R.I.P. Carrie Fisher

From her movies to her books to her life itself, Carrie Fisher broke the mold. Seeing her in STAR WARS at age 18 was the first time I ever considered a Princess in a story as anything other than someone to be captured and rescued. Her film career stalled by fast living, bad relationships (a family tradition) and mental illness, she reinvented herself over and over and kept moving forward, even as she revisited her own past to do so. For a while it even looked like she might be the one to cheat the all-powerful 2016 reaper. But no. 

May the Force be with you. my dear.

GoFundMe Deja Vu

This time last year, I shared a GoFundMe campaign here. My friend Leslie Hunter's mother, Dovie (above right) died unexpectedly at Christmas, just as both of my own parents had many years ago now. 

Some of you may recall that Leslie is a very talented artist whose work I admire to the point I've purchased two of her pieces (seen below). 

As you might imagine, it's been a tough year for Leslie and her stepfather and tougher still as the anniversary of her Mom's unexpected passing approached this month.

Then, the unthinkable happened. 

Her stepfather, Gary (left above) had a massive stroke last week and has been hospitalized ever since. He was quickly accepted as part of a special treatment program and there is hope but nothing is set in stone as far as his prognosis.

So here we are again with another effort to help Gary's family. Take a look at this link and if you can, in the spirit of Christmas, please consider a small donation. 

https://www.gofundme.com/relief-funds-for-cooper-family

Prayers, good vibes and happy thoughts for Gary, Leslie, her kindergarten age brother, and the rest of their family certainly couldn't hurt either. 

Thanks.

Leslie

Captain Easy and AA-1949

The lowly comic strip as agent of social change.

Al Capp in Europe-1965

The article below originally appeared in an April 1965 issue of LIFE but actually made the cover of the above International edition. It's clipped a little too tightly in some sections but that was the LFE archives, not me. You can still get the gist of it all, though, and Capp--love him or hate him--was never less than interesting.

What I'm Currently Reading

I don't have as much time to read as I would like these days, nor do I have a good place to do so anymore. That said, for the first time in a long time, I find myself with a whole big bunch of books going at once right now, in various stages and no particular order! And this isn't even counting the stack of dollar Archie comics I picked up this past week!