A few minutes ago it was announced that John Spencer has died of a heart attack.

Most of you that recognize the name probably know Mr. Spencer from his work on
the West Wing where he played Leo McGarry.

Others may know him from his roles in LA Law, Cop Land, Black Rain, The Rock, Ravenous or one of the many other roles that he played in his career.

I always, always enjoyed it when John Spencer was on the screen. Even, like in
Cop Land when he was playing a bad guy, I liked him. I wasn't alone in my admiration
for Mr. Spencer's acting. You can tell that from the many awards that he won over the course of his career.

Mr. Spencer was just 59 years old. He was still appearing on the West Wing where
his character had been chosen to run for Vice President [under the likely winner].
Even with the potential of this being the last year for West Wing, John Spencer, and
his fans should have had many more years to enjoy his acting.

Sadly that is not to be. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and fans.

The DaVinci Code was on the best seller list for years. Even people who didn't
normally read books picked it up... and most loved it. The buzz was huge. Except for
Jaws and Harry Potter, I can't think of any other novels that instantly became a part
of popular culture like The DaVinci Code.

Next summer The DaVinci Code will make the transition to the big screen. My
guess is that the movie will also be a blockbuster. Ron Howard's directiing it and
Tom Hanks is the lead.

How can it go wrong?

If the trailer is any indication, it can't.

Mission Impossible III is coming.

Tom Cruise is back.

Ving Rhames is back.

After seeing the teaser trailer, so am I.

As you've probably already heard, Richard Pryor died yesterday. He'd turned 65 a
little over a week ago, but had suffered with multiple sclerosis for years. The
disease made Richard seem older and robbed him [and us] of years that he could
have been performing.

In the coming days you will hear testimony from comics, celebrities and others
about Richard Pryor. Most will proclaim him to be one of the greatest comedians
of all time. They'd be right, but Richard Pryor was much more than just a guy who
told jokes.

Richard was a former soldier [two years in the army]. He was a great stand-up comedian. His comedy albums are classics. Pryor worked in television as an
actor and writer [even starring in a short-lived series that was ahead of it's time].
He also appeared in nearly 40 feature films, several of which he wrote, produced
and/or directed.

Pryor's comedy was raw. Sure, the language was quite often foul, but that's not
what I mean when I say his comedy was raw. Pryor's comedy wasn't superficial.
He didn't just relate funny stories. Pryor's comedy crossed age barriers, color differences, and made you think even as you were laughing till the tears came.
That's because Richard's comedy was founded in truth. He talked about racism,
drug addiction, sex, male -female relations, and more.

Sure, he made us laugh... but equally important, he made us think.

The funniest movie that I ever saw was Richard Pryor Live. I saw it in a crowded
theater in 1979. If you haven't seen it, you should. It's a concert movie. Richard Pryor,
a microphone and a crowded ampitheater. I never laughed so hard in my life.

Truly.

I laughed to tears and beyond. My sides were truly hurting by the time the movie
was over. And I wanted to hear more. I talked about the movie for days.
Telling others that they should go and sharing laughs with people who'd seen it.
Heck, it's 26 years later and I'm still recommending it.

I'm sad to hear that Richard Pryor is no longer with us. I'm just as sad that he had to suffer so long from multiple sclerosis.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends, and fans.

Joe Kubert is a legend. And deservedly so. At 79, Joe is still turning out not just
great drawings but great comics!

His recently published graphic novel, Jew Gangster, is getting great reviews and
soon we'll see Joe's return to one of his signature characters, Sgt. Rock, when
the six issue mini-series, Sgt. Rock: The Prophet hits stands. You can get a
sneak peak at both by clicking HERE.

I had the good fortune to meet Joe Kubert in the early 80's. He was Guest of Honor
at one of Jim Ivey's OrlandoCons. Joe was there to pick up his Ignatz award. At the
time Joe was also promoting a series that he was to write and draw for DC called
The Redeemer. Sad to say it never appeared.

Another thing that Joe worked on that never appeared is, interestingly enough, a
proposal for a Rocky Balboa newspaper strip. Joe told me that he was approached
to work on a daily newspaper strip and that he had in fact worked up character
sheets, some daily samples, etc. Sadly the strip was never picked up.

You can imagine how excited I was to hear that JOE KUBERT had drawn Rocky
Balboa. I asked Mr. Kubert if the art was available for sale, but it wasn't. I then asked
if I could buy Xeroxes but again, Mr. Kubert politely declined. Man, you just know that
those pieces look great... maybe someday we'll get the chance to see them in a
treasury of Joe's work...

At any rate, we can pick up Jew Gangster now and still have Sgt. Rock: The Prophet
to look forward to.

Here's a [kind of ]funny con story from an AtlantaCon in the early 80's.

Bob McLeod, John Beatty and I drove up. Pat Broderick decided to fly in rather than
face the madness of an 8 hour ride with Beatty and I.

The first day of the show and the artists set up. Beatty, Broderick and McLeod are
all in a row. I'm hanging out with them when not visiting with Paul Gulacy. Anyway...

Up walks a fan and stops in front of Bob. [All artists have name cards on the tables.]
The fan proceedes to tell Bob what a huge fan he is of Bob's work. The fan inquires
about the price of a sketch. Bob tells him the amount. The fan says that he wants
several figures... all of the Micronauts. Bob calculates the cost and tells him. The
fan says, "No problem."

The fan asks Bob if he can ink it. Bob says, "Of course, but the cost would be more."
Bob tells him how much. The fan says, "I love your work. No problem."

