E-Dispatches Blog Exclusive Number 1

When I came up with the idea of doing instalments of "E-Dispatches from the Great White North" for here I decided that the first piece I wanted to do was on my ongoing health issues; or more specifically the peripheral neuropathy I am afflicted with and have made mention of on a few occasions here and elsewhere.

Towards that end I began to put together some reference material when I came across the following article which I wrote a couple of years ago. Upon reading the piece I decided that it would more than explain to everyone my situation.

So I will let you get to reading this piece after which I'll make a few additional comments. The following was an instalment of my "Did you know about...?" newspaper column and was published during the third week of May 2007.

----------------------------------------------------------

"Did you know about...?"

by

Jonathan A. Gilbert

Copyright-2007

All Rights Reserved.

____________________________________________________________________

I've been writing this column for well over two-years now and I hope that you've been getting as much enjoyment out of reading it as I have been putting it together. And while I would love be be able to write "did you know about...?" for at least another two-plus years due to an ongoing health problem of mine after the next instalment outside of reprints this column will be coming to a close.

I am suffering from a condition known as peripheral neuropathy. Basically what that is is a deterioration of the peripheral nervous system which links the spinal cord and brain to the other parts of the body. The peripheral nerve system includes the sensory nerves that allow a person to feel a wide range of sensations, motor nerves that assist muscles to contract and the nerves that regulate internal organs, sweat glands and blood pressure. Symptoms including tingling, prickling and/or numbness on the hands, feet and legs, the sensation that one is wearing a sock or glove, burning and/or freezing pain, sharp jabbing and/or electric pain, extra-sensitivity to the touch, muscle weakness, loss of balance and coordination and skin injury or ulcers due to reduced pain perception. Not all sufferers of peripheral neuropathy suffer the same symptoms during the condition's progression.In extreme cases peripheral neuropathy can result in paralysis.

There is no cure or reversal for the condition but it can be managed through diet and other non-medical therapies and techniques. There are some medicines that can assist with dealing with the pain but more often than not the side effects are worse than the condition (in my case the side-effects included extreme anxiety and paranoia along with suicidal tendencies). Avoiding stress is a big factor in managing peripheral neuropathy as stress can result in a rapid deterioration of the already damaged peripheral nerves.

Chances are that you have never heard of peripheral neuropathy. Most people, including many in the medical professions, haven't either and it will probably come as a surprise to you that there are over 100-types of the condition suffered by between 20 and 23-million Americans (and approximately 3-million Canadians). The causes of peripheral neuropathy can range from diabetes to alcoholism to vitamin deficiencies. In my case I suffer from peripheral neuropathy due to a genetic abnormality. My symptoms first began to appear shortly after I reached puberty but did not become severe until April of last year when four-days after my 50th birthday I woke up in extreme pain and was unable to move. Since then my condition has deteriorated rapidly. A year ago I was able to walk two to three miles easily and without even giving it any thought. Today i can only walk a block before I find my legs and feet in extreme, burning pain and I am suffering from muscle fatigue. My peripheral neuropathy has now progressed to my hands making it difficult for me to type or hold a pen. I am also tired much of the day and must constantly lay down for 15 to 20 minutes after doing the simplest of tasks. Writing a weekly column such as this used to be a relaxing activity. Now, due to the pain and fatigue, it has become an exhausting chore resulting in me laying flat on my back for the rest of the day-and some of the next-after I've completed an instalment.

As I said earlier my condition has been on a rapid decline over the past twelve months and while I have not yet been able to halt it I have been able to slow it down somewhat due to some adjustments in my daily behaviour and minor dietary changes. One of the advantages that I have over many others who suffer from this condition is that I am in excellent health otherwise and am not dealing with such problems as obesity or diabetes. I've also got a positive outlook on life and look at what I am going through as simply one more challenge to deal with. The concept of depression is foreign to me. Yes, I am concerned about my condition but I'm not one to give up and let it control me. While I'll never be able to reverse it I continually look for ways to work around it. I'll never be able to do all that I could do even a year ago but I will find new paths and directions to explore. If nothing else when I'm laying flat on my back from muscle fatigue I'll finally be able to read all the books I've been collecting over the years.

