I’d wager that most of you visiting don’t remember the first live-action Spider-Man
on screen.
Clearly, based on the image above, I don’t mean Tobey Maguire. Or Nicholas Hammond, who starred as Peter Parker over 12 episodes of The Amazing Spider-Man on CBS starting in 1978, spun out of a TV movie the year before — or even the stuntman inside the costume for most of that show, Fred Waugh. Or, for that matter, Shinji Tōdō; he led Toei's スパイダーマン [Supaidāman], a very loose adaptation of the Marvel character, which aired in Japan during roughly the same span as its American counterpart.
No, I’m talking about Danny Seagren.
I didn’t know Tom Spurgeon, a longtime critic and lover of comics who passed
away last week at just 50. We met but once at a convention. I know his work, though, and I know a lot of other people in the comics world who did know him, admire him, care for him.
Spurgeon was editor of Fantagraphics’ The Comics Journal for several years before launching his website The Comics Reporter.
I’m heartbroken over the loss of Batton Lash.
Bat created the delightful series Wolff and Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre, later known as Supernatural Law. Bat’s wife and collaborator Jackie Estrada announced
his passing in January at 65 after a battle with brain cancer, and Facebook was immediately flooded with tributes. I didn’t share thoughts here at the time for a variety of reasons, but I want to post more in general and this can’t go unsaid. His nattily attired figure was a highlight of any convention; American comics in the ’90s, let alone my personal world of comics, would’ve been much the poorer without him.
John Romita's cover to Origins of Marvel Comics
© 1974 and characters TM/® Marvel Comics.
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There’s no way for me to do this subject justice but, despite the lateness, it doesn’t
feel right to let it pass without mention here.
Panel from “Once Upon a Time...” in Detective Comics #500 © 1981 DC Comics. [enlarge]
Len Wein, who died at 69 on Sept. 10th, provided me and an untold number of
other readers with countless moments of wonder. On top of that, Len was very much
a mensch. I saw him indulge fans at conventions with anecdotes many creators would surely have long since tired of telling, and he graciously spoke to me at length for a Comicology article celebrating the 25th anniversary of the “new” X-Men at a time — shortly before the release of the 2000 film — when dozens of journalists were likely ringing him up.
Stella Saner would have been 100 years old today, had she not passed early in
the morning of January 21st with her daughter, my mother, at her side.
Here’s a lightly edited version of what I wrote to read at her memorial service.
David Bowie discography grabbed from www.davidbowie.com
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I’m plodding through a marshland canal in a Colonial Era village at dusk. Muddy and wet, I stop in a cabin to warm up, strip my clothes off, and grab some new ones that had been left there to dry by the fire. After stealing into the night once more, I enter another house by the back door with hopes of making it out the front unseen — only to discover a youthful fortysomething David Bowie, in appropriate period dress and with his sandy blond hair rakishly tousled, cooking over a stove.
“Are you leaving us, then?” he asks.
“Yes,” I tell him, or perhaps I simply nod, and I exit. I pause with second thoughts, however, then head in again. Extending my hand, I say, “I’ve been a tremendous admirer since I was a kid. I just wanted to thank you.” He is gracious. I wake up.
Photo © 1967 ABC / 20th Century / Greenway.
TV’s Batgirl, Yvonne Craig, left us last month at 78. She was more than just that description — to fans of Star Trek, in which she appeared as the green-skinned Orion woman Marta; to Elvis aficionados, having co-starred in two of his films; and of course to her loved ones, as wife, sister, mentor, and philanthropist.
Craig’s passing was announced on her website through an obituary and more personal note from her family. Mark Evanier posted a remembrance that includes a delightful anecdote of meeting her and Julie Newmar at a Hollywood autograph show. (Well, I should warn you that it ends somewhat less than delightfully, after the part about the comic book wherein Batgirl first appeared, depending on your taste for cringe.)
