…for the record, I’ve never asked Joe for any comics gig. Joe asked me to write Daredevil back in the day. He asked me to do Amazing late last year. He asked me to do the DD/Bullseye face-off back when we finished “Guardian Devil.” He asked me to do a Marvel book while I was in the midst of Green Arrow, and I suggested Black Cat. Granted, I’ve loved writing every gig I eventually took at Marvel, but I’ve never called Q up and said “I’m really in the mood to enrage a bunch of strangers. Can I fuck with the current Daredevil and Amazing Spider-Man runs, just for shits and giggles?” Life’s too short to beg for bad Karma.

For the curious, I’ve only ever asked for two comics gigs…

1) I asked Dark Horse to let me do a Bluntman and Chronic book back when we were cutting Chasing Amy. Mike Richardson said no. Schreck, who was working at Dark Horse back then, remembered this when he left to start Oni, and asked if I still had an interest in writing comics. That’s when I wrote my first comics script for “Walt Flanagan’s Dog.”

2) I asked Darren Vincenzo to let me write Green Arrow back in ’96, during a visit to the DC offices. He said no – two years later, he called back to ask if I was still interested in the character.

To be fair, when I’ve agreed to take on comics gigs, I have asked for certain allowances – i.e. – no other writer to handle Green Arrow until “Quiver” was finished; no usage of Black Cat until we’re done with Spidey/Black Cat. But “Target” isn’t one of those instances. This is a story Joe promised to me back in the day. I didn’t ask for it back in the day, mind you; but it was promised all the same.

…

Shouldn’t Smith be working on his Amazing run of Spider-Man?

Smith should be working on his flick, to be honest. But because he’s so very worried about what ten to fifteen total strangers think about him, he’s here, doing this.

Or are we going to get excuses why is was late months down the road….

Like I said in the Poop Shoot piece: get ready for lateness. No excuses necessary.