a sensational time!

okay...

the other night, in new york city, marvel comics and the heroes alliance hosted a really nice get-together/tribute for mike wieringo, giving both fans and professionals alike a chance to come together, remember mike, and raise some money for a couple fo good causes! we all congregated at flatiron joe's, a cozy little pub/restaurant on 21st st, at about 7:30 pm. marvel ed-in-chief, joe quesada said a few words, i said a few words, and then the night began, as a handful of artists began sketching ! dennis callero, amanda conner, jae lee, jimmy palmiotti, joe quesada and his daughter, carly, rodney ramos, tom raney, paul renaud, paulo rivera, walter simonson, and arthur suydam all donated their sketches to an auction that raised over $4000 in about 2 hours!
also on hand were joey cavilieri, dan didio, and jan jones from dc comics, nick barucci of dynamic forces, and a ton of editors and production people from marvel; john barber, nathan cosby, jen gruenwald, molly lazer, nick lowe, andy schmidt (a bunch more, but those are the people that i had long conversations with...). cb cebulski--though i'm never quite sure who he's working for. and my good pal and spider-mentor, tom defalco!
we had a sort of tellos mini-reunion as colorist, paul mounts, and inker, rob stull, came by.
anyway, it was a great night for a great guy and i wanna thank everyone who came, everyone who donated their time and their talent, and everyone who put it togetehr and made it a huge success!

that said, i'm working on a comic.
actually, i SHOULD be working on it right now (and hoping that nate cosby doesn't read this to find out that i'm not...)
it was nate's idea--and he's got a lot of 'em!--to do a special, fun (emphasis on the fun!) issue of spider-man family and dedicate it to mike. so he rounded up mark waid and karl kesel (mike's partners on his run of the fantastic four) and me ('cause of our time on sensational spider-man) and set us to work on a fun little romp that mike and i had actually been hoping to do as a four issue miniseries sometime in the future! it's called "looter's quest" and, though a bit truncated from it's original idea, the three of us have filled it with lots of the kindsa things mike (and we) loved in comics! we're using the ideasx mike and i had come up with, karl is going to both pencil and ink it (woo hoo! it looks great!) and mark and i (and probably a little karl) will throw the dialogue down later!
it should be out sometime next spring!

i told you that to tell you this...
in preparation for that tale, i sat down with my run of our sensational spider-mans and, though i don't mean to pat myself on the back--damn! those things are fun! i have gotten a bit misty from time to time looking at a page or a gag that reminds me of the fun we had doing it, but it is truly some of mike's finest work! if you don't have them, hop on over to your local comic shop and check out the back issue boxes. my recommendations are that youy pick up issues;



8--our first and the first looter story







9 and 10--swarm!







13, 14, 15--the savage land saga








16, 17, 18--(18's a fill-in, but it's the conclusion fo the prowler/vulture storyline)







21, 22, 23--guest-starring doctor strange!







27 and 28--spidey as...the hornet! the 2-part "identity crisis" storyline featuring, once again, the hilarious looter and the vulture!







31--spidey vs, the rampaging rhino!







also, don't miss

sensational spider-man # -1--the flashback tale that received so much attention.
if i seem like i'm blowing my own horn here, well, i'm sorry. i don't mean to be. i really just think that this is some of mike's best work--and i really wawnt everybody to see them...
so go check 'em out.
or, hopefully, in the very near future, marvel will be collecting these "best of 'ringo" spideys in a few cool trades!
that would be awesome!

anyway, i really wanted to include a "five for friday" trivia, but i gotta get back to work!
so why don't you try to stump me? submit YOUR five (or less) questions in the comments section and we'll see how i do.

have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd