Sunday, July 31, 2005

Remembering Jack

Over at IGN (a fine site, well worth browsing every day), the eminent scribe and historian Peter Sanderson reports on the Jack Kirby Tribute Panel at this year's Comic-Con International.

I need to correct/clarify one thing about the upcoming Marvel book reprinting Fantastic Four #1 in a deluxe, coffee table format. Peter quotes me as saying "I wouldn't buy it if I were you." Perhaps I was misquoted but more likely, I just misspoke. I was explaining that I'd written a commentary piece for it, and I thought I was saying something like, "I wouldn't buy it because of that if I were you." I haven't seen any other part of the book so I have no idea if it will be worth the money. If you're thinking of purchasing a copy, don't let me stop you.

As Peter also mentions, I am nearing the home stretch on my massive biography of Mr. Kirby and will soon be putting it into what I call "beta-testing," meaning that I'll be asking selected folks to read it and rip it apart in search of errors, muddy phrasing, inanity and other elements that fit so perfectly into Groo but belong nowhere in a book about Jack Kirby. Before I get to that, I'll be setting up a little private forum/mailing list where folks who want to help me with research can do so. If you're one of those people who know old comics (especially Marvels of the sixties) better than you know your own family history and wish to volunteer, drop me a note.

• Posted at 8:43 PM · LINK

PayPal Aftermath

Remember my recent problems with PayPal? I received a number of e-mailed apologies from the company and then my postings here got picked up over on Harry McCracken's PC World blog. That prompted someone from PayPal to phone me to apologize...which I suppose is nice but really, apologies from total strangers are pretty worthless. I get them every time something goes wrong with a merchant, and they never make anything better, especially since the person apologizing to me had nothing to do with the screw-up.

I wish companies would realize that when they err, the thing they need to do is to assure the customer that efforts are being taken to make sure it doesn't happen again. A few times when there's been a reason for a business to tell me they're sorry, I hear from someone of sufficient rank to effect change and the person assures me that they understand the problem and are at least attempting to deal with it. That's nice. Even better is when they say something like, "Here's my direct phone number so you never have to languish on hold calling the 800 number again. Call me directly if you ever have another problem." If I were running a big company, I'd hire someone to be the Vice-President in Charge of Mollifying Pissed-Off Customers — though I wouldn't call them that — and have them act as ombudsmen for the victims of screw-ups committed elsewhere in the firm. Refunds and financial considerations are also good.

But I wish they'd stop acting like having a stranger apologize to you means something. I don't want to be stroked, at least not in that way. I want results.

• Posted at 12:27 PM · LINK

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Question of the Day

Hey, I liked his music, too. But is it really a good idea to name a post office after a blind guy?

• Posted at 8:17 PM · LINK

Tow Truck Troubles

Some of you may recall that two years ago, I had an ugly encounter with a predatory tow truck driver. I wrote about it here and this has prompted perhaps a hundred people, angry at similar incidents and scanning the web in search of remedies, to write me. Three or four even turned out to have been victimized by the same company that towed me.

I came to the sad conclusion at the time that nothing could be done about these practices. Apprently, a few things are now being done, as this article details.

• Posted at 7:40 PM · LINK

More on Pat

That's Pat McCormick towering over his friend and occasional partner, Paul Williams, in one of the Smokey and the Bandit movies. I think of him mainly as a writer but Pat did an awful lot of on-camera performing, in part because people just liked having him around.

Among his many attributes was that he always had some great, utterly topical joke. No matter what was in the news, Pat had a line about it, sometimes even in good taste. It was among the reasons for Mr. Carson to keep him on the payroll of The Tonight Show for years, regardless of what he handed in. The other writers on Johnny's staff were held to strict production quotas: You had to produce X number of monologue-worthy jokes each week or you were outta there...but the rule didn't apply to Pat. Rumor has it there were long stretches — months, sometimes — when Pat handed in nothing or at least, nothing useable. It was no secret that his life was a flurry of drink and drugs and women. For a time, he was involved with Johnny's "matinee lady," Carol Wayne, and was deeply affected when she died in a boating accident. Johnny reportedly never pressed Pat for material, telling his staff, "When he turns in something good, it'll be worth it."

You had to admire the speed. One day in 1992, I was driving over to a meeting with an agent. On the phone, I heard the sad news that singer-dancer Ben Vereen was in serious condition after having been struck by a car on a beachfront road just north of Los Angeles.

When I walked into the agent's office, Pat was in the waiting room. He walked up to me and said, "Mark, do you know how to get to Malibu?"

It sounded like a straight line so I said, "No, how?"

Pat said, "You go north on Pacific Coast Highway 'til you hit Ben Vereen..."

• Posted at 6:54 PM · LINK

Quiz Kids

Interested in game shows? Then you may want to attend Game Show Congress 4, a convention which is being held in Glendale, California on August 19-21. They'll have panels and screenings and games and they're presenting lifetime achievement awards to Monty Hall, Tom Kennedy and Jack Narz. Basically, it's a gathering of folks who love quiz programs and such.

Of special note is that on Saturday, my pal Stuart Shostak is hosting a panel discussion of key production members of the original NBC version of Concentration including the show runner and the all time champion contestant of the show. I'm a little busy that weekend but I may try to get out there for that. I always thought that was a great program.

The folks behind this gala weekend are looking to get as many game show fans there as possible, of course. But they also want to make contact with people who've worked in the game show industry who might be interested in being a part of it all. If you are one such person, you might want to contact them through their website.

• Posted at 2:53 PM · LINK

Macho Men

Many of you know Don LaFontaine as the husky, haunting voice of about ten million commercials and movie trailers. Alan Light (thanks, Alan) calls my attention to this funny video clip of Don and several other men who do what he does.

One of the gentlemen there is Mark Elliot, who is often referred to as The Voice of Disney. Most Disney trailers and ads are either done by him or by announcers who are told that's the desired sound. A lot of folks have written to ask who that is. It's Mark Elliot.

• Posted at 2:08 PM · LINK

True Crime Stories

Some of the best moments at the Comic-Con International this year came with the appearance of broadcasting legend Gary Owens on a couple of panels, including a spotlight conducted by Earl Kress and me. And Gary was quite a trouper to do all those things on Saturday because, as some of you may have heard, his not-inexpensive car was stolen that morning from the hotel where he was staying. I am happy to report that the car has been found, scratched and with some of its contents missing, but reasonably intact. The hotel will be paying for the necessary repairs and replacements...so while I wouldn't say it was a happy ending, it's not as bad as it might have been.

This is a leap but I am reminded of an anecdote I might as well post here. My father's car was stolen in the Summer of 1970. In fact — and there's no connection to the event but one reminds me of the other — it occurred on the Saturday of the first San Diego Comic Convention. I came home from the con to hear the news.

Amazingly, police caught the guy who'd done it and he plea-bargained on an understanding that committed him to only two or three months in jail. After he pled guilty on those terms, thinking he'd made a helluva deal, a U.S. attorney stepped in and charged him with stealing government property. My father worked for the Internal Revenue Service and his briefcase, which was full of paperwork, was in the trunk. Though he never even opened the trunk, the thief wound up serving six or seven years more for stealing something he didn't even know he'd stolen. I have a feeling he wasn't too thrilled with the lawyer who'd advised him to take that first plea-bargain.

• Posted at 1:34 PM · LINK

Tom Leaving Again

I miss Tom Snyder on TV and will soon be missing him on the Internet. He's shutting down his website on August 1, he says. Before he goes, you might want to visit and read the recent commentary posts that are still up there. [Thanks to Jay Huber for letting me know. I hadn't been checking in because Tom said he'd injured his wrist and wouldn't be posting for a while.]

• Posted at 9:54 AM · LINK

Pat McCormick, R.I.P.

I am almost happy to report that a brilliant, funny man named Pat McCormick has finally died. For the last seven years, his sad and hopeless condition has broken the hearts of so many of us who loved and admired what was once one of the greatest minds in comedy.

Here is the story, and I'm not sure this has been reported anywhere else on the 'net. In 1998, Pat was scheduled to perform with his friend and sometimes partner, Jack Riley, at a live show Merv Griffin was hosting at the Beverly Hilton hotel. They had a routine called "The Smartest Man in the World" in which Jack acted as straight man, peppering Pat with questions. The show was about to start but Pat had not arrived. Suddenly, from the direction of the garage, everyone heard some sort of explosion and they ran out to see what it was.

Pat had driven his car in and...well, he either suffered a stroke which caused him to crash his car into a concrete wall in the parking lot or he crashed his car into the wall and that triggered the stroke. Either way, it was an awful crash that caused the auto to catch fire. Unreported at the time, for some reason, was that Pat's life was saved by a little old lady. Some tiny woman, reportedly in her sixties or seventies, pulled his 6-foot-7 body out of the flaming car and dragged it to safety.

Sadly, there wasn't much of a life left to save. Pat McCormick, one of the wittiest men ever in show business, never spoke another intelligible word.

Those of us who knew him dutifully trucked out to visit what was left of the man at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, and to try not to cry. Most of Pat's shattered bones eventually healed but it was impossible to connect with the human being, such as he was. No matter what you said to him, he'd nod and sometimes giggle a little. You were never sure if he had the slightest idea what you'd said. When I visited, the only thing he did that suggested he might have some brain cells functioning somewhere in there was that he'd point to a guest book on a little music stand and indicate that I should sign it. Once, I wrote — accurately, I think — "To Pat, from whom everyone in the business has stolen..." Me aside, that guest book became a Who's Who of veteran comedians and comedy writers. I recall signing in the first time below the names of Buddy Hackett, Shelley Berman and Jonathan Winters.

Everyone knew Pat not only as a writer (and sometimes performer) of funny material but as a man who was just as colorful and hilarious as any joke he ever authored. A lot of comedy writers are, when you meet them, indistinguishable from guys who sell life insurance for a living. Not Pat. There are hundreds of stories, most of them true, about outrageous Pat McCormick deeds and actions. The ones about him dropping his pants at his mother's funeral or running nude through a Tonight Show taping are among the few that can be told in, as they say, mixed company.

This obit [L.A. Times, registration required] will give you the basics of Pat's career. What it doesn't convey sufficiently is how loved he was by the comedy makers of his generation...and how tragic it was to see that brilliant mind silenced the last seven years, sealed away someplace in a body that the doctors said (correctly) would never get any better. Now that the rest of him is dead, maybe we can put that Pat McCormick out of our minds and remember the real one.

• Posted at 9:14 AM · LINK

Last Call for Neverland

Cathy Rigby is presently on her farewell tour in the musical version of Peter Pan. She's flying all over the nation (here's the website, complete with a tour schedule) and it's been announced that the production will be in New York from November 30 through December 30 at Madison Square Garden. It's not wandering anywhere near where I might easily catch it but if it did, I'd go. I've seen Ms. Rigby three times in the role and I thought she was terrific...yes, even better than Mary Martin was, at least on TV. In fact, I thought the whole new production — though designed as a low-budget "bus-and-truck-tour" venture — was superior to the first and allegedly classic rendition. For one thing, they got rid of the two numbers in the original show that I thought were ridiculous.

One was the "Mysterious Lady" song where Peter Pan disguises himself as a woman and sings opera to entice Captain Hook. It was in the Mary Martin version and even as a kid, I always thought it was silly. You can only ask an audience to accept so much. I was willing to pretend I didn't see the wires that flew the actors about. I could even, just barely, pretend that Mary Martin — who struck me as a very nice grandmother type — was an adolescent lost boy. Where they lost me, even at age eight, was when the lady pretending to be a boy started pretending to be a lady...and Captain Hook, played by an actor who was doing a bad job of pretending to be straight, pretended to be interested in her. (Another nice, more effective aspect of this new production is that Hook is a real villain, instead of the more usual, campy portrayal. I've seen Hooks whose feet touched the stage less than Peter Pan's.)

The other thing they cut which never made any sense to me in the Mary Martin version was the ballet. Apparently, director-choreographer Jerome Robbins was determined to have a ballerina fly and dance in the show and it didn't matter to him that there was no logical place in the plot for it. So even though the magic of Peter Pan is that he can teach kids to fly and take them off to Neverland, Robbins had the maid in the Darlings' nursery (played by a trained ballet dancer) somehow learn to fly on her own and make it to Neverland without Peter's guidance. Then she dances for a bit with these people in bad, clumsy animal costumes and then she flies back home. It's a completely expendable number that stops the plot cold for no good reason, and it isn't even that interesting a dance...the most boring thing I've ever seen in a musical I otherwise like.

Anyway, the Cathy Rigby production cut those numbers and butched-up Hook to better effect...and like I said, I thought she was quite wonderful in the role. So was the whole cast in the last version of it I saw with her, which was a few years back. If you get the opportunity to see her do the role before she turns in her pixie dust, I recommend it. If not, well...there was a DVD but it's out of print and can be expensive to obtain. (The same is true of the Mary Martin version. Here's a link to the Amazon page for it.) If you have kids, take them. But if you don't, don't let that stop you.

• Posted at 12:32 AM · LINK

Friday, July 29, 2005

Con Reports

I've been lax in linking to a number of places where you can read about or view photos from the Comic-Con in San Diego. Here are a few, some of which even involve me in some way...

The fine folks who bring you the comic book Supernatural Law also bring you a gallery of Comic-Con photos.
The IFilm crew has a bevy of videos shot at the con, including their annual rundown of scantily-clad women.
Tom Spurgeon investigates rumors that the Comic-Con International will soon relocate to Anaheim and finds them to be greatly premature. (I've been hearing that for something like fifteen years now.) It's all in an interview he conducted with David Glanzer, the Director of Marketing and Public Relations for the con.
Jonah Weiland also interviews David and learns more about the convention, including the attendance figures which — to no one's surprise — topped 100,000. Heck, there were that many people ahead of me in some lines.
Peter Sanderson begins his annual reports on key convention panels, most of them — like the panel on The Bill Finger Award — hosted by Yours Truly.
And Lauren Perry reports on that same panel.
Lastly for now: At the Eisner Award Ceremony, Arnold Drake — recipient of one of the first two Bill Finger Awards — brought down the auditorium with a little a cappella song he composed about the convention. I don't have a video of that but the day before, he broke in the material at the Golden/Silver Age Panel. Video wiz Mike Catron captured the moment and you can watch it here. That's me on the left trying to moderate the proceedings.

• Posted at 7:15 PM · LINK

Browsing the Mailbag...

Elsewhere on this website, I have a couple of articles about how one goes about trying for a career in Cartoon Voicework. The pieces are not too encouraging but I think they are accurate.

As you'll see if you look at them, I pretty clearly ask people not to write me to ask that I help them in additional ways. Nonetheless, two or three times a week, I receive an e-mail from some total stranger who informs me (a) that everyone tells them they do great funny voices, (b) that their dream in life has been to do them professionally and (c) that they're hoping I can help them achieve this goal. I rarely answer these messages but I always wonder: Did this person see my request to not send me this kind of mail? If they did, did they think, "Oh, he'll make an exception for me"? If they didn't, why didn't they? I always get the impression that the individual desperately wants to get into cartoon voicing but they found one of my pages and couldn't be bothered to spend five more minutes reading all of them. You get this a lot on the 'net when you have a site like this. I receive loads of trivia/research type questions that could be answered in ten seconds on Google but, I guess, the person couldn't be bothered to go there.

