I feel like I should write something profound (or at least, profound by my standards) about the hurricane that is bringing so much misery to several Southern states. Trouble is, I find it just so horrifying and sad that…well, I can't even muster a snotty comment about those reporters who think they have to stand outside and seemingly brave death in order to cover the story. Maybe the simple truth is that there's nothing to say; that an event like this puts us all on the same page and there's little anyone can write that everyone else isn't already feeling.

I've never been to Louisiana or Mississippi, and I can't think of anyone I really know who is likely in peril from Hurricane Katrina. Still, since I first heard the dire predictions, those folks down there haven't been far from my thoughts. All day yesterday and into the evening, I had to keep dragging my attention away from New Orleans and back to the silly world of a silly screenplay I'm trying to finish.

You tell yourself there's no point in tuning back in to CNN or Fox News (which for a time, seemed to be trying to outdo each other in apocalyptic forecasts) or The Weather Channel (which is where I finally settled). There's nothing, apart from donating money, you can do to help. (I send my cash to a small charity called Operation USA, which has a great track record of getting food and supplies quickly and directly to the people who most need aid.)

Still, you can't pretend that it hasn't happened…that it isn't still happening. Right this moment, a large part of this country is being destroyed…and the thought I keep coming back to is this: I wish we weren't in Iraq.

That is not a political, anti-Bush wish. Even those who believe the war there is necessary wish it was not necessary. Our country is spending an awful lot of American lives and American money over there and will spend a lot more of both to rebuild that country. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all those National Guardsmen and all those dollars were available to help rebuild The French Quarter?

And to cap off Jack Kirby Day, we have the announcement that the online Jack Kirby Museum is up and operating. Randolph Hoppe, John Morrow, Lisa Kirby and all the folks who've pitched in have done a great job. I have no doubt that in the months to come, this will become one of the most important websites for anyone who cares about comic books, and I intend to help them out all I can. If you have Kirby data to share, so should you…and of course, you'll want to join and contribute in that way. Congrats to all involved. Jack and Roz would have loved it.

Just noticed the Blondie crossover in today's Gasoline Alley…filled with a lot of familiar comic strip faces.

If you live in Louisiana or anywhere in the path of Hurricane Katrina, I hope you're reading this either from a safe location elsewhere, or days later when you return to find your home safe and undamaged.

Events like this that remind me of a line I quoted here a while back. Someone asked Kurt Vonnegut, "What's the purpose of life?" and he replied…

Well, I have a son who writes very well. He just wrote one book; it's called The Eden Express. It's my son Mark, who is a pediatrician and who went crazy and recovered to graduate from Harvard Medical School. But anyway, he says, and I've quoted him in a couple of my books, "We're here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is."

I think of that in times of crisis. I'm not sure if we can ever stop wars and man-made destruction in this world but I know we can't stop things like hurricanes. All we can do is help each other get through these things.

It's funny. No matter how much I write about Jack Kirby — and I've written an awful lot, including a monster of a biography that's nearing completion — it's never enough. Maybe that's why the book has taken so long. Jack was such an awesome presence that even today, more than a decade after his death, he resists summary. He was a kind man, a good man, a talented man, a brilliant man. He glowed with the sheer power of new ideas and creative enthusiasm…and when you were around him, you felt it. He talked to the greenest fan as an equal and sent the kid home charged with confidence and vigor. If you weren't fortunate enough to meet Jack in person, you could still get a lot of that out of his work. People still do, which is why it remains in print and why interest in him has never diminished.

It is not enough to list the comic books he created or co-created. That's a pretty long list but Jack was more than the sum of a checklist. He was a man who had lasting impact, almost all of it positive, on the industry in which he worked and on the people he touched. Along with itemizing the Hulks and Captain Americas he helped give us, you have to remember the people he impacted, not only in comics but in many walks of life, and all that they invented. Shortly after Jack's passing, I received a letter from a spot welder (I'm not making this up) who told me with absolute sincerity that the work of Jack Kirby had inspired him to be the best possible spot welder. People credit Jack as an influence on many of today's top authors and filmmakers, and that's true. But I've always thought he would have been just as proud of that spot welder.

