Thursday, September 4, 2003

Doonesbury Abuse

Coming up in the Doonesbury comic strip is a sequence about masturbation that some newspapers are choosing not to carry. In this interview over on Salon, Garry Trudeau talks about such controversies. And if you don't subscribe to Salon or don't feel like sitting through its advertising to read the last two paragraphs of this short piece, Trudeau says some of the same things over at Daryl Cagle's comic strip weblog.

• Posted at 9:53 PM · LINK

All It's Cracked Up To Be

Thousands of imitations of Mad Magazine have come and gone: Sick, Nuts, Up Your Nose, Blast, National Review, Crazy, etc. The longest running, which is still hanging in there, is Cracked. It started in 1958 and still manages to push out an issue once in a while. Here's a link to the magazine's website. Here's a link to a gallery that claims it will eventually display every single cover from the magazine. And here's a link to an article about the current publisher and the state of his magazine. I admire the endurance and at times, even the contents.

• Posted at 9:15 PM · LINK

Back in Black

It's a little out of date but here's a video link to Lewis Black's commentary on the New York blackout. RealPlayer required and all that.

• Posted at 2:53 PM · LINK

Important Message

• Posted at 3:42 AM · LINK

A Website Well Worth Watching

I always enjoy a visit to Jim Hill Media, a fun site devoted to cartoons — primarily Disney but others, as well. You'll find a lot to read there but I'd like to recommend...

A report on the recent ASIFA tribute to the late 'n' great Daws Butler. I was unable to make it to the evening, which was also a kick-off party for a new book of scripts that Daws wrote for his acting workshops. (You can order the book over here on Joe Bev's Daws Butler website, by the way.)
My old pal Jim Korkis was once commissioned to author a history of the American comic book. It didn't get printed then so he's serializing it here. Here's a link to the first part.
Jim Korkis also authored this piece about Walt Disney and his appearance before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
The story of how Splash Mountain at Disneyland came to be.

Since the site uses frames, some of those links may not work in all browsers. But if you go to the site's front page, you should be able to find those articles (and much more you'll enjoy) from there.

• Posted at 1:16 AM · LINK

In Another League

One fun thing about watching Game Show Network's "Black and White Overnight" programming block is that you often get a chunk of history as it was happening. Last night, GSN ran a What's My Line? from September of 1959 and one of the guests was Branch Rickey, a major behind-the-scenes figure in the history of baseball. Rickey had a brief career as a player but he moved into coaching and also got a law degree. Eventually, he ran a number of baseball teams, including the Brooklyn Dodgers where he helped bust the color barrier by signing Jackie Robinson. In 1959, he was engaged in an attempt to start a third major league — the Continental League, which was to compete alongside the American and National Leagues. On the What's My Line?, we heard Bennett Cerf ask him, "How about that third league?" and Rickey replied, "Inevitable as tomorrow morning." He had then filled five of the new league's projected eight-team roster. Deals were in place to launch teams in New York, Houston, Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Toronto, and Rickey said he had other cities lining up, and that the Continental League would play a full schedule in 1961.

It didn't. Though the Continental League filled out its list with projected teams in Honolulu, Atlanta and Dallas, there were battles with the already-established leagues, battles in Congress and lawsuits. A compromise was finally worked out whereby the National and American Leagues would each expand by two teams, some of them in cities that had been slated to have Continental League squads. (The planned New York team, which had already signed to play in Shea Stadium, became the Mets.) That was the end of the Continental League, and Branch Rickey died a few years later. In 1967, he was elected to the Hall of Fame, largely because of his work in bringing black players into the ranks of the major league.

• Posted at 12:37 AM · LINK

Happy Scott Shaw Day!

Today, in lieu of buying him a present, I note the birthday of my longtime pal, Scott Shaw! I believe I met Scott at Jack Kirby's home in 1970 and, yes, he even signed his name with the exclamation point back then. Our meeting came at a time when Jack and his wife Roz had an unfortunate habit: If anyone called up and said, "I want to meet Jack Kirby," they got an invite. A few folks rather grotesquely abused the Kirby hospitality. (Once, an acquaintance asked if he could bring some of his friends along, Roz said yes, and the guy not only showed up with 20 people but expected to stay the entire day and be served lunch.) But it was worth it for Jack and Roz when, as often happened, they got to host and encourage a young writer or artist with talent, and then see that person blossom into a full-fledged professional. Such a blossoming occurred with Scott who, though he has rarely ventured near the kind of comics that Kirby made famous, certainly learned something from proximity to Jack and managed to apply it. To celebrate Scott Shaw Day, why not drop by his Oddball Comics site, read some recent listings and post a message on the message board? And if you really want to commemorate the day, take a gorilla to lunch.

Later this week, instead of buying Sergio Aragonés a present, I'll note his birthday, as well.

• Posted at 12:08 AM · LINK

September 5, 2003 • Current • September 3, 2003