Yesterday marked two years since we lost our friend Gerber.  I dunno about you but his name still comes up in conversations around me and I often hear folks lament the loss of one of their favorite writers…and sometimes, he isn’t even “one of their favorites,” he’s Numero Uno.  I still miss my pal.

That’s not news.  What is news is that Steve Gerber is  a nominee for induction this year into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame.  The other nominees are Carl Burgos, Dick Giordano, Mike Kaluta, Jack Kamen, Frans Masereel, George McManus, Sheldon Moldoff, Marty Nodell, Bob Oksner, Bob Powell,  Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Mort Weisinger.  Four of those folks will be inducted along with the two judges’ choice inductees for this year, who are Burne Hogarth and Bob Montana.

I suspect there’s a fair amount of likelihood that Steve will be selected, if only because his name and credits are probably better known than at least three or four of those folks.  Also, I think most people actively liked Steve’s work, as opposed to several of the other nominees, who I suspect are on the list because they simply worked on a number of significant projects.

A couple of folks are asking me how I think Steve would have reacted to this.  Well, if Steve were alive to react, it would be a little different.  He’d be taking it, as most living recipients seem to, as a collective decree that their most important work is behind them.  We can all understand why someone wouldn’t like to think that the whole industry views them that way.  As it (unfortunately) turns out, Steve’s most important work is inarguably behind him…so I guess if he’s watching from somewhere, he’s flattered but also modestly thinking others should be ahead of him in that line.

Once again, I’m going to lock down the comments on all earlier postings and invite you to post whatever you want to post about Steve — on these topics or anything else — in response to this message.

Hello.  I haven’t posted anything here for a while because I haven’t thought of anything to post.  Nothing Gerber-wise seems to have changed.  He’s still gone and we still miss him.

Hey,  I dunno how many folks are still checking in here but I have a question for anyone who does.  There are actually folks who’ve gotten into reading comics since Steve stopped writing them…and there will be more.  What would you hand such a person to give them an idea of what was special about Gerber writing?  What comic or group of comics?

I’ve locked down all the other comments sections and opened up one for this message.  Post anything you like there, whether it addresses my question or not.  Just as long as it has something to do with Steve.

A Spammer posted a harmless-looking message as a comment to the previous message.  It contained a link (irrelevant to Gerber) that took you to a harmless-looking website.  But that website was full of nasty stuff to infect your computer and steal your identity and make your toenails fall out.

I have deleted the message…but if you clicked on the link in it, do a virus scan, a.s.a.p.

Thanks to Stefan “Starocotes” Immel, who alerted me to the presence of an asshole in our midst.

The mysterious person who’s posting a biography of Steve at this link has just added another chapter.  This one covers the years after Steve was ousted from his Duck…working for me at Hanna-Barbera, working in animation and suing Marvel.  As I kinda expected, the author got a lot of things wrong.

I’m pretty sure I know who it is.  What I don’t know is why this person is doing this anonymously or if they intend to do anything with this work apart from stick it on a website that few will see.

The latest posting also includes a scan of a comic story Steve wrote and published in his first fanzine in 1962 at the age of 14.  Not bad.  I’ve seen worse from adults working for DC or Marvel.

If Steve were here, I’m pretty sure he’d post this link.  It’s your chance to watch the movie, Howard the Duck, for free in a little window on your computer.  Or at least, you can watch enough of it to see Steve’s credit.  We can all find things to criticize in the film but my comment was “Not enough Gerber.”

An anonymous person has begun posting a biography of S. Gerber over at this link.  Someone on Heidi MacDonald’s message board guessed I was the author but I assure you, I’m not.  For one thing, there are a couple of mistakes in the narrative that I would not have made.

You’ll probably want to check it out, though I’m reserving judgment until I read more of it. The whole matter of Steve’s legal problems with Marvel, which the biographer will begin addressing in the next chapter, is a very complicated situation which has never been accurately described in any past reporting. I’ll be interested to see if the anonymous author gets it right. If he/she does, then I think I know who’s behind this biography…

I’m closing down the comment thread on all messages except this one.

Hello.  Yeah, it’s Evanier.  I thought it was time to close all the old threads and open up a new one to talk about Steve.  A big Howard the Duck collection is out now.  Apart from the fact that we all wish Steve had lived to see it and receive reprint fees, does anyone have anything to say about it?  Or anything else Gerber-related?  Post it as a comment to this message.

Evanier again.  This board was down for a day or so because Steve’s account with the hosting company expired and we had to transfer control of www.stevegerber.com to me.  I’m going to keep things up and running indefinitely unless the Gerber family decides it wants something else for this site.

There will always be a couple of open discussion topics here.  They may not be the top ones but if you scroll down, you’ll find them.  I think Steve would be very happy to know that his friends were continuing to use his site for discussions…and not necessarily just about him.  So enjoy.

Is there a Steve Gerber fan out there who’s highly familiar with WordPress? That’s the software that runs this weblog and it’s not one I know particularly well. I run Movable Type over on my blog. I need to do some maintenance here to keep the ol’ Gerblog up and operational and I could use some aid. If you are that person, drop me a note. Thanks.

A public panel/memorial for Stephen R. Gerber will be held at the New York Comic-Con.

The convention itself is April 18-20 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. Details on the con can be found on this page.

The Gerber panel will be Saturday morning, April 19, from 11:00 AM until Noon in room 1E16. I’m moderating and so far, we expect to have Mary Skrenes, Len Wein, Buzz Dixon, Gail Simone and Frank Brunner participating. Others will be added, and we’ll also invite folks in the audience to toss in their Gerber remembrances, time permitting.