by Larry Brody
Back in the day when I was a kid writer hanging at Harlan Ellison’s house and being amazed not only by his talent but also by everything he got away with in everyday life that would’ve gotten me, at best, a punch in the face, there was this guy named Don Glut who also would show up every once in awhile.
I remember being told that Don was a writer when we were introduced. And that he was a huge comics fan. But I never got any details because he was, quite simply, the most abstracted human being I’d ever met at that point. His head was – well, it was somewhere beyond the clouds, in a very special place. Which, I thought at the time, must have made life hard for him because Don also seemed to be the most eager-to-be-loved human being I’d ever known as well…and if there’s a trait more opposed to living in your own head than that I can’t imagine what it is.
Over the years, Don and I would encounter each other at various science fiction, television, and animation-oriented events, and I was as cordial as I could be for an arrogant mess who was much more interested in which overpriced foreign car to buy next in order to best flaunt my television writing success than I was in anything – and I mean anything – else.
(The highlight, if you can call it that, of this phase of my life was buying a new Jag and giving it the custom California plates, “TV PAYS.” I realized just how dumbass I really was one day when I went out to the Samuel Goldwyn Studio parking lot to drive home and found a note on my windshield: “Schmuck! Movies pay more!”)
After I returned to earth, as my mother probably would’ve put it, s-f, TV, and comics stuff took a back seat to new interests, and I never had the chance to glimpse Don Glut at the other end of convention halls again. Recently, though, we reunited on Facebook. (Yeah, yeah, I apologize, but it’s the truth.) And since then I’ve done some poking around, seeing him change from this:
to this:
And learning, just today, about this:
If I’d known that Don Glut was the creator of what possibly was the first appearance ever of The Amazing Spider-Man in a live action film, as well as creator of the most incredible oevre of written work, and The World’s Absolutely Biggest Fan of Everything Pop Art That I, Larry Brody, Also Love, he and I would right now, this minute be celebrating at least 40 years of genuine Best Friends Forever Friendship.
Don Dood, I’m really sorry I missed you. Salutations from your new Biggest Fan.
