Sometimes you meet someone in your profession, or the profession you'd like to have, whose work you really respect and admire. And every once in a while, they are incredibly nice to you or go above and beyond when they have no real reason to. And maybe its because they may have been in your spot at some point, or they see something in you, but it means a lot.

Mike McKone is a longtime Marvel and DC artist whose work I've always enjoyed. I asked him to look over my portfolio this past weekend and provide any critiques he may have (something I try to do as much as I can at conventions). He was incredibly gracious with his time and advice, and even paid me to draw him a commission. Its one of those things that may not be a big deal, but has an incredible impact by encouraging you that maybe you're on the right path.

In addition to that, Brain Azzarello, a writer whose work I also really love, liked the concept behind our book enough to get us a meeting with the head of Dark Horse comics publishing to pitch our series, Cretaceous. We ended up talking with the publisher for nearly 2 hours and throughout that time met several other professionals who stopped by to say hi.

Also on Saturday, Marvel invited me to have my portfolio reviewed one-on-one by their editors, which was an incredibly encouraging experience as well. Marvel is fairly selective with who they give their time to, so it really made me feel like this crazy dream of mine might not be so crazy after all.

With so much complaining that goes on, I think its worth it to spotlight the good stuff, and the people who are genuinely cool to each other for no reason other that they're just cool people.