Back in Hospital
As the latest tactic in my continuing effort not to have lunch with Mark Evanier, I was spirited back to MountainView Hospital in Las Vegas late Saturday night by ambulance, after finding myself unable to breathe very well or even stand up for very long without experiencing dizziness and confusion.
Since being back, I’ve had a CT that doesn’t look very good at all, and some disquieting news I’ll share with you later, after I’ve had a little more chance to absorb it myself.
The happy news, if such it can be termed, is that I have an Internet connection in my new room, so I can stay in touch on a more regular basis and email DC and Marvel much more easily. That should make easier whatever level of recovery is possible.
They expect me to be here for another ten days or so. Someone tell Harris Miller that the laptop is saving my life and my sanity again.
January 21st, 2008 at 12:20 PM
As corny as it may sound, my prayers are with you Steve. Keep fighting and don’t give up hope, a lot of people are pulling for you to get healthy.
January 21st, 2008 at 12:21 PM
No doubt Mr Evanier is feeling quite unloved at this point.
You’re in my prayers, Steve!
January 21st, 2008 at 1:05 PM
Definitely praying. This is very disheartening.
January 21st, 2008 at 2:53 PM
Best of luck Steve. You’re in my thoughts.
January 21st, 2008 at 3:09 PM
Kind of an expensive way to avoid Mark.
Look, we’ll take Mark out, just stay out of those damned hospitals!
January 21st, 2008 at 6:06 PM
If Mark splits a tray of hospital food with you, does that become a semi-private meal? Will insurance cover that?
January 21st, 2008 at 7:03 PM
I’ve been following this blog for so long, and though we’ve never met, I feel like you’re a part of my life. I hate that it’s only one way like that. So I realize that I may be just some faceless fan, but I am sincere in saying that I am sincerely concerned and hoping for the very best. Your work has had an impact on my life, as it has everyone here. We’re all pulling for you!!
That said, keep some optimism, my brother had a CT scan of his lungs once and they said it was terminal cancer only to be some minor infection. They’re not infallible. I’ll be hoping for the best.
January 21st, 2008 at 7:41 PM
A few funs links for recovery if you have a fast connection:
Old cartoons:
http://www.archive.org/details/animationandcartoons
Animation Archive:
http://www.animationarchive.org/
January 21st, 2008 at 9:21 PM
All right, all right! We won’t have lunch.
Now, you can stop going to the fucking hospital.
January 21st, 2008 at 9:42 PM
Good luck Mr. Gerber. I work for hospitals, but I wish nobody needed them.
January 21st, 2008 at 11:08 PM
I agree with Mark: Stop going to the fucking hospital. At least stop going there with an ambulance. Get healthy dammit.
My prayers are with you also.
January 21st, 2008 at 11:23 PM
See? Now you’ve upset Evanier! I hope you’re happy.
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:55 AM
Jesus, Steve, I hope you get/feel better soon. I’ll reiterate the ‘stop going to the fucking hospital’ and wish you all the best!
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:12 AM
Damn Evanier, are your eating habits really that horrible to witness?!?!?
Steve….. ow. Though I can’t even imagine how shitty this experience has and is being for you, try and find little things to smile about.
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:34 AM
Another faceless fan hoping you get well soon. I’m bad with noticing credits on comics, but I’ve slowly come to realize your name is on just about every book I really liked when I was a kid, so thank you – and for purely selfish reasons, get better so you can keep writing 🙂
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:26 AM
All right, we get it: this is really about your love for those lucious hospital meals. That Jell-O pulls ’em back every time.
This is making me rethink just how funny that old “Gerber curse” joke was back in the seventies. In retrospect, not very amusing. You can beat this, Steve. We’re all pulling for you.
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:14 AM
Another wish/prayer/hope/spiritual subroutine for your recovery and happiness. Nothing is as important as those two things. I hope the nurses, physicians and other staff are treating you well, and that at least one of them is a comics fan.
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:46 AM
Mr. Gerber,
I’m terribly sorry to hear about your health. Of course you don’t know me, but regardless of that, you rocked my world back in the early 70s with your DAREDEVIL, DEFENDERS, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, OMEGA THE UNKNOWN, MAN-THING, and (you can’t ever leave him out) HOWARD THE DUCK.
In my late 30s I went through one of those horrible cataclysmic events where I ended up losing my entire comics collection (it wasn’t that my mom threw them out, but, rather, I had to move quickly and ended up putting all my comics in storage and the basement where they were stored got flooded and, well, it sucked). Over the decade since, I’ve probably sunk $1500 into rebuilding that collection, and your Silver Age stuff was right at the top of the list — in fact, I’ve ended up with a more complete MAN-THING collection after losing my first collection than I managed to get buying off spinner racks Back In The Day. And I love this stuff; it still reads just as well as it ever did back when I was still enduring adolescence, or even better, now that I can see more of the levels you put into the work. (And, well, I appreciate Bob Brown and Jim Mooney much more nowadays than I used to, having seen the horrors of Modern Age non-artists like Rob Liefeld, Jae Lee, and Denys Cowan.)
I wish you the speediest recovery and all the best.
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:11 PM
You matter to a lot of people, Steve. We cared when you fought for the Duck and we care even more in your current battle. There is surely some mediocre writer with a healthy lung he’s not entitled to:)
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:55 PM
Honestly, the tension for me is a rerun of when my dad passed on, so I hope it’s not a big retread.
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Notch me in on the “pullin’ for ya” column, too. You definitely have your supporters, imagine how many other lurkers are resisting the impulse to post well wishes this very instant!
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:32 PM
Thank you to Justin whose comments above helped to drag me out of the “lurkers’ closet”!.
Steve, your comics have mattered to me for over thirty years now and you are the only comic writer whose work I consistently buy these days. Long may it (and you!) continue!
Best wishes for a speedy recovery from yet another faceless fan.
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:42 PM
Let me second that, Steve, and say it feels like I’ve known you for ages even though we’ve never met. Your work has brightened things up for me so many times and I wish I could return the favor.
I’m not that clever, funny or talented, though.
So just know that I’m cheering you on like a son of a bitch.
Thinking of you,
Robert.
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:43 PM
Thanks, all of you.
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Add me to the list of well wishers, Mr. Gerber. I’ve been a fan for years, and am currently reading your Defenders run for the first time. Also hoping to see more Fate, once CtM wraps up. Your mind is obviously as sharp as ever; now the rest of your bod needs to catch up. Keep fighting on, man.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:00 AM
It’s terrible that the first news I hear about Steve Gerber in a long while directs me to his blog because he’s fighting disease! Steve, hang in there and I’m glad your spirits seem to be keeping up during this frustrating time. And I’ve been to MountainView Hospital once (Vegas resident), and I just hope they’re taking better care of you than they seemed to be doing a few years ago. Best wishes, good sir!