End Credits
As you know I'm stepping down as EiC of M2K this week but before I do, I've some things I want to say, specifically about the people I've worked with over the past few years. It's a long list in alphabetical order by first name. Here we go...
Adnan Khan – I’ve not worked with Adnan as much as I did with some of the other members of the M2K team, but he’s been around a very long time and his work has always been of good quality. It’s a shame he didn’t do more for the site, but he gives input from time to time and you never know, one day he’ll be back.
Alex Cook – Alex Cook… what you can you say about Alex? He’s been an asset to the site, long before he started writing Fallen Angels. When we were having problems with leeding he volunteered space on digi-mystic and he gave us an ad-free home that actually works. Well, most of the time, but when it doesn’t Alex is usually on hand to fix it, or phone someone who can. The upcoming Thunderbolts/Fallen Angels crossover will be a fine thing to see, because Alex is a great writer as well. He dots every ‘i’ and crosses every ‘t’ which is why they’re as infrequent as they are, but Alex is a perfectionist.
Brad Horton – Brad has been writing at M2K as long as I can remember. His work on Cable, Captain Marvel, Deadpool, and X-Men Omega/X-Corp has always been of a high level. He’s one of the more sensible members of the creative cast, is always willing to listen to ideas and rarely flies off the handle, which if you know M2K is quite a rarity. He’s a top guy and he’s been great to work with. At one point he was up for being the new EiC, but he didn’t have the time to commit to it as fully as Chris and Mike, though it would have been interesting to see what he did. If only he had a better idea of writing Psylocke…
Brent Lambert – Brent Lambert is one of the sites most hardworking members. He writes at least one or two issues a week, reviews issues and worked for me compiling the dibs, though I’ve been a hindrance to that by posting the wrong list and not telling him what I’m doing with my titles. However he works through that and if there’s one thing Brent has above everyone else it’s ideas. They may not always work, in fact sometimes they don’t make a great deal of sense, but he shrugs, learns from it and tries again. Brent’s a very good writer and one day he’ll be a great writer when he figures out how to make all the ideas work seamlessly, and I can see it happening very soon.
Chris Munn – Chris first came to my attention proper when Mike Exner had a very good go at me over his Thunderbolts series, having heard what Chris had in mind and he was pissed off that his ideas were being abused. I can respect that opinion, but Chris was open and honest and I was able to assure Mike that Chris was doing good work and he’s proven us right ever since, and now he’s working on Avengers West Coast with Russ Anderson, showing us his high quality skills in a whole new field. He’s a smart guy and as you may know, Chris is going to be one of the new EiCs at the site and I know that he has the talent to do so having worked for him at Marvel: Dark Design and M2K’s revolution will continue apace under his sage council.
Chris Oliva – One of the new writers on the block, Chris has proven his talent with Pathetix, which has taken M2K by storm. The cast has been amazing, the storylines bizarre but have been pulled off with great style and that style is being opened up further with a darker series in Hellcat. Now I have to admit I wasn’t sure about Hellcat at first, but Chris assured me of the plots and how it would work with the conclusion to Defenders and given the work on Pathetix, I know he’ll do the series and the continuity of M2K proud.
Cory Wiegel – Obnoxious, arrogant, combative. Those are words I can use to describe Cory. Then there are the other things – talented, creative, dedicated. Cory is a person of great depth and while he has a tendency to shoot his mouth off, it’s because he’s passionate about the things he does. His work on Iceman has been incredible and he has a real feel for the character, which gained him the best writer award at last year’s Tookies, but he has an inconsistency to his work, which can disappoint and I think it is down to his relatively young age. If he were a more regular writer and applied his passions that he uses in debates to the rest of his fanfic writing he could be one of the true greats of the site. I have no doubt it will come in time as he matures from being a teenager in to a responsible young man
David Ingram – I like David. He’s a great person to chat with and though we’ve had our differences in the last week or so, there’s nobody I can think of in a better place to take over Excalibur. His issues of Force Works and New Warriors have been bold and innovative, and his current mini-series In The Name of Science is an intriguing read. The only thing I hate about David’s issues is his writing style when it comes to speech. I’ve mentioned it to him before, but it’s something he must have been taught early on. “Blah blah blah.” He said. instead of “Blah blah blah,” he said and I try and get them all, but David writes very long issues. There are times when I’ve gone through them I’ve muttered to myself that if he wasn’t such a good writer I’d have him killed, but that’s frustration on my part. I tell you, it’s one of the things I won’t miss when it comes to standing down and Chris and Mike will have to pay attention though when it comes to his issues. Good luck fellas!