Anyway, an odd thing has happened with these "Can you help me get a job voicing cartoons?" messages. Lately, at least one a week comes from someone in another country...and I don't mean Mexico or Canada. Today, I got one from The Ukraine. Last week, there was one from an aspiring Mel Blanc in Portugal. I've received a couple from Australia.

If these folks lived here in Hollywood, there isn't much I could do for them, apart from bestowing the same advice I've posted here. But Portugal? Australia? The Ukraine? Exactly what are they expecting? I sure don't know any agents or casting sessions in their necks of the world. I'm certainly not going to suggest they scurry to Southern California so I can open doors for them, which I can't do even for local friends. What kind of response did they think was possible?

I wrote to a couple to ask and only received one reply, which was along the lines of, "Uh, I just thought you might be able to help me." Yeah, but help you in what way? They not only apparently want me to help them get their dream job, they want me to figure out how this can happen when they're in The Ukraine.

It finally dawned on me, dimwit that I am at times, that I'm dealing here with a smaller, more personalized form of Spam. Elsewhere at this moment, someone is sending out 500,000 e-mails — many of them addressed to moi — offering to enlarge or reduce portions of one's body or bank account. The abiding philosophy is, "Hey, it doesn't cost anything to send and there's maybe a 1% chance I'll get lucky." The vocal wanna-bes are operating on much the same principle.

It's a principle that existed before the Internet and which you may recall from your high school days. Remember the guy whose approach to women was to baldly proposition everyone he met who was even vaguely a potential date? The one in my school was named Rick, and Rick believed that the way to a lady's heart (or certain other body parts that interested him more) was to ask every one of them to have sex with him. No small talk. No getting to know the other person first. He would just ask if they were interested in sex, and he often did it in a manner so crude, he'd have alienated a nymphomaniac.

He offended women. He made them uncomfortable. I know of a few who slapped him, verbally or literally, but it didn't cause him to reconsider his approach. He'd explain to those of us who told him to knock it off, "Hey, if one in a hundred says yes, it'll be worth it." But I didn't see that he even scored that often — I didn't see that he scored at all — and I was sure he drove away a few females who might otherwise have found him interesting.

I never found out what happened to Rick after we graduated but I have two hunches. The more likely of them is that he's sitting somewhere at a computer, sending out millions of e-mails, asking strangers if they want to borrow money or buy generic medicine. The other is that he's living in The Ukraine and wants to do cartoon voices.

• Posted at 8:52 AM · LINK

Thursday, July 28, 2005

PayPal: The Conclusion

Well, the PayPal folks made good on their promise to fix things. What they did was to, with my permission, close down the PayPal account in question and merge its assets to another PayPal account I have. (I am now receiving form letters in my e-mail box that begin, "We're sorry you decided to close down your PayPal account..." but that's another story.) Solving the problem from my end turned out to be a matter of hanging on the line and calling back repeatedly and adopting a patient but exasperated tone with a long line of PayPal staffers who told me nothing could be done. Finally, I reached someone who had the power to do all those things the others told me were impossible. Why this took 4+ hours of my life today is a fine question.

Many of you have sent me your own PayPal Horror Stories, and you'll forgive me if I don't post any here. I have the feeling that if I do, I'll get dozens more and this will turn into a site all about PayPal problems. I would like to forget about the whole ordeal...

...except that I will mention that everything relating to PayPal works here so if you've been thinking of sending a donation to show your appreciation of this site, now would be a wonderful time. I mean, if I'm going to spend this much effort to get PayPal working here, the least you can do is use it.

• Posted at 9:04 PM · LINK

The Latest

A gentleman from PayPal just phoned and said they'll straighten everything out. Let's see if this happens.

• Posted at 3:16 PM · LINK

No Longer On Hold

Some of what I told you before seems to be inoperative, as they said back in the Nixon administration...not about the time spent on hold but about what the problem is. Basically, PayPal accounts are linked to checking accounts and every so often, they ask you to verify the full checking account number as a security measure. My problem is that my full checking account number, as printed on my checks and confirmed to me on the phone by my bank, does not match the account number as I (am told) I entered it, back when I signed up years ago for PayPal. They're telling me I entered 13 digits then. My checking account number as I know it has ten digits. My bank says it has ten digits and they have no idea what the other mysterious three digits are. Nor do I.

What's frustrating here, of course, is that I am being victimized by a security procedure ostensibly designed to protect me. PayPal will not let me into my account until I come up with the extra three digits and my bank says, "We have no idea what they are." The connection between the bank and PayPal has worked fine for the transferring of funds for years. It's just this security discrepancy. I'm locked out of my account because I can't come up with the three digits...and of course, PayPal won't tell me. (For a while, they wouldn't even tell me how many digits were involved but I wormed the information out of them that there were three more.)

I said to the lady on the phone, "Come on...there must be a way of overriding this if the system has an error in it. Someone there must be able to verify who I am and reset the numbers."

She said, "For security reasons, we cannot allow you to access this account if you cannot provide the proper identification."

I said, "So you're keeping my money from me?"

She said, "We're not keeping your money from you, sir. It's right there."

I said, "It's my money but I can't get it. So therefore, you have it." And on and on...

Like it says above, I'm no longer on hold. This latest call meant 53 more minutes on the phone with PayPal and nothing was resolved. She says they'll look into it and e-mail me with instructions on what I can do. Somehow, I don't think their suggestions will be as creative as some I could come up with on my own.

You'll be hearing more about this.

• Posted at 1:34 PM · LINK

Back On Hold

I'm chatting intermittently with a PayPal service rep who's smart, eager to help and has no idea how to solve this problem. She keeps putting me on hold and then going away to get help. So far, this new call has lasted 30 minutes.

• Posted at 12:55 PM · LINK

Not On Hold

Disconnected. Lovely.

• Posted at 12:26 PM · LINK

On Hold

As I'm waiting here for the PayPal people to find someone there with an I.Q. over room temperature, I've been reading this statement on my screen, which is from a "security" page I can't get past because of this account number snafu...

For your security, PayPal will never ask you to re-enter your full bank account, credit, or debit card number without providing you at least the LAST TWO DIGITS of the number. These digits let you know that we already know the full number and are asking you for the rest of it. Beware of any website or email asking for these numbers for "verification" that does not PROVE that it knows the number by providing at least the last two digits.

That seems odd to me...the suggestion that if someone knows the last two digits of my account number, I should presume they have the full number and it's okay for me to then give that full number to them for verification. Spam/Phisher people send out bogus e-mails, pretending to be my bank or PayPal or credit card company, by the zillions. There are 100 possible combinations of the last two digits. So if they send out 1,000,000 e-mails that say, "We know the last two digits of your account number are 33," they're going to be right around 10,000 times. That's 10,000 people who, if they follow PayPal's advice, will then give their entire account number to these people. That's probably a better rate of return than the Spammers get on most of their fraudulent offers.

Closing in on one hour and thirty minutes. The Marx Brothers made movies that lasted less time than this call. And made more sense.

• Posted at 12:13 PM · LINK

On Hold

I am still waiting for that person. One hour and seventeen minutes.

• Posted at 11:59 AM · LINK

On Hold

She came back on the line and suggested that I hang up with her, call my bank and get them to verify my checking account number. I said, "I have my checking account number. I'm reading it right off one of my checks. My problem here is that your version of my checking account number doesn't match what my bank says it is." I finally asked her — in nicer language — to forward my call to someone smarter. I am waiting for that person. One hour, eleven minutes.

• Posted at 11:53 AM · LINK

On Hold

Okay, someone finally came on line and I found that Tech Support had referred me back to the same department I started with. I got a customer service representative who doesn't undertstand the problem, no matter how I explain it. I was about to ask, "Could you forward my call to someone smarter?" but she put me back on hold, which is where I now am. One hour and five minutes.

• Posted at 11:47 AM · LINK

On Hold

Just went to the bathroom and came back to the same cheezy hold music and announcements. 57 minutes. I'm answering e-mail while I wait but still, this is a colossal waste of time.

• Posted at 11:39 AM · LINK

On Hold

Okay, Tech Support can't help. The problem seems to be that when I originally signed up for my PayPal account, I verified by linking to one of my checking accounts. But the bank that handles that checking account has changed the form of their account numbers. They now add some leading zeroes. Ergo, when PayPal asks me to enter my checking account number, it doesn't exactly match the number they have on file...nor can anyone figure out how to work around this. I am now back on hold, waiting for another department. 41 minutes.

• Posted at 11:23 AM · LINK

On Hold

The human being came back on the line to inform me that he couldn't help me. He's forwarding my call to Technical Support. So I'm back on hold again, this time waiting for someone new. Coming up on thirty-eight minutes.

• Posted at 11:20 AM · LINK

On Hold

Thirty-one minutes. I've had paying jobs that didn't last this long.

• Posted at 11:13 AM · LINK

On Hold

Ah! A human answers the phone. I tell him what the problem is. He says, "Do you mind if I place you on hold?" I ask, "Do I have a choice?" He says, "Not really," so I am now back on hold, hearing those same messages again. 25 minutes since I initiated this call.

• Posted at 11:07 AM · LINK

On Hold

22 minutes and counting.

• Posted at 11:05 AM · LINK

On Hold

MARK'S PAYPAL ADVENTURE STARTS HERE! I'm trying to clear up a small (I hope) problem with my PayPal account. Their online "help" feature is of no help so I called the service phone number. According to the little call timer on my telephone, I have now been on hold for 14 minutes. Every thirty seconds, a recorded voice tells me that they're experiencing "an unusually high call volume" and I should be patient but, better still, I should consult the online help service. Let's see how long it takes me to get to a real human being.

• Posted at 10:56 AM · LINK

Bigger Than a Breadbox

As you probably know, the entire staff and management of this website (i.e., me) is a big fan of certain old game shows, including the classic What's My Line? As of last evening, I am also a big fan of the new What's My Line?

What's that? You didn't know there was a new What's My Line? You want to know what channel it's on? Well, it isn't on any channel. It's a weekly (every Wednesday evening) live show at the Acme Comedy Theater in Hollywood. Host J. Keith van Straaten, who some of you might know from the Beat the Geeks series, picks up the mantle of the late John Daly. He can't compete with Daly in convoluted explanations of obscure technical points but in every other capacity, he's as good or better.

He and his crew have put together a highly professional and entertaining version of the old show with celebrity panelists and genuine Mystery Guests. Last night, the panelists were author Jonathan Ames, actresses Mink Stole and Rachael Harris, and comic actor Gary Anthony Williams. Mr. Williams was especially funny as he and the others guessed (or in two cases, failed to guess) the contestants. The first was a man who made toilet seats. The second was a lady who taught others to speak Tibetan. And the third was a woman who plays the Chinese Zither, and who treated us to a lovely demonstration of the instrument. Lots of fun.

But it was when we got to the Mystery Guest(s) spot that things exploded. The panelists donned blindfolds and out came the host of Let's Make a Deal, Monty Hall, accompanied by the lovely Carol Merrill, who modelled prizes on that show. Two game show legends! The audience (and Mr. van Straaten) could not have been more thrilled, and after Gary Williams guessed who it was, J. Keith conducted a good, amusing Q-and-A spot with Hall and Merrill. Unlike the TV version, the show isn't crammed into a half hour minus commercials. Since van Straaten's a pretty good interviewer, the time is put to good use.

You can learn all about upcoming shows over at this website. As you'll see, my buddy Len Wein is an occasional guest panelist, having first gone on the show as a contestant. Even when he's not on stage, Len is there almost every week and this time, he got me to go with him and his lovely spouse, Chris. He told me I'd have a great time and he did not oversell it. If you go over the next few months, you may see me there.

• Posted at 12:57 AM · LINK

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Danny Simon, R.I.P.

There are two great stories about Danny Simon, the veteran comedy writer who just passed away. Well, actually, there are probably a lot more than two. Danny was a major force on TV variety shows of the fifties and sixties, and I even worked on one with him in the late seventies. He was also a director and a teacher of comedy writing, and the inspiration for the Felix Unger character in The Odd Couple, and a frantic, little man who was always hustling and selling. So there are probably a lot more than two, but I always loved these...

Danny Simon Story #1: Danny is going to visit his mother. This is some time in the sixties after another of the Simon kids has made a pretty big name for himself on Broadway. Danny walks in and finds his mother entertaining some of her friends. His mother says, "Girls...I want you to meet Neil's brother."

Danny Simon Story #2: Danny is working on some TV show. This is also some time in the sixties, long after he and Neil are no longer working as a team. The producer of the show decides to fire Danny, telling him his work is no good. Danny protests the decision, arguing that his work is very good. He says, "I'm the funniest writer in the business." The producer looks at him and says, "You aren't even the funniest writer in your family."

You might be interested to know where I heard those stories. I heard them from Danny. I'm sure he didn't like being the butt of a joke but he had a great appreciation for a funny story. Early in my career, I worked for him for a few days before he got fired as Head Writer and his replacement made a clean sweep of the staff, ousting me. I found him intractable, dominating and intent on lecturing everyone about the way to do things, which in his case meant only the way they'd done things in the fifties. Still, I liked him very much. He liked the fact that I'd seen and loved a then-recent production he'd directed of Plaza Suite starring Carol Burnett and George Kennedy, and that I'd noted how many gags he'd added with his staging. He also liked that I'd read and enjoyed a little-known play of his called The Convertible Girl, and he gave me a Xerox copy of an early draft so I could see how diligently he had tweaked and refined every line in it over the course of several "tryout" productions.

Danny was said to be the master of the evolving pitch. That's when you try to sell someone on a storyline or idea and, based on a lack of approving recognition, you start modifying the idea on-the-fly. It goes something like this: "So this is a western...well, it's not really a western. It's set on the west coast...or I guess it could be set on the east coast if you prefer. Anyway, the hero is six feet tall...but of course, he could be five feet tall...he could even be a woman..." The idea is that you keep changing until the buyer smiles at something. I even saw Danny do this once at lunch, trying to come up with an order that the waitress would think was a good choice. He went from a corned beef sandwich to a Chinese chicken salad in about 80 seconds.

He knew comedy. He taught comedy. For years, all the local trade journals carried ads for his workshops, with quotes from Woody Allen and brother Neil attesting to Danny's ability to instill great comedy writing talent in anyone. I never took his classes but I knew people who did and they found them valuable, if only for the anecdotes. Danny had worked with everyone. I think the main reason he got fired off that show we worked on was that some of us were too appreciative an audience for his stories so he entertained us instead of putting that energy into the script.

I suspect that, now that he doesn't have to worry about upsetting Danny, Neil is going to pull some half-finished play out of a drawer and finish it. Danny turns up in many of Neil's plays, not just as Felix but as every older brother, starting with Come Blow Your Horn, which was Neil's first. But I'm sure there were aspects of Danny that were too sensitive and perhaps too painful to address. It can't be easy to mentor your little brother and watch him pass you to become the most successful playwright of the century. No one ever lost a bout of sibling rivalry so decisively but with such good humor.

• Posted at 11:22 AM · LINK

A Valuable Lesson

Hack two people to death with a knife if you want to...but don't you dare steal cable TV!

• Posted at 9:56 AM · LINK

Stuff 2 Buy

Warner Home Video has formally announced the upcoming DVD sets we've been mentioning here for months. The Yogi Bear Show comes out on November 15, as does the first collection of The Huckleberry Hound Show, as does the fourth season of The Flintstones. Those links go to articles that list the contents. I'll provide Amazon ordering links as soon as they're available.

