Jeff Ellis: It's Impossible To Start A Fire If You Have No Desire To Burn

Update

It's sad to admit it but I actually did not blog yesterday.

I try to make it a point to blog everyday, even when there's absolutely nothing to blog about.

(This obsessive-compulsive approach to blogging has, naturally enough, led to a few strangely pointless posts.  Like these, for instance...)

Anyway, for the readers of the future, allow me to fill you in on yesterday.

On Monday, October 13th, 2008:

1) Barack Obama continued to lead John McCain in the polls.

2) The American people continued to panic despite not having the slightest understanding of what they were actually worrying about.

3) My day job continued to be annoying.

4) My movie taste continued to, apparently, be driven by my own insanity.

5) I'm still looking forward to the publication of my third short story collection, Fish Can Not Carry Guns.

6) Sam Todd is still missing.  And, for whatever strange reason, I still find myself sincerely hoping that this young man that I have net met is somehow -- after all this time -- alive and well.

7) My musical taste is still guaranteed to piss off tweens everywhere.

8) Rich Taub is still dead (and so is Franco).

9) Nobody has taken responsibility for the whole Obama photo fiasco.

10) I have yet to risk returning to the Dragonrealms.

11) Ralph Nader is still running for President.

12) So is Bob Barr.

13) Sarah Palin continues to rock my world.

14) John McCain less so.

15) Louise Diamond remains a peacebuilder (or so we assume)

17) Stan Lee remains "The Man."

16) I remain something of a moody bastard.

And with that said, I believe we are all up-to-date on my life as an isolated American in 2008.

Iron Man

I finally saw Iron Man yesterday and I'm glad I did. 

Along with being one of the best "comic book" films in recent memory, it was actually a fun film. 

In general, movies haven't been fun for a while now. 

Don't get me wrong.  There have been many recent movies that I have enjoyed (3:10 To Yuma, for example) and there have been many that I respected (No Country For Old Men) and there's even been a few that I have loved (Once).  But there have been very few that have really been fun in the way that movies used to be. 

A lot of that, of course, is the fact that I now know too much about how movies are made.  When I was a kid, I could look at the opening scene of the first Star Wars film and I could believe that I was actually watching a gigantic spaceship lumbering through space while being shot at by a lot of smaller spaceships.  Now, when I see a scene like that, all I find myself doing is comparing this latest CGI to last summer's version.  Call it the Jar Jar Binks Syndrome.

A far deeper reason is that the former Hollywood rebels -- the guys who used to amaze us and wow us -- are now the guys running the show.  George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg, and all the others are now the establishment and, in movies as in life, the establishment is never fun.  Indeed, of the former major movie brats of the '70s, only Martin Scorsese seems to still be capable of surprising us.

(Though, in all fairness, I think Spielberg has become a bit too easy of a target.)

On the surface, Iron Man would appear to have all the markings of a typical summer blockbuster.  It's based on a comic book, it features a bit of CGI, it features a melodramatic villain whose motives -- beyond just being generally evil -- are always a bit fuzzy, and it's ending is an obvious set up for a sequel.  And yet, the film works brilliantly.

Why?

Let's start with the film's director.  That would be Jon Favreau who remains a hero to many of us for his performance in Swingers.  Favreau previously made another big budget special effects films that actually managed to work quite well, Zathura.  As a director, Favreau seems to be that rare filmmaker who -- much like Tim Burton, at his best -- can somehow balance spectacle and characterization.  Whereas George Lucas, Michael Bay, and others seem to find the idea of a complex character to be almost offensive, Favreau appears to be the exact opposite.  He is that rare blockbuster director who appears to be willing to sacrifice an expensive CGI shot for a chance to show his actors actually acting.  It is significant, I think, that Iron Man only appears in his armor a total of three or four times over the course of this 2 hour plus film.  Much like the Hammer Frankenstein films, the interesting character in Iron Man is the creator and not his creation.  Favreau, fortunately, had the insight to realize this.

