Bendis sent me some reviews of DD #51…
MON, 9/8/03, 3:05 a.m

Bendis sent me some reviews of DD #51...

http://www.comixtreme.com

http://www.gamepro.com

http://www.thefourthrail.com

http://x-mencomics.com

(This last site also has an interview I did at the Toronto Con)

My DD Echo story is apparently causing some controversy on several message boards. Check out these threads on the Brian Bendis Board at:
www.jinxworld.com

-Bought/Thought 9/4

-I think Marvel (and Bendis) have gone off the deep end

-Macks DD

-Daredevil 51...wow

And there are others at Millarworld.biz, JoeQuesada.com, ComicBookResources.com, and manwithoutfear.com

Mr Mack

First off, DD 51... WOW!!!

I was up in the air about heading out to Wizard World Texas (an 8 hour drive from here), then I noticed that they recently added you to the quest list, so the wife and I are there!

Anyway, I'm wondering if you do "head sketches" at cons and if so, how much do you normally charge? I've got a brand new sketch book that is screaming for an Echo sketch on its first page!

Jeffery J LaJaunie

I will be at their booths but I will have my own Kabuki table. All hardcovers, paperbacks, original art, Kabuki prints, t-shirts etc will be available. I don't do involved commissions, but I do quick head sketches with a brush and ink for $20. Mostly I'm there to sign and talk with the readers, but I'll take a list to do sketches when there is time at the show.

Thanks for asking, and thanks for reading my work!
I hope to see you at the show!

Kindest regards,
David

Thanks for reading and taking the time to post!
DM

First off, let me just say that I really loved DD #51. It is a beautiful work of art and story telling that is both wonderful, strange, and alien to me. Well, not totally alien, but it goes against almost everything I know about making a comic book. This is a good thing of course, because comics need to be exploring new territory as often as possible.

Echo, is Kabuki for the Marvel universe. I can not help but know that she is a vail for David Mack to express himself through, just as Kabuki is... and just as Vampires are to Anne Rice, and just as Promethia is to Alan Moore. In art this is always taking a chance, but a chance well worth taking when you have something worth saying. David Mack, I feel my world is a little brighter having seen it through your (and other artist's) eyes. Thank you for this issue. It really was a true work of art. I look forward to what ever else you have to bring us.

-Christopher Moonlight

I've heard that it ships next wed.
Looking forward to your reaction to it.

If you intend to pick up my first Echo issue in DD #51 but have not yet, it's probably a good idea to get it this week before the next issue [52] comes out.

I hear they are going fast (perhaps partly due to some of the controversy on so many mainstream messageboards: a lot of traditional mainstream readers accuse it of not being what they consider to be a real comic book. I'll choose to take that as a compliment.

When you draw your characters, like Echo and Kabuki, do you have a specific person in mind when you draw, or do the characters creat themselves?

I understand if this makes no sense.

David,
I was just thinking of what I wrote and I was too harsh on COB. It's is highly personal work with many high attributes; I was just trying to show how much you've progressed as a storyteller. If it makes it in any better, I'm mildly retarded (seriously, my last iq test came out a 76).
Feel so bad,
Michael

I understand that you are commenting on the improvement and evolution.

I do like to think that I have improved and evolved with the work. I can look back at some of the earlier work and now think of how I could have done some scenes a little more artfully. But I can also see the charm in those earlier books as well. In the end, they are what they are and they go on to be thier own creatures with thier own life and thier own charm.

There are always going to be a few details here and there that years later, I might think of better ways to tweek a sentence. Some lines, I wince at if I reread them now (because I can think of many better ways to do them now). And I am a little stunned by some of the violence in the earlier issues (I was in a different place then --as was Kabuki).

But they are all honest and personal works and they were the best I could do at the time I did them. And they are from the emotional place that I was at at the time that I did them.

And as a whole, I think the emotional value of the books ring true, and the early Kabuki books still seem to hold up with their own unique personality and get better with every read.

It is always good to hear your poetic comments! Thanks for your take on things!

Your fan,
David

this new work must be very potent if only in the effort that David Mack once again is in complete control of the art and writing! As is should be! As in his earlier works.

I have been re-reading the writing he did for Kingpin and as this work is illustrated by another artist? I also super enjoyed anothers eyes wrapped around DAvid's mind in ink, it was a new marriage of the meeting of a traditional comic book illustration into the mind of a crazy horse on a hampster wheel, MIND giving me? Actually a sense of trust, that beyond the surface of a more traditional comic book Art style? Trust, in that a sxlicker style can encompass and comprehend a sensitive depth.

This new Daredevil with Echo? Then in my Fumiko mind is like organ donor-ship of DAvid Mack's completely alive expression!