"Gratification Is A Dish Best Savoured Cold"

'Shadow Of The Axe!' from Creepy #79 (Warren, May 1976)

Story by Dave Sims, Art by Russ Heath

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24 September 04

Dear Mr. Morrow:

I’ve just received a letter from Janine Bielski, the Development Director at ACTOR [now The Hero Initiative] notifying me that a "generous donation" had been made in my honour, by you, on March 1 of this year. The letter itself is dated August 11 and was mailed to me September 16. Fortunately, at one time I dated the Executive Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, so I know better than to take these progressively slow "turnaround times" at a charitable organization personally. The staff members are usually dancing as fast as they can.

I’m assuming that the date of your donation links it to the publication of issue 300 (now receding into the distant past of our mostly "here today, gone later today" environment) and I appreciate the gesture on your part.

Oddly enough, I just picked up the latest Alter Ego last night and, as I told Roy Thomas when I had dinner with him and Dann in Toronto (along with Michael T. Gilbert and his wife Janet and a "hanger on" named Will Eisner), I was again amazed that it was possible to read an entire magazine about comic books without once having to wince or get doubled over by a body shot. I was particularly glad to see Russ Heath's splash page for Shadow of the Axe, but then I’m glad to see that page anytime it doesn’t have my name spelled as "Dave Sims" at the bottom, as it did in Creepy 79 ['Shadow of the Axe' was my second sale of a professional script to Louise Simonson at Warren when she was still Louise Jones].

Thanks again. Gratification, like revenge, is a dish best savoured cold.

Sincerely,

Dave