I’ve chatted briefly with you a few times over the years at cons and have loved your Hex stuff since issue #1. I wanted to point your attention to a DC artist who I’ve no doubt would be ideal for a Jonah Hex story. He is currently doing a Western-themed week on his blog at my request and just did a quick Hex piece. I’ve no idea if he’d be interested or available to do Hex, but he’d be spot-on perfect in my opinion and thought I’d toss out Chris Samnee’s name and a link to his site:

http://www. chrissamnee. com

Look forward to running into you at the NYCC and also seeing more of your work in the future! Thanks for doing what you do!

I got all 7 volumes of the Catalan TORPEDO reprints back in the 80′s. I was such a nut for this stuff, that I got the remaining 8 editions…in French! I translated it with a French/English dictionary, lol! I hope that IDW has the balls to reprint ALL the stories…it’s really one of the most un-PC series I’ve ever read. That’s as good an endorsement as any, I suppose:)

Jimmy, re: toward the end of your #6 column…are we supposed to see a picture by Jordi on this particular blog? I’m not seeing it. Maybe I read you wrong and confused myself or my Firefox browser disabled it somehow.

Totally agree with you about Facebook over Myspace. What’s worked best for me is: I add just about anyone on Myspace, which I treat less personable. That is, so long as “Friends” aren’t spammers or a$$#ol3s I’ll add them. But I try to keep Facebook friends strictly down to only people I really know and have been acquainted with in real life and it’s the ideal tool for KIT (keeping in touch) and that kind of thing. When I first started using Facebook I made the mistake of befriending Bendis (who’s work I also really dig, but I don’t know in real life) and I had to remove him from my Facebook because I could never control/regulate/get Facebook to trim back the updates the way I wanted. I’d tell FB to give me less noise about Bendis feeds, but I instead kept getting informed about the 100K friends he was adding daily. It’s was overkill too since I already got Bendis on Myspace, Jinxworld.com, and Comicspace. The other sites are more than good enough for this here fan.

It’s really cool to read all the behind the scenes industry stuff, like how Mark Waid was a good mentor/supporter. Sometimes us fans on the internet tend to focus only on the negative industry buzz (like what publisher screwed over what creator, or who’s fighting whom) and it’s nice to finally read something positive when there isn’t a funeral going on.

I, too, am annoyed at how people on the whole like to label or pigeon hold other people to just one thing, e.g., if you’re good at one sport; then you shouldn’t be at another. If you’re a singer, you’re not supposed to be a good actor, and if you ink, then conversely you can’t or shouldn’t write or draw or whatever. BS!

I’ve always been puzzled by this kind of generalization or deranged thought, why can’t people accept the fact that other people can and should be able to do multiple (creative) things well?

Oh, right now I am gearing up for the 5th Season of The Wire on DVD and I wanted to hear your thoughts on the show since you’ve actually worked with Ed Burns on Dock Walloper. If I remember right, I think Ed Brubaker had wrote that The Wire finale was so strong to him he couldn’t stop thinking about it and couldn’t very well write anything for a couple days.

Nice job with the Bob Almond plug. I’ve been a fan of his inking for quite a while. I really enjoyed the work he and Sal Velluto did on the Captain Gravity series for Penny-Farthing Press. Anyone who hasn’t checked that out should head over to the Penny-Farthing web-site and give it a look.

And thanks to the other posters for their kind words.

VINNIE: Thanks for that, really, all we ask is the fans to continue to be polite and really just say hi, ask questions and have a good time.

RWE: amanda and i love kevin’s work and i think if those two were able to do more work, it would really help any company out. pretty pictures look nice, but storytelling is forever in my eyes.

EVAN: yeah, excited about the torpedo books because more than have have never been in english. now go stop by and say hi to mark for me. tell him i sent ya!

MARY: I had to actually shop for the place showing the 3-d. and you are right…as a regular movie, its just ok…but in 3-d, hysterical.

ZIGGY: some artists scan and color their work and do a great job. some. not all…personally i didn’t like the Conan comics at dark horse for that reason alone. When mark texeria and i got a chance to work on the Daughters of Midora, we made sure to have a fully inked story. in a way, wasn’t conan the place where the really talented inkers showed up?

