Frank Kelly Freas, the acclaimed science-fiction illustrator (and delineator of Alfred E. Neuman) passed away quietly this morning at approximately 4 AM. He was nominated twenty times (a record) for the Hugo Award for his artwork and won ten times (another record) as Best Professional Artist. His artwork graced the covers and/or insides of books […]
Seems like a mostly-lovely day out my Los Angeles window. We've had a lot of rain lately but it always seems to clear out just in time for the rest of the world to watch the Rose Parade and resent us. Didn't see Regis Philbin filling in for Dick Clark last night. Did see some […]
Hey, remember that awful 1940 Li'l Abner movie I keep mentioning here? The one you can buy on DVD for a buck in some stores? Well, you can get it even cheaper than that. Over at www.archive.org, where they offer a lot of public domain stuff for download, you can get it for free…which is […]
Around 1970, when I got into the comic book business, the consensus was that there wouldn't be a comic book business for long…and not because of me. The traditional method of distribution — comics sold on a returnable basis to newsstands around the country — was failing, or at least it was failing comic books. […]
I had nothing to do with it…but I laughed out loud at The Twelve Days of Christmas, Garfield style. […]
Dave Mackey, who knows this kind of stuff better than I do, says that when the Columbia Li'l Abner cartoons were released on VHS a few years ago, they were not what one would expect. Instead of transferring color prints of these cartoons (which were originally made in color), someone did a tracing job on […]
Here's the great thing about having this weblog: Yesterday, we discussed what was up with the announced "new" episodes of Whose Line Is It Anyway? that ABC Family has announced they will begin showing on 1/17/05. Today, I hear from Jim Ellwanger who says…well, here. Read him for yourself… I've been closed-captioning the new Whose […]
This item a week or so ago sent several readers of this site to their local discount DVD racks to see what kind of Li'l Abner movie was there. Several reported finding what appeared to be several different Li'l Abner movies on sale for one or two bucks a copy. Jim Bahler, for instance, wrote… […]
How do we help the folks in East Africa and Southern Asia who are suffering? Should one give money? Blankets? Food? This is a question that has mattered to me since many years ago when I heard a popular performer tell me he'd semi-regretted hosting a telethon to aid people who'd lost their homes in […]
Here's an old article that gives a great overview of Mr. Orbach's performing career. […]
I never thought it was "real" improv, as proven by the large number of experienced comedy writers listed as producers and consultants on its end credits…but I still enjoyed the American edition of Whose Line Is It Anyway? hosted by Drew Carey. I watched 'em when ABC ran them in prime time and I watched […]
It's hardly the worst news in the papers today but I was still sad to read of the death of Jerry Orbach. Most folks probably know him for his appearances on Law & Order and other dramatic roles…but a lot of us think of him as a genuine star of Broadway musicals. Matter of fact, […]
Over on his fine comics news weblog, my friend Tom Spurgeon says that he fears we're about to see a lot of political/editorial cartoonists operating in a climate of fear. Here…I'll quote Tom's key sentence… …with the newspaper business being what it is and more and more eyes at all levels of journalism on the […]
Happy birthday to "Smilin'" Stan Lee, presiding guru of the Marvel Universe of Comics. That's him at right in the above photo posing with Lou Ferrigno, who played The Hulk on the 1978 TV series. If these two guys decide to do a fight scene, my money's on Stan. […]
The folks behind SaveDisney.com periodically send out e-mails with little quotes from Walt Disney. I just received this one… "No one person can take credit for the success of a motion picture. It's strictly a team effort. From the time the story is written to the time the final release print comes off the printer, […]