Thursday, June 18, 2009

Going Out...

Keep an eye on things again, please. I'm heading off to see these people...

• Posted at 6:31 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

One of my favorite political writers, Gene Lyons, says that Obama oughta just trample over bipartisanship and do what has to be done to fix this nation's health care system.

Maybe I'm gullible but I'd like to think that our Chief Exec intends that as a last resort; that what he's doing now is horse-trading and manuevering and trying to achieve the goal in a manner more elegant (and perhaps more effective in the long run) than George W. Bush ramming something on his wish list down Democratic throats. After all, you have polls like this one saying that 76% of Americans want to have that public option made available. That's a staggeringly high number in a country where, we're told, so many people love the health plans they already have. So it's not like the whole nation's going to turn on him if he pushes that through.

Anyway, Lyons makes the point I did, and which I'm sure others said long before I think I thought of it...that opponents of the public option are simultaneously arguing that since it's the government behind it, it couldn't possibly be any good, while at the same time they insist it'll be so successful that it will put private insurers out of business. I thought Free Market Capitalism was based on the premise that consumers will always opt for the best product. Apparently now, we have to be protected from having a choice.

• Posted at 11:08 AM · LINK

Correction

Last night, the Comic-Con International issued a press release announcing that this year's Bill Finger Awards are going to John Broome and Frank Jacobs, and I also posted it here. The press release was written by Jackie Estrada and me, and I'm responsible for the part that says Mr. Broome died in 1998 after attending his only convention in 1997. Actually, he died in 1999 after attending his only convention in 1998. That was my typo and I wish I had someone else I could blame it on. My thanks to Kevin Eldridge, who wrote this morning to let me know. At least, he agrees with the committee that Broome and Jacobs are great choices.

• Posted at 9:39 AM · LINK

Remembering Dave

James H. Burns, who often sends me great things to share with you on this here blog, wrote a nice piece on our pal, Dave Simons...who is sadly The Late Dave Simons.

• Posted at 1:54 AM · LINK

Coming Attraction

Hey, remember how I urged the folks at Turner Classic Movies to rerun Role Model, an original show they produced in which Alec Baldwin spent an hour interviewing Gene Wilder? Well, they inform me it will air again on July 18...and I wish I could take credit for getting them to put it on again but it was already scheduled. I'll remind you again when we get closer to the date. It really is one of the best interviews of this kind I've ever seen.

• Posted at 1:47 AM · LINK

The 2009 Bill Finger Award

Frank Jacobs		John Broome

It's that time of the year again. Here's the official-type press release...

John Broome, Frank Jacobs to Receive Bill Finger Award

SAN DIEGO – John Broome and Frank Jacobs have been selected to receive the 2009 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. The choice made by a blue-ribbon committee chaired by writer-historian Mark Evanier was unanimous.

The Bill Finger Award was instituted in 2005 at the instigation of comic book legend Jerry Robinson.

"Each year, we select two writers who favored us with important, inspirational work that has somehow not quite received its rightful recognition," Evanier explains. "The idea is that the award may go some distance to rectifying that, and I sure hope this one does. Because no one is more deserving than Frank Jacobs, for his past and current work, and John Broome for legacy he left behind."

Frank Jacobs was the first freelance writer hired by Al Feldstein when he assumed the editorship of MAD magazine in 1957, and his byline continues to appear in MAD more than 50 years later. More than 300 issues have featured his witty satires of movies and TV shows, but he is most famous as the magazine's poet laureate, filling its pages with his amazing poems and song parodies, many of which have drawn praise from the composers of the works he burlesques. MAD has published numerous original paperbacks of Jacobs' work, and in 1972 he authored The MAD World of William M. Gaines, the definitive history of MAD and EC Comics.

John Broome began writing for science-fiction pulps in the early forties. When his agent, Julius Schwartz, left agenting to become a comic book editor, Broome followed. From 1946 through 1970, he wrote for DC Comics, mostly for books edited by Schwartz. His work included The Justice Society of America and Detective Chimp, among other features, but his most notable scripts helped define the Silver Age of Comics with The Flash, Green Lantern, The Atomic Knights, and The Elongated Man. Broome passed away in 1999, only months after making the only comic book convention appearance of his life: at the 1998 Comic-Con International.

The Bill Finger Award honors the memory of William Finger (1914-1974), who was the first and, some say, most important writer of Batman. Many have called him the "unsung hero" of the character and have hailed his work not only on that iconic figure but on dozens of others, primarily for DC Comics.

In addition to Evanier, the selection committee consists of Charles Kochman (executive editor at Harry N. Abrams, book publisher), comic book writers Kurt Busiek and Tony Isabella, and writer/editor Marv Wolfman.

The 2009 awards are underwritten by Comic-Con International. DC Comics is the major sponsor; supporting sponsors are Comics Buyer's Guide (CBG) and Heritage Auctions.

The Finger Award is presented under the auspices of Comic-Con International: San Diego and is administered by Jackie Estrada. The awards will be presented during the Eisner Awards ceremony at this summer's Comic-Con on the evening of Friday, July 24, at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront.

Additional information on the Finger Award can be found at the convention website.

I am proud to be associated with this award...and even prouder that I got through this entire announcement without one reference to giving someone The Finger.

• Posted at 12:06 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Continuing Lulu Week here on the ol' blog, here's a Little Lulu cartoon from 1946. Unlike most of the prints around these days, this one actually has the original title cards...almost. For reasons unknown, on one of the title cards, they did an optical mask to crop off something — and I can't imagine what. Anyway, this is Bargain Counter Attack with voice work by Cecil Roy and the ubiquitous Jackson Beck. Cecil Roy was a radio performer (a lady, I'm told) who specialized in little girls and boys.

Not much else to add. If you don't have time to watch the whole cartoon, you might at least enjoy the opening titles...

• Posted at 12:03 AM · LINK