Also fortunately, that creator is played by one of the best and most unfairly dismissed actors of my generation, the great Robert Downey, Jr.  Far too much was written about Downey's drug abuse in the late '90s and it distracted people from the fact that -- regardless of his personal habits -- Downey was (and is) a great actor.  Before his first few stints in rehab, Downey had managed to create a truly impressive collection of performances.  Whether he was playing a self-destructive addict in Less Than Zero, a psychotic makeup artist in Short Cuts, or Charlie Chaplin, Downey was always an unpredictable and exciting actor.  Underneath his frequently mellow exterior, you always got the feeling that his characters were all on the verge of exploding.

Unfortunately, it was his career that exploded as he became better known for his addictions than his acting.  He seemed to disappear for a few years following his numerous failed attempts at rehab.  You would occasionally see him playing small roles in offbeat films.  A typical post-rehab role was his performance in Good Night and Good Luck.  You were glad to see him but, as you watched, you couldn't help but feel that Downey was being wasted in the movie.  These were rolls that, far too often, could have been played by anyone and sometimes, it was hard to escape the feeling that Downey -- who was considered an insurance risk at one point -- was cast largely because he happened to be friends with the director.

Not so with Iron Man.  Playing the self-centered and frequently self-destructive Tony Stark, Robert Downey, Jr. is finally allowed to give the type of lead performance that we always knew he was capable of giving.  Downey dominates every second of the film and, as a result, this is the rare super hero film where the hero is not overshadowed by his villains.  One of the many pleasures of Iron Man is that it provides a chance for us all to remember just how good an actor Robert Downey, Jr. actually is.

Ironically enough, Downey's troubled past brings an added dimension to Tony Stark.  What always made Iron Man unique among comic book heroes is the fact that, when not wearing his armor, Tony Stark is actually a bit of a prick.  He was a sexist playboy, a terrible snob, and -- most famously -- a full-blown alcoholic.  Stark was always building himself a new Iron Man suit and the old suits always seemed to fall into the hands of some evildoer who would promptly use them to wreck havoc.  Both literally and figuratively, Iron Man spent the majority of his time battling himself. 

With all of that in mind, who else could play Tony Stark but Robert Downey, Jr.?

With all that in mind, who else would be willing to embrace that type of screwup-as-superhero than an indie-minded director like Jon Favreau?

(It seems like the more indie-minded a director is, the more likely he'll make a good super hero film.  For proof, compare the efforts of Favreau, Tim Burton, and Sam Raimi to the efforts of Joel Schumacher.)

As for the rest of the movie, it's a lot of fun.  The story moves quickly, there's a perfect balance between humor and drama, and there's enough inside jokes to keep us comic geeks entertained without alienating those who don't know Iron Man from the Crimson Dynamo. 

It's always a bit bizarre to see Jeff Bridges play a villain but he does a good job with the role and he even manages to make his famous grin a bit sinister.  Terrence Howard also provides strong support in the role of James Rhodes and I'm sure that I'm not alone in looking forward to seeing Howard don the armor in the next film. 

Finally, there's no way I could review this film without mentioning Gwynneth Paltrow who plays Stark's loyal secretary (and, of course, love interest) "Pepper" Potts.  It's hard to bring any sort of credibility to a character named Pepper Potts but Paltrow somehow does it.  This being a super hero film, Paltrow doesn't have much to do beyond getting menaced and rescued but she does it well and with good humor.  Her flirtation with Downey is actually rather sweet and Paltrow is probably more genuinely likable in this role than in any other film I've seen her in.  Though the lion's share of the credit for the film's success seems to be going to Downey and -- to a lesser extent -- Favreau, Paltrow's contribution should not be forgotten.  She brings life to a character who, in a lesser film, would have been lifeless. 

My Heart Will Go On

To the shock of political observers across America, Hillary Clinton actually picked up a Super Delegate today.

Former president of the Ohio AFL-CIO and Democratic super delegate Bill Burga came out for Sen. Clinton earlier today.

When asked what had led Burga to decide to back Clinton, Burga replied, "I just don't need to make any public statements on this."

It's a bit like deciding to jump out of the lifeboat and back on the Titanic at the last minute, isn't it?

(Actually, with all this talk of super delegates, you have to wonder just who exactly Superman, Batman, Spiderman, and all that bunch are planning on supporting.  I get the feeling that Batman would probably be a McCain man, Superman will vote Green -- remember Quest for Peace? -- and Spiderman will probably get sidetracked on his way to the polls and miss his oppurtunity to vote.)

