I’ve been aware of Paul Kirchner’s art work since I first saw it, lo these many years ago, in stories he wrote and drew for Marvel Comics’ Epic Illustrated magazine. Loved it, became an instant and huge fan. I think his black-and-white short story, “My Room,” published in Epic Illustrated, is the coolest, neatest little psychological horror story I’ve every read. Came to find out he’s a serious gun nut, just like moi. My wake-up call was when I saw he’d done all the drawings for the illustrated version of Jeff Cooper’s Principles of Personal Defense. If you happen to be a firearms aficionado, that means something. Then we became Facebook Friends.

Years ago, the magazine to which I sell most of my stuff these days, called The Blue Press, had this sort of on-call freelance artist to illustrate articles requiring a light, humorous touch. I had a few articles illustrated by him, then eventually he went away. Came the day I needed a drawing to illustrate a short, funny (at least *I* thought so) article in The Blue Press. I pitched the idea of Paul to my editor, he said, “Sure.” So I asked Paul to do it.

Bear in mind, nothing I’d ever seen of Paul’s work indicated he could do “funny.” But somehow I just knew he could. And he KILLED it. It was a real thrill for me to have an article illustrated by an artist whose work I’ve admired for so long. He’s since done another one which has been published, and another one done but not yet published, and another one out to him to work up, right now.