So what does the future hold for me as a writer? Well, while I won't be able to work on anything with strict deadlines-the fatigue and pain make it impossible for me to predict when I will be able to write and for how long on an hourly basis-such as this newspaper column or as a reporter I can still do the occasional article for a publication and a comics script here and there. I've also got a couple of long term project that don't have tight deadlines in the works that I'll have no problem tackling over the next year or so. My main activity though is to get my condition under some sort of control through the continued fine-tuning of my life and diet. I still have a bit of a rocky road ahead of me but when in life aren't there obstacles to tackle. Its what we do about the obstacles and how we deal with them in life that's important and is the key to our success and failure. Me; I always plan for success.

-----------------------------

Since writing the above piece my condition has indeed worsened. On the upside though I have managed to regulate it better and while I'll never be able to do such jobs as being a newspaper reporter again I am now able to do paying writing jobs including any that have deadlines; comics or otherwise. Now the next problem is trying to find some paying writing jobs. 'sigh'

So there you have it in a nut shell. If you have any questions or comments feel free to make them here or email me at JonAllanGilbert@yahoo.ca . And if you are interested in learning more about peripheral neuropathy you can visit www.neuropathy.org .

---------------------------------------------------

NEXT: We return to our ongoing look at the MLJ Magazines/Archie Comic Series superhero lines when we take a peek at the 1970s Red Circle Comics Group. See you then.

Volume Three, Number Twenty-six

EVERYTHING'S SUPERHEROES!

A Historical Overview

of the

MLJ Magazines/Archie Comic Publications

Superhero Lines!

---------------

PART FIFTEEN

---------------

___________________________________________________________________

While there was lots of costumed-hero activity taking place at Mighty Comics Group in the mid-1960s Archie and his pals were also jumping onto the superhero bandwagon. For a brief period between 1965 and 1967 Archie, Jughead, Betty and Reggie would occasionally put on costumes and become "Pureheart the Powerful", "Captain Hero", Superteen" and "Evilheart". These adventures took place in a number of Archie Series titles including Life With Archie, Betty and Me and even The Adventures of Little Archie. As well as appearing in these titles the costumed Archie characters appeared in six issues of Archie as Pureheart the Powerful and seven issues of Jughead as Captain Hero between 1966 and 1967. For the most part their adventures were just plain good old fun reading but occasionally the tales got quite interesting for Mighty Comics Group fans (most of whom by the way won't buy an Archie Series title if their lives depended on it deeming them to be too juvenile) when characters such as "Black Hood" or "Fly Man" would pop in for a visit (eg: "Jughead" #132 May 1966).

Meanwhile, back at Mighty Comics Group, a month after Mighty Crusaders was canceled (#7 cover-date October 1966) Fly Man also vanished from the scene and was replaced by a new anthology titled Mighty Comics which picked up its numbering from Fly Man (beginning with number forty, cover-dated November 1966). The title ran as a monthly with its final issue being number fifty (cover-dated October 1967).

While Fly Man seemingly vanished the same time his comic left the stands other Mighty Comics Group characters continued to appear in Mighty Comics including "Steel Sterling" (#44 & #49), "Mister Justice" (#47), "Hangman" (#45 and #48) and "The Web" (#40, #43, #45 and #50) who, in his last appearance, teamed up with "Inferno The Flame Breather".

In the opinion of most Mighty Comics Group fans the stories which ran in Mighty Comics #s40-50 were the best superhero tales published by Archie Comic Publications in the 1960s and were all, coincidentally, written by Jerry Seigel. Unfortunately by mid-1967 interest in superhero comics was beginning to drop both by the folks at Archie and the public as a whole resulting in the Mighty Comics Group line to vanish without a trace after Mighty Comics #50 October 1967. While this imprint was never to return The Comet, The Shield, The Fly, The Black Hood and other MLJ/Archie superheroes would not be permanent residents of comic book limbo.