One cautionary note: My voice and/or face appear on a couple of these in my capacity as a Hanna-Barbera expert. I'm also going to be on the second volume of The Adventures of Superman, part of Warner's ongoing releases of the classic series starring George Reeves. I don't much like appearing on camera but I do like the fact that all those years of watching this stuff has turned me into an authority.

More Hanna-Barbera shows will be emerging on DVD in the months to come. Why, it wouldn't surprise me if we see an announcement any day now about Quick Draw McGraw...

• Posted at 9:49 AM · LINK

EC For Me, See?

Here's a quick bit of Comic Book History: In 1954, EC Comics were being driven from the newsstand. Various parents' groups and factions within our government were pressuring distributors and retailers not to carry "nasty books" like the company's Tales From the Crypt and Shock SuspenStories. Publisher Bill Gaines was forced to kill off his horror and crime comics so he replaced them with more wholesome titles, approved by the newly-formed Comics Code Authority...and you know what? They didn't sell, either. Two problems: The new books weren't all that good, and they said "EC" on their covers. The wholesalers and newsstands still wanted nothing to do with that imprint, and Gaines's "New Direction" line (as he called it) died a rapid death.

Fortunately, Gaines was publishing something else: Mad Magazine. Mad had been a ten-cent comic book for its first two dozen issues but had recently been changed into a twenty-five-cent magazine. A lot of folks seem to think Gaines did the conversion to escape the politics of comic book publishing and the Comics Code...and while that was a happy result, it wasn't the immediate reason for the upgrade. The reason was that Mad's founder-editor, Harvey Kurtzman, didn't want the shame and chintziness of being in comics any longer and was threatening to quit and go work for a slick magazine. Gaines regarded Kurtzman as indispensable to Mad so to keep him on board, Mad became a magazine, which proved to be a workable, successful format.

It prompted Gaines to try re-establishing his old horror and crime material that way...with a romance title thrown in, as well. He and his other main editor-writer, Al Feldstein, launched the Picto-Fiction line: Adult Tales of Terror Illustrated, Shock Illustrated, Crime Illiustrated and Confessions Illustrated. They were, like Mad, black-and-white inside. They were, unlike Mad, spectacular failures...and probably for the same two reasons that the "New Direction" line flopped: They weren't all that good, and they said "EC" on their covers. (I once asked Gaines why he put the logo on these books but not on Mad. He shrugged and said, "I don't know...never gave it any thought.")

Inside, the Picto-Fiction books featured clever stories, many of which were adapted from earlier EC Comics. Inside, the Picto-Fiction books featured superior illustration work by the same artists: Jack Davis, Johnny Craig, "Ghastly" Graham Ingels, et al. Alas, it was all in a text and pictures format that just didn't work. They weren't comic books and they weren't fiction magazines. Instead, they combined the worst of both worlds, and it didn't help that newsstands had no idea where to rack them. Sales were disastrous.

For years now, the nine published Picto-Fiction issues have been among the rarest EC collectibles, especially Shock Illustrated #3. It was just coming off the press when Gaines gave up on the line, and he elected to save money and destroy the press run of that final issue, rather than distribute it. So all but 100-200 copies were pulped, and those few went to the staff and a few devoted fans. I've only seen copies from afar, sealed snugly in mylar, and I've never read the issue.

But I will, soon. Russ Cochran, who has republished all the other EC material in quality, hardcover volumes the last few decades, has finally reached the final body of work in the pantheon. Later this year, he and Gemstone Publishing will bring us The Complete Picto-Fiction, reprinting all nine issues plus 17 never-before-published stories that were left homeless when the Picto-Fiction line crashed and burned. Like Cochran's previous sets, this will be a quality, slipcased edition that will sell for a hefty pricetag. We don't yet know what that pricetag will be but it will be worth it. It always is.

• Posted at 1:52 AM · LINK

Bleeped Again!

I assume by now, everyone knows that a number of newspapers dropped yesterday's Doonesbury strip while others did some editing on it. The whole tale is here (and the strip in question is here) but basically, Garry Trudeau had George W. Bush using his reported nickname for Karl Rove, "Turd Blossom." One suspects that such excisions do wonders for Mr. Trudeau's notoriety and call extra attention to the term in question. I'll bet there are some people who only read Doonesbury when someone doesn't want them to.

• Posted at 12:01 AM · LINK

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Today's Political Rant

According to the USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll, 51% of all Americans believe the Bush administration deliberately misled the public about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Now, I don't believe any poll on its own proves much, and there are others that place that number a bit lower than 51%. But as more and more of Bush's negative ratings hit that magic number of half-the-nation-plus-one, I wonder about something. It's how many Bush supporters who thought 51% in the last election was a mandate or even a landslide will now argue that 51% or even anything below 55% or so isn't really a majority.

• Posted at 6:29 PM · LINK

Hobby Horse

Last night, one of Jay Leno's guests was Australian Joseph Hachem, who recently won $7.5 million bucks (American) in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

There was an interesting subtext to their discussion. Jay was asking Hachem about what it's like to be a professional gambler. Hachem kept suggesting that he really isn't a professional gambler. He's a mortgage broker and playing poker, he says, is just a sideline.

He had a good reason for insisting on the distinction. Under Australian tax law, income from your primary business is taxable, whereas income from a hobby is not. If it's ruled that gambling is Hachem's primary business, the tax collector there could claim up to $4.85 million of his winnings.

If I were him, I'd run back to Melbourne and arrange a lot of mortgages. And fast.

• Posted at 2:08 PM · LINK

More Notes from the E.R.

I didn't mention it when it happened but I spent another long day in the hospital emergency room with my mother. Our previous visit there — the one I described here — was last Friday. We were back there on Saturday afternoon. She was in the hospital for two nights and then I brought her home Monday afternoon. (My thanks to those of you, including several total strangers, who've sent good wishes and messages of concern. I think she's okay now.)

I lack many skills in this world but I have one that comes in handy in these situations. It's the ability to be in peoples' way. This is not just because I'm a pretty large human being. Even back when I was svelte, I had the uncanny capacity to stand in the wrong place and to enormously inconvenience others around me. This is usually a source of embarrassment and personal shame but it helps when you're trying to get attention from scurrying doctors and nurses. In an emergency room, they wind up tending to Mom just so they can get me out of their way.

The most interesting thing I observed/eavesdropped this time was a conversation between a doctor and a patient in the next cubicle. The physician was informing the poor guy that he would need a kidney transplant. Worse, the patient did not have a potential donor in his family, nor did he have the funds or insurance to cover the cost. Still, the whole thing was discussed quite matter-of-factly. The vocal tones and rhetoric were about the same you'd hear if an auto mechanic was telling someone they needed new seat covers they couldn't afford. I found the dispassionate air quite chilling; like both parties were resigned to the fact that nothing could be done for the man. The doctor asked, "Any questions?" and when the man said he had none, the doctor hurried off to treat a lady who could be helped...who'd just been brought in with severe (but not fatal) facial wounds, courtesy of her "boy friend." I mentioned to one nurse that they seemed to get a lot of cases like that and she said, "If it wasn't for psycho boy friends, we wouldn't be in business."

A few minutes later, the guy with the faulty kidney got dressed and left. And ten minutes later, that cubicle was occupied by a very pregnant lady (like, any day now) who'd been severely beaten by the man who got her that way. Doctors were huddling just outside the door, discussing if and how they could save the baby. One gave the order, "Get the social counselor down here. I don't want to save this woman and then have to release her to go home to that guy."

So here's my latest story about the hospital cafeteria. On weekends, this one doesn't have the steam table with three hot entrees and as many side dishes. It's just the grill, meaning burgers and chicken sandwiches. I suddenly flashed on the 1962 Mad Magazine parody of the TV series, Dr. Kildare — this panel, in particular...

I don't know if you can read the tiny type on your screen but the senior doctor lectures the younger doctor by saying, "...if you never learn another thing from me, please remember this! Never...NEVER eat a hamburger in a hospital cafeteria!" At the time this issue came out, I was ten and I had an uncle dying, so we were spending a lot of time at a hospital and dining in its cafeteria. Heeding the advice of Mad, I avoided ordering a burger, even though I wasn't sure what the line meant. Was it that hamburgers in hospital cafeterias were just notoriously bad or was there something more to it than that? Maybe hospitals made their burgers out of...I don't know...leftover body parts? When you're ten, things like that occur to you. I didn't really believe that was it but I couldn't quite figure out why, as I thought was implied in the joke, the burgers at a hospital cafeteria were worse than the ones in any cafeteria. What was it about them being served in a hospital?

I outgrew such worries but until last Saturday, I don't think I'd ever had a hamburger in a hospital cafeteria. I wasn't going to have one then but they were all out of chicken and I was famished. So, well aware that I was scorning the sage counsel of Mad, I steeled myself and ordered...a hamburger in a hospital cafeteria. And after I took two bites, I suddenly realized I was right when I was ten. That thing was definitely made out of somebody's spleen.

• Posted at 10:44 AM · LINK

Monday, July 25, 2005

Mark Your Calendar

Next year's Comic-Con International will be held July 20-23. Good time to start looking for a parking space near the convention center.

• Posted at 8:44 PM · LINK

Book Report

As discussed here, I think Robert Klein is one of the ten-or-so most brilliant stand-up comedians of all time. I enjoyed his new book, The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue, but I think I'm going to enjoy his next book more.

When I read biographies (or especially, autobiographies) of folks whose careers interest me, I usually skim or even skip the parts that detail their lives before the career got going. I'll go back and read that material later but, first time through, I cut to the chase and I'll bet I'm not the only one. Most autobiographies written in the seventies and eighties seemed to start with some pivotal moment in the author's career — getting their breakthrough job, getting an award, some life-changing moment — and then Chapter Two would flash back to their birth, parents, childhood, etc. Clearly, someone had figured out that readers have less interest in that stuff, and when they're browsing through a book at the store, it makes them not want to buy.

Mr. Klein's new book is mostly pre-career stuff. It's only in the last few chapters, as he gets seriously into acting and performing, that it starts being about the Robert Klein we know and love. In fact, it ends just before he makes his television debut. The last anecdote is about how he was hired to do this on The Dean Martin Show but the day before taping, the producers made him do his act for them in an office without an audience. This is every comedian's nightmare because, as happened with Klein, it never seems funny in there. In this case, it seemed so unfunny that they cancelled his appearance...and you have to wonder what they thought, just a year or two later, when he became a pretty big star.

Before we get to those last few chapters about bit parts on Broadway, working at Second City and being mentored in stand-up by Rodney Dangerfield, we get a lot of stories about being a busboy, toiling in rotten jobs, growing up and so on. Particular emphasis is placed on itemizing every woman he ever slept with, and I got to wondering why some of the names and certain details had to be included. Even with that reservation, the stories are fun and colorful, but...I dunno. It's kind of like buying a book about the life of Willie Mays and it ends just before he gets called up to play for the Giants.

Still, like I said, I enjoyed it and if you'd like to order it from Amazon, this link can make that happen. I hope lots of folks buy it, the better to hurry along Mr. Klein's next book, the one that will presumably start with him making his TV debut and blossoming into one of the best comics of his day. That book, I think I'm really going to like.

And if you'd like to hear why he was so good on stage, let me run down his three albums for you. All three came out on CD in 1992 but only the first seems to have been kept in print since then...

Child of the 50's is very good, especially the bits about being a kid during various nuclear scares. You can pick up a CD of it for less than ten bucks on Amazon.
Mind Over Matter is his best one. The routines about appearing on Celebrity Jeopardy! and long before that, on Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour, are priceless. This one is difficult to find and those who have it want thirty smackers and up for it. I have no info on any new repressing but I find it hard to believe there won't be one soon, since it's really one of the finest comedy albums ever made. In the meantime, there are some online audio clips over at Amazon, as well as a chance to pay top dollar to get the CD now.
Lastly, New Teeth is the weakest of the three. There's still a lot of good stuff but it pales by comparison to what came before. Laugh.com has the CD for fifteen bucks and it can turn up for slightly less if one shops around.

Even better than all these is the news that his many HBO specials will soon be available on DVD. The minute anyone hears that can be ordered, let me know.

• Posted at 12:17 PM · LINK

Sunday, July 24, 2005

The Internet Shudders

My friend Paul Dini has started blogging.

• Posted at 5:14 PM · LINK

Warts and All

As reported here and elsewhere, the WB Network is dumping Michigan J. Frog as its mascot. Mr. Frog may have had the most stupendous career of anyone who only appeared in just a couple of cartoons, only one of which anyone saw — the original, 1955 One Froggy Evening. Years later, after his stardom was firmly established, came its barely-released 1998 sequel, Another Froggy Evening. and a few cameos on Tiny Toon Adventures and other WB venues. I never quite understood why he was dancing about in WB promos, or even why the network for a time had the receptionist at its offices greet each caller with, "The dub-dub-dubya-yew duba-yew-bee!" They had a frog doing their commercials and Porky Pig answering their phones.

I recall attending a big "kick-off" party for the WB. They had a guy (or maybe it was a gal) in a big Michigan J. Frog suit, dancing about. I thought it would have been much hipper to have the person in the costume dance only when one person was looking.

Here are some fun facts about Michigan J. Frog, who wasn't even called that when the original cartoon was made by director Chuck Jones, writer Michael Maltese and some fine animators. It was many years later, when WB wished to see merchandise of said frog that they decided he had to have more of a name than "that singing frog in the cartoon about the guy who finds a singing frog in a building's time capsule." Mr. Jones came up with the name, spinning off one of the tunes warbled in the cartoon by the awesome amphibian — "The Michigan Rag," which sounds like an old standard but was actually written for the film by Jones, Maltese and music guy Milt Franklyn.

For years, animation historians thought the frog's voice was provided by opera star Terence Monck. This assumption sprang from the fact that Mr. Monck did provide a not-altogether-dissimilar voice in two cartoons Jones and Maltese did for MGM -- The Cat Above and the Mouse Below, and Cat and Dupli-Cat. (Monck is also wrongly credited with the voice of the opera singer in the Jones/Maltese WB cartoon, Long-Haired Hare. That was Nicolai Shutorov.)

The frog's voice was apparently done by a gent named Bill Roberts, about whom little is known other than that he was a nightclub performer in Los Angeles for years and worked on a lot of non-animation films and records as a back-up singer. A year or so ago, someone sent me the above photo which they swear is the man, himself. Perhaps so.

One thing I didn't know until fairly recently is that the storyline of One Froggy Evening may have been inspired by an actual event, sort of, but not really. In 1897, a horned lizard named "Ol' Rip" (as in, "Rip Van Winkle," I guess) was sealed into the cornerstone of a building in Eastland County, Texas. Allegedly, in 1928, the cornerstone was opened and the lizard was found alive within. Do we believe this story? No, of course we don't believe this story. But it made the press, and what was passed off as Ol' Rip went on tour and was even photographed with Calvin Coolidge, which may have been the high point of his administration.

One Froggy Evening debuted in theaters on December 31, 1955. I don't think it's the absolute best cartoon ever made but if you do, I certainly won't waste time arguing.

• Posted at 1:13 AM · LINK

Saturday, July 23, 2005

Anne Mooney, R.I.P.

Our condolences to comic book legend Jim Mooney on the passing of his spouse, Anne, about a week ago. Anne, who had been ill for some time, was a lovely lady and just as pretty and dazzling as Supergirl back when Jim drew that comic. We already miss her.

