A bunch of my New York pals have been posting selfies with perennially rumored-to-be-dead actor Abe Vigoda, all taken last night at an opening cocktail party for the exhibition of Drew Friedman’s Old Jewish Comedians. When I checked Wikipedia to learn how old Abe Vigoda was anyway—he turns out to be 93—I learned the even more startling fact that his brother was longtime Archie Comics artist Bill Vigoda!

After being wowed by that surprising bit of news—which I feel as if I should have known—I remembered … Hey, I’ve met Bill Vigoda!

Considering the fact Bill Vigoda died in 1973, it was a looooong time ago, when I was still but a comics fan, not yet having been hired to work at Marvel Comics. To alleviate my jealously over those friends having gotten to hang out with brother Abe, I thought I’d take my own selfie with brother Bill.

And so …

But Bill Vigoda wasn’t the only deceased comic book artist in my thoughts today.

Many years ago, my sister-in-law, Ellen Vartanoff, gave me a special present—a hat which comic book artist Gray Morrow, who died in 2001, had owned as part of his reference collection. Since today would have been Morrow’s 80th birthday, a second selfie seemed warranted.

I know, I know … it’s not my size. But it’s still a wonderful piece of memorabilia from an artist I loved.

And before I let you go—if anyone out there knows of a comic in which Morrow drew an airline pilot, I’d love to hear about it. It sure would be fun to match up this reference artifact with a specific piece of artwork.