NEXT: The 1970s' Red Circle Comics Group!!

Volume Three, Number Twenty-five

EVERYTHING'S SUPERHEROES:

A

Historical Overview

of the

MLJ Magazines/Archie Comic Publications

Superhero Lines

---------

Part Fourteen

____________________________________________________________________

With the exception of Fly Man #31-which had an Archie Series logo-in the very beginning, there was no mention of what imprint the Archie Comic Publications superhero line of the camp era of the mid-1960s was appearing under. The final two issues of The Shadow didn't have a logo on its cover either nor did the first issue of The Mighty Crusaders when it debuted with the cover-date of November, 1965. While there were a couple of references to Radio Comics in house ads in the next two issues of Fly Man (#s 32 and 33) it wasn't until issue number 35 that the comics leading world learned the name of Fly Man's publisher; Mighty Comics Group.

Appearing on the January, 1966 cover of Fly Man along with issue number two of The Mighty Crusaders (which had the same cover-date) the Mighty Comics Group logo bore more than a glancing resemblance to the logo used at the time by Marvel Comics Group. Indubitably done intentionally by the head honchos at Archie Comic Publications this more than passing resemblance in company logos on more than a couple of occasions resulted in less than observant comics buyers picking up an issue of Fly Man or The Mighty Crusaders mistaking it for a comic from "The House of Ideas".

While I am unaware of any legal action resulting from the deliberate act by Archie, Stan Lee was not impressed and while not mentioned the offender directly made mention of the incident in at least one MARVEL BULLPEN BULLETIN. Looking back at it now one wonders how someone could confuse say Fly Man #36's cover for a Marvel title but one has to remember those were much more innocent days for comics readers and we actually believed that the people who published our favourite form of reading entertainment wouldn't do anything to trick us. Lots of us fell for the android Captain Marvel, too, from MF believing it to be at first glance the return of the legendary Big Red Cheese. Like I said; those were more innocent days. You definitely had to be there to understand.

When The Shadow's comic finally vanished from the scene after issue number 8 (cover-dated September, 1965), two months later it was replaced on the schedule with The Mighty Crusaders featuring the Silver Age Shield, the Silver Age Comet, Fly Man, Fly Girl and The Black Hood. Lasting until issue number 7 (cover-dated October, 1966), which, besides publishing the adventures of the title's team the comic, the mag reprinted the second part of the Steel Sterling tale that originally appeared in the High Camp Super-Heroes paperback (see last installment of this column for more info) plus reintroduced almost all of the MLJ heroes who had not already appeared in the aptly titled tale "Too Many Super-Heroes" (issue number 4, Apri,l 1966).

Mighty Comics Group published only one other comic during this period (1966), an annual titled Super-Heroes Vs. Super-Villains which appeared in the summer of 1966 and reprinted stories that had appeared in Fly Man since issue #31, including the introduction of The Mighty Crusaders from that issue.

There was a lot of activity going on at The Mighty Comics Group but those weren't the only comics from Archie Comic Publications that had jumped on the superhero band wagon in 1966. But that's for next installment of E-Dispatches.

Meanwhile, if you are a fan of The Silver Age, you'll love comics of the 1970s and there's no better place for find out about that wonderful period of comics history than by visiting http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com . See you next time.

Volume Three, Number Twenty-four

EVERYTHING'S SUPERHEROES!

A Historical Overview

of the

MLJ Magazines/Archie Comic Publications

Superhero Lines!

