The round up

I dipped my toe back in the inking pool this week, teaming up with one of my fave pencilers and all around nice guy, "Big Papa" Jamal Igle, on a two-page Countdown back up origin. It was good timing, in the back of my mind I've been wanting to do something small just to keep my hand in practice. This little assignment was actually the first time I've inked anything since early July, when I did a Robin cover with another of my fave pencilers (and all around nice guy) Pat Gleason.

I can't say that I miss inking all that much but I have to say, Jamal's pencils are a lot of fun to work over and I do kind of miss working with him on a regular basis. He's the best kind of guy to work with: Talented and so not a pain in the ass. There are definitely worse jobs to have than inking Big Papa.

All in all, I find myself feeling a little disenfranchised with comics this week. I've found over the years that it's kind of a cyclical thing where, for a while, I'll be really happy and excited about the work I'm doing and then I'll go into a phase where I start to wonder what I'm doing with my life.

I think this particular phase is basically down to not nailing down a substantial project to write since I finished Arena about a month ago. I've been floating along, writing an issue here or an issue there of different books for DC, plus a couple of issues of a project Tom Nguyen and I are doing together for Dynamite. So it's not like I'm unemployed, I just feel like I'm...drifting...a bit.

Arena is going to do a lot of business for DC, plus aside from the fact that it should sell handsomely, I feel confident saying that it's turning out really, really well. I'm proud of the story, Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens are chugging along and Andy Kubert's covers are simply STUNNING. Maybe my problem is that I'm never satisfied. It's easier to focus on not knowing what my next DC project might be instead of feeling a sense of accomplishment in the strides I've taken over the last year in terms of my writing career. Between World War III and Arena, I've been lucky to write two HUGE projects this year and not a month has gone by when I haven't written at least one issue of something, even it it all hasn't seen print yet. But there have also been bumps in the road. I've lost a lot of work this year at DC for various reasons, including my first monthly assignment due to an editorial restructuring. But I also had one approved, something I'm cowriting with Pete Tomasi. So...two steps forward, one step back.

I guess it's just human nature to bitch instead of bask. Or maybe I'm just broken? Either way, I have a feeling I'll be a little edgy until I nail down whatever comes next. There's so much cool stuff being put together at DC right now, maybe I'm just afraid I'll slip through the cracks.