Monthly Archives: May 2005

I was outta town so I didn't get to post a link to Frank Rich's weekend column. It's about how no one seems to know what to do with Ground Zero in New York except to exploit it for political advantage.

As a longtime wallower in Watergate, I've waited a long time to read something like this…

The Washington Post today confirmed that W. Mark Felt, a former number-two official at the FBI, was "Deep Throat," the secretive source who provided information that helped unravel the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s and contributed to the resignation of president Richard M. Nixon.

When I get some time (ha!), I'm going to haul out the several dozen books I have in which wise, educated men explained their expert deductions that D.T. couldn't have been Felt or anyone in the FBI, or even that there was no such informant. It's amazing how you can go so far down the wrong trail.

And I guess we'll hear people fuming that an FBI agent leaked to reporters, or even doubting the revelation. The funny thing is that if my reading of the various Watergate tomes is correct, Deep Throat wasn't that big a factor in the bringdown of Richard Nixon. He got a lot of things wrong and often served as a "second source," back when reporters used to care about such things. He did have a lot to do with keeping Woodward and Bernstein on the case, and with bolstering the Post's confidence in sticking with the story…but I think Nixon would have fallen even without those secret meetings in parking garages.

I assume this all means that Bernstein and Woodward are free to talk at length about all the parts of the story that they previously had to stonewall. I'll be interested in reading and hearing what they have to say.

Here's a link to the Vanity Fair article revealing Mark Felt as Deep Throat. It's an Adobe PDF file and I suspect it will not be online for long.

So far, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein have no comment, but it's being reported that Mark Felt has confessed to being their legendary source, Deep Throat. As I mentioned here, here, here and many other places, I always felt he was the guy. Assuming this revelation doesn't get shot down, it will be interesting to look back on all the books and essays by learned men who studied the evidence and came to the firm conclusion either that it was someone else, or that Deep Throat was a composite or figment. A lot of people guessed Felt but a lot more made stirring deductions that it couldn't be him.

While in Scottsdale, I heard that comic book writer John Albano had recently passed away. I'm afraid I have no details, nor do I have enough info about John to write any sort of decent obit here. I know that he worked extensively for DC in the seventies, most notably on the western strip, Jonah Hex, which he created. And I know he later went on to do a lot of work for Archie Comics…but that's about it. If anyone out there can furnish some info, please get in touch with me.

So after the funeral for Howie on Friday, I headed for the airport, hooked up with my friend Carolyn and we flew to Phoenix. In Phoenix, I rented a Ford Escape and drove us to Scottsdale, Arizona and to the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess resort, therein. Whyfore I do this? For the Reuben Awards weekend, which is an annual conclave of the National Cartoonists Society. That's right: The place was full of cartoonists. They were everywhere. Sunday afternoon, Carolyn was wandering the grounds and she noticed a man sitting outside a Tapas Bar, inking a comic strip. She recognized the strip as one of her favorites, Strange Brew, which meant that the man had to be John Deering. She told him how much she liked his work and he chatted with her as he kept on inking, even though the strip had to get to FedEx, and he had to get to the airport in under two hours. She admired his competence and confidence about making these deadlines, as well as the beauty of his brushwork. It was a whole weekend of encounters of that sort. I kept saluting every time I passed Mort Walker.

Scottsdale is a lovely city…a little hot but you can see why people want to live here. I wish we'd had time to see more of the place.

Among the folks I enjoyed chatting with this weekend were Roger Armstrong, Tom Batiuk, Craig Boldman, Chris Browne, Daryl Cagle, Lucy Shelton Caswell, Jack Davis, Jose Delbo, Greg Evans, Chad Frye, Mort Gerberg, Stephanie Gladden, John M. Miller, Stan Goldberg, Steve Greenberg, R.C. "Bob" Harvey, Bunny Hoest, Bill Janocha, Bucky Jones, Mell Lazarus, Steve McGarry, Michael McParlane, Nick Meglin, Frank Pauer, Dan Piraro, Tom Richmond, Jerry Robinson, Arnold Roth, Jean Schulz, Frank Springer, Jerry Van Amerongen, Sam Viviano, Mort Walker, Greg Walker, Brian Walker, Bob Weber, Bill Wilson, Gahan Wilson and Irwin Hasen. And I left out a lot of names.

