Oh, fuck.

Steve Gerber died.

I can't possibly do it better than (or as well as) so many other more talented people are or will be doing it all over the world, but, still, let me try... it sucks and it hurts to suddenly be in a world without the mind behind Howard the Duck and Omega the Unknown... not to mention uniquely brilliant renditions of the Defenders, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Man-Thing, Morbius the Living Vampire, Shanna the She-Devil, and Daredevil, the Man Without Fear.

He even did a comic where the rock group Kiss took on Dr. Doom, and it didn't suck. YOU try pulling that shit off sometime.

It's hard for me to pick a favorite story or comics series or concept by Mr. Gerber. I will say, however, that in a period when I'd grown accustomed to being disappointed whenever one of my Silver Age favorite writers tried to do something in the Modern Age with one of their old characters, Mr. Gerber surprised me very pleasantly with his utterly brilliant early 90s FOOLKILLER miniseries. If only my other 70s icon Steve Englehart had managed to return to any of his old textual turf even half as well with WEST COAST AVENGERS or BIG TOWN or DARK DETECTIVE... ah, but this isn't about that.

It's about one more creative genius going down into the big long endless dark, and how much that sucks to those of us who knew, and loved, his work.

I imagine it must suck much, much worse if you knew Mr. Gerber personally; I understand he was a helluva guy.

Me, I'm just mourning that now, we really never will see any more Gerber MAN-THING or DEFENDERS stories. And most likely, we will never actually find out what the fuck was up with that goddam elf with a gun.