Obits

Far too many people have died in the past few days.

Coming to prominence in the 1970s, actor Roy Scheider was far too often overshadowed by all the other intense, urban actors who dominated films during that time (Pacino, De Niro, Hoffman, and others).  That said, Scheider was a talented actor who turned in a host of memorable performances.  He was that rare actor who perfectly knew when a role called for naturalism and when it called for pure over-the-top scenery chewing.  He's best known for Jaws (and improvising the "bigger boat" line) but he was also memorable in The French Connection (try to imagine that film without his steady presence there to balance out Gene Hackman's more flamboyant performance), All the Jazz, Romeo is Bleeding (in which he co-starred with Gary Oldman who is a bit of an English Roy Scheider), Naked Lunch, The Rainmaker (an awful film but he was great in it as a callous, sweater-wearing businessman), Cohen and Tate (one of the best films no one's seen), and 52 Pick-Up (another underrated thriller).  Scheider was 75.

Ron Leavitt forever changed American television for both the better and the worse when he co-created that infamous (yet undeniably hilarious) Married With Children for Fox.  Though the show inspired a lot of inferior clones, the original was a uniquely hilarious work that still holds up.  Levitt was 60 when he died of lung cancer.

Steve Gerber was also 60 when he died of pulmonary fibrosis.  During the 1970s, Gerber created a host of bizarre and surprisingly cynical characters with Marvel Comics.  To a large extent, when I think of the reasons why I loved comic books when I was a kid, I'm thinking of concepts that were the result of Gerber's subversive imagination.  Howard the Duck, Omega the Unknown, the zombie Simon Garth, and quite a bit of the mythology that sprung up around Marvel's version of Dracula; Gerber could rightfully claim partial and complete credit for all of them.  Eventually, Gerber's satiric approach was replaced by an irony free celebration of testosterone.  Strangely, my favorite Gerber character was none other than the little heralded Jennifer Kale, the half-naked teenage witch who recently became one of the few acknowledged bisexual characters in the Marvel Universe.

Tom Lantos was a California politician who spent several decades in public service.  A liberal Democrat, Lantos was elected to the U.S. House in 1980 and was still in office when he died yesterday.  Born in Hungary, Lantos saw his native country invaded by the Third Reich and served in the Hungarian Resistance.  He escaped the Holocaust due to the heroic actions of Raoul Wallenberg.  As he often pointed out, he was one of the few members of the U.S. House to know what it was like to live under a dictatorship.  He was also quick to point out that only in the United States could a penniless survivor of the Holocaust grow up to live the life that he had.  I rarely agreed with Lantos politically but that never made his life any less inspiring.

Scheider, Leavitt, Gerber, Lantos, R.I.P.

My superneat, fictional cabinet versus John Edwards' superlame, equally fictional cabinet

Apparently, John Edwards has already selected his cabinet should he be elected President in 2008.

Well, good for him.

After all, I used to fantasize about winning an Academy Award.  I even wrote out an acceptance speech.  It's good to embrace fantasies regardless of whether or not they have a chance in Hell of ever coming true.*

Still, this story made me think.

Who would I put in my cabinet if I were elected President in 2008?

Not that I'm planning on even running for President in 2008.  Well, I was at one point.  Yes indeed, I was nearly a declared candidate for the Libertarian Presidential nod.  However, for various reasons, I chose to end my campaign before it began.  However, should the Libertarian convention become deadlocked, I'm always available for a draft.

But, let's just say hypothetically, what if I was elected President in 2008?

Like Bill Clinton, I'd quickly declare that my cabinet would look like America.

Also like Bill Clinton, my eventual cabinet would then turn out to be a bunch of rich white guys, unemployed politicians, and people soon destined for indictment.

(Well, let's be fair to Clinton here.  The above is a pretty good description of just about every President's cabinet...)

So, here we go:

Secretary of State -- P.J. O'Rourke.  As he proved during his days at Rolling Stone's Foreign Affairs Desk Chief, O'Rourke knows how to handle himself with confronted with tedious, international customs and concerns.  Plus, you just know he'd manage to really annoy everyone at the United Nations.

