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Every year, I recommend all the events I'm involved in at Comic-Con but there's always one I want to super-recommend and underscore. This year, it's the first-ever appearance at any convention of the great Stan Freberg, accompanied by his superb spouse/partner, Hunter Freberg. I've gushed over Stan elsewhere on this site for years so I'll show a little restraint here. If there's such a thing as a Comic Genius, it's this guy.

He started as a cartoon voice actor and was heard in many a Warner Brothers cartoon…usually unbilled, thanks to Mel Blanc's contract. He was in movies like Lady and the Tramp, and he and Daws Butler were the first Beany and Cecil on the original Time for Beany puppet show. If he'd stopped there, he'd still be a fascinating guy…but Freberg was just getting started.

He began making funny records. There's been a handful of best-selling comedy records and Stan was responsible for about half of them. What's more, his have endured. They're still funny and most are still, in some form, in print. He also starred in the last real network comedy radio show in the classic tradition. Again, if he'd stopped there…

Then it was into advertising. In agencies, he became an adjective. Sponsors would say, "I want a Freberg campaign." That didn't necessarily mean hiring him, though many did. It meant any campaign that was outrageously funny and very, very smart. Or the star of a show would say, "I don't want any Freberg commercials during my show." That meant, "I don't want the ads to be funnier than the show."

The man's had other jobs: Author. Actor. More cartoon voices. Lecturer. But you get the idea. This is a very special guy and obviously, one of my personal heroes. And he and Hunter are coming to the convention.

So you want to do two things. You want to attend "Two Funny Frebergs" a spotlight panel on Friday at 3:30 in Room 6A. I'm going to introduce them and get out of the way so you can hear them talk and show some examples of Stan's fine work.

And then at some point during the con, preferably before that, you want to get over to Table AA-01 in Artist's Alley. That's where Stan and Hunter will be hanging out for much of the four days and you can purchase CDs and photos and get his signature on them. If you miss this chance to meet the man and get an autographed something, you'll regret it…because he doesn't do this often. Like, never before.

People attend these conventions for all different reasons but a biggie is the chance to meet a legend…to get a souvenir and/or to tell them how much their work has meant to you. If you're at all a fan o' Freberg, don't miss this opportunity.

The movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy have grossed more than $6 billion in box office receipts, DVD sales and other merchandising. Wow. Wouldn't you love to have a piece of that? Say, 7.5% or so? Well, maybe not. (Thanks to Tom Hegeman for the link.)

I used to like Ben Stein. I found him humorous and enjoyed his game show. Friends of mine would belittle him and I'd say, "Hey, we need all the funny Conservatives we can get." It didn't even bother me that he was a shameless Nixon apologist, that he doesn't believe in evolution or that I once saw him be pretty darned rude to a sales clerk in a Good Guys electronics shop. Heck, I'd even overlook his track record as an alleged economics authority which, in the early days of the current crisis, consisted of an unbroken string of dead-wrong predictions.

But — I know…you could smell the "but" coming — at some point, he seems to have decided that if he's getting paid enough, he'll do a commercial for anything.

Did you have an Atari 2600? At the time (early eighties), it seemed like the most sophisticated video game festival you could ever desire…such a quantum leap up from Pong. I had one. In fact, I'm pretty sure I still have it, though if you pointed a rifle at me, I couldn't tell you where it is. But somewhere in this house (or more likely, one of my storage units), there's a box containing an Atari 2600, the controllers for it and about fifty game cartridges. It may no longer work and I'll probably never hook it up again to find out. But it was just too neat a little device to throw it away now.

The most-played was Adventure in which you got to assume the role of a little square that navigated a maze-like kingdom, trying to elude two dragons who looked like seahorses. You had to search for a glowing chalice and it helped if you could use the sword (which looked like an arrow) and a magic bridge…and it helped to avoid the bat which could every so often fly in and swap some item for whatever you were holding.

I'm boring myself just describing it but trust me: It was addictive and fun. It won't be when you play it online at this site but it was then. For some reason.

Okay, listen up. June Foray's autobiography will be making its debut at the Comic-Con International next week. Earl Kress and I helped her with it and Leonard Maltin did the foreword but forget about us. This is June Foray…the First Lady of Cartoon Voices. The voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel. The voice of Natasha and Granny and Nell Fenwick and Jokey Smurf and more commercials and other cartoons than you could ever imagine. It's a book about her, Chuck Jones, Stan Freberg, Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, Jay Ward, Bill Scott and a whole golden era of animation and kids' records and entertainment.

If you've ever loved anything June has done, you want this book, which is lavishly illustrated with photos from her private files. And you especially want to buy it at the Comic-Con because June will be there to sign it for you.

It will only be available at the booth of the Van Eaton Gallery, which is space 501. They'll be the only ones in the hall who have it. June will be there from 5 PM to 6 PM on Friday, 4 PM to 6 PM on Saturday and 1 PM to 2 PM on Sunday. She may be there other times, as well but that's the schedule. They'll have signed copies at other hours but she might not be there to personalize them to you.

