There are a lot of YouTube Lawyers online giving people very bad legal advice about things like how you don't need a driver's license if you aren't engaged in commerce, in which case you really aren't driving, you're traveling and your car is not a motor vehicle. Stuff like that. One of the few online attorneys I trust is Devin Stone, the "Legal Eagle" who here makes an airtight case on behalf of Ariel, the Little Mermaid…

Fred Kaplan discusses Henry Kissinger's Bloody Legacy. It's not a pretty one. It explains a lot about why the United States is regarded the way it's regarded in many corners of the world.

Stephen Sondheim's not around anymore but interviews of him still turn up. This is from 2000 and it's composer Ned Rorem quizzing Mr. Sondheim at the 92nd Street Y in New York…

I continue to have problems with Customer Service phone lines or online chats offered by businesses I patronize. Everyone's real good at apologizing for my inconvenience, real bad at fixing whatever the problem is. I might settle for all these phone support people being replaced by Artificial Intelligence as long as it actually was intelligent.

When the original Star Trek was on TV, it annoyed me somewhat when friends who wanted to talk about last night's episode didn't ask, "Did you see it last night?" They just assumed that if they had, I had — and started discussing the episode. Now, it annoys me somewhat when people do this with every freakin' show that's streaming online…and there are a lot of shows streaming online.

Half the lawyers in this country seem to be writing articles posted on the web about how lousy Donald Trump's legal defense was in the E. Jean Carroll matter and how lousier it is regarding the possible/probable indictments ahead. I'm no lawyer but it seems to me that the problem is that achieving the result of their client being found Not Liable or Not Guilty is Trump's — and therefore, his attorneys' — second priority. The first seem to be whipping the MAGA crowd up to view any investigation of him as the greatest injustice in The History of Mankind for purposes of donations and protests.

There are still people who call and ask me for advice about renting an apartment in Los Angeles even though the one and only time I did that was in 1975 and there's no reason to assume I knew what I was doing then. And even if I did, I'll take a wild guess that the real estate market might have changed somehow in the last 48 years.

For me, the most interesting part of online how-to-cook videos is when what's being made is done and the chef takes a bite and tells us it's the greatest thing he or she ever tasted in their lives. I keep waiting and waiting for one of them to say, "Okay, this didn't turn out so well so maybe you'd better not listen to me." That's the one I will listen to.

When I first got into home video, I bought all my favorite movies on Beta. Then Beta became obsolete so I bought them on VHS. Then VHS went away so I bought them on LaserDisc. Then LaserDisc went bye-bye and I bought them all on DVD. Then DVD became outta-date and I bought them all on Blu-ray. Now, I'm supposed to forget about owning them at all and just pay to stream them. My current fear is that the industry will soon start a campaign that asks, "Why stream when you can own?" and they'll bring them all out on Beta and start the whole cycle over again.

I would really like to see all of this Japanese production of The Music Man instead of just these few minutes. It looks like it would be fun even though the only two English words that seem to have survived in the translation are "trombones" and "shipoopi"…

A person who asked to remain anonymous wrote to ask…

I'm a novelist who was about to sign two contracts right before the strike started. One was an option deal for the rights to my latest book; the other was a contract to help develop that book for TV. I'm wondering if it would still be OK to sign the first contract, which is just the book option/book rights. I'm hoping to be a WGA member going forward, and wanted to make sure I didn't mess that up.

I'm not going to say "Go ahead and sign that contract" because it might be a lousy contract. But I'm pretty sure that signing it will in no way impact your standing with the Writers Guild. The jurisdiction of the WGA does not extent to books…or for that matter, comic books. And yes, I wish it did extend to many other forms of writing and yes, I looked into whether it would be possible to have the WGA cover comic books and no, I don't think that will happen in our lifetimes even if I live as long as a Galápagos tortoise.

You can see for yourself right here in the Strike Rules…

The Rules prohibit the performance of writing services for a struck company in connection with audiovisual or audio works intended for initial exhibition in any market covered by the MBA, including feature motion pictures, television and new media, as well as the option or sale of literary material for that purpose.

