Joss Whedon

Friday Newsarama spoke with writer Jeph Loeb about April’s special issue of DC’s Superman/Batman paying tribute to his son Sam Loeb, who passed away last June after a three-year battle with cancer.

This week we spoke with several members of “The 26”, the all-star roster of comic book creators who are contributing their talents, time, and energy to complete the special story Sam wasn’t able, along with any their fees and any royalties Superman/Batman #26 generates to the Sam Loeb College Scholarship Fund.

The following are just some of the creators brief thoughts, stories, or memories of the young man and burgeoning writer that touched all their lives...

"Sam Loeb was the one of the few people I’ve ever known who was entirely himself at all times. Fiercely intelligent, brutally and hilariously honest, Sam knew more about life at seventeen-years-old than I will ever know. He was strong, loving, absolutely fearless, and the only true super-hero I’ve ever met." - Allan Heinberg

”It’s real simple for me now, thinking about Sam and what he went through, how hard he fought for years against this goddamn evil thing. Every day, we write and draw stories about heroism, bravery, characters that are larger than life. But, the fact is, we deal almost exclusively in fantasy. Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America... they don’t exist.

“Sam was a real hero. He showed real* bravery. And he was definitely larger than life.

“Plus... he made me laugh.” - Joe Casey

“Even though he only had the opportunity to write a few stories, any pro who was fortunate enough to meet Sam Loeb immediately recognized him as a fellow creator. I usually turn into a blubbering fanboy when I meet writers and artists I admire at cons and stuff, but I learned a lot from watching Sam, who always carried himself with such natural confidence around industry legends (like his old man).” - Brian K. Vaughan

”Of course I loved speaking to Sam on the phone when the latest issue of Identity Crisis came out. And when I originally met Sam, the first thing I noticed was that he looked just like his dad, and then I noticed that he sounded just like his dad. But what was most amazing was that he actually - genuinely and truly - loved being around his dad. Imagine that for a moment. Enjoying being with your father as if he were your best friend. And your dad loves comics. That’s what made Sam special - and his father as well. I’ll forever admire Jeph for that. We should all be so blessed.” - Brad Meltzer

“Sam was a regular afterschool-Friday visitor to the Smallville offices, where he would lighten the ‘Man, that was a long week!’ mood with jokes, his latest online cartoon find, and really just by being there. After work, me, Jeph and other members of the Smallville staff (producers, writers, editors, assistants) would often adjourn to the bar next door, Sam in tow. I think my fondest memory of Sam is watching him chuckle as Smallville’s finest had a few drinks and started getting silly. When you got Sam laughing, you knew you’d ‘made a funny’.

“Comic books talk a lot about heroism, but Sam was the real deal. He faced challenges no teenager should have to endure, yet through it all he never lost his sense of humor or that wry smile. I miss that, and I miss him.” - Mark Verheiden

“I think my strongest memory of Sam is when I first met him. Jeph had invited Tim and I to stay with him and the family out at the Malibu beach house one summer and I just remember meeting this small boy with a thirty-five year-old’s personality! Quite remarkable really, talk about a chip off the old block...

“He was opinionated and articulate even then and grew up to be even more so! I remember playing with him and his sister at the beach and having a great time. You could have a lengthy conversation about almost anything with Sam and never get bored.

“We all miss him.” - Ian Churchill

"Sam Loeb was smart, polite, funny and long before I got into hippos, Sam Loeb loved them first. Just a few days before he passed away, he could not believe I had not heard of Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law or Robot Chicken. Quick as The Flash, Sam scans through TiVo and out come episodes for our education and enjoyment. Even with a collapsed lung and the awkward prospect of death ahead of him, Sam knew the importance of laughing and making other people laugh, and then, as his dad would say, Darren fell into the pool. Sam loved his dad and his dad loved him, you only had to look at the two of them together to know this was true." - Richard Starkings

“This isn’t about “The 26” or Superman or Batman. This is about Sam Loeb. I miss him every day as do so many other people who knew and loved him. Over the last few years, as I’ve been a part of the Empath Studio I share with Jeph, our families have become incredibly close. Holidays, birthday parties, and getting Chinese food on a Sunday night. Sam made every moment more fun. He always faced things with optimism and a smile. We can only hope to do the same.

“Sam was an amazing person, an unbelievably witty and smart kid and a very, very good friend. It’s my honor to help him on this issue of Superman/Batman #26.