They may also run out. The book printed yesterday and the printer will only be able to get a certain number there in time. So when they're gone, they're gone 'til after the con when more arrive. (But do yourself a favor and pick up Darryl Van Citters' new book on the making of Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol, which Van Eaton will also have. Looks great.)

June, by the way, will also be appearing on a special spotlight panel on Saturday at 2:30 PM in room 5AB. The room's not nearly big enough to hold all her fans so get there early. She'll be interviewed by Earl and me, and she'll participate in a special cartoon script reading with a couple of other talented voice actors.

In a week or so here, I hope to be able to post info on how you can order a signed copy of June's book over the Internet. But if you can't wait, remember: Van Eaton Gallery. Space 501. Must visit.

A few years ago, I heard Al Franken speak at an event. Actually, he was interviewed by Rob Reiner but it was the same thing. I came away from the hall convinced not only that Franken's political aspirations were serious but that voters could do a lot worse than put a guy like him into office…and usually have. In his Saturday Night Live days, he had a rep in the industry as a smartass punk and a lot of people disliked him. A lot of people dislike him now but for different reasons, having more to do with his politics. He seems to have outgrown the frat boy smarminess and the times I've seen him lately, he's been gentlemanly and surprisingly cordial to and about his detractors.

So I'm kinda happy to see him be a Senator, even in a squeaker, and I find it hard to believe that Norm Coleman thought he was doing anything other than to delay the inevitable. I followed the recount and I not only never saw that Coleman had a case, I never saw him take a position that was not a reversal of a previous position. It was kind of like, "The election should be voided because the ballots were pink." And then when the authorities refused to overturn things for that reason, it was, "The election should be voided because the ballots were not pink." The argument that he "stole" the election seems predicated on the assumption that voters could not possibly have elected someone like Al Franken…or maybe that since recounts sometimes yield a different outcome, the one you don't like must, by definition, be bogus.

I watched Franken today as he joined the dinner theater, playing to the cameras while pretending to question Judge Sotomayor. The man seems to have learned that if you're a politician, you can never miss a chance to mention your family, growing up in your home state and how long you've been married. That all seems to carry more weight with some voters than anything you might actually do in office.

Franken picked up on Sotomayor's earlier comment to someone that she decided she wanted to be a prosecutor after watching the old Perry Mason show. Al Franken the Comedy Writer would have used that to ask, "Why? Because you enjoy losing every week?" That's how you structure a joke off that…but it might have made the nominee look silly or stumped her for an answer. So Al Franken the Senator instead brought up their mutual love of Perry Mason, noted how the prosecutor always lost and then said something about how it was a testimony to her character and determination that she wasn't dissuaded by that example. Or something like that. I do recall noting that he didn't go for the joke at her expense. I thought that was kinda interesting.

Bill Clinton, the man who signed the Defense of Marriage Act, has sorta/kinda come out in favor of Gay Marriage. What has changed, apart from the fact that it's becoming a much safer position, and that neither he nor his wife are likely to be running for any offices soon, if ever?

Just remembered that Dallas McKennon was the voice of both Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse on the show of the same name. That's worth a mention.

We've lost another great cartoon voice actor. Dallas McKennon has died at the age of 89. He would have hit ninety this Sunday.

Dallas did so much that it's hard to list it all. He worked a lot for Disney in movies including Lady and the Tramp, 101 Dalmatians and Mary Poppins. He's heard all over Disneyland. When you get on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride, a recorded voice calls out, "Hold on to your hats and glasses! This here's the wildest ride in the wilderness!" That's Dallas McKennon. He also recorded voices for the Haunted Mansion and the Country Bear Jamboree and many other attractions. Or if you go to Epcot and you hear the animatronic figure of Benjamin Franklin…well, that's Dallas McKennon, too.

He was in a lot of Walter Lantz cartoons, usually playing villains like Buzz Buzzard or Wally Walrus. He was in a lot of George Pal productions, like The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao and Tom Thumb.

He was the voice of Archie Andrews (and several other characters) on Filmation's long-running Archie cartoon shows. He was the voice of Gumby.

Dallas also had a good career as an on-camera actor, usually playing an old prospector or cowboy. His most notable credit was in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. He was the cook who yells, "Don't throw that match!" in the gas station scene. He had a recurring role as Cinncinatus, the old storekeeper on the Daniel Boone TV series. He had a bit part in the Elvis Presley movie, Clambake, which explains the above photo.

For years, he also worked with studio audio departments developing sound effects, some of which were wholly or partially created in his throat. He did, without any audio trickery, an uncanny rooster crow that became a part of many studios' sound effects libraries and which has probably been used in thousands of TV shows and movies. He did it for years in commercials as the rooster on the Kellogg's Corn Flakes box and Dallas claimed, probably rightly, that it was his crowing that opened up the original Huckleberry Hound cartoon show each week.

