And sometimes you look up at the "What month is it? And what's up with Barry Bonds?" clock -- the WMII/AWUWBB clock -- and, sure, all this time has gone by, BUT you can swear that "this big blur of events" you've just lived through was, at worst, "this big blur of four events," and as you list out those events in your feelings journal and/or online column, you're left to wonder:

1. What did I do with the rest of my time?
   
2. Where, oh where, is this intro leading?

No one, but NO ONE, uses the expression "smack dab" anymore.

Nor the construction "no one, but no one." But let's just fight one battle at a time, shall we?

I've been travelling. And I would LOVE to attribute my somewhat loopy column this week to jet lag, but I haven't actually left the time zone.

I spent the last week in Philly with my family. It was Mother's Day and my brother's birthday, and also my 7th College Reunion. I didn't make it onto campus, but I hear it was a lovely weekend.

I was voted "Most Likely to Attend Our 7th College Reunion."

It was a nice break, but now I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. There's some unfinished business from last week, including the small matter of the ArchEnemies trade cover that'll need to be resolved soon.

I gave my editor a bit of a hard time last week and had one of those classic "I'm sure I'm doing the right thing for my comic, but I still feel like a jackass" moments. I'm hoping that my week away will have given him the time he needs to forget how shrill and annoying I can be.

This break has also given me the chance to think out my NEW new project. I've got a superhero book I'm pitching to Dark Horse now (along with the next "season" of AE), but I've already got my head around the next project after that.

I'll talk about it more in the next few weeks, and probably in more detail than I can with the superhero project. The superhero book has some twists to it, but the new new book is essentially unspoilable. It very much is what it is.

One thing this new new project is NOT, however, is a superhero book. I don't know yet whether that'll earn it a better or worse reception than my other seriezis.

But at the very least, it should stand out.

Which brings us to the topic of this week's column. I know, I know. "Topics" are SO last column. But still. Think of the children. Or something?

Anyway, in my first column ever, my very first piece of advice to aspiring creators was to "figure out who you are." I even offered up my own little summation of what makes me me. It read, in part:

Hi. My name is Drew Melbourne, and I want to be the next great comics writer. (But I can wait in line behind Brian K. Vaughan and Andy Diggle, if I absolutely must.) I am young and ambitious and smart and sarcastic and prone to ramble if I'm not reined in. I'm a fiend for folklore and pop culture. I'm a moralist and a heretic. An optimist and a skeptic. A romantic and a cynic.

Sometimes, when left to my own devices, I go a little mad...

What I maybe should have explained in that first column is that most of us aren't born knowing who we are, what we believe, and what we want to say in life. In fact, most of us STILL don't know all that when it comes time to write the first installment of our bi-weekly columns on writing.

Writing is discovery. We think deep thoughts about things, and when we're doing our jobs right, we surprise ourselves.

Over the fourteen months since that first column ran, I've learned a lot about myself as a writer and, specifically, as a comic book writer.

You see, there are a lot of different ways to write a comic book. The way I write is NOT a way that I would recommend to other people.

I would recommend that you write full script with a minimum of detail. Write just enough so that the rest of the creative team knows where to start, and let them go.

Write your script, hand it in, and move on.

That is, of course, the opposite of how I write. I have a unified vision of my work from the beginning. I try to construct moments in my comic books that work on a number of levels: script, art, letters, and colors.

It's not an immutable vision. It evolves based on the contributions of my collaborators, be it a pose or a pallette choice.

A well drawn panel might demand a new line of dialogue. Or NO dialogue.

I'm very much about making all of the pieces of the puzzle work together.

Because puzzle pieces that don't work together... Um... They... invariably... work separately?

As I plan out my new new project, I'm not just looking to tell a new story with a new cast of characters. I'm thinking about new ways to mix images and text. Specifically, how can I transplant some of the fun and invention of the ArchEnemies back-up features into the main body of my next series?

Will this lead to BETTER comics? I'm sure someone will think so. Just as I'm sure that someone, somewhere, holds ANY given opinion no matter how silly or obnoxious.

Heck, someone will read this column and think, "This is Drew's best column ever!"

That someone is wrong, of course. This was my best column ever. But there's no accounting for taste.

I'm not a genius. (Well, technically, I AM a genius, but I don't think it quite shows in my writing just yet.) And as proud as I am of all the writing that I've done in the past fourteen months, I know with a certainty that, in seven or ten years, I'll be deeply, deeply embarassed by all of it.

Or maybe I'll just be bitter and cranky and alone.

My point is that, whatever happens, whoever you are today, you can rest assured: in the future, you'll be someone else entirely.

I think.

Drew Melbourne is a freelance writer living in NYC. The second issues of ArchEnemies, his debut series from Dark Horse comics, is in shops now. The third issue ships June 7th. He's usually less manic than this, but what are you gonna do? For more on Drew, read DrewMelbourne.com. For more on ArchEnemies (including ordering information, previews, and convention details) check out the official website at ArchEnemiesOnline.com.