Just wanted to link to a wonderful tribute to the dearly missed Harvey Pekar, who passed away one year ago yesterday, written by my pal Jeff Newelt. Please read it.

Harvey Pekar was the first writer I brought into Vertigo. With the success of the AMERICAN SPLENDOR movie still fresh, I edited Harvey's graphic novel THE QUITTER, his first full account of his childhood in Cleveland. With art by the award-winning Dean Haspiel, the book was notable for Harvey's surprising depiction of himself as something of a bully, or at least, a habitual street fighter. Sometime, when I have more time, I'll tell the story here of how that book came to be. It was an interesting journey.

Anyway, in the year or so before I left Vertigo, I developed a new graphic novel with Harvey. This was not long after the big economic collapse of 2008 and I thought it would be interesting and important to show a microcosm of the economic downturn through the history of one city. I asked Harvey if he wanted to tell the story of his hometown and how growing up there shaped and affected him. The project became CLEVELAND. In typical Harvey fashion, when I asked for a proposal, Harvey went ahead and wrote a whole script.

Unfortunately, for various reasons, DC/Vertigo ultimately elected not to publish the book. Not long afterward, Jeff, who edits The Pekar Project at the online Smith Magazine, took it up. A new, small publisher, ZIP Comics paid Harvey for the script and brought on an excellent young artist, Joseph Remnant, to draw the graphic novel. Harvey sadly didn't make it far enough to see this book's completion. Harvey Pekar's CLEVELAND comes out from ZIP later this year.

UPDATE Sept 7, 2011: Just a quick note to mention that MEN OF WAR #1 hit the stands today. This is an oversize comic selling fir $3.99, which means that while the main "Sgt. Rock" story by the outstanding Ivan Brandon with art by Tom Derenick is the main attraction, there's also another story -- by me! Art by Phil Winslade. Read below for details, or just buy the thing.

And now, for the first time, if you don't live near a comic book shop, you can buy a digital copy to read on your computer or mobile device and you can do that right here.

ORIGINAL POST: In real life, like most people, I don't much like war. But war comics are awesome!

So, I'll be writing the back feature in issues 1-3 of DC's new monthly MEN OF WAR. The main story is penned by the estimable Ivan Brandon with art by Tom Derenick and features Joe Rock, grandson of the legendary Sgt. Rock. And it looks mindblowing!

My story is called NAVY SEALS: ICE AND TRACKER. The actual story title is "Human Shields." The Navy SEALs go through an incredibly thorough and brutal training program. Then they undertake some of the most dangerous and important missions our military will ever face, like the Osama Bin Laden mission, for one. But there are some situations not even the SEALs can prepare for. Sometimes they have to reach deep inside, past their training and into their own basic humanity. That's what "Human Shields" is about.

And most exciting for me, the art is by one of my favorites in the biz, Phil Winslade (Howard the Duck, Vertigo's Nevada, etc.).

Twenty-four pages. Three 8-page episodes. The three-fisted first issue of MEN OF WAR hits comic book stores September 7. And thanks to DC's "digital day-and-date" initiative, the comic will also be available for immediate download to your iPad, iPhone or other device on the same day. So you can roll out of bed, buy it and read about war first thing in the morning. Should you choose to do so.

Below is the cover art for MEN OF WAR #1 (by Viktor Kalvachev).