PWEDGE: dude, I love you…in a manly way.

DPEACE: Inking is sexy, especially when i do it in my boxers.

LOU P: I would just get on a train to ny in a few and come to the con there. why wait for boston to throw a big bash?

FELIXLU: I couldn’t be happier to be helping out on the books. more info is coming from idw as well very soon. i cant go into details, but keep an eye out. The man himself, Jordi Bernet will be at supercon in san jose in may.

I just bought a really fantastic book a couple months ago called THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST CRIME COMICS edited by Paul Gravett, which featured a TORPEDO story among dozens of other brilliant crime comics. Highly recommended and Jordi even did the cover.

I can definitely see why you’re so glad to be involved in the new hardcover editions. Keep us posted!

I’ve got to agree with you on how much fun My Bloody Valentine 3D was. Can I make a movie suggestion…if you haven’t seen it yet I recommend going out and renting Repo, The Genetic Opera. It’s ridiculously funny. Both my friend Eric Burke ( had to get his name in print for him) and my wife, Dawn have very diverse personalities and both were laughing and enjoying the hell out of this movie. I’d compare and recommend any Rocky Horror picture fans to see it. Hell, even if you’re not I’d recommend it since I find Rocky Horror amusing but this was hilarious.

Again I have to agree with your statements on an Inker making or breaking a book. They can make a passable penciler look great or bring a good one down. And not just the inker but colorists too. I remember first seeing some art work out by the hot new artist ( I won’t mention names) that month and didn’t think much of it but then I saw the pages in pencil and was floored at how good they were. It was the very vibrant cinematic coloring going on in that companies books that was bleeding out and covering all the detail up that made them look so-so instead of showing off their strengths.

Lastly, I’ll go over and look at Mark Waid’s message board. I’ve enjoyed his work over the years and haven’t had the pleasure of meeting many comic pros. Speaking of which, any idea why there is no big convention up here in Boston.

Take care

Anyway, kudos to Bob Almond and thanks for mentioning it here in your column.

And spot on for the calls on the inking process in today’s comics. A good inker and make or break a book. Actually that goes double for coloring. Coloring is critical and if they shoot straight from pencils and the coloring is poor, the publisher may have saved a ton of money but the final product sucks.

Fun little tidbits as usual. Keep buying Jonah Hex people!

and thanks a bunch for the plug to the cartoon. i hope everyone who follows the link enjoys it. and to all who do, stay tuned, episode 2 should be up by the end of the week!

CORNERKICKED is hilarious in both comic book and animated form!

Great column Jimmy!
~Mary E.

Even more amazing is when fans get ANGRY at the creators for being there, when they should be home working. I recall JG Jones getting no end of crap for such last year when he was “letting Final Crisis go” by showing up at cons.

I recall at least one show last year Amanda had to skip because she wanted to stay on top of her work, and good on her for that. But I’m sure there were more than a few people grumbling that she made THAT choice.

The folks in artist alley are, at any one moment at a con, trying to meet the fans, drum up work, try to find NEW fans by being in public and showing off their work, running to panels and signings, then go back to their room and get a few more pages done that would have been a lot easier to do to if they’d just friggin’ stayed home, all the while trying to make enough money by selling sketches and portfolios to break even on the money it took to GET there in the first place.

Yes, I’m sure there’s some fun crammed in there as well, but it’s a lot more work than it seems. So if you’re at a show, try and remember that while are there to say hi to you, they are not there to say hi to YOU. Be polite, be friendly, and try and keep in mind that you are not the sole person who wishes to meet them.

At the NYCC I will be presenting a number of creators (including Amanda ‘n’ Jimmy) small tokens of appreciation as a thanks for the times they have made me happy in my life. You could do worse than doing the same, even if it’s just saying “Thanks for being good at this silliness”. It don’t pay the rent, but it does go in the positive column.

BTW, another great column, I think we’ve all been enjoying your blog.

Cheers,

B