I can answer that. It was a commission piece for a client who either lived or worked in Canada. The flags were a part of the request. At least that's what Loston can remember right now (this piece is about 8-10 years old).

And we also had a Canadian friend at the Kubert school who we liked to tease good-naturedly, so I'm sure that played into it a bit.

I would love to read some of your other writing outside of CSBG - do you have a bibliography out there some where?

Bless you for asking. There's almost nothing online, I'm afraid. A lot of the published work falls under the "young adult" classification. I was a contributing editor for many years at a youth magazine called With, very similar to Scholastic except this was aimed more at youth groups and churches, published out of the midwest. I did quite a few memoirs for them like this one (though with fewer comic-book references), some fiction, and I also did their movie column for about ten years. (That's how I happen to know Mitali Perkins, who dropped by a couple of weeks ago. There's about ten or twelve of us that were With regulars that got to know one another from the annual retreats and such, and we try to keep in touch.) About a month after I decided I was tired of the movie column and retired from it, Brian came calling, and here I am.

I'm proud of that work and some of it even won awards and stuff, but honestly my all-time favorite publication credit other than the CBR column is also a piece of 'fan fiction,' oddly enough: the Nero Wolfe pastiche I did for the Wolfe Pack's Gazette. "Memo For Murder" was serialized over the Spring and Fall issues of 1999. That was every bit as much fun as the Bat story was and I was thrilled that it actually got a sort of 'legit' publication.

Really, though, this column right here is easily the most widely-read thing I've ever worked on. Sometimes Brian gives us the numbers and it's staggering to me. I'm used to working for magazines where a circulation number of 9000-plus is a good day.

Oh, and this trilogy has been a fantastic read as well. Well done.

You are an extremely talented writer. These three pieces were very powerful. I would love to read some of your other writing outside of CSBG - do you have a bibliography out there some where?

I'm sorry to hear about Mari, but there's always the possibility of redemption, no matter how bad things seem. Keep hoping, keep praying.

As an aside, which what’s the issue # of the 100-page Batman?

Technically, it wasn't an issue of Batman. There were two sets of the Super-Spectaculars. This was "DC-20" of the second series. More information here.

As an aside, which what's the issue # of the 100-page Batman?

We all like to sneer at fanfic and the like, but it must really mean something to somebody, somehow. Thanks for sharing what it meant for you and your friend.