--------------------------------------------

Part Thirteen

--------------------------------------------

From Fly Man #31 (cover-dated May 1965) until the final days of Archie's 1960s superhero line in 1967 every superhero story that was published was written by Superman co-creator Jerry Seigel. Since the Silver Age of Comics, much has been said and written about Mr. Seigel's 1960s comics writing with most of it being extremely critical. While there is a lot of truth in statements that his writing-particularly that for the Archie superhero line of the period-was both overly campy and out of touch with reader preferences during the Silver Age his work none the less had a unique charm to it that leads to comics fans who grew up during the 60s to look back at the comics line that is referred to as The Mighty Comics Group with a great deal of fondness.

It should also be noted though that not all of Mr. Seigel's work for the Mighty Comics line was as out and out bad as some comics historians would have today's readers believe. In fact some of the stories, particularly those that appeared in issues of the Archie superhero line's Mighty Comics anthology title were as good, and in a couple of cases even better, than a lot of the stories that were being published by National/DC during the same period of time. Two stories of this high caliber include "The Nightmare World of The Skull" (starring Black Hood) which appeared in Mighty Comics #47 (June 1967) and "The Gasser Attacks" (starring The Fox) which appeared in Mighty Comics #49 (August 1967); neither of which contained the campy atmosphere or terrible dialogue that all of Mr. Seigel's writing for The Mighty Comics Group has been accused of today. While it is true that compared to say Stan Lee or Roy Thomas, Jerry Seigel couldn't hold a candle creatively, it is by no stretch of the imagination correct to state that he lacked talent.

------------

FLY MAN #31 was labeled as a bi-monthly comic in that issue's indica and the title remained as such until its final issue; #39 (September, 1966). During that comic's 9-issue run the title character teamed up with his fellow Mighty Crusaders (as the grouping Black Hood, The Shield, Fly Girl and The Comet would become known as) plus his co-stars and other revived MLJ heroes would appear in solo-stories of their own. Most memorable of these appearances was that of The Web who went on to some small stardom of his own in the Mighty Comics Group Universe. Another former MLJ character who the head honchos at Archie seemed to have hoped would become a major star was Steel Sterling who appeared in the back of Fly Man #39.

In fact the Steel Sterling story in that issue was actually a reprint of sorts and was actually the first part of a story that had been originally published in the April 1966-released HIGH CAMP SUPER-HEROES paperback published under Archie Comic Publications' BELMONT BOOKS paperback imprint. HIGH CAMP SUPER-HEROES featured a new Steel Sterling story along with reprints of previously published Mighty Comics Group superhero tales. Unknown to many though until a few years back there is an even deeper story behind the Steel Sterling tale that appeared in the High Camp Super-Heroes paperback. In truth that tale was originally intended to be the first issue of a Steel Sterling comic featuring the original Man of Steel as its lead. Just why the folks at Archie Comic Publications had thought that there would have been a market for a Steel Sterling comic and what caused them to change their minds has never been looked into (at least to my knowledge) in any great detail, but there were plans for such a title with the plans going as far as there being a cover put together. And the writer of that comic? Why, Jerry Seigel of course.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEXT: THE NAMING OF THE 1960s Archie Superhero Line.

Volume Three, Number Twenty-three

EVERYTHING'S

SUPERHEROES!

A Historical Overview

of the

MLJ Magazines/Archie Comic Publications

Superhero Lines

------------------------------------------

Part Twelve

------------------------------------------

As mentioned in the last installment of this serial, The Fly made his final appearance in Adventures of The Fly #30 (cover-dated October, 1964) resulting in the few remaining followers of the by then semi-annual title to believe he was gone forever. However, five months later a house ad in The Shadow #5 (March, 1965) announced that a new version of The Fly-now called Fly Man-was on the way. Two months after that, Fly Man #31 (titled Adventures of The Fly in the indica and cover-dated May, 1965) hit the stands.