• Posted at 7:30 PM · LINK

Notes from the E.R.

Here's why there wasn't more posting Friday. I spent most of yesterday in a hospital emergency room. I've been to this building so many times that at dinner time, as I was going through the line in the cafeteria there to purchase dinner, the cashier actually said to me, "You get the employee discount, don't you?"

My mother, who's the reason I keep going to these places, is home and doing okay now. But it was a rough day for both of us — her, more than me, obviously. But it was rough for me, too. The only good thing I can say for the experience is that when you hang around a hospital emergency ward, you pick up a lot of "slice of life" anecdotes. I told one here and I have a couple of new ones.

We were waiting for my mother to be admitted and I believe we were the next to be called. Suddenly, elsewhere in the waiting room, a stout black woman passed out, right on the floor. A security guard called inside and an intern came running out with a gurney, and she was quickly wheeled in for treatment, ahead of us and everyone else. I instantly got two impressions. One was that she had faked the collapse on the floor in order to get in right away. It was not a display of Lee Strasberg sensitivity; more like Roger Corman and one of those prison pictures shot in the Phillipines. That level of acting. The other impression was that the intern knew she was faking but since he couldn't prove it, he had to operate on the assumption that it was legit.

An hour or so later, I was sitting in front of the cubicle wherein my mother was being treated, and the stout black lady walked past me, on her way to the toilet to try and fill a specimen bottle. As she passed, I said, "Nice performance out there," and she didn't even break stride. She just said, "Hey, you do what you have to in this world," and kept on going. Somehow, I don't think she had any trouble filling that bottle.

In the meantime, there was a female security guard more-or-less watching the cubicle next to where we were, and I got into a conversation with her. The patient within was a semi-coherent woman who'd been brought in by the police, complaining of "brain injuries." Her boy friend, she mumbled, had inflicted them. He had been beating her and hitting her for years now, and this was not the first time she'd been in this emergency ward due to his handiwork.

So why did they need to have a security guard watching her in there? Was someone afraid "the boy friend" would get in and resume smacking her around in a hospital emergency room? No, the guard explained. It was to keep her from sneaking out of the ward and hurrying back to Mr. Wonderful. This, the guard said, is not uncommon: "They suddenly realize someone is talking about going and arresting the S.O.B. and they either get worried about losing him or afraid that he's going to get mad at them and make their lives even more miserable." The lady in question had done that every time she'd been in before. There was also the worry that she would do something suicidal there...which wouldn't have been all that different from going back to her beau.

As usual for these places, I was impressed with the skill and efficiency of most of the doctors and nurses, less so with the paper shufflers and administrative folks. It's almost like some hospitals feel the need to balance the competence of their medical personnel with people who can't do much more than repeat routing procedures they've been taught.

And as usual, I was unimpressed with the food in the cafeteria. I had a piece of poached salmon and a scoop of macaroni and cheese...and I think I know which was which, but it took a bit of study. Oh — and later, I was in a roomful of vending machines and I attempted to purchase a bag of Baked Lays from one of those devices where you put in your money, punch the code number and the product drops into the slot at the bottom...only, my Baked Lays didn't drop properly. The bag got wedged on the bottom row of products and though I tried to jiggle the machine, I couldn't get it to drop the rest of the way into the dispensing slot. I tried and tried...and then a man in surgeon's garb (green scrubs) came up behind me and said, "Let me give it a try," and he banged the door a few times. Sure enough, around the fifth bang, the chips dropped into the chute where I could get them.

I thanked him and said, "For a minute there, I thought you were going to have to perform a Caesarian."

He said, "If only deliveries were all that easy."

• Posted at 12:10 PM · LINK

Friday, July 22, 2005

Busted!

This comes under the category of "I'm surprised it took this long for this to happen." Authorities arrested two men at the Comic-Con International for selling bootleg DVDs of copyrighted motion pictures. It's not news to anyone who's set foot in a comic convention the last dozen years but there's a thriving market of folks duping movies and old TV shows on DVD and videotape. Assuming they were doing what the charge says they were doing, I don't have a lot of sympathy for the men hauled off to the pokey. It's about time something was done about all that bootlegging.

• Posted at 9:08 AM · LINK

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Rooming Rip-Off

If you stayed at a hotel to attend the Comic-Con International (or just stayed anywhere in San Diego) since 1990, you were probably swindled out of a couple of bucks. Here are the sordid details.

• Posted at 8:36 PM · LINK

Award-Winning Commentary

I seem to need to expand on or maybe clarify my remarks on the Eisner Awards in San Diego. What I said is apparently being taken by some as much more negative than I'd intended. Let me try it this way...

I am physically, emotionally and mentally unable to sit in an auditorium for three hours, clapping every few seconds for nominees, presenters and award recipients. You couldn't keep me there for three hours if the awards were doled out by nude Playboy models and they periodically ran through the house throwing Krugerrands to the audience. I didn't know of many of the nominees but even if I did, I couldn't applaud for or even remain in a chair that long to watch people I loved being honored. When I've been nominated for an Eisner, I sometimes don't attend. (First time I won one, I didn't find out until weeks later when I read it in some fanzine.) When called upon to present one, I remain in my seat only as long as necessary to fulfill my obligation. Then I either depart or watch with frequent intermissions, ducking out to the lobby for occasional stretches.

This is not really a criticism of the Eisners...more a matter of the way I find all award shows. I didn't go to the Emmy ceremony the last few times I was nominated, either.

I don't know how many folks feel the way I do. As I said, a lot of people this year seemed to like the Eisner ceremony, all 180+ minutes of it. Maybe there wouldn't be so many empty seats if they could find a way to shave an hour off the running time: Find a way to get the presenters and winners to the stage faster, limit acceptance speeches, don't create a rhythm where the audience feels expected to applaud every nominee in every category, etc. Or maybe that would spoil it for those who enjoy the ritual and the speeches and even clapping for the comic book shops that are up for Retailer of the Year or whatever that trophy's called. I missed it but everyone said the presentation of the first Bill Finger Award, especially Arnold Drake's acceptance speech, was a memorable highlight. Maybe some felt that made it worth sitting there for three hours, banging their palms together.

I only know I can't sit through any awards show where I can't pick up my TiVo remote and fast-forward through whole segments. I love Jackie Estrada, who administers and presents the Eisners, and I mean no criticism of her and the tireless job she does. Heck, I'll even throw my whole-hearted support behind those awards. Just so long as I don't have to sit through them.

• Posted at 9:46 AM · LINK

Good Addvice

Everyone makes typos, even me. But I couldn't resist pointing to this one recently seen in a sidebar over on Heidi MacDonald's page. I would think one of the first steps to become a better writer would involve learning how to spell "becoming." The article for which this is a headline is pretty good but you will learn from it that "...its debatable weather the art of great writing is a skill that can be gleaned from classes in Somewheresville USA, or a panel at Comicon."

• Posted at 8:48 AM · LINK

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Today's Political Rant

If you read the liberal bloggers, the indictment of Karl Rove is just about a done deal. The guy's in big trouble and is soon to be frog-marched (whatever that is) into custody.

If you read the conservative bloggers, the phony scandal has already fallen apart. There's no chance of Rove even getting a slap on the wrist, let alone an indictment.

From what I can tell, most of the above conclusions have come from rumors and leaks of dubious authenticity. Very little of it has come from the Special Counsel's office. You also have a lot of lawyers and laymen reading the various statutes, declaring they do or do not apply, and saying theirs is the only possible interpretation. And folks who are eager for Rove to be nailed or exonerated are seizing on damn near anything that supports their wish and insisting it's inarguable fact.

I have no idea what's going to happen here except that one side is going to be mostly wrong and the other is going to be mostly right. And even the folks who are going to be mostly right will have gotten to the right conclusion based on largely-bogus evidence. We don't know nearly as much about this case as we think we do.

• Posted at 9:45 PM · LINK

Set the TiVo!

Debuting tonight on PBS, on the American Masters series is Bob Newhart: Unbuttoned, which is said to be a good look at the great comedian and especially his early standup work.

• Posted at 2:30 PM · LINK

Another Con Report

Tom Orzechowski reports on the Bob Fujitani spotlight panel at the Comic-Con International.

• Posted at 2:25 PM · LINK

George

Years ago, I had a friend named George Caragonne. So did a lot of people.

George was a big guy — he made me look anorexic — with incredible energy and passion. The phrase "nothing in moderation" was not inapplicable. If he liked you, and he liked most people, there was nothing he wouldn't do for you. In fact, George's friendship could be embarrassing because it was so in-your-face enthusiastic. The flip side of that was, of course, that when he hated, he hated hard.

George wanted nothing more in the world than to be important in the comic book industry and, for a brief shining moment, he sort of made it. But before that moment, he struggled. He wrote a few things for Marvel, like Masters of the Universe and Thundercats. He did some animation work for the G.I. Joe series and a couple others. He tried and failed in a few different ways to launch his own publishing company...

And then something clicked.

Maybe it was dumb luck. Maybe it was skill and strategy. Somehow, George managed to interest the people who published Penthouse Magazine in a line of adult comic books produced on a handsome budget. Suddenly, he could put some of his ideas — and he had a lot of them — into print. Suddenly, he had a staff and an office and an expense account, and he could hire his friends, as well as artists and writers he'd long admired. They put out Penthouse Comics, Penthouse Men's Adventure Comix and Omni Comix.

At the time they were published, I wasn't sure what to make of them. And I haven't been able to look back at them since because they remind me of George.

Some people and some successes have a way of destroying each other. Once a man who'd refused to smoke, drink, use drugs or engage in premarital sex, he was suddenly doing all of those and in excess...especially the drugs. George had a "friend" (notice the quotes) who could get cocaine. They were both heavy users and they had an arrangement: The "friend" got the coke for both of them and George paid for it. George also began spending money foolishly and not in small amounts. He loved buying guns and expensive toys. He showered friends with extravagant gifts. He went wildly overbudget on his magazines and on some new, non-Penthouse projects.

More and more, everything in his life inverted, even his waking hours. He'd work all night in the Penthouse offices, then go home and crash during the day.

Friends tried to rein him in but it was like trying to recall a surface-to-air missile. When you told him he was out of control, it made him frantic and he'd veer even more wildly off-course. And then there were the money problems. As big as his salary was, it wasn't big enough for the way he was living. There were rumors of financial improprieties...of George "borrowing" from his employers without their knowledge or consent. One night, he arrived at work and discovered he'd been locked out pending a full audit on his books. That was on a Friday, I recall.

Saturday night and Sunday, a number of us spent time on the phone with him, urging him to get professional treatment. There was no reasoning with the guy. I spent hours. Everyone spent hours but to no good result.

George Caragonne disappeared for a few days. Then, the following Thursday, he took himself to the Marriott Marquis hotel in New York. He went up to a bellhop and asked, "Is it true this is the tallest hotel in Times Square?" The bellhop said it was. George then took an elevator to the top floor where an indoor atrium provides a stunning view of the lobby, 45 stories below. He put on a Walkman containing a cassette of his favorite music — themes from James Bond films. We'll never know just which theme was playing when he jumped.

That was ten years ago today.

On the way down, his 400+ pound body caromed off ledges and decorations, then it landed in a buffet spread. Miraculously, no one else was killed but many people, including some children, suffered severe emotional traumas and required years of treatment, all because of what they witnessed. I believe human beings have a right to do away with themselves, but not when they're insane and certainly not the way George did it.

For years after, my sadness at what became of my pal George was drowned out by anger at what he did to total strangers and even to his close associates. One of his co-workers — the one George wanted to blame for the missing money — had to go identify the body. Years later, that associate also took his own life, though in a quieter, neater manner.

I still miss the old George Caragonne...or, at least, I'd like to. But even today, one full decade after, the memory of what he became is still making that difficult.

• Posted at 1:00 AM · LINK

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Jim Aparo, R.I.P.

Comic book artist Jim Aparo has died at the age of 72 following a recent illness. Despite a bit of training at the Hartford Art School, Aparo considered himself a self-taught illustrator. A lifelong fan of comics, he always wanted to work in the business but his samples did not arouse any interest until around 1966 when Dick Giordano, who was then an editor at Charlton, decided to give him a try...on a teen strip called "Miss Bikini Luv." That, and subsequent assignments for Charlton's war, western and ghost comics worked out so well that, despite Charlton's niggardly pay rates, Aparo was able to quit his day job at a Hartford advertising agency and realize his dream as a full-time comic book artist.

Jim continued to work for Charlton and in 1968, when Giordano became an editor at DC Comics, Jim began drawing for that firm, as well. For a time, he labored for both, and his run on Charlton's version of The Phantom (1969-1970) was especially outstanding. But once his contract with Charlton was up, DC grabbed him full-time and he never stopped working for them until the early nineties when health problems cropped up.

Aparo drew Aquaman, The Phantom Stranger and The Spectre for DC, but the vast majority of his work was with Batman, including a long run drawing the Batman team-ups that appeared in The Brave and the Bold. The strip allowed Aparo to draw just about every character in the DC Universe but especially to display a memorable, exciting interpretation of The Caped Crusader that built on the Neal Adams revamp (circa 1969) and took it off in a unique and powerful direction. Many fans will tell you that Aparo was their all-time favorite Batman artist.

Also notable about Aparo were his meticulous work habits. Except for a few brief exceptions, he always pencilled, lettered and inked his own work at the rate of one page per day — no more, no less. He'd pencil that page in the morning, break for lunch, letter it and then almost always have it finished by bedtime. This was possible because editors found him so trustworthy that there was no need to have him show the work in the pencil stage. They could just send him a complete 22 page script and then, 22 workdays later (plus travel time), they had the finished art. In the DC offices, there would sometimes be panic — "We need to have a script ready for Aparo by Tuesday" — because he delivered like clockwork.

Aparo worked with a wide array of writers...though not everyone. Some writers, who prefer to work "Marvel method," were frustrated that Jim could not or would not work from a plot synopsis with the dialogue to be written later. Those who did craft full scripts for him, however, appear to have been unanimous in their happiness with the finished product. He was a diligent, talented craftsman and going by the few times I met him, a very nice and dedicated gentleman.

• Posted at 11:45 AM · LINK

Con Reports

Tom Spurgeon reports on the Eisner Awards, which were handed out last Friday night at the Comic-Con International. I was going to say his commentary was more entertaining than the awards themselves, but...well, fill in your own joke about watching paint dry or watching flies die. Tom's report is very funny, as you'll see for yourself.

Augie DeBlieck reports on the con. Here's part zero, here's part one, here's part two and here's part three.

Greg Hatcher reports on the "Working With Will Eisner" panel...

...while Brian J. Apodaca reports on the Golden/Silver Age Panel.

You'll note that I'm not linking to any reporter whose con coverage didn't mention my panels. There are certain benchmarks one can use to determine if a writer is worthy of reading, and that's one of them.

• Posted at 8:08 AM · LINK

Monday, July 18, 2005

Power Failure

Hiking back and forth between my hotel and the convention center in San Diego, I had to deal with...well, I'm not sure what you'd call them. They were folks assigned to direct traffic (car and foot) but they weren't police officers by any means. They reminded me of hall monitors back in elementary school: Fellow students who, having been designated to patrol the halls or prevent littering, suddenly turned into a cross between Judge Dredd and Barney Fife. It's like a little power goes to some heads and there isn't a lot else happening up there, so they bark orders and yell at people, and there are times when it seems like something more is going on than an honest attempt to do one's job. Some sort of desperate, deep-seated need to boss others around is bubbling to the surface.

