Monday, April 23, 2007

Conventional Wisdom

For reasons that escape me, I'm booked for a batch of comic-type conventions in the next few months...

June 2 and 3, I'll be at the Super-Con, which used to be in Oakland, California but is now in San Jose. They have a pretty good lineup of guests so we may have some interesting panels and program items. I'll tell you all about them when things get firmed up.
July 5 through 8, the lovely Carolyn Kelly and the lovely I (to say nothing of the lovely Rob Paulsen) will be Guests of Honor at Anthrocon, which is an annual convention in Pittsburgh to celebrate funny animals and the anthropomorphic arts. Again, there will be panels and talks. I'll talk about the silly cartoons I write. Carolyn will talk about the work of her father, Walt Kelly, on Pogo...which was only, like, the best newspaper strip ever. And I imagine Rob will talk about doing some of the best cartoon voice work done today.
And then of course, July 26-29, we and everyone who could get a hotel room will be at the Comic-Con International in San Diego. Usually, I go there and run twelve or thirteen panels. This year, they've made me a Guest of Honor so I guess I'm going to go there and run twelve or thirteen panels. It's way too early to say what they might be but they'd better be good. If they aren't, there's a good chance no one will show up for the convention.

If you can make it to any of these, please come by and say howdy. I get a lot of e-mail here but I somehow don't believe people are reading this website until they tell me in person.

Also, if you see me, look around. You may just spot John Lithgow lurking close by. (As a couple of you have written to me, it could be worse. I could be stalked by Robert Blake.)

• Posted at 11:44 PM · LINK

Spellbound

One of my big peeves, apart from John Lithgow following me around, is that so many people who purport to care about comic book history don't seem to know how to spell the names of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman. These are important men with not-difficult names but just take a moment and Google some aberrant spellings. You'll find countless hits for Siegal and Shuster, Seigel and Schuster, Seigle and Shusster, etc. Sometimes, they get one wrong, sometimes both. This probably bugs me more than it should.

Well, here's a bit of comic book history. Above left is an ad that appeared in New Comics #11, which came out in 1936 from the company we now know as DC Comics. It's a promo for a new book the company was then launching called Detective Comics. That's the cover of #1, which was drawn by Vince Sullivan, the book's associate editor. The ad touts the folks who created the interior of that historic publication — Tom Hickey, Sven Elven, Bill Patrick, Creig Flessel (who recently celebrated his 94th birthday), Seigel & Shuster [sic], Homer Fleming and Alger. Not listed is Fred Schwab, who also did a story in that first issue.

That's right. In what may be the first ad to ever mention Jerry and Joe, Jerry's name was misspelled. So maybe it's a time-honored tradition.

• Posted at 11:15 PM · LINK

He's Here...He's There...He's Everywhere!

As some of you may recall, I've had some concern about the size of the crows in my neighborhood lately. They're now about the size of Lincoln Continentals.

But I have something new to worry about. I think I'm being stalked. What's more, I think I'm being stalked by John Lithgow.

Today, I went into a Bristol Farms market and as I was waiting to check out, I noticed that the man standing behind me in line was John Lithgow. This is the third time in thirty days I've encountered Mr. Lithgow. The first, which I didn't tell you about, was in a restaurant almost a month ago. He acted like he was there to eat with someone else but I wasn't fooled. He was there to keep an eye on me.

The second time was at the Billy Connelly performance mentioned here. Again, Lithgow feigned like he was there for some innocent reason like seeing the show...and he had me almost convinced. He's that good an actor. I was prepared to just consider the two run-ins a coincidence.

But today at Bristol Farms, I caught on. There he was with his little basket, pretending to be out grocery shopping, supposedly more interested in his purchases than he was in me. Nice try, Lithgow, but I'm on to you. I don't know what you're up to but it won't work.

Stay tuned to this weblog for more sightings of John Lithgow. And don't think there won't be plenty.

• Posted at 9:19 PM · LINK

Set the TiVo!

Regis Philbin returns on Thursday to Live With Regis and Kelly following his bypass operation. One of his guests that morning will be David Letterman.

• Posted at 7:34 PM · LINK

Up Late Again...

Earlier this morning, GSN ran two episodes of To Tell the Truth in tribute to its longtime panelist, Kitty Carlisle. One was an episode I described here...from memory since I don't think I've seen it since it first aired back in the seventies. Just for the record, I remembered what happened but I remembered them in reverse. The "reveal" of Ms. Carlisle's son preceded the unmasking of Joe Garagiola's son. Either way, it was still a funny segment.

Good night, Internet. I'll see you in the morning.

• Posted at 4:40 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

The career of Bob Fosse. In a little over three minutes.

• Posted at 12:34 AM · LINK

April 24, 2007 • Current • April 22, 2007