My "Bones" novel came out two years ago and was, obviously, written before that. The show hadn't aired yet and all I had to work with was the pilot script. Just FYI.

Much more important to me is Strip For Murder, which is about to come out. It's the second Jack and Maggie Starr mystery, this one about the Al Capp/Ham Fisher feud. The books aren't getting much attention, and I think that's too bad. The combo of prose and graphic novel elements, plus the comics world themes, is pretty much unique.

I'll make sure you get a copy. Thanks!

Regarding your column on the Siegels' victory...

BRAVO!

I have been surfing the net all weekend reading the responses to the ruling and about choked when I got to the Newsarama forum! My Lord! I have noticed a couple other posters taking them to task, but your column nailed it and them!

"...heartless bastards..."

Amen! You said it all right there.

Keep up the good fight!

I hope you'll forgive a long email that SO AGREES with you on the entire Superman/DC/Siegel and Shuster situation. The problem you mention, sadly, is endemic in America. Not just what DC did to their creators but those nutty people who wrote criticizing them. But I have a personal story or two.

My father, in the late 1950s, was in charge of home delivery for the Daily News. They had to deliver a million papers every day before 7 am. The papers were printed at about 4 am. They had four hours to get out all those papers.

My father came up with the idea of a "Bulldog" edition that would be printed at 9 PM the night before. This gave them 10 hours. But the edition turned out to be so popular that it was offered on the newsstands and called the "Night Owl." It was popular because it had the numbers for the numbers game, the horse betting for the next day, and the stock market closings. It also published the syndicated comics and columns before any other morning paper. The News made a fortune on it for 30 years and fired my father. He would only work 10 hours a day and they wanted someone to work 12. At age 50, 10 hours (plus 2 hours traveling) was all he could do.

This helped when I started my educational consulting business. I realized people would collect my ideas and fire me when they were successful. I learned you had to control the product as well as supply the ideas.

I have heard from too many people saying, "Oh, they got paid enough" or "what more did they want"...when the companies continued to make millions, no, billions on these ideas.

I am no copyright lawyer, but technically, Siegel and Shuster sold Superman to DC for the alleged value of the product for the 35 years DC would be allowed to retain copyright. But DC will retain copyright for 100 years, not 34 with all the changes in the law. It would be like signing a three year lease for a house, paying for three years and getting to keep it for 20.

Working in education, you see a lot of people produce studies and papers that give the schools credibility (which translates into higher registration and money) and grants. The people are treated like crap and often discarded but their work is exploited forever. When budget cuts come, colleges like to get rid of the professors with the longest tenure and most degrees because they make the most money. So they treat their MOST productive staffers like garbage. Sound familiar?

This is the American way. And it breaks my heart to see people making less than 50,000 dollars a year backing the companies that are raping these guys. They also vote for the people who won't raise the minimum wage or get them health insurance.

You would think that Time Warner would have wanted to reach agreement a few decades ago and just get this over with. To them, this is a small amount of money.

The column, as always, was well written and made great points. But it just won't penetrate some people's heads.

The scripts have been fun to work with; we get a whole lot of Klingons in issues #3-5 for your reading pleasure. And you'll see more detailed backgrounds in issue 2. They'll tire your eyes out!

What is The Shadow? I'd say independent.

Despite those twin '45 automatics, The Shadow seldom shoots to kill. He doesn't see himself as an executioner. He'll shoot in self defense or to prevent an innocent from being killed, or fire peppering shots to keep crooks off balance when the bad guys are in a gunfight with police officers.

And he believes crooks can be rehabilitated (and not via Clark Savage's illegal brain surgery). He cooperates with criminologist Slade Farrow in the rehabilitation of felons, and employs several reformed felons in key positions (Cliff Marsland, Hawkeye, Tapper). Yes, The Shadow is definitely for law and order, but as a world traveler also has a world view (and is even the leader of a tribe of Xinca Indians).

Then there's the power to cloud men's minds, due to extensive training in ancient spiritual arts. While he may not have achieved initiation as a full-fledged lama (like his counterpart Jethro Dumont), his mastery of Tibetan mind-clouding arts requires years of intensive spiritual training.

See Alexandra David-Neel's MAGIC AND MYSTERY IN TIBET, written by the first Westerner to be ordained as a lama, for the lowdown on Buddhist invisibility.

The Shadow's background in the occult and Buddhist and Hindu spiritual arts would certainly suggest he's not a fundamentalist Christian. The incredible focus of The Shadow's mind indicates that he has achieved a high level of inner consciousness (which is not a prerequisite for membership in the modern Republican Party nor, unfortunately, the Democratic Party either).

While wealthy, The Shadow isn't consumed with the mindless pursuit of wealth. Money is merely something to be used in the pursuit of a cause: justice and making the world a better place to live. The biblical statement that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven really has more to do with the pursuit of wealth and valuing of material possessions at the cost of spiritual values. It's impossible to progress spiritually if one values the acquisition of wealth above all else. I've read hundreds of Shadow novels and listened to hundreds of radio episodes, and don't recall Mr. Allard aka Cranston ever demonstrating any real concern about the acquisition and preservation of his personal fortune.

As a World War I veteran, The Shadow certainly isn't fond of war, but recognizes there's a time when one must fight for what one believes in. And, looking back on the 1930s and 1940s, it was a Democratic president who recognized the necessity of aiding our European allies against Hitler's evil, and led our nation to success, not by promoting fear but by telling us we had "nothing to fear but fear itself."

Most of all, The Shadow gets things done and actually accomplishes his missions through patience and careful planning, which certainly doesn't suggest any connections with the current Republican leadership. The Shadow is a pragmatist, not a fanatic. He doesn't just blunder into hopeless situations, because he studies a situation first and doesn't fully enter the fray until he has some real understanding about what's actually going on and what's needed for success.

The Shadow's desire to actually finish what he starts also indicates he does not have much in common with either political party or our Washington leadership.

Therefore I have to say he's an independent.