The Rules apply to all animated series covered by a WGA contract. Writers who wish to perform writing services in connection with fully animated theatrical features and television programs are advised to consult with WGA staff to determine whether such writing is prohibited before performing, or contracting to perform, any writing services. Members should assume that projects combining live action and animation are covered by the Strike Rules.

The strike also covers fiction podcasts done under WGA contracts. In fact, it covers anything normally done under a WGA contract. If you have any uncertainty or just want to put your mind at ease, call the Guild and ask. The phone numbers are on that page of Strike Rules.

This is a good place to answer another question I've received: How is the strike affecting you, Mark? Well, a couple of projects I had are in limbo until the walkout is over. But I'm still writing comics, one in the form of a graphic novel. I'm also writing a non-graphic novel and working on my book on Jack Kirby and I have some offers for animation that would not be covered by the WGA. I've even receiving the question of whether I'm breaking WGA rules by writing my blog. No, obviously, I am not.

As several of you have alerted me, Heritage Auctions is currently taking bids on the set from which Johnny Carson did his last ten years of The Tonight Show. The minute I saw this, my first thought began "If I had a spare room in my house and a spare couple hundred thousand dollars…" but then I instantly realized that (a) I don't have the spare room, (b) I don't have the spare couple hundred thousand dollars and (c) this thing belongs not in a private residence but in some museum somewhere.

And then I got to wondering things like where has this been since May 14, 2015 and who's selling it now? Parts of one of Johnny's old sets can be seen up at the Magic Castle in Hollywood but we know how those got there. The late John Shrum — he died in 1988 — was the Art Director for The Tonight Show when it moved to California in 1972 and he was also the Art Director for the Castle back then.

But who had Johnny's entire last set? The auction description says "All items (except the microphone) were acquired directly from Johnny Carson" and I did a bit of research and found out that uber-collector James Comisar is the one who acquired it from Carson…

He's now selling it along with tons of other TV memorabilia including the bar from Cheers, the Batman and Robin costumes from the Adam West era and David Letterman's set…

I'm curious where all this stuff is going to wind up and how much it will go for. I'm going to follow (but not bid on) the Johnny Carson set and the David Letterman set. You might want to keep an eye on some of these other historic goodies. And if you buy Johnny's set or Dave's or even the Cheers bar, invite me over to sit in it.

The audio and video aren't great on this clip but it's still worth watching. It's a nice little musical spot from the 1985 Emmy Awards telecast. I don't understand why John Forsythe seems so serious and why some of the people in the closing — like Howie Mandel and Emmanuel Lewis are in the closing…

I'm just getting used to Windows 11. It's different from 10, not necessarily in any way that (so far) strikes me as better. And I keep having the feeling that if I load some program not made by Microsoft, I'm going to get an angry pop-up window expressing outrage and calling me bad names. But I'll give it some time.

I will be moderating ten panels at Comic-Con International this July and I'll be a panelist on (so far) two others. I have no other conventions scheduled this year. The one after that may very well be the 2024 WonderCon in Anaheim, which will run from Friday, March 29 of 2024 through Sunday, March 31 of 2024.

A friend of mine who voted for Donald Trump last time tells me that he will not be voting for Trump in the next presidential election. He will be voting for The Republican Nominee, whoever that is, because…well, because that person will be the Republican nominee. Naturally, I had to ask him, "What if that person is Donald Trump?" His reply was that he will still vote for the Republican nominee, whoever it is. In his mind though, that's not voting for Donald Trump.

I have in the past written about a wonderful show that is staged from time to time here in Los Angeles. It's called Puppet Up! and it's a largely-improvised, often adult-in-content puppet show performed here in Hollywood on what was, once upon a time, the Chaplin Stage, as in "Charlie Chaplin." It's his old movie studio, now owned by the Henson Company, as in "Jim Henson." It's not for kids, it's very funny and they're doing it for two weekends in July, one of them the weekend that Comic-Con is taking place down in San Diego. Many good seats seem to still be available and you can order a couple of them here.

