I didn't follow the whole conversation, but I just wanna say it was cool that you wanted to use Rocket and it's a shame it didn't work out. I know Dwayne woulda been thrilled to see her get such broad exposure in a fan favorite book like BOP.

Dwayne was the man. I cannot explain easily how much he meant to me. He just was so completely the guy, the one writer, and such a kind hero to me.

First, I loved everything he wrote. I ate it up like candy. I didn't know he was black or white or whatever, I didn't know how he was such a strong voice for social justice, I just knew he wrote from a position of humanity. Every character he wrote was human, even when they were Kryptonian.

I finally contacted him by email once, long before I went pro, and told him how much the Milestone books meant to me, and that we had just bought our son a puppy and named him Static after my son's favorite superhero. Dwayne sent a handwritten thank you note and a signed STATIC tpb, just to be kind.

Later, when I was writing columns, he remembered me and encouraged me all the time. He told me I should go professional. I couldn't believe it. That was the first time he asked me to write Static…he said DC was doing a book and that he would suggest me for it, if I wanted. I wasn't ready, it was too much to think about.

Later, when I went pro, he offered the best advice and was a wonderful critic when I dared send him something. He was just amazingly supportive. Again, when I started getting work, he asked me to consider writing Static. At one time or another, he asked me to do that a total of four times, but it never made any sense to me—I couldn't figure out why I should be writing the book when Dwayne was alive, available, and a thousand times better writer than I could ever hope to be.

Later, Dwayne got me my first animation gig, for Justice League Unlimited. His advice and help, honestly, was worth its weight in gold.  All my future animation gigs, I used his advice every time.

I know it was just him being nice. I know he did this with a lot of people. But I still feel him over my shoulder, in so many ways. I feel like he felt we had a similar struggle, that people didn't always judge us by our work, but by what they saw when they looked at us.

I don't have a lot of people that freak me out when I meet them. I could not care less about meeting actors or politicians. But I was a nervous wreck the day I knew I was going to be at the same party as Dwayne. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to talk to him.

I needn't have worried. When I saw him (and if you've met him, you know he was REALLY tall and handsome with an amazing smile), I just ran up and hugged him and told him thank you. Pretty much one of the all time great evenings.

We had a huge long talk and it was nice, he felt things were finally starting to change a little about race and gender in comics, and I mean this was only four years ago or so, not in the 70's. And how so many of our experiences had been the same…every interviewer asked him about being black and every interviewer asks me about being female. It meant a lot.

Dwayne was one of those guys who gave you courage by example. He didn't lower himself, and it made YOU want to have those same standards. He once told me I write the best dialogue in comics, and I almost fainted.

We weren't best friends. I didn't call him all the time, we didn't email every day. But he knew what I thought of him as a writer and a person, and I knew that he cared about me and my work and was proud of me. I can't tell you what that means to me to this day.

It's also why I haven't taken Static when it's been offered—it just makes me too sad to contemplate right now.

My son's dog Static is old now…I'm not sure how much longer he's going to last. He's totally deaf and losing weight. It makes me sad for many reasons, one of which is that he is a living connection to my first time talking to Dwayne.

Just a great guy I will miss every day.

Sigh.

As for Rocket, I adore her, she's my favorite Milestone character. She's so full of life and so honest. I tried to use her MANY times and she was never available. If it comes to pass that she can be used in the DCU now, don't be surprised if she's in one of my books at the soonest possible opportunity.