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Back in the Air Force days I used to hate getting letters from home. I mean I really hesitated to open any letter from my mother. She would send me obituaries of people I knew. For a couple of years it was almost a regular event that did little to uplift the spirits and I had a sneaking suspicion that Mom enjoyed spreading the doom and gloom.

That said on the computer I generally first check Litnet real fast for Logos' PM to me finally giving up her phone number, checking the blog for the missing digits from the non-existant PM from her, then check to see if her lawyer has banned me yet. So far I'm still posting and she's still humming and the wife keeps reminding me Logos has better things to do then feed your bloated oversized ego. Anyhoo when this tradition is done I scan blog titles with an idea of getting back to them in a bit and then go through my short regimen on the internet.

I hit icv2.com for 'some' comic related news and read Steve Bennett's column --he replaced my buddy Steve B. when Steve went off to Baltimore to work for Diamond distributors writing ad copy. We still stay in touch and neither he or I am in the least ashamed to tell each other I love you. Now Bennett and I are acquaintances not friends in the traditional sense but a bit of respect for each other's opinions has developed over the years.

Then I hit newsrama.com (known to me privately as the the newsrama whores) as they will shamelessly try to tell you the next issue of Fill in the Title comic is the next big deal and can't miss title. Once in a while they get it right. Most of the time I'll skip the first few paragraphs to get the 'news' and ignore the hype.

But in the past two months they have announced the deaths of two creators I enjoyed--one very much and one for a short time.

Steve Gerber passed away last month at age 60 while working on DC's Dr. Fate series currently in the Countdown to Mystery eight issue mini-series. Number five is out, and he had finished number seven but others will pay tribute for him and complete number eight. Gerber (to the masses) would be known for creating the character Howard the Duck (a dreadful Lucas movie--what was he thinking??!!) but ahead of its time comic from the 70s early 80s. I remember Gerber more for his Man-Thing series (swamp creature idea) but so much more. Gerber concentrated on characters and ordinary people reacting to the world and its oddities. Gerber would turn super-hero cliches on their ear. A barbarian emerging on earth by way of a jar of peanut butter for instance. He and others raised the bar on story telling to make comics more literate and accessable to the older reader. Things were never black and white and sometimes the happy ending just isn't going to happen.

Dave Stephens would be known because Disney took one of his characters and made a decent but low earning movie out of The Rocketeer. Stephens was a perfectionist in his art to the point that he barely did 10 issues of the Rocketeer in eight years or so. I got so tired of waiting I never have read the final issue. Years went by. He was 53 and born on the long suffering wife's birthday, July 29th. He will be missed. He was a class act but just so slow on output.

I'm starting to get alarmed. I'm 56 and I'm still breathing. But so is James Garner and Patrick McGoohan and Sean Connery. Once they are gone my chidhood is finally officially dead. I feel like a dinosaur.

Anyhoo when I get done with newsrama it's either mahjong or Litnet. We will not confess how often mahjong on class.brains.com wins out.