Had Jack not died when he did, he would have been 88 years old today. With his influence and work so visible, it ought to be hard to miss the guy. But some of us sure do.

Michael Kinsley on the Vioxx lawsuit. [Washington Post, I think they make you register.]

Just noticed I am not alone in having my name signed to a slate I don't necessarily endorse. On one page of the WGA election mailing, my friend Adam Rodman declares his support for Carl Gottlieb for the vice-presidency. On another, Adam's name appears on a list of members urging the election of the slate that excludes Carl Gottlieb. I'm having lunch with Adam this week and I'll ask him, but I'll bet he wasn't the one who screwed up here.

If you're a member of the Writers Guild of America, west, you're just now receiving your packet for this year's election of three officers and eight members of the Board of Directors. If you're not a WGA member, you're missing out on the fun of seeing a batch of articulate, dedicated people who essentially agree on almost all the key issues waging a bloody battle against one another. Every one of them is in favor of strengthening the guild, increasing minimums, protecting and rebuilding the health insurance and pension funds, extending WGA jurisdiction to non-covered areas like animation and reality programming, etc. Still, in the guild, we never like to let the fact that we're all on the same side keep us from having a nice, divisive fight.

The guild election mailing, which I received this afternoon, contains candidates' statements and also what they call "non-candidates' statements" where various members write or sign letters of support for certain acquaintances who are running. My pal Carl Gottlieb, who's seeking what must be his eighty-thousandth term as Vice-President, usually gets some exciting names on his. This year, his endorsers include Steve Martin, Buck Henry and Rob Reiner. No one has any reason to think Steve, Buck and Rob — none of whom are particularly active in guild politics — have any insight into who'd make the best veep, or that they're signing for any reason other than that Carl's a friend. Still, if I were running for office and I could get Steve Martin to endorse my bid, I'd use his name…and so would you.

This current battle pretty much comes down to two slates of candidates. There's the "New WGA" slate, which is toplined by presidential candidate Patric Verrone, and then there's the "Common Sense" slate, which has Ted Elliott as its presidential candidate. I'm friends with some folks on both slates, think highly of all of them, and know of no one on either who'd be a disaster if elected. To the extent there is a difference of issues between the teams, it's that the "New WGA" crew wants to drastically increase the amount of money the WGA spends on organizing efforts, getting non-guild TV shows and movies under the guild umbrella, along with new technologies. The "Common Sense" candidates endorse the goal but not the strategy, arguing that the "New WGA" guys are looking at a very expensive organizing model that might work for non-creative unions but won't work for writers. I have no idea which side is right on this one. I'd like to think that whichever combination of these candidates gets in, it will be possible to look at the proposal and select the proper course. My guess is that most members will figure that a vote for the "New WGA" slate is a vote to get more militant about organizing and that all or most of their slate will prevail.

Lastly, this is a minor point but I'll mention it anyway. I agreed to add my name to a non-candidates' statement which, I thought, merely endorsed Patric Verrone's bid for the presidency. The "New WGA" website lists me as endorsing his entire slate and in the election mailing, I find my name signed to a page for not only Patric but also the gentlemen running for vice-president and secretary-treasurer on his ticket. Maybe I was confused or maybe someone else got things mixed-up. Either way, it's wrong. I'm voting for Mr. Gottlieb as v-p, I haven't made up my mind yet about secretary-treasurer, and for the other posts, I expect to take the Chinese Restaurant approach, selecting some from Column A and some from Column B. So don't be surprised if when the election results are in, our Board of Directors includes Cashew Chicken and the Yang Chow Fried Rice.

Blondie gets mentioned in For Better or For Worse and in Sally Forth.

Once again, we break the secret code and bring you the weekend Frank Rich column about twelve hours before it's officially available on the New York Times website!

