Just had nice/funny conversation w/ Deepak Chopra!
THU, 3/8/01, 10:44 p.m.

I just posted this on the Bendis board. Thought you may get a kick out of it.
It's sort of funny, because I used to mention in interviews and stuff that I was enjoying Oeming's stuff on BulletProof Monk.
Here It is:

Oeming will love this one!

My girlfriend and I were just at a local bookstore grabbing a bite to eat.

Deepak Chopra was speaking there and was then to do a book signing.

I had enjoyed some of his other books, so I bought the new paperback and went to have him sign it. It was sort of funny, because some other people were trying to get thier picture taken with him and he was sort of in an awkward position waiting for them to pose and take the picture and I'm right at the desk next in line. He takes the book from me and the rest goes like this:

DC: What's your name?
DM: David.
(He starts to sign in the book.)
DM: I do a comic book called Kabuki and I've acknowledged you in the back of the book before.
(His eyes light up. Remember his son did a comic book. And Oeming penciled it.)
DC: A comic book? (Looks right at me really happy. Big genuine smile.) My son did a comic book!
DM: Yeah Gothom. He did Bullet Proof Monk.
DC: Yeah!
DM: I really enjoyed it. It was from Image. The same company I do mine at.
DC: What is your full name?
DM: David Mack.
DC: David Mack.
DC: What is the book you do?
DM: Kabuki.
DC: Kabuki.
DM: Yeah.
DC: (He looks very amused and happy now) I will mention that to my son. I will tell him you enjoyed it.

It was sort of funny, becouse our conversation and interaction was totally different than the rest of the mood and silence there. I think my extra cheeriness and outgoingness sort of amused him amidst the rest of the serious crowd. He was sweet and accomodating to the other people there, but it looked like he might have been getting weary of signing and posing for photos. And the comic conversation (and probably my wierdness) seemed to sort of entertain him. Anh and I sort of stood out in a crowd of people mostly older than us.
He signed "To David, Love, Deepak" [:)] I can't explain why, but the whole thing was kind of a funny reversal of a comic con.

hey...

i sent out the cash to David Choe, i really hope that he has some left...

did you hear about the whole NYX thing? wheeeeew...

and a quote you might find interesting: out of context, please see brian's board for the whole rant by Choe.

<< Joe is a ****head : because he thinks if you get David Mack to drip watercolors and tear expensive Japanese paper and collage it over your drawings, it makes it look "DEEP" .oh and because he gave up doing great books like Kid Fluffy, and firefighting superhero’s called ASH, both great contributions to the field of comics , to become the editor over at marvel. Hey everybody, I want the old Joe Back, I ‘m gonna start a petition, we want" Ultimate ASH!" "ULTIMATE KID FLUFFY!" oh yeah.

It's true that there were many slurs in Choe's rant about Joe's Italian ethnicity. Well that is wrong. Mostly because Joe is not Italian! He's Cuban. [:)]

I'm not really involved, and I don't like hearing or talking about people in this kind of light. And I especially do not like hearing friends (like Joe) or non-involved artists (like Bagley, who I do not even Know) dissed.

But I know that is something between Joe and Choe and Joe can handle himself in that arena.

So while it was very WEIRD that my name was mentioned in that attack on Joe, I certainly did not even consider that it was an attack on me.

So the only reason that I am saying something is because a lot of people have perceived (and told me) that Choe was attacking me.

It is a strange thing to bring my name into it. If it is somehow an attack on me, it really doesn't bother me, nor do I take it seriously.

But I don't see why it would be, because David Choe has always been very nice to me in the past. In fact he wrote a kind letter to me that thanked me for some Kabuki books (we swapped some books at a show), and said that they were very inspiring to him. And he also sent a shirt to my girlfriend Anh. In fact I recently printed his letter in Kabuki Agents #5 in case you want to read it. I basically just used it as an excuse to plug his book.

I've also plugged his book and work in interviews and in this message board and on the Bendis board. So if he IS attacking me, I don't know why. He's been very friendly to me in person. He stopped by my table at a con and we swapped stuff. I have no problem with him personally. I get his humor and his work.

So I am not personally hurt by what he said about me.
But it does sort of put me in a very awkward position in that he mentioned my name when attacking others. Especially when attacking my friends. Like I said that is between Joe and Choe. Apparently they had a business disagreement that I know nothing about. And prefer to not be brought into. But because my name was mentioned, I should say that in all my business dealings with Joe and Marvel Knights, I have so far been treated very fair and considerately.

I only mentioned this, because people have started to polarize us in their posts on the message boards. And I am not really interested in this.