Well, that was interesting. I opened Warren Ellis' latest e-mail missive this morning to learn that his previously unnamed Marvel project is called NextWave.

For those of you who don't understand the significance of why that's weird, I shall illuminate you. Back in 2000, I had an idea for a comic book series that would combine the things I like best in comics: people with whacked out powers and real world situations. I took to heart the concept that no matter how much I wanted it, the Powers That Be were never going to let me into their sandbox, so I should just create my own. Pretty much what I've been doing ever since. So that project was called Next Wave.

Anyway, I didn't have an artist but still wanted to tell this story. So I began writing the scripts for the issues, letting your mind be the artist because as we all know, your mind is very, very cheap.

Then, four months in, the revelation about how to get my book-books in print came to light and I was faced with a choice: either keep up the non-comic comic book, which had no chance of ever getting "in print" without an artist and I had no way of making any money off of it otherwise, or go forward with Love Letters and Mystics and try to get books on people's shelves.

It was a shitty decision to have to make, because people dug on Next Wave and wanted to see what was coming next. But there just hasn't been time. Which sucks, because there literally is a hundred-issue comic book in my head with a beginning, long-ass middle, and then an end. And I just have no way of producing it right now. It's like my screenplay ideas–since I can't film them or otherwise produce them in a way that I can actually get in people's hands–they're useless to me.

Believe me, if I ever find an artist and a way to get the book out, I'll start back on it again, even on a bi-monthly basis. Because I owe those characters something.

And Warren's project doesn't change anything, because he's taking some B-list characters and playing around with them, from what I can tell. Bully for him and I can't wait to read it. Whereas my story is…well, the simplest way to explain it is…well, Rising Stars done correctly. And you can't copyright a title. And mine has a space in it anyway. And Warren didn't rip the idea off or buy it off of me. So it's still viable as near as I can tell.

The whole thing's just weird. Not to mention the fact that the villain's name is Dirk Anger.