Sunday, December 19, 2004

Today's Political Rant

Time Magazine has named George W. Bush its "Man of the Year." This is not necessarily an honor. The stated criteria is that it denotes the person who, in the view of the magazine's editors, "for better or worse, has most influenced events in the preceding year." Past recipients include a lot of great men who made the world better but on the list, you will also find the names of Hitler, Stalin, Krushchev, Ayatollah Khomeini and many more.

At the moment, Drudge and many Conservative sites have up a picture of Bush flanked by Roosevelt and Churchill, as if to suggest he has been voted as in their league. That's kinda dishonest. For that matter, these are all sites that never thought the opinion of Time Magazine was worth a tin nickel.

But never mind that. I am a little puzzled by this paragraph in the Time announcement...

Interview with Former President and First Lady: "Michael Moore's got to be the worst for me," former President George H.W. Bush tells Time's Hugh Sidey when asked about the low point of this last term. "I mean, he's such a slimeball and so atrocious. But I love the fact now that the Democrats are not embracing him as theirs anymore. He might not get invited to sit in Jimmy Carter's box (at the Democratic Convention) again. I wanted to get up my nerve to ask Jimmy Carter at the Clinton thing (the opening of Bill Clinton's library), 'How did it feel being there with that marvelous friend of yours, Michael Moore?' and I didn't dare do it."

Did the former president actually say this? The low point of the last four years was that someone put out a movie criticizing his son? That was a lower point than the 9/11 attacks where so many people died and so many more were affected for the worse? That was a lower point than his son having to send American soldiers to die in a war? Gosh. I'd like to think that quote is way outta context.

• Posted at 1:10 PM · LINK

Ben Oda Lives!

This is the kind of thing only I would notice. In fact, it covers two of my many aberrant fields of interest. One is the way in which the influence of comic books has crept into mass culture. The other is the art of comic book lettering, a craft which has had many distinguished practitioners. My favorite may be the late Ben Oda who, for decades, held the world's record for the most pages of comic books lettered and probably also the trophy for lettering the most newspaper strips. (I believe John Costanza has since passed him in the comic book division.) Oda was the letterer for Simon and Kirby for many years and also for Harvey Kurtzman on the books he did for EC and for the early issues of Creepy and Eerie and for thousands of comics for Western Publishing and DC and for...

Well, you get the idea. The first two illustrations above are pages from the very first issue of Mad, which was published in 1952. For the story titles in most of the stories that ran in the early, Kurtzman-edited comic book version of Mad, Oda used a distinctive style that he'd developed. He'd used it before in Kurtzman's war comics for EC, Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted Tales, and Harvey apparently liked it. For Mad, Oda made it a little looser but it was the same basic style, and he also did a slight variation on it for the cover logo. He later employed it on many other comic art projects he lettered over the years...and I'm not going to suggest he invented it. Odds are that he adapted it from something he's seen on a poster or in a calligraphy book or somewhere. But it became an integral part of his lettering repertoire and when I see it anywhere, I associate it with Ben, especially on the early Mad.

The third picture at right above is the poster for a forthcoming movie called Racing Stripes, which I gather is about a zebra that runs horse races. I saw the poster go by on a bus yesterday and I instantly thought, "Ben Oda!" But I'm guessing it didn't come directly from someone who'd seen his work. Before I tell you where I think they got it from, here's a closer look at some of the lettering on the poster...

As you can see, the "A" and the "S" are a little different, but these are both variants that Ben sometimes used. It's represented both ways in a font set that has been designed and marketed by Richard Starkings over at Comicraft. Richard is the undisputed king of lettering comic books via computer and many of the styles he employs (and sometimes sells) are inspired by great hand lettering of the past. His "That's All, Folks" font conveys the essence of this particular style that Oda used so well. Here's a sample of the Comicraft version...

It's really a great font, and I'm guessing that it was used by whoever designed the key art for Racing Stripes...though I wish they'd chosen the "I" that doesn't have serifs on it instead of the one that's only supposed to only be used when the "I" stands alone and not as part of a word. At least, they got it right in Joe Pantoliano's name. For what it's worth, I used the same font from Comicraft to make the "COMICS" logo I have over on this page, though I did a little more tweaking and fiddling with it.

That's really all I have to say about this and I apologize if you read this far, thinking there was more to it than there is. I just thought it was neat that the penwork of Ben Oda inspired a computer font and is now, in turn, part of the ad campaign for a major motion picture. It's impressive enough when a comic book story becomes a movie...but for its lettering to make it to Hollywood is quite an achievement.

• Posted at 3:19 AM · LINK

Freeze Peach

Speaking of the First Amendment, as I think I just was, The Sundance Channel has a nice film festival going on lately. It's called "The First Amendment Project" and it's a series of films about the lead-off clause in the Bill of Rights. At the moment, I'm watching and enjoying No Joking, a too-short-but-sweet documentary by Bob Balaban (right...the guy who used to make his living playing Warren Littlefield) about Lenny Bruce and The Smothers Brothers and other comedians who got in trouble for saying things. Among those who bat around the topic are Eric Bogosian, Richard Dreyfuss, Ed Begley Jr...and Jules Feiffer, whose name is unfortunately misspelled when they superimpose it. (My TiVo listing also says Mort Sahl and Janeane Garofolo are supposed to be in it but I didn't see them.) Still, it's a nice little look at the topic and it airs again later today and tomorrow. Well worth a tune-in, especially if you're one of the ninety people in America who get The Sundance Channel.

• Posted at 1:47 AM · LINK

December 18, 2004 • Current • December 20, 2004