Not all the "officials" around the convention center fell into that classification, and I observed one being enormously helpful to a bewildered family that couldn't fathom how on Earth to get back to their hotel. But I also encountered at least two of the Dredd/Fife variety, both of whom seemed not only unnecessarily rude but also largely incompetent. By that, I mean they were so busy trying to sound authoritative that they couldn't pay sufficient attention to where the cars were, where they were trying to go, what the traffic lights were indicating, etc. They were telling people to walk at the wrong time and then scolding them when they did or didn't. I don't know what it is about having A Little Power other than that some people, I guess, often feel like they have none...so when they do, they go a little berserk with it.

On the way back from San Diego, we made a wrong turn and wound up at a checkpoint on the way to Camp Pendleton. There was a young Marine on duty there who, at first, seemed to be waving at us to ignore a stop sign and drive past him. Then, once we did, he yelled at us to stop and started hollering at us the way you'd lecture a nine-year-old: "Didn't you see that sign? What do you think that sign means?" The immediate goal did not seem to be to protect the security of Camp Pendleton or even to help some errant motorists find their way back to the freeway. He seemed to just care about us acknowledging that he had the right to yell at us and to make us apologize to him. We did, he pointed out the route back to the proper road, and we were off. I'm all for following rules and obeying signs but this wasn't about that...and I couldn't help but feel that he waved for us to ignore that stop sign just so he could yell at us for ignoring that stop sign.

• Posted at 6:05 PM · LINK

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Sunday Report

I'm home. Rode back with my chum Paul Dini and his fiancée, the lovely and mystifying Misty Lee. We stopped at a place in Oceanside that has world class fish-and-chips (info here), then took the short cut back from San Diego. For the last few years, a well-kept secret among California motorists has been the 73 freeway, which more or less links Long Beach and San Juan Capistrano in a straight line. If one is going from San Diego to Los Angeles (or vice-versa or even some shorter stretches involving the 405 and the 5), this can shave 20-30 minutes off one's commute. It's less crowded, it's more scenic and it allows you to bypass Irvine and the John Wayne Airport and the fork where the 5 and 405 join up directly. These are all places that can get very crowded. The only downside is that it's a toll road that, depending on the time of day, will run you three or four bucks.

And before some of you write me to complain that I should have told you this before you spent extra hours going to and/or from the convention: Sorry. I didn't know about it 'til Sergio showed me on the way down.

Today at the con, I did three panels that I enjoyed immensely. Yes, I know I've said that about all my panels but, hey, I enjoyed all my panels immensely. That's just how it is.

The con was fast and fun, and I heard others today mutter that it seemed to fly by at record speed. Some of that is due to the way familiar things always seem to take less time than unfamiliar ones. Going to some location always seems to take more time than coming back, since on the way back, you're more familiar with the terrain and where you're going. Comic-Con International, though wonderful in many ways, has a tendency to look and feel the same each year. The crowds all look the same and the exhibit hall doesn't vary much. I didn't need to consult the map to find certain exhibitors. I just went to where they were last year...and maybe the year before and the year before.

What was different for me was the mood, which seemed even more divorced from comic books than ever before. It's like what's in the comic book doesn't matter any more. It's what's in the movie that counts. And if it never becomes a movie...well then, the comic book really doesn't matter. I'll try to write more about this in the coming days.

For now, it's nice to be home. It was also nice to see so many of you there. Oh — and I want to thank several folks who said, "I don't do PayPal" and slipped me cash donations for this site. That included one gent who thrust an envelope at me, told me it was for this weblog, and then disappeared before I could open it and find two hundred bucks. My appreciation...and now I have to go unpack.

• Posted at 11:48 PM · LINK

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Highly Recommended Reading

Frank Rich on what's really going on with the Valerie Plame scandal.

• Posted at 11:42 PM · LINK

Saturday Report

They have a film program at this convention. This evening, they're showing Hook, Amazon Women on the Moon and This is Spinal Tap, among others. I suddenly find myself curious as to why. Not why they're showing them but why anyone would go to a comic or s-f convention and spend any length of time watching movies, especially movies that are by no means rare or hard to see.

I've never really done that. I've been going to conventions since 1970 and I can only think of one instance where I spent any real time in a film room. It was a late seventies' San Diego Con and they decided to have a late night (starting at 1 AM, as I recall) screening of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. That's a movie that's not so hot when you see it alone but it's wonderful — and I mean that in a genuine, non-camp way — when viewed with a hip crowd. Even then, I might not have gone if it had been earlier in the evening and certainly not during the day. A convention, even a bad convention, is filled with things to do, people to meet, items to look at...all of which are generally unavailable elsewhere. So I didn't go to film programs, even back when I couldn't waddle down to my nearby Blockbuster and rent the same movies for a buck or two, take them home and watch them in (probably) more comfortable surroundings...the way I could now do with Hook, Amazon Women on the Moon and This is Spinal Tap.

But I did go to that presentation of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. I wanted to see it with my friends and I had no better alternative at 1 AM, including sleep. I found myself sitting next to the great animation director, Bob Clampett. Bob was a pretty hip guy but he kept whispering questions to me about some of the film's more esoteric references and sexuality. He did that up until around 2:15 AM when a deafening fire alarm began to sound all over the hotel.

Interestingly, I didn't notice anyone being all that concerned that there might have been a fire...which at the El Cortez Hotel then, would have qualified as some form of Civic Improvement. As people poured out of hotel rooms — some, even from their own — the main emotion was annoyance at the loud noise which refused to stop. It went on and on for more than an hour, preventing the last reel or two of B.V.D. from being run. My recollection is that around 3:30 AM, it finally stopped. You could hear a loud cheer from all over the hotel, and then everyone went off to dreamland.

The next day, I found myself relating the last twenty minutes of the movie on a panel...and don't think that's easy. The conclusion is so twisted and full of clichés and coincidences that some people thought that I didn't really know; that I was just making stuff up. Heck, Clampett saw the first seventy minutes and thought I was making that up, too. Anyway, that's my one 'n' only filmgoing-at-a-con experience. I've seen no reason to go to movies at conventions, especially in the age of home video. I wonder why anyone does.

Did five panels today, all of which went well, at least from where I was sitting. Didn't go down to the main hall but did hear some folks liken it to being on a large conveyor belt which carries you along with it, whether you want to go or not. There's an odd, not unpleasant mood to the con but I think I'll have to give the matter more thought before I can put into words here what I think it is. Right now, I'm due at a cocktail party that's known to have good chicken skewers and tiny meatballs. So I'm outta here.

• Posted at 7:22 PM · LINK

Friday Report

Friday seemed a little less crowded than Thursday, at least where I was. All my panels went well, though the annual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel turned a bit more emotional and dark than I'd intended. I'll write more about it when I'm not working on my laptop at an odd height on a hotel room desk, and due shortly downstairs for a breakfast meeting.

To those of you who've never attended one of these but see press coverage of it: Trust me. Most people are not dressed in silly costumes...or at least, no sillier than people wear when they go shopping at Costco. Reporters — especially reporters with camera crews — like to seek out the outrageous visuals and I suppose, if I were in their position, I'd do the same thing. But the overwhelming majority of con attendees are not geeks who wait all year for the chance to parade around in public in their Jedi finery. We may be geeks but we're, by and large, plainclothes geeks. Most of us dress normally and even most of those who do don costumes are being paid to do so out of some promotional budget. And actually, apart from when the "costume" is nearly non-existent and on a lady of awesome proportions, it doesn't seem to even attract much attention. Less than ten people yesterday wanted their picture with me in my Catwoman suit.

Let's see what else I can tell you about. Last night, I got on one of the shuttle buses that cart us around town. The sole other passenger was a young lady who did not seem to be affiliated with the convention and who asked me if I'd like to go on a "date" — and she even pronounced the word with quotation marks around it, which impressed me no end. I told her I was on my way to an award ceremony and she said, "It could be a quick date."

Not that the lady on the bus seemed like a good alternative but I found the Eisner Awards (what I saw of them) interminable and impossible to sit through. I am not knocking the winners, although I see now why the televised award shows impose limits on acceptance speeches. I am also not knocking the wonderful anecdotes and remembrances of the late Will Eisner sprinkled throughout the event. And, in all honesty, a lot of folks didn't seem to mind sitting there for around three hours, applauding the presenters and then the nominees and then the winners and then the acceptance speeches of the winners and...well, maybe it's me. I even heard some folks say it was a lot better and swifter than previous years, none of which I was ever able to sit through, either. I couldn't even sit there when there was a decent chance that I was about to win one.

Gotta get to that breakfast meeting and then five (count 'em) panels today. I expect the hall to be crowded with people, most of whom will stop me and explain that Stan Lee is not really working as a mailman.

• Posted at 9:29 AM · LINK

Friday, July 15, 2005

Thursday Report

Three more people informed me that Stan Lee is not delivering mail for a living. I did three panels that all went well, I thought. Arnold Drake, God love him, closed the Golden/Silver Age panel with an original, a cappella song about the convention that brought down the house, as they say. This was after earlier bringing down the house with anecdotes about working for one of the less admirable editors in the business. The convention took the occasion of the panel to present its coveted Inkpot Award to Bob Fujitani, Lee Ames, Sy Barry, Dexter Taylor and Bob Bolling. Everyone seemed pleased.

The Sergio-Mark Panel was the Sergio-Mark Panel. The panel on Comic Book Weblogs seemed to satisfy its purpose and most attendees. No big news flashes from any of these but, hey, I had a good time. All in all, not a bad first day of the convention...though I sense a certain looming dread of the Saturday crowds.

Off to do more panels...

• Posted at 8:54 AM · LINK

Today's Political Rant

It strikes me, as I read all the news relating to Karl Rove and the Valerie Plame matter, that we know a lot less about this case than we think we do. The Special Prosecutor's office and the Grand Jury have leaked little, if at all. This, of course, hasn't stopped the partisans from making something out of nothing, building their cases in the press and on the 'net out of very few facts and any number of wishful assumptions. I am in receipt of a couple of mass-mailed messages that argue the case, some in each direction, and while some of the arguments will prove to be true, I think it'll be more a matter of dumb luck than because of any cogent analysis of what's known.

That said, I thought I'd offer up a smidgen of admitted guesswork here. All the pro-Rove e-mails I've received and much of the online spinners assert that Rove couldn't possibly be guilty of leaking the identity of an undercover C.I.A. agent because, they say, Ms. Plame was not undercover. Perhaps that will prove to be true but I have to wonder. Seems to me that if I'm the Prosecutor in this matter, the first thing I do is take the testimony of some high-level C.I.A. official and ask, "Was Valerie Plame undercover?" If he says no, then game's over and we can send the Grand Jury home with our thanks and some lovely parting gifts. If he says yes, then doesn't that become the operating assumption of the Grand Jury proceedings? They may or many not find enough evidence of a crime to return indictments against anyone in particular...but if this were, say, an inquiry into a possible murder, it wouldn't go on this long unless someone was willing to testify the first day that someone had been murdered.

At the same time, I think those eager to see Rove tumble downhill are leaping too quickly to the assumption that, since he's the evil genius who knows all, it's inarguable that he knew all. Already, this part of the story is turning from "Rove told reporters" to "Reporters told Rove." I think it's been established that Rove was more involved than his past statements on this matter indicated but so far, that's more of a political embarrassment than a certainty of indictment. I also see a lot of attempts to read things into each lawyer's statement that may not be there.

Still, all this is just me guessing. We may all be surprised...especially those of us who mistake all the blind speculation for solid info on what's going on. This happens with all these investigations but usually, we get a lot more leaks and facts so the spin isn't quite so far ahead of them.

• Posted at 1:24 AM · LINK

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

The Night Before

Sergio and I drove down to San Diego this afternoon, stopping off in Solana Beach at one of my favorite places to eat Japanese cuisine. If you're ever passing through Solana Beach and crave something that's been dipped in tempura batter and fried into a work of art, you want the Samurai Restaurant. Take the Lomas Santa Fe exit from the 5. It's located just east of the freeway in a big shopping center.

Tonight was Preview Night at the convention which is supposed to be a "less crowded" opportunity for attendees (with full passes) to browse the hall. If tonight is what's going to pass for modest attendance, the packed days will just be piles of bodies — many of them in embarrassing costumes — stacked atop each other in endless rows. When people ask me why I'm hosting 14 panels at this thing, I'm starting to answer, "So I'll always have an unsquashed place to be," and it's starting to make sense to them.

Not much to report, mood-wise. I think I wound up chatting more about Karl Rove than I did about comics. Matter of fact, I think I saw Karl. He was walking past a Star Trek exhibit dressed in a Klingon suit. Not everyone can pull that off but on him, it looked good.

By the way: A few days ago here, I posted a photo of Stan Lee dressed as a letter carrier and I announced that poor Stan had been reduced from being the most powerful individual in comics to delivering mail. This prompted a surprising number of e-mails — about fifty, so far — from folks politely (and one, not so politely) informing me that, duh, that's a still from the Fantastic Four movie and Stan is just playing a role, that of postal servant Willie Lumpkin. I also received one complaint from a mail carrier saying, in effect, "What do you mean, it's a comedown?"

This evening as I wandered the convention floor, taking one last look at the carpeting before the aisles get so flooded we never see it again, three different people approached me to make sure I was kidding; that I really didn't think Stan is working as a mailman. I told them no, it was just a joke. I'm well aware that he's actually wearing one of those striped shirts and selling sneakers at a local Foot Locker. I'm going to see him tomorrow and I may see if he can get me a discount on some New Balance 580s. Great shoe.

In the morning: The games begin! Good night.

• Posted at 11:56 PM · LINK

Fold This Video!

Beck has a new video up that's inspired by Al Jaffee's popular Mad Fold-In feature. Go to this page and look for the link to "Girl." [Thanks to Brian Spence for the tip.]

• Posted at 12:51 AM · LINK

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Two Versions

Not that this is a big deal but there seems to be some question as to whether Angela Lansbury's knee replacement surgery is a result of her accident last Friday night or if it was something already scheduled. Earlier, I linked to a piece on Playbill Online which said it was. Apparently, they later amended the story to say it was not because of the fall, then later put back the earlier version. Right now, that's what's up at this link...

Angela Lansbury will undergo knee-replacement surgery on July 14 as a result of having tripped and fell at a July 8 salute composer Stephen Sondheim at the Hollywood Bowl, Variety reported.

In the meantime, her daughter told the Associated Press that...

Lansbury's daughter Deirdre Battarra says her mother has a lot of pain from years of dancing. Lansbury tripped over an electrical cord Friday night while joining celebrities onstage for Stephen Sondheim's 75th-birthday concert at the Hollywood Bowl. But Battarra says the slip had nothing to do with her mother's surgery plans.

Like I said, not a big deal. But the stories are at least as consistent as any two you'll find on the Internet tonight about Karl Rove.

• Posted at 10:34 PM · LINK

It Hurts Like Murder, She Said

Angela Lansbury is going to have knee replacement surgery. It's a result of that fall she took on stage at the Sondheim gala at the Hollywood Bowl.

