As you all know, my dear friend Dana Gabbard passed away January 11, 2022, at the age of 59, as I posted HERE! I miss him all the time, and want to share just another of the many jokes and gags we had between us.
Since becoming friends in the early 1980s, Dana and I had countless discussions about the state of the comic book industry... the few things we thought were good and/or improving - and the greater number of things we thought were bad and/or getting worse.
One of the worst things either of us could imagine was the rise of CGC!
CGC, for those not in the know, was the first entity to "professionally grade and entomb in plastic" comic books that were (and are) thought to be valuable! Some imitators have followed in this abominable practice, but CGC was the first and remains the best known.
The fundamental problem we had with this misguided concept is that we both felt that COMIC BOOKS OUGHT TO BE READ AND ENJOYED, not salted away like some form of "newsprint currency"!
Every comic book that undergoes this process will NEVER BE READ AGAIN!
Well, maybe not EVERY one... says this traditionalist contrarian.
You see, I got me some of them there "imprisoned comics" (because I couldn't find any copies that weren't "imprisoned") and set them FREE!
WHY? ...BECAUSE I WANTED TO *READ* THEM, THAT'S WHY!
I fully intend to detail that experience in another post (let's hope I actually follow through on that, because it was a real hoot to crack open those "clear flat coffins" like plastic walnuts), but what does one do with a busted-open CGC slab?
Well, there's where the joke with Dana comes in...
As you know, Dana was the publisher of a pioneering American Disney comic book fanzine called "The Duckburg Times"...
...And, just to show Dana how important it was, I gave him a peek at what a copy would look like, if it were slabbed by CGC!
He got a great big kick out of this! So much so that I turned it into a trilogy!
One of the comics I worked on...
MICKEY MOUSE (IDW) #6!
...And for a great writer - and a great guy, Sholly Fisch...
SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP #50!
And, of course, the basis for the gag, the liberated comic basking in the fresh air of my comic room!
I gave Dana a great laugh that day - as he and I have both done for decades - and I hope I've given all of you one as well!
