It’s been a peculiar couple of days.

Some disquieting medical news. Lots of emailed back-and-forth, give-and-take with editor Joey Cavalieri about the new DC project. Plotting session with Mary on the next *Hard Time* — undoubtedly the strangest issue we’ve ever done.

This is my first serious attempt at getting work done since coming down with the pneumonia. It feels good, easing back into the thick of things.

And my head is suddenly full of new and bizarre ideas.

Must be the O₂.

This is a call for help.

I have a friend in New York City who’s desperately in need of work. He’s partially disabled, but fully capable of handling any job that involves sitting at a computer and punching keys — data entry, word processing, proofreading, etc. — or telephone work.

If you live in NYC and know of any such job opportunities that may be available, please drop me a line privately so I can put the two of you in touch.

Thanks.

I’ve always wondered whether Wall Street would figure this out. (Join the site if you have to. It’s free.)

The Motley Fool article links to a blog post by Rivkah Greulich, an American writer and artist of manga for Tokyopop, that’s even more interesting. She gets it. Completely.

Today is my birthday.

I look at that number and, even in my current infirm condition, cannot comprehend it.

I once thought I would be a model of aging gracefully…but no. Apparently, I’m going to age screaming in protest. In this, if nothing else, I am a typical baby boomer.

There *has* to be a third option.

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As promised, here is the panel from *The Brave and the Bold* #28, the very first Justice League of America adventure, that makes me cackle every time I read the story.

Green Lantern destroys Starro the Conqueror, thereby saving the life of every human being on the planet. And what’s he concerned about?

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Yes, I know the Comics Code probably required this idiocy, but it still reads like GL’s depressing estimation of human nature.

Correction: In the preceding post, I meant to cite Showcase #22, the reintroduction of Green Lantern, n0t #28. (It was Brave & Bold #28 that contained the first appearance of the Justice League of America.)

Over the past few weeks while I’ve been sick, I’ve found myself oddly drawn back to “the old stuff” in comics. I’ve been rereading my crumbling paperback copy of *All in Color for a Dime*, for instance, and spending time perusing the *All Star Comics* Archive Editions — has DC published the final volume yet? — and rereading some DC and even Marvel Silver Age reprint editions like *Fantastic Four* #1 and *Showcase* #28.

I’m not sure yet what it is, but there’s something I’m looking for in these books — something lacking in almost every writer’s approach to comics today (self included, or I wouldn’t be searching) — but something that has *absolutely nothing* to do with nostalgia.

I think it may have to do with energy and magic.

Haven’t posted for a couple of days, because the place has been in a bit of commotion. I’ll get back to daily posts as soon as I can.

Nothing further to report on the new DC project. Nothing new to report on my health — fortunately.

Mary and I hope to get together this weekend to work on *Hard Time* #5. As I’ve mentioned, Mary had to plot this issue almost entirely on her own, with just a couple of emailed suggestions from me along the way. And “plot” is exactly what she did. For this issue of the book, we’re utilizing the writing method that used to be called “Marvel style” — plot, pencils, dialogue, in that order — as opposed to the “full script” method, with complete panel breakdowns, art descriptions, and dialogue created all at the same time. I haven’t worked this way for a decade or so.

The full script method, of course, gives the writer almost total control over every aspect of the story, but comics produced that way sometimes read a little too “written,” if you know what I mean. The writer’s presence can be felt too strongly, becoming almost a distraction from the story itself.

Working “Marvel style”, by contrast, cedes the artist much more control over the pacing of the story and historically has led to some very sloppy writing. But it can also permit the writer, dialoguing the story from the pencil art, to achieve a degree of spontaneity and energy that’s almost impossible with a full script.

I’ll be curious to see how this experiment turns out.

A birthday or two ago, Mary gave me this card. I keep it tacked on the wall of my home office.

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My sense of the possible has taken quite a battering over the last few weeks and months.

Yesterday, though, I got word from DC concerning a new project we’ve been discussing off and on for almost a year. Apparently, it’s now on. It’s something I’m very excited about, something that will give me a chance to stretch creatively in some different directions, something that should be a lot of fun to write.

Naturally, I have to remain maddeningly vague about the details for now — if only because a lot of the details *are* still vague — but as soon as I can say anything publicly, you’ll hear it here first. I promise.

Meantime, I’m just happy to discover that I’m still susceptible to *good* news.

Thank you, Mary. (You too, Emily.)

Back in the Time of Purgation, I quoted a verse from a 1967 Rolling Stones song called “Sitting on a Fence”. There are two other verses, and one seems pertinent to the events of the past couple of days.

The day can come when you get old and sick and tired of life.

You just never realize

Maybe the choice you made wasn’t really right.

But you go out and you don’t come back at night, so

I’m just sittin’ on a fence.

You can say I got no sense.

Tryin’ to make up my mind

Really is too horrifyin’.

So I’m sittin’ on a fence.

Nope, nothing to do with women this time.

I’m thinking about my relationship to comic books…and certain aspects of existence in general.