Secretary of Treasury -- In the interest of remaining bipartisan, we'll give this post to a Democrat.  How about Marc Rich?  After all, he can safely enter this country again if he so chooses.

Secretary of Defense -- My first thought was General Zod but then I remembered that this post is traditionally given to a civilian.  Indeed, there would probably be a great uproar in both D.C. and nationwide if this post was ever given to a military man.  Then I remembered that I'm not running for President and that General Zod is 1) not actually a man but a Kryptonian and 2) fictional.  Therefore, I decided why not give him the job?  Hence, say hello to your new Secretary of Defense -- Dru-Zod!

Attorney General -- Los Angeles District Attorney Hamilton Burger.  Sure, he was always losing to Perry Mason.  But then again, his history of persecuting the wrong person makes him a natural fit for today's modern Justice Department.

Secretary of the Interior -- Billy Jack.  Imagine the fun and games that will ensue whenever Attorney General Burger and Interior Secretary Jack are seated next to each other at state dinners!

Secretary of Agriculture -- Jesse Duke.  As the traditional family farm continues to struggle and die out in America, a top priority of the Ellis administration will be to keep people in rural areas so drunk on moonshine that they won't notice.  Secretary Duke is just the man to head up this operation.

Secretary of Commerce -- George Jefferson.  Commerce, after all, is what keeps this country movin' on up.

Secretary of Labor -- Jimmy Hoffa.  Yeah, yeah, I know that some people claim he's dead.  Well, they haven't ever found a body, have they!?  In case Hoffa actually is dead, then we'll give the job to John Gotti, Jr.  Everyone knows the best labor is mob labor!

Secretary of Health and Human Services -- If he hadn't been crushed by that helicopter, I'd say give it to Robert Romano.  But, seeing as Romano's dead, how about giving it to Dr. John Gideon?  You may remember the success he found when faceless corporation Ecumenna put him in charge of St. Elsewhere.  Add to that, he was played by Ronny Cox and I'm sure he could tell all sorts of Burt-Reynolds-Was-So-Drunk stories from the filming of Deliverance.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development -- How about Baltimore Mayor Tommy Carcetti?  As anyone who watches television crime shows is aware, it's not easy being mayor of Baltimore.

Secretary of Transportation -- What the Hell does this person do anyway?  Well, since it has something to do with transportation and I assume, vehicles and roads and such, let's give this job to the mysterious Racer X, assuming, of course, that he's an American citizen.

Secretary of Energy -- This one is pretty obvious.  Charles Montgomery Burns is the only man for the job.  An Ellis nation will be an atomic nation, fall-out be damned!  If we can't get Burns, then we'll get the Rich Texan.

Secretary of Education -- James Earl Jones.  A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Secretary of Veteran's Affairs -- No, not John Rambo!  Too unstable.  How about Benson DuBois?  He served in Viet Nam, after all.  Plus, he has government experience and may even be a former Governor.  (Though I still think Gatling ended up winning that race...)

Secretary of Homeland Security -- I bet you're expecting me to say Jack Bauer here, aren't you?  I nearly did but, like Rambo, he's just killed far too many people to win confirmation.  So, we'll do the next best thing and go with Bill Buchanan.  He's a good guy and he's somehow managed to get through three seasons of 24 without getting killed.  That takes skill!

So, there you are.  For those of you who lost track, here's a final summation of the Ellis cabinet:

Secretary of State -- P.J. O'Rourke

Secretary of Treasury -- Marc Rich

Secretary of Defense -- General Zod

Attorney General -- Hamilton Burger

Secretary of the Interior -- Billy Jack

Secretary of Agriculture -- Jesse "Uncle Jesse" Duke

Secretary of Commerce -- George Jefferson

Secretary of Labor -- James R. Hoffa, Sr. or John Gotti, Jr.

Secretary of Health and Human Services -- Dr. John Gideon

Secretary of HUD -- Tommy Carcetti

Secretary of Transportation -- Racer X

Secretary of Energy -- Charles Montgomery Burns or Rich Texan

Secretary of Education -- James Earl Jones

Secretary of Veteran's Affairs -- Benson DuBois

Secretary of Homeland Security -- Bill Buchanan

Let's see John Edwards top that!

