Here's an episode of a show I watched every Saturday morning when I was twelve — Mighty Mouse Playhouse, which probably lasted on CBS longer than its ratings warranted for a simple reason: It was produced by the Terrytoons cartoon studio and that studio was purchased by CBS in 1955. So it cost the network […]
At Comic-Con, we took a rather amazing group photo of a whole lotta cartoon voice actors plus me. In this post, we — and by "we," I mean "I" — asked for help in identifying everyone in the photo. A number of you sent in identifications, including one person who I think got 25 out […]
Lately, I've been serializing the story of a panel I moderated at Comic-Con in 2003 with Forrest Ackerman, Julius Schwartz and Ray Bradbury. Steady readers of this blog may have noticed that not only has the last chapter of this tale not appeared here but the first five which were here are no longer here. […]
More photos from the con. These are in no particular order… This is from a panel I was on but I did not moderate. The moderator was Gary Sassaman and he's the one in the back. He set up this panel as an extension of his video series, installments of which I often feature here. […]
In 1973, there was an all-star benefit celebrating the work of Stephen Sondheim, a recording of which was released as a double record album. This is a video about that event. It's undergone some A.I. processing so a few of the faces look a little odd but it's a wonderful piece of history and I'm […]
DC Comics is about to issue a hardcover collection of material drawn years ago for them by the late Alex Toth. This is a noble idea as Toth was one of the ten-or-so (maybe five-or-so) best artists to ever draw for the company but there's a problem. They've released a pic of the cover and […]
Over on this page of Time magazine — and yes, like you, I'm surprised Time is still around and doing anything more than crown someone Person of the Year every year — Judy Berman posits that Stephen Colbert is practically daring CBS to throw him off the air before the remaining ten months of his […]
Comic-Con was great but prepping for it, attending it, unpacking from it and catching up on sleep have all put me behind on a lot of things. I have tons of e-mails that are unanswered and there are blog posts that need to be up here soon. Please forgive me. All will normalize before long. […]
Hey, how about some photos from the Quick Draw! game we played at Comic-Con a week ago yesterday? Each year, we have three fast 'n' funny cartoonists competing. This year, it was Scott Shaw!, Tom Richmond and Emma Steinkellner. Here's a photo of Scott Shaw!, Tom Richmond and Emma Steinkellner… During Quick Draw!, I bring […]
I'll link to just about anything with Buster Keaton in it. In the late fifties, he made a whole bunch of commercials for Alka-Seltzer with Dick Beals supplying the voice of Speedy, the Alka-Seltzer mascot. Buster was the perfect choice for these ads because he always looked like a guy who needed an Alka-Seltzer — […]
Here are two more photos from the Cartoon Voices panel from last Saturday at Comic-Con. First up is a shot of our honored guest, Mari Shimizu, who I'm told was absolutely thrilled with her reception… And then here's a shot of Candi Milo, one of the American voices of Astro Boy, meeting the lady who […]
As you are utterly aware, we took a historic photo at Comic-Con last Saturday with thirty-five cartoon voice actors. Well, thirty-four and me plus a couple we can't see well enough…but it was still historic. The occasion was to welcome Japanese Voice Icon Mari Shimizu, to Comic-Con and America. A lot of folks are asking […]
Glenn Kessler, the Fact-Checker for the Washington Post, is throwing in the towel and retiring, at least from that position. In his last column, he assesses the state of fact-checking in American journalism and comes to the conclusion that an awful lot of people really don't care if what a politician says is true or […]
There are many, many stories to tell about last week's gathering in San Diego but I thought I'd get started with a few photos… The first of the nineteen panels I hosted or appeared on at Comic-Con was an easy one: Just me and my longtime pal Leonard Maltin sitting there, telling stories from our […]
I am incapable of discussing White House turmoil for more than a few lines without referencing the Watergate Scandal. One of the things Nixon did wrong in handling it — and of course, there were many — was to not answer every accusation in real time. The strategy was to let his opponents amass their […]