Of Steve Gerber, Frank Cho, and Ducks With Pants

So a story relayed to me by Steve Gerber, about a month or two before he unfortunately passed away:

Steve, of course, was having ongoing lung problems, which made it difficult to work. Hero had stepped in and helped Steve with some bills from time to time, and even helped him land a paying gig writing a five-minute cartoon short. Josue Justiano, the artist working with Steve on Countdown to Mystery, also knew of Steve’s health problems, of course. Josue floated the notion to Steve that perhaps he would give Steve some of his original art, and Steve could sell it, auction it off, or whatever to make a buck. Steve’s answer:

“That’s great for me. But what about the next guy?”

To me, this illustrates one helluva lot about Steve’s character. Of course Steve had needs. He was no dummy; he knew it! But he was even more concerned about “the next guy.” Whoever that next guy was.

So it was with alla that in mind that we concocted FOOG, TOO! or “Friends Of Ol’ Gerber,” too. (Your miraculous Interweb will tell you all you wanna know about the original FOOG if ya wanna look it up.) We were gonna create several Gerber-centric products under the FOOG, TOO! banner that would help fund Hero (and thereby, also help Steve out financially in his convalescence). The first outta the gate was scheduled to be this super-cool Frank Cho Howard-and-Beverly print seen here. Working with our pals at Marvel, we got some new Frank Cho/Jason Keith art, and got these suckers printed up. Frank and Steve were slated to sign ’em, and ¡voila! Instant fundraiser product.

So here’s irony, coincidence, “the universe knows something” or whatever. Steve passed away in the evening of Feb. 10. These arrived in Las Vegas for Steve’s signature the morning of Feb. 11.

The good news: We’ll have both unsigned and Cho-signed prints available for sale starting at the Orlando MegaCon, March 7-9, and throughout the rest of the con season. They’re also available via AtomicComics.com. Pick one up if you’re of the mind. I think and hope that’s what Gerber woulda wanted. There is, after all, “the next guy.”

More on FOOG, TOO later.

Jim McLauchlin

Joe Quesada is all wet

UPDATE: Auction is running, cats and kids!
http://qurls.com?i=33259

Check out the blog entry from 08 FEB. Our first vict…er…"volunteer" for the soon-to-be-famous Orlando MegaCon dunk tank is none other than Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada. Pissed at "One More Day"? Torqued off about how "dead is dead" has been liberally interpreted as "dead is as dead as we feel like?" Well, now 's your chance to exact sweet and soggy revenge.

You can dunk your favorite comics editor—Oh, wait! Actually, you can dunk Joe Quesada—and win fabulous prizes such as the nifty-swell Coliseum Of Comics-exclusive Fantastic Four #554 featuring Arthur Suydam Skrull art seen right about here:



A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

Jim McLauchlin

We miss you, Steve Gerber

Our ol' pals at Wizard asked me to write something up, so this is what I came up with:
http://www.wizarduniverse.com/021208gerber.html

Jim McLauchlin

Assorted stuff and updates and hoo-hah

Update the first:
I’m sure many of you are following the ongoing lung-recovery saga of Steve Gerber at Steve’s own blog:
http://www.stevegerber.com/sgblog/

I had occasion to be in Vegas last Saturday, 02 FEB, and spent the day hanging out with Steve. We spoke rather extensively about politics (what else?) and the Beatles. It was a good day. Steve is making solid progress, and we all hope like hell he’ll be outta the hospital soon.

UPDATE: Steve Gerber passed away Feb. 10, 2008. Godspeed, Steve, and rest in peace.

Update the second:



The Hero Initiative will have a dunk tank at the Orlando MegaCon, as ref:
www.MegaConvention.com
Oh, yes we will. Who’s going in? You’ll see…

Update the third:

The kind folks at Marvel Comics have donated to Hero the script and eight penciled pages to the final book Mike Wieringo was working on when Mike passed away. Working hand-in-hand with Marvel, Hero has recruited a dozen all-star artists to each do a page or two and finish the book. The result will be a 48-page ’Ringo extravaganza hitting in June. MUCH more info to come. In the meantime, here’s a page from the book by Humberto Ramos.

Jim McLauchlin

And in your living room, George Pérez

For those of you who may have wondered what it's like to have George Pérez in your living room…wonder no longer. David Chang recounts how they do it, O.C.-style.

See:
http://qurls.com?i=7067 (TheComicForums)

Jim McLauchlin