Matt Welch examines the views of John McCain. For what it's worth, I think McCain is a mass of self-contradictory views. He thinks we need more troops in Iraq…but doesn't seem to have any idea where they'll come from. He says that the issue of abortion should be a state decision, not a federal one…but he's voted for every federal-level anti-abortion bill. He backs a wide array of ethical/moral bills, like those to stop torture or clean up campaign finance…but he doesn't seem to mind when his own political allies take measures that neutralize his work in these areas. I think that's why I find him so disappointing. At times, he seems to actually stand for something and I don't like being fooled like that.

Above is a photo of Clayton "Bud" Collyer…looking more like a demented gigolo than a busy radio actor/announcer. Anthony Tollin, who knows more about this kind of thing than I do, writes the following with regard to the Superman cartoon just featured on this here site…

Actually, Bud Collyer only did the early Fleischer cartoons, and departed around the time Famous Studios took over. Collyer reportedly quit voicing the cartoons because he couldn't get a raise that would compensate his traveling time to the New Jersey recording studio. Sounds likely, since he was one of the busiest actors and announcers in NYC radio, and lost time equaled lost money for someone who was sometimes doing a half-dozen radio shows a day. It's clearly not Collyer in most of the Famous Studios Superman cartoons. It's less clear in this cartoon since the Man of Steel has only a couple of lines, but it doesn't sound like Bud to me. I've seen unconfirmed claims in print that Michael Fitzmaurice played Superman in some of the Paramount cartoons. It certainly doesn't sound like Fitzmaurice announcing this cartoon, based on how he sounded in his surviving Adventures of Superman episodes (actually just one and a short fragment of another) and announcing Nick Carter, Master Detective.

It does sound like Joan Alexander as Lois, though I rather doubt that Dan McCulloch did voices in these cartoons. He was a commercial announcer, not an actor, and didn't become involved with radio's The Adventures of Superman until some time after Kellogg's Pep came aboard as sponsor beginning January 31, 1943. Of course, McCulloch only did the Kellogg's Pep commercials while the story narration was handled by Roland Winters (aka Charlie Chan), then scriptwriter and director George Lowther and finally my late friend, Jackson Beck. Most of the early syndicated Superman transcriptions were narrated by writer/director Jack Johnstone, while the final 1950-51 ABC season that starred Michael Fitzmaurice was narrated by Ross Martin (of Wild, Wild West fame).

BTW, Jackson Beck told me that Bud Collyer was suffering from Aphasia when he reprised his famous radio role in the 1960s TV cartoons produced by former Adventures of Superman radio director, Allen "Duke" Ducovny. Jackson couldn't believe that Ducovny would consider using Bud under these circumstances, but Duke correctly insisted that Bud would come through when the Bud could barely get out any words at all in conversations with his fellow actors, but through sheer will power was near letter perfect when performing as Clark Kent and the Man of Steel.

Anthony's probably right. My knowledge of the New York based cartoon voice actors ain't as good as it oughta be. But here's something of a mystery: The voice of Jack "Popeye" Mercer is fairly obvious in this cartoon and since he also worked as a storyman, he was probably living wherever the cartoons were produced…which at this point in time was Florida. Joan Alexander, Bud Collyer, Michael Fitzmaurice and all the other radio actors who have been identified in those cartoons were working — sometimes, seven days a week — in New York.

I can't imagine them being flown down to Miami to record — as Tony notes, Collyer couldn't even spare the time to get to New Jersey — nor would they have flown Mercer up to New York to record a voice that a thousand other actors there could have handled. So where were the voice tracks for these recorded? And were they, like the concurrent Popeye cartoons, post-dubbed — meaning that the voices were recorded after the animation was completed? There's virtually no precise lip-sync so I suspect the latter…but for that, they really had to get all the actors together in the same session. They wouldn't have recorded some in New York and some in Florida.

Anyone know what the deal was there?

I've been going to comic book and s-f conventions since 1970…shortly after they cancelled Star Trek and a lot of us were happy to see the last of it. I have been to good conventions and bad conventions, big conventions and small conventions. I've even been to cons that were supposed to be big but turned out small. There was one where I agreed to be one of eight judges for the Masquerade…and only four people showed up in costume.

Some of my favorites have been mid-sized and some of my favorite mid-sized conventions have been Mid-Ohio Cons. Every year, on the Saturday and Sunday following Thanksgiving, Roger Price throws one in Columbus, Ohio — and whenever I can get there, I'm there. In fact, I'm there now. This year's ended this afternoon and, apart from the bummer news about Dave Cockrum, a good time was had by all.

I did two panels — one with former Marvel talents Dick Ayers, Herb Trimpe, Gary Friedrich and Tony Isabella…and one with the longtime editor of MAD, and therefore one of my personal heroes, Al Feldstein. To answer a question I always get when I write here about panels I've done: No, neither was recorded…but I suspect you'll be able to enjoy a close replay of the Feldstein interrogation at next year's Wondercon in San Francisco. Al is scheduled to be a guest and I'm scheduled to subject him to more of my relentless prying. (Remind me to get him to repeat the tale of how he tried to get Bill Gaines to hire Harvey Kurtzman, years after Kurtzman had left MAD, to come back and edit a companion magazine.) Glenn Haumann was in the audience and he "liveblogged" a few choice comments.