Saturday evening, they had the big Reuben Awards Dinner, which is kind of like the cartoonist equivalent of the Oscars. For this, I had to rent a tuxedo even though I already own two. Alas, one is too big and one is too small and it didn't work to mix 'n' match the pants and coat. In case you ever need to rent a tux to wear in another city, I can now tell you how to do it in two words: Men's Wearhouse. The chain rents formal wear in most (not all) of its outlets and if you go into one that does, they can measure you and let you try one on for fit, and pick a style and color from their catalog…and then you can pick up the tux at some other Men's Wearhouse in some other town. It worked very well, although if you ever do it, I would advise not making the one mistake I made, which was needing to rent a tux during prom season. The store where I went for my fitting was full of teenage boys asking if they had any with pants that cut off at mid-calf length, and cufflinks you can wear in your nose. Apart from that, it was fine.

In case you're interested in who won what at the awards, Tom Spurgeon has the list. Dan Piraro, who draws Bizarro, was the Master of Ceremonies and he did a fine job of it.

Sunday evening, I conducted a demonstration of Quick Draw!, the cartoon improv game we play at conventions. The competitors were Sergio Aragonés, Scott Shaw! and Dan Piraro…and at one point, at Sergio's suggestion, I got Jack Davis up to knock out an instant drawing. I don't know that there's a more loved and admired man in the whole field of cartooning than Jack.

This was followed by the Sergio Roast, a tribute to the man who is called by many (I think me and two other guys) "the fastest cartoonist alive." The tone for the proceedings was set by the superb caricature seen above, executed by MAD Magazine artist Tom Richmond. It ain't easy drawing likenesses in The House of Drucker but Tom does a superb job.

Sergio was quite moved by the insults, most of which rapidly segued into outpourings of affection and respect from his colleagues, including Mell Lazarus (creator of Miss Peach and Momma) and MAD's former editor, Nick Meglin.

And that's pretty much my report. I'm still a little weary from my travels. I'll try to write more in the next few days.

This is from Andrew Sullivan's blog. Couldn't resist.

It's a Bush administration meme. If you screw up, you get promoted, as long as you're a team player. If you really screw up, you get a Medal of Freedom. If you screw up to such an extent that it cannot be ignored, then you find a couple of low-level grunts to scapegoat. If you get something right, but Cheney got it wrong, you're fired. Is this really a way to win a war?

Yesterday morn, a batch of people who knew and loved Howard Morris gathered to say bye-bye to…Howard Morris. Among the many who were present, I spotted Carl Reiner, Aaron Rubin, Andy Griffith, Betty Lynn, Shelley Berman, Gary Owens, Robert Clary, Ronnie Schell, Johnny Dark, June Foray, Jim MacGeorge, Janet Waldo and Charlie Adler. That's a very incomplete list.

Those who might have expected a sad, downbeat event were put right from the beginning when Howie's son David chose to lead off by showing the "This Is Your Story" sketch from Your Show of Shows, which should still be viewable directly below…

The rabbi then had to admit to the problem of following what many think is the funniest sketch in the history of television. (The rabbi, who was more than up to the task, was Jerome Cutler, who was a stand-up comedian and TV producer before he turned to the rabbinate. There's a saying in the comedy business that you have to find "the right guy for the room," and he sure was.)

Of the many touching speeches, none meant more than one by Carl Reiner, who first met Howie in the days before World War II (that's how far back they go) and who admitted that a large part of both their careers came from one recommending the other for acting or directing gigs. Reiner pointed out that in the sketch that opened the service — the one you clickers just watched — nothing really was written for the performers, especially Howie. The brilliance all came from them taking the premise and running with it, and most of the funniest bits were more-or-less ad-libbed on the live telecast.

In fact, Reiner noted, since it was live, he didn't even see the sketch until a few decades later. He went to see Ten From Your Show of Shows — a theatrical compilation released in 1973 — and said (approximately), "I kept hearing this woman with an annoying, high-pitched laugh filling the theater with her sound until finally, I realized that woman was me." He sat there and howled with laughter, he said. Mostly at Howie Morris.

Following the service in the chapel, many of us motored up to a remote corner of Hillside Memorial Park and watched as a coffin that seemed way too big to contain H. Morris was inserted into a wall that looked like a big filing cabinet of deceased Jews. They put him up high so, when we go to pay our respects, he can look down on us for a change.

That's about all I've got. It was tough turning loose of Howie but I think some of us have now done it. I still can't shake the yearning to hug Uncle Goopy one more time but that's okay. You don't want to turn loose of everything.

