Michael and I have been good friends for many years. I think what makes our friendship strong is that we share interests but come at things from different perspectives. Mike’s a pure artist who loves to use the brush to invoke emotion, power, and truth. I’m more of a writer who loves to use words to invoke laughs, joy, and thought. At first Cho wanted to draw a comic that was a roast of how my jokes were punny and corny, but he couldn’t distill it down into a comic. Which combines a lack of respect for what I do, with the acknowledgement that it is harder than it looks. That makes me smile. At my bachelor party we had a roast and Mike was one of the brave who stood up and poked fun at me (I was crying with laughter), and it’s great that we’re close enough to give each other the gears like that. Anyway, I ended up scripting this gag for Mike but as you can see he lacked confidence in the joke and undermined the punchline with the Wah, Wah, Wah. It’s as if we all know the joke is terrible. But that’s okay with me, because Mike’s own comics are so grim that his worlds are terrible. That’s what he’s used to. Art as suffering and all that. 😛

Cho and I have worked together before, in one-page comics for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) comic, and in a window display at a local bookstore. The other day at lunch he mentioned that he thinks my skills are better suited to being an art director or editor, since I have more love for ideas than their execution, and can put my critical eye into clear words. I take that as a compliment. Mike was part of a group of us that used to get together every Wednesday for lunches. It was nicknamed Superman Club. It was a fun few hours to talk about what was happening in comics, and storytelling mediums in general. But Mike, like me, is busy being a new dad, and several people moved out of town so there aren’t so many of us left to lunch anymore. Two of the other Superman Clubbers, Steven Charles Manale and Jason Bone make cameos on the tombstones in this strip. Isn’t Bone the perfect name for a tombstone? Here’s Manale, Cho and Bone dissecting the finer points of comics.

And the rest of one incarnation of Superman Club, with me dying my hair shoe polish black in the back.

Owl Magazine is a quality Canadian magazine for kids that I grew up reading. I’ve been writing a funny comic for them for about as long as I’ve been doing Princess Planet. Cho spent several years drawing their more serious, solve-the-mystery comic Max Finder. You can get his collected works from amazon and his gorgeous book of illustrations: Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes, or just enjoy his free and art full blog.

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