Burn out the day; burn out the night. I can't see no reason to put up a fight.

Scurvy Dogs: changing hearts. Changing minds. The boys wear down Tim O'Neil with their tireless attack on stiffery, to the point where a guy like O'Neil, who didn't much like the Scurv when he first read it, gives up some grudging admiration of issue five in spite of himself. It's that special silver hypno-ink that's got everyone bamboozled! Scurvy Dogs #5 is in shops tomorrow.

Sean Collins writes some stuff about Demo at Comic Book Galaxy, as does Bill Sherman on Pop Culture Gadabout. Bill has some laser-like observations contrasting issues six and seven: "As a writer, Wood is more interested in the effect each choice has on his characters. This may be frustrating for comic readers looking for a more clear-cut ethically defined story-verse, but it raises more intriguingly open-ended questions for the rest of us. Who of the two heroes is better off for the decisions they made? The repressed and haunted hero of Wood & Cloonan's horror story or the economically dead-ended Hatfield? The more I consider it, the harder it gets to definitely answer that question..."

Johnny B promises a full review of Ursula for later in the week and notes: "I will say this, though - Ursula is as good as the hype." People! When has one of our books not lived up to the hype? I ask you.

Whenever I see an erstwhile observer of the scene say this in public, I always get a chuckle. My favorite one of those came from Greg McElhatton: "The problem with hype is that it's almost impossible to live up to. So unless you've been under a rock for the last couple of months, you'd know that AiT/Planet Lar was publishing a graphic novel called Last of the Independents by Matt Fraction and Kieron Dwyer. You'd also know that according to the hype, it's supposed to be excellent. And it's more than understandable if as a result of all of this you're feeling more than a bit wary. Having now read Last of the Independents, I feel that I can say that when it comes to the hype... it was actually dead-on correct."

I love that one, because all I see there is Greg complimenting me for doing my job.

... and here's a link to Loose Cannon #25 (from June 29th, 2001), where I tell everyone where ideas come from.