Derrick Ferguson – The guy thinks I’m a twat, and probably with good reason. His run on Hulk was a great run and it came to an abrupt end and it was a major disagreement between us, as he wanted the issues removing and I refused to and changed M2K editorial policy in doing so, saying that the removal of issues was at the discretion of the EiC. It wasn’t a popular idea, but it was something I felt needed to be done, and there were a few people who supported it. However Derrick was not happy with me and never really has been since. It is a shame because I found his work to be excellent and I am glad we had him participate in M2K. No matter our differences, I respect the work he does on other sites and his periodic reviews across the board have always been fair. I hope that now I’ve stood down that Chris and Mike can convince him to return as it would be good to see his name at M2K once more.
Dino Pollard – The founder of M2K, one of the most prolific authors on site, having more issues to his name than anyone else. I think he’s written more titles on site than anyone else as well, though I think I’m a close second. Dino has been EiC twice, sharing the post his second time with me, before stepping down, but he has left a legacy to live up to in every sense. The man created M2K, and everything that has been done so far has been down to him and he has been a pleasure to know and work with. Of late he’s not had as much respect as he should have done, and he’s also had a crisis of confidence in his writing, but I have no doubt he will be back to the site one day and I think most people are waiting for him to come back in one guise or another. A top bloke.
Douglas Ketcham – Douglas was a good man, who wasn’t the best of the writers for the site, but he had a very good go at it. His Namor stuff was what fanfic is about, a person writing something he wants to write and be damned what everyone else thinks of him and his writing. He wasn’t always well received but he enjoyed himself, there were some very good moments in his work and he brought Godzilla to M2K. It’s a shame he stopped writing for us a little while ago, because I liked what he was trying to do. Hopefully he’ll be back one day when he has more time because it doesn’t matter if you’re the best, the most talented or anything like that. If you’re having fun, doing what you want to do then that’s the most important thing. Douglas reminded me how much fun you could have.
Frank Bigoski – Frank was a nice bloke. I liked Frank. His ideas didn’t quite work the way they could have done, but he had a commitment to the site. His problem was/is the fact he keeps disappearing! It is very annoying as an EiC that he goes away for months on end and you don’t know why. He did it before with Iron Man, and he’s done it again with Ghost Rider and Solider X. If he could stick around and finish things off, he’d be a bit better thought of. Doing it to us twice is a little unfair and though it may not be his fault, it’s hard to know what to do. It’s a shame he’s done that, because it makes it harder for people to give another chance. Chris and Mike will make a call on that and if Frank gets another chance, hopefully he’ll be about a bit longer.
Gregg Esptein – The unsung hero of M2K for me. Gregg has been there writing the majority of the Heroes branch as long as I can remember. Alpha Flight, Iron Man, Captain America, Fantastic Four – the only thing he hasn’t written is Avengers, but he writes the solo series of two of them. Gregg keeps the Heroes branch going and while the two Avengers series gets more attention, and now the new Champions series, Gregg keeps on going, doing what he does. He doesn’t complain, he doesn’t say a great deal really, he just gets on with it. I think he knows he’s not a ‘name’ like some of the other writers, but to me he is with a consistent silver age style with no pretension, no ego, just a love of the characters. As long as Gregg is about, M2K will always be more than just a site based on the X-Titles.
Jason Bruss – Jason’s another name that’s only come to the site in the last few months, but in the process he’s made one hell of an impact with Fantastic Four. His ideas are revolutionary, and considering that he’s following some very good writers that’s a credit to him. I know he has some very big plans in the upcoming year and he is going to raise the roof of the Heroes line. He’s a talented writer and he’s only going to get better as he progresses. If he’s not Writer of the Year at the 2004 Tookies (maybe even this year’s, but I’m not so sure) I’d be surprised.