He was a nice man…very generous with his talents and willing to lend them gratis to student films and to mentor others. A bunch of us spent a lovely, lively evening with him a few years ago when he was visiting from his home in Oregon. We were all very happy to meet him and I'm sure we think of that event whenever we hear his voice.

Three Congressional committees working together have formulated a proposal called America's Affordable Health Choices Act. They always name these things so that if, for example, someone finds anything wrong with the proposal, they can say, "What? You're against Americans having choices of affordable health care?" But on first glance, this one looks like it might live up to its name.

Here's a website that will tell you all about it. There may or may not be problems with the plan but if this thing goes like the Hillary Clinton plan of '93, there'll be opponents who'll go on news shows and say, "This bill would allow doctors to punch your grandmother in the stomach," because they figure neither you nor those who interview them will actually look at the bill to check if that's so. There was an awful lot said about "Hillarycare" that was just flat-out lying.

They just removed another screaming protester from the Sotomayor hearings. Since the advent of television and other mass media, has anyone ever advanced their cause one millimeter by disrupting things like that? I mean, it's a great way to make your position look like the mission of rude, crazy people but does it ever lead to meaningful change? I suppose there may be examples but they're probably not too plentiful.

In the meantime, I'm not sure which kind of questioner seems phonier to me: Democrats lobbing softballs that they know Judge Sotomayor can answer…or Republicans trying to show constituents that they can be tough and maybe cause some discomfort to this nominee they ain't gonna block. I did kinda enjoy the exchange where Senator Sessions was trying to draw a contrast between Judge Sotomayor's philosophy and that of a Judge Cedarbaum…and Sotomayor responded by noting that her friend Judge Cedarbaum had come to the hearing to be with her today.

Hey, you'll want to check out Fancy Fast Food. They take your basic fast food items and give them a makeover into meals that look like they might be served in a very swanky restaurant.

The long-range weather forecast for the Comic-Con International (July 23-26) calls for Mostly Sunny during the days with highs around 72°. Evenings, it'll be Partly Cloudy and get all the way down to 66° – 68°.

And for those of you who still think the con should move to Las Vegas, the forecast for that town for those dates calls for highs around 110°, lows around 86° and unusually high (for Vegas) humidity. Still wanna go there?

If you haven't seen it, we highly recommend Role Model, a one-hour special produced for Turner Classic Movies. It's Alec Baldwin interviewing Gene Wilder and it's one of the best conversations I've ever seen about an actor's career. Mr. Wilder is disarmingly candid and frank…and I don't know how many questions Mr. Baldwin asked which were edited from the show, but all that were included elicit pretty interesting responses. If you've ever liked Gene Wilder in anything — and I don't know how you couldn't — you'll enjoy this very much.

It runs on TCM this coming Saturday, July 18. It's on at 4 PM on my satellite dish but your cable company or source may have other ideas.

I just checked to see if the Turner folks were running this in conjunction with some Gene Wilder films, which is how they usually program such things, but no. Earlier, they're running a bevy of Dick Tracy movies from the forties, culminating in the 1990 flick starring Warren Beatty. Afterwards, they're going Jonesing as they run Tom Jones, Carmen Jones, The Devil and Miss Jones (the 1941 film with Jean Arthur, not the similarly-named porn epic) and Cinderella Jones. Oh, well.

I get disappointed a lot by public officials, both Democratic and Republican…and not just because, for example, Democrats I vote for don't all act like Democrats. I get disappointed in them as human beings of integrity and candor. What's more, I'm disappointed in people who don't get disappointed in the kind of bull they get from the candidates they voted for, or who refuse to admit it. I could understand you voting for George W. Bush but not to you pretending he was pretty much the kind of president you hoped you were getting.

Bill Clinton disappointed me because I thought he was smarter on a personal basis than he turned out to be. Al Gore has sorta/kinda disappointed me because all his talk about saving the planet, though it's done much good, has more or less turned out to be a way for Al Gore to have a career in the public arena without running for anything. John Kerry has somewhat disappointed me by being John Kerry. I think all three of those men made (or would have made) better chief execs than the men they ran against but given the quality of their opponents, that's not a huge compliment.

And no one's disappointed me more than John McCain, who once upon a time was a Republican I could have seen myself voting for. I'm still not sure how much he's changed and how much the mask has slipped, though I'm sure it's some of each. There was a time when his rep for "straight talk" (or at least, straighter talk) was somewhat deserved and he seemed willing to occasionally call bullshit on his own party where warranted. The "maverick" brand did apply, at least a little.

Yesterday, he was on Meet the Press and he delivered a performance that was to Partisan Hackery what Nadia Comaneci was to the uneven parallel bars. Did you know Sarah Palin didn't "quit?" She just changed her priorities.

Here — watch it at this link. I can't bring myself to embed it here.