I went out after work and had a nice meet-up and a drink with and and our friend Mark Askwith. It was good to see J&J, since they’ve both been laying low lately and are taking off on an adventure in a few weeks. Also really nice to see Mark, who is such a genuinely nice person and a good storyteller. I don’t get to hear industry talk much now that I’m sort of persona-non-grata at the Snail, so its lovely to get back up to my elbows in comic book insider stuff every now and then. It’s one thing to talk about Frank Miller’s work, and another to talk about Frank Miller anecdotally. Really satisfying evening.
I also got reading recommendations. Cecil‘s ‘Boyproof’. And -hurrah!- Mark’s very own shiny new graphic novel, ‘Silencers’, which I already know I will enjoy because a) Mark wrote it, b) I love R. G. Taylor’s art – he drew ‘Sandman Mystery Theater’, one of my favorite comics, c) I dig spy/espionage/thriller comics and there aren’t nearly enough of them [see: all of Greg Rucka’s ‘Queen & Country’ series, Matt Kindt’s ‘2 Sisters’, Jeff Parker’s ‘The Interman’, Warren Ellis’s ‘Desolation Jones’, Peter O’Donnell’s ‘Modesty Blaise’, Antonio Prohias’ eternal cold-war classic ‘Spy vs. Spy’, et ‘Trieze’ (XIII) par Jean Van Hamme]