Jason Eberly – The other Jason of M2K, who’s had a good year as well as a bad one. He’s been ill a lot this year and it’s impeded his writing, which is a shame as his work on Black Widow has been great and now he’s working on Daredevil, which is well cool. Sadly because he’s been ill he’s not got much released this year which is a shame, because I think he’d have been a contender for Writer of the Year this year if he’d got a bit more out. I’d like to say he’d be a contender for next year, but the competition is going to be very intense but I know it will inspire Jason to raise his game and I hope he’ll be about for a long time to come.
Jay Corafa – Jay Corafa was the guy that introduced me to M2K and I will grateful to him for doing that. The group was looking for a Wolverine writer and he asked me and the rest is pretty much history. Jay is responsible for the shape of the X-Universe at the site, and though Dino’s done a lot, the groundwork was set by Jay and Brent, Dino, Cory, Brad, me and everyone else owes Jay a great debt. I would love to see him come back to M2K, after he left the site due to the 9/11 tragedy. He’s been seen here and there on the message board and maybe one day he’ll write for the site once again. Now that would be a great day.
Jeff Melton – Who is Jeff Melton, I hear you ask? He’s the writer for Thor, though you might not realise it. Jeff doesn’t get a great many issues out for us, which is a shame but he checks in every so often to make sure we knows he’s alive. He’s a gent and I have to mention him because he is. I’m glad I’ve worked with him and I hope to see a few more issue from him.
Logan Polk – The Daredevil writer, who did so much for DD at M2K, as well as sundry issues here and there. He’s got a passion for writing fanfic and he did so much for Daredevil it’d be great to see him do something else now. Ideally Cloak and Dagger, because he showed an understanding of the characters in Max 2000 but anything would be great to see. With the way he works with plot twists, he’d shake up any series and that would be great to see on one of the major titles.
Logan Trent Kuraishi – LTK hasn’t written a great deal for the site, but he has had an impact on things. He was originally slated to write X-Men Prime and it was all set up for him to go, but real life got in the way and he had to step down. There is a lot in Prime that was inspired by his works, but had to be different because the ideas he wanted to use, he’s using elsewhere. This in turn has inspired both myself and Dino to work with a basic concept and twist it so that his work isn’t copied. He’s provided me with some great advice on the series, asked for things, which I’ve done what I can to accommodate and he’s made me work for it, something that very few people at the site have actually done, so my hat is off to him for that. I hope I did him proud and it will be interesting to see what happens in Prime after I’ve gone. Wouldn’t it be cool if he came back to write it?
Michael Gordon – Here’s a man who has my respect for what he did with Ultimate X-Men. He took a very difficult plot from Dino and made it his own, which was impressive in itself but even more so when you see the quality of the issues he put out. He did a great deal of work for the series, keeping the Ultimate line going after Dino left. It is a shame he left the series, but kudos to him. He knew when it was time for him to go and instead of staying and forcing himself to write, he gave notice and stood down. He went up in my estimation for doing that and I hope to see his name on something else in the future.
Mike Exner III – Mike Exner. Here’s a man who altered the concept of superheroics at M2K. His work on Spider-Man is something of legend at M2K, as his stuff on Thunderbolts. He’s also worked on Avengers for a little while and now he’s working his magic on Champions. He is one of, if not the, best writers at the site. At very least I would put him in the top three. I know we had a disagreement over T-Bolts when Chris Munn took over, but it was sorted out to his satisfaction with no grievances on any side and I am very, very pleased that he came back to M2K. It feels right he’s working on the site again, there’s something comforting about it and I hope he sticks around for a long while to come.
Mike Shirley – The next EiC of M2K has been my deputy for a while now. He’s been a source of support and advice and has been invaluable to me. It’s true he’s not done a great deal of obvious work for the site, but behind the scenes he has been a gem. With he and Chris working together it will be a good sign of things to come at the site. I trust Mike implicitly and I know he will do what is best for the site and if he can give the site the same counsel he’s given he over the last few years, everyone will be better for it. Good luck to you, Mike, and I mean that most sincerely. Oh, and try and write something for the site. I know you don’t have a lot of time, but give it a shot. Everyone will thank you for it.
M o_o – It’s a shame that a man of M o_o’s talent has been driven away by controversy, especially one that called everything about him in to question. I liked him, I liked him a lot and his work on Fantastic Four, Invincibles and Moon Man have been a pleasure to host at M2K. I don’t give a damn about the whole Milx issue and whether he was the artist or not he was always welcome at M2K, and I hope that C&M will continue that. One day we will see him again, I have a gut feeling about it.
