Word Balloon: Jeph Loeb - Remembering Mike

On this edition of Word Balloon, we take a moment to reflect on the art and life of Michael Turner with his friend and collaborator Jeph Loeb .

Turner was the co-creator of Witchblade for Top Cow, and went on to create two books: Fathom and Soulfire, that became the foundation of his own company Aspen Comics.

Jeph helped Mike script his first arc of Soulfire, and chose Mike to be the artist on the Superman/Batman story, "The Girl From Krypton," which re-introduced Supergirl to the DC Universe. In his capacity as an Executive Producer on the NBC series HEROES, Loeb arranged for Aspen to be the colorists on their weekly webcomics, later collected as a Wildstorm graphic novel.

We talk about the work they did, the planned projects that didn’t happen, and Mike’s friendship with Jeph’s son Sam, who passed away from the same type of cancer . According to Jeph, Sam found solace and strength through conversations with Mike and his example in dealing with the treatments for their shared illness.

Loeb also previews the return of Heroes, with a look at the webisode story "Going Postal", debuting this week at NBC.COM

He also shares some information on what he has cooking for Marvel's Ultimate Universe, in the current series Ultimates Vol. 3, and the upcoming event Ultimatum.

Click here for the episode.