I was visiting DC when the EiC called me into his office. “Todd McFarlane wants you to pencil a story for him to ink.”

Politely as possible, I said “No.”

He pressed. “Come on! What would it take to get you to do it?”

I thought for a moment. “You’d have to let me do GENERATIONS 4.” (Not for McFarlane to ink.)

He picked up the phone and called his boss, down the hall. After a quick conversation he hung up. “Sorry, no more ElseWorlds.”

“Oh, well,” I said.

“But you’ll still do something for Todd, right?”

sigh

Fans tend to view their personal microcosm as an accurate reflection of the macrocosm. Rarely the case.

The WHEELIE AND THE CHOPPER BUNCH cover they show is a particular sore point.

Charlton did not approve of art that crossed over or cut into the logos, so one day their editorial department sent out a memo, with an illustration, showing the top third or so of the covers as absolutely inviolable. "NEVER DRAW ANYTHING IN THIS SPACE!"

So, I did that WHEELIE cover, and obediently left that area empty. Next thing I know, a newly appointed associate editor was sending out his own memo instructing us all to fill in the space UP TO the logo--and using that cover as an example of how NOT to do it. Putting it mildly, I was furious. I had no idea what the WHEELIE logo looked like when I drew the cover--that it was so "short"--and had drawn exactly what the previous memo demanded. To be singled out for "doing it wrong" when I had in fact done it RIGHT by their own RULES.....!!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Perhaps hearing it from her will allow some of the more vocal Byrne Bashers to understand it's NOT an example of raging ego.