Nate Charles – Nate Charles may only have just started writing Spider-Man, but it’s something that’s been a long time in coming. There was a communication error a while back between me and Cory and Adnan who were writing the series and I thought they’d left and I let Nate take over the title. There was a disagreement and I tried to resolve it and Nate was going to write a second Spider-Man series, but it didn’t pan out and Nate went away for a bit. Now he’s back, writing the series as he originally wanted to and I’m glad he is. Not to say that Cory and Adnan’s stuff was bad, but Nate wanted this series and finally he’s got his wish. I understand he’s also going to be taking on X-Force/XSE or whatever it ends up becoming, so good luck to him. M2K is lucky to have him.
Patrick Moore – If there’s one person at M2K who has more enthusiasm than anyone else, it has to be Patrick. He proposes more series than anyone else, and sometimes his reach exceeds his grasp. It is truly a shame that he cannot do more than he does, that he cannot match his enthusiasm with his output. It’s also a shame that there’s not really a place at M2K for the Daria series he’s been wanting to do since… well forever. If Patrick could focus his enthusiasm on to one title, he could make it a great series, instead of spreading himself too thinly as he does right now. One day he’ll do it, but I never want him to lose the enthusiasm. It’s infectious.
Russ Anderson – Welcome back, Mr Anderson! Yes, while everyone else may think of the Matrix when they think of Mr Anderson, I will always think of Russ. He was the EiC of M2K before me and he did one hell of a job turning the site in to the thing it is now. I followed on from his work with Will Short. The redesign of the site, the issue layout – all their work. Okay, they used my design for the issue layout, but they did it anyway and there was a lot to do. Russ is also a talented writer and his work on Iron Man and Scarlet Spider were excellent and he’s continuing that with Avengers West Coast. Of my top three M2K writers, Russ is there and I was very pleased when he was made the first member of the M2K Hall of Fame at last year’s Tookies because there’s not many who’ve worked harder for M2K than he has.
Ryan Schmidt – Ryan’s a new kid on the block for M2K but he’s done some good work on the E-Force series over on Alternate and he’s been a an interested party for the site. He has been controversial at times and some people have doubted his commitment to the site, but I’ve always given him the benefit of the doubt. His writing style has flaws, but so do lots of people and he’s gotten better over time. He has good ideas and I think he’d do well on a mainstream title.
Steve Crosby – Steve worked with Dino on Ultimate Avengers and he helped Dino make the Ultimate series something special. When Dino left he was kind of stranded in a creative no man’s land, but the two of them made the Ultimate line something workable. Dino gets a lot of the credit for it, but I don’t think it’d have worked as well without Steve’s input.
Troy Bengal – Troy’s another writer who took on a hard task when he took over the Bishop series at the beginning of the year from Dino. He took on the plots Dino laid out and made them his own as Michael did with Ultimate X-Men and he’s written the series pretty consistently ever since. He has an enjoyment of the series and he’s done a lot to make the Hellfire Club more credible as well as working hard at giving a decent back story for the supporting cast. Troy is supposed to be taking on Gen X in the near future and it will be interesting to see what he does with that and I believe that he will make people sit up and take notice with what he brings to the title.
Will Short – And finally there’s Will. Will Short is an amazing writer and of the top three, he makes up the list. His work as a writer and editor has been incredible, and it is a shame and a half he felt his Marvel Girl series would work better at Avengers 2000, though we’ve still got #0 because he generously let us keep it. I’d have taken it down if he’d wanted, but he let us have it and kudos to him for that. His work on Defenders was excellent, and his finale for Avengers was an incredible finish. There’s not many people I respect more than Will and one day I hope he’ll do something else for the site.
There’s a lot of people I’ve not been able to mention like the rest for one reason or another, but they are in my mind and I’d like to thank the following people – Tom Cad, Scott Casper, Mike Rasbury, Mark Walsh, Al Ritter, Curtis J Fernlund, Matt Pierce, Mike Fitzgerald, and Gwyna. They have contributed to the site in their own ways and I’d like to thank them all for doing so. This has been a quite long Davimentary, but then there’s been a lot to say.
