Monday, November 24, 2003

Lazlo Lives!

Here's an Interview with Don Novello...writer and performer for Saturday Night Live, creator of Father Guido Sarducci and "Lazlo Toth, American," and candidate for Governor of California. Don't thank me for noticing it. Thank Kevin Walsh.

• Posted at 10:06 PM · LINK

Todd and Twist

For some time now, comic book entrepreneur Todd McFarlane has been locked in a legal dispute with hockey player Tony Twist. Briefly: McFarlane named a villain in one of his comic books after Twist as a sort of in-joke and (he said) tribute. Twist sued, claiming that his right of publicity had been violated by the use of his name. McFarlane won a lower-court decision on the grounds that his use of Twist's name fell within the purview of the First Amendment. The Missouri Supreme Court reversed that judgment and reinstated a huge cash award to Twist, asserting that since this involved merchandise and not commentary, the First Amendment did not apply. McFarlane's attorneys are attempting to get the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and reverse the Missouri Supreme Court, and briefs are now being filed to urge for or against this intervention.

Attorney Eugene Volokh writes one of the most-read legal weblogs on the Internet. Here, he summarizes the case and provides this link to an Adobe PDF file of the brief he is filing on behalf of Michael Crichton, Larry David, Jeremiah Healy, Elmore Leonard, Harry Shearer, Ron Shelton, Scott Turow, Paul Weitz, and the Authors Guild, Inc. They all believe that the lower Missouri court was right and the Missouri Supreme Court was wrong. Here's a link to the latter's decision.

For what it's worth, I'm with Todd on this. And as I said elsewhere, I'm amazed that there are a few folks in the comic book business who ought to be on his side but, in a burst of schadenfreude, are rooting against him. If he loses this one, we all lose. (Thank you, Bob Cosgrove, for calling my attention to Volokh's posting.)

• Posted at 9:59 PM · LINK

Commie Comix

Treasure Chest was a comic book published from 1946 through 1972 by George A. Pflaum and the Catholic Guild, and distributed to kids in Catholic schools. It usually came out bi-weekly during the school year and was crammed full of stories that promoted pretty much the kind of worldview you'd expect. There were some lovely historical tales and some very preachy tracts. Among those who contributed splendid artwork to the book were Joe Sinnott, Dick Giordano, Fran Matera, Bernard Baily, Bob Powell and even EC Comics' own "Ghastly" Graham Ingels. It is likely that the editorial board of Treasure Chest would not have approved of some of the comics those men had drawn for other publishers, like "The Spectre" or Tales From the Crypt.

Beginning in '61, the Catholic funnybook got even more political than usual with a serial called "The Godless Communism" that summarized almost every hysterical fear that the John Birch Society then voiced about the Commies. (One is reminded of John Wayne's definition of a fanatic: Someone so right-wing they made him want to move to Moscow.) Today, the series is an amusing relic that is best appreciated for its fine artwork by Reed Crandall, who was best known for his work for EC and on Blackhawk. Reportedly, Crandall did not see the irony in contrasting the message of this series with those other assignments...or even some of the work he did later for Creepy and Eerie. The entire "Godless Communism" series can be read online here.

This gem can be found on a pop culture website called The Authentic History Center which also features a display of comic books about atomic energy and bombs, a section about comics of the seventies, and comic books about 9/11. There are also some fascinating pages that have nothing to do with comic books, so wade around there. And my thanks to the fine comedy writer, Marvin Silbermintz, for letting me know about this site. And why do I have the feeling they didn't distribute Treasure Chest at his school?

• Posted at 9:36 PM · LINK

Your Webmaster is Lame

Posting was light today as I spent a lot of time with men of medicine. I have developed a heel spur on my left foot and if you don't know what that is, believe me: You don't want one. The inflammation comes and goes but there were times today when it hurt so much, I literally could not walk. A specialist took x-rays, issued me crutches and a Handicapped Parking Placard, and send me off to mend. This is going to take a few weeks, if not months. On the other hand, it may lead to more posts here because I won't be leaving the house as often. So my pain may be your gain.

• Posted at 8:32 PM · LINK

Orenthal James Jackson

In almost record time for this kind of thing, I have reached my saturation level of the Michael Jackson matter. With O.J., there came a time when I said to myself, "Self...if you try to follow this thing, you won't get any work done for months." The reason was not so much the trial as the case itself and the ancillary exploitation. There was such a public curiosity about that trial, and a willingness to watch and buy as much of it as they could get that the media complied and made it as voluminous as possible, dragging in peripheral matters, examining details to the nth degree and turning out a parade of "experts" who all wanted a piece of it. (As you can guess, I think we're too quick to fault the press for giving us that for which we create a market. If we didn't tune in and buy it, they wouldn't offer as much.)

L'Affaire O.J. case fascinated America because it had everything: Sex, race, drugs, a movie star, colorful hangers-on, rich people...even sports and a dog. The Jackson trial, assuming there is one, will have most of those same categories. As with O.J., there will be days when every single new development can be summarized in under five minutes, but Larry King will still try to fill sixty, while Fox, MSNBC and Court TV will devote whole days plus a nightly recap. We'll have books. We'll have dramatizations. We'll have "experts," many of them former O.J. experts who've been biding their time with less stellar tragedies like Jon Benet, Gary Condit, Robert Blake and Laci Peterson. At the end, regardless of the verdict, most of America will be asking, "Do you think he did it?"

You can watch if you want but I've decided to pay as little attention to it as I can. Check in regularly here to see if I make it.

• Posted at 8:12 PM · LINK

Barbara Weeks

Most people don't know her name today but for a few years there, Barbara Weeks was a movie star of minor incandesence. Some sources say that her screen debut was in the 1930 Whoopee! starring Eddie Cantor and Ethel Shutta. A former Ziegfeld Follies girl on Broadway, Ms. Weeks went uncredited in that film as did several other future stars, including Betty Grable and Ann Sothern. This was followed by several other uncredited bits but the next time Barbara Weeks shared a screen with Mr. Cantor, in the 1931 Palmy Days, she was up to co-star billing. Throughout the thirties, she was seen in small parts in several dozen movies, including Now I'll Tell, which starred Spencer Tracy and Alice Faye, and Pick A Star, in which Laurel and Hardy appeared. She also occasionally snared a lead in a B-movie, such as a Buck Jones western. Still, by 1938, either she was tired of Hollywood or Hollywood was tired of her. She traded her career for marriage and did such a good job of severing ties with the industry that in 1954, Variety published her obituary. This came as a shock to the former Barbara Weeks, now Barbara Cox, who was then working as a secretary at Douglas Aircraft and very much alive. Matter of fact, she was alive until July of this year, living peacefully as a landlady in Las Vegas. Fans occasionally tracked her down but otherwise, she had put that part of her life well behind her. Even her tenants didn't know that the lady who collected their rent had been a star. Here's a link to a long obituary that tells this lady's story.

• Posted at 12:48 AM · LINK