The time has come, the Walrus said...
...To speak of many things!
...Of why this Blog was left for dead...
...Despite your many "pings"!
My sincerest apologies to all you wonderful friends (friends both to me and to this humble Blog) for your concern - and especially your continued contact with comments - and it's time I finally shared the long, long story.
Frankly, from mid-summer until very recently, it's been a bad time for us.
To those brave solus that inquired, my stock reply was "It's not health! It's not divorce! Anything else can work itself out!"
And, after a long series of unpleasant experiences that brought us unprecedented levels of stress, things did - actually, and in total - work themselves out!
I'll not go into details, as living through it once was difficult enough, but neither Esther nor I were at fault... and, paradoxically, we also both were!
BUT, IT'S OVER NOW! HOORAY!
The end result is that we are moving! But a mere 6.30 miles from our present address. There were reasons having to do with the neighborhood - one that I've lived in (or around) since I was 14 (with only some small breaks) - but, having spent some time at our future address just this very day, we both love it, and can't wait until our closing date.
So, I thank you for sticking with us, lo these many blog-barren months - and especially for all the comments, which kept coming in despite my lack of response. I WILL (hopefully) GET TO THEM ALL IN THE NEAR FUTURE, among and around the herculean task of packing for the move!
The comments actually meant a great deal to me as (...if you've followed some squarely-dropped hints) I was - and, to some degree, still am - considering ending this Blog. I will do a post as to WHY at some point, but you're welcome to drop an opinion of your own!
TO HAPPIER THINGS: My work with Fantagraphics and Gold Key continues with great stuff coming from both publishers... and then there's THIS...
YES!!! IT'S MICKEY!!! IT'S THE PHANTOM BLOT!!! ...and I'm there, too!
I must have turned this in close to two years ago, but IT'S FINALLY HERE!
And, if I've got the schedule right, Issues 2 and 3 will have an amazing story by Casty (...with me as a hanger-on... of the "for dear life" variety) using another villain from the Gottfredson/Walsh era who has been too seldom seen - and, as a writer, I can say - with good reason! GREAT VILLAIN, but very hard to write. Some of you should guess it pretty quickly, with THAT hint!
It WAS the most difficult and effort-intensive task I ever performed for Fantagraphics (...and all those drop-out Disney publishers that preceded them)... but I did it for our esteemed editor David Gerstein, for Mickey, for the Very-Hard-To-Write-Villain... and especially for YOU!
Gold Key is way too early to talk about, but I've taken on some interesting duties there as well.
See you in the Comments Section (...I hope?)
