Calling... Joe Staton!

My pal and favorite comics collaborator, Femme Noir co-creator/artist Joe Staton, celebrated his 63rd birthday yesterday. That was also the day that Tribune Media Services announced that long-time Dick Tracy artist Dick Locher would (finally) be hanging up his fedora and that Joe - along with writer Mike Curtis - would be taking over the legendary newspaper detective strip.

It's no secret that I was not a fan of Locher's run on the strip (I never liked his art, and after Max Collins stopped writing Tracy, I thought the writing got terrible, too), so I'm thrilled that not only is the strip continuing (something of a miracle, as the syndicate retired both Brenda Starr and Annie last year), but that it's going to start looking good again!

The art above is from a sample storyline that Mike and Joe did a while back, and presumably, it's what landed them the gig. It appeared last year on a Dick Tracy fansite, and I think it makes it abundantly clear that they're the right team for the job. I could only be happier if I was writing it... but hey, I still get to work with Joe on more Femme Noir, so I'm not really all that disappointed. :)