----

* How did that speech go?  Well, there are several different versions but the gist of it boiled down to: "Thanks for seeing beyond the pornographic nature of my film and giving me this award.  You blew it, ex-girlfriend!"

25 Random Thoughts

I'm just going to toss down a few random comments for today because I'm tired and I fear that I currently lack the concentration necessary to keep my thoughts properly organized.

1) Okay, I was wrong.  Hell's Kitchen was not wrapped up last night.  It'll be wrapped next week.  I'm still hoping for Rock.

2) Been paying attention to this season's edition of Big Brother? I have.  I don't say that with pride.  Big Brother is one of those reality shows that always leaves you feeling as if 1) you've just willingly killed several brain cells by watching and 2) you need a shower.  Three showers actually. 

3) So, what do I think about the contestants on this season?  Read on.

4) Let's start with Amber.  Amber, sweetheart -- STOP CRYING FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!  And, yes, I know that the cosmetics industry is the product of an inherently sexist society but seriously, do something with your face.  It's not an ugly face.  It's just so...dull.  People don't watch reality television to be confronted with dull faces.

5) Moving on.  Daniele.  I really hate to dislike Daniele because I feel kinda bad for her.  Put yourself in her shoes.  You find out that you're going to be on national television and then, once the show gets started, you then discover that the only reason you're on national television is that so the nation can watch you live with your estranged father.  I have to wonder if Daniele would be any more likable if said father wasn't living in the house with her.  So, I'll refrain from criticizing her.  I will, however, speculate on whether or not she realizes that the entire country now knows that she's not really blond.  (Speaking of hair color, sometimes my hair is brown and sometimes it's blond and sometimes, it's even a shade of red.  As a male, I know I shouldn't notice or care.  But, strangely enough, I do.)

6)  Of course, you can't mention Daniele without mentioning Dick.  It's humorous that this guy is named Dick as that's pretty much what he is.  Seriously, I really want to see someone -- ANYONE -- just kick this guy's ass before he gets voted out.  Dick, by the way, is responsible for getting everyone hooked on the catch phrase "throw under the bus."  As in, "Don't throw me under the bus."  Seriously, Dick, you're giving all of us smokers a bad name.

7) Dustin.  Dustin's cool.  Dustin, seriously, needs to throw Dick under the bus.  Hopefully, a moving bus...

8) Eric.  America's Player.  Every week, he's giving an assignment.  Viewers vote on who should be the "victim" of this little assignment.  Eric has to do what America tells him to do.  America told Eric to vote against his alliance.  Now, Eric's at risk for getting voted out on Thursday.  America, you threw Eric under the bus.

9) Jameeka.  Another cool one.  Can we just cancel the whole rest of the game and give Jameeka the money right now?  Seriously, she's the only person in this house who really deserves (or needs) it.

10) Jenn.  What else can be said about Jenn?  Everyone hates Jenn because she's self-centered and spoiled.  She's also kinda weird.  That ever present smile is kinda freaky.  Remember in that movie, A Christmas Story?  That creepy, tall kid who kept saying, "I like Santa Claus?"  He and Jenn have the exact same smile.

11) Jessica.  I love Jessica.  She's adorable.

12) Kail.  Yeah, I know that Kail is an idiot and she's kinda annoying but seriously, as far as older women on reality shows go, she's actually pretty hot.

12) Zach.  Uhmmm...yeah, Zach's in the house.  Nobody seems to like Zach.  I take that back.  My mom likes Zach.  She theorizes that he's actually very shy. 

13) Is that it for Big Brother thoughts in this post?  Yeah, why give it too much thought?

14) What am I reading right now?  Glad you asked.  The Plague by Albert Camus.

15) I went and saw The Simpsons Movie today.  Much like the show itself, it was pretty uneven but on the whole, it was entertaining.  I used to love The Simpsons but I watch it only rarely nowadays.  For me, the show started to go downhill in 1997.  Still, those pre-1997 episodes still make me laugh.  The movie, as I said, was good enough but still, it was basically a 30-minute TV show stretched out to become a 90-minute movie.