I especially agree with Rich's criticisms of the so-called opposition party: "The Democrats are hoping that if they do nothing, they might inherit the earth as the Bush administration goes down the tubes."

Blondie and Dagwood visit Hi and Lois. Which is kind of like the cast of Saturday Night Live visiting the set of Fridays.

And if you like to see characters in the wrong strips, check out the recent Blondie dailies.

Well, the first one's easy: The third volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection comes out in late October but can be ordered now. It contains sixty more classic Warner Brothers cartoons…and I figure they can do at least five more of these collections until they have to start dipping into the ones that were unworthy of the studio's rep. The set also contains a bunch of documentaries, audio commentaries and oddments, including a TV pilot called Philbert that the studio did in 1963 combining animation with a live-action sitcom. If you have the slightest interest in WB cartoons, you're reaching this very second to click on this link to order.

Warner Home Video has brought out a "sampler" DVD containing six episodes of Welcome Back, Kotter, a TV series I wrote for in what seems like another life. As I understand it, the DVD was assembled as a special item for Best Buy but it can also be ordered, as can everything else on this planet, from Amazon. If you want to do so, click here, though I don't necessarily recommend it. If you liked Kotter, you'll want to wait for the inevitable "complete" collection…and no, no one there has said there'll be one yet but look at everything else they're bringing out. They're probably waiting until John Travolta has another hot movie. Moreover, the six episodes they chose are odd selections — two from the first season, two from the second, two from the third and none from the fourth. (One of the second season episodes, and the only episode on the set that I worked on, is from a series of episodes about the pregnancy of Mrs. Kotter. The other ones in that storyline are not included.) Still, if you love the show and can't wait until it's back in the TV Land rotation, be my guest.

Lastly, Rhino is putting out complete sets of most of the Sid & Marty Krofft shows of the sixties and seventies, but they also have samplers like Saturday Morning, which contains the pilot episodes to H.R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville, The Bugaloos, Land of the Lost, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, The Lost Saucer and Far Out Space Nuts. Again, I would think a true fan of the material would skip this and go for the sets, several of which are already out or announced. But if you want it, don't let me stop you. Click away. At least, you won't have to worry about purchasing something I wrote. I did a lot for the Kroffts but I worked on none of these shows since they all starred people who could speak English.

Here's a test to see if you're a real fan of Monty Python. Will you take advantage of this opportunity?

It's in Shoe.

Mel Welles, who created the role of florist Gravis Mushnik in the 1960 cinema classic, Little Shop of Horrors, has died at the age of 81. Mr. Welles worked both in front of and behind the camera in dozens of movies and TV shows but the one people always asked him about was the quirky black comedy directed by Roger Corman in, depending on which account one believes, two or three days. (My understanding is it was two full days plus about ten hours of night shooting.) This was the original version which served later as the basis of the musical comedy. (Interestingly, Welles played the role of Mushnik in a few local productions of the musical not long ago.)

I suppose everyone reading this has seen Little Shop of Horrors but there was a time back in the late sixties when it was the private "find" of a select group of us. It ran often on local television, often in the wee, small hours of the morn, and sounded so unappetizing in TV Guide that few tuned in. But some of us had seen it, come to love it and incorporated select lines of dialogue into our vocabularies. Later, as Jack Nicholson became a bigger star, the film got more attention due to his small, weird role in it. I believe it was one of the first movies released on home video that anyone had ever heard of…and it was about then that its cast members, including Mel Welles, began being hailed for being part of film history.

More can be learned about the career of Mr. Welles over at his website. [BEWARE: Loud, annoying music on the opening screen.] I think it's kinda neat that people are often survived by their websites. Buddy Hackett's is still up, happily proclaiming — as it did before he left us — that Buddy is retired and taking a nap. And at Rodney Dangerfield's site, you can still e-mail him. Maybe we should all bombard him with insults. I think Rodney would appreciate being heckled in the afterlife.