Every time a new shipment from Midtown Comics arrives, I eagerly tear it open for IRON FIST.

Now, sure, I write a bit of it, and I see it in nine kinds of development from doodles in a notebook to color art on a screen, but to actually SEE the thing in the real world, printed on the page and stapled in the middle is a pleasure all its own. Unlike everything else I'm involved with, I can look at IRON FIST right away without flinching or seeing where I blew it-- there are so many talented cooks in the Iron Fist kitchen that I have insta-distance on it.

Anyway. Working with David Aja is a particular delight-- my editor Warren Simons and I were talking about it today. He pushes me to write better, just for him. I want to write pages worthy of him to draw, I want to challenge him in a way that keeps him excited and interested. My god, it's like being on an eternal, unending first date.

Anyway, he's doing brilliant work, not just in the panels but on the pages themselves.

He's also a little reclusive and camera shy, apparently-- what photographs of him in the world that are extant he controls very tightly. I am not one to question the peculiarities of genius and, as such, am proud to present the image of my collaborator on the left.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. David Aja.