from 2003's Ultimates #12, by Millar, Hitch et al.

I hate to break a promise, even if it’s made to no-one but myself. Yet things have changed since I typed “to be continued” at the foot of the last section of Shameless? to be posted here. My apologies if it seems arrogant for me to be explaining why the coming Tuesdays won’t be seeing any more of Shameless?.  I am, I promise you, well aware that this really won’t plunge the blogosphere into mourning. But if you have visited these pieces once, or perhaps even more than once, before, it would seem wrong to suddenly stop the posts without a few brief words of why.  Practical, as well as supportive, to the end, Sequart Editor-in-Chief Mike Phillips suggested that I might leave the discussion of much of Mark Millar’s early career to the printed version of Shameless?. It is, after all, only sensible to ensure that a book in print contains a great deal that’s never been seen online.  As such, halting these weekly pieces now means that Shameless? The Super-hero Stories Of Mark Millar Volume 1 (1989-1999) will include a considerable degree of never-before-posted material. For the record, that will include, amongst others, chapters on Maniac 5/6, The Flash, Vampirella, Aztec, Superman Adventures, Millar’s many one-off tales for DC, and the remainder of the recent and as-yet incomplete chinwag about Skrull Kill Krew.

Posting these sections on a regular basis has been an absolute boon for me. It’s given the business of preparing Shameless? a clear set of deadlines and allowed me to make my mistakes in a public forum where they’re usefully hard to avoid.  But although these weekly posts have been a terrific way for me to start to get to grips with Millar’s work, they are in their own way a distraction too. Each post of Shameless? that appears at Sequart has to be more-or-less complete in itself, but each then requires considerable rewriting for the book. It’s an ultimately wasteful approach, and for that reason alone I think Mike’s right; it’s time for the training wheels to come off.  By the same token, Mike’s desire to ensure that the published Shameless contains lots of unseen material is undoubtedly the right one.

If you’ve ever popped over here and killed a dead moment with one of these posts, my thanks to you for doing so. I’m also very grateful to Julian, Stuart, Cody, and Mike at Sequart for all their help and support. Finally, I hope you might consider taking a look at Shameless? when it appears in its published form in the not-so-distant future.

All the best, take care, etc etc.