"Neil Gaiman had a similar story. "Well, when I moved to the US I found myself paying taxes to both the UK and the US governments (because of the way they stagger payments). And then I got a note from my new accountant in the US letting me know that he'd slightly miscalculated and could I send a cheque for $50,000 to the IRS NOW. THIS MINUTE. Which I couldn't.

"Now, the day before I'd talked to someone from Tekno comics, asking me to come aboard and create some comics for them. I'd asked them to send me something on paper -- expecting a draft contract. That afternoon, sunk in 'where the hell am I going to get $50,000, I've given all the money I had to the UK and the US tax authorities already, and spent the rest on moving across the Atlantic' gloom, a fedex envelope arrived. I opened it. It contained a cheque for $50,000 from Tekno Comics.

"I decided that something was probably trying to tell me something, and went downstairs and made up Mr Hero."

"Have any truly popular, long-lasting, and original comics characters been created since the early 70s?"

"Cerebus and his cast of characters were fairly long-lasting. John Constantine has done fairly well with a variety of writers and artists.
Judge Dredd is a classic character, and he was created in 77. Not huge in the States, true, but he has two magazines over here and at one point was appearing in 2000AD, Judge Dredd The Megazine, Dredd Rules (or something of a similar title, aimed at younger kids) and The Complete Judge Dredd every month, as well as crossovers with other titles (primarily ones Alan Grant wrote like Lobo and Batman) and a film. I think he counts."

"The other sense in which I mean "iconic" makes me uncomfortable because it's fuzzy (and therefore subjective), but I feel it's important as well, and that's...mojo. Somehow the character has a certain conceptual and visual gestalt that simply makes the character cool in a way that most people will feel and even those who don't will recognize. I suppose one way to look at "mojo" as I present it here is that the character can easily be translated or tweaked to make him or her suddenly appealing to people who otherwise didn't like or don't care about the character."

"The first thing is: think about what you are doing, think about every aspect of it. Bryan Eno was somebody whose thinking really influenced me when I was starting out. Now he was a musician and I was moving into comics, but his thinking was generalised enough that it applied to a whole variety of fields. One of the things that he said was that some creative people seem to be governed by a kind of superstitious fear about examining their own creative processes – its almost like riding a bicycle, where if they stop to think about how they're doing it, they'll fall off.

Whereas my attitude is, if you're going to be making your living out of this stuff, it's like if you're making your living as a driver, you'd at least want to know what happens if the car grinds to a halt, what all that stuff under the hood actually does and is…actually understand your own creative process…think about everything…think about what you're doing.

If you're talking about comics writing, then many of the same things apply as with writing in general, but there is a whole couple of other layers to the possibilities because you've got an image track as well, and a kind of ‘over grammar', as I think I once heard it described as, where you've got the interaction, neither words nor pictures but the interaction of both of them."

"Saint Germaine, the critically acclaimed series originally from Caliber Comics will be released in a 168 page trade paperback, SAINT GERMAINE: SHADOWS FALL. It will collect the first four issues of the series in addition to the one-shot, Restoration."

"In addition to the Shadows Fall collection, Saint Germaine had an additional 6 issues published, many of which were one shot stories dealing with Casanova, The Man in the Iron Mask, and the Sioux Ghost Dance. Reed said that if the Shadows Fall trade is received well, plans are to collect the rest of the Saint Germaine stories."

"COMING SOON! TWO SHORT STORIES (reprinted from various sources) WRITTEN BY GARY REED, ART BY ANDY BENNETT"

"This came to a head when Alan Moore was sued as part of a suit against 20th Century Fox for plagiarism of the screenplay "Cast Of Characters" which bore heavy resemblance to the movie version of "The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen" starring Sean Connery...
"They seemed to believe that the head of 20th Century Fox called me up and persuaded me to steal this screenplay, turning it into a comic book which they could then adapt back into a movie, to camouflage petty larceny." This led to Moore giving a ten-hour deposition - he believes he'd have suffered less if he'd "sodomised and murdered a busload of children after giving them heroin."

"Youngblood takes him in, I guess. One of them says "whoa there, guy, sorry for whuppin' up on ya, but can we take you in for scans, please?" I mean, at some point the government guys are scanning him and everything is "off the charts" or off the hook" or "in the heezy for sheezy," or something. And one science lackey says something that may account for Rob's erratic art, at least as far as Supreme is concerned: "His height, weight, and mass seem to be in a constant state of multi-level fluxuation." That's right, 'fluxuation.' I hereby proclaim all interpanel changes of character designs and anatomy in the art of Rob Liefeld to be known from this day forward as 'fluxuation.'"

"What were some of your influences?

All the Marvel comics drawn by Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko’s Spider-Man. The more modern stuff—I like Dan Clowes, who drew Eightball and Ghost World. I like Frank Miller’s Sin City; the movie’s excellent and he’s a genius. I like R. Crumb. I’ve always been drawn to people’s art that I could identify just by looking at it, or who had their own specific style."

"One can't go skimping on backgrounds either, because they don't go for Eisner-esque page layouts and fiendishly clever cartoon devices. One editor thought it unnecessary that some of my figures stray outside the panel border. Splash pages are uncommon, and most pages will have upwards of eight panels on each, prompting many BD artists to work on A2."

"KOLCHAK: the NIGHT STALKER CHRONICLES
320pgs of text w/ spot illustrations, 6” x 9”, $18.95"

(From the book& film field) Max Allan Collins, Stuart M. Kaminsky, Ed Gorman, Elaine Bergstrom, PN Elrod, Robert Weinberg, Brett Matthews, CJ Henderson, Mark Dawidziak, Richard Valley, James Bates.

(From the comics field): Peter David, Chuck Dixon, Steven Grant, Mike W. Barr, Gary Phillips,Fred Van Lente, Adi Tantimedh, Martin Powell, Clay & Susan Griffith, James Kuhoric, Jason Henderson, plus more!

1. Villains United #1
2. Ultimate Fantastic Four #18
3. Superman #216
4. Shanna the She-Devil #4
5. Seven Soldiers: Shinning Knight #2
6. Detective Comics #806
7. Lex Luthor: man of Steel #3
8. Rising Stars: Voices of the Dead #1
9. New X-Men #13
10. Batman: Dark Detective #1

"You Ain't No Dancer will represent the very best of both established and up-and-coming web and print comic artists in a one print anthology.

Each issue will have a central theme for artists to draw their inspiration from, providing a sense of unity within the diverse group of creators and their stories."

"I met Mr. Lucas when I was 19-years old," Grammer told reporters. "I was a little too young but then two years later I was watching this movie and I said ... 'that was the movie (Lucas) was telling me about,' cause he said, 'We're going to do a fairy tale in space.'"