Here's the obligatory Namedropping Section. In addition to the folks on the panels I just mentioned, I talked with Dan Mishkin, Roger Stern, Joe Edkin, William Messner-Loebs, Craig Boldman, Matt Haley, Beau Smith, Dennis Mallonee, Brian Kane, Matt Feazell, Bob Schreck, Don Rosa, Thom Zahler, Michael Davis, Bob Ingersoll, Mark Wheatley…and I know I'm leaving a whole bunch of people out. Also had a nice reunion with Joyce DeWitt, who most of you will recall from Three's Company. Joyce was on a special I produced many years ago which also starred Ted Knight, Howie Mandel and the voice of half of Western Civilization, Frank Welker. She was a real trooper throughout a grueling tape session that went into the wee, expensive hours of the morning and I never got to thank her properly for her total professionalism. I had to come to Columbus, Ohio to thank her. Also had a nice talk with her Three's Company co-star Richard Kline, who was so good in that production of Company (the Sondheim one) I reviewed here many moons ago.

One other thing I liked about the con is worth a mention: The facilities. The hotel, which is the Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus, is quite pleasant. It's not plush, it's not fancy but our room is nice and the staff is friendly and the hotel/convention center layout is ever so convenient. From our hotel room to the convention was about a three minute jaunt…close enough that you could dash back and forth to pick up or drop off things, far enough away that you were removed from the con when you wanted to be. There's a food court on the lower level, a friendly restaurant and bar on the second — plus the rooms for panels — and the convention is on the third floor. (The hotel sleeping rooms start on the fifth floor. For reasons no one seems to know, the hotel has no fourth floor. Maybe one of those people who likes to steal towels decided to graduate to bigger things and made off with it.)

Anything I didn't like? Yeah. Across the street is a restaurant called Max & Erma's where we — Tony Isabella, Bob Ingersoll, Carolyn Kelly and Yours Truly — had a dinner this evening that could make you yearn for a Denny's. It was all stuff that wasn't food to begin with, dipped in kerosene and fried to the consistency of linoleum…and that was just the salad. When we got back to the con and joined folks gathered at the bar, everyone told us they'd dined there on one of the two previous nights and hated it. Gee, everyone…thanks for keeping it a secret. Next con I go to, I want a big Local Restaurant Review Board posted in the lobby. And even if it's in another city, I'm going to warn everyone away from the Max & Erma's in Columbus. You can't be too careful about these things.

If you can make it to Mid-Ohio Con next year, do. Just stay away from you-know-where.

A fine friend and a fine artist, Dave Cockrum, died this morning from complications relating to Diabetes. Dave had been ill for some time and undergoing dialysis treatments. Still, here at Mid-Ohio Con (that's where I am), his friends and fans are shocked to hear that we've lost him.

Dave was one of the first people I knew to make the transition from drawing for free for fanzines to drawing for pay for the comics those fanzines were about. Years later, that would become a fairly common segue but in the early seventies, fans were fans and pros were pros and the former rarely became the latter. Dave did, starting first as an assistant to established artists, especially Murphy Anderson. When Murphy was asked to draw a Legion of Super-Heroes back-up story one day, he begged off — "too many characters" — and recommended Dave. Cockrum not only got that job but became the feature's steady artist and creative heart, helping to redesign the Legion and create new characters. Among his many strengths, he was a superb inventor of new costumes. Later, he did the same thing — only with greater success — when he and Len Wein revamped the old, cancelled X-Men strip into the new, highly-successful X-Men franchise at Marvel.

I had the pleasure of knowing Dave during his fanzine days, back when everyone knew that if anyone could move from the fan ranks to professional status, it would be that Cockrum guy. Just because he was so good. We later collaborated on several projects and it was always a joy to work with him…and sad that his health didn't allow him to do more. Very sad.

Let's journey back to the days when this nation was at war with Japan and those folks made dandy villains in our animated cartoons. "The Eleventh Hour" was released on November 20, 1942. It was a Superman cartoon in the series that everyone always describes as a Max and Dave Fleischer cartoon but if you check the credits, you'll see no mention of anyone named Fleischer. Paramount Pictures had taken the studio away from Max and Dave not long before. Bud Collyer, as always, was the voice of Superman with Joan Alexander as Lois Lane. Dan McCulloch and Jack Mercer provided additional voices and the announcer was Michael Fitzmaurice, who would later replace Collyer as the voice of Superman on the radio program. And that's about all I have to impart about this one. Go click.

Henry Waxman. You'll be hearing a lot about him during the next few years.

E.J. Dionne on another one of those lovely situations where an election was held and the vote totals are of questionable accuracy.

You know, a political figure or pundit could earn a lot of my respect — and I suspect that of more important folks — if he ever said, of a vote count that his side allegedly won, "We need to fix this system so that everyone can have confidence in the final totals." But no one ever says that unless their side lost, and then it gets dismissed as sour fruit of some kind.

