Hi Arkie,

Charles Vess is a friend, actually; we've both done work for The Endicott Studio. I have BALLADS in every edition, including the floppies, because I'm a dork like that. :)

The theme of this comics anthology is "the plight of the common working man" for a lack of a better way to put it - in fact, I might not even have that entirely right, but something like that. Supernatural stuff in this one is a no-no. British Isles prison songs and impressment songs have always fascinated me for some reason and LOWLANDS is told from the lady's point of view... I don't think it *quite* fits in with the theme, but the editors are humoring me!

pavane, thank you for reminding me of the Bodleian Ballad collection! I'd completely forgotten.

The problem with doing all this research is it's so easy to get lost in it and not write anything!

Thanks everyone.