Monday, February 16, 2004

Recommended Reading

Here's a good profile of a very fine actor named David Paymer. I worked with David on a series a few years ago and thought he was an absolute joy.

• Posted at 9:40 PM · LINK

Kiddie Komix

One of the great unsung comic books of the past is Little Archie, as written and drawn by Bob Bolling. At arm's length, it seems like a dumb idea for a comic. To the extent the teenage Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, Reggie and the rest of the gang were entertaining, it was because they dealt with all the travails of their age bracket: Dating, high school, cars, etc. And of course, there was always the fact that the girls, especially as drawn by Dan DeCarlo, were so gosh-durn sexy. So you'd figure the kiddie version, which loses all that, would be a quadruple snooze...and in the hands of anyone other than Bolling, yes, that's what it would have been. But using a few remnants of the teen formula, Bolling managed to craft a very personal little franchise, occasionally generating actual, on-the-page suspense. Through sheer cleverness and dedication, he managed to make his characters very real and avoid the "generic" feel that so many Archie comics had in script and art. It's really a body of work deserving of more attention.

And this week, it's getting some over at Scott Shaw!'s beloved Oddball Comics page at Comic Book Resources. All week, Scott spotlights Little Archie in all his glory. Good stuff.

• Posted at 6:46 PM · LINK

Rumors

Two things distress me about these rumors that John Kerry had an affair with an intern, and neither makes me more or less likely to vote for him. One is that it's only February. Kerry doesn't even have the nomination and the attacks have already reached this level. I hate to think what we're going to be hearing about him and his running mate by October, especially if they're ahead, and I'm no more thrilled about the quantity of mud that will be lobbed back at Bush-Cheney or Bush-Whoever. (I'm guessing we haven't heard a lot of Democratic attacks on Cheney lately because they want to wait until it's too late to dump him from the ticket before they launch the TV spots that say, "Our men and women are dying in Iraq because of inadequate equipment while Cheney and Halliburton line their pockets with money from the Defense Budget." Anyone think we won't be subjected to that sales pitch?)

The other thing that bothers me is that the rumors about Kerry and this lady seem to have come out of absolutely nowhere. There are no secret tapes, no stained dress, no appointment logs that show Kerry and this woman in the same location at the same time. I'm not even sure there are any witnesses who ever saw them together. Someone somewhere said Kerry was involved with an intern and that was enough for some folks to run with it. On some of the Conservative sites, it's now an accepted truth...and if it's denied by everyone involved or can't be proven, well, that just shows what Kerry's money and power can accomplish.

I'm always suspicious of any charge that (a) serves the cause of the parties doing the charging and (b) is configured such that it can never really be disproven. How does Kerry prove the charge is bogus? Come up with a photo of them not having sex?

The charges that George W. Bush was AWOL in the National Guard have occasionally dipped to the same level. Yeah, there's some paperwork (and therefore, potential proof) there but the people pursuing the story seem unwilling to consider, for example, that government files and paperwork could be legitimately missing. Or that some of the data on the records that do exist might just be wrong. Certainly, some of the witnesses who are coming forth to confirm or deny Bush's version of things are exhibiting a shaky, though perhaps earnestly-believed grasp of dates. I wish politics could mature beyond the level where if someone says something that hurts your guy, he's obviously lying...and if someone says something that hurts the other side, it's an established, incontrovertible fact.

• Posted at 5:48 PM · LINK

New Site for DC Fans

Some ambitious folks are attempting to catalog every TV and film appearance of every DC comic book character with what they call The DC Live Action List, even though it includes cartoon voices. Whatever, it's a valuable resource.

• Posted at 3:48 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Here are Eric Alterman and Michael Tomasky discussing how reporters ought to actually be doing some reporting instead of taking dictation from those in power.

• Posted at 11:09 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

One of the things Bill Clinton did that I didn't like was his embrace of the "V-Chip." Nice to see that now that they're required on all TV sets, almost no one's using them.

• Posted at 10:54 AM · LINK

Subtle Hint...

• Posted at 12:22 AM · LINK

Pussycat Puzzlers

Some time ago (here) I recommended you waste a few hours of your too, too-short life on an online game. Over at the Garfield website, you can play Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt. And then, after you agonize your way through that puzzle, you can throw good time after bad and play Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt II. I enjoyed both enough to write up little walkthrough solutions. If you need one, drop me an e-mail. But try to solve it yourself before you do. Neither is that difficult and you'll be happier if you figure them out for yourself.

• Posted at 12:20 AM · LINK