From 2005 This conversation with Dark Horse Editor Diana Schutz, illustrates the kind of big deals announced and sometimes made in the wee hours of the san diego comicon.

Schutz tells the behind the scenes story of how DH secured the rights to Micheal Chabon's creation The Escapist , first seen in his pulitzer prize winning novel about the golden age of comics, THE AMAZAING ADVENTURES OF KAVELIER AND CLAY.

We also cover her work editing such masters as Stan Sakai, Jeff Smith and Harlan Ellison. Plus we look at her work with Frank Miller and Will Eisner, including the conversation novel Eisner Miller .

On this edition of Word Balloon, we take a moment to reflect on the art and life of Michael Turner with his friend and collaborator Jeph Loeb . Turner was the co-creator of Witchblade for Top Cow, and went on to create two books Fathom and Soulfire that became the foundation of his own company Aspen Comics.
Jeph helped Mike script his first arc of Soulfire, and chose Mike to be the artist on the Superman-Batman story, The Girl From Krypton, which re-introduced Supergirl to the DCU.

We talk about the work they did, the planned projects that didn’t happen, and Mike’s friendship with Jeph’s son Sam, who passed away from the same type of cancer . According to Jeph , Sam found solace and strength through conversations with Mike and his example in dealing with the treatments for their shared illness.

Loeb also previews the return of Heroes, with a look at the webisode story debuting this week at NBC.COM

He also shares some information on what he has cooking in Marvel's Ultimate Universe, in the current series Ultimates Vol 3, and the upcoming event Ultimatum.