Mark Evanier had a nice post earlier this week about comic artist Herb Trimpe, who attended the Mid-Ohio Con last week, and what Herb’s been up to since he stopped working in comics in the mid-1990s:
One of the best things for me about the Mid-Ohio Con last week was seeing my friend, Herb Trimpe…though not for a long enough time. Most of you who know comics know Herb for his Marvel work in the late sixties and seventies, especially a fine stint drawing The Incredible Hulk. That all ended for Herb in 1996 when the folks then in power at the company decided his artwork was old-fashioned…or maybe it was just that the readers don’t want to buy comics drawn by someone over a certain age that Herb was over. Whatever the thinking, he was out…and he bravely took his story to the pages of The New York Times with this article.
Herb has been doing other things since then, mostly of an educational nature. After 9/11 though, he found another activity that I find fascinating. He spent eight months working at and around Ground Zero in New York as a chaplain, helping people to cope with the death and destruction that had abruptly entered their lives that horrible day. To hear him tell it, it was a depressing, life-changing experience in some ways but highly inspirational in another.
He authored a book about his experiences. Herb tells me he made almost no money off the book but is glad he wrote it, just to record his feelings and observations about this job of mercy.
Herb’s book, The Power of Angels, can be found on Amazon.
December 16th, 2006 at 11:38 am
Just to clear the air, I made NO money off the book,The Power of Angels, nor was there an intent to make any money. It would have been extremely inappropriate under the circumstances, and any profits, which as far as I know have been non-existant, would have been donated to charitable organizations. Just so’s everybody understands. Thanks. -ht