Thank you all for your support of me while I’ve been EiC of M2K. It’s been one hell of a ride and a lot of fun.
Adnan Khan – I’ve not worked with Adnan as much as I did with some of the other members of the M2K team, but he’s been around a very long time and his work has always been of good quality. It’s a shame he didn’t do more for the site, but he gives input from time to time and you never know, one day he’ll be back.
Alex Cook – Alex Cook… what you can you say about Alex? He’s been an asset to the site, long before he started writing Fallen Angels. When we were having problems with leeding he volunteered space on digi-mystic and he gave us an ad-free home that actually works. Well, most of the time, but when it doesn’t Alex is usually on hand to fix it, or phone someone who can. The upcoming Thunderbolts/Fallen Angels crossover will be a fine thing to see, because Alex is a great writer as well. He dots every ‘i’ and crosses every ‘t’ which is why they’re as infrequent as they are, but Alex is a perfectionist.
Brad Horton – Brad has been writing at M2K as long as I can remember. His work on Cable, Captain Marvel, Deadpool, and X-Men Omega/X-Corp has always been of a high level. He’s one of the more sensible members of the creative cast, is always willing to listen to ideas and rarely flies off the handle, which if you know M2K is quite a rarity. He’s a top guy and he’s been great to work with. At one point he was up for being the new EiC, but he didn’t have the time to commit to it as fully as Chris and Mike, though it would have been interesting to see what he did. If only he had a better idea of writing Psylocke…
Brent Lambert – Brent Lambert is one of the sites most hardworking members. He writes at least one or two issues a week, reviews issues and worked for me compiling the dibs, though I’ve been a hindrance to that by posting the wrong list and not telling him what I’m doing with my titles. However he works through that and if there’s one thing Brent has above everyone else it’s ideas. They may not always work, in fact sometimes they don’t make a great deal of sense, but he shrugs, learns from it and tries again. Brent’s a very good writer and one day he’ll be a great writer when he figures out how to make all the ideas work seamlessly, and I can see it happening very soon.
Chris Munn – Chris first came to my attention proper when Mike Exner had a very good go at me over his Thunderbolts series, having heard what Chris had in mind and he was pissed off that his ideas were being abused. I can respect that opinion, but Chris was open and honest and I was able to assure Mike that Chris was doing good work and he’s proven us right ever since, and now he’s working on Avengers West Coast with Russ Anderson, showing us his high quality skills in a whole new field. He’s a smart guy and as you may know, Chris is going to be one of the new EiCs at the site and I know that he has the talent to do so having worked for him at Marvel: Dark Design and M2K’s revolution will continue apace under his sage council.
Chris Oliva – One of the new writers on the block, Chris has proven his talent with Pathetix, which has taken M2K by storm. The cast has been amazing, the storylines bizarre but have been pulled off with great style and that style is being opened up further with a darker series in Hellcat. Now I have to admit I wasn’t sure about Hellcat at first, but Chris assured me of the plots and how it would work with the conclusion to Defenders and given the work on Pathetix, I know he’ll do the series and the continuity of M2K proud.
Cory Wiegel – Obnoxious, arrogant, combative. Those are words I can use to describe Cory. Then there are the other things – talented, creative, dedicated. Cory is a person of great depth and while he has a tendency to shoot his mouth off, it’s because he’s passionate about the things he does. His work on Iceman has been incredible and he has a real feel for the character, which gained him the best writer award at last year’s Tookies, but he has an inconsistency to his work, which can disappoint and I think it is down to his relatively young age. If he were a more regular writer and applied his passions that he uses in debates to the rest of his fanfic writing he could be one of the true greats of the site. I have no doubt it will come in time as he matures from being a teenager in to a responsible young man
David Ingram – I like David. He’s a great person to chat with and though we’ve had our differences in the last week or so, there’s nobody I can think of in a better place to take over Excalibur. His issues of Force Works and New Warriors have been bold and innovative, and his current mini-series In The Name of Science is an intriguing read. The only thing I hate about David’s issues is his writing style when it comes to speech. I’ve mentioned it to him before, but it’s something he must have been taught early on. “Blah blah blah.” He said. instead of “Blah blah blah,” he said and I try and get them all, but David writes very long issues. There are times when I’ve gone through them I’ve muttered to myself that if he wasn’t such a good writer I’d have him killed, but that’s frustration on my part. I tell you, it’s one of the things I won’t miss when it comes to standing down and Chris and Mike will have to pay attention though when it comes to his issues. Good luck fellas!