The fan then asks if Bob could color it. Bob says, "Of course, but the cost would be
more." Bob tells him how much. The fan says, "I love your work. No problem." They
agree on the final price. Bob tells the fan to check back at the end of the day and
the fan goes off.

Bob is really happy to meet such a huge fan of his work. He says that he's surprised
that the fan wanted the Micronauts since he could have gone to Pat and gotten him
to do it. [Pat was a fan fav for the Micronauts at the time.] Of course Beatty and I start teasing Pat and even Bob joins in [a little].

Bob starts on the Micronauts piece. Other fans come around, but Bob is being
careful about taking on more sketches since he has so many figures to pencil, ink
and color. As everyone probably knows, Bob gives fans a lot for their money and
when he colors a piece --- man, is it sweet.

So Bob's working away... we're still teasing Pat... more fans are being told that
Bob's sketch list is full... the fan comes by periodically to check on the progress...
it is looking soooo nice.

Late in the day the fan comes by and stands directly in front of Bob. Bob looks up
and smiles. The fan doesn't...

"Sir," he says, "There has been a terrible mistake..." The fan goes on to say that
he thought Bob was Pat Broderick. He's sorry, but he won't be wanting the sketch.
The fan then moves down to Pat Broderick. He proceedes to tell Pat what a huge
fan he is...

Of course Beatty, and I start teasing Bob... and Pat even joins in [a little].

Hey Zoners... ok, I'm picking up the tale of our four middle-aged playas after they've
arrived at the show. If you want to read more tales of the trip then click HERE and
John "The Dude Abides" Beatty will fill you in.

Tim Gordon's Tampa Comic Book and Toy Convention is the best one day show
that you'll find anywhere. There are media guests, comic artists, costumers, independent filmmakers [with a continuously running screening room] , and
dozens and dozens of dealers.

Yes, that's the look of fear that crossed Mark and Stephanie Heike's faces when
they discovered that the Mild Bunch [John "Johnny Star-Warz" Higashi, James
"The James" Howell, John "The Dude Abides" Beatty, and yours truly] had arrived.

Larry Thomas, better known as "The Soup Nazi" from Seinfeld, had a table. He was selling autographed pictures and soup ladles for $20 a pop. I'm a huge Seinfeld fan.
I loved the series and thought "The Soup Nazi" episode was a riot. However, $20
bucks for an autographed picture? Five samoleons and I'm there, heck, I'd have
even bought a couple, but twenty of my hard-earned smack-a-toons for one?
No thanks.

So, I'm waiting for Pat Broderick to arrive and up walks Beatty. He says that every
time he tried to get a photo of "The Soup Nazi," the "Nazi" turned or raised his hands
to insure that the picture wasn't a good one. I laughed it off. Later Beatty came up to
say that he'd tried for a photo several more times, but each time the "Nazi" thwarted
his efforts. This, of course, makes me want to get a candid. I did, but as you can tell
from the full shot, Mr. Thomas did not seem to happy about it. If that's the case, I'm
sorry, Mr. Thomas... and I really would have bought a couple of autographs had
they been cheaper!

Now the guy that I really was there to see was Pat Broderick. I've known Pat for
nearly 30 years! We first met at an OrlandoCon back in the 70's. Pat's a great guy
and a heck of an artist. He and Beatty even teamed up on a couple of comic series
over the years! I was curious to see if Pat would be interested in doing a piece for my Stallone gallery. Lucky for me he was! I'll post it later this weekend with my SZ update.
Higashi and Howell also set up sketches with Pat.

The next guy on our hit list was Karl Moline who was sharing a table with Randy
[Edward Scissorhands Collection] Martin. While John Higashi and I set up sketches
with Karl, The James scooted over to arrange a take-home commission with Pablo Marcos.

Then it was over to the film room where we caught some of Joel D. Wynkoop's film
"Lost Faith." Joel was at the show, and as you can see HERE has made a lot of films.
Joel is very approachable and obviously has a love of film. It might be cool if he and
Bill Black ever hook up for a project.

Beatty got that look in his eyes that said it was time for lunch. Howell said he was
ready for a bite too. Even Higashi said he'd eat [which is a rare thing for Johnny SW
to do at a show]. I wasn't hungry, but said I'd join them for a Coke. We ended up in the hotel's sport's bar. As we were yacking away waiting for the food to arrive, the NY
Giants were on tv playing the Philadelphia Eagles. Howell suddenly blurted out, "I've
got five bucks for anyone who'll yell "Go Giants!"

I immediately yelled, "Go Giants! Go Giants!" and before I could collect my fiver, a
loud chorus of "Go Philly!" "Giants Suck" "Go Philly" erupted from behind me. I
turned to see probably 30 or 40 grown men [most of whom were wearing Eagles
jerseys] looking our way. Of course, this just made Beatty an instant Giants fan who
began to LOUDLY cheer for the Giants way and BOO the Eagles.

Two things saved us from the situation getting ugly. 1] Beatty's sandwich arrived and
2] Mrs. Pat Broderick came by the table to say, "Hi."

After lunch we headed back to the show. Pat and Karl had finished my sketches.
They had [independently] decided to draw Deke from Nighthawks! And both did
really, really cool sketches. I'll post them tomorrow with the SZ update.

I'd been wanting to get a sketch from Derrick Fish for a while. Luck was with me
because when I checked with Derrick, he had a spot on his sketch list open.
Derrick completed my sketch trifecta by doing a really nice cartoon of Rocky
knocking out Dandy.

Soon it was time to say our goodbyes and load up the "Jack Carter" car for our trip
home. As we snaked our way around the con to say we were heading out, we made
sure to let the Heike's know that we'd see them at the next show in May!