Here's a pretty good article on Zanies, a comedy club in Chicago. The piece, which was called to my attention by Bruce Reznick, is notable for a good overview of that business, and for an extremely goofy photo of Jay Leno. (Free registration is required. It's the Chicago Tribune site.) […]
My mention the other day of the Plastic Man cartoon show brought a lot of mail asking me about it, including the inevitable question of why the animation studio placed the stretchable hero with such an odd supporting cast. I'll write something about it when I have more time, maybe later this week. But, yes, […]
I'm starting this feature up again. One of the joys of this year's Comic-Con International was meeting Frank Bolle, a prolific artist for comic books (Dr. Solar, Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery) and newspaper strips (Apartment 3-G, Winnie Winkle, The Heart of Juliet Jones). Mr. Bolle's had one of those quiet careers, producing fine work […]
What do you get if you combine 64 Jay Leno monologues, 64 David Letterman monologues and 64 Conan O'Brien monologues? Answer: You get this. (Thanks to Andy Ihnatko for the tip.) […]
Terry Teachout, who covers theater for The Wall Street Journal, offers the opinion that the drop in audience attendance for The Producers represents the end of an era. Here's the whole article and here's a key excerpt… What struck me about "The Producers" when I first saw it was how unabashedly old-fashioned it seemed, from […]
I'm in no great hurry but I've decided to sell my fabled 1957 Thunderbird convertible — the same one driven by the heroes of my comic books, Crossfire and Hollywood Superstars. It's a wonderful car but I think I've wrung all possible fun out of it and I could use the garage space. Just how […]
About twelve hours ago, I mentioned that the recently-deceased Joanna Lee might have been the first-ever female animation writer. Dave Mackey reminds me that a lady named Barbara Hamner (about whom I know almost nothing) was credited for story on a number of UPA cartoons, some starring Mr. Magoo. There may have been one or […]
Last week, National Public Radio did a segment on Jim's Big Ego, which is a rock band fronted by a musician named Jim Infantino. During the piece, Jim mentioned that when he needed someone to draw a cover for his new CD, he called on his Uncle Carmine. That's right: Carmine Infantino, the acclaimed artist […]
The best thing I've seen on the Internet lately is Eric Idle's Greedy Bastard Tour Journal. Mr. Idle and a small troupe are traipsing about this continent for a series of one and two-night concerts, performing material from his days with Monty Python, plus other equally-smart songs and sketches. Throughout the ordeal, he has been […]
This obituary for Joanna Lee notes that she was an actress who became a TV writer for shows including Gilligan's Island and The Waltons. And it notes that she became a producer and won awards for TV movies, including "Babe." But it doesn't mention that she wrote over a dozen episodes of the original prime-time […]
Here's a profile of Paul Levitz, who's the Head Honcho at DC Comics. As Richard Humm (who sent me this link) pointed out, there's one typo in there — the Legion of Super-Heroes is not set in the 13th century. But otherwise, it's a good little piece. […]
Walter Cronkite on why NASA and space exploration may be a luxury we can no longer afford. […]
While researching something else this evening on the Internet, I stumbled across the fact that Cliff Norton died in January of this year. It's odd how that one got past me because Norton was my favorite kind of actor: The guy who appeared in everything but most folks never knew his name. Stop and take […]
In all the discussions of the CBS mini-series, The Reagans, it struck me that both sides were bluffing to a great extent. Some claimed to have seen excerpts and/or read the entire script, and I have a hunch this was a fib by folks who didn't really care that much what was really in it. […]
Bill Mantlo was a prolific writer for Marvel Comics from 1974 until the mid-eighties. During those years, he wrote for an awful lot of different comics but is probably best-remembered for long runs on The Hulk, Iron Man, The Micronauts, The Champions, The Human Fly, Cloak and Dagger, Rom and many others. I never really […]