Occasional Superheroine

Erica is a very good friend of mine...

I met her at the production meetings we had weekly at DC. She was the Production Manager -- friendly and personable, but by-the-book. She had these neat rows of Post-its and labyrinthine flow-charts covering the walls of her office, all keeping track of the publishing schedules for the many comics the company put out.

She also always carried a Bible with her.

In this largely secular society, the sight of a woman carrying a Bible around with her in the office of a major metropolitan publishing house might raise a few eyebrows. But she stood by her beliefs. She never pushed her faith down anybody's throat, but she also never "buried" it. Ya gotta respect that.

Erica was also, I found out, a comic artist. One day after a meeting, she asked me if I had any interest in collaborating with her on a "practice" script, me being a writer. We worked on a Batgirl script I had written. It was a lot of fun, and a learning experience for both of us.

After a year or so she quit DC to marry her sweetheart and move with him to Tennessee. I hung out at the company a little longer, and, well, the rest is history.

In the darkest year of my life, Erica had always been there for me. I mean, I had nothing -- no job, no health, no money, no career. I had nothing but myself. And I was feeling daaaark. Hopeless. Depressed. It's not always easy to talk to someone in such a state of mind. But Erica was always there. I'd get moody and drop out of touch for weeks. Erica was always there.

Her indefatigable optimism and determination to not give up on me finally wore down the fortress of cynicism I had erected around myself -- and it's a large reason why I'm here, tip-tapping away at these keys, the darkest years behind me.

Erica just saved my butt yet again, this time with a comic book project. She had e-mailed me seven pages of layouts yesterday, far earlier than I expected.

Then she accidentally slammed into a file cabinet and hurt her spine & head.

Right now, she is in some pain, but is ok. There are still some odds and ends to look out for, but she should be ok.

She asked me to pray for her. She's prayed for me countless times. She's a really good pray-er. Once she asked her sister to pray for me and her sister in turn got this entire convent of nuns to pray for me. Best birthday gift I ever had, I tell ya.

So I'm going to try to pray for her. But I don't know how great I am at all this, so even though I'm going to try really hard, I was wondering if maybe you'd pray for her too. And if you're not really into the whole praying thing, you could check out her latest comic on Comicspace or look through her other projects. Or just wish her a speedy recovery. Thanks.