The night (make that day) continues on, the clock continues to tick away. But that no longer matters. The allotted time is now and we are done. Complete. Successful, if you will.
My eyes are blurry, my attention span is shorter than it has ever been and I’m having trouble forming coherent sentences.
I have raised money for the CBLDF and I have made a new friend. Both have made this worthwhile.
A more complete roundup of my thoughts can be expected when I finally manage to pull myself out of bed.
For now, pleasant dreams…..
K. Patrick Glover
As we approach the final post, I’d like to take a moment to say thanks to few folks who helped make this work for me:
My wife, Tia, for staying up as late as she could and feeding me and such. And just for being here.
My employer, Les, for being patient and allowing me to blog from work for a few hours.
Cassie, for taking my shift today so I can get some much needed rest.
Dave and my new friend Sarah, for keeping me company this evening turn morning.
And each and everyone of you who read this blog on a regular basis, whether you comment or not.
And last of all, a special thanks to everyone who sponsored me. You’ve lent your support to a very important cause.
Thank you.
And let’s not forget about the golden Avenger.
David Michelinie and Bob Layton worked miracles with Iron Man in the early 80’s, producing real human drama and the first serious look at alcoholism in comics.
First rate scripting over gorgeously detailed artwork makes for an unforgettable run.
Walt Simonson’s run on Thor was equally as defining.
In fact, in the entire history of the character, nobody before Simonson had ever managed to make Thor interesting (or to write an issue that didn’t put me to sleep).
His run was so spectacular that it actually did the impossible, it made Thor a best seller.
On the down side, what the hell was he smoking when he came up with Beta Ray Bill?
There are two realities in my head, two worlds.
In one world, the mundane one, I’m a bartender. A simple bartender at a simple bar in a simple little town.
In the other, I have wings.
Huge, white wings that spring from my back, unfold, and lift me up into the wind and the sky.
Standing on the bluff, the water pounding the rocks far below, logic tells me that the mundane world is the real world. The rational one. People can’t fly.
My heart tells me that the other world is real.
Who’d want to live in a world where people couldn’t fly?
So I step out, into the wind.
5 and a half hours to go.
Wow.
Looking for my second wind. (or third or fourth wind. whatever.)
More Pepsi in front of me, trying to stay focused.
If you haven’t looked lately, you should pop over to Dave’s and Sarah’s. Dave, because he’s writing about comics, Sarah because she’s also blogging for the CBLDF.
Oh, and pop over to my sidebar there and click on the pledge link, kay?
The 80’s were good to many Marvel titles, in many cases generating runs that are definitive to this day.
Take John Byrne’s run on the Fantastic Four (from 232-293). Good, straight forward storytelling produced the best issues since the original Lee / Kirby run, and no one else has come close since.
Replacing the Thing with She-Hulk was a bizarre idea, but it worked for awhile and shook things up nicely.
The Trial of Galactus was nothing short of astonishing and the 20th anniversary story with Doctor Doom may be the single best issue in the history of the group.
With his success in every other medium, books, film, TV, and even stage, I wonder why Sherlock Holmes has never managed to gain a foothold in the world of comics.
There have been plenty of attempts, A couple issues of Classics Illustrated in the 50’s, a one shot from DC in the 70’s, a pair of magazines from Marvel. The Cases of Sherlock Holmes from Renegade had a short run with Dan and Gene Day providing illustrations against Doyle’s original stories.
Warren Ellis tried his hand with an adaptation of The Sussex Vampire for Caliber.
Martin Pasko did a few minis for various companies, one pitting Holmes against Dracula, another against the Invisible Man.
So, when do we get an actual, ongoing Sherlock Holmes series?
In 1980, fed up with Marvel, Gerber took his voice, his sense of humor and his artist (Gene Colon) over to Eclipse. He traded in his feathers for the fur of a rodent and reimagined Howard as Stewart The Rat.
The result was a brilliant graphic novel that holds up as well as any of the Howard material and in some ways better. This represented Gerber unrestrained by corporate censors and Stewart said everything that Howard never could.
From what I understand, a company called About Comics put this wonderful volume back into print last year, but I’ve yet to actually see a copy of the new edition.
Howard The Duck was created by Steve Gerber in a 1973 issue of Man-Thing. It didn’t take long for the character to graduate to his own book and Gerber used him as a surrogate for his own voice in a series of fascinating social satires.
Unfortunately, nobody at Marvel noticed that Howard wasn’t really a character, he was just Gerber with feathers. Which meant that nobody but Gerber could (or should) try to write Howard The Duck.
So of course Marvel fired him.
They could have just cancelled the book, let it go out on a high note. Didn’t happen. Gerber was followed by several writers in rapid succession, most of them decent but none of them Howard. The series continued for awhile in its existing format and when sales slumped, Marvel, never very good at taking a hint, moved Howard to a black and white magazine format.
The stories never got better, Gerber didn’t come back, and the magazine died a slow, painful death.
Many years later, under different management, Marvel asked Gerber to come back and write a new Howard The Duck mini series under Marvel’s adult imprint, Marvel Max.
Unfortunately, Gerber only managed to prove that even Gerber isn’t Gerber anymore….
