Mike Pandel was a long-time employee of A Comic Shop in Orlando, one of the finest comic book stores I’ve ever visited. Tragically, Mike passed away this week, after a traffic accident. 

Regrettably, I didn’t know Mike that well. I met him twice, during two different signings I did at A Comic Shop over the last few years. Signings at A Comic Shop are different than most other store signings I’ve ever done. It’s basically just one long party, where you sign and drink and mingle and laugh a lot. And very quickly you realize, there’s something special about this place, and in particular about the relationship the guys at the store have with their customers. Signing at A Comic Shop is like being invited to a big family reunion where you don’t know anybody but you still feel like part of the family. A place where everybody truly loves life and most definitely loves comics.

So I got to see Mike in action on more than one occasion, and it’s fairly safe to say that Mike was full of life. I know that’s a clichéd thing to say about someone, especially after they’ve died. But with Mike, it’s far from an empty statement. In all my time, in all my travels, I’ve met few people who were truly as full of life as Mike Pandel. He was something of a madman, that’s for sure, but the good kind of madman. The kind you wanted working at a comic book store, sharing his passion with every person who walked through the door. As a comic creator, I loved knowing Mike was out there on the front lines, madly loving comics and spreading that love every chance he got. With him gone, the rest of us will definitely need to step it up and follow his example as best we can.

Thanks for all you did, Mike. Rest in peace.

Our latest Marvel creative retreat was this week, where a bunch of us writers come to New York and sit in a room with our editors and publishers, and for three days straight we all talk comics and make fun of each other. While I can't tell you exactly what was talked about, I can say with confidence that this retreat was more jam-packed with awesome ideas than any retreat I've ever been to. I always come home from these things fired up to get back to work. After this one, even more-so.

Among the things I'm working on right now are AVENGERS VS. X-MEN and its tie-ins issues of WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN. I'm happy with the momentum we've all got going on X-MEN right now, so trust me, I'm very conscious about trying to maintain that during the tie-in months. Our story will not suddenly stop and be replaced but a bunch of crossover stuff that has no connection to what I was doing before. It will all flow together, including in some ways you might not be expecting.

As always, thanks for reading.





The other big highlight of the week for me was dinner at David Chang's momofuku ssäm, where thanks to C.B. Cebulski, a bunch of us gorged on a ridiculous spread of duck, steak, fish, pork buns and spicy sausage. Over dinner I told Remender and Hickman why I think Session 9 is awesome and Christopher Nolan not so much. I also extolled the virtues of Exorcist III but I'm not sure I won them over quite like the pork buns did.

David Chang, I think I love you.

Hard to write dark, violent comics when I'm this happy. Luckily today is a WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN day.

Roll Tide.

Wolverine, by the way, is totally a Tide fan.

It's been a busy year for me. For which I am exceedingly grateful. Children, as you may have heard, are very expensive. As are the exotic murder safaris I sometimes go on to relax (we all have our vices, do we not?). As we enter 2012, I find myself in a period of transition. I wrote a little about this yesterday in my final column for CBR. But to to sum it up, three of my current writing gigs will be coming to an end in 2012. PUNISHERMAX and SCALPED are both ending (by my choice, not because they've been cancelled), and I'm wrapping up my run on WOLVERINE after about 50 issues spread across 10 years. So 2012 will be about charging ahead with my two newest series, WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN and THE INCREDIBLE HULK, and eventually taking on a few new challenges as well.

As you may have heard, one of those new challenges will be this:

I expect you'll be hearing even more and more about that one in the coming months. Suffice to say, it's the biggest, boldest thing I've ever been involved in, and man, is it going to be fun.

Beyond that, we'll just have to wait and see, I guess. Perhaps I'll even try to post here again with some regularity, now that I don't have a column to write.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks to everybody out there who read and supported my work this past year. I appreciate every last damn one of you. And for my part, hopefully the best is still yet to come.

Happy New Year.