The Specialists

This story is as infuriating as it is inspiring. Mike Meyer, a mentally disabled man from St. Louis, had his beloved collection of Superman comics and memorabilia stolen by a man pretending to be his friend. He’d been collecting for over thirty years. That’s the infuriating part.

The inspiring part is the swell of support for Mike from all over the world. People have been donating comics and merchandise to help him rebuild his collection, or just cards or drawings to wish him well and let him know that not everyone is an evil piece of filth. If you’d like to help out, you can send donations or well-wishes to the address below. You might also want to check out this Facebook page for more information.

Mike Meyer c/o Bill Smith
7041 Kingsbury Blvd.
St. Louis, Mo. 63130

The number of iterations that character designs in video games and movies go through is pretty amazing. Check out this article about the design of Harley Quinn for the upcoming Arkham City video game. It puts our process for designing the characters in The Specialists to shame. I can only think of one or two details that I ever asked Al to change on one of his design sketches, and it wasn’t something that required a whole new illustration.

Of course, Al is but one man, and this comic is not his day job, nor is it a multi-million dollar production. So in the end it’s probably forgivable that we didn’t go through a dozen versions of each character. Or maybe it’s just that Al nailed it on the first try every time.