Yeah, that's a picture of George Reeves above, taken years before he first donned the tights of Superman. When I watch those shows, I'm still amazed how good he is, playing an impossible role but maintaining a certain "twinkle" that kept him above the material and rock-bottom budget. The making of that show — and […]
For me, the only good part of electing a president in this country is that, months later, we get at least one good book that tells us, with some authority, what really happened in the election. Often, this comes from Roger Simon, whose Road Show (1988) and Show Time (1996) showed incredible access and insight […]
Years ago, one of comics' best artists, Alex Toth, did a batch of short, silly strips for hot-rodding magazines. Unseen — then or since — by most fans, these treasures have now been collected in a splendid book published by Manuel Auad. It's Toth: One For The Road and it's a brilliant lesson in conveying […]
A darn good time was had by everyone — well, by me at least — at the Wondercon last Fri/Sat/Sun in Oakland. Loads of fun guests from the worlds of comics and film, the latter grouping including Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Julie Newmar and Gary Burghoff. The former included Russ Heath, Murphy Anderson, Erik Larsen, […]
I'd love to hear prominent Republicans explain why Whitewater had to be investigated down to the tiniest detail while Cheney's business dealings — which involve fifty times as much cash and which may have impacted actual government policies — warrant nary a glance. (I'm also not too wild about Joe Lieberman and his attempts to […]
If you live in the New York area, TV station WWOR is running a 2-hour backstage documentary about the new musical version of The Producers. The show opens on April 19 and the TV special airs the following Sunday, April 22. I have no idea if other cities will run it later, so I've arranged […]
Just watched the new DVD of one of the most cynical movies ever made…The Fortune Cookie, which was written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, and directed by Wilder. If one is in the right mood for it though, it's brilliantly funny and darn near impossible to turn off. Walter Matthau was never better, and […]
I've received a few e-mails asking what I think of Johnny Hart's allegedly anti-Semitic Easter installment of his newspaper strip, B.C.. My view is that, given Mr. Hart's tendency to tell interviewers that Jews are destined to all rot in Hell, I doubt it was intended as innocently as claimed in his recent "I regret […]
Everybody's setting up a website these days, even comedians and other interesting star-type folks. And I'm not talking about fan sites…not even "official" fan sites. I'm talking about sites that the biggie actually arranged to have on-line, usually for commercial reasons. In a few cases, they even generate original content for it or answer mail. […]
One of the great burlesque comedians (a straight man, actually) was a gent named Dexter Maitland. He appeared in the original Minsky's revues and subsequent nostalgia-type revivals for more than 70 years — that is not a typo — but is probably best known for his role in the movie, The Night They Raided Minsky's. […]
As mentioned a week or so ago, I just wrote the foreword for DC's forthcoming hardcover Archives collection of Blackhawk, which will include the first 17 episodes of that strip from Military Comics, featuring the artwork of Chuck Cuidera. In doing this, I received invaluable aid from the Unofficial Blackhawk Comics website. This is a […]
The Miami Herald did a partial recount of ballots in Florida which many are spinning as (a) a full recount and (b) firm proof that their boy "won." It was actually neither and if it proved anything, it was how sloppy the entire election and vote-counting were…a point made in a recent editorial in that […]
Nat Hiken was the creator-producer-head writer and sometimes director of You'll Never Get Rich, which was later retitled everyone refers to as Sgt. Bilko. A few years later, he followed it with the short-lived (two seasons) Car 54, Where Are You? and before either of those, he was one of radio's top writers. That's an […]
Mark highly recommends (and — full disclosure — has an article in) the new, 31st issue of John and Pam Morrow's splendid Jack Kirby Collector. The Morrows have gone to a larger, 10" by 14" page format which will be a bitch to store but which shows off Jack's art to great advantage and which […]
One of the things that always fascinated me about Bill Clinton is that he's always been willing to voice respect for certain critics and pundits who, at times, rake him over the briquets. If you don't think this is rare, show me where any other public political figure of the last decade — Democrat or […]