Last evening, the San Fernando Valley Chapter of The American Diabetes Association presented the Shirley Kayne Community Service Award to broadcasting legend Gary Owens. I know because my friend Carolyn and I were there to see it, attending a very nice dinner filled with folks from the A.D.A. (mostly doctors) and Gary's friends (mostly comedians). Among the latter were Jonathan Winters, Stan Freberg, Thom Sharp, Fred Willard, Shelley Berman, and Mr. Owens' Laugh-In constituents — Jo Anne Worley, Arte Johnson, Jack Riley, Alan Sues, Henry Gibson and George Schlatter. The stuffed chicken breast we were served seemed a little questionable but since the place was full of doctors, I figured it was safe to eat.

Mr. Winters was introduced and interviewed as a famous doctor, and it was wonderful to see him Jonathan in his natural habitat: Winging it, making up odd and brilliant answers to questions with no idea where he's going. It doesn't get any better than that.

I'm not exactly certain what Gary did to merit this award but I have no doubt he did plenty. Gary has always been so generous with his time it's hard to believe how many hours per week he spends in front of a microphone doing his radio show, recording promo announcements, voicing cartoons, etc. Still, whenever anyone calls with a worthy cause (or even an unworthy one), he's there. A fine, giving gentleman.

Speaking of honors: I forgot to mention that last Friday, some of the same folks gathered for a luncheon as the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters staged a delightful salute of Joanne Worley. The dais included Hal Kanter, Peter Marshall, Tom Kennedy, Alan Sues, Billy Barnes, Mitzi McCall & Charlie Brill, Henry Gibson, Gary Owens, Jackie Joseph, George Schlatter, Fred Willard and Marcia Wallace, and in the audience one could spot Ruth Buzzi, Lily Tomlin, June Foray, Sally Struthers and many other familiar folks. I made a mental note at the time to remember certain funny lines so I could quote them here…and if I'd written this on Friday, I'd probably have remembered them long enough to do this.

A few days ago, a Congressman Bachus (R-Ala) took exception with a Bill Maher monologue — one I excerpted here — and said that a line in it "bordered on treason." Here's the whole news item.

And here is a response from Bill Maher. I agree with Mr. Maher.

Here's a press release that was just issued…

Jerry Siegel and Arnold Drake have been chosen as the first recipients of the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. They were chosen by a blue-ribbon committee chaired by Jerry Robinson. The committee decided to give two awards, to honor both a deceased and a living writer who exemplify the award's criteria.

Jerry Siegel was, of course, the co-creator (with Joe Shuster) of Superman and Superboy and wrote the Superman comic books and comic strip from the character's first appearance in 1938 up through the late 1940s. He also co-created The Spectre (with Bernard Baily) for DC. After leaving DC (in a well-publicized dispute) in 1948, he continued to write comic books for a variety of companies and served as the comics art director at Ziff-Davis in the 1950s. He returned to DC in 1958, where he wrote uncredited Superman and other scripts through 1964. He died in 1996.

"There is a poetic sense of rightness that Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman, and Bill Finger, the unsung hero and writer of Batman, be symbolically united after three quarters of a century after their iconic characters' debuts," says Robinson. "Although both men led tragic lives, by launching the superhero genre and the Golden Age of comics, they left legacies that have enriched our culture."

Arnold Drake's comics writing career spanned the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. His credits include Doom Patrol (creator), Deadman (creator), Batman, Superman, Plastic Man, X-Men, Captain Marvel, Star Trek, Twilight Zone, Mighty Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Bullwinkle and Rocky, Stanley and His Monster (creator), Little Lulu, Space Ranger, House of Mystery, and Dark Shadows. His It Rhymes with Lust, with art by Matt Baker and Ray Osrin, published by St. John Publishing in 1950, was one of the very first graphic novels.

"Like Finger and Siegel, Drake is a consummate professional writer," says Robinson. "As the author of hundreds of stories from the Silver Age to the present, his credits demonstrate an amazing versatility, ranging from the superhero and adventure such as Doom Patrol to the wry humor of Little Lulu."

The other members of the Finger Awards jury were comics writer and historian Mark Evanier, cartoonist/screenwriter/playwright Jules Feiffer, comics writer/editor Denny O'Neil, and comics writer/editor/historian Roy Thomas.

The awards will be presented during the Eisner Awards ceremony at this summer's Comic-Con International: San Diego. Joanne Siegel will be present to accept the award for her late husband. Arnold Drake will be on hand to receive his award.

