It’s time once again for Comics Disassembled, my look at ten things I liked or didn’t like from the week of comics, of which none are related to the NBA, I swear!

1. John Paul Leon, Honored

This is a thing I knew I was coming and was happy to hear was happening, as a fine group of folks – Walt Simonson, Bernard Chang, Tommy Lee Edwards, Scott Dunbier, and others – are putting together an Artist’s Edition of The Winter Men, the project artist John Paul Leon was most proud of in a career and lifetime of phenomenal work (which he did with writer Brett Lewis). It’s all being put together via the new crowd-funding platform Zoop, with bonuses galore and a ton of love and care put in by Artist’s Edition guru Dunbier and assorted other assembled talents (who will be contributing pin-ups and other fun things). The best part? All the proceeds are going to JP’s wife and daughter, ensuring support for them even with the legendary artist passing away earlier this year.

It’s an extremely cool project and effort by all involved, and a wonderful celebration of the life and work of one of the true master craftsman in the history of comics. If you’re a John Paul Leon fan, this is one you can’t miss. It’s still running for 26+ days as I type this, so you have time, but only so much if you want to pick up a print from one of the fine contributing artists. And there are some brilliant ones in the mix, so check it out!

2. So long, Gabe Eltaeb!

Congrats to perhaps (and now confirmed!) one-time Superman: Son of Kal-El colorist Gabe Eltaeb, whose self-own when he joined ComicsGate luminaries like Dan Fraga, Art Thibert and Jon Malin for what must have been a positively exhausting 4.5 hour livestream was really, truly incredible. Here’s the gist. Surprising no one, nuanced thinkers like that squad did not like the idea that Superman – of any variety! – was bisexual, and they shared sentiment that I am sure you could guess at (which I will not share but you can see at the link), before Eltaeb jumped in and said, amongst other things, that he was going to depart DC when his contract was up and that he was tired of his employer ruining characters.

Which is beautiful in its short-sightedness.

Now, I’ve never been fired before, but I have to imagine if he is excited to get off his contract with DC, that he provided incentive for DC to be equally enthusiastic to find an even earlier separation of their partnership (which apparently proved to be true). Most employers do not like you to suggest publicly that they are “ruining” anything, not the least of which is immensely valuable intellectual property. While it doesn’t seem as if there’s any public resolution to this (or wasn’t when I first wrote this), I just continue to be astonished by these guys who are so mad that they’ll subject themselves to the intermittent cashflow of Battletoads knock-off crowd-funding efforts over steady money. Maybe they’re more principled than me, or maybe they’re just ridiculous humans. I don’t know which. Either way, I can do nothing but wish Eltaeb a future filled with truth, justice and a better tomorrow, because it’s assuredly going to be a different one than it might have been before this livestream.