Friday, October 3, 2003

Cleverest TV Comedy of the Week

The "Even Stephen" debate on Thursday's episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. If and when they post an online video clip, I'll link to it. (It's the episode with Rob Lowe as guest but nothing on any website tips me as to which reruns in the next few days might be that one. They seem to repeat whatever shows they like in whatever order strikes them at the moment.)

• Posted at 7:10 PM · LINK

You're Not Yet Available, Charlie Brown

Looks like the Fantagraphics folks have a winner. Since I posted the previous message, I've received an even dozen messages saying, "I went over to their website and I can't find a place to order The Complete Peanuts." That's right, you can't. As I noted, they haven't announced the price yet. That obviously means they aren't taking orders yet. But when they are, I'll announce it here and we can all go over and sign up.

• Posted at 6:23 PM · LINK

You're an Old Man, Charlie Brown

Just realized I haven't mentioned this. A lot of us are about to make a large monetary commitment to Fantagraphics Books, which is about to commence publishing The Complete Peanuts. Two hardcover volumes a year, commencing in April of 2004. Each will contain two full years of Charles Schulz's wonderful strip in chronological order (the first volume will contain more than that). The books will be in a horizontal format and each page will contain either three dailies or one Sunday page, both in black-and-white.

A surprising percentage of these strips have never been reprinted anywhere, not even in those wonderful dollar paperbacks some of us used to collect as kids. Subscribers will get their books early and receive bonus stuff, as well. They haven't announced the pricetag yet but I'll be surprised if we don't all think it's worth the cost.

The early volumes should be of special interest. Most folks are unaware how many changes Charlie Brown and his friends went through before Schulz figured out what he was doing. There are strips where Snoopy talks, wears clothes and is not owned by Mr. Brown. Linus and Lucy change ages faster than a Gabor sister, only in the opposite direction. I always thought Peanuts, like a great many strips, lost a lot of its charm when you got it one-a-day in a newspaper and got it back when the strips were collected to be enjoyed in a continuous read. So I'm looking forward to this and also to seeing the evolution of the characters and of Charles Schulz, as well.

• Posted at 2:53 PM · LINK

For the Record...

In the interest of accuracy, I should clarify my earlier item that said the chairman of the Republican National Committee had agreed that the current scandal (regarding leaking) was "worse than Watergate." Here is the exact quote of what Ed Gillespie said on the MSNBC series, Hardball...

MATTHEWS: Well, of course, this whole thing started with something. Do you think this is bigger or smaller than a burglary, a third rate burglary? I mean, the fact that someone being caught exposed as a spy for the United States, do you think that's more serious or not than some burglary like Watergate? I mean, I'm serious. Don't you think it is more serious than Watergate, if you think about it?

GILLESPIE: I think if the allegation is true, to reveal the identity of an undercover CIA operative is abhorrent. And it should be a crime and it is a crime.

MATTHEWS: It would be worse than Watergate, wouldn't it?

GILLESPIE: You know, I just...yes, I suppose in terms of the real world implications of it.

I don't think the way I posted it was inaccurate but one person thought it was misleading. I see so many misleading quotes on the Internet that I wanted to err on the side of accuracy. Here's a link to the entire transcript if you're interested, but I thought that was the only significant thing said in the whole show.

• Posted at 2:49 AM · LINK

Stamp Out Silly Promotions

In 1974-1976, the folks at Marvel Comics ran a promotion which was amazingly successful when you consider that it hinged on getting devoted Marvel readers to deface their comics. It involved something they called Marvel Value Stamps, which weren't really stamps. They were just little stamp-like pictures of various players in the Marvel Universe. You cut them out of your comics and pasted them, using your own paste, in a booklet. There were a hundred in the first set and once you'd maimed and ruined 100 perfectly good comic books and glued the clippings into the booklet, you got...well, almost nothing.

There was some sort of 10% discount on some Marvel merchandise but in order to qualify for it, you had to mail in this booklet you'd spent months compiling with a stamped, self-addressed envelope so they could validate it and send it back to you with your discount coupon, and I don't think many fans bothered. Many probably felt foolish that they'd bothered to collect all 100 "stamps" at all but a lot of kids did. For more on this shameless bit of funnybook hype, consult this website which displays all the stamps plus vital info on the whole silly program. Especially read the page entitled, "How Marvel Convinced Us To Cut Up Our Comics."

• Posted at 12:44 AM · LINK

October 4, 2003 • Current • October 2, 2003