I am not Tom

Okay, since this came up again yesterday I suppose it would be good to deal with it. I'm not going to tell who thought I was Tom Lyle, since it happens a lot and the person who did it obviously simply made a mistake. So this isn't intended to slam that person. Really it's just to clear up as much of the misunderstanding as possible.

I recall an old episode of "My Three Sons" wherein Chip Douglas makes a date with an older girl at school. She thinks that she's been asked out by Chip's older brother, Robbie. When Chip shows up at the door she freaks. It, of course works out in the end, and Chip is assured that eventually he will be out of the shadow of his older brother. High School works like that. Eventually you get to be your own person.

However I'm not in High School and Tom isn't my brother either. Not that I'm putting down Tom's work. Far from it. The guy's nearly as famous for his run on Spider-man as Ditko, or John Romita, Sr. So why would I mess with that?

Heck! I've even done this sort of thing myself. I ran into Terry Beatty in Chicago a few years ago and went into a rave about his inking of some of Butch Guice's work. He sat there and was cool about it, then when I was done he informed me that I was probably thinking of JOHN Beatty. Of course I was! Not that I had anything against Terry's work, either. I like them both. Terry went on to tell me that DC Comics regularly mixed up his fan-mail with John's.

Speaking of Butch Guice, he's got two younger brothers, Brian (Bruno) and Jeff (no nickname). They both are really good artists as well. But neither seems to have ever taken off in the comics industry. Talk about living in your brother's shadow. It's too bad. The three of them could be the east coast answer to the Brothers Hernadez.

Anyway,Tom Lyle and I are not related (so far as we know). I see him, every now and then, at shows and I kid about how we really should do something together just to confuse the masses more.

Tom comes from (correct me if I'm wrong) Northeast Georgia, and I come from Western North Carolina. Relatively close together geographically speaking, but still a couple of hours distant. We both got started in comics about the same time in the 80s. So I understand the confusion. But it is a bit unnerving at times.

Particularly when someone e-mails me out of the blue and says they want me to work on this or that project. I have that strange feeling that one gets when handed an anonymous note from a secret admirer.

"Are you sure it's me you're talking about?"

I suppose that some guys would take the money and run. As for me, I've got too much of my ego wrapped up in this artist thing to do that.

"I think you mean TOM Lyle," I'll say. "There goes another job", is what I'm thinking, though.

Does this count as a cross to bear? I'll have to ask The LORD when I see him.