My studio’s an absolute mess!!!! I mean it (as does our whole house) looks like the door was left open allowing a mighty wind to sweep through. I’ve been working on commissions, a little of Rock and just laying low. I got some wonderful Christmas presents this year — (thank you Joe for the ornament and book!) but at the moment am just overwhelmed by the incredible Christmas mess (well, I don’t think I’ve cleaned my studio since the Spring) so I guess I better get to cleaning here today. We’ve got Deb’s college room mate and her family coming to stay with us for the weekend and New Year, plus we’ll be having two other families staying with us that night. Oh, there’s so much cleaning to do!!!! Maybe, I’ll take a bath first. I also want to go hunting today for a few hours, just to get out of the house. Rock is coming along real well and I’m looking forward to drawing the darn thing the third week in January.
Well, until tomorrow.
Tally Ho!
B

Yes, I’ve got five pages left to the script for Day Four. I’m really digging this. I went to the dentist today and am scheduled to get a root canal Wednesday morning. I’m bummed because it’s the only time they can fit me in and I’ll miss William’s Christmas concert. It sucks. What sucks more is that I’ve got another appointment with another dentist for a crown at 1pm. UGH!

Anyway, I’ve come up with a really cool scenerio for Rock but want to run it by some of my WW2 experts to see what they say. It involves Rock, taking his signature machine gun belt off his neck, tying it around a couple of grenades and chucking at a bunch of Germans. The explosions would be pretty damn lethal I think. What about you guys?

Here’s a link to the boards. You can see all my new friends helping me out. I’m planning to go to the Vosges mountains the first week in March.

http://p081.ezboard.com/ftexasmilitaryforcesmuseum36thinfantrydivision.showMessage?topicID=2487.topic

I also had a nice conversation with Mimi and will tell you all about that later.

Holy crap!
I cannot believe the year is coming to an end. Things are going well here, but as usual, I’m behind. I was hoping to finish all six issues of Sgt. Rock by the end of the year, but looks like I’ll only get five done. I’m working my way through “ ay Four” now, but could use two extra pages. I could probably get a seventh issue, but really would rather do it in six. Oh well, I’m working on commissions and sent a bunch out and will do another one today. These are old — and people are getting pissed off at me. Not as old as Scott and Delvie’s but Scott’s too nice to demand it and I, like everyone else think Delvie is some Government Agency computer, so if I get arrested for not paying some tax it’s because of that. No seriously, I have some of Delvie’s done, but none of Scott’s. So, here I sit, bored and overwhelmed with the work I’m not doing.

I’ve been in touch with the son of Captain (then 1st Lieutenant) Martin Higgins. Michael has been a tremendous help — as have been the folks at the 36th infantry (of which the Lost Battalion was a part of) message boards. Hopefully, I’ll speak with the last known survivor of the Lost Battalion, some rescuers of the 442nd RCT and the pilots of the 405th squadron who — if it weren’t for their bravery in dropping supplies, there wouldn’t have been a battalion to rescue.

In issue four, the conditions have turned miserable for the starving and parched men of the battalion and it’s tough to write as I’m really feeling for them. I know that issue Five will go quicker as there’s something like 17 pages of battle — lots of fun. But I might chop that down a bit as I don’t want to lose the human element of the men on the mount and their rescuers. It’s just that there’s so much fighting going on and I must keep to that. All day, and all night, both Germans and Americans continuously slugged it out under horrible conditions. Ah — I’m just thinking aloud, but it’s helped me, so I think I’ll do more of it!!

Any way, let me get back to work — talk to you soon!!!
B

Holy crap!
I cannot believe the year is coming to an end. Things are going well here, but as usual, I’m behind. I was hoping to finish all six issues of Sgt. Rock by the end of the year, but looks like I’ll only get five done. I’m working my way through “ ay Four” now, but could use two extra pages. I could probably get a seventh issue, but really would rather do it in six. Oh well, I’m working on commissions and sent a bunch out and will do another one today. These are old — and people are getting pissed off at me. Not as old as Scott and Delvie’s but Scott’s too nice to demand it and I, like everyone else think Delvie is some Government Agency computer, so if I get arrested for not paying some tax it’s because of that. No seriously, I have some of Delvie’s done, but none of Scott’s. So, here I sit, bored and overwhelmed with the work I’m not doing.

I’ve been in touch with the son of Captain (then 1st Lieutenant) Martin Higgins. Michael has been a tremendous help — as have been the folks at the 36th infantry (of which the Lost Battalion was a part of) message boards. Hopefully, I’ll speak with the last known survivor of the Lost Battalion, some rescuers of the 442nd RCT and the pilots of the 405th squadron who — if it weren’t for their bravery in dropping supplies, there wouldn’t have been a battalion to rescue.

In issue four, the conditions have turned miserable for the starving and parched men of the battalion and it’s tough to write as I’m really feeling for them. I know that issue Five will go quicker as there’s something like 17 pages of battle — lots of fun. But I might chop that down a bit as I don’t want to lose the human element of the men on the mount and their rescuers. It’s just that there’s so much fighting going on and I must keep to that. All day, and all night, both Germans and Americans continuously slugged it out under horrible conditions. Ah — I’m just thinking aloud, but it’s helped me, so I think I’ll do more of it!!

Any way, let me get back to work — talk to you soon!!!
B

I’ve been working all day, and have made some steady progress on Rock Day Four script. I hope to finish it by Friday. I’ve been in reference mode all day and have been in touch with the son of the commanding officer in the real story. He’s given me so much info that it’s affecting the first three scripts , but it’s all a good though. Got some nice commissions done last week, raked a bunch of leaves and put up my Christmas lights. The lights were done on Sunday, the day after I got smashed on sh Scotch at my neighbors dinner party Saturday night — I don’t remember ANY THING after the soup. Apparently, I wasn’t too bad and quite funny, but my neighbors are big time Scotch drinkers and gave me four plus two glasses of wine. Everyone had fun at my expense and Deb wasn’t angry with me so I guess it’s okay. It was Dewars and Johnny Walker Red so not the good stuff and I think that had something to do with my condition. I thought I was going to die yesterday. I watched Red Dawn today while writing and Enemy at the Gates last night. I was supposed to go into the city to have dinner or a drink with actor Billy Campbell, but really wasn’t in any condition. Plus I want to finish these scripts. I also want to ask my editor Mike Marts for one extra issue for the story — seven all together.

Things have been fine here, but it’s been raining a lot — oh, I also have to read the newest version of the Shi script (Kevin took another stab at it) and we have a meeting on Wednesday with Mimi.

Well until tomorrow evening — Rock On!

And I’m truly sorry. I’ve been working very hard on a variety of projects — though not hard enough and I plan to renew that. With all the family stuff (Matthew’s a handful! ) and that Deb’s energy levels are very low due to the loss of her petuitary gland, travel and comic stuff, I’m a bit tired myself. But I’m getting a gym membership for Christmas — and I hope that will set me back on track. I’ve been loving this Sgt. Rock story and cannot wait to draw it. I’m also having fun with the commissions, but they’re so much work. I’m hard at work at issue 4 script and should finish it by the end of next week. I’ve been in touch with lots of friends and families of the surviviors of the battle and they’ve been just incredible with all the after-action reports, photos and even their help in hooking me up with the actual veterans. I believe there is only one member of the Lost Battalion still alive and I should be talking to him next week. I will write more over the weekend and want to get back to my drawings now. I promise you that when the books are announced early next year and I’m done with the writing I’ll be on a lot more and will be blogging regularly.
I hope all is well with you guys and will write in a day or two!
B