By Alex Ness
April 17, 2023
My longest and most loyal supporter of myself as a creative person in the comic book or literary world has been Mike Grell. From the very beginning of my interviewing days he was someone I wanted to interview but he I was included in a reply all email, from one of his friends, and I said hello and he had liked the interview of the person who replied all, and said hello back. We chatted long before we did an interview. And the interviewing for me was a hoot. He had mistakenly said Clevaland and I changed the word in the interview document to look as if he had said he'd been to Cleavageland. I said where exactly is Cleavageland, he said, for men, it is the happiest place on earth.
He gave me pointers how to do interviews, let me know that in the fan press certain questions tend to piss off creatives, and taught me a great deal about how things behind the scenes work. Mutual friends, unnamed for their protection, told me of adventures and fun times they had. But for honest answers and deep insights, I found Mike Grell to be the greatest friend of a person in the fan press.
When I did my first book, it came about when my brother who recently passed had had his first heart attacks, and I had just spoken to my brother about both being over 40 and not having reached out life goals. Me to write books, him to design and craft weapons for hunting and personal defense. So after we came home, I said to my wife, I've never given the only thing people liked a chance to succeed for me, out of fear of rejection. So, I wrote five 15-20 page original epic poems. I sent them to the people in my life, in the creative world, to tell me if I sucked. Tim Truman said, no dude, no suckage. Amy Sturgis said it was thrilling, not a bit of sucking. Steve Niles said, dude, this is nothing like I normally would read, but it was really good. And Mike Grell said, It pisses me off that you say it might suck, I want to illustrate two of these poems. Which really is the origin story of the book a Life Of Ravens, my writing career, and Mike's participation in my work, as participant, reader, commentator. He also wrote the humorous but generously wise foreword to my book Mythic Memories.
But I am writing this because recently I kept in contact with those people who are colleagues, about what I was told by dr's, including up to stage 4 lymphoma with possible leukemia. He wrote to me, first to respond, and said I hope I am first to reply, because if you pass, I want to be in Valhalla's hall drinking mead and telling stories with you.
The next update wasn't better, he said he hoped to go to Valhalla with me to chase some Valkryies. Exactly the purpose I think is evident. But finally when he received good news, and I said, I hope I live as long as you to be a pest and bother you with questions every day. He said, there is nothing that would make me happier.
As with Erik Larsen, Joe Monks and Michael Baron, his words gave me strength to keep fighting, and when they were finally hopeful, he was celebrating that hope with me.
THE IMAGES SHOWN:
Green Arrow from DC has collected the entire Mature series written by Mike and I do have them all.
The Warlord from DC by Mike Grell is not fully collected, but it ought to be, it was such an awesome series, I've read every issue he wrote and drew, many times reading the issue to rough condition.
But IDW has collected the full Jon Sable book by Mike. And I have those too. I rarely have money to buy anything, but I sold something that someone wanted more than I did, and it was valuable, so I spent every dollar buying the Grell works I didn't yet have.
His words to me meant everything, and this article is meant to thank him for his belief in me, and courage to believe in a person who saw himself as the world's biggest loser.
FIND MIKE GRELL HERE
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My Creative Blogs:
My 5000 poem Blog AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com
Cthulhu Alien Horrors CthulhuDarkness.Blogspot.Com
Atlantis & Lost Worlds AlexNessLostWorlds.Blogspot.Com
Published Work AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com/2007/01/My-Work.html
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