Thursday, April 7, 2005

Will and Testament

Gary Sassaman reports on the Will Eisner Memorial held today in New York. Wish I could have been there.

• Posted at 10:02 PM · LINK

Dale Messick, R.I.P.

Dale Messick, creator of the long-running newspaper strip Brenda Starr has died, a few days before what would have been her 99th birthday. As I mentioned here, her strip "was drawn with great energy and humor, and the writing stands up far better than many strips of its era." It is also worth noting that her career represented a triumph over the inane notion that a woman's work has, by definition, less worth than a man's. She shouldn't have had to change her signature from Dalia Messick to the more ambiguous Dale to get her work accepted but by the time most folks found out Dale was a lady, she'd proven she could do a newspaper strip as well as the above-average male. Here's a link to one of several obits that are now available on the web with more info about this remarkable lady.

• Posted at 11:56 AM · LINK

WGA Warfare

The battle between the east and west wings of the Writers Guild of America has gotten nastier, as such battles tend to do. For background on this, you might want to click here but maybe a quick summary will suffice. The large WGAw and the smaller WGAe are quarreling over the enforcement of some old constitutional provisions. The WGAw thinks it is owed a large sum of money for services it has provided to WGAe and that a number of WGAe members are legally obligated to join WGAw. The WGAe thinks that this is a not-so-subtle attack on their independence and probably part of a larger plan by WGAw to take over the WGAe.

There is a constitutionally mandated mediation process which should be settling this, and the rules say that mediation should be commencing next week. The WGAe has suggested delaying until July. The WGAw is arguing over some conditions before agreeing to that postponement. The WGAe accuses them of adding "last minute terms," although it would seem to be the WGAe's fault that this was all not discussed sooner. The WGAw accuses them of not being serious about mediating at all and of stalling.

For a time, the WGAe looked like the more reasonable of the two but they've begun taking divisive ads out in the industry trade papers accusing the WGAw of being divisive. The latest one, which I think owes John Kerry an author credit and royalties, accuses the WGAw of declaring war on WGAe and says, quote: "It's the WRONG war at the WRONG time, against the WRONG enemy."

Although I'm a member of the WGAw, I'm not necessarily on that side. I guess my main view is that it's a pretty sad state of affairs that two organizations that exist to settle disputes with our employers cannot even begin to settle one between themselves. There may be a good argument for a merger at some point but a strong, united labor organization is not going to quickly result from a hostile takeover.

• Posted at 10:43 AM · LINK

Premiere Problems

I attended the premiere last week of Frank Miller's Sin City with a certain amount of trepidation...which was replaced by a lot of relief when I found myself liking it. I'll tell you all about both emotions in a piece I originally posted here but have since moved over to NOTES from me.

• Posted at 12:36 AM · LINK