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Jim Valentino, Bob Schreck, and Phil Amara. Many, though, basically said, "Look around; I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the comic book industry is in the crapper. Established veterans can’t get gigs; why do you think we would publish your little astronaut confection?" Mike Carlin of DC, bless his decrepit heart, finally came out and said, "You know, you’d be better off putting out this project yourself, than trying to get one of the big publishers to do it. The fact is, there’s just nothing to put between your first and last names."

"What d’you mean, Mike?" I asked.

"You’re an unproven talent in the marketplace," he said. "We’d have better luck selling your next project, when we can say ‘Larry Astronauts in Trouble Young’ in the advance solicitations. Go the Kevin Smith route; the Robert Rodriguez route, and do it yourself."

So, I did.

At lunch, I filled in Kieron on this latest batch of email I was subjected to. It seems a self-evident matter (admittedly now, in retrospect), when, in the course of human events, that if one desires to steer one’s life in a certain direction, then, honestly, the only impediment to the course is one’s own self.

If you follow.

I asked Kieron what it was that made him finally realize that he’d start a career as a professional artist, and I got an interesting response from my friend. It seems ol’ Kieron, while always avidly drawing, had seriously considered a career in acting, as a youth. Both of his parents were actors, and he’d been exposed to "the business" his whole life. Even more importantly, he lived in Los Angeles. This was no idle pipe dream from a kid in rural Montana; he could actually make this happen. He’d gone so far as to have 8x10 head shots ("Air-brushed, even," Kieron said, around the diner’s counter. "Somewhere there is a picture of me as a flawless Kieron Robot.") produced, in order to send to casting directors and whatnot. At one point, Kieron had what the New Agers would call "an epiphany," and what us normal folks just call "Knowing what time it is without looking at the clock." He realized that the odds of him becoming a successful actor (like, say, his classmate from school in Chicago, John Cusack) were lottery slim, but a career utilizing his talents as an artist in comics had, at the very least, less competition. One hears about out-of-work actors far more

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