Lastly: There's no news on the Writers Guild strike…not even any word on whether the Producers, against whom we are striking, are even trying to cobble together an acceptable offer that would end our walkout. No news is not good news, nor is it bad news. It's just no news. I wouldn't read anything into that.

I just installed Windows 11 on my computer.

Help. I am being held prisoner by the Microsoft Corporation.

I used to do magic and I still "dabble" a bit in it. There are several reasons why I gave it up and became more of a scholar of magic than a performer and for the same reason why I more or less gave up drawing. Writing, drawing and doing magic all require endless hours of devotion and practice…and I couldn't do enough of all three to reach any conceivable level of "not inept" at any one of them. So I picked the one I liked the best — and had already decided to make my career — and went with that.

Daniel Roy is one of my favorite magicians and he somehow managed to become terrific at handling cards and to become an expert in neurobiology. Most people look at his wizardry with cards and ask, "How does he do that?" I look at his ability to excel in two areas and ask the same question…

Since WonderCon a month or so ago, I've received a number of messages that said basically the same thing. All but one of them put it nicely. One of them seemed slightly pissed-off that I wasn't seated behind a table for the duration of the con. I decided to run the slightly pissed-off one, minus the name of the sender, and to respond to it here…

I appreciate that you don't like sitting behind a table signing books all day at a con but you were a Special Guest at WonderCon and some of us go to cons under the assumption that we can bring things for Special Guests to sign. I brought quite a few books that I wanted to get your signature on and for three days, I was unable to locate you. It's no fun to carry a large bundle around for three days in search of the man who isn't there. Isn't that a little inconsiderate of your fans?

Well…first of all, let me say that I signed a lot of comics at WonderCon. Unlike any guests who may have canceled (as does happen), I was there all three days. Other folks had no trouble finding me, especially those who looked at the program schedule, saw when and where I was hosting panels and attended those panels or waited for me outside.

Secondly, I've never known of a convention that by announcing someone was a Special Guest was guaranteeing that the person would be there (like I said, guests sometimes have to cancel) or that they'd be there every day for all day…or that they'd sign everything for everyone for a price you'd find acceptable. In my case, the price is zero. I don't charge to sign a reasonable number of items for any one person…

…though if enough people start treating it as some sort of business obligation on my part, maybe I should start.

Listen, Slightly-Pissed-Off Person: I'm sorry I made a decision you don't like. Maybe part of the problem is that I've never been able to fully wrap my brain around the concept that I have that many fans. For a long time, I guess I thought that a lot (not all but a lot) of the people who asked me to sign a comic were merely interested in enhancing its resale value…and that is really the case with many of the requests.

I plan to be at Comic-Con where I'll be hosting a jillion-and-three panels. If you're there and you consult the programming guide, you should know exactly where I am about 80% of the time. I'm also looking for a spot where I can be available to sign stuff for maybe a half-hour a day. I'd do longer but I really don't anticipate that much demand.

I love photos and video of Las Vegas as it used to look and here we have a montage of them. Wouldn't you like to have seen Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis at the Sands? Or just Dean there later on? (Look quickly at the later photo of Dean alone on stage. Jack Benny is in the audience.) I was going to write "My, that city has changed" but I've thought that almost every time I've gone there, even if the previous time was only a few weeks before…

This is, as you can see, Part 4 in a series. If you haven't read Part 1, Part 2 or Part 3 yet, you might wanna.

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In 1938, Dell Publishing Company entered into an arrangement with Western Printing and Lithographing Company of Racine, Wisconsin to jointly produce comic books. Prior to this, there had been comics from Dell. Depending on one's definition of a "comic book," you could look back as far as 1929 and The Funnies, which was more like an insert in newspapers that was reportedly sold sometimes without the newspaper.

