Welcome to the most popular and longest running comics column on the internet. In its various forms, Lying In The Gutters has covered rumors and gossip in the comics industry for thirteen long glorious and quite scary years.

All stories are sourced from well-connected individuals and checked with respective publisher representatives before publication. Mostly. The veracity of each story is judged by me and given a spotlight - Green is the most reliable, Amber means there's likely an interest involved or the likelihood isn't set and Red means even I can't quite bring myself to believe it.

Lying In The Gutters is for your entertainment. Neither Fair Nor Balanced.

MARIO'S WORLD

Dave Rothe was a letterer on the comic book "Ant," created by Mario Gully and published through Arcana and Image. Mario is currently Penciler of "Treasure Island" for Marvel.

After working on "Ant" for a number of issues, Dave says he left over delayed payments (he was finally paid), though Mario states he was fired.

Recently, he received a number of emails from Mario and his creative partner Jeff Kaufman concerning certain layered colour files they believed Dave might still have, after they lost them in a computer crash.

Dave told me that if he still had them, they would have been compressed for his use, and not "layered". Unsure if he still had them, he asked, he asked "what's it worth?"

Slightly mercenary there, Dave, definitely on the dickish side, but a suitable response might have been "love, kisses and the gratitude of a publisher." Instead of threatening to put Dave on the street whether he had the files or not, and to destroy his reputation in the industry.

Which might have been stretching Mario's arm somewhat.

After pointing this out to Mario, he told me "I did threaten him. You would threaten a guy too, if you were good to someone and in the end he gave my buddy an attitude. I treated everybody that worked on 'Ant' good. Do you know how many guys that work on Indy books are owed money or never got paid at all? You probably know better than I do! That money would probably balance the national budget. I tried to get money for people even when Image was paying late and many times I didn't even get a check from them at all.

"I do have a lot of weight in this biz. That's my opinion. Am I Joe Q or somebody? No. Are many or my buddies top talent and top editors in this biz? Yes. I already had various Indy publishers contact me regarding Dave's work. I told them he was an ok guy. I guess that makes me a double idiot.

"But thanks Rich, I'm glad you got my side of the story."

My pleasure, Mario.