I find Craig’s Batgirl and Barbara Gordon one of the absolute best things about the 1966-68 Batman series, and not merely for her striking figure in that skintight purple suit. Her sass, her keen intellect, her confidence, her literal as well as figurative poise — all elevated the show’s final and otherwise least impressive season whenever she was onscreen.
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Photo: Al Levine for NBC © 1982.
What’s most surprising about Don Pardo’s passing in August is either half of this sentence taken with the other: He was 96 and still working as the primary voice of Saturday Night Live.
That was a really difficult post title to type.
Original photo: Jim Britt for ABC © 1978.
I was introduced to Robin Williams, who died on Monday at 63, as Mork from Ork
— first on Happy Days; then, of course, on Mork & Mindy. Although I’m two decades younger, I aged with him, through his stand-up and dramatic roles and talk-show appearances and film comedies and, just this past year, his return to network TV.
Which I think is a big part of why his death hits so hard.
Ghostbusters screencap © 1984 Columbia Pictures.
The year is 1989. I’m a day-camp counselor for kids 5 to 6 years old. At that age
boys have their favorite whatevers on their lunch boxes, their shirts, their underwear. Ghostbusters was big in our bunk — mostly, I assume, from the animated TV series based on the 1984 movie (Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters) rather than the movie itself. So I chaperone a few boys into the restroom. Two of them stand at the same urinal, pants down, focused on doing what you do. One suddenly exclaims “Don’t cross the streams!” and they crack up so hard it’s a miracle that no mopping was required.
I think Harold Ramis, who died this past Monday at 69, would’ve been proud. Godspeed, ghosts, gophers, and groundhogs be with him.
Early yesterday, Kim Thompson died at the age of 56.
I never met him but do know that you’d be hard-pressed to find a better friend to comics literally worldwide. North American readers were grateful to him for having exposed them to work from Europe, and European creators were grateful for that exposure.
Just yesterday I was reading Roger Ebert’s “Leave of Presence” post, addressing the discovery of more cancer in his body — this, after he’d endured so much — and his promise to write about what he could, when he could, during treatment.
A dream personified for both those who love seeing poetry in their statistics and those who love seeing the game played the right way, Stan Musial left this mortal coil on Jan. 19th at the age of 92.
Trading-card photo © 1953 Bowman Gum.
During a couple of my years away from the comics world and without an Internet connection, I was fortunate enough to live next to a library. I mostly read nonfiction and young-adult fantasy as neither my comprehension nor my retention were great (not that they’re where I’d like them to be now) — essentially, I needed books that weren’t too complex for me to follow as I read and/or to remember where things left off when I had to stop for a while. One area of interest into which I got to delve more deeply, being freed not by choice but by circumstance from having to stay current with the latest in my hobby-turned-profession, was baseball; I read up a little on the likes of Musial, Willie Mays, and Mickey Mantle.
Art from cover to Joe Kubert Presents #1 © 2012 DC Comics.
Joe Kubert died three weeks ago yesterday, on Aug. 12th, at the age of 85.
I’ll get to the Jack Kirby of it all in a moment.
Splash panel of The Black Racer from The New Gods #3 © 1971
DC Comics. Script, Pencils: Jack Kirby. Inks: Vince Colletta.
Letters: John Costanza. Colors: Unknown.
Decades before The Late Show was the title of David Letterman’s CBS alternative to
Jay Leno, it was the rather generic name of wee-hours broadcasts of old movies on local TV stations. The phrase also came to be used, with morbid punnery, for the Oscars’ familiar montage of industry folks who’d passed away in the previous year.
We’ve lost Neil Armstrong to the stars at the age of 81.
Neil Armstrong in the Eagle module after the moonwalk.
Photo: Buzz Aldrin for NASA.
An obituary up on the NASA website includes excerpts from and links to statements from the Armstrong family, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, and President Barack Obama. The page also has embedded video of Armstrong and links to information on the historic moon landing of July 20th, 1969.
Digital version of newsstand cover to Static #1 © 1993 Milestone Media.
Pencils: Denys Cowan. Inks: Jimmy Palmiotti. Colors: Noelle Giddings.
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