Both of these writing gigs came about the same way: I was sitting around, doing nothing, when Craig Russell called up and said, “Hey, would you be interested in writing a Hellboy/Spirit story?” Naturally, I said yes, being thrilled to write a story about characters I’ve loved for years — and, most importantly, to write a story for a truly great artist I’ve known since my college days. In both cases, Craig provided the original idea — “Hellboy in a theater” and “something in an art museum” — and I ran with it.
I’m especially proud of the Spirit story, where we managed to cram an entire history of art in a handful of pages, using a fight scene and commentary from a pair of janitors to drive the story to its suitable ironic conclusion. The real irony came from the fact that, due to the Spirit comic being cancelled, DC wasn’t even going to publish the story, but Craig finished it and the sheer beauty of the art inspired a special issue that also included work by Howard Chaykin, Brian Bolland, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez and Paul Levitz. Believe me, it was a more than a little exciting to have my name listed on the cover with those guys.
By the way, you can see Craig’s original artwork for both stories (plus many, many more) reproduced in color and full size in the “Murder Mysteries and Other Stories Gallery Edition,” a giant, beautifully produced book available here.