Category Archives: Uncategorized

If'n you have the slightest hankerin' to hear tell about that there picture show what they named Song of the South, there's a right purty website what's harder to resist than a tarbaby in a briar patch and…I'm sorry.  I couldn't keep that dialect up any longer.  What I was trying to say was that I came across this terrific site — expertly designed and crammed full of info on the most elusive of the major Disney animated features.  The gent who put up the site, Christian Willis, couldn't have done a better job.  Go there, Br'er Websurfer.

Our pal Kevin Cunningham has relocated his extremely-funny website of political humor.  It's now found at www.politicalstrikes.com and is well worth the visit.  And if you're a fan of the late, great comic artist Doug Wildey, you'll be interested in Ken Quattro's article on him which is on-line at www.comicartville.com.  (My own obit on Doug is available on this site if you click right here.)

Here's another site worth a visit but only if you have a fast Internet connection and a good monitor.  Go to www.skylinesoft.com and take an aerial tour of some city of the world.  It's one of those things that doesn't seem scientifically possible, even as you watch it.  You know…like Cher.

Regarding the just-settled Writers Guild negotiations: The press is carrying a number of articles that purport to reveal what happened behind-the-scenes.  If you compare them, you may note that they differ to the extent that they cannot all be true.  Based on what I've heard from folks actually in the bargaining sessions, none of these pieces give an accurate picture.  More likely, they represent the beliefs (or spin) of one or two sources.  In any case, what I've seen of the deal does not impress me much, though I'm not saying this was the time to go to war for more.  Everyone in town seems relatively happy today — even, reportedly, the waitresses at Art's Deli — so I guess that story's over.  The media can now turn its attention to the Screen Actors Guild negotiations (which absolutely no one believes will result in a strike) and the real important issues…like whether or not the death of Robert Blake's wife can successfully be turned into another O.J. trial.

Turning to other business: In honor of our 10,000th "hit" here, we have unveiled a major facelift of this site, which has involved moving a number of things around and (probably) creating some new "bugs" that will be fixed in the coming weeks.  If some of it doesn't make sense, know that the new design will make upkeep duties easier for me, and that some of it's configured with an eye on future expansion.

The photo above is to give you a "heads up" that the TV Land cable channel is going to run some vintage episodes of The Phil Silvers Show (aka You'll Never Get Rich and Sgt. Bilko) on the weekend of May 12-13.  Next week some time, I'll post a story that Mr. Silvers told me about one of them.  I don't know the full list I'd make if I had to itemize the all-time best situation comedies…but I do know that the exploits of M/Sgt. Ernest T. Bilko and his loyal platoon would be very near the top if not in first position.  Silvers was wonderful and it wasn't just him.  There was also a terrific supporting cast (especially Paul Ford and Joe E. Ross) and superb writing, mainly by Nat Hiken but also by other folks.  Anyway, tune in when I tell that anecdote.  You'll enjoy it.

And the answer the two most-asked questions from my e-mail: Yes, I have tickets to see The Producers in New York.  I'm going in mid-June, and only because I was able to secure house seats from the author.  (I don't mean Mel.  I mean Franz Liebkind.)  And I am now moderating eleven panels at this year's Comic-Con International.  Folks interested in vintage DC history will not want to miss the one we just added to the schedule.

Well, I've been saying there wouldn't be a Writers Guild strike but it's still nice to hear them say so on the news.  For what it's worth: What I believe happened here was that our Guild approached the negotiations with a new, preemptive attitude that paid off.  In the past, the Producers came to each contract negotiation — with all the Hollywood unions; not just us — with a mindset of "We don't bargain.  We don't listen to your demands.  We tell you what we're going to give you and then you get the hell out."  To that end, the Producers would agree among themselves on what that offer would be and from that point forward, they had a very difficult time moving off it.

The seven studios that comprise the AMPTP (Fox, Disney, WB, etc.) operate under a "rule of one," meaning that any of them can veto any offer.  That seems to have been what prolonged the '88 strike.  Six of the studios would be ready to make the deal that would end the writers' walkout and then they'd get to squabbling internally and the seventh would play Spoiler.

