AcroRay, one of the more obsessive and informed Micronaut fans, found a really unsettling and well written story about Bill Mantlo, a comics writer from the 70’s and 80’s who was responsible for the Micronauts comic and ROM The Space Knight comic, among many, many others.
I was a huge fan of Bill’s as a kid and probably read more comics with his name on them than any other writer. It never occurred to me what might have happened to him. Comic writers come and go. So it was illuminating to find out about Bill and his odyssey through a health care system that really isn’t designed to help people who need long term rehabilitation.
I’ve always felt that you can take the measure of a people by the way it treats its neediest. I frequently think America fails to live up to its potential in this regard. This story only reinforces that belief for me – and makes me want to do more to try to address it. Enough sermonizing. Links below. If you ever read a Micronauts or Rom comic, you owe it to yourself to read about Bill.