Sunday night the [Center For Disease Control] found anthrax bacteria in my office, specifically at Bob's workstation, which is only about ten feet from mine. Yesterday, I spent several hours at the local Health Department waiting to be tested for exposure to Anthrax and receive a two-week supply of the antibiotic I'll have to take for the next eight weeks.

Chances are, I was exposed to the spores. Chances are just as good that I'll be okay. Anthrax is vulnerable to antibiotics, and I've not exhibited any symptoms. The incubation period is usually very short.

As of right now, I'm fine, and I expect to remain that way. I don't know anything more about the situation than anyone who's been watching CNN. In fact, if you're watching CNN, you can catch a glimpse of my chubby self in the stock shot they have of the crowd waiting to be tested yesterday.

So, if you happened to wonder how I was doing, I hope this answers your concerns.

There is a video tape compilation floating around at cons and on eBay of old Mego television commercials, which is pretty cool. There is an unintentional giggle on a commercial for their super-heroes when the announcer intones, "...and then there's the Falcon, that great BLACK super-hero!" That's the announcer's emphasis, not my own.

It's interesting to note also that the Falcon doll's body was a reused ape body from Mego's PLANET OF THE APES line; the Falcon actually had furry ape hands! Simple cost-cost-cutting measure or not, that was a shockingly un-PC move even for 1974.

To clarify, the Falcon wasn't technically a "repaint" of the POTA figures, just an ape body with a new head and cloth costume. The ape body was the same as a regular male (Caucasian) Mego body, except that it was cast in dark brown plastic instead of flesh- tone, and also sported furry hands. Since Falc was the first male African-American character to be immortalized by Mego, they simply reused the Ape body already in production, instead of spending the money to cast a new body with "human" hands and the appropriate skin-tone.

Mego was notorious for corner-cutting and penny- pinching, reusing parts whenever possible. This is probably the main reason they remained profitable for a number of years even after their dominance of the action figure market was ended by the advent of STAR WARS. It should be noted, though, that Mego did later have a non-ape African-American body for characters like Huggy Bear and Commissioner Doby from STARSKY AND HUTCH.

Were you planning on mentioning this little factoid in your column just as an aside, or did you maybe have a longer piece on Mego in mind? There are any number of quirky little anecdotes about Mego to be told, and the Falcon/Ape thing is just the tip of the iceberg. With the current wave of Mego nostalgia among comics fanboys, it might go over well, and I can't remember ever reading a piece in CBG on the subject. If that's something you'd like to pursue, let me know, and I can put you in touch with some gurus of Mego knowledge.

I am a long time subscriber to CBG (since issue #18, published when I was in ninth grade), and this is the first time I've been motivated enough to write in response to anything I've read in the newspaper. Your column in issue #1429 [April 6] prompts this note to you.

I have always enjoyed your column, no matter what the subject happens to be. Whether you're talking about comics, censorship, or your personal life, the essential truth and goodness of your being shines through in the printed word. I know that your opinions are heartfelt, thoughtful, and thought-provoking. Through the years, even though we've never met, I feel as if I have come to know you and your family.

That's why this particular column, when you revealed that you suffer from depression, had such an impact on me. After I read the column during lunch today, I decided to forward the latest issue of the HEROIC STORIES newsletter to you. I don't know if you know of this newsletter or not, but it celebrates the good that people do (in both big and little ways), and serves as a reminder that there are heroes among us, even outside those four-color wonders we call comic books.

If you've never seen HEROIC STORIES before, I hope you enjoy the sample below and perhaps subscribe to it yourself. If you're already familiar with it, then I hope you will smile knowing that you are loved and appreciated, and are a hero to me and I'm sure to many whom you have never met.

A thought occurred to me, though I hope nobody ever does this as a story. An abortion clinic is bombed. Superman flies in to rescue the workers and patients. A reporter asks Superman where he stands on abortion. Now, comics writers tend to be a liberal bunch but, if we are to be true to the character, can anybody credibly believe Superman would be anything other than pro-life? He tries to be diplomatic by saying something vague:

"I will always protect life...any life."

But his meaning is pretty clear and is broadcast all over the world on CNN.

Lois, an accomplished journalist and self-actualized woman, believes in a woman's right to control her own body. Things are pretty chilly in the cave of steel that night. Supes takes up temporary residence in the Fortress of Solitude.

Meanwhile, up at the Justice League watchtower, the members, especially Batman, aren't too happy with Superman either. It's not their role to make public policy or tell others what to believe except perhaps by example. They're just there to defend humanity against threats that they could not reasonably protect themselves on their own. This just makes their job more difficult.

Pat Buchanan and the rest of the lunatic fringe adopt Supes as their poster child. Extreme left-wing feminist groups attack him in public with over-ripe produce. That is, until a gang of right- wing nut cases attack the Metropolis gay pride parade. Supes fends them off and comments to reporters that he believes in the right of *all* individuals to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, regardless of age, sex, race, religion, or sexual orientation. The moral majority descends on the Daily Planet and asks that Superman be declared an illegal alien.

Furthermore, Jerry Falwell declares Superman an abomination. As an alien being, Kal-El's existence threatens the whole idea of biblical creationism. Supes ends up packing his bags and retiring to the Phantom Zone.