• Posted at 9:38 AM · LINK

Monday, July 11, 2005

Tap Your Troubles Away

You almost have to feel sorry for Presidential Press Secretaries. At some point, every one of them has to go out and face the press corps and steadfastly not answer direct questions about something that would be embarrassing to their administration...and might even help get someone indicted. Scott McClellan, who fields queries for G.W. Bush, has had a relatively easy time of it since the White House reporters all sound like they're on the Fox payroll, even when they're not. But on the current matter of Karl Rove and all the inoperative, contradictory statements and denials, the press corps has suddenly shown a wee bit of fang. Take a moment and read today's exchange, at least the first part.

Note that in Mr. McClellan's language, the phrase "I appreciate the question" can be roughly translated as "Watch me try to tap-dance my way around this one."

And don't you wish the press had been half this vigorous pursuing questions relating to...oh, maybe yellow cake uranium or Weapons of Mass Destruction or people being tortured at Gitmo or something that results in human beings, many of them Americans, dying?

• Posted at 5:03 PM · LINK

Sondheim Pix

The newspaper changed the link to the photos of the Sondheim gala. Try this one. (And I changed it on the previous message, too.)

• Posted at 10:33 AM · LINK

Cheap Jack Imitations

The above is an unpublished drawing by the late Jack Kirby. There are a lot of unpublished Kirby originals floating around these days, many of which were even drawn by Jack. But a number of them were not.

In a few cases, there are innocent (or perhaps, wishful) misidentifications. A drawing looks something like Kirby did it...and since it would be worth more if he did than if he didn't, the possessor says, "Boy, that sure looks like Kirby to me." Or sometimes, they hedge the i.d. by saying, "Oh, this is a Kirby layout that someone else finished." With a very few exceptions, this is not the case. After about 1960, which is when most of the surviving art dates from, Jack did almost no layouts for other artists that weren't finished, published and properly credited. The exceptions are few, far between and not likely to turn up in the original art market.

Increasingly, I am seeing what I believe are outright forgeries showing up there. I'm talking about pages that Mr. Kirby never actually did but which are being marketed as if they're off his drawing board. Usually, they are tracings of things he did do, or sometimes composite tracings — the head from one sketch traced onto a tracing of the body of another sketch. Often, they are represented as preliminary roughs or cases where Jack drew a cover, decided something was amiss, and then redrew the same scene for what became the published version. This is also something Jack almost never did. Last year, a devout Kirby fan paid more than two grand for what was represented as Jack's first, still-in-pencil attempt at the cover of Captain America #100. No, it wasn't. It was just someone's tracing — and not a very good one — of the one drawing Jack did for the front of that issue.

I believe I know the source of a few of these fakes. There's a gentleman (I'm using that noun loosely) who worked briefly in the comic book industry back in the seventies — and when I say "briefly," I mean briefly. I think he got around three actual credits, though he occasionally worked as an assistant to other, more established artists. Most comic fans reading this would not know his name. Around '76, seeking ghost/assistant work, he mailed Jack a portfolio of sample pages...and every panel in them was traced from published Kirby art. Jack had no interest in having anyone assist him and if he had, a swiper of his earlier drawings was the last guy he'd have hired, so the offer was politely declined. But I did see the samples and noticed a certain odd misreading of Kirby technique and a very different pencil texture. I think I'm seeing that same misreading and texture in some of the fake Kirby drawings currently making the rounds, at least one of which I know the buyer purchased directly from this artist.

I see a lot of fakes because people keep coming to me with alleged Kirby art that they wish to have authenticated...and I'm thinking of adopting a "no comment" policy and refusing to get involved. It's always a pain, especially when someone e-mails a blurry, low-res scan and says, "If I don't hear from you in 12 hours, I'm going to assume it's real and buy it." Yes, someone actually did that and no, I didn't get back to him in time. (What I would have told him was that I couldn't be certain based on what he'd sent.)

Worse, a gent in Europe recently purchased — for about thrice the money it would have been worth if authentic — a "Kirby" drawing that blind aborigines could spot as bogus. He mailed me a stat and asked me to sign a Certificate of Authenticity stating that I, as Jack's one-time assistant, swore that the attached drawing was Kosher and Kirby. I broke it to him gently that he'd been had and received in return, a flurry of angry accusations: I'm lying, I'm too stupid to recognize real Jack Kirby artwork, I'm in cahoots with some guy I've never heard of who's offered to buy the putative drawing cheap since it cannot be authenticated, etc.

Like I said, I may stop answering such questions but in the meantime, I'm putting out the word: There are fake Kirby drawings out there and their number is increasing. Actually, there are a lot of fake drawings and autographs attributed to all the "high ticket" comic artists. There's a gent on eBay who, though I've e-mailed him to stop, insists on selling Groo promotional cards with phony Sergio Aragonés autographs — this, despite the fact that real Sergio signatures are about as rare as hydrogen molecules. Counterfeit Charles Schulz sketches are especially becoming a booming cottage industry.

Oh — and I should also mention one other category of misrepresented Kirby art. Sometimes, an artist — primarily one who worked with Jack like Joe Sinnott, Dick Ayers or Mike Royer — will be engaged to do a "re-creation," taking an old Kirby drawing, tracing it and inking it. That is legitimate, and they usually sign the piece in some way to indicate that Jack never actually touched that piece of paper. Once in a while, owners will erase the line that denotes re-creation or somehow suggest the artwork started with a Kirby pencil drawing actually pencilled by Kirby. There is one former Kirby inker who has been known to find a published Kirby drawing (usually something obscure), trace and ink it, sign the drawing with both their names and tell the buyer, "Years ago, Jack gave me this sketch to ink." An acknowledged re-creation is okay but this is not.

So the moral of this story is to be careful. The supply of Jack Kirby art is finite but there's no end to how many forgeries can be produced.

• Posted at 2:22 AM · LINK

Going to San Diego This Week?

Many of us will be trekking down to S.D. this week for the Comic-Con International. There will probably be in excess of 100,000 people flocking into that convention center, all of them determined to see my panels and to stand ahead of me in any line. Here are a few random thoughts you might want to roll around...

The current weather forecast calls for clouds in the morning each day with mostly sunny conditions to follow. Lows will be around 60 to 66 while the highs could get up to 75 or thereabouts. Pack accordingly.
Speaking of weather: We are happy to hear that Hurricane Dennis did much less damage than predicted. Still, a weather event like that has the capacity to screw up a lot of airline schedules, and it sometimes takes a few days for them to get back to normal.
Paul Dini reminds me that next Sunday, July 17, is the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Disneyland. If you're thinking of going there then — or just coming back from San Diego on the 5 Freeway — you might want to keep in mind that the Disney people are expecting record attendance. Hey, if you think the Comic-Con is crowded, go get in line for the Indiana Jones ride that day.
Parking at the convention center is always a nightmare. You would do well to consult the convention website for Parking and Shuttle Bus Information and also for data on the Trolley Stops. Every year, I hear of people who just drive to the con and think, "I'll just find a place to park when I get there." This is not a smart way to approach the problem. Some of those people have never been heard from again.
And lastly for now, here's another link to my list of convention tips. You can never have enough convention tips.

I'll probably think of something else to post before the big event commences. Check back.

• Posted at 2:16 AM · LINK

Today's Political Rant

I'm still a little blurry on exactly how I feel about the Valerie Plame, Judith Miller and maybe Karl Rove matter. I believe legitimate leakers — folks who disclose wrongdoing in powerful places — should be protected, but that protection should not extend to some of the excesses that are, alas, becoming the norm.

After I wrote my earlier post, I read a column by Michael Kinsley who, though a Liberal and a newspaperman, has come to some of the same conclusions. I also read a piece by Frank Rich, who makes some good points for the opposite view.

Also this weekend, I read The Secret Man, the new book by Bob Woodward on his relationship with Mark "Deep Throat" Felt. It's a quick read, more like a long article, and it leaves me (no surprise) with a generally favorable view of Felt. A lot of this is because Woodward reminds us of some of the slimy things the Nixon Administration was trying to do, making it quite credible that Felt believed they were trying to manipulate the F.B.I. for political purposes, much as they were doing with the Internal Revenue Service. I can easily accept that Felt believed something had to be done to stop them, and that it's wrong to dismiss him, as some have attempted to do, as a guy who just ratted on his associates because he was mad he didn't get a promotion. There are plenty of moments in the book when I don't like Felt for things he says and does as Mark Felt, but I think what he did as Deep Throat was important and vital and heroic.

One of the more intriguing but sad parts of the book is how Woodward details his conversations with Felt after dementia had robbed the latter of most of his memory. Woodward is almost desperate, grasping at anything, to get Felt to recall his role as informant and to say something positive about their relationship. Eventually, the memories never resurface but the old man is friendly enough to give Woodward some satisfaction. It was also interesting to read about Woodward's struggle to keep the secret for so many years, including deciding to lie in a few instances.

Turning back to the Plame/Miller/Rove matter: Though the lack of leaks from the prosecutor's office is a good thing, and a welcome change from the way Judge Starr slimed those he could not indict, there's one downside. It's too much speculation by people who really don't know the details. At the moment, folks seem to be arguing that Rove might not be guilty of naming Valerie Plame as a C.I.A. agent because he didn't know her name and could only say, "Joseph Wilson's wife." I can't believe the actual case, if there is one, will turn on that distinction.

• Posted at 12:54 AM · LINK

Sunday, July 10, 2005

Another Link You Might Like

And for those of you who were at the Sondheim gala last Friday night, or just want to see what some of it looked like, here's a photo gallery of the event.

• Posted at 11:53 PM · LINK

A Link You Might Like

A brief interview with birthday boy Stephen Sondheim.

• Posted at 11:12 PM · LINK

Today's Political Rant

The last few days, I've made a couple of false starts at a post about the jailing of reporter Judith Miller in the Valerie Plame leak investigation. It's been tough to write since I'm moving away from my previous, long-held belief that the right of the Free Press should trump just about everything, and that reporters should never be forced to reveal their sources. I no longer believe that as strongly as I once did.

What's changed? Well, first of all, the definition of a journalist has become much more ethereal. Obviously, a lady who writes for The New York Times is a journalist. Is someone who writes for Salon? Newsmax? How about Matt Drudge? If he is, then why isn't Jeff Gannon? At some point in the world of weblogs, does the standard get so fuzzy that I qualify? I'm not sure how you can have a special privilege for journalists unless you can clearly define who is one. I would be curious as to whether the various state "shield laws" have some sort of airtight delineation or if it's possible that you could be entitled to the privilege in one state or not in another...or if one judge could say you are while another says you aren't.

Secondly, the Plame case provides a nice template for how the asserted privilege can be used not to reveal but to protect wrongdoing. It's possible that owing to the technicalities, no law was broken in this matter. But if not, someone sure came close, so we have a "real world" example, not one of those science-fiction hypotheticals: "Well, what if revealing a reporter's source would stop a nuclear bomb from going off?" If there's a law against outing Valerie Plame's C.I.A. status and if that law was broken, what steps can be taken if a reporter can insist the privilege applies? Obviously, a law that can be broken without a real fear of prosecution isn't much of a law. Is it even remotely possible that someone could be convicted of leaking to a reporter if that reporter can refuse to testify? If not, why have the law? And is there any other place in our society where a person can assert they have some legal privilege and no one can rule that they're wrong?

Lastly, the whole notion of Anonymous Sources seems to not mean what it once meant. Once upon a time, they were officials, mostly lower-ranked, risking their careers to make sure the public learned what was really going on in their government. These days, it's more often a matter of higher-ups being able to plant news stories of questionable accuracy without attribution. So much of this went on in The New York Times for a while that the paper felt it necessary to apologize for it and to promise that there would be less reliance on unnamed sources. If they've cut back, I sure haven't noticed...and by the way, though they didn't apologize specifically for her, the Times reporter who was most guilty of this — of serving as a blind conduit for government smears and fibs — was Judy Miller.

The legitimate whistleblowers need protection. But if Karl Rove (or anyone in the Bush administration) really did leak something about Valerie Plame for political damage, that's not worthy of the privilege. Neither are some of the bogus stories that were leaked out of Ken Starr's office, leaked out of Senatorial committees to damage the White House, leaked out of the White House to damage everyone else and/or shore up the case for invading Iraq, etc. Exposing corruption is one thing but being an Anonymous Source is becoming a great way to be able to spread negative, possibly phony, stories about your enemies without ever having to accept responsibility for them. Somehow, the part of me that believes fiercely in Freedom of the Press is having a hard time marching for this cause.

• Posted at 2:15 PM · LINK

Byron Preiss, R.I.P.

It's being reported that comic book publisher and entrepreneur Byron Preiss was killed yesterday in a traffic accident. He was 52 years of age. Jim Steranko has written a much better, more personal obituary than I could possibly assemble.

• Posted at 10:13 AM · LINK

The Incredible Postman

There have been reports that Stan Lee has received a huge, seven-figure monetary settlement from Marvel Comics...this, on top of the hefty annual salary he receives. I was therefore shocked, and did not believe until I saw the photo, that he has been working recently as a mail carrier. This is a sad comedown for the man who was once the most important figure in the comic book industry.

• Posted at 2:39 AM · LINK

Saturday, July 9, 2005

Sondheim P.S.

I didn't mention all the performers in last night's Sondheim Gala at the Bowl but I should have mentioned the opener: A film of Krusty the Clown (from The Simpsons) performing "Send in the Clowns" — a song that was otherwise unsung during the event. No one sang "I'm Still Here" or "Comedy Tonight" or "Everything's Coming Up Roses" or a number of other Sondheim ditties that you might have expected. I think the audience liked the fact that the producers mixed the less-familiar with the familiar, instead of loading the program with songs we already all knew by heart.

I could also have mentioned that one of the best things about the evening was the audience, which was friendly and enthusiastic and I can't remember running into so many people I knew at a concert. Sondheim fans are some of the best people in the world.

• Posted at 12:27 PM · LINK

Kirby Kredit Watch

The new Fantastic Four movie has brought a few articles about Marvel's treatment of Jack Kirby. Here, in the Orange County Register, is an interview with Jack's son, Neal.

• Posted at 9:34 AM · LINK

The Gold Medal Kid With The Heavyweight Crown

Guess where I was last evening. BZZZ. Okay, time's up. Carolyn and I went to the Hollywood Bowl for their big 75th birthday celebration shebang in honor of Stephen Sondheim. What a wonderful show. What a wonderful cast.

The wonderful cast included Angela Lansbury, Jason Alexander, Bernadette Peters, Barbara Cook, Vanessa Williams, Len Cariou, Josh Groban, Marin Mazzie, Eric McCormack, Elaine Stritch, Audra McDonald, Carol Burnett and I'm forgetting a whole lot of people. Warren Beatty and Barbra Streisand also turned up on stage but they didn't sing, unless you count leading the audience in a chorus of "Happy Birthday." There were many special moments — Stritch singing "Broadway Baby," Cook performing "Losing My Mind," Peters singing "Children Will Listen" and "Being Alive," Alexander doing "Free" from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (with Adam Wylie in the Hero role). Every number was a highlight but I'm guessing that if you'd polled the sold-out throng on its way out, the favorite moment would have been when Cariou and Lansbury — the original Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett — performed "A Little Priest."

(The worst moment in the show also involved Ms. Lansbury. Coming out for the final bow, she tripped over a wire and fell. There were just under 18,000 gasps — that's how many people the bowl holds — and then, just under 18,000 cheers when she got up and waved to indicate she was fine.)

