On December 30th, prolific writer Peter A. David suffered a stroke. I had the fortunate opportunity to meet him at C2E2 2010.  I remember C2E2 2010 as being kinda cramped in the smaller Lakeside building of McCormick Place, but it was the first year and no one really knew what to expect.  I was a huge fan of Captain Marvel.  I loved the story but was really into the amazing colors by Chris Sotomayor.  When talking with Doug about getting some of my Captain Marvel issue signed by Sotomayor, I’ll never forget his reaction: “You know Peter David is just sitting right over there, right?” Coming from the Wizard World conventions where more well-known creators were only being hosted at publisher booths that required you to wait in long lines, I was kinda shocked at the wealth of talent in the Artist Alley portion of C2E2.

Peter David was incredibly personable and great to talk to.  He gave some behind the scenes stories of the Captain Marvel book.  You could tell as he was flipping through it and commenting on the art, that he was not only looking at the book as something he helped create but as a fan of the book or medium as a whole.

So as we wait patiently for news from his blog or his twitter on his recovery, allow me to share with you some of my favorite Peter David books.

Asylum #9

My first introduction to Jim Krueger was around 1998-99 through the 25 cent boxes of the now extinct Excalibur Comics of Portage, Indiana. I used to rummage through every 25 cent bin I could find. I’d snatch up consecutive issues of anything that looked interesting, so that I could have something of length to read for cheap. It was around this time I was able to snatch up The Foot Soldiers 1-4 by Image comics for a buck.

At the time I didn’t really pay much attention to creators (can’t be real picky on a 25 cent a comic budget)  and even though Earth X was all over my Wizard magazines and the promo pieces inside all my local comics shops, I had no idea who Jim Krueger was, or that he was the writer of Earth X or The Foot Soldiers books I had just picked up.  I did however  end up  finding out that a previous volume had been released via Dark Horse. My goal for Wizard World Chicago ’99 was to find these Dark Horse Issues.

Low an behold, while milling around Artist Alley at WWC that year, I fell upon a table littered with The Foot Soldiers issues, next to piles of Earth X comics. There stood Jim Krueger. I bought from him all The Foot Soldiers issues I didn’t have and he signed them all. He asked if I was reading reading Earth X, and I sheepishly said no. I did go on tell him that I thought his Foot Soldiers was a great book and that I couldn’t wait for more of them.

I was absolutely stoked to get the opportunity to meet Chuck Dixon at WizardWorld ’98. At the time Chuck was 80 issues into his Detective Comics run (#644-738), 20 issues into his Nightwing run (#1-70, 101-105), 52 into his Robin run (#1-100) and just months away from starting his Birds of Prey Run (#1-46). Chuck Dixon WAS the Bat-Universe for those of us that read Bat-Books in the mid to late 90’s. This man bleeds comic scripts. A couple years later at WizardWorld 2000, Chuck hosted his own comic writing panel and I can remember someone asking him,  “Typically how far in advance do you write your stories?” Chuck responded that he was ” at least 6 months ahead on all his titles” and that he was “17 issues ahead on Nightwing” and that he could be further ahead, if it weren’t for the pesky cross-overs.

Chuck has written some of my favorite Batman stories of all time. His Nightwing was my favorite character for nearly a decade. I can’t think of any other writer that might have written more issues in my comic collection than Chuck Dixon. What should I have him sign? An issue of Airboy? Detective? Nightwing? Robin? Punisher War Journal? I’m not sure what the hell was going through my young head, but I chose Seven Block. An obscure-ass 25 cent bin drop-out that I had picked up while rummaging in some dealer’s trash bins. Seven Block is a graphic novel, published by Epic comics, about some inmates that volunteer to take part in biological experiments in the prison infirmary, so that they can get away from the other not-so-friendly inmates. Not Chuck’s best work. I could have picked 4 dozen other issues that would have meant more to me. Chuck was amused though. He never thought in a million years he would be signing of copy of that.

In honor of my Chuck Dixon Autographed copy of Seven Block, I’d like to share some of my favorite Batman stories penned by Chuck.