When the story broke about J. Michael Straczynski replacing Ben Templesmith with CP Smith, as artist on his Image series Ten Grand after Templesmith went into extreme radio silence, many wondered if Templesmith was okay.

We reached out to him and he emailed back to say he had apologized to JMS, and the communication breakdown had been entirely his fault. He explained he has just been through, in addition to some personal matters, “a rather catastrophic move to Chicago where a bunch of my stuff is missing and I got other people’s things, that only finished yesterday. It’s been a rather stressful time.” All this took him off the grid for a while.

But, he continued, “I’m the only one to blame and am apologetic.” He promises to get back on social media soon after he gets the rest of his affairs sorted and wishes Smith and JMS luck on the book.

If we can break into our own endorsement here, while it doesn’t change the Ten Grand problem, and it was an extreme example, these things happen. Templesmith is known as a fast and reliable (and excellent) artist most of the time, and moving sucks. Hopefully everything will be back on an even keel for him very soon and we wish him the best.

UDPATE: And JMS Facebooked:

Finally heard from Ben today…we had a great email exchange, very positive, we’re moving on but remain on really good terms regarding future work on other projects…more later.