Jim Shooter is gone. Cancer.  

He was the first writer I ever recognized by name. As a kid flipping through my Dad’s old Silver Age comics, it was his stories that stuck with me. Even then, something about his voice on the page just landed.  

He was just 13 when he sent in stories for the Legion of Super-Heroes at DC Comics. At 14, he wrote the story in which Ferro Lad died – the first “real” death of a Legionnaire (although Lightning Lad had been believed dead for a while before) – and introduced the Fatal Five.  

Looking back, I think reading his stories helped me understand the role of the writer. Comics are known predominantly as a medium for artists, but if the story is crap, it ultimately doesn’t really matter how good the art is. A writer has to collaborate with the penciller to make magic.  

I always found that collaboration invigorating. When I was making Slip Kid, I loved the interaction I had with my penciller.  

Maybe someday I can get back to that kind of writing. But first… I need a story to tell.