Ian Millhiser explains the four major ongoing investigations of Donald J. Trump. And this list doesn't even include the civil suits Trump is fighting at the moment. I don't know how any of these are going to come out and you don't know…but I think we can agree Trump's going to have a lot of lawyers in his life for quite a while.

Jack Kirby was very important to my life and my career but so was a man named Chase Craig, who was also born on August 28. Chase was the senior editor for many, many years at Western Publishing, which was the firm which prepared the contents of Dell Comics for many, many years and also prepared the contents of and published Gold Key Comics. The odd relationship between Dell and Western is explained here.

What you mainly need to know is that Chase edited a lot of Disney comic books and a lot of comics with the Warner Brothers characters and he edited Tarzan and Magnus, Robot Fighter and countless others. He probably supervised as many issues of as many comic books as any man who ever lived. A lot of them were quite wonderful. He also for a brief time ran a comic book division for the Hanna-Barbera Studio.

Chase taught me an awful lot about writing and also about being an editor. When he turned some of his editing duties over to me, one of the things he told me went like this…

The hardest part of this job is prying the work out of the artists' hands. Some of them like to hold onto it and fuss with it and tweak little things here and there. You'll find yourself pleading, "Please, we have deadlines here. I need it now." And they'll say, "Oh, please! Can't I have a few more days on it?" If they're lying about having it done and they're still working on it, you're stuck. But sometimes, they really do stall handing it in, even though it means they'll be paid later. As soon as they hand it in, it's not theirs anymore and they know it's going to get judged, which scares them, even guys who've been doing it forever. So they'll stall and fuss with it and what you need to do is get it away from them because nine times out of ten, they'll ruin it.

That didn't prove to be true with everyone I hired but it was true of enough of them that I'm glad Chase warned me. Just in case you ever edit a comic book, I thought I'd pass it on to you…and tell you about this other man born on 8/28 that I'm glad I got to know and work with.

Just got this in my e-mail…

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They don't say what the free gift is I get for my twelve bucks but I'm guessing it's my very own copy of a Top Secret document marked ORCON that lists the names and whereabouts of all U.S. undercover agents overseas.

Jack Kirby was born on this day in 1917. I was trying to think of what I should write this year on this day when I received a message from my friend Kurt Busiek…

I was talking with Paul Levitz about early Marvel and creator influences, and a question came up that I'm not sure I've ever seen you talk about before. Kirby's work schedule sounds grueling — constant, long hours — but he also clearly read books and magazines of interest, since he had inspirations from SF pulps, books on "ancient astronauts," Playboy pictorials, stage shows and more.

How did he fit his reading in around his work and his family life? Did his reading habits change over the years? What got most of his attention?

I'd love to hear about that sometime.

Jack was interested in just about everything. A lot of fans who met him were surprised when he asked them about themselves…about their work and their interests. I did not notice any change in his reading habits over the years though I have the sense that less and less of it was from the boxes of old pulp magazines he had around and that his mind decided it had quite enough science-fiction in it and his reading turned more towards reality.

He read the newspaper and was always up on current events. At a store, he sometimes picked up a book just because it was about something that was totally alien to him.

He had a subscription to Playboy which I believe he got from Harvey Kurtzman back in the late sixties when Harvey was trying to get Jack to work with him, if not on "Little Annie Fanny" (which Jack declined) then on a new feature for Playboy which he also declined. It sounded like an American Barbarella. and Jack, who didn't feel a man with three daughters should be drawing nude women, told Harvey to call Wally Wood….which Harvey would not do.

But I know Jack read Playboy for the articles because he and I sometimes discussed them. I was on a Vonnegut-reading binge back then and we talked about that author and Jack had definitely read at least a few of Kurt Vonnegut's novels.

