Mike Gold Is Such A Tease!
All of a sudden I find myself in the midst of a half-dozen publishing projects. All are comics, and all but one are comics stories.
Here’s the rub: I’m dying to tell you about them. Really. I’d kill to tell you about them. But I can’t. I’m not the publisher, I’m not the artist, I’m not the writer of most of them, and I’m not the publicist. So it’s not my place to blab. I’m the editor, the dealmaker, and in at least one case the conceptualizer. So you’d think my ego, which even I call The Hulk, could handle a bit of a wait.
Well, no. That’s why I call my ego The Hulk. That’s why, when Jack Kirby came up with an entire living planet named Ego (Thor #132, cover-dated September 1966), I identified like crazy.
There’s another reason. These deals haven’t been papered yet. “Papered” is high-falutin’ dealmaker speak for “signed contract” or “signed letter of agreement,” which are the same thing. Anyway, any or all of them can still collapse. That happens all the time.
So my ego is so big I’m telling you these deals are happening even though they haven’t been papered yet. Of course, having a signed deal is no guarantee that a project will ever start, let alone be released. If you took all the development proposals, all the unreleased master tapes both audio and video, all the edited film footage and laid ‘em all end to end, it would stretch from the San Diego convention center all the way to Ego The Living Planet.
So you’ll forgive me if I’m a bit excited. I’ll be working with friends old and new, including at least seven folks who are currently involved with ComicMix. There is no greater pleasure (with my clothes on) than doing creative work with good friends. People whose talent I can count on and the readers enjoy. People whose work habits are compatible with mine and vice versa. People I can call at 2 AM if they’re late on a deadline.
True story. Back when I was working at DC Comics in New York, I made an emergency trip to Chicago to be there for my father during his surgery. Of course there was nothing I could do during the surgery itself, but I was a ten-minute drive away from a freelancer who was almost a month late on a deadline. I borrowed my father’s car – hell, he wasn’t using it – and drove to said freelancer’s apartment. He wasn’t home, so I bribed the building superintendent into letting me in. I took a sheet of art board and scrawled in red marker “HEY! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU! YOU’RE LATE! I BETTER HAVE THE PAGES ON MY DESK BY MONDAY! Love, Mike Gold.” I taped it to his drawing table and then I returned to the hospital, stopping only for an Italian beef sandwich. Yes, I had those pages on my desk by Monday.
So pay attention and you’ll hear about all this stuff. I hope. Actually, we teased a couple of them at the C2E2 convention last week, so if you were there you can easily connect some of the dots. And I should be in San Diego annoying the masses with all this as well.
Huckstering is an intrinsic part of our popular culture. But I pride myself in my inherently total lack of common sense to promote nothing by name… and to do so months in advance.
Yeah, that’s how excited I am.
THURSDAY: Is Dennis O’Neil Really Tony Stark?
Great story about the note for the late dude. That’d scare the shit out of me and it’d guarantee I’d never be late getting you anything again in the future.
As a card-carrying editor (is THIS your card?), I reserve the right to be real late getting back to you!
I can imagine the artist face as he returned home and found the note on his drawing table. It evokes the same sensation I had when I watched the scene from The Godfather and the guy woke up with the horse head in his bed next to him! Great article!!
I would point out that said artist is highly talented and a great guy with a first-rate sense of humor.
I’d work with him again in a heartbeat… but only if his payment is net-30.
Wow! This sounds exciting! Anybody i know involved? Wow!
BTW — Mike once called me about a late assignment and told me I had passed the deadline and was heading for the funeral line.
Brother John, I think you know EVERYBODY involved. And we’re ALL keeping it a secret from you! Now go help Mary feed the chickens.
” Anyway, any or all of them can still collapse. That happens all the time.”
True-but if you think it’s going to happen this time call me. I know people. Bloods, Crips, and other colorful sorts who dislike injustice in the world.
Just call me. I’m always looking for new projects. And I own brass knuckles.
“Marc Alan Fishman likes this.” “Marc Alan Fishman has killed a sacrificial goat.” “Marc Alan Fishman has given the goat to that top chef chic who cooks goat at her restaurant.”
I hope it was the bastard goat from the Billy Goat Tavern.
Tease, tease and more tease. Who do you think you are, MOTU? Oh right, you only took up one column to do it. Never mind.
hahahhahahahahahahahaha…not.
:)
Great news Unca’ Mikey!! You’re due!! May the baby walk strong and fast.
They’ll do that, Reg, if you chase ’em with a stick…
i dont think it was me
..i wasn’t living in chicago at the time…but the story bring back chilling memories..
YOU? Miss a deadline? You? Denys Cowan? Nooooooooooooo!
Hey, Denys! Remember when I had DC print up special “Cowan Boards” at repro size to help you make deadlines? You did damn fine work at that size… Which puts you in the same category as Jack Cole!
oh my god…i do remember..
cowan boards!
i’m not sure about the quality of the work i did back then
but the crazy thing is that now
i draw all my comics repro size first!
lol
Jack Cole was a comic book genius..
It works.
Betcha that was the first time anybody compared your work to Cole’s. You’re right; a true genius.
I remember those boards! I had to stat the boards to regular 10×15 size so the late great Malcolm Jones III could put vellum over them and ink them.
Yeah, I really miss Malcolm. A gifted artist, and a hell of a good man.