Thursday, October 23, 2003

Recommended Reading

Looks like I'm not going to win my bet about Donald Rumsfeld changing jobs this week. But as Fred Kaplan notes, someone's got a lot of explaining to do.

• Posted at 3:51 PM · LINK

Happy Birthday, Nick Cardy!

Nick Cardy is one of the great comic book illustrators of all time. Has anyone ever drawn a handsomer hero than his Aquaman? A sexier heroine than his Wonder Girl? I think not. If you doubt me, you can see many examples of Nick's fine work over at his website.

Nick turned 83 a few days ago. I just called him to wish him at least 83 more, and we had a long, lovely chat because Nick loves to talk. (The first time I interviewed him on a convention panel, he was nervous before. He kept saying, "I can't speak in public...what am I going to say? You'll have to ask a lot of questions to get anything out of me." As I've learned, this is a sure sign that the person is going to start talking and, much to the audience's delight, not shut up. Went through this with Nick. Went through it with Will Elder. Went through it with Al Williamson. When they say that, I know they don't need me there.)

Anyway, Happy Eighty-Third to Nick Cardy, renderer of Aquaman, Teen Titans, Bat Lash, Congo Bill, Tomahawk and so many more. What a fine gentleman.

• Posted at 3:46 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Michael Kinsley describes what seems like a great reason for his personal dislike of George W. Bush.

• Posted at 12:48 PM · LINK

The Fox Cartoon News

Here's a story that was posted today in a weblog staffed by reporters for The Dallas Morning-News. The direct link to the story is here but since their site has a lot of link glitches, I'm going to post it in full. It's by a writer named Jim Frisinger...

Fox News loves lawyers all right. Cartoonist and The Simpsons godfather Matt Groenig tells this story on Terry Gross' Fresh Air today (and repeated tonignt on KERA at 7 p.m.) Seems The Simpsons did a Fox News parody, including use of the news crawl on the cartoon segment. Fox News threatened to sue. (Sounds like Al Franken all over again.) The Simpsons stood firm. Fox News backed down. Mr. Groenig figured Fox mobul Rupert Murdoch saw no percentage in the suit: Fox News suing a program appearing on the Fox Network. Hmmm. But if I heard the interview correctly, you won't see any new episodes with the Fox News crawl under Homer and Bart's antics: as a policy matter the network asked the cartoon to drop the concept because viewers might be confused that they're watching real news. I did not make this up.

And I don't think Matt did, either. I think Fox was just worried that viewers would realize that Homer Simpson had more credibility than Brit Hume. And seemed more lifelike.

(P.S. Yes, I know it's Matt Groening, not Groenig. But the reporter didn't.)

• Posted at 12:09 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Ronald Brownstein on something that I think is necessary and inevitable in this country: Universal Health Coverage.

• Posted at 10:05 AM · LINK

Startling Revelation

Today's Daily Variety has an article about this award I'm receiving from the Writers Guild tonight. It's in the subscription-only area of their website and I don't feel like quoting it here, but I was amazed to read the first sentence and discover an interesting fact about myself. In my stock bio which I furnished to the Guild, the next to last line includes the following phrase...

[Evanier] has received three Emmy nominations (no wins).

Can't get much clearer than that. Nevertheless, the story in Variety begins...

Three-time Emmy winner Mark Evanier has been tapped for the sixth annual animation writing award by the WGA West's Animation Writers Caucus. The kudo will be presented tonight by the caucus at its annual reception.

I know it was a harmless mistake but I just cringe at stuff like this. There are people in this world who claim honors they really didn't receive and I'd hate for anyone to think either that I'd won three Emmys or that I was like Bill O'Reilly, bragging about two fictitious Peabody Awards. Maybe it's not a big gaffe but as a recent recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, I'm somewhat embarrassed.

• Posted at 2:55 AM · LINK

Another Pitch For Donations

Traffic at this site is way, way up to the point where I have been exceeding my allotted bandwidth and the hosting service has started to charge me more money. I am therefore making another of those shameless suggestions that you either send me some money via PayPal or place your Amazon purchases through one of my links.

(Special Bargain Hint: Amazon has a special Evanier two-fer in progress that will benefit those of you who haven't purchased my books, Comic Books And Other Necessities of Life and Wertham Was Right. Individually, they sell them for $12.95 and $11.66, which mean that to buy both would cost you $24.61. But on either page, there's a special offer which will get you both books for...$24.61, a savings of absolutely nothing. But it will at least feel like you're getting a bargain, and if you spend 39 cents for something else, the order will qualify for free shipping.)

Also, I haven't mentioned it here but we have one of those affiliate deals with Movies Unlimited, which has a huge selection of videotapes and DVDs, sometimes at better prices than you'll find at Amazon. If you click on the name here, it will take you to their site and then we'll get a tiny commission on whatever you order there.

By the way: Someone asked me about the privacy of these affiliate referral deals, and the answer is that I get a list of what folks order there but not the names of the buyers. For instance, my current report with Amazon tells me that in the last thirty days, users of this site have ordered ten copies of The Complete Far Side, nine copies of National Lampoon's 1964 High School Yearbook Parody, seven copies each of Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book and my pal Alan Brennert's novel Moloka'i, and a whole mess of Groo books and individual items, but I have no idea who bought what. I don't even know which of you bought this. And I don't want to know.

• Posted at 1:01 AM · LINK