The cover of the new and improved Fly-title was a definite winner. There appeared Fly Man on his knees from an apparent loss of powers and swinging down to assist him were The Black Hood, the Silver Age Shield, and someone who appeared to be The Comet from Adventures of The Fly #30 (see part eleven of this serial) but who later turned out to be an amalgam of that Comet and the original Comet who was supposedly shot down way back in Pep Comics #17. Inside, the four heroes who were on the cover, along with Fly Girl, teamed up in a book-length tale titled "The Fly Man's Partners In Perl!" to battle The Spider, Fly/Fly Man's main foe who debuted way back in Adventures of The Fly #1.

Fly Man and his pals were, of course, victorious, and at the end of their premiere adventure together readers were asked if they wanted to see more team-ups of these heroes. The folks at Archie Comic Publications must have been a tad impatient regarding their wait to see if readers did in fact want to see more of The Comet, Fly Man, Fly Girl, The Shield and The Black Hood working together, as from that point on in every issue of the bi-monthly Fly Man (which was published until and including issue number 39) the Archie folks' Silver Age five-some-who collectively became known as The Mighty Crusaders-appeared either in pairs or as a team. While readers of this comic weren't aware of it at the time Fly Man #31 was the beginning of the comics line that eventually became known as The Mighty Comics Group.

----------------------------

NEXT: Jerry Seigel's return.

Volume Three, Number Twenty-Two

Well here we are folks, the final E-Dispatches from the Great White North for 2008.

As some of you know I send this column off from the Port Stanley Public Library and each year from December 23, 2008 to January 2, 2009 the library is closed. In some ways that's great for me as it gives me a chance to hide out at my home/office and develop some new projects to work on in 2009 but part of me always misses the daily insanity of hanging out here at the library.

Anyway, with this being the final installment for the year I thought I would take a moment and talk about what my plans are for this column of 2009. I will of course be continuing with the historical overview of the MLJ Magazines/Archie Comic Publications superhero lines and if all goes according to plan I should have it all wrapped up by the end of February at the latest. To be honest I hadn't planned on it running this long but one thing lead to another and, well, here we are.

Once that's all done my next endeavour will be a two to three part historical overview of Blue Moon Comics Group. For those of you who have never heard of Blue Moon Comics Group all I'll tell you right now about it is that it was a small press comics publisher that whose publisher was none other than my best buddy, The Groovy Agent which published comics works by a number of talented people including Dick Ayers, Seppo Makinen, Steve Skeates and Ed Quinby just to name a few. I also did a thing or two for Blue Moon over the years. Some of the series I did that saw print under the Blue Moon slug included Mister Chameleon, Solomon Wyrd and The Aquanauts to name a few. Some series that I developed initially for Blue Moon but ended up being published elsewhere include The Young Immortals, The Hooded Cobra and Captain Sentinel and the Lads of Liberty. Anyway, the full story about Blue Moon Comics Group will be revealed around March of next year so watch for that one.

While your at it be sure to keep your eyes on http://dispatchesfromthegreatwhitenorth.blogspot.com as beginning in January 2009 I will be doing E-Dispatches that are exclusive to that site. This column will continue to appear of course at www.jazmaonline.com/edispatch , in the electronic version of The People's Comic Book Newsletter and at the Fun_Features yahoo group (where you can also by the way find every installment of the newspaper column I used to write called "Did you know about...?") but from time to time I'll be doing a piece which will appear only at the blog. I haven't as yet come up with a title-and am currently using the E-Dispatches Xtra working title-so if anyone out there has a title suggestion I'd love to hear it.

As for what I'll be writing about in "E-Dispatches Xtra"; so far I am planning to do some spotlight pieces on some of the MLJ/Archie heroes including The Shield, The Comet and the legendary Pow Girl plus some commentaries on comics and the comics industry, past and present. So be sure to keep your eyes open for the new addition to http://dispatchesfromthegreatwhitenoth.blogspot.com site in 2009 . The first installment will hopefully be appearing in the third week of January.

