Wednesday

Posted by Bob Greenberger on December 18, 2008

Yesterday was largely a day off and it was divine.

I hurriedly did my ComicMix work and then left for the train station and a day in the city. No sooner did I reach Manhattan then I ran into Paul Kupperberg, and we meandered over to the our luncheon. A group of us in the publishing field have been meeting at the same diner for the last 15+ years and I hadn’t made it in all year. It felt so right sitting there, eating mediocre food with my friends and playing catch up. In fact, rather than everyone scatter after an hour, the luncheon lasted almost two which was a treat.

Paul, Aaron Rosenberg and I began hunting for a Starbucks where we could sip coffee and create. Fortunately, they are so densely packed that every 1.5 blocks or so, we found one and on our fourth try, found one with an empty table. The three of us ordered coffee and spent two hours or so working out an idea we have for a project and we hashed through the business and the content. If this thing takes off, it’d be fun. If it doesn’t, it still leaves us with intellectual property we can use elsewhere.

Paul ran off to see a friend, Aaron went home to Queens so I wandered to Midtown Comics to kill time. Sure enough, Archie writer Alex Simmons happened to be doing a signing so I got to browse and then catch up with him which was a nice way to pass the hours. It Back around 1988, Ðìçk Giordano put me and Alex together since Ðìçk liked Alex’s Indiana Jones-style pitch. We got as far as Gene Colan designing the characters before Paul Levitz indicated he didn’t feel the timing was right and worked ground to a halt. Ah well.

I spent an hour reading at Grand Central then met up with Paul, Charlie Kochman, and Martin Pasko for dinner, something the four of us did on a regular basis. We dined and chatted and laughed and caught up and enjoyed each other’s company immensely. So much so that I missed the 9”07 so caught the 9:37 where I ran into a Fairfielder I hadn’t seen in ages. We chatted the whole way home.

I came home to discover that I was coming down with a cold. I also found a set of second pass proofs for the project that I haven’t talked much about but clearly is far along. I at least I have until the 12th to turn it around.

Otherwise, this week, I have been filling ComicMix and then clearing out correspondence or other activities. Tuesday night, I finally signed 350 Zorro bookplates that were overdue to Moonstone. Finished the Marvel Chronicle which I liked despite some flaws.

With luck, life will grant me more days like Wednesday in 2009.