Voice artist Tony Pope died yesterday due to complications during leg surgery. Tony, who was born in 1947, was one of the many students of the late Daws Butler to go on to a successful career doing animation voices and voiceovers. His cartoon career included The Transformers, Zorro, Spider-Man, Tale Spin, S.W.A.T. Kats and The […]
Here's a link to an interesting article about gun control. It's of interest to me because of what it has to say about finding a middle ground between the notion that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of some psycho to own a Howitzer and the view that the government should (or even could) confiscate […]
My pal Larry Steller inexplicably calls himself "Mr. Grooism" and operates his own weblog. Reading the Julius Schwartz obit I linked to in the Telegraph, Larry noticed something that went right by me. It was this line… Julius Schwartz was born in the Bronx, New York, on June 19 1915, and educated at Hebrew school […]
Well, I haven't plugged a new book I have coming out for at least nine hours…so I might as well mention that my third collection of POV columns will be available in the middle of May from the fine folks at TwoMorrows Publishing. This one includes pieces on bad convention panels, cheap comic fans, my […]
Here's a link to the New York Times obit for Julie Schwartz. (One minor quibble: The 1956 Flash revival started with scripts by Robert Kanigher, not Gardner Fox.) Also, there's an obit in Newsday and one in the Telegraph. Also: Since folks are still writing to ask, I want to repeat: Donations can be made […]
And another thing we're going to hear a lot about during this election is Halliburton, in particular whether Dick Cheney's former (more-or-less) company sold weapons to Saddam Hussein and/or has been gouging the U.S. on its wartime services. This article in The New Yorker lays out some of the more serious allegations. […]
In 1983, a new super-hero group debuted on the comic rack, the co-creation of Yours Truly and a superb artist named Will Meugniot. It was called The DNAgents, though an awful lot of people referred to it as "DNA Agents." Will and I had a lot of fun doing the series and then after he […]
I like to try and identify what's going to be "The Big Story," especially in politics, before it becomes "The Big Story." Right now, it's Bush's National Guard service, though it seems to be morphing into a Conservative attack on John Kerry's Vietnam record. Both onslaughts bother me, partly because they seem so irrelevant to […]
You know what I heard today? "Classical Gas," the 1968 hit record by Mason Williams. There was a month there, at least at University High School in L.A., where you couldn't take three steps without hearing "Classical Gas." I decided to find out what I could learn about that song and I quickly found a […]
I will be among the guests at the Wondercon in San Francisco, April 30-May 2. This link will take you to a page crammed with details and you'll note that another guest is my frequent collaborator, Sergio Aragonés. This means we will probably be doing a Groo Panel, as well as another rousing game of […]
The passing of our friend Schwartz is being noted in venues as far apart as The Independent and The Cleveland Plain Dealer. But the best, most knowing obituary for the man is not yet available on the web. A little while ago, Harlan Ellison faxed me his magnificent 2000 words on Julie that will appear […]
If you're interested in this little brouhaha about George W. Bush and his National Guard days, Richard Cohen has an interesting column about his own parallel situation. […]
Groo the Wanderer makes an unexpected cameo in today's installment of No Business I Know, a new comic strip by Doug Crepeau and Kevin Hopkins. Here's where you can see it. (Thank you for telling me, Buzz Dixon.) […]
Throughout the thousands of years Julius Schwartz edited comic books, he worked with a wide array of writers. Some were good and he helped make their output great. Some were not so good and he still helped make their output great…or at least, better than it probably would have been with any other editor. One […]
So the other day, my gas tank's just about on Empty and the car's so dirty, I'd forgotten the original color. Time to get it washed. I pulled into a nearby car wash and told the attendant to fill it with Super Unleaded and to give me the plain, garden-variety, no-frills, no Spraywax or ArmorAll […]