From Clifford Meth in the comments thread: If you frequent this site and enjoy Michael's art, I urge you to support these [Flaming Sword] projects. Michael has been more than generous in lending his time to any & all of the projects put forth to benefit his fellow comics creators; he works selflessly to better the state of the industry. Please show your appreciation for Michael, his fine work, and his unique artistic gift with your purchase of these beautiful books and posters. I am personally down for the whole collection.
Clifford has indeed made an advance purchase of each offering in our store. As inquiries come in from site visitors, a promising prognosis shapes up for Flaming Sword, thanks in good measure to Clifford's continued tracking and support of the activities here. By commissioning the A-Z Superhero Poster, he set the wheels in motion which helped quicken the emergence of Flaming Sword from the back end of our site complex - and the opening of our on-line store.
The thrust of an endeavor such as this is nothing new to Clifford and Jim Reeber, founders of the industry's benevolent Aardwolf Publishing. Aardwolf has led the way for some time, inviting industry professionals for ventures that hold the creators' concern at heart, both in creative freedom and logistics support for professionals enduring sometimes difficult times. Aardwolf's path has been a primary beacon for Flaming Sword, leading the struggle for the plight of Dave Cockrum and Bill Messner-Loebs, while championing Harlan Ellison's confrontation with AOL over the internet's role in the intellectual property rights arena. Aardwolf has also donated the proceeds from sales of its entire line of products, for an extended period, to the Tsunami relief efforts in wake of the disaster in Asia. Its growing list of affiliate creators includes: Harlan Ellison, Stan Lee, Gene Colan, Gray Morrow, Al Feldstein, Bill Messner-Loebs, Joe Kubert, Joe Sinnot, Mike Ploog, Herb Trimpe, Dave Cockrum, George Perez, Neil Gaiman, Marie Severin, Roy Thomas, Clifford Lawrence Meth, Joseph Michael Linsner, Peter David, David Boswell, and Alex Toth.
We can perhaps look forward to more such initiatives from the comics publishing world in the future. The goal is always to give back to the readers the best that the creators have to offer. The means to achieving it is by recognizing the primary role comics creators play in this process, and expressing this in goodwill towards the writers and artists, providing them with a more just recompense as the force which truly shapes the face of the industry.
Aardwolf Publishing is a pioneer breathing new life to an industry sometimes drunken with its scramble to keep up with the Joneses of the entertainment world. Without Jim Reeber and Clifford Meth, the comics enterprise would be a more lacking community today, showing less of the hope they've helped bring to it with Aardwolf.