Derrick Ferguson – The guy thinks I’m a twat, and probably with good reason. His run on Hulk was a great run and it came to an abrupt end and it was a major disagreement between us, as he wanted the issues removing and I refused to and changed M2K editorial policy in doing so, saying that the removal of issues was at the discretion of the EiC. It wasn’t a popular idea, but it was something I felt needed to be done, and there were a few people who supported it. However Derrick was not happy with me and never really has been since. It is a shame because I found his work to be excellent and I am glad we had him participate in M2K. No matter our differences, I respect the work he does on other sites and his periodic reviews across the board have always been fair. I hope that now I’ve stood down that Chris and Mike can convince him to return as it would be good to see his name at M2K once more.
Dino Pollard – The founder of M2K, one of the most prolific authors on site, having more issues to his name than anyone else. I think he’s written more titles on site than anyone else as well, though I think I’m a close second. Dino has been EiC twice, sharing the post his second time with me, before stepping down, but he has left a legacy to live up to in every sense. The man created M2K, and everything that has been done so far has been down to him and he has been a pleasure to know and work with. Of late he’s not had as much respect as he should have done, and he’s also had a crisis of confidence in his writing, but I have no doubt he will be back to the site one day and I think most people are waiting for him to come back in one guise or another. A top bloke.
Douglas Ketcham – Douglas was a good man, who wasn’t the best of the writers for the site, but he had a very good go at it. His Namor stuff was what fanfic is about, a person writing something he wants to write and be damned what everyone else thinks of him and his writing. He wasn’t always well received but he enjoyed himself, there were some very good moments in his work and he brought Godzilla to M2K. It’s a shame he stopped writing for us a little while ago, because I liked what he was trying to do. Hopefully he’ll be back one day when he has more time because it doesn’t matter if you’re the best, the most talented or anything like that. If you’re having fun, doing what you want to do then that’s the most important thing. Douglas reminded me how much fun you could have.
Frank Bigoski – Frank was a nice bloke. I liked Frank. His ideas didn’t quite work the way they could have done, but he had a commitment to the site. His problem was/is the fact he keeps disappearing! It is very annoying as an EiC that he goes away for months on end and you don’t know why. He did it before with Iron Man, and he’s done it again with Ghost Rider and Solider X. If he could stick around and finish things off, he’d be a bit better thought of. Doing it to us twice is a little unfair and though it may not be his fault, it’s hard to know what to do. It’s a shame he’s done that, because it makes it harder for people to give another chance. Chris and Mike will make a call on that and if Frank gets another chance, hopefully he’ll be about a bit longer.
Gregg Esptein – The unsung hero of M2K for me. Gregg has been there writing the majority of the Heroes branch as long as I can remember. Alpha Flight, Iron Man, Captain America, Fantastic Four – the only thing he hasn’t written is Avengers, but he writes the solo series of two of them. Gregg keeps the Heroes branch going and while the two Avengers series gets more attention, and now the new Champions series, Gregg keeps on going, doing what he does. He doesn’t complain, he doesn’t say a great deal really, he just gets on with it. I think he knows he’s not a ‘name’ like some of the other writers, but to me he is with a consistent silver age style with no pretension, no ego, just a love of the characters. As long as Gregg is about, M2K will always be more than just a site based on the X-Titles.
Jason Bruss – Jason’s another name that’s only come to the site in the last few months, but in the process he’s made one hell of an impact with Fantastic Four. His ideas are revolutionary, and considering that he’s following some very good writers that’s a credit to him. I know he has some very big plans in the upcoming year and he is going to raise the roof of the Heroes line. He’s a talented writer and he’s only going to get better as he progresses. If he’s not Writer of the Year at the 2004 Tookies (maybe even this year’s, but I’m not so sure) I’d be surprised.
Jason Eberly – The other Jason of M2K, who’s had a good year as well as a bad one. He’s been ill a lot this year and it’s impeded his writing, which is a shame as his work on Black Widow has been great and now he’s working on Daredevil, which is well cool. Sadly because he’s been ill he’s not got much released this year which is a shame, because I think he’d have been a contender for Writer of the Year this year if he’d got a bit more out. I’d like to say he’d be a contender for next year, but the competition is going to be very intense but I know it will inspire Jason to raise his game and I hope he’ll be about for a long time to come.
