.

Ellison in many interviews has said he never used alcohol or drugs (although as psychadelic as some of his short stories are, one could easily speculate otherwise. For example, the story "Shattered Like a Glass Goblin". Or really, just about any of Ellison's work from his 60's and 70's short story collections. I think of "Repent, Harlequin" as sort of an Orwellian Dr Seuss story)

In the topic about Ellison's death, I quoted a long excerpt from the COMICS JOURNAL interview he did with Gary Groth, where among others, Ellison called Michael Fleisher "derange-o".
Which in the full context, said that Fleisher had a wild imagination, that Ellison compared to the imagination and vivid storytelling of authors like Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. And with humor in the way he said it, I didn't consider that an insult of Fleisher, but placing Fleisher rather honorably in that kind of literary company.
Ellison and Groth gave less than flattering comments about not only Fleisher, but way deeper cuts to people like Gerry Conway, Don Heck, Jack Abel, Stan Lee, Dennis O'Neil, Jim Warren, and others.

But...

Ellison in a playful way said Fleisher is "crazy as a bedbug".
And it turned out (by Fleisher's own admission, in his filed lawsuit) that he actually WAS arguably crazy, seeing a psychiatrist 3 times a week. But if Fleisher himself hadn't made that public in a lawsuit, no one would have known, and Ellison's comment would have only been interpreted by readers as a compliment of Fleisher's wild storytelling imagination.
But as it turned out in 1987 when the case was decided by a jury, against Fleisher, he had humiliated himself for nothing. It turned out. Far from the Ellison/Groth COMICS JOURNAL interview having hurt Fleisher's writing career, Fleisher's writing income had actually doubled over those years.

Fleisher's well-known Spectre run is in ADVENTURE COMICS 431-440, circa 1974-1975.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Adventure-Comics-1938/Issue-431?id=41517


And also a signature series of Fleisher's, his twisted writting is in WEIRD WESTERN (early issues 10-21 scripted by John Albano, Fleisher took over the series in issues 22-38)
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Weird-Western-Tales-1972/Issue-22?id=54115

And then a further 92 issues of JONAH HEX in his own title by Fleisher, from 1977-1985.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Jonah-Hex-1977/Issue-1?id=38854

And then Fleisher took the character to a post-apocalyptic dystopian future in the HEX series, for another 18 issues, from 1985-1987.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Hex/Issue-1?id=54066

So Fleisher wasn't exactly short on work or unsuccessful in those years.