Monday, April 28, 2003

Own Your Own Sergio

As mentioned here a few days ago, acclaimed photographer David Baker has created an awesome photo mosaic of Mad/Groo cartoonist Sergio Aragonés. Well, here's your chance to own your very own copy. Sergio was photographed in his soon-to-be-vacated studio and then David fashioned over 90 of those photos into an 18" by 24" mosaic poster. From afar, it looks like a picture of Sergio's face. Up close, you see the images of him posing in his unnatural habitat. (Click here for a close-up that doesn't begin to do it justice.)

Only 200 prints have been made and many are already gone or spoken-for. Each poster is numbered, embossed with an authenticity stamp by the photographer, and then personally signed by Sergio. The price? Only $75.00. Shipping is included on U.S. orders. For foreign sales, inquire of Dave at david@ojaiimages.com. That's also the PayPal address if you'd like to pay that way, or send your check or money order to David Baker, 300 Running Ridge Trail, Ojai, CA 93023.

• Posted at 6:19 PM · LINK

As of this moment...

Sidney Blumenthal's forthcoming book is #9 in the sales rankings at Amazon.

• Posted at 5:38 PM · LINK

Credit for Kirby?

Harry Knowles has just posted that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby will receive a creator credit on the upcoming Incredible Hulk movie. He spoke with Avi Arad, who currently runs Marvel, and says the credit will probably read, "Based on the Marvel Characters as created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby." Very good news.

• Posted at 4:40 PM · LINK

Cahuenga Passages

Here's another, more detailed article on the battle to save the old Hanna-Barbera building. I still don't know who owns the place and I wonder why this highly-relevant information seems to be excluded from the discussion.

• Posted at 2:33 PM · LINK

Drudge Work

Here's why no one takes Matt Drudge seriously. The other night, he posted this report (that link will expire soon but should be good for a while) bashing Sidney Blumenthal's new book. Blumenthal is an old nemesis of Drudge, and the new book is supposed to give a pro-Clinton insider's look at the Clinton Administration.

Naturally, Drudge is eager to declare the book a failure. He says that print outlets have "taken a pass" on printing excerpts, and that as of Sunday night, the book (which is not even out yet) was only at #23,588 on the Amazon Best Seller list.

I think he typoed and meant Saturday. When I checked on Sunday evening, The Clinton Wars was at #500 or so. As I write this, it's at #17. Wish I could get Matt Drudge to say that my books aren't doing well.

In the meantime, despite the claim that print outlets are declining to excerpt Blumenthal's book, a chapter of it is in the current Washington Monthly. Here's a link to that.

• Posted at 1:12 PM · LINK

Credit Where Due

Over at his fabulously-fun website, Ain't It Cool, Harry Knowles is expressing shock and dismay at reports that the forthcoming Incredible Hulk movie will carry no creator credit for Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. I'm not sure why Harry is surprised by this. The comic books carry no such credits and with the exception of the short-lived Silver Surfer cartoon show, I can't think of any Marvel TV or movie adaptation that has said "created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby" on it. Certainly, the first X-Men movie did not. Stan was, of course, credited as one of the Executive Producers. Jack's name was buried very deep in the end credits with a kind of unspecified acknowledgment like you'd give to a location that allowed you to film on its property. A lot of folks probably didn't notice it at all. At the screening I attended, I was literally the only one left in the theater by the time Jack's name rolled past in the smallest typeface.

Marvel has a long history of not crediting Jack Kirby for his contributions, and often not crediting Stan in a creator or co-creator capacity. This history has endured through many regime changes at Marvel and while many execs have talked about "doing the right thing," they have a way of leaving the company before they can make it happen. That credit on the animated Silver Surfer series was authorized by a gentleman named Joseph Calamari who was then the President of Marvel. He personally assured me that this was the new policy; that henceforth all Marvel movies, TV shows and even comic books would carry creator credits, such as DC routinely does on its key books and the adaptations of them. And soon after that, for reasons I assume were unrelated to that decision, Joe Calamari was no longer at Marvel. Well, at least he got one credit placed before he was out. Some of the others who've said they wanted to institute creator credits didn't even manage that.

• Posted at 11:24 AM · LINK

Lyrist/Lyricist

Several e-mails asked (or lectured) me about my use of the word "lyrist" to denote the person who writes the lyrics for a Broadway show. I have always subscribed to the theory that anything you can find in any real dictionary is fair game. More recently, I have come to believe that the Microsoft Encarta World English Dictionary on my computer is the definitive authority when I don't feel like getting up to consult actual books. Anyway, Encarta says it's either "lyricist" or "lyrist" so one can use either.

Since "lyrist" can also apply to a person who plays the lyre, I would ordinarily decide to use the unambiguous "lyricist." However, my favorite person who had that occupation, Alan Jay Lerner, used to always insist that "lyrist" was the proper word for what he did. So after I read that, I began to use that word.

Interestingly the Encarta dictionary actually has "Alan Jay Lerner" as a listing and he is described thusly: "U.S. playwright and lyricist. He collaborated with Frederick Loewe on several musicals including My Fair Lady (1956) and Camelot (1960)." There's also a listing for Loewe.

• Posted at 12:56 AM · LINK