Re: Where did you get this?
Oct 18, 2003 9:08 am

I posted the below on my Kabuki board in response to your post there:
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I did this [painting] in the days immediatly following 9-11. I was in the middle of the Kabuki: ghost play story and I did this painting for a couple days just to get it out of my system while I listened to the news.

Then I did the charity piece called "diagram of heroes" immediatly after for the Marvel 9/11 benifit book.

But this picture you showed, I never made availble to the public. I never published it anywhere or sold it or anything. I e-mailed it to a couple close friends and family but never presented it in any public forum. I think I may have sent it to a charity event but I don't remember the details. And I haven't looked at it since.

So I'm curious as to where this came from.

DM
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Now I see it is the Dark Horse site. I remember I did e-mail it to a Dark Horse editor when they asked for something but I never recieved a response about it.

First of all, thanks for reading my work.

Here is some feedback that may be helpful to you, and some considerations that reflect points others have mentioned.

It's not like I have Kinpin busting out of jail or something. Echo visits him in Rykers to have a discussion. It doesn't negate any of issue 50. It just shows that he's put away and out of DD's life.

I'm glad you liked the Kingpin stuff I wrote in parts of a hole. It was my favorite part of the story. It gave KP more of an origin than he ever had before and I felt like I pretty much said my piece with him.

However, when I was asked to do this Echo story I was asked to include a few points in the story.

I was asked to do an Echo story that:
1) Focuses on her background and childhood, and childhood relationship with KP, and background of her father's heritage.
2) Flesh out her perspective of growing up deaf and refining her talents.
3) Include a scene in which she resolves her issues with the Kingpin.
4) Include a scene in which she comes to terms with her issues with DD.
5) Have her find her new role in life.

All of this seemed to make sense to me and I saw no reason to not include all of these points that the editor felt were important.

Keep in mind that I wrote the entire five issue story over a year ago. (Way before I even knew that the Echo story would be in the DD series).

As I've stated in all the interviews long before it came out, I was originally asked to write an Echo series. Joe wanted to see Echo's back ground fleshed out and see her interact with someone else in the Marvel Universe and he suggested Wolverine. The meeting with Wolverine is meant to be a surprise that fits into the context of the story. Originally I was told to not include DD in the story at all. And it was six issues. When it was decided to put the Echo story in DD to give Bendis and Maleev time to catch up, I was told to cut the story from 6 issues to 5 and also to add some scenes with DD and KP. Which I did over a year ago. No big deal. I understand that there are certain scheduling and marketing concerns that companies have.

So would it have been better as a stand alone graphic novel or as a mini? Or with no ads? Who knows. I'm not in charge of the marketing and scheduling and publishing format. I don't do a lot of work for hire, but when I do, I understand that my job is to do the story I need to do within the realities asked of me.

I know that some of this is off topic from your point and it is not directed at you personally, but I've seen these points raised and figure I might as well give a some real info. It is funny that when some people don’t know the facts, instead of giving you the benefit of the doubt, they give you the blame for something that rubs them the wrong way. I've seen a few posts that cracked me up, so I might as well mention it here. Here goes:

I'm glad to see that this story has generated so much discussion. Some people are going to find it challenging at first because you need to chew it up and digest it on your own. It's not meant to be something you swallow whole without thinking about. I’ve heard a lot of the stories of readers who tried to read it like another comic at first and had trouble interfacing with it on the first read, then love it after repeat readings.

I got this kind of thing with Kabuki when it first came out. Some people were upset that it was unconventional and unpredictable and they couldn't see what the point of some things in it were. Then two years later they would read the entire story and fall in love with it and not understand why it was so disturbing to them the first time.

My 2 cents is that you are not supposed to know why or how each scene or approach fits into the story as you read it. That kind of thing is obvious at the end and is the charm of revelation and the joy of repeat readings. A lot of us are so used to the same story and plot, and plot devices in every movie and always understanding why they are there that we are tricked into thinking that is the right way or only way of doing something. I write character motivated plot not plot motivated characters.

If you read this story with an open mind and view it as its own creature, there is a lot to get out of it. If people read it thinking it is going to fit into a cookie cutter mold of any of the other Marvel books they are going to be blind to all the things that are actually happening.

Just a note I figured I’d throw out that may be helpful or informative to some readers.

Kindest regards,
David

I love it too!

He is an amazing creature and totally unique artist.

I was supposed to go to that con with him this week, but I had to stay home and finish a project.

I understand that Andy Lee is drawing the new Sam & Twitch story right after the Scott Morse run is over.
Go Andy!

DM

Wow, that is an important question. Sorry for taking so long to get back to you on this.

That commercial actually improved my love life.

"Just do Joe Quesada"

Hi Mike,
Glad to see you have so much stuff out. I'm looking forward to your work in the Pulse. I was fun doing covers with your work in Alias while it lasted.

If anyone here is a Kabuki fan, Mike did a killer Kabuki painting back in 95 that appeared in the Kabuki GALLERY. Bendis also did some art in it. If anyone here see's me at a con sometime ask me about Mike's Kabuki pin up and I'll show you a copy.

Glad to see you doing so well with everything, Mike. Your work on The Pulse is going to be a lot of fun to read.

DM

As some of you may know, This month I have a pretty large art exhibit in the main gallery of the Art Center in the University I graduated from.

The school and fine arts community and local media has been very good about supporting the gallery show. There have been workshops and lectures that I spoke at in relation to the show that brought in a lot of non comic readers and educatated them a bit about the medium.

Want to thank Denny Haynes and everyone else from this board that attended any of these recepitons or presentations. CB, I got your mail. THanks for the kind words.

Here is recent article that that was the big story in the main Cincinnati paper Tuesday. The online part doesn't include all of the photos or artwork that is in the actual paper but it still has some condensed info.

Denny, the paper has an overhead shot of the gallery and everyone in it on the opening night and I am pretty sure you are in the photo.

Here is:

http://www.enquirer.com/