSIBLY at ten pm. What would I do in the meantime, besides eat and drink too much? I had work waiting for me, Karen had a real job to go to in the morning, so it was with a heavy heart that we got our refund. If the MBL wasn't such a great band, it would've been a complete disaster.

   I've searched all over the net, and haven't found a review of the show yet. So I'm still left to wonder...

   Did he EVER show up? I felt like an abandoned child myself.