“Sam Loeb’s Pal - Geoff Johns”

”I have to admit that when I met the Loeb children, Audrey and Sam, it was the daughter who I gravitated to. She was a little imp of fun and mischief. Sam was older and more serious. I didn’t realize then that one of the reasons he wasn’t awed by San Diego Comic-Con was that here was a kid with a plan. He was gonna rule the comic industry. Like most powerbrokers, he was just being cautious. He would do some small stuff before moving on to DC and Marvel, giving each the time to fight over his exclusivity. All that he needed was time. Sadly, that was the one thing he could not conquer. But through it all he did not falter, up until the end we were talking about this story that you will soon read in Superman/Batman #26. A cool story by a great kid. He would have been a just ruler.

“And now reflecting on all this, the thing I’ll miss most about Sam is that we were just starting to make fun of his dad, and we never got to introduce Robot Clayface.” - Eddie Berganza

”Within seconds of meeting Sam, you knew he was one of those kids who just had the goods. Smart, confident, funny with a writer’s wit and acumen, Sam was a hero to all who knew him for his incredible courage and bravery in his long battle with cancer.

”If Superman/Batman #26 does anything, I hope it shows how clearly and strongly Sam touched the comics community and what he means to all of us who had the honor of getting to know him. For me, this project is more than just a celebration of the bond he had with his father, his love for comics, and his nascent abilities as a writer, it’s about getting a chance to remember and honor a great kid who never stopped smiling and laughing in the hardest of times. I can only hope that this unique collaboration will touch and inspire so many people in the same way as Sam did us.” - Jim Lee

“Most of my relation with Sam has been from a thousand miles away, Seattle (me) to LA (Sam), but I watched him grow from a cartoon character that spoke with the mind and vocabulary of an adult, to a remarkably funny and aware teenager.

“I remember seeing him and his dad, at a restaurant after the close of one of the hectic San Diego Comic-Con days. Joss Whedon, Buffy God, and his posse of Buffy creators showed up. The fact that Jeph went over and mixed right in was unsurprising, brownnose that he is, but that Sam did as well, and was so at ease doing so, startled me. The 15 year old me would have hidden behind a pillar and eavesdropped, but Sam, rightfully so, seemed to always feel at home no matter which group he was with, like he just knew without thinking that he belonged. It was less than a year later that I drew a vampire story that Sam wrote for Dark Horse’s Tales of the Vampires. - Tim Sale

”Sam Loeb was talented, funny, kind, strong, a champion ballbuster, and was one of the few people on the planet with the power to leave Jeph Loeb speechless. Sam had innumerable gifts that he shared with the people around him, and I was lucky enough to have been on the receiving end of his generosity...

“The last time I saw Sam Loeb, he was tired. There was medicine. There was pain, he had all the right in the world to be exhausted... but he still went out of his way to make me laugh.

“In spite of it all, on a day where it was all I could do not to lose it in front of him, the sick kid was the one cracking the jokes.

“It’s a lesson I’ll never forget.

“Thank you, Sam.” - Joe Kelly

”In case I haven’t brayed this often enough: I gave Sam Loeb his start in comics. Yeah, I know talent when I see it. Sam had the same wit, the same disarming swagger, and after a few rounds of chemo, the same amount of hair as his father. I said to myself, ’I’ve got these vampire tales - if Drew Goddard can write one, a shaved monkey could!’ After several less-than-successful attempts to shave monkeys, I thought of Sam. Of course! ‘Here’s someone you can use and then spit out in the gutter like so many writers before him.’ Leave it to Sam to bail before I could get to the spitting part. But he gave me a fine vampire tale, and he gave us Superman/Batman #26. Because make no mistake, Sam had this story wired. When Jeph told me what I was to write, my comment was, ‘So I’m basically adding a ’the’. Where do you want it?’ The story resonated so well and was all structured up - and I can’t be the first person to point out that it could be a story about Sam and the 26. Or the 25 + me, as I like to think of it. ’Cause my ’the’ placement is impeccable. It’ll be the ’the’ heard round the world. I like to think that Sam would approve.

“But I also like to think that Sam wouldn’t get frikkin’ cancer, so I’m living in a dreamworld of candy canes and tastefully shaved monkeys. You know what? F**k cancer. Sam should be finishing this story, as a prelude to hundreds of others. Oh maybe Sam would’ve chosen a different career than his father’s, but no way. Sam was one of us from the start. Always around with the big funny-book wigs, always comfortable, at ease but never entitled, never obnoxious like his fath - like Drew Goddard. I want this book to sell, so we can raise some money and get that much closer to a frikkin’ cure, but also so Sam can have a Top Ten book and lord it over all those ’alive’ writers who don’t sell as well. Sam, this ’the’s for you. - Joss Whedon

“I’m not a wordsmith, so the idea of covering how I feel about Sams life, and his death, in a few words, seems an insurmountable task. There is too much to say, it’s too sad, and I’m too angry about it still.

