who called, it was its creator, Bob Burden. To say I was shocked is an understatement ...It all started with this blog posting I wrote on my love of the surreal beauty of Flaming Carrot Comics. Nothing led me to believe that over a month later on a Sunday as I updated my anti-virus software and my daughter started loading her Hello Kitty backpack that my phone would ring and it would be Burden on the other end telling me how much he liked my piece.
Usually my writing results in angry e-mails or people getting their feelings hurt and needing to tell me how they misinterpreted my writing in person. And if it's someone of note contacting me? Well, usually they are pretty pissed. (To be fair, Burden did ask me to correct something in the original piece, which I did, but he was an incredibly friendly and polite man.) To have a pleasant conversation with someone whose work I admired just about pummeled me into stupidity.
Burden and I discussed blog issues, his work on the Gumby
comics, an issue he is having with Marvel involving the use of the Mystery Men
(I'll be writing something about that in the future), and more. It was a fascinating conversation, and I have to admit I have even more respect for the guy. He didn't have to take the time to call me. I've written praise about plenty of other artists who haven't contacted me. Hell, I wrote Brian Michael Bendis a long letter of praise and offered to interview him for Film Threat back when he was just starting to become a big name and he didn't so much as acknowledge the request. So now I even have more respect for the man who wrote the first comic book that made me laugh out loud.At the end of the conversation, Burden asked me to drop him an e-mail sometime, which I will do. I just want to wait until the shock of the initial conversation wears off so I can think of something intelligent to say.
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