16) One more Big Brother-thought.  I'm watching it on Showtime 2 right now and I really gotta say -- Dick is the dorkiest smoker I have ever seen.  Some people look cool when they smoke and the rest of the people look like Dick.

17) I've always felt that if I ever got on either Big Brother or Survivor, one of two things would happen.  It would be case of 1) I would be the first person voted out or 2) I'd win the whole damn thing.

18) Though in all probability, I'd probably just end up losing interest after a couple of weeks, get bored, and leave voluntarily.

19) My cat -- Hidey -- has got fleas.  He scratches them and they react by jumping off him and attacking me.  Seriously, my calves look like a topographical relief map right about now.

20) While on my vacation, I have watched the following movies: 1) Dr. Strangelove, 2) Confessions of a Police Captain (an Italian crime film starring Martin Balsam and Franco Nero), 3) Macon County Line (a rather dark and serious little exploitation film from 1974 in which Max Baer, Jr. gives a truly great performance as a racist deputy out to kill three innocent people), 4) Tortured Angels Strike Back (don't ask), 5) Gone in 60 Seconds (the original drive-in classic from H.B. Hallicki and not the Nic Cage remake), 6) In the Realm of the Unreal (a haunting documentary), and 7) the previously mentioned Simpsons Movie.

21) Celebrity crush of the moment?  It'd have to be Jenna Fischer from The Office.

22) What CD is currently playing right now?  Electriclarryland by the Butthole Surfers.

23) I wish James G. Blaine had won the presidential election back in 1884.  Not that I think Grover Cleveland was a bad President, mind you, but seriously, Blaine could have been great.

24) Tomb of Dracula.  That was a good comic book right there.

25) If you've made it all the way down to random thought #25, then I must thank you for indulging me.  Hopefully, I'll be more coherent tomorrow.

Capt. America, R.I.P.

Maybe it's the old comic book geek in me, but I can't help but find the following to be -- if not quite depressing -- at least a little sad.

Capt. America, one of the icons of Marvel Comics, has been assassinated.

In many ways, Capt. America epitomized the difference between Marvel Comics and DC Comics (or at least the difference between the two through the '60s and '70s).  Even though Capt. America was a throwback to the old-style World War II type of hero and even though his very identity was pretty much based on the idea of patriotism, it was never a blind patriotism.  Back in the so-called Silver Age of Marvel Comics, Capt. America's adventures served as metaphors for everything from Viet Nam to Watergate to the shallowness of the Me Generation.

Now, he's been killed off as a metaphor for the Patriot Act.

That seems to be the common theme running through Capt. America's various comic books since the character was first revived back in the '60s.  He suffered, as only a 2-D comic book figure can, for the nation's sins.

(Of course, we're talking comics here so I doubt that the death of Capt. America is going to prove to be a permanent condition.)

Capt. America, R.I.P.

A Sincere, If Rather Long, Tribute to Stan The Man

I am not ashamed to admit that when I was a kid from the late '70s to the mid '80s, I loved Marvel comics -- the X-Men and the various Spider-man titles in particular.  This was around the time that the Dark Phoenix saga unfolded in X-Men and when Spider-man was still more of a teen soap opera than a "super hero" comic.  And while I may be idolizing my childhood a bit here, this was a great time to be a kid who loved Marvel comics. 

The characters were far better developed than anybody wearing spandex had any right to be.  The writing and the storylines managed to be surprising mature without forgetting the fact that audience was reading comic books, primarily, in search of entertainment.  Both the X-Men and Spider-man remained perfect outcast figures (because, let's be honest here, your typical comic book fan felt like a mutant most of the time himself) without the comics drowning in all the simplistic angst that, soon enough, would nearly smother all the fun out of the whole genre.  Most importantly, this was a time when the comic book hero -- with the obvious exceptions of folks like the Beast, the Thing, the Hulk, and lots of others whose names reflected their appearance -- actually looked like an athletic human being as opposed to the muscle-bound, impossibly proportioned creatures that would soon come to dominate the industry. 

