Opening a new thread for your thoughts about Steve.

Leave them as comments to this message.  After a while, I will close this one and open another.

To read everything people have posted here about Gerber, click here.  This will show you a list of the messages that have comments sections devoted to Steve.  Then read the comments section of each.  Some of the messages are quite touching and even surprising…in a good way.

Still Evanier. And still pleased by how much attention is being given to the loss of our friend. After you make your way through all the lovely messages posted on this site, if you haven’t had enough, just go a’Googling and you’ll be stunned by how many are out there…even in languages Steve neither wrote nor read.

I’m going to keep this site up and running until such time as Steve’s family and close friends make some sort of decision about it. For now, there will always be a forum open for people to post whatever they feel they want to say. I’m just stopping in from time to time to read what’s here, delete the Cialis ads that make it past Gerber’s Spam filter, and close down a comments section that’s gotten too long, whereupon I start another. I also deleted one posting from someone who wrote something they shouldn’t have written, realized that too late, then wrote me in a panic to get it removed. If you read that post, pretend you didn’t.

Lastly: If you were a friend of Steve’s and you’re in the Los Angeles area and interested in attending an informal dinner where other friends just sit around and swap Gerber stories, drop me an e-mail. And do it quickly because the gathering is Tuesday evening.

Obit for Steve in the L.A. Times. Click here to read it.

The obit on Steve in The New York Times is up.  Click here to read it.

I continue to be Mark Evanier.  And to the extent you can be delighted by anything in connection with a friend’s death, I’m delighted with the attention being paid, on this board and elsewhere, to the passing of Steve Gerber.  Today, I was interviewed by both The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times for obits that will run in the next few days.  I told reporters for both Timeses that if they wanted to understand what Steve’s work meant to people, all they had to do was read the comments being posted on the board here.

They’re all wonderful, ranging as they do from folks who had personal relationships with Steve dating back for decades…to those who only knew him as the guy who wrote a favorite comic book. If you haven’t read through them all, you should. But have a Kleenex handy.

As I said, I don’t know what the future of this board will involve but I’d sure like to see all these messages, and some of the others about Steve posted across the Internet, preserved on the web indefinitely. Just so that when folks Google the good name of Gerber in years to come, they’ll be able to read it all.

Once again, I am closing off comments on the previous message and asking you to begin posting in the comments section of this one. If you’ve posted already in these forums, feel free to post again…especially if you can link us to some other interesting piece about Steve somewhere on the Internet. I’ll start by linking to this interview that Gary Groth conducted with Steve in 1978.

I am still Mark Evanier and I am still both staggered and pleased by how many writings I’m spotting on the Internet, on blogs and message boards, about what Steve’s work meant to people.  That would have meant a lot to him and it certainly means a lot to his friends.

I can’t begin to link to them all but I have to link to the one by Heidi MacDonald.  Make sure you read that one, as well as this one by Jim McLauchlin. In the meantime, Tom Spurgeon is compiling a list of links to Gerber recollections and tributes all across the Internet.

I am again closing off comments on the previous message because the string has gotten long enough. Please continue to post your thoughts as a comment to this message. And make sure you read the comments posted to the two previous messages I’ve posted here.

Lastly: There is no truth to the rumor that all this stuff about pulmonary fibrosis is just a cover story, and Steve was actually offed by an elf with a gun.

This is Evanier again.  I have seized control of stevegerblog so that it, like Steve’s writing, can live on.  At some point, his family and/or close friends will decide what to do about his weblog and website but I’ll keep them up and running for the time being, if only as a place to remember our friend.

I direct you to the Comments section on the previous message.  It’s full of wonderful, emotional thoughts about Steve.  Since it’s  reaching an unwieldy number, I’m going to close down comments there and ask you to start posting your thoughts in response to this one.  That will save Steve’s friends from having to keep scrolling through all the old postings to get to the new ones.  I’ve also locked down all the previous forums.

A very fine obit for Steve can be found on Tom Spurgeon’s site.  I commend it to you all.

Actually, there are dozens of fine articles and remembrances of Steve out there on the web now. If you’ve come across one or written one, please post a link to it in the Comments section.

I don’t know anything more at this time about memorial services, though I’ve been asked to host a couple of events at upcoming comic conventions. Details to follow.

Lastly for now, Paul Levitz had a wise suggestion. The Hero Initiative, a charity group that helps ailing comic book creators, had been doing a lot for Steve recently. It would be a nice thought to remember him with a donation in his name. Here’s a link to their website.

I am not Steve Gerber. I’m a friend of his named Mark Evanier.

Steve died yesterday at that hospital in Las Vegas. It was not a surprise but it was a shock…to all of us who knew him.

I posted a little piece over at my weblog that I hope says what some of us are feeling.

I don’t know how long Steve’s weblog will remain but it will be here long enough for you to all read Steve’s past postings…and do pay special attention to the love and respect shown by his many commenters. I’ll bet there will be some important words posted as comments to this message.

Somewhere among his writings here, you’ll find a message where Steve thanks his friends Mary Skrenes and Harris Miller for all that they did for him. All of us would like to thank Mary and Harris for helping keep the guy around as long as was humanly possible…and maybe even a little longer than that.

If there are any announcements about memorials, tributes, etc., I will attempt to post them here, but I will certainly post them over at my site, www.newsfromme.com. That is not a ploy to get you to visit my weblog. It just took me a while to figure out how to “break in” to Steve’s website (with permission from those close to him) to post this…and I’m not certain I can do it again.

And Steve…if you have a good Internet connection where you are and can read this, I just have to say: There are easier ways of getting out of having lunch with me.

Nothing new to report medically. I’m up in the middle of the night, working on Doctor Fate. Will let all of you know what’s going on with that in a day or so.

I’m still in the hospital. CAT scans show improvement: the spot(s) on the lung(s) are gradually but steadily getting smaller, which means the presence of a tumor is highly unlikely. I’m probably dealing with a very nasty, very persistent viral or fungal infection.

Jim McLauchlin of the HERO INITIATIVE was in LV today and stopped by to watch me vegetate. And walk — first time I’ve done that in a while.

In fact, today was the first time in weeks that I’ve actually felt a little stronger, a little more well.

Have to keep this short. Urgent Doctor Fate stuff to be done. Will post another update next time I can get to a net connection.