Lorenzo Sperlonga

Shortly after he signed the deal to publish this collection of his work he asked, "If I WOULD MIND writing a few words for it." and that is where it all"hit me " and started to PISS ME OFF. Your see, Lorenzo has a lot of problems - let me explain.
I first met him at a book signing for my wife, Julie Strain, at the Golden Apple Comic book store in Hollywood back in 1995, and he comes up, introduces himself with a huge smile, and asks if I WOULD MIND looking at some of his artwork?
I was prepared for the worst, even started to prepare my "great start, point out the good parts, try to inspire him, and ask him to keep in touch "speech in my mind - BUT was then completely blown away! This kid has real talent! Any kid with that kind of talent always PISSES us old guys off.
Then what really got to me, was this good-looking Italian guy with all this talent, had so much work, and so many demands for his skills, it took me nearly five years to get him on the cover of my Heavy Metal Magazine! So after a lot of phone tag, and finally reconnecting after all those years, he sends me this sketch, and asks me if I WOULD MIND running something like this on the cover?
WOULD I MIND? Geez, the nerve of this guy! It was beautiful, and I had to run on our September 2ooo issue! Then, he does the same thing again - sends me another cover, WOULD I MIND considering this one for a cover? Damn, another beautiful one, and I had to run it on our May 2oo1 issue! Don't even get me started on all the others he's sent me that I've had to use since, as well as those that I can't wait to use!
Now I want to get into his personality problems: always smiling, always laughing, always bringing gifts when he comes over for cookouts, always great to hangout at the comicbook store then have a beer and a joke afterwards. Just an all around great guy to be around - how could that not PISS you off? Man.
So lets review; 1.) Great guy. 2.) Oozing with talent,(and I ain't even gonna say anything about all the amazing stuff he can do with a computer). 3.) He's got an extremely bright, long artistic career ahead of him. 4.) He's a pleasure to be around.
See what I mean?!?
Well, all I can say is, "I WOULDN'T MIND having Lorenzo Sperlonga around for a long time, I look forward to him PISSING ME OFF, regular basis, and it was a real HONOR to be asked to write a few words for this beautiful book!"
Congratulations my friend.