About 10 years ago, during our annual Comic-Con trip, I had to go to the San Diego ER in the wee hours of the morning, doubled-over with a sharp, stabbing pain in my upper stomach. Back then, they diagnosed me with three relatively small gallstones, gave me pain meds, and sent me on my way, saying if it ever happened again, I’d need my gall bladder removed. (If you saw my brief appearance on the “Jack Kirby: Storyteller” documentary that was an “extra” on the Fantastic Four film DVD release a few years ago, you may’ve noticed I looked kinda glassy-eyed, and even goofier than usual; that was from the pain pills I was on, as it was filmed the afternoon I got out of the San Diego ER. But don’t let the still image of me above scare you away; click the link above to see the first of five parts of this great, star-studded bio of Jack.)

Well, I’ve had occasional minor pain in my upper abdomen since then (usually during high-stress times), but the docs always guessed it was some kind of hernia or ulcer, although despite a few rather unpleasant procedures to find something, they’ve never been able to actually pinpoint anything specific.

We may now have an answer. This past Monday just after midnight, I ended up at our local emergency room again, only this time it was even worse (think Wolverine repeatedly going ‘snikt’ just under your ribcage). The local ER’s ultrasound found some big honkin’ gall stones wedged in my gallbladder (they’ve apparently doubled in size in the last ten years), and so I was rushed into surgery to have my gall bladder yanked out. While the actual surgery went pretty well all things considered, the recovery’s taking a lot longer than I’d hoped, and I hope these sentences are making sense, as I’m still on some pretty strong meds for pain.

Needless to say, we’re not getting too much done around here this week, so thanks for your patience if you’re waiting on a return email or phone call. The always reliable Eric Nolen-Weathington is working overtime to help out with getting orders out to our customers. There’s nothing better in this life than friends you can count on!

I’ll spare you the photos they gave me of the almost 1 inch diameter rocks they found inside me, but Danny Fingeroth told me he anxiously awaits the debut of our new mag, “The Gall Stone Collector”. He thinks the first issue’s cover should be “…a Kirby-style photo montage with the FF having to protect themselves from the digestive danger of the vile villain who could only be called… Bile!”

Any budding artists want to give that one a shot? I’ll run the best ones in the next Kirby Collector, assuming they’re not TOO gross!