I'm taking aim at the Internet!
I'm looking down the barrel, siting on the World Wide Web!
I'm shooting both barrels into Cyberspace!
It should be mentioned right here, right up front, that I am not Annie Oakley.

The photo you see of me on the Stage Coach was from the old CATTLEMAN RESTAURANT. There were two Cattleman restaurants in Manhattan, travelling from the East Side to the West Side. Maybe sometime I'll tell you about an epic food-fight in the Cattleman, and about the cigars, and about Alex Simmons and I truly riding shotgun on that coach one night. You might recognize the coach from the opening credits to the old TV series, McCloud, with Dennis Weaver, as it galloped down Broadway!

A long time ago, I used to write a series of articles under the umbrella title of RIDING SHOTGUN.

I've had people visit the site and say they liked what they saw. Some said it was hot. I'm always a little apprehensive about things being hot. They often become cold. I take it as a compliment, no disrespect meant, but my hopes for the site is that it is something that will endure, and do many things.

I've never been one for trying to be trendy.

Not in life. Not in storytelling.

But some said (and I'm quoting different voices liberally here), "Sure, Don, we enjoy the visuals you add each week for ZORRO: MATANZAS! We wish you'd be faster adding new letters to the Q & A section. That would be nice. And the UPDATES, they keep us informed, so that's cool. But thing is: What are you, Don?"

"What am I?" I asked. I always ask that when asked that question. Mostly because, I'd hate like hell to have to try to come up with an answer to it.

"You're a writer, right?"

"A writer, right. A storyteller, you got it."

"So doesn't it make sense for you to write some for the site?"

And my immediate response, a little defensive, I suppose, was, "Well, I write just about everything for the site, including the Gift Shop copy."

And they replied, "Well, that's all fine and good. And we like the Gift Shop. But what we're talking about is a column where you express your opinion on comics."

"Well," I countered, protesting too much, "I have a lot of opinions on things besides comics."

"OUR POINT EXACTLY!" the response came in loud unison.

"You've written two prose book, DRAGONFLAME AND OTHER BEDTIME NIGHTMARES and THE VARIABLE SYNDROME. Both books have defining introductions."

"Yes, but you should know, I had to be coerced into doing them by Dave Kraft. I was glad I did afterwards, but I wasn't sure in the beginning. And they were hell to write."

"So, are you never going to let the World Wide Web read the stories of your daughter, Lauren, at 5 years old and the Christmas trees in Greenwich Village, right after Marvel said, "No more Black Panther! No more Killraven!" That should be a perennial Holiday story up on the site."

"You think so?"

"If only you always wrote so effectively."

"Ahhhh…." What else do you say to something like that?

"Or how about the birth of your son, Rob, and the UPS truck that was supposed to deliver Sabre, but ended up being commandeered as your wife, Marsha, was in labor? What about that story? That's a birth story that would rival, in suspense and excitement, the birth of Sabre and Melissa Siren's twins!"

"You think so?" I'm good at coming up with snappy responses.

"Stop repeating yourself. If you did it, what you could do is something that would give people an insight into the comics industry, into its recent past decades of history, and it will tell some stories. Plus, it may even get some people to come back to see each eagerly awaited new column."

"You think so?"

"And what that means, Don, is that folks are coming back to the Web-site! Maybe even the Gift Shop! Maybe take you up on the Internet Special."

"That would be nice."

"Of course, you have to come up with something more interesting that: 'That would be nice.'"

"This is already beginning to feel like a lot of pressure."

"Stop whining! Put up or shut up. Are you going to do it?"

And that's how, RIDING SHOTGUN, the INTERNET VERSION, came into being.

Sometimes, this column will be long stories.
Sometimes, they'll be short takes.
Sometimes they'll be personal. Probably a lot of times.
Sometimes they'll just take view on some subject from the shotgun seat and blast away at it!
Sometimes, it'll be about passion and love and what delights us.
Sometimes it will be about what hurts the heart, cripples the soul, wounds the spirit.
Sometimes it'll just be about the absurdities around us, and the craziness that makes you shake your head in wonder and dismay.
And a lot of times it will be all these things combined.

So, GIDDYYAP! Let's get this coach on the roll!