A birthday shout-out to my longtime friend, artist extraordinaire Wendy Pini...who with her hubby Richard created Elfquest, one of the great enduring comic art creations of the last few decades. I have known Wendy for mumble-mumble years — since before she met Richard, even. At my first comic and science-fiction conventions, she was the individual that everyone followed about...the ideal mate insofar as most attendees were concerned. All the other attendees were guys, after all, and what more perfect life-partner for a fan than a beautiful, smart woman who could draw?
Wendy was nice to everyone but every guy she refused to marry — which at the time was all of them — wanted to go out and throw himself off the roof of the Sheraton. When she met Richard a few years later (yes, via a comic book letter page), they forged an important and perfect partnership in all ways visible to their amigos, and she remains among the sunniest presences on this planet. If you love Elfquest — and everyone who's read it sure seems to — you have only to meet the people responsible to know why. I just phoned Wendy to wish her a happy Wendy day but she's not answering. Hope she's out doing something fun and will accept a blogged birthday greeting instead of a personal howdy.
Yesterday, we plugged our favorite Los Angeles comedy troupe. Today, we have a nine minute sampler of Forbidden Broadway, a New York-based institution which is usually among my stops when I hit town...and it has also been known to tour. It's parodies of show tunes and scenes by four talented performers. (The cast is constantly changing. Jason Alexander was in an early company. First time I saw it, one of the players was Brad Oscar, who went on to star in The Producers on Broadway.)
This clip, I should warn you, ends abruptly in the middle of a number. Don't blame me for this. I didn't do it. But it's worth watching anyway. I'm not 100% sure of the gents' names so I won't say...but the two ladies featured are Suzanne Blakeslee and Christine Pedi. Suzanne can now be heard in many cartoons and Christine had lately been appearing in her own shows, often with her killer impression of Liza. (I wrote about Christine here.) They're not in any current Forbidden Broadway show as far as I know but the franchise has a way of attracting other, very talented folks. Anyway, here's nine minutes of what the whole thing is about...and I hope you like it because I may be linking to more of this over the next few days.
My pal Elliott Maggin, who wrote Superman for a long time, has written a nice little op-ed for the Los Angeles Times. He compares Jor-El (Superman's pa) warning of the destruction of Krypton to Al Gore warning of the destruction of this thing we live on. Fortunately, Elliott doesn't carry the comparison too far. Give it a read, even though the L.A. Times may make you register.
June 5, 2006