Why is it that about once a month, there's a news story like this one about PETA that helps convince people that those of us who care about animal rights don't care about the rights of human beings?

It's cartoon time! This is Fresh Hare, a Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. It was released on August 22, 1942 and as you can probably guess, Mel Blanc is doing the voice of the Wabbit and Arthur Q. Bryan is doing the voice of the Fudd. Michael Maltese is credited with the story but I believe this was from the period when every gag man on the premises collaborated on the story and then they just rotated who got screen credit. Have a nice time…

Senator Chuck Hagel on the situation in Iraq. Even if you don't agree with him, you might want a look at what I think is becoming the Conventional Wisdom.

And it's even worse when you have to post three in one day…

Dr. Jerry Bails, sometimes known as "The Father of Comic Book Fandom," died in his sleep last night from an apparent heart attack. He was 73 years old.

He was one of the first people (some say The First) to attempt to document and chronicle the history of the medium. In 1961, he published Alter Ego #1, one of the first fanzines to ever put comic buffs in contact with one another. You can read a lot about it and about Jerry in this article by Bill Schelly.

Those of us who loved super-hero comics in the sixties owe a tremendous debt to Jerry. He was a strong cheerleader for the revivals that constituted what we call "The Silver Age of Comics." Almost all of the checklists and databases that exist today of what's been published and who wrote and drew it began with Jerry's work.

Jerry handed Alter Ego off to his friend Roy Thomas in the early sixties. It ended when Roy went off to become one of the top guys at Marvel Comics…and by then, there were hundreds of similar homemade magazines. A few years ago, Roy revived it and it's now one of the best magazines out there about comic book history. I'm sure future issues will tell more about Dr. Bails and his massive contribution to comics. On a personal note, I feel an enormous sense of loss. I never met Jerry in person but I've subscribed to his publications and projects since the mid-sixties and aided him with research whenever possible. We corresponded from time to time — by mail and later by e-mail — and you could tell that he'd managed to channel his passion for the medium into constructive, non-nerdy purposes. The art form is a lot better for having had him as a champion.

Boy, I hate having to do two of these in one day…

Playwright-lyricist (and occasional performer) Betty Comden has died at the age of 89. Working together with her partner, the late Adolph Green, she gave us a stunning array of stage musicals and motion pictures. The list includes On the Town, Wonderful Town, Peter Pan, Bells Are Ringing, Applause, Do-Re-Mi, Subways Are For Sleeping, The Will Rogers Follies, On the Twentieth Century, Good News, The Band Wagon and Singin' in the Rain. Any three of those alone would get you into the history books and that's only a partial list. The New York Times has a good, long obit.

Three people in the last half hour have written to ask if I was going to post a link to the climax of the famous Thanksgiving Day episode of WKRP in Cincinnati. Okay, here's a link to the link I posted last month here.

A truly funny writer named Chris Hayward died last Monday at age 81 following, as they say, "a long illness." Hayward had a long history in both animated and live-action television, the former including scripts for Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Fractured Flickers and other Jay Ward programs. Even while he was working on those, he branched out into non-cartoons with scripts for 77 Sunset Strip and several other detective shows of the day, then segued into variety shows (writing mainly for Steve Allen) and situation comedies with Get Smart, The Governor and J.J. and My Mother, the Car. He and fellow Ward writer Allan Burns created The Munsters and later, Hayward was one of the main writers on Barney Miller.

I met Chris only once…the way a lot of writers meet other writers: On the picket line. We were traipsing around ABC Studios with our signs in '81 when someone introduced us. Chris was quite pleased that I knew of his work for Jay Ward, though quick to credit Bill Scott for making funny work possible there. And I'm afraid I don't recall anything else that was said that day. I'm just pleased I got to tell the man what a powerful influence his work was on a lot of us.

Just to remind me, if not you: I will be showing my face in Columbus, Ohio this weekend at the annual Mid-Ohio Con, which is run every year there by Roger Price. I don't go to a lot of cons these days because, frankly, I've been to too many boring, generic ones. But every time I can make it back to one of Roger's gatherings, I do. The others I've attended have all been enormous fun with a fine, friendly atmosphere and enough stuff to see and do that you never get bored.

I'm hosting two panels there. On Saturday afternoon at 2:30, my pal of many decades, Tony Isabella, and I will be interviewing Gary Friedrich, Dick Ayers and Herb Trimpe — three men who did an awful lot of comics for Marvel, teamed and apart, in the sixties and seventies.

Then on Sunday morning at 11:30, I'll be interviewing Al Feldstein. I may ask Al about his stint as writer-editor of EC Comics, creating things like Tales from the Crypt and Weird Fantasy. Or I may ask Al about his longer, more lucrative stint as editor of MAD Magazine, turning it into the best-selling humor publication in the history of Mankind. Or I may ask him about both.

The rest of the time, I'll be wandering around. If you're anywhere in the vicinity, come on by. See the panels. Check out the Dealers Room. Heckle Tony Isabella. And say howdy.