No Targ This Week

I've recently been reading up on the supposed "lost issue" of Fantastic Four.

It's like this. Marvel Comics popularized a way of making comics called "the Marvel method." Rather than give a complete script to his artists, Stan Lee would just give them a rough outline of what he wants to see happen in that comic. The artist would draw the comic based on the outline, and then give the finished artwork back to Lee to write the dialogue. The quirks of this system can be beneficial. For example, Stan Lee once gave artist Jack Kirby this outline for a Fantastic Four story involving a planet-eating villain named Galactus. When he got the artwork back, Lee saw that Kirby drew in this little guy riding a surfboard. When Lee asked Kirby about it, Kirby said that he reasoned that someone like Galactus would have a herald flying on ahead, searching out tasty planets. Lee agreed, and the Silver Surfer was born.

But this system had its drawbacks. One day, Lee got some artwork back from Kirby, and Lee thought that Kirby had gone of the rails...completely mis-interpreted his outline. Lee asked for the artwork to be re-done, and, well, relations were strained between Kirby and Lee anyway, and Kirby quit Marvel comics. Lee eventually made this unused Kirby artwork work as an extended flashback in a later issue, but for the most part, some considered it a lost issue.

Now what does this tale have to do with the fact that there's no episode of The Targ this week?

It's like this. I'm sick. I've got aches and pains all over my body, and when it reaches the whole left arm/heart area, I got scared. Real scared. And I recorded this week's Targ when I was really scared.

And now, here I am, the next morning. I'm Stan Lee, looking at the artwork, and going, "Gee, this guy went off the rails."

And to top it all off, I'm still not in the mood to record something new for you. In fact, I just got off the phone with my parents, and they were all like, "Pains in the left arm and heart area, hmm? Well, why didn't you GO TO THE HOSPITAL when it all started ON THURSDAY??"

So that's probably how I'm going to spend my Sunday morning.

I'm sorry there's no Targ this week, but I'm just really scared right now.