Tuesday, June 24, 2003

Comic Artist Website of the Day

Sorry...I'm behind on these. In my recently-released book, Mad Art, I praise many of the "new generation" of artists who have joined The Usual Gang of Idiots in Mad Magazine. One of the most impressive is a gent who is quite worthy to have his caricatures appear alongside those of Jack Davis and Mort Drucker...and that's about the best compliment I can give a guy who draws silly likenesses of people for a living. His name's Tom Richmond and you can see a sample of what he does so well over at his website.

• Posted at 12:13 PM · LINK

Book Reviews

I just read Sidney Blumenthal's book, The Clinton Wars — which like most book titles that are underlined on the Internet can be ordered from Amazon by clicking its name. I may say more about it here later but I have been saved the task of writing a review now since Richard Cohen has written one that summarizes my feelings exactly.

While I'm at it: I'm currently working my way through An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 by Robert Dallek. Portions of it are a little dry, especially as it works its way through bare bones historical details. One thing that does interest me is Dallek's account of Lyndon Johnson accepting the vice-presidential nomination in 1960. All the other books I've ever read have said that L.B.J. was dragged kicking and screaming into the second position on the ticket and they quote various Democratic officials as bracing him and telling him that for the good of country, party and Nixon-defeating, he had to accept what he considered a humiliating offer. Dallek however has Johnson manuevering to be picked, telling a friend that taking the veep slot was the only conceivable route for him ever to become President. I dunno if this is the truth or if the other version is correct — and with Johnson, it was not out of the question for two mutually-exclusive facts to be true — but this intrigued me.

• Posted at 12:00 PM · LINK

Big Daws Event

More details have been posted about the July 31st book signing in Glendale, California. This is the unveiling of a new book of scripts by the late, great voice actor Daws Butler, Scenes for Actors and Voices. Several of Daws's fine students will be demonstrating what these scripts sound like when expertly performed.

• Posted at 10:55 AM · LINK

Don't Know Much About History Channel...

...but I do know that they rerun everything forever. So I wasn't worried that I didn't set the TiVo for their big 2-hour special on the history of super-heroes last night. It runs again several times this coming weekend. A hint if you're going to try to catch it: Some airings list it as Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked and some list it as an episode of a show called History's Mysteries. My guide says it's on Saturday at 5:00 PM and 9:00 PM and Sunday at 3:00 PM. Depending on your time zone and cable company, things may vary.

• Posted at 9:47 AM · LINK

June 25, 2003 • Current • June 23, 2003