Friday, November 10, 2006

ME the Con Guy

I can announce now that I have been added to the guest list of Wondercon 2007, which will be held March 2-4 of next year at the Moscone Center South in that city where Tony Bennett left his heart. Even better, they've added two great comic book veteran artists, Gene Colan and Nick Cardy. We don't have programming plans yet but I wouldn't be surprised if I wound up interviewing both of them — maybe individually, maybe collectively — as well as EC/Mad legend Al Feldstein.

If you can't get to San Francisco to see me interview Feldstein or can't wait 'til next March, you can go to the Buckeye State later this month. I'll be chatting with Al at the Mid-Ohio Con, which takes place November 25 and 26 at the Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. I'll also be interviewing — with the help of the infamous Tony Isabella — Gary Friedrich and Dick Ayers, who did many fine comics (including Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos) for Marvel in the sixties and seventies. Click here for the entire programming schedule.

Hope to see you at one or the other. Considering that the last time I was supposed to be at a Wondercon, I wound up in the hospital instead, I hope to see me at one or the other.

• Posted at 10:02 PM · LINK

The Palance-Darkseid Connection

Sorry to hear of the passing of actor Jack Palance, a classy presence in an awful lot of movies over the years. I'm afraid I never met Mr. Palance and have absolutely no anecdotes about him.

However, I can't help but mention an interesting sidelight to the man's stellar career. In 1970, the great comic book creator Jack Kirby introduced a villain named Darkseid (pronounced "Dark-SIDE") who has since become one of the great bad guys in the history of the medium. Darkseid has appeared often in the pages of DC Comics ever since and also made it onto TV cartoons and the toy shelves.

The style and substance of this master antagonist were based on just about every power-mad tyrant Kirby had ever met or observed, with a special emphasis on Richard Milhous Nixon. Nixon was kind of the monster du jour for many in 1970 and he's still a fine template for various forms of villainy.

Beyond that kind of thing, it is not uncommon for comic artists to "cast" their creations, using someone they know or have observed as reference, and Kirby used Jack Palance as a model for Darkseid. I don't mean that he thought the other Jack had ever tried to enslave the universe...but Kirby had been impressed by one or more Palance screen appearances. They inspired some aspect of Darkseid...a look, a posture, a gesture, whatever. Most of all, it was probably a voice. When J.K. wrote dialogue for his comic book evildoer, he was "hearing" Palance in some film. (I have no idea which one. Another Kirby scholar has suggested the 1968 TV-Movie, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with Palance in both title roles, but I don't see any points of comparison.) In the same way and in the same series, Kirby based the likeness of businessman Morgan Edge on actor Kevin McCarthy and super-heroine Big Barda on singer Lainie Kazan (right after she was in Playboy) while a villain named Glorious Godfrey was an amalgam of Billy Graham and Arthur Godfrey.

To the best of my knowledge, Jack Palance was unaware that one of his screen images was purloined for a comic book baddie, and no one seems to have thought of voicecasting him for any of Darkseid's animated appearances. And I want to emphasize that Kirby had no negative thoughts whatsoever about the actor. Quite the contrary, he thought Palance had a great screen presence, giving off a power that was worth putting to use in a comic book.

Also to the best of my knowledge, whenever Darkseid scored a triumph, he never dropped to the floor and did one-handed push-ups. But if I'd written more of his adventures, he probably would have.

• Posted at 8:53 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

We seem to have a Theme Week going here, the theme being "Warner Brothers cartoons directed by the late 'n' great Bob Clampett." This is A Corny Concerto and it was the WB team's response to Disney's Fantasia with Elmer Fudd assuming the role that Deems Taylor filled in the Disney film. Mr. Fudd displays somewhat more charisma than Mr. Taylor.

Fantasia, in case you're interested, had its world premiere on November 13, 1940. A Corny Concerto came out in August of 1943...and you have to wonder if by then, most people who saw the parody even knew what it was a parody of. Fantasia was not terribly successful so a lot of folks didn't see it. Others had probably forgotten it by the time the Clampett version appeared. Still, it's a pretty funny film even if you don't know the Disney effort.

Arthur Q. Bryan provided the voice of Fudd. Since Bugs Bunny has no dialogue, this makes it (I think) the only Bugs cartoon produced during Mel Blanc's lifetime that didn't require his services. Let's take a look at it.

• Posted at 8:59 AM · LINK

A Brief Comment

Something unusual has to happen in this country to get me to listen to Talk Radio. Democrats winning something is pretty unusual so today, I sampled about a half hour each of Conservative and Liberal radio chatter.

It sounded pretty much the same way it has every time I've tuned in lately: Conservatives angry but talking of victory, Liberals moaning about Conservatives. Randi Rhodes on Air America sounded unhappier than folks who had reason to wail. On some show, I heard a right-winger using the phrase, "blessing in disguise," over and over. When things don't go the way you wanted, there's something noble about trying to put a positive spin on your disaster...but there's also, sometimes, something dishonest...

You didn't want it to happen. You worked and donated money and prayed it would not happen. But it happened and now that it's happened, you have to figure out some way to pretend it was the best thing that could have happened. Who are you trying to kid? Me or yourself?

On all channels, I heard a lot of statements that tried to interpret the vote as about one thing and only one aspect of it. One guy was arguing that what was repudiated was not the Iraq War but this administration's handling of the war. Another fellow was saying it was Donald Rumsfeld who got the big vote of No Confidence. (It's amazing. Until I watched a discussion today on MSNBC, I'd been unaware that all errors in the war effort were errors by Rumsfeld. Apparently, no one else screwed up.) There were a lot of explanations for why we voted the way we voted but each pundit's ponderings seemed to come down to one specific issue per pundit...like millions of people from all walks of life only had the one reason among them. Me, I think America was speaking loud and clear that they want me to stop staying up this late writing weblog items. So I have a mandate to go to bed. Good night.

• Posted at 3:05 AM · LINK

Mad Men Hit Town

Forgot to mention an outta-town visitor this past weekend. Tom Richmond has become one of the star caricaturists of Mad Magazine...and if you specialize in drawing likenesses, that's pretty much the highest honor you can achieve. I mean, appearing in the same pages as Drucker and Davis? Doesn't get much better than that.

Tom was in L.A. (briefly) for a Sunday convention...so we had dinner Saturday night. Then the next afternoon, I watched him whip out striking caricatures of many of his fans and sign advance copies of the next Mad (with Tom's expertly-illustrated take on Grey's Anatomy). Great guy, great artist.

Tom has a website which I would recommend to anyone with an interest in professional cartooning. His weblog has a lot of "how I do it" pieces, including rough sketches and images of jobs in various stages of completion. And don't miss this posting from September in which Tom told the story of how his spouse surprised him with an amazing anniversary gift.

Another fine caricaturist whose work appears in Mad, Drew Friedman, was also in town last week for a bookstore appearance to promote his new book, Old Jewish Comedians. Alas, I was unable to get my keester or any other part of me over to his signing but I do have the book and it's quite wonderful, capturing some very grotesque people in a grotesque style but with just enough affection to make it enjoyable. Order a copy here and see what I mean.

• Posted at 1:17 AM · LINK

November 11, 2006 • Current • November 9, 2006