The Finger Award falls under the auspices of Comic-Con International and is administered by Jackie Estrada. The 2005 awards are being underwritten by DC Comics; sponsorship will be open to other companies in future years.

So that's who we picked. Like it says, Arnold Drake will be at the convention to accept his award, and we're going to take the opportunity to get him on a few panels. Matter of fact, we should have a terrific crop of veteran writers and artists for the "historical" programming items this year. I'm presently slated to moderate fourteen (!) panels, most of them about comic book history, and they're all goodies. I'll have a full list of them up in a week or two.

The Activision gaming people are staging a contest to tie-in with the release of the upcoming Fantastic Four movie — they're giving away a copy of Fantastic Four #1 autographed by Jack Kirby. You can enter here, or at least take note of the odd fact that their site seems to credit Jack as sole creator. I've seen Stan Lee get sole credit for these characters on many, many occasions but I can't recall seeing Jack mentioned like that unless it was done by a close friend or associate, which I'm assuming is not the case here.

The proper credit, of course, is that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four. And as I've just written for an article in an upcoming deluxe reprinting of F.F. #1, all indications are that it was a true collaboration and not a case of Stan writing and Jack only drawing. Sure hope the movie credits both.

Conan O'Brien on the future of television.

Here's the New York Times obit of Howard Morris. In it, you'll note, Mel Brooks tells the story of how he went along when Howie went down to the Hudson River to scatter the ashes of his recently-cremated father. It was a very funny tale when either of them told it…but the Times doesn't mention that Mel used the situation in his movie, Life Stinks, in which Howie had a nice role. In the film, it was the ashes of Howie's character that were being scattered. I have a feeling we're going to hear this anecdote at the funeral on Friday.

Howie, by the way, was in the just-mentioned "Ann-Margrock" episode of The Flintstones. He provided the voice of her agent.

Later this year — in time for Christmas, I believe — Warner Home Video will be bringing out the fourth season of The Flintstones on DVD. Today, my friends and fellow writers Earl Kress and Paul Dini recorded a commentary track for two of the episodes on it — "Ann-Margrock Presents" and "Little Bamm-Bamm." The second of these was the one that introduced the Rubbles' very strong adopted son into the series. The first of these was the season opener, guest-starring Ann-Margret, who was then quite a hot movie star, Bye Bye Birdie having come out a few months before. In case you're interested in the chronology here, Bye Bye Birdie came out in April of '63. The voice track for that Flintstones episode was recorded June 28 and then it aired September 19, which is a stunning lack of lead time — less than three months for a job that usually would have taken four or five.

It doesn't look it. By the standards of TV animation of the day, it looks pretty good, with some rather ambitious animation in the musical numbers.

So how did Ann-Margret wind up in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon? One assumes it had something to do with the fine film director, George Sidney. Mr. Sidney had a long history with H-B, going back to when Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera were directing Tom & Jerry cartoons for MGM. Sidney was directing the film Anchors Aweigh for that studio and someone came up with the idea of having its star, Gene Kelly, dance with an animated Mickey Mouse. Mr. Disney wasn't interested in the project so Sidney wound up going to MGM's division and having Bill and Joe and their unit supply the animation. Legend has it that after they thought they were finished, someone noticed that Kelly had done his part of the dancing on a shiny floor so when the images were composited, he had a reflection and his dance partner, Jerry, did not….so the animators had to go back and animate Jerry's reflection, too.

Sidney stayed in touch with Hanna and Barbera. When they started their own studio in the late fifties in partnership with Columbia Pictures, he was an investor and later a company officer. At the same time, he was directing movies for Columbia…like Bye Bye Birdie. If you watch the film some time, see how many "product placements" there are for Hanna-Barbera merchandise.

He was also interested in the career of Ann-Margret. He didn't exactly discover her — several others could claim that honor, including George Burns — but he got much of the credit for promoting her stardom. When Bye Bye Birdie was first previewed, it did not have the opening and closing in which A-M sang the title song. In fact, there was no title song. Sidney decided the movie needed more Ann-Margret so he put up his own money to have the composers of the Broadway show write a title song, and to film his new star performing it. Later, he directed two of her bigger films — Viva Las Vegas (with Elvis) and The Swinger.

He had a pretty good career with loads of acclaimed hit films. But for some of us, his greatest achievement will be that he was almost certainly responsible for Ann-Margrock. If you've never seen the episode, pick up the DVD set later this year. And make sure you enjoy the scintillating commentary tracks.