The evening was, in part, a benefit for a new Sondheim-connected program called Children Will Listen, which is designed to get kids all over the country involved in musical theater. To show how it's working so far, Mr. Sondheim closed his gracious acceptance remarks by introducing a local kids' choir performing one of his numbers as the grand finale. I think everyone present would have liked the proceedings to go on...oh, maybe about five hours would have sufficed. On the way out, you could hear people mentioning the names of their favorite Sondheim tunes that had gone unsung.

No, I do not know if the concert is coming out as a DVD or even just a CD. But it should. If they'd had them ready to buy on the way out, they could have sold just under 18,000 of them.

• Posted at 2:13 AM · LINK

Friday, July 8, 2005

More Panelists! More Fun!

Just added a couple more panelists to events I'm moderating at the Comic-Con International in San Diego. The Emmy-winning actor, Rob Paulsen, who spoke for Pinky on Pinky and the Brain (among zillions of other credits) will be joining us on the Cartoon Voice Actors Panel at 11:30 on Saturday morning. And Jim Warren, publisher of Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella and The Spirit will be a part of the Will Eisner Tribute on Saturday afternoon at 3:00. Here's the full list of the panels I'm moderating. Do not bother going to anything that isn't on this list.

• Posted at 4:43 PM · LINK

Early Friday Morning

I'm up late working but here are three things I found on the web today that weren't about tragic events in London...

Two weeks ago, I posted an obit of Paul Cassidy, who was a ghost artist/assistant for Joe Shuster on the early days of Superman. There seems to be some dispute as to whether he was the first, but he was there for a time and quite an asset. Anyway, the Los Angeles Times has an obit [registration required] which may interest some of you because it contains a photo of the late Mr. Cassidy.
My long-time chum Scott Shaw! was involved in the founding of what has evolved into the Comic-Con International in San Diego. He's now writing a column for Jim Hill Media and in his first installment, he writes about how that whole convention thing got started down there.
I think Robert Klein is one of the most brilliant performers I've ever seen in my life, and I wish he'd stop working the eastern half of the country and come out here for some shows. In the meantime, you can enjoy this conversation he had with radio whiz Paul Harris. You can also be gladdened by the news that Mr. Klein has a new book out, that he has another HBO Special in the works, and that all his past specials will soon be available in a DVD set.

Good night, all!

• Posted at 3:21 AM · LINK

Thursday, July 7, 2005

Okay, Okay...

It's governor GEORGE Pataki and mayor MICHAEL Bloomberg. Michael Pataki is an actor. Come to think of it, so are the governor and the mayor.

• Posted at 1:01 PM · LINK

One More Thought...

I was switching back and forth between CNN, MSNBC and Fox News as I watched the early reports on the London bombing. For a long time on (I think) CNN, what was on my screen was news coverage by Britishers, originating in England. It was restrained, informative and focused on what had actually happened.

At some point, the broadcast switched over to American control and, boy, was there a difference. First of all, we suddenly got an avalanche of speculation: Were these suicide bombers? What else might happen? What message were they sending? And most importantly, what does it mean to US? The topic was not that London had been attacked but that America was scurrying to prepare, just in case we are. New York governor Michael Pataki was suddenly on all channels to assure people that although there was no reason to suspect Manhattan was about to be attacked, everything was being done to be ready. (Uh, there was no reason yesterday to suspect Manhattan was about to be attacked. If all this stuff has to be done today, why didn't it have to be done then?)

I switched over to BBC America to watch their reporting. Much better in every way. For one thing, it was actually about what had happened to the people who were attacked.

• Posted at 10:41 AM · LINK

London

It's not enough to say that this morning's bombings are horrible, tragic, sad, fill in the description of your choice. They're talking about 33 dead and more than 45 injured...but obviously, the damage goes far beyond that.

On my TV, news folks and government officials, both here and in Great Britain, seem to be asking people to juggle a number of different thoughts...

There is no hard evidence as to who did this and it would be irresponsible to speculate and assume it was Al Qeada.
Nevertheless, it was Al Qeada.
London authorities had no advance word of these bombings.
It was inevitable that something like this would happen there, sooner or later.
There is no cause of panic here in the United States since we have no indications of any such plotting here.
Nevertheless, be especially vigilant, though we can't say about what.
And by the way, we're raising the Terror Alert to orange in some areas.
You know, it's almost impossible to prevent this kind of thing.

For some reason, CNN keeps running a crawl that says, "Police Chief: Concerned this was a co-ordinated attack." Like it would be a relief to know that all these bombs exploding at roughly the same time and in the same place was a coincidence.

• Posted at 8:49 AM · LINK

In Case You Were Wondering...

Just how much is the Iraq war costing us? (And this is just in terms of money.)

• Posted at 12:58 AM · LINK

Norm Prescott, R.I.P.

Norm Prescott has died at the age of 78. A former disc jockey (he worked alongside Bob & Ray at WHDH in Boston, among other gigs), Prescott moved to Hollywood and into film production. In 1962, he partnered with Hal Sutherland and Lou Scheimer to form Filmation Studios, which produced hundreds of episodes of animated TV shows — including Superman, Fat Albert, Masters of the Universe, the animated Star Trek and various and sundry Archie shows — and even a number of live-action series before it closed down in 1989. Here's a list of them. Norm's smooth radio voice did not go to waste, as he could be heard speaking for characters in almost every Filmation show and often functioning as announcer/narrator.

In the above photo, Prescott is the gentleman at left, Sutherland is in the center and Scheimer's on the right. Here's a link to the only obit I was able to find online.

• Posted at 12:00 AM · LINK

Wednesday, July 6, 2005

Recommended Viewing

Keith Olbermann is currently my favorite newsguy on TV. Matter of fact, his Countdown show on MSNBC is just about the only one I find remotely watchable. If you haven't given it a try, give it a try. And you might also want to keep an eye on his weblog where he currently has the Cliff Notes version of Bob Woodward's new book about Deep Throat. Amazon says my copy has shipped and should arrive tomorrow but thanks to Olbermann's rundown, I feel like I've already read it.

• Posted at 10:54 PM · LINK

Games People Watch

I got behind on previewing the GSN late night black-and-white reruns. As a result, I didn't alert you to the What's My Line? with Buster Keaton as the Mystery Guest or the reairing of a To Tell the Truth with Jack Bothwell. As explained in this piece I wrote, Mr. Bothwell once made the rounds of talk shows and game shows, claiming to have once played the role of "Freckles" in the Our Gang comedies. This is not so. There was no such character in those films and there's no record of Bothwell ever having worked for the Hal Roach Studios which made the films.

(The other point of note about that To Tell the Truth was that one of the impostors was a New York cop named Barney Martin who had then turned to show business, working on the Jan Murray game show, Treasure Hunt. Mr. Martin, who passed away last March, went on to a very fine acting career, including a stint as Jerry Seinfeld's father on Seinfeld. Here's an obit that I should have linked to three months ago.)

I don't know of anything outstanding on the upcoming To Tell the Truth reruns so I'll just run through what's looming on the What's My Line? airings. Tomorrow morning's has Doris Day and Robert Young as Mystery Guests. Friday morning, the big Mystery Guest is George Sanders, but you might be more interested in the first guest, Erle Stanley Gardner, the author-creator of Perry Mason. Saturday morn, it's Patti Page. Sunday morning is an unusual episode that has Bennett Cerf filling in as host. The Mystery Guests are Julie London and industrialist Henry Kaiser, and I think this is the show where guest panelist Ernie Kovacs got an enormous laugh, which I'll go ahead and blow for you here by quoting. The interrogators had established that the Mystery Guest (Mr. Kaiser) was an automotive magnate and that there was a car that had been named for him. So Kovacs asked, "Is it Abraham Lincoln?"

• Posted at 3:05 PM · LINK

Correction

Due to some ambiguous phrasing, I misunderstood something about the passing of Selby Kelly, as noted in this item. Although her death was announced over the previous weekend, it actually occurred two weeks ago. Sorry for the confusion.

• Posted at 2:02 PM · LINK

Kirby Enshrined

Here's an early announcement of something that we'll be discussing at the Jack Kirby Tribute Panel at the Comic-Con International in San Diego...

FANTASTIC FOUR, X-MEN AND HULK CREATOR'S FAMILY ANNOUNCES MUSEUM

HOBOKEN, New Jersey, USA (6 July 2005) - Signifying a momentous step for comicbook lovers and popular culture scholars worldwide, Lisa Kirby, the daughter of the late Jack Kirby, artist and co-creator of the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captain America and many other comicbook characters and stories, today announced the creation of the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center (JKMRC).

"My dad's work, starting with Captain America in the 1940s and reaching a peak with most of the other Marvel Comics superheroes in the 1960s, had a great influence on our culture, " Lisa Kirby says. "His imagination, storytelling ability, and prolific output contributed significantly to making the comicbooks he created among the most highly regarded in the U.S."'

Although the general public is familiar with some of his work, Kirby himself is still relatively unknown. "In the years since his death in 1994, there have been a number of high profile movies featuring properties and characters Dad created, but he has, for the most part, not been featured in the movies' promotions," Lisa Kirby added, "In that respect, my family and I were excited by the creation of a non-profit educational organization devoted to Dad's work."

Spearheaded by Randolph Hoppe of Hoboken, New Jersey, a cartoonist and web designer who hosts Kirby discussion groups, and supported by the Kirby Family and John Morrow, the award-winning publisher/editor of the Jack Kirby Collector magazine from Raleigh, North Carolina, JKMRC is devoted to promoting and encouraging the study, understanding, preservation and appreciation of the work of comicbook creator Jack Kirby.

"Our first program is to build an exhaustive, collaborative online Jack Kirby 'Catalogue Raisonné'," reports Hoppe, referring to the term for a book of "all the works" by an individual artist. "With support from the Kirby Estate, TwoMorrows Publishing, JKMRC members and scholars worldwide, we will take what has been known as the Jack Kirby Checklist and build it into an invaluable media-rich resource — not just for comicbook and Kirby fans, but for popular culture scholars, as well. I hope that programmers who have knowledge of or experience working on similar volunteer-based online projects will be able to provide some expertise."

However, the online Catalogue Raisonné is not JKMRC's only project. "We hope to develop an exhaustive, multimedia Jack Kirby biographical presentation and to partner with museums, conferences and conventions around the world on Kirby-related exhibits, papers and more," Hoppe adds. "But it all depends on how much support we can garner. I know the first question on most people's mind when learning about a new Jack Kirby Museum will be, 'where will the building with the collection and the exhibit space be built?' My cautiously optimistic response is, 'One step at a time.' At this early stage, it's best to say that anything's possible with the right support."

For John Morrow of TwoMorrows Publishing, the JKMRC is a perfect fit. "I've been editing and publishing the Jack Kirby Collector magazine for more than ten years," Morrow says. "Back in 1995, Rand approached me about posting a web site for the Kirby Collector – I didn't know what a web site was. When he told me his idea for a Kirby Museum, I agreed its time had come. I'm going to put the full resources of TwoMorrows Publishing behind this effort." TwoMorrows started with a 16-page bi-monthly xeroxed Kirby Collector, and is now a thriving operation publishing trade paperbacks and five magazines targeted at the comicbook specialty market.

JKMRC will also celebrate Jack Kirby's co-creators and colleagues. For almost fifteen years starting in 1940, Joe Simon partnered with Kirby, becoming the top creative team during comicbooks' so-called "Golden Age." Starting with their work on Captain America, they then worked on Sandman, Manhunter, Newsboy Legion and Boy Commandos. Simon & Kirby also invented the Romance comicbook genre with the publication of "Young Romance Comics" in 1947. "I've had considerable contact with Joe Simon while publishing the Kirby Collector," Morrow added. "I hope we can work closely with Joe on JKMRC programs, too,"

"Most people remember Jack for developing and telling the stories of the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk and more in the 1960s with Marvel Comics' Editor, Art Director and Writer Stan Lee," Hoppe noted. "Marvel Comics would not be what it is today without those Kirby/Lee collaborations. They defined the Fantastic Four in the more than 102 issues they produced together," he said. "We can't celebrate Jack's 1960s work for Marvel without acknowledging Stan Lee's substantial efforts. We look forward any contributions Stan Lee can make to our programs." Lee's partner on Spider-Man was Steve Ditko.

"All of us in the Kirby family look forward to the growth and impact of this organization," Lisa Kirby stated.

• Posted at 9:31 AM · LINK

Ernest Lehman, R.I.P.

Sorry to hear of the passing of Ernest Lehman, a very nice man and a very accomplished screenwriter and producer. Ernie had many credits but it was hard to mention his name and not allude to North by Northwest, Sabrina, Sweet Smell of Success, and the film versions of West Side Story, The King and I, The Sound of Music, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Hello, Dolly. Yes, he was the person who decided to cast (or, rather miscast) Barbra Streisand in the movie of Dolly, rather than give the starring role to Carol Channing or anyone in the right age bracket. But during this career, Lehman did more than enough things right. There are those who, having studied the evidence, think it's a misattribution to speak of "Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest." Ernie Lehman, they say, was the creative force behind that much-honored movie.

(Ernie had a fascinating book which he allowed me to examine one day when I was visiting him and he had to leave me for about a half-hour to do a phone interview. He took all of his correspondence and paperwork relating to North by Northwest and had it bound into a book about three inches thick. As he and Hitchcock did a lot of their collaboration by mail, it was a rich and invaluable record of that movie and of Hitchcock's — and Lehman's — approach to filmmaking. Ernie told me he was looking into getting the whole thing published, and I don't know what happened after that. That was around ten years ago. I sure hope that book is preserved for historians.)

The next to the last time I saw Ernie, it was because a friend of mine wanted to meet him. It was Mike Peters, the brilliant/crazy cartoonist, and we drove up to Ernie's lovely Brentwood home for the afternoon. The whole visit consisted of two accomplished men — neither of them, me — complimenting each other's work. I just sat there nodding in agreement with both of them.

• Posted at 9:11 AM · LINK

Tuesday, July 5, 2005

Selby Kelly, R.I.P.

Author and cartoonist Selby Daley Kelly died ~~over the July 4th weekend~~ [Correction: two weeks ago] in Northern California. She had been ill for some time and the cause of death is reported as complications from a stroke. Selby was 87, having been born August 13, 1917 in Boulder, Colorado. She later moved to Los Angeles and had a long career in animation, commencing with a job in the ink and paint department at Walt Disney Studios in 1936. She was reportedly an inker on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and worked her way up to the post of assistant animator before she left Disney as a result of the 1941 strike — the same event that drove her future husband, Walt Kelly, away from Disney animation and into the comic book, and later the comic strip business.

Selby later worked for all the major Hollywood studios, including stints at MGM, Walter Lantz, Warner Brothers and even George Pal's Puppetoons, for which she did design work. She was also highly active in the Screen Cartoonists Guild.

In the sixties, she worked for Hanna-Barbera, Jay Ward and Bill Melendez, and was employed by Chuck Jones in 1969 when he directed and co-produced a TV special, The Pogo Birthday Special, based on Walt Kelly's popular newspaper comic strip. There, she wound up spending enough time with Kelly that a romance blossomed. She became his third wife and he became her second husband but, sadly, they only had a few years together. Kelly died in 1973 and Selby, who had been helping him with his work during his illness, continued the Pogo strip for almost two years with the aid of Stephen Kelly, Don Morgan, letterer Henry Shikuma and several other hands. Thereafter, she wrote, assembled and/or supervised several collections of Pogo reprints, including the 1992 Pogo Files for Pogophiles and supervised other Pogo-related projects that brought joy to many a Walt Kelly fan.

