The Fifth Column:
My Fifth Column
By Dwayne McDuffie
02/19/02
Welcome to the fifth installment of my fifth column. You’ve been reading me for over a month now and you’ve had your horizons expanded. You’ve come to appreciate your new clarity of thought and purpose. You’ve accepted the truth of Dwayne McDuffie’s First Law (chant it with me, "Dwayne is Right. I agree with him.") and suddenly, for the first time in your life, everything makes sense. By now, most of the statues are up and you’re out raising money for the churches you’re building in my name. And I appreciate it, guys.
But what I want right now, is some feedback.
Not that I’m looking for support, mind you. I know you love the column. Due to my masterful implementation of a mind control JavaScript, 95% of you can’t help loving the column.
That said, I still wouldn’t mind hearing from you guys, if nothing else I can do an occasional "reader mail" column. I like doing those, partially because it gives you the reader a voice but mostly because thanks to cut-and-paste from your e-mails, I don’t have to type the whole thing. I hate typing. So, send me some mail. Tell me what you want me to write about. Should I talk about my TV stuff here? Should I stick to my depressing diatribes about the state of the comic book industry? Should we revisit serious questions of format and distribution, or should I just tell personal "Brushes With Greatness" stories? I’ve got good ones about Harlan Ellison and Frank Miller, a very funny Jim Shooter story and I was even in a feud with John Byrne once (not that he noticed). I’ve even considered finally telling the untold story of how Milestone was sandbagged by ANIA, if enough people want to hear it. Where we go is pretty much up to you, Faithful Minions.
Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed by now that I didn’t do a column last week. I was going to soldier on without explanation but I was stricken by a rare pang of whatchamacallit... you know, "conscience." So, the truth; I’m behind on all my work because I took some time off to go see my friend Robin Chaplik’s play Rosa Lublin, a brilliant adaptation of two Cynthia Ozeck short stories, now at the Piven Theatre. Those of you in the Chicago area need to go see this (by the way, I define "the Chicago area" as "anywhere in the Midwest"). Call the box office at 847-866-8049 and tell them Dwayne sent you. They’ll have absolutely no idea what you mean by this but they’ll probably sell you tickets anyway.
Expect another short, unfocused column next week as well, I’m off to sunny California to work on a secret project but I’ll be keeping close tabs on my forum here. So if you haven’t visited yet, now’s the time. I’m going to post another trivia contest there while I’m away and when it comes to prizes, it’s better to receive than to give.
