I don't think I've mentioned it lately but I have a book coming out in February. It was supposed to be out this Christmas but doing it right (or as "right" as any book by me is likely to ever be) took a little longer than expected. Everything is presently on track for a February release.
The book is called Kirby: King of Comics. It is not (repeat: NOT) my long-awaited exhaustive biography of comic book legend Jack Kirby that will tell you what he had for lunch on the first Tuesday in August of 1953 — which, by the way, was a chicken salad sandwich on whole wheat toast with a side of macaroni salad and a cup of coffee, black. That book is still a few years off.
This book is a celebratory art book and bio of Jack that covers his entire career but not in microscopic detail. I tracked down the original art to many of my favorite Kirby covers and pages and we shot right off the originals and it's from the Harry N. Abrams company, so that should give you some idea of the quality and prestige of the whole thing. We always knew Jack deserved to be hailed as one of the great American illustrators of all time and now there's a volume that treats him as such.
I'll be talking more about the book here in the months to come. The only reason I'm mentioning it right now is to point you to this interview that Peter Sanderson did with me for Publishers Weekly. And if it motivates you to order the thing, here's a link by which you can do that.
John Edwards keeps being asked if he'll back Hillary Clinton if, as does not seem impossible, she is the Democratic Presidential Nominee. He keeps avoiding direct answers saying (at most), things like "I fully expect to support the Democratic nominee, and I fully expect to be the Democratic nominee."
Okay, fine. We all understand you're running against the lady and don't want to say, "Of course, she'd be a great president." But John, you're really running against all the things Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney and most of the guys on that side of the ballot want to do, which is continue a lot of the "disastrous" (your adjective) policies of George W. Bush while making it seem like there's a new attitude in the White House. If you really believe that any of those policies and G.O.P. objectives would be as bad as you say, then Hillary by even the worst measure would be preferable. By not saying strongly you'd support her, you're trivializing your own criticisms of all the things Republicans stand for and you say you don't.
I'm not wild about Hillary Clinton in the White House. Or Edwards or Barack Obama. Once upon a time, I might even have favored Giuliani or McCain over a couple of those folks. But now with Rudy and John M. pandering to the ultra-right and pledging to out-tough (but apparently not out-think) Bush on Iran, I don't see any possible Democratic/Republican match-ups that would leave me a choice but to vote for the Democrat. Does Edwards? If he does, I wish he'd cue me in. If not, he shouldn't make it sound like he'd throw his support that way only because he had to.
If you ever lost money at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas and dreamed of seeing someone blow the place up, now's your chance. This site has all sorts of footage of this morning's explosion/implosion.
The Frontier was the first hotel I ever stayed in during a visit to that town. This was back in the eighties. It was a dump then and it never got any better. Despite a great location and cheap rooms, a lot of people shunned it as a place to stay and once Siegfried and Roy moved over to the Mirage and the Frontier closed its showroom, most folks saw no reason to even venture inside. The few times I did, I never found one. It's sad seeing yet another part of Vegas history disappear but it was sadder to see this one rotting away there the last few decades.
In its place will go a multimillion dollar mega-resort...which is much-needed since they haven't built a new multimillion dollar mega-resort in Vegas for almost a month now and the nearest one is all the way across the street. The developers are promising "one of the most beautiful, luxurious hotels in the world" and that's fine. But I can't help think that they would do just fine if they built a place that looked like the Frontier or the Sands in their heydays, called it "Old Vegas" and had the dealers in tuxedos and the spirit of Frank, Dean and Sammy hovering over it all.
Someone at NBC is being awfully stubborn about admitting there's a Writers Guild strike on. I'm on a list that brings me press releases from the network and, for example, I just got this one with a "schedule update" for Late Night With Conan O'Brien. The asterisks denote a change from the previous release...
DAILY UPDATED LISTINGS FOR NBC'S LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN
UPDATED NOVEMBER 13
(Mondays – Fridays, 12:35 a.m. ET – 1:35 a.m. ET)
**(REPEAT) Tuesday, November 13 – Actress Glenn Close, actor Michael Cera, musical guest Modest Mouse
Wednesday, November 14 – Actor Jason Bateman, actor Brian Posehn, musical guest Plain White T's
Thursday, November 15 – Actor Benjamin Bratt, tennis player Venus Williams
Friday, November 16 – Actor Jonah Hill, actor Timothy Olyphant, and entertainer Fonzworth Bentley
In other words, now that it's Tuesday morning, we're grudgingly announcing that tonight's show will be a rerun but we're still pretending that tomorrow night's may actually be a new episode with guests Jason Bateman, Brian Posehn and Plain White T's. No writers are working on that episode and Conan may not even be in town. There are no talks going on at the moment that could conceivably settle the WGA strike before the day is out and I kinda doubt Jason, Brian and the T's are keeping the time open to tape Conan tomorrow. Still, we're not ruling out the possibility that everything could still come together and the show could go on.
By the way: I may be the only person in the world who gets annoyed by this but the press release is wrong in another way. Late Night With Conan O'Brien is not on Mondays through Fridays. It's on Tuesdays through Saturdays. I know that a show that starts shortly after Midnight feels like it's part of the preceding day but it isn't and in a world where people set VCRs or TiVos, this matters a little, perhaps only to me.
This is a still from the movie The Greatest Show on Earth and that's Jimmy Stewart under that clown makeup. But never mind him. Take a look at that little girl. That's Beverly Washburn, an actress who has had one of the most amazing careers of anyone in Hollywood. I'd start listing great stars she's worked with and great films and TV shows she's been in but it might be easier to itemize the few she's missed.
Take a look at this list which isn't even close to complete. For instance, she did a lot more work with Jack Benny, who was kind of a mentor to her. Nor is the list done with, since she still works an awful lot.
Ms. Washburn will be discussing her astonishing career tomorrow on Stu's Show, the flagship program on Shokus Internet Radio. She'll be on live with Stu Shostak from 4 PM to 6 PM Pacific time, which is probably 7 PM to 9 PM back east. Click on over to the Shokus site for details on how you can listen in (and even phone in) to enjoy what will surely be a great show.
Postings here, especially about the WGA strike, may get a little erratic starting Wednesday. That's when I head East, though I'll keep in touch. Never stray too far from your weblog, my mother always taught me.
This coming weekend, I'll be among the many guests at the Big Apple/National Comic Convention in New York City, which is being held at the Penn Plaza Pavilion. More info can be obtained over at this website. I will be hosting two panels there. On Saturday at Noon, I'll be moderating one on Marvel in the Sixties and Seventies with a bunch of folks who worked on the comics then. The lineup isn't firm but it'll probably include Dick Ayers, John Romita, Herb Trimpe, Gary Friedrich and Joe Sinnott. And isn't it nice to hear that Joe, who was so sick not long ago, is well enough to travel into Manhattan to attend a comic convention?
Then on Sunday at 4 PM, Sergio Aragonés and I will be discussing on our bizarre and altogether unlikely work on Groo the Wanderer and some upcoming projects, including Will Eisner's The Spirit, which we are ruining writing for the folks at DC.
Then the following weekend, I'll be in Columbus, Ohio and so will Sergio. We'll be among the guests at Roger Price's wonderful Mid-Ohio Con, which takes place November 24 and 25 in Battelle Hall in the Columbus Convention Center. I've been to these before and they're always sensational...so if there's any chance you can make it, make it. Details on the con are here and I've posted a page on the panels I'll be hosting over here.
At both cons, if you see me and won't be ashamed to be seen in my presence, say hello, tell me you love the weblog, whatever. Just don't lie to me and tell me you're the guy who likes Candy Corn.
November 14, 2007
