Ostrander's Week is Coming (or It Should Be)

As I've noted over at SBC, this coming week marks the return of John Ostrander's (and Tim Truman's) Grimjack after too long an absence--with the release of the new series' first issue, Grimjack: Killer Instinct 1.

Many a DC property has Ostrander to thank for their revitalization (be it Spectre, Mr. Terrific, Barbara Gordon [in the latter case, his late wife and fellow fine creator Kim Yale was equally instrumental in creating Oracle] or any of the Suicide Squad). If you're like myself, a person who loved Ostrander's Western work at Marvel a few years back but never read Grimjack, now we have our chance to see new Grimjack tales.

Ostrander is one of the truly good folks in comics. How good? Consider this recent exchange at Ostrander's message board, when someone asked his opinion regarding writer Christos Gage's take on Suicide Squad veteran Deadshot in the new DC miniseries. Ostrander says of the new miniseries and Gage:

The writer is respectful of how the character has been handled and makes good use of it. I really like his distinction about Floyd having a "death wish" -- if deadshot had a death wish, he'd be dead. He just doesn't care either way. Morally, that's a very interesting place for a character to be and it can be a positive or negative. Can make the character very existential. In some ways, he's like a Jedi or a samurai (from which the Jedi are patterned) -- the concept is that the purest warrior is the one who can strike without anger, without hate, without regard for their own life and death. In many ways, that's Deadshot. His problem is -- he fights without having a reason and that is antithetical to the true warrior. Except in this story, he has a reason. Which turns him more towards being a hero. At least in this story. In that way, I think they're really capturing the essence of what deadshot came to be...

Gage himself then posts in appreciation of Ostrander's opinion:

Whew...I am so glad to hear that you like it, John! I was going to post something here before but as I told Gail Simone, I felt like Jessica Simpson asking Paul McCartney how he likes her cover of a Beatles song. I am especially tickled that you feel I understand Floyd's notorious "death wish." That to me is one of the more misunderstood aspects of his character. As you point out, if he really wants to die, and he' s still alive after all these missions, he's kind of incompetent, isn't he? :D
Anyway, thank you so much for the kind words; they mean a lot from any reader, but from the man who made Deadshot come alive as a character for me, they are high praise indeed.

If only so many industry veterans and newcomers were all this appreciative of each other's work. Many is the time I've seen the new order toss out what the old order had done and/or worse yet, the new order speak derisively of the work that came before them, all seemingly in the name of short-term hype and controversy.

If that's not enough Ostrander info for you, right now as I write this entry, he's co-hosting a Saturday afternoon radio show, The Nutt House with Bill Nutt on a New Jersey radio station WNTI from 2 to 6 PM EST. The show features a unique mix of pop culture, politics, music and a smidge of comic book discussion (they just played the old 1960s Captain America cartoon theme...followed by Hulk's cartoon theme...then Thor [man I've never heard that one]).

I'm in Ostrander-land people, and not surprisingly I love it. (Side note, John and I are both big fans of The Blue Nile...if you've never heard of them click on the link--take a listen...some of the best music in 2004).