sigh

H.L. Mencken once noted that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people (to be politically correct, as well as more accurate, I'd amend the quote to delete "the American"). Just to show that nothing much has changed in the 80-odd years since Mencken first noted that, I provide the following example.


A few days ago, Mark Evanier posted the accompanying photo on his blog and bemoaned, "I was therefore shocked, and did not believe until I saw the photo, that [Stan Lee] has been working recently as a mail carrier. This is a sad comedown for the man who was once the most important figure in the comic book industry."

Mark later wrote, "This prompted a surprising number of e-mails -- about fifty, so far -- from folks politely (and one, not so politely) informing me that, duh, that's a still from the Fantastic Four movie and Stan is just playing a role, that of postal servant Willie Lumpkin. I also received one complaint from a mail carrier saying, in effect, "What do you mean, it's a comedown?"

I say again, sigh. I'm not quite sure how anyone who reads Mark's blog could not know that 1) he holds not much love for Stan the Man and 2) that Mark probably knows as much as what's happening in the comics field as any person alive and 3) he has a sense of humor apparently lacking in at least 50 of his readers. In any case, as Mark later noted it's well known that Lee is selling sneakers at a local Foot Locker.

sigh.