Monday, August 18, 2003

Comic Artist Website of the Day

I first knew Rick Parker as one of the better letterers in comics. One day, I heard a friend in the business say he wished they'd fire Rick Parker. I asked why. The friend said, "Because he's an incredible cartoonist and he should be drawing, not lettering other folks' work." Shortly after, I saw some Rick Parker artwork and had to agree. You can see some Rick Parker artwork at his website. You'll agree, too.

• Posted at 11:59 PM · LINK

Small Matter

From tomorrow morning's New York Times, in the "corrections" section...

An editorial on Saturday misstated the projected federal deficit over the next decade. It is $4 trillion or more, not $4 billion.

No comment.

• Posted at 11:21 PM · LINK

Flagrant Disregard for the Law

I just received an e-mail message from someone who has this as a "signature" block, meaning that it is automatically appended to every message they send out:

The information contained in this e-mail message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the designated recipients. This e-mail message and/or any attachments thereto may be confidential, legally privileged under one or more statutes, and/or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the person reading this message is not an intended recipient, they are hereby notified that any review, use, disclosure, dissemination, publication, forwarding or copying of this e-mail message and/or attachments or taking of any action in reliance on the contents therein is strictly prohibited. They are instructed to notify the sender promptly by e-mail or telephone, and to immediately delete the original message and all attachments from their system.

That was at the bottom of the message. Here is the entire text of the message this person sent me...

Really enjoying your reviews of the Dick Van Dyke Show comic books. Keep up the good work.

I am quoting the above just paragraph only to be in violation of the one before. Come and get me, coppers.

• Posted at 5:36 PM · LINK

Just Set My TiVo...

...to record The Smoking Gun TV, which debuts this Wednesday on Court TV. I like the website. I like Mo Rocca, who serves as host and lead reporter. I'm guessing I'll like the show.

• Posted at 2:14 PM · LINK

Fade to Gray

Over at this website, you can read the statement Gray Davis has submitted for the ballot, arguing as to why he should not be recalled. It pretty much demonstrates why this guy is probably heading for the unemployment line. It's a dreadful statement...

He reminds voters of his years of service as an Army Captain in Vietnam, State Controller, Lieutenant Governor and now as Governor. But voters never doubted that the guy had a lot of experience. No one who thinks he should be recalled is going to say, "Hey, wait a minute! I didn't know the guy had been State Controller!"

He harps on the cost of the recall. That was a great reason not to have one, but it's too late for that argument. We're having one. The money's being spent, whether Davis goes or not. If he was going to bring this up, he should have said something like, "If this succeeds, it could trigger a lot more costly, wasteful recall votes."

He says, "Because there are so many candidates on the ballot, the next governor could be elected with less than 15% of the vote! And voters won't know who the replacement would be when they vote on the recall." That's not a bad point but it would be more effective if he said, "While voters must always have the right to recall elected officials who commit crimes in office, this particular recall procedure is flawed by design. A public official could be removed from office because only 49% of the voters wish to retain him and he could then be replaced by a candidate who gets 10 or 15% of the vote. That's not how Democracy is supposed to work."

Beyond that, the essence of his case is that Republicans have caused a lot of our problems. And while that may be true, it does raise the musical question, "If you haven't been able to prevent the damage in the past, how are you going to be able to repair it in the future? Especially if you survive with only slightly more than half of the electorate that doesn't want to see you tossed out?"

Before I read the statement, I thought that if Davis took an aggressive stance and vowed to track down the Enron-like guys who bilked the state of billions, he might at least be able to reverse the direction of his poll numbers. Now, I'm thinking he's just going to wither away on us.

• Posted at 12:41 PM · LINK

The Rules of Attraction

Here's a website that will interest fans of adventure newspaper strips. It's called "The Rules of Attraction" and it gives us a nice overview of illustrators like Stan Drake and Ken Bald who brought a dramatic, realistic look to the funny pages. (Thanks to Wayne DeWald for calling it to my attention. Nice meeting you in San Diego too, Wayne.)