• Posted at 8:22 PM · LINK

Monday, July 4, 2005

If You Don't Read This Article, We'll Kill This Dog!

Hey, whatever happened to the National Lampoon?

Come to think of it — and I don't have a link to an answer for this one — whatever happened to Ed Bluestone? He was the guy who came up with that "...we'll shoot this dog" cover and wrote some brilliant pieces for the Lampoon, and he had a brief career as a standup comedian. Anyone have any idea if he's still with us or still performing?

• Posted at 9:38 PM · LINK

Oh, Say Can You See --?

We wish you all a safe 'n' sane Fourth of This Month today and suggest a screening of either of my favorite 7/4 movies — 1776 or Yankee Doodle Dandy. 1776, of course, tells the tale of the battle to write and adopt the Declaration of Independence...and does a marvelous job of building suspense as it tells a tale where we already know the outcome. There's actually a point in the proceedings, a little before "Cool, Conservative Men," where I always find myself thinking for a moment, "Gee, I hope they can get that Declaration voted in but I don't see how." Followers of the movie (or of American history) might be interested in this article that ran recently in Salon, discussing the trafficking in rum that figured so prominently into the American Revolution, and which gets its due in 1776. [To read said article, you'll either need to be a Salon subscriber or watch some advertising.]

Yankee Doodle Dandy, of course, starred Jimmy Cagney as George M. Cohan. It starts with the specious claim that Cohan was born on the Fourth of July (he was not) and like so many Hollywood bio pics, the level of accuracy never gets much higher than that. Based on the extant films and recordings of Mr. Cohan, I would say that the greatest misrepresentation is in the suggestion that he was anywhere near as talented as Mr. Cagney. I don't like the bogus history and I don't like the celebration of Cohan's hollow, "I got mine" brand of flag-waving...but I like Cagney so much in this film that I can overlook the negatives.

• Posted at 10:23 AM · LINK

Krediting Kirby

There's a short piece in this morning's Los Angeles Times about the general neglect of Jack Kirby, in both a credit and financial sense, in the current spate of Marvel Comics movies. I was interviewed for the article but do not endorse its view of Kirby's legal status, nor do I think its estimate of Stan Lee's compensation is an accurate summary. That's mostly a function of how few column inches the reporter was given. I don't think it's possible to summarize the situation in so little space. So not only is Jack not getting his due but the fact that he isn't getting his due isn't getting its due, either.

This will be discussed at greater length at the Jack Kirby Tribute Panel at this year's Comic-Con International. It takes place on Friday afternoon at 2 PM in my home away from home, Conference Room 8. We'll have some of Jack's friends and family members there, and we'll talk about the way the comic book industry treats its geniuses and such.

We'll also have a special appearance by the late, great Johnny Carson. As many of you are aware, Mr. Kirby once had a little altercation with the King of Late Night that resulted in a lawsuit. I showed the relevant Johnny Carson video a few years ago at a Kirby panel and have had numerous requests to show it again and to explain more about the incident. So it'll get another showing and we'll be joined by the lawyer who represented Jack in his legal action, Paul S. Levine. Paul will also tell you some very surprising (I suspect) things about some other disputes in which Jack was involved in the eighties.

I dunno which of the 7,000 panels I'm hosting this year will be the most entertaining but I can tell you which will be the most important. This one.

• Posted at 10:00 AM · LINK

Sunday, July 3, 2005

Sunday Evening

For no visible reason, at least around here, my high-speed Internet connection just began working again. This is the way it always is with Comcast, at least in my experience. They say, "The problem's on your end, we'll have to send a man out," and they schedule one for a few days in the future. Then, before he gets here, they fix the problem on their end.

However, just in case, I'm going to wait 24 hours before I cancel my Tuesday afternoon service appointment.

• Posted at 9:34 PM · LINK

Piles of Panels

The complete programming guide for the Comic-Con International is up on their website...

Of course, you can save time by just going to all the panels I'm hosting.

• Posted at 3:56 PM · LINK

Sunday Morning

Michael Scott, a reader of this site, recolored the George Reeves pic to put Superman in his traditional tones. Several of you have written to me to say that the costume Mr. Reeves wore in the black-and-white episodes was grey and brown, and I think I've seen that costume. There seems to be some disagreement as to whether he had a couple of different ones and what their colors were, but I'm pretty sure that the pic I posted with the goldenrod outfit was a matter of some lobby card stylist screwing up.

A couple of folks wrote to ask if the action and violence in the Superman TV show were toned down because of the Wertham-fanned horror comics scare or because the sponsor demanded it or what. Both were probably factors but my understanding is that the decision was primarily a matter of investment. After the series went on the air, the stations that bought it were primarily programming it as a kids' show in terms of time slots and the kind of commercials they sold for it. I believe there were even cities that folded it into an afternoon block of programming anchored by a kiddie show host. (In Los Angeles, around 1960, "Engineer Bill" Stulla had The Adventures of Superman on his Channel 9 show, right after episodes of Spunky & Tadpole, Q.T. Hush and Colonel Bleep.) And of course, Kellogg's cereals — which bought heavily into the show — was primarily interested in the younger audience. So as the show found its market, content was adjusted to match...and I think they also toned down the action because it cost more to shoot, and the producers had adopted a "cheap as possible" approach to the budget.

In 1968 or so, I spent one afternoon in the office of Whitney Ellsworth, who was the former editor-in-chief of DC Comics. In the mid-fifties, the company sent him to Hollywood to supervise the Superman show and to drum up other TV projects, and he stayed out here and in that post, long after he'd outlived his usefulness. What I recall from our conversations is that Mr. Ellsworth was terrified of saying the wrong thing to me. Somehow, he feared that if he said "You know, I don't like red on comic book covers" to a 16-year-old comic fan, it would get back to his superiors in New York and they'd use it as an excuse to terminate whatever financial arrangement he still had with the company. But what he did talk about, over and over, were the high costs of production. He had not been able to get numerous DC-related projects off the ground because of how expensive everything was, he insisted. And if I asked him anything about the old George Reeves series, the answer was always money, with the implied fear that the show would be cancelled and everyone would be thrown out of work if they went a dime over budget. This is only a slight exaggeration of the way it went...

ME: I never understood why you rarely saw Lois Lane taking notes when she was covering a story.

HIM: My God, do you know what a notepad cost then?

So I gather that the answer to most questions about that Superman show is, "Because it was cheaper." Whatever it was. I think it's amazing how watchable even the latter episodes were, given that they were trying to do the show for a buck-ninety.

I'm still on a dial-up connection which is not faster than a speeding bullet, so I've gotta run here. There will be more posting on this site when the Comcast people make me whole again.

• Posted at 11:00 AM · LINK

Saturday, July 2, 2005

Saturday Night Not Live

My cable modem has picked a splendid time — the July Fourth weekend — to malfunction so I'm in on a dial-up connection. This will limit posting here a bit until Tuesday afternoon when a technician is supposed to come make it well again...although the last few times the cable went out, I made an appointment for a service call and then, six hours later, I was able to cancel it because the thing began to miraculously work again. Each time, of course, was after they'd assured me that they'd done all they could from their end and that the problem had to be on mine. They're saying that this time, too, so maybe it'll right itself before then.

If not, not only will posting be so lethargic but I'll be even farther behind on e-mail than I am now. Forgive me if yours is languishing in my "to be answered" folder. It's in good company in there.

Several folks have written to ask about the photo of George Reeves I posted earlier...why Superman is gold, did I change it, did some stupid person color it, what? I was going to color-correct his uniform to blue but then decided to leave it the way I'd found it. It's a cropped pic from the lobby card from Superman in Scotland Yard, and I did a little Photoshop Magic where something covered part of his arm. I copied a hunk of the other arm, flopped it and pasted it over to complete the Man of Steel's manly elbow. But I didn't change the coloring.

In the black-and-white episodes — one of which that was — Reeves wore a costume that wasn't colored properly but it "read" on film as the right shades. Sources conflict as to what the hues of that actual uniform were, and how many times they changed but I don't think they were ever quite these colors. I think the person who assembled the lobby card took a photo of Reeves in the not-blue suit and enhanced its colors but, deliberately or not, didn't change the main color to Superman's traditional blue. So they took the wrong colors and made them more wrong. If anyone has more info on this, let me know...but don't expect a reply until after Tuesday.

• Posted at 9:25 PM · LINK

Super DVD News

You can't get it until the middle of October but Warner Home Video will soon be bringing out the first season of The Adventures of Superman on DVD — 26 episodes plus special features. There were 104 in all, so assuming this one sells, we'll probably see three more volumes spaced out over the next few years.

If you have to buy one set though, this is the one. Over the five years the series was in production, it got increasingly sappier and chintzier, becoming more of a kids' (only) show, filmed increasingly indoors and relying on stock "flying" footage to supply all the action. They got away with it because the title character was so appealing and because George Reeves was so perfect in the role. So were Phyllis Coates and Noel Neill as Lois Lane and Jack Larson as Jimmy Olsen. (Noel replaced Phyllis after the first season, but I somehow saw all the Noel Neill episodes around eleven times before my local TV station ever reran the Coates shows...so Ms. Neill will forever be my Lois Lane.)

So the first 26 were generally the best. Partly because of the mood and partly because they were in black-and-white — but mostly because of the background of the folks who worked on them — these episodes have that old "movie serial" feel. Later, when the producers seemed to want to see how many of the scenes could be set in the Daily Planet offices, it felt more like a cheap, studio-bound TV show. It's interesting that while they were saving every possible dime on the last 52 shows, they did spring for the extra money to shoot those episodes in color. This showed amazing foresight since at the time, there was no market for the show in color. The negatives were just locked away and those episodes were syndicated in black-and-white until such time as it became economically feasible to go back into the vault and strike off color prints.

As soon as they're offered, I intend to order the first DVD release. And, to be perfectly honest with you, I'll probably order however many sets they bring out, even the last seasons. But I'll betcha I play Volume One more often than all the others combined.

• Posted at 1:18 PM · LINK

Winch Remembered

Here's an article about Paul Winchell's life. And here's another and here's another and here's another. And while we're at it, here's one more.

• Posted at 11:34 AM · LINK

Sneaking Up On Us...

We are edging towards the day when many of us will be wishing aloud that the Comic-Con International in San Diego could be postponed a week or two. But it's coming, it's coming. The Thursday Programming Schedule is now posted but you don't need to read it since you'll only be going to my panels.

In a few days, I'll post a list here of tips to help you enjoy/survive the convention but in the meantime, you can start by reviewing this.

In the meantime, the AccuWeather people are forecasting partly sunny conditions with a high of 72 degrees and a low of 64 for the convention weekend. Sounds like a pretty typical San Diego climate.

• Posted at 10:27 AM · LINK

A Checkered Experience

They had a problem at DC Comics in the mid-sixties: Sales on everything except the Batman books were inching downwards...and Batman was only doing well because of the TV show. At the same time, sales on the new Marvel line were going up. In fact, the Marvel books were gaining at almost the exact same rate the DC books were losing. DC's head honchos began to study the Marvel books, trying to figure out the reason for this aberration of the marketplace.

In later years, some of them would deny it but others say it was true; that the DC execs thought the Marvel books were horrible — bad art, bad stories, bad characters, bad everything. DC artist Mike Sekowsky used to do an impression of the company's publisher throwing down a Marvel book and gasping, "This is garbage! The readers have no taste!" At some point, an explanation began to emerge for the ghastly sales trends. Obviously, it went, readers were getting confused and were buying non-DC books thinking they were DCs. It was decided that something had to be done to make their covers more distinctive and identifiable. Editorial Director Irwin Donenfeld would later receive the credit/blame (pick one) for adorning DC's covers with a hideous checkerboard pattern across the top. They called them, I'm afraid, "go-go checks" and it was the ugliest thing anyone had done to comics since Dr. Wertham called them "blueprints for delinquency."

No, they didn't help sales. Matter of fact, DC's slide hastened...and while there were certainly other reasons for that, it was suggested that the go-go checks had made things worse. "Readers could now spot the DC books much quicker, making it easier to avoid purchasing them," was how Sekowsky put it. After eighteen months, they got rid of the checks and not long after, they got rid of Irwin Donenfeld, which was quite a firing since his father had founded the company. So I guess you could say that "go-go checks" across the top of a cover was a pretty awful idea...

...which is why I was amazed to see TV Guide try it recently. One wonders if someone there did it as a kind of inside joke for those who remember the DC experiment. Yeah, maybe the Nascar theme suggested a checkered flag motif but the reference there to "Dynamic Duos" also invokes the 1966-1968 Batman comics. Either way, they're lucky that they only did it for one week. If they'd put go-go checks on their covers regularly, they'd be out of business in a year.

• Posted at 1:06 AM · LINK

Friday, July 1, 2005

A Morning Thought

Wouldn't it be wonderful if George W. Bush could and would nominate a Supreme Court Justice who'd win confirmation 100-0? It's been done many times before. But Bush and his more rabid supporters aren't interested in that person. They want the justice who'd be confirmed 51 to 49 or 55 to 45.

• Posted at 9:19 AM · LINK

August 1, 2005 • Current • June 1, 2005

Sunday, July 31, 2005

Remembering Jack

• Posted at 8:43 PM · LINK

PayPal Aftermath

• Posted at 12:27 PM · LINK

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Question of the Day

• Posted at 8:17 PM · LINK

Tow Truck Troubles

• Posted at 7:40 PM · LINK

More on Pat

• Posted at 6:54 PM · LINK

Quiz Kids

• Posted at 2:53 PM · LINK

Macho Men

• Posted at 2:08 PM · LINK

True Crime Stories

• Posted at 1:34 PM · LINK

Tom Leaving Again

• Posted at 9:54 AM · LINK

Pat McCormick, R.I.P.

• Posted at 9:14 AM · LINK

Last Call for Neverland

• Posted at 12:32 AM · LINK

Friday, July 29, 2005

Con Reports

• Posted at 7:15 PM · LINK

Browsing the Mailbag...

• Posted at 8:52 AM · LINK

Thursday, July 28, 2005

PayPal: The Conclusion

• Posted at 9:04 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

• Posted at 5:01 PM · LINK

The Latest

• Posted at 3:16 PM · LINK

No Longer On Hold

• Posted at 1:34 PM · LINK

Back On Hold

• Posted at 12:55 PM · LINK

Not On Hold

• Posted at 12:26 PM · LINK

On Hold

• Posted at 12:13 PM · LINK

On Hold

• Posted at 11:59 AM · LINK

On Hold

• Posted at 11:53 AM · LINK

On Hold

• Posted at 11:47 AM · LINK

On Hold

• Posted at 11:39 AM · LINK

On Hold

• Posted at 11:23 AM · LINK

On Hold

• Posted at 11:20 AM · LINK

On Hold

• Posted at 11:13 AM · LINK

On Hold

• Posted at 11:07 AM · LINK

On Hold

• Posted at 11:05 AM · LINK

On Hold

• Posted at 10:56 AM · LINK

Bigger Than a Breadbox

• Posted at 12:57 AM · LINK

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Danny Simon, R.I.P.

• Posted at 11:22 AM · LINK

A Valuable Lesson

• Posted at 9:56 AM · LINK

Stuff 2 Buy

• Posted at 9:49 AM · LINK

EC For Me, See?

• Posted at 1:52 AM · LINK

Bleeped Again!

• Posted at 12:01 AM · LINK

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Today's Political Rant

• Posted at 6:29 PM · LINK