I have to say QUEEN & COUNTRY was the one for me both in terms of continuing and new series. It's been a really nice read, and I'm enjoying it more than Rucka's Whiteout minis, just straight-forward spy stories with some nice touches of characterization. Reminds me very much of Len Deighton's "Nameless Spy"/Harry Palmer from The Ipcress File and following novels. My only complaint...how soon does it go monthly?

And while I voted for the Herge story last week in best short piece, I received a copy of ME AND EDITH HEAD...and I would like to change my vote. This is incredible story-telling. I got it in the mail last night, figured I'd read it before my new ones I'd picked up, read it, read it again, and never even looked at the rest of the stack. Steve Lieber's art is incredible, and Sara Ryan's simple yet elegant plotting is great. I would compare it favorably to some of the better sections of Clowes' Ghost World.

From the sublime to the subterranean. I couldn't bring myself to vote on the David/Jemas/Quesada/whomever debacle. I returned to comic books in 2000 after a ten-year absence to see these kind of junior high antics? I don't think I would have even fallen for this when I was IN junior high. This has turned me off from checking out Captain Marvel, which I had been thinking of doing. This has turned me of to checking out new Marvel projects period. I got Captain America #1 because I'd put it on my pull list three months ago, but I doubt if I would have picked it up otherwise yesterday. It's sad. It's like bad work gossip, who's sleeping with whom, who got caught cheating on their time card, and, frankly, it detracts from the product. End of ranting.

For favorite cola, it's a locally made beverage called Big Red, a delicious cream soda which Dee and I consider the nectar of the gods, particularly Diet Big Red. We only drink diet colas at restaurants if it's absolutely necessary, and every now and then we get crazy and get some bottled diet root beer (never, ever drink it out of a can or those gulp bottles; only out of a cold glass bottle or a steamy frosty mug, fresh tapped). But, other than that, it's Big Red. When we come back for this year's Mid-Ohio Con, we'll bring you a six-pack.

As for favorite burgers, the cheapest and tastiest are from Rally's. Their french fries, however, are terrible greasy coffin nails.

As with previous questions relating to Eisner nominees, there were a number of questions I couldn't answer, as I wasn't familiar with the nominees. I selected BIZARRO COMICS in the humor category because I've read it three times, and have enjoyed it every time. I wouldn't mind if DC solicited a second volume, if the quality were as high!

I'm pretty much in agreement with you on the spoilers in PREVIEWS, but I had to disagree overall with the decision by Marvel to cut all info on new titles except for creative teams. I think if they provided information more like the old-time "Mighty Marvel Checklist" in the Bullpen Bulletins, we'd have fewer spoilers, but a better idea if we were going to be interested in the issue. On the other hand, since I tend to mostly follow writers and artists, it's rare a single issue of a title I don't buy will get me interested in trying a title I haven't tried before. I'm pretty much buying whatever Marvels I'm going to buy (unless, of course, you were to take over writing a Marvel title I'm not already buying, naturally!).

I'm not much of a cola drinker--I prefer Diet Mountain Dew and Mountain Dew Code Red--but I chose Coke over Pepsi. On the burger chain front, I chose "other," as I prefer Jack In The Box burgers to Wendy's, Burger King, and McDonald's. Unfortunately, the "Box" isn't as national as I'd prefer!

I have to say that after my last trip to MID-OHIO CON, there is one burger place out there that I really wish was national. I believe it's called Rally's. There was a location on the way back to my hotel from the convention last year, and I got their burgers for dinner two nights in a row. They're darn good, in my not-so-humble opinion.

On the final question...I consider myself a night person and always have. Which begs the question why I have a job that forces me to set the alarm for 4:45 am?

When it comes to fast food burgers, I had to vote "other" because my favorite for many years has been A&W. Not only are their burgers more flavorful than Wendy's, Burger King or McD's, their lettuce, tomatoes, pickles etc. seem to be fresher. They also have better fries.

I'm undecided on the Marvel solicitation changes. For the readers, it's mostly a plus...in that we won't have the endings of stories spoiled by next month's PREVIEWS solicitations. However, I can't help but see this as a nightmare for retailers. They are going to be forced to guess blind--with no hope of getting reorders filled.

On the "Best Anthology" question, I can't believe EXPO 2001 wasn't nominated. Of the five choices presented, I'd have to go with DC's BIZARRO COMICS hardcover.

In the "Best Graphic Album (New)" category, it's FALLOUT by Jim Ottaviani. No hesitation. Ottaviani's science comics are the best think this side of Jay Hosler.

Skipping over "Best Graphic Album (Reprint)," "Best Archival Collection/Project," and "Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material" categories to get to the important stuff, I'm shocked to find that Dr. Pepper, official soft-drink advertising tie-in of the Spider- Man movie, doesn't even rate a check box of its own).

Finally, one late comment on last week's questions. Where was AMELIA RULES! in the list of nominees for the "Best Title for a Younger Audience"? Jimmy Gownley's AMELIA RULES! isn't just the best title for a younger audience, it's one of the best titles out there for ANY audience. If you haven't reviewed it, you should. If Renaissance Press won't send you free review copies, email me, and I'll go out and buy some to send to you. It's that good.

In your April 23rd column, Carl Henderson was quoted: "I read a lot of comics--including a good number of non-super-hero and independent comics--but those two Eisner categories were utterly perpendicular to my reading habits. I wonder how typical I am of comic readers in this regard. Are the Eisners honoring comics that people loved, or are they honoring comics that people think they should have loved?

"Which brings to mind the controversy over the Harvey Awards: whatever people may think about CrossGen, I'm sure a lot more people read and enjoyed RUSE than any of the Eisner's Best Short Story and Best Single Issue nominees."

I ought to ignore this, but what the hell... Aside from the silliness of Carl's point--Does he think judges are supposed to consider sales volume when handing out awards?--it's just plain wrong. "Me And Edith Head" ran in CICADA, which, the last I heard, has a circulation of about 70,000. RUSE is a really fun comic, but it'll take a lot of web subscribers and trade paperbacks before it hits that number.

More important, one should note that two of the short story nominees were from the most recent volume of Drawn and Quarterly, hardly an obscure publication. It's been garnering enthusiastic acclaim for years. If I saw that a panel of judges, all with different relationships to the medium, had nominated two stories from the same long-running anthology as being among the best of the year, my instinct would be to investigate the anthology rather than question their motivations.

As an aside to your readers, they can't go wrong picking this book up. One of the nominated stories, "The Adventures of Herge," is practically worth the cover price by itself. And the generous section of gorgeous, full color Sunday pages from the early days of Gasoline Alley really shows what subtle beauty the funny-pages used to offer.

Sorry to kvetch at you with this, but now that my true nature has been revealed on Comicon.com, I feel newly mean, and free to spout off at the slightest provocation.