“All I can say is that Sam was special, he lived his life with laughter and hope even in the face of an illness that would make most crumble. There is a hole in the world where he once stood.” - Joyce Chin

“Years back I’d have these summer BBQ’s over at my house and Jeph would often bring his family. As you can guess the crowds would get pretty loud as the night tore on. Every once in a while above the din, you’d hear something like "Good shot Sam Loeb" followed by a quick retort of "No, great shot Jeph Loeb!" It was Sam playing basketball with my kids who were much younger than he.

”Later that night I’d hear "Good one Sam Loeb" with the reply "No great one Jeph Loeb." And it would be Sam joking with some of the adults.

”Whether it was big kids or little, at any turn Sam would be in his element totally at ease. That’s a gift not too many in the comic crowd have.

”The other thing I noticed at those moments was that Jeph was right there too. Cheering his son on. They were cut from the same cloth. At ease with each other because they were at ease with themselves. And I remember at the time, that when my kids got older I’d wanted to have moments just like that. Because that’s what friends do. They make it easier.” - Duncan Rouleau

”First off let me say that it is a tremendous honor to be part of this special tribute to Sam Loeb.

“Sam continues to inspire me and my family every day, he was a special young man who dealt with his illness and the subsequent complications of his cancer with a class and courage I’ve never seen before. My own Father battled cancer in the form of a recurring brain tumor that required 8 brain surgeries over 18 years, I’d been around cancer for nearly half my life, I thought I was conditioned to deal with it better than most. People who have had cancer or had a loved one with cancer probably understand the resolve that you develop in order to deal with it and it’s unexpected twists and turns. But Sam having cancer was as tragic as anything I could have imagined.

“I met Sam when he was seven years old and from the moment I met him I felt like I was talking to someone twice his age, his maturity and his vision of the world was that of a much older man. He had a biting sense of humor as well as a generous and kind spirit. He was curious, always asking questions. He was as smart and sharp as his father, and together they formed their own formidable dynamic duo. Sam and Jeph could finish each other’s sentences, they shared a unique, ’sympatico’ spirit. They truly enjoyed each other’s company. Sam’s intuition and advice were regularly sought after by Jeph, he could see things sometimes our clouded adult minds could not. Creatively the sky was the limit for Sam. He could act, write, perform with the best of them. And he was only a teenager.

“It was a natural that Sam write an issue featuring Superboy and Robin, two kids nearly as tough and strong as Sam was. Sam was a tough kid, he kicked his cancer around and beat it off him until he was ready to leave on his terms and not a minute sooner. Shaved head, tall, he had a gentle swagger but don’t for a minute think Sam wouldn’t have taken on the nastiest of comers. He did it every single day. Despite his pain or discomfort his priority was always with making you laugh, making your feel better.

“When Sam died, I’ve never cried as deeply or felt as much loss. Sam was a bright, brilliant, young spirit, talented and determined, the sky was the limit for him. I had refused to believe that he would fall to his cancer. I thought he would keep beating his individual battles as he had done for so many years. When Jeph called to say Sam had passed away, it was crushing, the days up until his funeral were a blur.

“Sam’s memorial service was the single most uplifting service I’ve ever attended. Sam was celebrated, his life and memory were shared and honored not with sadness but with joy and laughter. The healing experience of that service washed over everyone in the temple, you could feel Sam watching us and as Jeph said, laughing at all of us.

“When trials have come our way in the time since Sam left us, my wife and I remember Sam’s courage and dignity, his calm in the face of all the pain he faced, and our perspective turns for the better. He inspires us every day to be stronger, more resilient, more caring.

“And in case you wonder where Sam inherited his steely resolve from in the first place, look no further than his father. Jeph Loeb is carrying Sam’s tremendous legacy every minute, moving forward in spite of the greatest loss one could experience. Jeph is transcendent and his determination to complete Sam’s story is equally inspirational. Jeph is lifting us all up in a way that would impress Samson, Hercules and Superman combined.

“Drawing a page in Sam’s issue is another piece of the healing and as the book is completed and eventually released, the healing for everyone who loved him and the tribute to his life will grow. As I draw my page I alternate between crying and laughter. What a treat this story is. What an honor.

“The Sam Loeb Superman/Batman #26 is a comic that celebrates Sam’s spirit forever. When you hold it you’ll hold a little piece of Sam’s brilliant spirit. I’m buying a few hundred copies to have on hand so that I can always have an opportunity to talk to my friends and guests in my home, about a young man whose courage will humble me the rest of my life.

"Please join the "26" experience by picking up Sam’s Superman/Batman story.” - Rob Liefeld