Irony Of The Sad Variety

A few days ago, comic book writer Steve Gerber died. He'd been suffering from a respiratory problem for quite awhile and had been hoping to get a life-saving lung transplant but the Universe had other plans.

What makes the timing of his death so noteworthy is that it comes during the revival of one of his two most famous creations, Omega the Unknown. In fact, I'd hesitate to use the word "famous" in relation to Omega - the other of his creations, Howard the Duck, actually had a movie made about him, after all! - but for the fact that author Jonathan Lethem has brought a certain amount of attention to the character with his 10-issue re-imagining that's about halfway complete now.

Perhaps just as important as that new series to the elevation of Omega within the public consciousness was the role that the original Omega the Unknown comic series played within Lethem's best seller from a few years back, The Fortress of Solitude. In the pages of that very entertaining work, two of the main characters, as teenagers, obsess over the weirdness that Gerber had imbued the pages of the 1970s comic with, serving as surrogates for young Lethem himself, circa 1975. As such, the author undeniably raised awareness of the character well beyond anything that the mysterious, mostly-mute Omega might ever have reached on his own (and on his own merits, to a certain degree).

Personally, I just wish Steve Gerber had been in a position to have appreciated the inspiration that he lent to Lethem, but creators' rights battles won and lost (but mostly lost) had apparently robbed him of any such possibility. It can be a dirty, cut-throat racket, the funny books business can...