A HAPPY REUNION

I just found out that what I thought would be my next published work, The Essential Superman Encyclopedia, has been pushed back from its original planned release date of August 31 to sometime in the fall.

Coincidentally, I won’t be going unrepresented in certain book categories, because I’ve also learned that my latest kids' book, Superman: Prankster Of Prime Time, from Stone Arch Books, is scheduled for August 31. I’d mentioned this in my last post, but I’ve since gotten the news about the Encyclopedia, and I now have some sample art from the Prankster book which I’d love to share with you. So this is actually a revision of a previous post.

I do this to add the images -- which are copyright 2010 by DC Comics, of course -- because I'm especially happy with them, and delighted because the beautiful illustrations were supplied by my old friend and Blackhawk collaborator, Rick Burchett, whom I consider one of the best storytellers in comics.

Not that storytelling is relevant to spot-illustrations, but I already knew -- and I hope you will soon, if you don't already -- what a good commercial illustrator Rick is. His portfolio contains numerous samples of advertising art he's done over the years, including the huge volume of work he did as an in-house artist for the Ralston-Purina company.

Rick's an artist of extraordinary range, equally at home with cartooning and naturalistic illustration. And, while I don't want to be perceived as taking credit for assignments Rick's own reputation generated, I'm particularly glad that in 1991 I recommended Rick to then-Batman editor Scott Peterson for the DC series based on the WBA Batman animated show, on which I was a writer / story-editor.

Apparently, several other people had made the suggestion, too, so I can't take credit for it. But I'm glad it worked out: Rick became the "go-to guy" for all things DC Animated for quite some time.

Later, when I was the Group Editor for custom comics and special projects at DC, Rick's speed, in addition to his consummate skill, enhanced our program tremendously. Ironically, Scott and Rick collaborated on what I thought was the best custom comic I oversaw, a pack-in for a videogame called Batman: Dark Tomorrow, which was not only brilliantly illustrated by Rick within one week, but also magnificently colored by the majorly talented colorist, David Baron.

I hope you'll enjoy the Prankster book if you're inclined to check it out, and do let me know what you think. Thanks!