Occasionally, out of curiosity, I will pick up a current issue of the comics that I used to love and I'll flip through it.  Usually, I do so to remember what it was like to be young enough that all I needed to be happy was the latest issue of the Uncanny X-Men.  When I flip through these recent issues, it doesn't shock me to discover that the stories no longer capture my interest in the way they did when I was a kid.  After all, I'm no longer a part of that demographic and while, at times, I'm nostalgic for my childhood, I prefer to remember it as opposed to reliving it.  What does shock me, however, is to see what these characters that I remember so well from youth look like nowadays.  Whereas I remembered comic books being filled with memorable characters who, if not for the fact that they apparently worked out on occasion, could have passed for me in all of my glorious, early '80s, nerdy glory.  Now, I just see gigantic figures whose muscles have more personality than their faces.  I swear, sometimes it seems as if the comic book industry has been co-opted by the steroid industry or as if the comics of my youth have been transformed into some sort of lost pro-Nazi, Leni Riefenstahl film. 

As the risk of sounding like an cranky old man, seeing these new comic books only leaves me even more nostalgic for the comics of my youth.  It also makes me nostalgic for Stan Lee.  When I was a kid, Stan Lee was Marvel Comics.  It didn't matter that someone else was writing and drawing the comic books.  It didn't even matter that other people were running the company or that Stan, by that point, was more of a figurehead than an actual active contributor to Marvel Comics.  It was Stan's wonderfully enthusiastic voice that I heard introducing the various Spider-Man cartoons that I watched when I was a kid.  Even back then, I disliked the cartoons but I loved the introductions.  It was Stan who wrote the columns that appeared monthly in Marvel comics.  It was Stan's smiling face that was caricatured in almost every comic I bought during that time. 

The wonderful thing about Stan Lee was that he made a painfully shy, extremely insecure kid like me feel like it was alright for me to buy and read and love comic books if that's what I wanted to do.  Even though my parents always complained about how much they cost (If only they could see how much they cost now!) and, let's face it, the kid sitting on the playground with a comic book is never going to be the cool kid at school, Stan Lee made me and a lot of other readers feel like there was nothing to be ashamed about doing something that, for whatever period of time, made our otherwise lonely existences feel a little bit happier. 

For all the nostalgia that people (myself included as this post proves) tend to project on their childhood memories, the fact of the matter is that childhood pretty much sucks.  You don't know the proper way to react to anything, all of your fellow kids (including your closest friends) are cruel, and the minute you got used to being who you were, everything would suddenly change.  In short, childhood is a time when kids do things to fit in with either kids or because their teachers tell them to or because their parents tell them to.

For me, Stan Lee represented the opposite of that.  Here he was, a man older than my parents and most of my teachers, and he was saying, "Do whatever makes you happy."  He was an adult who came across like an adult but, at the same time, didn't make me feel stupid or geeky for loving comic books.  Instead, he made both myself and countless other outcasts out there feel proud for having something that is becoming less and less valued in American society -- an imagination.

For that reason, Stan Lee's always been something of a mythological figure for me.  He's somebody who I'm always happy to hear about.  Whenever I see him making a cameo appearance in a film based on a Marvel comic book or on TV, I can't help but smile.  I'm glad to see that he's still with us.  I'm glad to see that -- on screen, at least, he appears to still be having the time of his life associating with this business that all of our peers and authority figures were so quick to dismiss back in the day.

What brought all this up?  I recently came across a blog post about the current legal mess surrounding Stan Lee Media and Marvel Comics.  While I know that disputes and lawsuits like this are pretty much common place in any industry, I still have to say that reading this post left me feeling incredibly depressed.  All these years later, there's still a part of me that doesn't like the idea that Stan Lee is a businessman with actual business concerns and troubles; that he truly is a grown-up and now, so am I.  There's nothing worse than having to admit that your idol -- even if several decades have passed since he was last a regular part of your life -- is a human being like anyone else.

That said, regardless of whatever Stan Lee's current situation may be as far as the lawsuits involving Stan Lee Media are concerned, that fact of the matter is that he helped to make the childhood of this nerd -- and countless others as well -- a little bit more bearable.  When we needed to feel like somebody out there thought we weren't losers, Stan Lee was the man who did that and for that, I will always be thankful.

For that, I will never regret spending my childhood reading comic books.  For that, I will always feel a twinge of happy nostalgia whenever I read or hear excelsior!