Sunday, May 28, 2006

Where I've Been

Well, I've had an interesting couple of days. Friday morning, I checked into Cedars-Sinai Hospital and had a world reknown surgeon reduce the size of my stomach. It's called Roux en y gastric bypass surgery, though most people seem to refer to it as "that thing Al Roker had done to lose all that weight."

I'll write more about it when I can sit here at the computer longer without discomfort...though I must admit, I have surprisingly little discomfort. It was done via laparoscopic surgery, meaning they make six tiny incisions, then go in with special tools rather than to just filet you open lengthwise. The procedure was performed Friday afternoon around 2:00, I was out of surgery by 3:30 or so, then spent a few hours somewhat incoherent in a recovery room where, they later told me, my first words were, "Can we send out for pizza?" Got to my room by 9 PM and spent an uncomfortable but not intolerable night thanks to a few injections of an anti-nausea drug. Saturday morning was rough but by late in the day, I could tell I was getting better...and they took out my staples and sent me home this afternoon around 3:00. My chest feels tight but my biggest problem right now is the sore neck I got from sleeping in one position on an uncomfortable hospital bed.

For those of you who want to know more about the technical end of the process, this page tells you more than I ever could.

As I said, I'll tell you more about my experience when I can, though I have no intention of recommending it to anyone. I don't think it's for everyone and the folks who do elect it have to really, really make up their own minds. I suspect it's in the category of things that if you can be talked out of doing it, you shouldn't do it. One should especially beware of websites that are trying to sell you the procedure. As a general rule of thumb, those who do the process well seem to have all the customers they can handle and don't need to solicit. I spent a year or more studying the pros and cons, and finally chose to go ahead only because I believed I had the right personal physician and the right surgeon. I'm sure with the wrong guys in either role, it could already have been a disaster. I also underwent extensive medical tests that showed I was a good candidate for the surgery because so little was wrong with me apart from my weight.

I'm going to go lie down for a bit in a real bed. It's good to be home. And it'll be good to be skinnier. My thanks to several friends who supported me and encouraged me, and a big thank you to the lovely Carolyn Kelly who did all that and more.

• Posted at 9:08 PM · LINK

Alex Toth

For reasons I'll explain in the next post, I'm a day behind the comic blogosphere in noting the passing of Alex Toth, who died yesterday morning. Alex was easily one of the most admired artists to ever work in comics and animation, envied by his peers for his ability to capture action and human gesture like no one else. Like a great photographer who can sense the split-second to hit the shutter, Alex had a knack for drawing exactly the right second in any sequence of events. His people moved and acted like people and when he drew a car or airplane, you could sense its speed right on the page.

That he designed many popular Saturday morning shows was the least of it. He invented much of the shorthand necessary to do adventure cartoons for television. Other animation artists hoarded and traded his model sheets and swiped off them. You could see Toth designs, slightly changed, on shows he never worked on. You could see other artists strain for the Toth simplicity.

Simplicity was a constant goal of Toth's. He was known to draw an entire comic book page — I saw him do this — decide it was too cluttered and then rip it to shreds and do it over with fewer lines. There was nothing wrong with the first version other than that Alex thought he could do it better. He usually could.

To be around Alex was to be with the ultimate fan. No one loved great comics like Alex. He collected them, studied them, wrote long essays (usually crammed onto postcards) to friends about them. We spent some long evenings on the phone or in his living room talking about the handiwork of Roy Crane or Frank Robbins. It was always fascinating to hear a Toth analysis because he understood other artists from the inside. I'm not sure he ever understood what he did so well but he could talk for hours about what Milton Caniff did.

He leaves behind a legacy of fine work but you always got the feeling with Alex there could have been more. He worked too often for companies that never seemed to know what to do with him and he got into the habit of quitting when he was wronged...and sometimes even when he wasn't. Tonight, I want to think about how much excellence came off his drawing table...but it's hard to not consider how much more he had to give us, to teach us and to leave us. He really was that good.

• Posted at 8:34 PM · LINK

Mark is Back

To my friends who know what I've been up to this weekend: I'm home and things went well. I'll be posting about the experience later.

When I get a moment, I'll also be posting some thoughts about a great artist named Alex Toth who passed away Saturday morning at the age of 78.

• Posted at 4:37 PM · LINK