Not that long ago, a gent named Hans Blix and approximately 250 weapons inspectors went to Iraq to search for Weapons of Mass Destruction. After 111 days and no nukes to show for it, G.W. Bush declared "They've had enough time," and a lot of Americans mocked them as incompetent, inept, etc. The inspections ceased […]
On August 16, Cartoon Network is running a 12-hour marathon of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons, including those that pit the two of them against each other. Here are some details and a complete list. […]
The late Mike Roy (not to be confused with the very-much-alive Mike Royer) was a veteran comic artist whose work dated back to Lloyd Jacquet's Funnies, Inc. and work with Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett. Roy's name is probably not known to most comic fans. He worked, sometimes ghosting for others, on a number of newspaper […]
Pete Barbutti holds (and I guess will always hold) the record for the most stand-up appearances on The Tonight Show back in the Carson era. Johnny loved the way Pete told a story and Johnny's band loved the rather warped things Pete would do with music — like pounding out a tune with his nose […]
My Fair Lady was the first real musical comedy I ever saw performed live on a stage. This is discounting a couple of "kiddy theater" productions I saw at an earlier age which failed to entertain me or, insofar as I could tell, anyone else on the premises. I remember a probably-unauthorized musical version of […]
Last Friday's Doonesbury cartoon was one of those that some newspapers considered not running. Apparently, most but not all did run it. The controversy was over the fact that the word "sucking" was used to describe something being really, really bad. ("Suck" is one of those really awkward questionable words because so much depends on […]
Over at his Oddball Comics page, Scott Shaw! shares a treasure from his collection: A copy of the first issue of the Bob Hope comic book, autographed by its artist, Owen Fitzgerald, and Mr. Robert Hope! Scott's devoting the whole week to Bob so check in there every day. […]
Here's another piece about Bob Hope. This one was written in 1943 by John Steinbeck. (Thanks to Lee Kifer for the pointer.) […]
That's a song from My Fair Lady. It's also one of the things I was thinking during last night's one-performance-only of My Fair Lady at the Hollywood Bowl: Wouldn't it be loverly (or even lovely) if there were more of a middle-ground between an all-out, open-ended, high-budget Broadway or Broadway-style production…and a quickie "concert" presentation? […]
A few folks on the Internet (like Daniel Frank) are out there defending Bob Hope's name. And even Slate, which ran Christopher Hitchens' piece on the man, has offered up another viewpoint, which is something they don't often do. This all strikes me as the meaningless end of the discussion. So what if some people […]
Everyone knows Mark Hamill is a terrific actor, both on-screen and voicing animation. He has now expanded his area of influence and turned director with Comic Book: The Movie, a largely-improvised docudrama shot in part at last year's Comic-Con International in San Diego and sneak-previewed at this year's. It's the tale of the world's biggest […]
Elayne Riggs (who has a wonderful weblog, by the way) writes to suggest I write a response to the article Christopher Hitchens wrote for Slate, which says little more than that Bob Hope was never very funny. I don't think I will, and for two reasons… 1. Hitchens, like many authors of all stripes, has […]
As we all know, the late Jack Kirby was one of comics' few authentic geniuses — an amazing artist, an amazing thinker and a just plain wonderful guy. A lot of us have felt the responsibility to carry on his name and tell a new generation who he was and what he was all about. […]
A week or so ago, some serious restructuring was done in the editorial division of the Marvel Comics Group. Why hasn't this hit the fan press yet? […]
My pal Michael Reaves suggests we might all want to sign up for The 3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference. […]