This time out, the WGA managed to prevent Management from getting stuck on an initial, lowball "final offer."  We had a good show of solidarity before the Producers agreed among themselves on a bargaining position.  Usually, one sees little in the way of Guild spirit until we've already gotten the insulting proposal and have to rally against it.  Moreover, we seem to have positioned the whole dynamic of this negotiation such that the onus was on the Producers to sit down with us — in our offices, whereas we usually go to theirs — and work to make a deal.  The result was that, long before the contract expired, we'd already had hundreds of hours of discussions with them.  That process of sitting down and actually talking does not usually commence in show biz labor negotiations, until the union is marching about with picket signs.  Regardless of the terms of this deal, if we have changed the nature of Hollywood labor relations, that may be the greatest victory.

All of that seems to comprise about half of what prevented the Great Writers Guild Strike of '01.  The other half came from somewhere up in the corporate offices of Time-Warner, Disney, et al, where wise folks looked at the current state of the economy, looked at how much they lost taking a stubborn line in '88 and at the uncertainty of new and changing markets, and told their Negotiators to make a deal.  I can hear the collective exhale, not just of writers…not just of the actors who'll have an easier time making their deal now…but of the waitresses over at Art's Deli on Ventura.  It is by their financial well-being that the hardship of any Hollywood strike is measured.

As I write this, the little counter on the Home page tells me we're closing in on 10,000 distinct hits since this silly site went up last December.  Assuming I read the stats correctly — never a safe assumption — these standings have less to do with the quality, if any, of the writing therein, than with the fact that if you enter certain terms into search engines like Google and Yahoo, you wind up at one of my columns.  Lately, you were also directed to this site if you entered these actual searches that brought web-surfers to this page…

• HOW TO DRAW LIKE JACK KIRBY
• SHOW US YOUR LARK
• HARRAH'S FOOD IN THE ROOMS
• SAM KINISON DEATH SCENE PHOTOS (Note: There are no Sam Kinison Death Scene Photos on this site.)
• HOW DID SAMMY DAVIS JR DIE (We don't cover that, either.)
• CLOVERINE BRAND SALVE
• COMIC BOOK WRITERS ARE IDIOTS
• MAKE MILLIONS DOING CARTOON VOICES
• HOW CAN I HIT SOUPY SALES WITH A PIE
• HOW CAN I HIT GEORGE BUSH WITH A PIE
• HENNY YOUNGMAN NUDE

That's right.  On the 'net, you can find pictures of Madonna nude, of Geena Davis nude, of all the Victoria's Secrets models nude…and someone was actually searching for Henny Youngman nude.  I've seen some pretty sick things in Cyberspace but…

Speaking of aberrations:If you're interested in the question of what happened with the vote down in Florida, you'll probably want to read an article by John Lantigua which is running this week in The Nation.  It details an amazing list of things that state officials allegedly did to prevent minority voters from exercising their rights to cast ballots.  Here's a link to that article.

DC Comics is bringing out a collected edition of the Fanboy series that I wrote last year, illustrated by Sergio Aragonés and some amazing guest artists.  The book goes on sale the week of July 4 but you can see a preview of its cover above.

Certain urban legends live forever on the Internet.  Ever since I got my first modem (300 baud), people have been sending me the story of the $250 cookie recipe.  This week, three people sent me the same story that goes roughly like this…

Some company makes great chocolate chip cookies. Someone calls the firm and asks if they sell their recipe. The person at the company says, "Yes…for a charge to your credit card of two-fifty." The caller says that's reasonable, authorizes such a charge and soon receives the recipe. Soon, the caller also receives their credit card statement and discovers that the charge is not $2.50 as they expected but $250.00. The caller is so angry that they post the recipe on the Internet for all to read and use. End of story that supposedly happened.

For a while, it was the Mrs. Fields' chain that had supposedly ripped someone off for that amount for their cookie recipe. Later on, it was Famous Amos and lately, it seems to be Neiman-Marcus. And my question is not, "Where does this story come from?"  That, we'll never know.  My question is: "Has anyone ever made these cookies?"

By the way: I once met Famous Amos — a charming gent — and he told me that the cookies that made him famous were not great because of the recipe.  The recipe, he said, was pretty much what you get off the bag of Nestlé's (or maybe it was Hershey's) toll house chocolate bits.  The secret was in using quality ingredients and skill in baking.  He said something like, "Thinking you can make great cookies because you have a secret recipe is like thinking you can paint like Rembrandt because you have a list of the colors he used."  And he didn't say this but I gather that he's not particularly proud of the product now marketed under his handle by the company to which he sold his operation…even though they may be using the same recipe.

