Denny O'Neil died today

[Shinshi]

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

[Naiko]

Thank you for sharing this, Shinshi. It’s very interesting indeed how small turns take us to unexpected places. I think I read once that the Dharma finds us! I had not known who Denny O’Neil was. But your story did bring me back to a time, also long ago, in the 80’s, when comic books were a great comfort to me. I had recently moved to Boston with my boyfriend and his band and I was really homesick and missing my friends. My boyfriend’s brother had an epic collection of comic books which he happily shared with me. I recall spending many hours with The Dark Knight and Swamp Thing. I don’t think they led me to the Dharma (I can probably thank the 70’s Kung Fu tv show for kindling that interest, but that’s another story), but they did brighten up some difficult days.
Gassho,
Krista
st/lah

[Jundo]

Let us dedicate our sitting to all the great comic book artists and creators ...

Gassho, J

STLah

[Shinshi]

Let us dedicate our sitting to all the great comic book artists and creators ...

Gassho, J

STLah

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH

[Doshin]

Shinshi,

I know nothing of the world around comics but completely understand your point how an event or choice can change your path. I have pondered that often.

Doshin
St

[Jakuden]

I sometimes wonder how much influence the little book "the Tao of Pooh" had in my journey to find Zen. And probably something of Star Wars even, like Kyonin. The Dharma does seem to find those of us who are open to it!

Gassho,
Jakuden

[Tairin]

Nice story Shinshi. It is fascinating to wonder “what if.....” I feel I’ve been on this path for most of my life. I am not sure I could pick a singular turning moment that put me on the way. It feels like many incremental steps.

A book that helped push me from theory to practice is a book called “The Music Lesson” by Victor Wooten. Somehow that book touched some trigger in me. I can’t even explain it now. Some thing about the connection between spirituality and being a musician.

Thanks for sharing Shinshi


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Jippou]

I was an avid comic collector growing up in the Nineties, but my jam was always the X-Men. I kind of jumped on halfway through Chris Claremont’s epic run, but he is responsible for many of the greatest comic storylines ever, including “God Loves, Man Kills,” which is particularly relevant for today’s struggle for racial and gender equality. I don’t see how you could have read X-Men and not made the connection.
I also agree that Star Wars, with its Jedi and the Force had to have introduced my entire generation to eastern philosophy, whether they knew it or not, but my major motivator into religion and history was another phenomenon of the time, Dungeons & Dragons. In fact “Majere”’comes from Dragonlance, my favorite D&D campaign setting.

Gassho, Jason
Sat Today


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Shōnin Risa Bear]

Having had an unfortunate experience, at about fourteen, while teen preaching at Christian Endeavor (the elders didn't like what I was doing with the Faith, Hope and Charity passage, linking it to the Sermon on the Mount), I went to the Encyclopedia Britannica article on Buddhism and tried meditation based on the little I could glean there. It was the 4 truths and 8-fold way that got to me at the time. _()_

gassho
shonin sat/lah

[Cooperix]

dragged me to the comic store on campus

University of Minn had a comic store?
Far out!

Gassho
Anne

~lahst~

[Shinshi]

University of Minn had a comic store?
Far out!

Gassho
Anne

~lahst~

Well, technically it was in Dinkytown which is surrounded by the campus. The U of Minn is a really big place.

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH

[Kokuu]

Sorry to hear that, Shinshi. Denny O'Neil sounds like a great man and it great that he brought you to the dharma in a roundabout way.

Over here, Alan Moore is our god of the comic book and my teens were influenced by The Watchmen as well as Judge Dredd and 2000AD.

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.

I tend to think that if we have an inclination towards something there are probably many roads to get there. If The Question hadn't been the thing that set you on the path, it might have been Kung Fu, the tv series, or something else. However, that it was The Question is makes it meaningful to you, and that is as it should be.

RIP Denny.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-