The Universe is Composed of Vibrating Strings and the First Cello is Playing My Song
Then the universe grabbed me by the lapels, slapped me repeatedly about the face and snarled, “Snap out of it, asshole!”
I haven’t yet, not quite, but I am amazed at the lengths the cosmos will go to get my attention.
In addition to all the encouraging comments about yesterday’s post, in addition to some completely unrelated but equally cheering messages on the Yahoo Howard the Duck Group, I get an email from a fellow named Jeff Christiansen who runs a website called
The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe. The site is devoted to cataloguing and profiling the more obscure characters in the Marvel Universe and, by extension, Malibu Comics’ Ultraverse, which was acquired by Marvel in the early ’90s. Jeff wanted to let me know he’d posted a new entry on Lord Pumpkin, a character I co-created for the Ultraverse.
Of necessity, the Lord Pumpkin profile summarizes a long story arc from the *Sludge* series.
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It’s been years since I’ve reread the *Sludge* material, and I don’t have the near-photographic memory for comics — even my own — that some writers and artists do. It therefore came as a pleasant surprise, reading the synopses, to discover that *Sludge* was a pretty damn interesting comic book. Much crazier, much more inventive than I remembered. And then I came to the comments section of the page, where Jeff wrote two words that caused my jaw to drop: “Gerber rocks.”
Okay, universe, that’s playing dirty.
I’m still lonely, and I’m still feeling insecure tonight, but Jesus Christ on a Popsicle stick — how am I supposed to react when my mood dips and in response the freaking cosmos plays self-esteem coach?!?
Is hope appropriate?
Mary keeps trying to tell me that my psychic presence, or whatever she calls it, is much stronger than I think it is. Days like this make me wonder.
July 15th, 2005 at 1:04 AM
“Not that Steve Gerber is God you understand, just that I think he is.” — Adrian Brown
No worries.
July 15th, 2005 at 6:10 AM
It kind of amazes me that you need such boosts to your self esteem. You created a character so well loved that GEORGE LUCAS wanted to make it into a movie. The movie was a dud, but that’s not your fault.
If Lucas made a movie out of something I created, I’d consider myself hot shit for life.
July 15th, 2005 at 6:17 AM
Aaron Lopresti’s artwork is much better than I remember it. Great stuff. I need to go pull out some of those back issues.
July 15th, 2005 at 11:39 AM
I just spent the last week or so uploading Ultraverse covers to the Grand Comics Databse, most notably the covers to several issues of Sludge. That shit was weird. I had to put one of the covers up on my weblog, along with a handful of others. God, I loved the Ultraverse.
The words “tripping all over each other” in your head, as mentioned in the last post, sounds a lot like Sludge himself. The only cosmic power I’ve ever seen in action is conincidence, and it seems to be acting all over you, my man.
July 15th, 2005 at 1:04 PM
You do rock. Contrary to popular myth, those who do rarely think it of themselves; rather, they believe it of everyone else.
And most of them aren’t lucky enough to have a fan club like you do. 🙂
…You have a psychic presence?
July 15th, 2005 at 1:40 PM
So God and I have the same opinion of you – part of your charm is that you don’t share it (Egotists – Oh, a certain bit of reprocessed pond scum whose initials are the same as Peter Parker being a perfect example – are boring, and you’ve never been that).
July 15th, 2005 at 1:43 PM
I was a great fan in the 1970’s, so it has been great to catch up with some of your recent output – including the blog.
Your latest Howard the Duck made me wonder as to how comic books could have REALLY evolved over the past 30 years..and yet the same master storyteller was in charge proving he’s still Teacher, after all!
And, the character having originated from a time when comic books WERE quite unfilmable, the recent HTD proved just how unfilmable comix could (and should) still be! haha
I say keep pushing the envelope and you’ll continue to make the world a deeper and richer place.