Hi there– remember me?

It’s been a strange week-and-a-half or so, lemme tell ya. Just as I was coming into the home stretch on my final issue of FANTASTIC FOUR, something went KABLOO-EEE with my computer. It might have been a virus, or it might have been some form of corruption in the system software. I don’t know– I’m certainly no computer expert. However, thanks to the wonderful John Gallagher and Scott Kurtz, who talked me through various ways to get my computer back up and running enough to finish the final issue, get it scanned and off to Karl for inking via email– I was able to squeek through. So at long last, I am officially FINISHED with the (almost) three year run on FANTASTIC FOUR. It’s the longest I’ve ever worked on any book in my career. (I’ve already said my misty, sentimental farewells once– so I won’t go into that again…..)

I had been intending for some time to buy a NEW computer system, but the forced march on the last 9 issues of FF made it impossible for me to take the time that would be needed to decide on exactly what I wanted, purchase the system, set it up, and most of all, get used to using Macs latest operating system PANTHER (aka OSX 10.3). So I’ve spent all of this week doing just that. I’ve got the new system set up and running (and man, it’s a wonder to behold!!!! I’ll post a picture or two of my new setup some time soon when I get the NEXT problem I’m experiencing ironed out– but more on that in a second)– and again thanks to the incredible Scott Kurtz, who researched and talked me through the process, I’ve got my old computer networked into the new one. I even went out and bought a new EPSON Stylus CX4600 3-in-1 printer, copier and scanner for smaller scans to take some of the burden off of my huge, old flatbed scanner. Now I’ll just use the old big-boy for scanning my penciled and inked pages and use the smaller one for sketches and the like. That EPSON is one sweet little machine, I tell ya.

But now I’m experiencing another little road block that prevents me from posting any sketches for you folks to see (I told you I’d get to it…) — for some reason, I’m unable to log into my ftp site to upload sketches that I can then post here. My password doesn’t seem to be working. I’ve got an email into the web hosting company–so hopefully I’ll hear back soon, and things can finally get back to normal.

I’m off to my parents for a long overdue visit this weekend, but hopefully when I get back, I can finally get back into the swing of things, provided there’s anyone left that still comes to visit… 😉

Again– I apologize for all the delays in getting back to the sketchin’– see you soon,

Mike