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 many of Superman's other screen appearances — were recounted expertly in a book entitled Superman: From Serial to Cereal by Gary Grossman.  Others have followed in Gary's footsteps, often delving heavily (and not always responsibly) into the mystery of Reeves' death, but this book is still the best.  You can get a sampling — and even order your own copy — over at Gary's website, www.supermanbook.com.

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 into the process.  Both are out-o'-print but easy to find at low prices via all the on-line search services…and you can also do what I'm doing, which is to wait for Simon's book on the Gore/Bush debacle, Divided We Stand, which is due out in mid-May.  In the meantime, I very much enjoyed Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency by Jake Tapper, which details the machinations of both sides to avoid an honest count and to maneuver things to favor their boy.  The Gore forces come off a little less scummy than the Bush leaguers but, if Tapper is to be believed — and he sure sounds like he should be — not one player in the drama acted in other than naked self-interest.  To hear Tapper tell it, the Bush victory had nothing to do with an honest count and everything to do with (a) cleverer legal wrangling and (b) the luck of the draw, in terms of key decisions going to judges and officials who were predisposed to favor him.  At no point does that outmoded concept — The Will of the People — appear to have had much to do with it.  Anyone surprised?

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 expression and movement in extremely simple drawings. If you know Toth's work, you'll want a copy. You can order it from Bud Plant, to name but one place. If you don't know Toth's work…try to start with a copy of Auad's previous book, Toth: Black and White (which Plant unfortunately has left only in an expensive, limited edition hardcover) and then buy the car book after that.

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, Brent Anderson, Bruce Timm, Herb Trimpe and loads of others.  Mr. Trimpe was especially mobbed because (a) it was his first West Coast convention, (b) many sympathize with what happened to him, which was that — as he detailed in a New York Times article — Marvel dumped him after years of faithful service and (c) people love the comics he drew during said faithful service.

That article can be accessed by clicking here and it was a joy to see Herb surrounded by fans and to dine with him and his terrific wife, Linda Fite.

I have almost nothing else to report.  You get outta-touch with the world while you're at a con.  One of the great "misses" of my life as a devoted Watergate-wallower was that I was away at a con the weekend Nixon fired Archibald Cox and so I didn't get to witness the famed "Saturday Night Massacre" on teevee.  That would have been a lot more interesting than the science-fiction convention I was attending, even if it had less to do with reality.  Anyway, I'll have some more news here in a couple of days.

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 play Moral Watchdog — but at least he's not a heartbeat from the Oval Office.)

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 to have it recorded by someone in N.Y. who gets great TV reception and you might want to do the same.  In the meantime, the cast album of the show has been released…but I ain't gonna listen to it until after I see the thing on stage, which won't be until some time in June.  If the pundits are correct, it'll be playing the following June and the June after that and the June after that.

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 Jack Lemmon was never more Jack Lemmony.  The scenes of Matthau, playing an ambulance-chasing attorney, negotiating with a high-priced law firm are about as perfect an example of character comedy as anyone has ever put on celluloid anywhere.  The whole film is actually a superb festival of casting.  Some of the small supporting roles are especially wonderful.

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 being misunderstood" press release.  On the other hand, I also think that to make this a big issue is to vastly overreact.  I mean, on a list of rotten things that bigots have done to my people, a clumsy joke in a faltering newspaper strip doesn't even make the Top 10,000.

If you want to protest something, try this: Many of the newspapers covering this ginned-up controversy have picked up his syndicate's claim that Johnny Hart is — and I quote from the syndicate's website — "…the most widely read writer on earth."  I cannot fathom on what basis they make that claim but I'm guessing they're combining the total paid circulations of all the newspapers that carry B.C. and Hart's other strip, Wizard of Id and presuming that everyone who buys one of those papers reads him.  Even if all that's true, it still wouldn't make Hart the most widely-read cartoonist, let alone the most widely-read writer.  (One might also note that it's now been something like 20 years since any American publisher put out a B.C. or Wizard of Id collection in book form.  You'd think the most widely-read writer in the world could sell a few measly paperbacks…)