Since the askbox tonight seems to be about memories, what's your fondest memory with a fellow writer or artist or edito?

I have a lot, so many I can't say. I got to write a JLA story for the great Jose Garcia Lopez, that's a great story. Michael Golden. So many people have been so wonderful, I don't want to take up all night repeating these stories, but there are so many!

One of the best is about Steve Gerber. He was a HUGE hero of  mine, I loved every single thing he wrote. He was a genius—he was Grant Morrison before Grant was Grant Morrison. He was a brilliant, independent thinker…his stories always touched me, he wrote about outsiders, and he had a flair for the bizarre that was the biggest influence on The All-New Atom. He was one of the few guys that if I ever met him, I would freak out. He was just that big in my imagination.

I never met him, never tried to contact him. Too scared.

One day, out of the blue, I got an email from a guy named Steve Gerber. It can't be the same guy, right? How would he have my private email?  Gotta be a joke or a coincidence.

But I opened it, still very skeptical. It just had a couple lines in it, and they are ETCHED into my memory.

"Gail,

I'm currently reading your BIRDS OF PREY stuff from the beginning.

I hope to hell you have some idea how good you are.

—Steve"

Now, literally, my brain wouldn't process that.  It just ovewhelmed me. Then I checked the email, it looked legit. I started crying…I don't cry a lot, I just started crying right on the spot.

That a guy with that level of talent would just take it upon himself to find out my email and send a note like that, I'll be honest, it just…it floored me. It stuck with me. If STEVE GERBER thought I could write, well, then that meant something.

I wrote back and said, "Uh…you do know you are STEVE FUCKING GERBER, right?"

He could not have been nicer. We stuck up a lovely friendship, and got to work together on his Dr. Fate one-shots. He even, honest to god, I still have the emails, asked for my advice on writing several times. That is just…inexplicable.

He wrote about his health, which was failing. I offered to ghost write an issue of his book, he could keep the check and credit, and he said he might take me up on that. I was terribly sad.

He wrote back and said, "

I'm sensing some sadness in this letter, Gail. There's no need for that yet. Some sort of positive outcome is still very possible."And he passed away very soon after. It broke my heart. I will never get over the deaths of Steve, Perry Moore, and Dwayne McDuffie, all of whom supported me and showed me kindness I have no idea what I ever did to deserve. I still get very misty thinking about it.After he passed, his final issue of Dr. Fate was unfinished. They asked four of his friends to each write a four page ending to his story.  I wrote a story about what he meant to me as a reader, and included his actual words, his final words to me, in the script."I'm sensing some sadness in this letter, Gail. There's no need for that yet. Some sort of positive outcome is still very possible."Without my name, of course.That might be the story that gets me the most emotional to this day.