Lou Gehrig's Speech

"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

"Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I'm lucky.

"When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift — that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies — that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter — that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body — it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed — that's the finest I know.

"So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you."

— Lou Gehrig at Yankee Stadium, July 4, 1939

 

 

This largely sums most of my feelings regarding the comic career I left behind due the effects of ALS. For about 17 unbelievable years (like Lou above), I had the privilege of working with some amazing--& amazingly talented people.  Some, like Bill Mantlo (co-creator of Rocket Raccoon), Len Wein (co-creator of Wolverine & Swamp Thing), George Pérez (co-creator of Starfire & personal inspiration), & Terry Austin (best ink artist ever), were my childhood heroes & made me dream about things...things possible & impossible.

 

I decided to have the absurd dream that a poor, single-parent kid from the wrong side of Birmingham in as-out-of-the-loop-as-a-state-can-get Alabama, with complete ignorance of the publishing/creative process & NO artistic aspirations before age 14, could draw funnybooks for Marvel Comics.  Or at least DC.  I'm talking Manhattan here, that place where TV shows happened.  Of course that was possible; why not?  I'd seen a bookworm bitten by a spider become a superhero & a science geek become the Hulk!

 

Well, I drew--in class, after school & on the bus.  I filled notebooks & got art books from the library &, eventually, started college classes.  In 1980, a COMIC BOOK SHOP opened downtown & OTHER folks with my interests were there!  With their encouragement, I did actual story pages, put a portfolio together &, at 23, headed for New York City.  I got mugged day one.  The new talent guy at DC ducked out & left me sitting in the lobby with a plastic Clark Kent for over 3 hours the second day.  Finally, at Marvel, their man, Eliot Brown, made me wait only 90 minutes before just savaging my work mightily.  Just numb, I asked him if there was any point in my even trying anymore.  "Oh yeah," he nodded, "you'll have work within a year."  And, y'know what?...I DID.

 

It took a while LONGER to get the COVER, tho'.  This'n's by the incredible Kevin Nowlan!

 

Hi & how are ya?

Saturday was my 53rd birthday & it's prompted me to start a blog documenting my final year.  Now, I know that's dramatic & sets me up to look pretty silly if I'm around for, say, 2016's BATMAN V SUPERMAN (or the next X-MEN--I'm not picky).  Alternately, it'd be embarrassing if I fall or something & am outta here before Labor Day (tho' it'd likely be tragic enough that most wouldn't bring it up).  So...it ain't set in stone or nuthin', just a feeling.

Today, a recap.  It's not often I discuss my health, so much of this may be new material.

At 35, I noticed problems holding a pencil.  My dream of drawing comics had been attained--Marvel, DC, Comico, et al--& I was in the next phase: STAYING in comics. A joke for the funnybook folks.  It wasn't the strain or overuse I'd hoped & it didn't get better.  Before the end of '97, we had a diagnosis of ALS, aka Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, aka Lou Gehrig's Disease, aka a pretty evil sumbitch of a terminal disease.

Now, it's hard to complain TOO much--believe me, I've tried--when EVERYONE else with ALS has been treated so much more cruelly by it.  Life expectancy is 1-5 years, I'm at 17+.  Speech & mobility tend to go quickly, I'm still talking & walking without assistance.  Not WELL, mind you...I sound drunk as Cooter Brown & move even worse.  Had to give up driving (coming on 2 years back), need help dressing, & have to be very focused when eating.  Machines have started popping up around the house this past year: a fridge I can OPEN, a breathing machine, a tooth machine, & a new stairlift (boycott Acorn!--a future story).  So far, the chair's seldom-used, mainly when I'm tired(er) or need a book brought up/down.

So, I've been very blessed in many ways, fortunate beyond good reason.  I've got a wife, friend & partner I could never deserve...a comfortable home with room for, who knows--50 thousand?--comic books...great & loving friends/family (same thing to me)...fantastic memories of creating comics...pretty good insurance (!)...& more time to enjoy it all than is normally allowed in such circumstances. My neurologist told me last month that I'm the top ALS patient in the country, #1! NO one I've ever met with the disease is still around! Who could whine & gripe that it ain't enough, right?!

Still...seriously...you mean I'm NEVER gonna get to draw Spider-Man again?

 

Panel of a WHAT IF..? I penciled '93-ish. Inks by the greatly-missed Frank Turner~