And I'm totally okay with that.

What a relief. I was pretty worried right up until the end there.

In any case, I thought having President Barack Obama make an actual appearance in Savage Dragon would be a cool way of celebrating his victory and as luck would have it news of his impending appearance has spread like wildfire. It started from a news story in the Chicago Tribune about Dragon rejoining the Chicago police force after nearly 12-years and it's gained steam and has spread through the web like a virus. From Comic Book Resources to Newsarama to the front page of Yahoo it's been quite a ride.

Who says comics and politics don't mix?

In any case--here's hoping Barack Obama does a good job in office. George W. Bush lowered the bar pretty far, I'll grant you--but still...

I just wrapped up 140 and sent it out. I'm now starting to ink 141 while I script 142. I'm pencilling 144 and I just pencilled the covers to 145 and 146. Savage Dragon 139 goes on sale on the last Wednesday of October (that's two issues this month) and I'm hoping for the same for November and December. I'm catching up, folks and it's pretty exciting.

Oh--and I just quit Facebook. I couldn't make heads or tails of it and I found that I just didn't care. It was more than I felt like keeping track of. I had a million unread messages there too.

Ah well.

Holy crap-- I've gotta say-- stepping down was perhaps the best idea ever. Since I stepped down from being the publisher the faucets have been turned on full blast. I've been cranking out Savage Dragon comics like there's no tomorrow (and if there IS no tomorrow--that would totally suck, by the way--you'd miss out on all kinds of Savage Dragon comics).

I'm pencilling Savage Dragon 143 right now-- and 138 isn't even out yet (but it will be--on Wednesday). Savage Dragon 139 is at the printer and Tom Orzechowski just get me some lettered pages from 140. I'll be inking those shortly.

In any case--life is good. This is what I wanted to do. This was why I got into this nutty business in the first place.

Loving life right now!

Holy crap.

I've got to say--all the time that I was working on American Flagg I was seriously concerned-- it was a long difficult process-- the files--onscreen--looked funky--and I was pretty much convinced it was going to be a disaster. I did everything I could to fix it up and there was a tremendous effort made by everybody involved but I anticipated a train wreck.

But-- it looks fucking great.

We just got printed copies in the office--four years late-- but beautiful.

You need to buy this collection. It's an essential part of any good comic book collection. It's a terrific story with outstanding art--and it looks just amazing. This is the book that made Howard Chaykin a comic book legend. This was the one that took the comic book world by storm--and 25 years later--it still stands up. I'm damned proud of this book. It was the biggest pain-in-the-ass that I've been involved in--it was a serious headache--but the end result is a thing of absolute beauty.

It's here! It's real!

Kick ass!

In case you hadn't heard--I recently quit my job.

It wasn't that I didn't like being the publisher at Image Comics-- I did-- but over the years it became obvious that as effective as I was as a publisher--it was getting in the way of creating comics and I got into this business to be a creator--not an administrator. The ideas were stacking up like cordwood and I simply did not have the time to get things done. I had a new project that I wanted to work on (I pencilled the first issue) and that was just sitting there gathering dust--and there were other projects that I had intended to work on--the Kirby stuff--and it looked unlikely that I'd ever get started on that. That, and Savage Dragon was perpetually late and that was a constant irritant because it was a book set "in real time" and sometimes that meant I was only covering a day or two out of a year.

No fun.

So--I quit my job.

Now--I know how much everybody loves a good conspiracy theory. I know it would be a lot juicier story if I had been leaned on to resign or if a bloody coup had been staged or some such but it wasn't the case. I was at a convention in Charlotte and fans were bemoaning the lateness of Savage Dragon and it really hit me how much I missed the book--and missed working on the book--and how much I wished it was coming out on a regular basis too. After talking things over with a few pals and coming to the realization that Eric Stephenson was ideally suited for the job and that since the pieces were in place and the ship sailing in a good direction there really could be no better time to make the transition-- I made a decision. By the following week--in Chicago--I was telling anybody who would listen that I'd made the decision to step down.

So there you go.

Look for a hell of a lot more comics from me and a lot of great things from Image Comics.

As far as I'm concerned--this is the best news ever!

Hey, Savage Dragon 136 is out--run out there and buy copies of it, okay?

Check out this video: Supreme Court Rules That Death Penalty Is Totally Badass

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There's really nothing I can add.

New Wearable Feedbags Let Americans Eat More, Move Less

It's been a pretty hard day at the Image office. We all go to Comic Relief on a weekly basis and two of our employees used to work there. I can't begin to express the loss people are feeling for Rory Root. He was one of the good ones. Rory loved comics. He always helped people find what they were looking for, he made excellent suggestions--he didn't look down on people for reading books that he didn't care for but he'd gently suggest that they check out superior books in a similar vein. He carried a very eclectic bunch of books and his store is a veritable treasure chest of cool stuff. This is the kind of store most readers can only dream about and Rory was the glue that held it all together.

Comic Relief will endure, I have no doubt. Rory has an excellent staff of dedicated professionals that know their business but Rory will be sorely missed. He was an intelligent, articulate, caring and engaging human being and a friend to everybody that knew him.

Damn.

Whew! Finally--issue 135 of Savage Dragon goes on sale Wednesday March, 26th 2008.

It guest stars Prism--a hero from my Graphic Fantasy days. As a special bonus this is a 48-page issue which reprints the Prism story from Graphic Fantasy 1.

Enjoy!