This is another one of those cartoons that the UPA cartoon studio (the folks who brought you Mr. Magoo, Gerald McBoing-Boing and that Dick Tracy cartoon show that barely had Dick Tracy in it) animated for the Hill & Range Music Company. The latter firm placed them on Chicago kids' shows of the fifties and I'm not sure where else.
This one is their version of Frosty the Snowman, featuring a terrific vocal rendition of the tune. I'm told Bobe Cannon directed this and have no evidence to the contrary. If you'd like to buy a DVD of this and other cartoons that became perennials on Chicago TV, click on this link.
It has been called to my attention that I keep presenting the Writers Guild's side of the current labor dispute. In fairness, I think we all oughta take a look at the AMPTP website and get their side of things. It's amazingly honest.
Comic book artist Wayne Howard has died. One of the few African-American comic book artists at the time he broke into the field, Howard learned his craft in the fanzines of the sixties and at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. But he told me he learned most of what he knew about comics from his brief time assisting Wally Wood from 1968 to 1969. (Some sources say '69 but you can see Wayne's name hidden all throughout the backgrounds of Captain Action #1, which Wood and his crew produced in 1968.)
I only knew Wayne from a couple of phone calls in 1970, shortly after he left Wood. When Jack Kirby left Marvel to edit his own comics for DC, Wayne kept phoning Jack and also me, hoping he could draw or at least ink something for the new projects. Unfortunately, DC didn't want Jack employing other artists so there was nothing there for Wayne. At one point, Jack arranged for him to take his samples in to show Carmine Infantino, who was the head guy at DC.
A few days after the scheduled appointment, I asked Jack if he'd heard how Howard's work was received. Jack replied, "Carmine thought he wasn't ready yet so he sent him to Connecticut."
I didn't understand the response so I asked Jack to explain. "I said Carmine sent him to Connecticut," Kirby replied.
Again, I didn't get it. "Are you saying that Carmine looked at his work and said, 'I don't like the way you draw. Go to Connecticut!'?"
"Yes," Jack insisted. "Carmine told him to go to Connecticut."
It took a few minutes but I figured it out. Charlton Comics, the lowest-paying company in the business, was based in Derby, Connecticut. I asked Jack, "Are you saying Carmine told him to go try and get work from Charlton?"
Jack, a bit exasperated with me, said, "Yes, Carmine sent him to Connecticut!" To Jack, "Charlton" and "Connecticut" were interchangeable.
Howard did go to Charlton and did get work there...a lot of work, though he occasionally managed to get a job here and there for DC, Marvel or Gold Key. I remember he inked one issue of Marvel Team-Up over Gil Kane pencils and did — I thought — a better job than a lot of folks who, unlike Wayne, got more work there. I have here the original art to an unpublished mystery story he did for DC over Mike Sekowsky pencils that wasn't very good, though.
Wayne's most notable work for Charlton was the mystery title, Midnight Tales, which he created and drew most of and often wrote, as well. As Charlton cut back on publishing, Wayne's career in comics pretty much went away and he freelanced here and there until around 1982, whereupon he stopped working in comics altogether. Someone told me once that he'd become a policeman but I don't know if that's true or if the person was confusing him with Pete Morisi, another Charlton mainstay who did work as a cop. Whatever, sources are reporting that Wayne Howard died yesterday from a heart attack. He was 59.
This will have to be brief (for me) because any minute now, I have men arriving to begin ripping out half my kitchen. They've already "demoed" (short form verb for "demolition") about a third of my dining room and made it unusable for — they say — about six weeks of reconstruction. Now, they're going after where I'd prepare the food I can no longer eat in my dining room. This is all because of a burst supply line on an upstairs toilet that leaked into walls, flooring and ceiling while I was in Ohio. The least fun part of my trip.
So...to the strike. We're in an uncomfortable place right now. The AMPTP says the talks are over until we assure them we're dropping six demands. A few writers elsewhere on the 'net are arguing that we should drop some or all of them in order to get the talks going again. Of course, there's no guarantee that if we drop all six, the other side won't engage in meaningless chat with us for a few days — just so they can say they're honoring their side of the ultimatum — and then announce the talks are over until we abandon six more of our demands. Or all of them. One thing we know from past deliberations with the AMPTP: When they have a strategy that gets them what they want, they do it again and again and again.
I think compromises are possible on at least some of those six areas — animation, for instance. The WGA is not, insofar as I know, demanding that jurisdiction over animation just be wrested from The Animation Guild...which the AMPTP probably couldn't do if they wanted. But there is language in the WGA-AMPTP contract that we'd like dropped because it makes it more difficult for the Writers Guild to organize via traditional labor organizing methods. The same thing is true of "reality" shows. If some of our demands in these areas seem like overreaching...well, a lot of that is like when they offer you $10,000 for a script and you and your agent think (and know) it'll be $15,000 so he asks for twenty. You often have to play the High-Low Game in bargaining. And sometimes, you have to be prepared for them to tell you you're crazy and unreasonable and to break off negotiations for a while before you get around to the $15,000 price.
And of course, sometimes you never get there. That's the risk in haggling. But you never get there when you capitulate and agree to the ten.
Sure, it would be nice if this thing was over. In most negotiations, the other side counts on you thinking that. In a game of Chicken, which is what too many business disputes devolve into, the one who acts less afraid of the head-on collision is usually the victor.
I don't think the WGA is going to blink on this. When the history of this strike is written, I suspect it's going to yield the overview that the AMPTP guys consistently underestimated the resolve of the membership. Almost every strike in Hollywood history has been about that...about someone on the Producers' side saying, "If we offer them X, they'll grab it" and just plain being wrong. In a sense, the AMPTP position is self-refuting. They're arguing there's no guaranteed money to be made on the Internet but they're willing to endure a long strike and screw up most other facets of their business in order to not share that "no money" with us.
If we are truly asking for cash that doesn't exist, it's real easy to arrive at a formula that handles that: We get X% of whatever does come in...or Y% of whatever comes in after $Z has been earned. Something of that sort. For the most part, the AMPTP is still sticking with "There's no money there so we won't discuss sharing it with anyone." Which is not a logical position and, of course, the "no money" part is not what they're telling their stockholders.
My doorbell is telling me the guys with the sledge hammers are here to whack my kitchen but I guess I'm done with this. It went on longer than I'd expected. But then, like strikes, my postings often do.
December 11, 2007
