Monday, May 4, 2009

Monday Morning

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi proclaimed on Friday that he was the world's most popular leader.

Sounds like someone else is going to have to apologize to Rush Limbaugh.

• Posted at 9:36 AM · LINK

Funny Faxers

The L.A. Times looks at an aspect of the comedy writing biz that doesn't get much attention: Freelancers who sell jokes to TV shows on a piecework basis. Above and beyond their staff writers, some shows get material that way...and it kinda/sorta violates the Writers Guild contract in a way that's rarely enforced. One problem — and the Times piece mentions this but I think understates the dilemma it presents — is this: A writer who faxes or e-mails jokes in to Jay Leno might be writing for Jay's Tonight Show monologue...or he might be writing for the stand-up act that Jay does for live audiences. The latter is not covered by the Writers Guild while the former is. So if Jay buys it for his act and later uses it on the show...?

I used to do a little of this, starting way back when Dean Martin's head writer, Harry Crane, bought a couple of lines from me that were used on one of Dino's roasts. Later, I sent some jokes — mostly topical stuff for which I had no other outlet before it got stale — in to late night shows via friends who were on staff. I got paid for the Dean Martin lines but not for the other stuff, which I thought of more like doing a favor for a pal. I'm pretty militant that professional writers should always get paid for their work...but there was a certain thrill to writing a joke and hearing it on the air less than 24 hours later. Also, of course, jokes are sometimes political...and to the extent a monologue on a TV show influences popular opinion, it's nice to nudge things in the direction of your beliefs. But I haven't done it in quite a while and doubt I ever will again.

I generally side with my pal Dawna Kaufmann, who's quoted in the article. It's hardly the biggest injustice my guild oughta be rectifying but that doesn't mean they should do nothing.

• Posted at 3:29 AM · LINK

Further Len Wein Update

I spent some time yesterday afternoon opening boxes of comics that folks have sent in for Len Wein. I was doing this with the aid of my trusty assistant...who I am sadly losing to a TV writing job. Why would she want to do something like that when she can help me open crates of Brother Voodoo comics?

Two quick observations. One is that a lot of folks are shipping me comics they'd never told me (via e-mail) that they were sending...so Len is going to wind up with some duplicates because other people have also sent those comics. We're going to figure out something fair to do with duplicates because it's darn near impossible to just return them. (You should see the filing system we've got going on my office floor.) I think we'll attempt to trade them to dealers for other comics we need and if we can't manage that, they'll be sold off for or donated to some worthy charity. Nothing will go to waste.

Other quick observation: I don't know if everyone loved the Legends mini-series Len did in 1986-1987 or hated it but everyone wants to send a set. I wrote to one person and told him we already had one but we'd like some of the other comics he offered. He wrote back that we couldn't have the other comics unless we also took his collection of Legends.

Anyway, I've uploaded an updated list to the "Let's Restore Len Wein's Comic Book Collection" Project website. As you can see, we've made great progress...way more than I was expecting. I was thinking about some major promotion/collection at this year's Comic-Con International but I suspect we'll have restored the collection before then. At this rate, we might do it by June. Thanks to all of you for proving that a diet of super-hero comics creates heroic, generous people.

• Posted at 12:41 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

The other day, we had the sad news here of the passing of veteran comic artist Ric Estrada. Now, you get to see a snippet of me interviewing Ric on the Golden Age Panel at the 2001 Comic-Con International in San Diego. (The other panelists — you get fleeting glimpses of some of them — included Ramona Fradon, Irwin Donenfeld, Chuck Cuidera, Mart Nodell, Alvin Schwartz and Julius Schwartz.) This video was shot by the loyal, devoted videographer, Mike Catron. Thank you, Mike...for this and for preserving so much history and so many of our friends.

The anonymous artist Ric is talking about at the beginning was Dan Barry. I don't think there's any reason not to mention that, given how it's common knowledge Ric later ghosted the Flash Gordon newspaper strip for Mr. Barry. And as much as I loved Ric, I'm not going to embed this without telling you all that in the shot of me at the end, I weigh 100 pounds more than I do today. At least.

But forget about me. This is intended to give you a wee taste of what a charming, self-effacing man Ric Estrada was. This is only two and a half minutes but I think you'll understand...

• Posted at 12:36 AM · LINK

May 5, 2009 • Current • May 3, 2009