Jay Corafa – Jay Corafa was the guy that introduced me to M2K and I will grateful to him for doing that. The group was looking for a Wolverine writer and he asked me and the rest is pretty much history. Jay is responsible for the shape of the X-Universe at the site, and though Dino’s done a lot, the groundwork was set by Jay and Brent, Dino, Cory, Brad, me and everyone else owes Jay a great debt. I would love to see him come back to M2K, after he left the site due to the 9/11 tragedy. He’s been seen here and there on the message board and maybe one day he’ll write for the site once again. Now that would be a great day.
Jeff Melton – Who is Jeff Melton, I hear you ask? He’s the writer for Thor, though you might not realise it. Jeff doesn’t get a great many issues out for us, which is a shame but he checks in every so often to make sure we knows he’s alive. He’s a gent and I have to mention him because he is. I’m glad I’ve worked with him and I hope to see a few more issue from him.
Logan Polk – The Daredevil writer, who did so much for DD at M2K, as well as sundry issues here and there. He’s got a passion for writing fanfic and he did so much for Daredevil it’d be great to see him do something else now. Ideally Cloak and Dagger, because he showed an understanding of the characters in Max 2000 but anything would be great to see. With the way he works with plot twists, he’d shake up any series and that would be great to see on one of the major titles.
Logan Trent Kuraishi – LTK hasn’t written a great deal for the site, but he has had an impact on things. He was originally slated to write X-Men Prime and it was all set up for him to go, but real life got in the way and he had to step down. There is a lot in Prime that was inspired by his works, but had to be different because the ideas he wanted to use, he’s using elsewhere. This in turn has inspired both myself and Dino to work with a basic concept and twist it so that his work isn’t copied. He’s provided me with some great advice on the series, asked for things, which I’ve done what I can to accommodate and he’s made me work for it, something that very few people at the site have actually done, so my hat is off to him for that. I hope I did him proud and it will be interesting to see what happens in Prime after I’ve gone. Wouldn’t it be cool if he came back to write it?
Michael Gordon – Here’s a man who has my respect for what he did with Ultimate X-Men. He took a very difficult plot from Dino and made it his own, which was impressive in itself but even more so when you see the quality of the issues he put out. He did a great deal of work for the series, keeping the Ultimate line going after Dino left. It is a shame he left the series, but kudos to him. He knew when it was time for him to go and instead of staying and forcing himself to write, he gave notice and stood down. He went up in my estimation for doing that and I hope to see his name on something else in the future.
Mike Exner III – Mike Exner. Here’s a man who altered the concept of superheroics at M2K. His work on Spider-Man is something of legend at M2K, as his stuff on Thunderbolts. He’s also worked on Avengers for a little while and now he’s working his magic on Champions. He is one of, if not the, best writers at the site. At very least I would put him in the top three. I know we had a disagreement over T-Bolts when Chris Munn took over, but it was sorted out to his satisfaction with no grievances on any side and I am very, very pleased that he came back to M2K. It feels right he’s working on the site again, there’s something comforting about it and I hope he sticks around for a long while to come.
Mike Shirley – The next EiC of M2K has been my deputy for a while now. He’s been a source of support and advice and has been invaluable to me. It’s true he’s not done a great deal of obvious work for the site, but behind the scenes he has been a gem. With he and Chris working together it will be a good sign of things to come at the site. I trust Mike implicitly and I know he will do what is best for the site and if he can give the site the same counsel he’s given he over the last few years, everyone will be better for it. Good luck to you, Mike, and I mean that most sincerely. Oh, and try and write something for the site. I know you don’t have a lot of time, but give it a shot. Everyone will thank you for it.
M o_o – It’s a shame that a man of M o_o’s talent has been driven away by controversy, especially one that called everything about him in to question. I liked him, I liked him a lot and his work on Fantastic Four, Invincibles and Moon Man have been a pleasure to host at M2K. I don’t give a damn about the whole Milx issue and whether he was the artist or not he was always welcome at M2K, and I hope that C&M will continue that. One day we will see him again, I have a gut feeling about it.
