On the cancellation of WINTER SOLDIER with issue #19:
Well, I won't lie, after spending the last 9 months or so living in Bucky Barnes's skin, I'm a little heart broken. He's grown to be a very special character to me, maybe my favorite Marvel character ever, and I felt I could've written his story for years. The opportunity to do so came at a very trying time in my life and really helped me through some tough stuff, so in it's way it's very personal work. I hope that shows.
That said though, really, enough cryin' in my beer. I'm VERY grateful to everyone involved with the book all along the line for making it such a worthwhile experience. First among them, Nic Klein, for being such a tremendous collaborator and corroborator. He really summoned up the power of whatever Dark Pagan God he worships for this series, and though his soul may be damned, it was worth it for comics y'all. I'm no less thankful to our editors and the production folks, chiefly Lauren Sankovitch for having the steely nerves of a riverboat gambler, and giving us all the support any team could ask for. But maybe most of all I'm in the debt of the special community of fans who stuck with us and showed us such big slobbery love through out. I know it was hard losing folks as revered and talented as Brubaker and company, but thank you for giving us a real shot.
Comics can be a hard business. There are macro-scale factors involved in decisions like this that sometimes have nothing to do with what's actually going on in the book. I was never under any illusion that this gig wouldn't be an uphill battle in every regard. Nic and I had some tremendous shoes to fill and we both knew we were up against it from the start. But it was a challenge we welcomed, and even with this news I consider what we've done to be a real success. I'm thrilled that the bulk of the people who've stuck around or have tried the book in our run seem to have enjoyed our story as much as we've enjoyed telling it. My hope is that the next two issues give y'all the big explosive send off Bucky's first series deserves and that I'll be playing in his muddy little sandbox again. Hopefully much sooner than later.
More soon...