To all of the friends, colleagues and fans who’ve made contact today,

I’ve read messages of shock, anger, resignation, understanding and sadness.

Wildstorm is ending.  It is a sad day.  There’s no doubt about it.

The Authority #29 - The last Authority... for now.

Spending more than a year with these characters, characters that I was a massive fan of long before I got to play with them, has been a dream.  Finding out quite late on that my last issue of The Authority would be THE last issue of The Authority (at least for the foreseeable future) was a real blow. Yes, I’ve known about some of this for a while, and it’s killed me not being able to talk about it.

Friend and Wildcats writer, Adam Beechen has talked about his experience over here and it’s one very close to my own.  Like him, I’ve tried very hard to tie up a lot in the last issue and I hope fans will understand and appreciate what Adam and I have tried to do.

Adam has been great to chat to in the lead up to this and I want to thank him along with our editor, Jim Chadwick.

Jim’s been a dream to work with.  Dedicated to the story, dedicated to the characters, encouraging, and always going the extra mile to make the best book possible (even when it means more work for him).  I sincerely hope we get to work together again in the future.

I want to thank a few more people too.  Thanks to the guys that came before me, Adam Freeman, Marc Bernardin and Shannon Eric Denton – all of you contributed more to my issues than the fans realize and set up a fantastic story for me to follow, cheers guys.

Thanks to Mike S Miller, who was the perfect guy to imagine Mondregon and illustrated the most breathtaking image of The Carrier I’ve ever seen (when it turned transparent) and nailed all of the action and humour in the early issues.

Thanks to Al Barrionuevo, who has had one of the hardest gigs in comics in the last few months, as he’s had to bring to life my ridiculously-detailed descriptions for an entire alien race and world for them to live in.  What he’s done so far is incredible, what’s coming from him in the future will blow people away. You belong on a book like this, Al.  You are epic.

Thanks also to Warren Ellis for creating The Authority.  It has been one of my favourite books since before it was The Authority, back in the Stormwatch days, and it was a real honour to write the characters you created.

Thanks to Hank Kanalz and Jim Lee and, again, a huge thanks to Ben Abernathy for bringing me in… and for the free books and flowers.

Last, one great big thank you to all of the fans.  Having so much support from the podcasters, forum posters (yes, I troll), reviewers, people I’ve signed for and chatted to at conventions and the great guys that Adam, Jim and I met and had beers with in San Diego, has been amazing.

I know some of the fans will be feeling pretty flat today (I know because I am a fan), but heroes never die.

Did Superman stay dead?  Did Green Lantern?  Did Batman stay broken?

Heroes never die.

And Wildstorm is full of heroes… not all of them fictional.