Four Decades of Appreciation for Jordi Bernet

I was immediately entranced by the artwork of Jordi Bernet when I first saw one of his Torpedo 1936 volumes in the 1980s. In my first incarnation as a comics commentator (for Alan Light's Comics Buyer's Guide) I drew the above (ahem) commentoonie to do my part in spreading the word about Bernet's Torpedo character. (A larger, readable, version of the drawing is available for viewing over here.)

I was pleased as punch when Bernet drew his first issue of Jonah Hex and I wrote about the event in late 2006, in the infancy of The Hayfamzone Blog. (Of course Bernet has drew many more issues of Hex in subsequent years and I was always glad to see one rolling into the comic book store.)

I mailed a hard copy of my article to Jonah Hex co-writer Jimmy Palmiotti in care of publisher DC Comics, just because I wanted to share the love. But you'll never guess what happened next! The letter was returned to me, unopened, RETURN TO SENDER written in black marker on the envelope. Thanks a heap, DC Comics!

Without identifying at the time what I had sent or to whom, I wrote about An Experiment in the Hayfamzone, Part One in early 2007. You can read at the end of that article that I intended to try re-sending my letter (to Mr. Palmiotti) and see if I would have better luck breaking the barrier.

Sometimes it takes five years but, yes, we do follow up on things in the hayfamzone! I now follow Jimmy P on twitter and I will direct-send him a link to this article you are now reading and I'm fairly certain he will finally get to read what I had meant for him to read so long ago. Hooray! The subtitle of this article that you are presently reading is An Experiment in the Hayfamzone, Part Two. Case closed!

I invite you to read more about Mr. Bernet over on Wikipedia, and let's close off with a drawing by Mr. B of his own character.