Here are two columns by Michael Kinsley. In this one, he continues his debate over stem-cell research...a subject near and dear to his heart as he has Parkinson's Disease. In this one, he discusses the outright dishonesty that was used to kill the fabled Hillary Clinton health plan of 16 years ago and how the same tactic may be used against current efforts.
Health care is an issue near and dear to my heart, as I've seen friends' lives completely destroyed by medical bills. In many ways, I think they're a greater threat to human life in this country than religious fanatics flying planes into skyscrapers. I also took the time to actually read most of Hillary's plan back then and came to the conclusion that it was defeated simply because its opponents outright lied about its provisions, and a large part of the American people bought those lies. It would be nice, if the new efforts don't succeed, for them to fail because of what's actually in the proposal, not because of fibs about its contents.
Quick reminder: If you're at your computer between 4 and 6 PM Pacific this afternoon (7 and 9 PM Eastern), you'll enjoy the heck out of Stu's Show with his guest, Jack Riley. Details here.
Blazing Combat was a black-and-white comic magazine published from 1965 to 1966 by Warren Publishing. Crafted consciously in the mode of Harvey Kurtzman's classic EC war comics — and even employing as many of the same artists as they could get — Blazing Combat was largely the creation of editor-writer Archie Goodwin, one of the great talents of his generation. Still, despite his excellent scripts, covers by Frank Frazetta and interior artwork by the likes of John Severin, Reed Crandall, Wally Wood, Alex Toth, Russ Heath and others of that standard, it didn't sell. Four issues and out.
Publisher James Warren blamed the failure largely on reaction to its brief Vietnam content, especially a story in the second issue which suggested that some U.S. forces were killing civilians Over There. That kind of thing, Warren said, caused the magazine to disappear from stores on military bases and also triggered complaints and pressure from the American Legion and similar groups. A few years later, I don't think there would have been quite the outrage but in '65, one did not dare suggest that the American effort was anything but humane, honorable and certain to result in unqualified victory.
It was a shame that Blazing Combat didn't continue because Goodwin presented memorable, unidealized tales of men throughout many wars, weaving separate tales into overall themes of humanity. The stories he concurrently did for Warren in Creepy and (soon) Eerie also had some of that in the context of ghosts and werewolves and vampires. It just meant so much more in the context of stark reality.
Happily, Fantagraphics Books has now issued the complete contents of Blazing Combat (minus the four Frazetta covers, though two are used in part as end papers) in a handsome hardcover which I highly recommend. The pages are a bit smaller than the original editions but the material is barely diminished by this. It's well-reproduced and very pleasant to read in this format. I flipped through my copy and intended to only read the interviews with Warren and Goodwin, conducted by Mike Catron, who has done a fine job preserving and promoting this work. But the mention of one story in an interview prompted me to read that tale...and then I read the story after it and the one after it, and wound up reading the whole splendid book, enjoying them all again.
Now, here I'd usually post an Amazon link to the book so you could go and order it. But at this moment, Amazon doesn't have the book and isn't even taking advance orders for it. So I'll alert you when you can get a copy...because it has been printed. I got mine and I'm glad to have it.
Back in '75 when TV producers were wrestling with the idea of The Family Hour and having their shows laundered to fit, the cast of All in the Family taped this short song parody. It reportedly never aired and I'm not completely certain why it was done...maybe just an in-house joke or something. But I saw this on Lee Goldberg's website and since Lee hasn't found the time to have lunch with me lately, I thought I'd just steal it...
March 26, 2009
