I’m not going to pretend that this week hasn’t been tinged with sadness. I’m going to put the political and global issues that have been on my mind aside, as they fall outside the scope of this column. Instead, here’s where I try to focus on art and story and other things that lift us up. But the past few days in August have been difficult on that front as well, with the deaths of Robin Williams on Aug. 11 and of Lauren Bacall on Aug. 12. Then there’s the fact that Aug. 12 happens to be the anniversary of the deaths of three great comics storytellers: Mark Gruenwald (Aug. 12, 1996), Mike Wieringo (Aug. 12, 2007) and Joe Kubert (Aug. 12, 2012). It’s a lot to take in for me, personally.

I don’t want to bring anyone down, though. I want people to come here and find the good stuff, or at least the stuff that I really like. So with that in mind, I’m going to try something a little different. I’m going to tell you about what I think are some of the best things that each of those storytellers were involved with, and then maybe you can celebrate their passion and their creativity, too.

Lauren Bacall

Lauren Bacall was an actress with a career that lasted six decades across both the stage and the screen. Her first film role was opposite Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not, where at 19 years old she holds her own with film veterans such as Bogart and Walter Brennan. Aside from that film, my favourites of her performances are in The Big Sleep, a film noir with a story so convoluted that it is best not to pay attention to the plot at all, and How to Marry a Millionaire, a romantic comedy where Bacall steals the show away from Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable. Also worth watching is Key Largo: although the real stars are Edward G. Robinson and Claire Trevor, it still features a fine performance from Bacall.

Mark Gruenwald

Mark Gruenwald was a multi-talented comics creator, best known as an editor and a writer at Marvel from the 1970s through the 1990s. As you can imagine for someone who put over twenty years in at the company, a lot of Marvel stories have Mark Gruenwald’s fingerprints on them. However, two of the projects he was involved with are particular favourites of mine: Marvel Two-in-One and The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (or OHOTMU, as some fans affectionately call it). OHOTMU was Gruenwald’s baby from the start, as he was the lead writer, editor and essentially overseer of the first two volumes of the series. It’s a comic-book nerd’s dream: a reference guide for the entire Marvel universe, complete with vital statistics on various heroes and villains, technical specs on vehicles and weapons, and great illustrations as well.

Gruenwald also wrote three of my favourite issues of Marvel Two-in-One (issues 61-63), a three-part story where The Thing teams up with Starhawk, Moondragon, and one of my favourite Marvel characters of all time, Adam Warlock. That story is collected in both Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow’s Avengers Volume 2 and Essential Marvel Two-in-One Volume 3, or you can find back issues like I did.

Joe Kubert

There is no way I can sum up Joe Kubert in a paragraph or two, so I’ll just do a few highlights. The man was a giant in the comic book industry. He started work at DC Comics in 1943 and was still working on projects with them at the time of his death nearly 70 years later. My favourite Joe Kubert stories are his DC war stories featuring Sgt. Rock, his Tarzan stories (originally for DC but now published under Dark Horse), and his creator-owned work Yossel: April 19, 1943 and Jew Gangster. I was fortunate enough to meet him once, at the 2010 New York Comic Con. He signed my first volumes of his Tarzan Archives and his Sgt. Rock Archives and gave me a hug. He was incredibly kind and generous with me, as he was with so many people.

Mike Wieringo

Mike Wieringo was a comic book artist who died far too soon. With Mark Waid, he helped to create my all-time favourite run on the Fantastic Four title, illustrating 27 of the 36 issues that Waid wrote. They’re collected in a number of formats, but if you can find the oversized hardcovers, that’s the best way to see Wieringo’s fantastic art. He also did a creator-owned series with Todd Dezago called Tellos, a story set in a world with magic, sky pirates and anthropomorphic animals, and which is a great read as well. Finally, he did the art for the Marvel/DC Amalgam issue Spider-Boy #1, which I read as a kid and loved long before I knew who Mike Wieringo was.

Robin Williams

This is the toughest one, folks. You know who Robin Williams is, I would imagine. As a kid I loved him in Mork & Mindy, where I only really knew him as “the funny guy with rainbow suspenders.” I watched my VHS copies of his standup specials An Evening with Robin Williams and Robin Williams: Live At The Met until the tapes faded. My favourites of his movies are The World According To Garp, The Fisher King, Good Morning Vietnam, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (it’s basically a cameo but I still love his performance). And just so you don’t think I love Robin Williams only before 1996, his Live on Broadway special from 2002 is also worth watching. Eventually, listing things I love Williams in would just become a filmography, but I’ll mention one more thing. He was a cast member in The Richard Pryor Show, all four episodes of which are currently on YouTube. If you haven’t seen them, and you love comedy, then I envy your ability to watch them for the first time.

* * * * *

That’s all for this week, I’m afraid. Next week I will go back to the regular format, but this week, I just wanted to celebrate the lives of some wonderful artists. Until next time, take some time to celebrate the lives of whoever is important to you, even if it’s you yourself. I’ll see you in seven days.