July 5, 2007
Attended a funeral this morning for my neighbor Ed Ratcliff. Nice service down on Bell Road. He was 64.

All day yesterday I worked on The Top Secret Project. At noon, Jason Strykowski came by with a pass at the script and several graphic novels from his collection. We traded. I gave him Lost Girls by Alan Moore and he gave me Batman: Hush, by Jeph Loeb, art by Jim Lee, inking by Scott Williams and color by Alex Sinclair. Ay-Yi-Yi, these kids are incredible. On fire, really. Everyone talks about the Golden Age of Comics, well these guys are producing the Titanium Age of Comics. They are so far advanced from anything I have ever seen it's not even funny. Every scene is dynamic, intricate, noir and explosive. Excellent anatomy. Almost too much, but still, they are expanding the horizons of comics and the graphic novel beyond the known universe.

Or, so says an old man, who thought Casper and Superboy were the coolest.

Perusing their graphic world has had an effect on my imagery as you can no doubt see for yourself in my sketches for the past two days:



Worked until nine last night, studying the Young Turks and applicating it to my Old West World. By the way, one of the sketches is quite Yeowie. Can you spot it (it wasn't intended).

"Treasure the shadow. . .there are no shadows save from substance cast."
—Edith M. Thomas