Nate Charles – Nate Charles may only have just started writing Spider-Man, but it’s something that’s been a long time in coming. There was a communication error a while back between me and Cory and Adnan who were writing the series and I thought they’d left and I let Nate take over the title. There was a disagreement and I tried to resolve it and Nate was going to write a second Spider-Man series, but it didn’t pan out and Nate went away for a bit. Now he’s back, writing the series as he originally wanted to and I’m glad he is. Not to say that Cory and Adnan’s stuff was bad, but Nate wanted this series and finally he’s got his wish. I understand he’s also going to be taking on X-Force/XSE or whatever it ends up becoming, so good luck to him. M2K is lucky to have him.
Patrick Moore – If there’s one person at M2K who has more enthusiasm than anyone else, it has to be Patrick. He proposes more series than anyone else, and sometimes his reach exceeds his grasp. It is truly a shame that he cannot do more than he does, that he cannot match his enthusiasm with his output. It’s also a shame that there’s not really a place at M2K for the Daria series he’s been wanting to do since… well forever. If Patrick could focus his enthusiasm on to one title, he could make it a great series, instead of spreading himself too thinly as he does right now. One day he’ll do it, but I never want him to lose the enthusiasm. It’s infectious.
Russ Anderson – Welcome back, Mr Anderson! Yes, while everyone else may think of the Matrix when they think of Mr Anderson, I will always think of Russ. He was the EiC of M2K before me and he did one hell of a job turning the site in to the thing it is now. I followed on from his work with Will Short. The redesign of the site, the issue layout – all their work. Okay, they used my design for the issue layout, but they did it anyway and there was a lot to do. Russ is also a talented writer and his work on Iron Man and Scarlet Spider were excellent and he’s continuing that with Avengers West Coast. Of my top three M2K writers, Russ is there and I was very pleased when he was made the first member of the M2K Hall of Fame at last year’s Tookies because there’s not many who’ve worked harder for M2K than he has.
Ryan Schmidt – Ryan’s a new kid on the block for M2K but he’s done some good work on the E-Force series over on Alternate and he’s been a an interested party for the site. He has been controversial at times and some people have doubted his commitment to the site, but I’ve always given him the benefit of the doubt. His writing style has flaws, but so do lots of people and he’s gotten better over time. He has good ideas and I think he’d do well on a mainstream title.
Steve Crosby – Steve worked with Dino on Ultimate Avengers and he helped Dino make the Ultimate series something special. When Dino left he was kind of stranded in a creative no man’s land, but the two of them made the Ultimate line something workable. Dino gets a lot of the credit for it, but I don’t think it’d have worked as well without Steve’s input.
Troy Bengal – Troy’s another writer who took on a hard task when he took over the Bishop series at the beginning of the year from Dino. He took on the plots Dino laid out and made them his own as Michael did with Ultimate X-Men and he’s written the series pretty consistently ever since. He has an enjoyment of the series and he’s done a lot to make the Hellfire Club more credible as well as working hard at giving a decent back story for the supporting cast. Troy is supposed to be taking on Gen X in the near future and it will be interesting to see what he does with that and I believe that he will make people sit up and take notice with what he brings to the title.
Will Short – And finally there’s Will. Will Short is an amazing writer and of the top three, he makes up the list. His work as a writer and editor has been incredible, and it is a shame and a half he felt his Marvel Girl series would work better at Avengers 2000, though we’ve still got #0 because he generously let us keep it. I’d have taken it down if he’d wanted, but he let us have it and kudos to him for that. His work on Defenders was excellent, and his finale for Avengers was an incredible finish. There’s not many people I respect more than Will and one day I hope he’ll do something else for the site.
There’s a lot of people I’ve not been able to mention like the rest for one reason or another, but they are in my mind and I’d like to thank the following people – Tom Cad, Scott Casper, Mike Rasbury, Mark Walsh, Al Ritter, Curtis J Fernlund, Matt Pierce, Mike Fitzgerald, and Gwyna. They have contributed to the site in their own ways and I’d like to thank them all for doing so. This has been a quite long Davimentary, but then there’s been a lot to say.
Thank you all for your support of me while I’ve been EiC of M2K. It’s been one hell of a ride and a lot of fun.
drained
chipper
annoyed