...But a thousand words ain't too shabby, either! Don’t get me wrong… words AND pictures are where it’s at fer me... but reading ANYTHING these days puts us all in a very, very elite club. But if you find yourself liking the work of the writers-- nay, AUTHORS-- who pen DC Comics these days, there is a veritable library of OTHER material available to you these days written by the very same people. Used ta be that a comic book writer “escaped” the four-color and “pulp” ghetto and went on to become Mickey Spillane or Mario Puzo… and never looked back (except maybe to write a SUPERMAN movie or two, I guess… ). Nowadays we have novelists (and television and screen writers, for that matter—but that’s another blog) coming to comics to DO comics. Because they LOVE comics! Brad Meltzer’s one fellow who’s had plenty of success BEFORE he wrote some GREEN ARROW comics and JLA comics and IDENTITY CRISIS for us! Check out his “Book of Lies” for a nice literary world meets comic book history mash-up! You’ve also probably read Greg Rucka’s work for DC and Oni Press on series like 52, GOTHAM CENTRAL and DETECTIVE COMICS and White Out… but you really should get a look at one of Greg’s coolest creations-- Atticus Kodiak-- in one of the seven novels Greg’s written that chronicle the adventures of this hard-as-nails BG (body guard). Start with “Keeper” and don’t stop! Jodi Picoult, author of “Nineteen Minutes”, “Change of Heart” and thirteen other novels did a nice run on WONDER WOMAN (collected in WONDER WOMAN: LOVE & MURDER thank you very much). Hope she’ll do more someday. And we’ve even got people doing both comics and prose at the same time! Working with Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham on JSA titles currently sets me up for reading their recent novels. Matt’s started a series for Pyr titled “Midwinter” and it’s an excellent fantasy set in an intriguing world that’s ripe for sequels for sure. And Bill W.’s just seen “Peter & Max: A Fables Novel” published—this is an all new all original story set in Vertigo’s FABLES Universe… not a novelization (though we’ve seen our share of those over the years and Marvel’s still working with Stephen King on his “Dark Tower” series)! And willya look at THIS?! Bill’s novel was published BY Vertigo! Way to go “funny” book publisher! And outside of our universe, writers like “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” author Michael Chabon have seen their characters come to new life in comic books for Dark Horse even… Peter David still works in both media… and scores of other examples of the back and forth between words & pictures and just words are out there… as I run out of room here. Anyone you’d like to see us hunt down? I know I’d love to see the Batman villain “Fight Club”’s Chuck Palahniuk has in him. Great time to be reading… anything!