So those are pretty much the plans for E-Dispatches in 2009. As for what else I am working on over the Holidays I'll fill everyone in come late January or early February once I've finalized a few plans. In the mean time, while you are waiting for me to come back why not take a look at The Groovy Agent's excellent column about comics of the 1970s. It's titled Diversions of The Groovy Kind and can be found at http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com . Tell him Jazzy Jon sent ya.

That's it folks! Have an enjoyable Holiday Season and I'll "see" everyone in 2009.

Volume Three, Number Twenty-One

Sorry for the delay in getting this installment out folks but over the past couple of weeks I've been somewhat busy undergoing medical tests to see how far along my peripheral neuropathy has progressed. For those of you who aren't familiar with my condition and are interested in finding out more you can visit www.neuropathy.org . Now with that out of the way let's get back to...

___________________________________________________________

EVERYTHING'S SUPERHEROES:

A

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

OF THE

MLJ MAGAZINES/ARCHIE COMIC PUBLICATIONS'

SUPERHERO LINES!

PART ELEVEN

___________________________________________________________

In 1964 comic book fandom in North America was still pretty much in its infancy. There were no comics clubs to speak of outside of perhaps some kids getting together informally on occasion to talk about their favourite four colour mags. Comics conventions had only just come into existence with the first one taking place in May of that year. Magazines such as Wizard and Comics Buyer's Guide didn't exist and while there were fanzines-the most notable being Jerry Bails' and Roy Thomas' Alter Ego-their circulation most often number in the low hundreds. And as for the Internet, message boards, yahoo groups, blogs and all the other neat stuff we all take for granted these days that kind of thing wasn't even appearing in the most wildest of science fiction tales. So when comics fans-even that term wasn't being used at that point-wanted to find out what was going on with their favourite comics in 1964 the only way they could do that was to hang out at the mom and pop shops, pharmacies, newsstands, etc. every Tuesday and Thursday after school (there weren't any comics shops either, by the way) to see what comics would pop out when the proprietor would cut the wire that was holding the bundle together (and in a lot of cases the kids weren't even allowed to be in premises when this twice-a-week ritual took place).

This was how fans of The Fly realized that with Adventures of The Fly #30 (cover-date October 1964) the adventures of their favourite winged hero and his faithful sidekick Fly Girl were no more. While some fans-mostly those who paid attention to the publication dates in the indica and saw that Adventures of The Fly had gone semi-annual-suspected that that was the direction the comic was headed it was still none the less a shock to the Fly-fans when after hanging out a few months at their favourite haunts no number 31 appeared on the stands. And as there was no way to complain about their favourite comic vanishing from the scene-outside of writing a letter to an anonymous editor which most fans suspected were never read anyway-Fly-fans would just sign and look for something else to replace it on their "must buy" list.

However, those Fly-fans who also read the Archie Adventure Series' remaining title, The Shadow, soon learned The Fly was not in fact gone forever but was to undergo a monumental-some would say absurd-change. In issue number five of The Shadow (cover-dated March 1965), a house ad appeared announcing the return of The Fly with a new name and new powers. To be called Fly Man, as well as possessing his old powers of flight, super-strength, etc. he-and his partner-were now able to shrink and grow in size ala Marvel's Ant-Man/Giant-Man. And if this wasn't enough to excite long suffering Fly fans, appearing in the last panel of the house ad were three shadowy figures which caused Fly Man to gasp in shock as he exclaimed, "Now that I've met you three, I've a hunch things will never be the same!".

Truer words were never spoken as comics fans would find out two months later with the release of Fly Man #31 May, 1965; a title that would result in a line of comics that you had to see to believe. The Mighty Comics Group.

--------------------

That's it for the historical overview for this year. In early 2009 it will return and begin to explore the wonderful, mind-boggling world of The Mighty Comics Group. That's not it for E-Dispatches from the Great White North though for 2008. There'll be one more installment later this week dealing with some new directions for this column/blog in 2009.