There are comic book (and strip) historians who have practically come to blows arguing about what makes one publication worthy of being called "the first comic book" and I don't want to leap into that ring. But The Funnies was at some point one of the first, if not the first comic books. Western, meanwhile, was printing and in some cases also publishing all kinds of books and magazines for all sort of clients. Eventually, all the comic books Dell published were printed by Western, and Western also prepared the contents of those comics.

This is something that confuses a lot of people. Dell "published" in the sense that they financed the line, decided what would be in it and arranged for distribution of the comics. In later years, Dell was its own distributor.

But Dell did not hire editors, writers, artists or anyone like that, nor did Dell hold the licenses to produce comic books of the Walt Disney characters, the Warner Brothers characters, the Walter Lantz characters, the Edgar Rice Burroughs characters, etc. Western hired all those folks and Western held all those licenses. Under those licenses, Western also produced kids' books, coloring books, activity books, puzzle books and all sorts of other publications for younger audiences. Dell was only involved in the comic books…

…and only in the newsstand comic books. Under the terms of the Dell/Western contract, Western was free to do comic books for non-newsstand sales. For instance, Western produced a great many comics that were educational giveaways like this one…

There were a lot of these. They also printed in staggering numbers, issues of what was various referred to as Boys' and Girls' March of Comics or sometimes just March of Comics. Featuring many of the same properties they were then handling for Dell Comics, Western produced issues of this giveaway comic. Here's one they did using their then-current license to do comic books of cowboy superstar Roy Rogers…

And they didn't all say "Sears" on this one. Sears would order a half-million copies and Blue Bird Shoes would order a half-million copies and Peter Pan Shoes would order a ton of them, etc., all the same inside, most of them imprinted with the name of the retailer or product. When I was eight, I used to get them when my parents bought me Stride-Rite shoes.

Again, Dell was not involved in these. The contents would be assembled out of offices that Western had in Los Angeles and in New York — the same offices that were creating the contents of the Dell comic books. Each office would buy scripts and artwork from local freelancers.

This is something else that some folks don't know about comics produced by Western. There were two separate offices with separate editorial staffs and while a few of the contributors sold material to both offices, most worked for one or the other. At times, the two offices almost functioned like separate companies and, as we'll see, they sometimes had serious disputes.

I am most familiar with the Los Angeles office, which moved from time to time. The first one was somewhere in Downtown L.A. In the fifties, they were in a fairly large building on Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills, a few doors west of the world-famous Friars Club. My family and I used to drive by it all the time…and at age eight, I knew — I don't know how I knew but I knew — that that's where many of the comic books I loved came from.

I was never inside that office. The first L.A. office of Western Publishing that I visited was in the Max Factor Building on Hollywood Boulevard, directly across the street from the even-more-world-famous Grauman's Chinese Theater. I worked for the senior editor there, Chase Craig, and from his window, you could look right across the boulevard at the courtyard with the stars' footprints.

That's Chase Craig in that office. Later when the company downsized, they moved to a small office building on Forest Lawn Drive in Burbank, not far from the cemetery that bears the street's name.

From the last two locations, they were very close to the Disney Studios, to the Hanna-Barbera building, to the Warner Brothers lot…and to other firms that controlled the characters that Western licensed. Writers and artists who worked at all those locations moonlighted for Western and could easily drop off work or pick up checks at their offices.

With rare exceptions, the Los Angeles office did all the Disney, Walter Lantz, M.G.M., Warner Brothers, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Hanna-Barbera and many other comics. The New York office did Little Lulu, Jay Ward, Terrytoons, Star Trek, Dark Shadows, King Features, Twilight Zone, Boris Karloff, Fat Albert and many others. Magnus, Robot Fighter and Pink Panther were L.A. books. Doctor Solar and Turok were New York books.

There were some genuine differences between the two offices and some intra-company arguments. They weren't huge when the firm was producing comics for Dell but in 1962, Dell and Western decided to get a divorce. We'll be discussing that in our next installment.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE NEXT PART OF THIS SERIES

We flashback to Jordan Klepper's first appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. And stay tuned because after the clip, Klepper talks about how he felt that day…