I was going through my news feed this morning and saw that Denny O'Neil had died today at 81. I am guessing that most of you don't know who he was. He was a giant in the comic book industry. He wrote, and then oversaw the Batman comics and it really was his re-imaging of Batman that produced the Batman we know today. He tackled many difficult topics and brought them into the comics. He wrote The Amazing Spiderman at Marvel and then went back to DC to oversee Batman and other titles.
And, in an odd way, he is part of the reason I am a Zen Priest.
When I was in the PhD program at the U of M in the 80s, my office mate one year was really into comics and dragged me to the comic store on campus. I wasn't really into comics but he showed me how you could think of them as storyboards for movies that play in your head. That was a great time for comics too. Sandman, Batman the list goes on and on.
So yea, a little like Big Bang Theory except it was psychology.
One of the comics I found and just loved was called The Question. You can google the character if you like, but he kind of got brought into the whole superhero thing by Lady Shiva, who arranged for him to be trained by Richard Dragon - a Kung Fu master. At the time I was on the University Tae Kwon Do team so I kind of resonated to the characters.
In The Question, Richard Dragon taught the protagonist, Vic Sage, about Kung Fu, but also about Asian philosophy. Richard Dragon taught Vic Sage to do seated meditation - the first time I had seen it. In the back of each comic there would be a list of suggested books to read. They covered Daoism, Zen, all kinds of things really. I would go over the library and find them and read them. All I could find. And each month a new list! Tomorrow I'll see if I can find some examples. I still have the whole series somewhere.
This was the start of my Zen journey, which soon took me to the Minnesota Zen Center and down the path that has lead me here.
Reading about his death got me ruminating about all the crazy little things that happen in ones life that somehow end up having a huge impact. A seemingly random event sends you down a path you might otherwise never have taken. What if Steve hadn't been my office mate that year? What if I had never read The Question? I mean I read a comic in the 80s and somehow I wound up here.
So thank you Denny for the wonderful stories. Thank you too for the book lists in the back of The Question. I owe you more than I could every have explained.
RIP
Much Metta to his family.
Gassho, Shinshi
SaT-LaH
And, in an odd way, he is part of the reason I am a Zen Priest.
When I was in the PhD program at the U of M in the 80s, my office mate one year was really into comics and dragged me to the comic store on campus. I wasn't really into comics but he showed me how you could think of them as storyboards for movies that play in your head. That was a great time for comics too. Sandman, Batman the list goes on and on.
So yea, a little like Big Bang Theory except it was psychology.
One of the comics I found and just loved was called The Question. You can google the character if you like, but he kind of got brought into the whole superhero thing by Lady Shiva, who arranged for him to be trained by Richard Dragon - a Kung Fu master. At the time I was on the University Tae Kwon Do team so I kind of resonated to the characters.
In The Question, Richard Dragon taught the protagonist, Vic Sage, about Kung Fu, but also about Asian philosophy. Richard Dragon taught Vic Sage to do seated meditation - the first time I had seen it. In the back of each comic there would be a list of suggested books to read. They covered Daoism, Zen, all kinds of things really. I would go over the library and find them and read them. All I could find. And each month a new list! Tomorrow I'll see if I can find some examples. I still have the whole series somewhere.
This was the start of my Zen journey, which soon took me to the Minnesota Zen Center and down the path that has lead me here.
Reading about his death got me ruminating about all the crazy little things that happen in ones life that somehow end up having a huge impact. A seemingly random event sends you down a path you might otherwise never have taken. What if Steve hadn't been my office mate that year? What if I had never read The Question? I mean I read a comic in the 80s and somehow I wound up here.
So thank you Denny for the wonderful stories. Thank you too for the book lists in the back of The Question. I owe you more than I could every have explained.
RIP
Much Metta to his family.
Gassho, Shinshi
SaT-LaH
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