I'll tell you one thing Kirby rarely read: Comic books by other people. He'd read them if there was a reason…say, when Carmine Infantino asked him to read a certain book because he wanted Jack's opinion of it. Those opinions were rarely favorable but Jack would always ask Carmine not to repeat what he'd said because Jack believed professionals should never criticize one another in any sort of public way. (Obviously, he made an exception for one or two people.)

How did he make time for it? He just did. I think for Jack, reading or watching certain TV shows, was a break from whatever story he presently had on his mind. He also loved looking at magazines with lots of photos in them. I believe a lot of photos in Life or Look inspired Kirby drawings but that if you were to put the photo side-by-side with the drawing it inspired, you'd never see the slightest connection.

I keep coming back to my first answer: He was interested in just about everything. I think he approached a lot of it with the attitude of "Well, let's see what this guy has to say." I have the feeling he was sometimes more interested in the thought processes of the author than he was in the particular subject that author was discussing…but I'm not sure why I feel that way. It was easy to discern that Jack's train of thought was not linear; that it leaped around from place to place, just as many conversations with him did. If you believe that people think the way they read and read the way they think, that might explain a lot.

He really was remarkable and the more he's on my mind — as he is in some way every day — the more I miss those conversations and just being around him.

Legal Eagle Devin Stone weighs in on how much trouble Donald Trump is in at the moment and some of the things that the folks who are willing to be his lawyers this week are doing wrong.

And while I'm thinking about it: Doesn't "Devin Stone" sound like the name of a lawyer in a TV courtroom drama? It might even be better for a private investigator because it's simple and punchy and it sounds like the name of a tough guy.

Back to the case: Like you, I have no idea where this Classified Documents matter is going except that it ain't good for Mr. Trump. It's good to keep in mind that all the folks speculating online probably don't know everything the investigators know…and that the investigators probably don't know everything yet themselves. Here's the Legal Eagle explaining what he knows…

The ongoing Pandemic has solidified my belief that that most people would be better off in this world if they listened less to laypeople who think they know a lot about medicine and instead listened more to people who have graduated medical school and have a whole bunch of framed diplomas and certificates on the walls of their medical office. It's also a good indicator of competence if they have a medical office.

I am not saying doctors are infallible. We all have stories of one being utterly wrong about what was ailing someone and/or about how to make things better. But I think they're right way more often than non-doctors — and I don't think its twice as often or thrice as often. It's way more than that, varying with how serious the ailment is. If you're really sick, you really need a real doctor. In fact, you really need a real Very Good Doctor.

If you don't have one, work towards getting one. There are many opinions out there about what would constitute adequate medical care in this country. I would think the least of it would be that everyone had access to a Very Good Doctor and could afford to see that V.G.D. not just for emergencies but also for check-ups and preventive maintenance.

If you use a little common sense, it is possible to find a Very Good Doctor and even one can lead to a network of them. Very Good Doctors usually recommend other Very Good Doctors when you need a specialist. When I recently had a stomach problem, my very good General Practitioner sent me to a very good Gastroenterologist and the ailment was fixed.

And I should add that my definition of a Very Good Doctor is not limited to that person knowing a lot about medical matters and diseases and spleens and pills. It often has a lot to do with rapport and understanding and not having such a busy schedule that you can never get them on the phone or just sit and talk with them. The Very Good Doctor for me might not be the Very Good Doctor for you.

The other day, I was in for a minor check-up and consultation with a Very Good Doctor for me and we got to talking about The Pandemic. If I understand him correctly, he thinks the medical community has done a pretty good job with the challenge of COVID, given the fact that so little was known about it when it first burst into our lives. Doctors suddenly had to treat people for it while they learned what it was, how it spread, how to prevent it, etc. And while vaccines were being developed and tested and approved.

He said — and I'm paraphrasing mightily here — that much of what was believed about it at first was tentative and clearly identified as subject-to-change. As more was learned, the treatments and recommendations changed…and that caused a lot of confusion and distrust and accusations. Too many people expected doctors to know everything about it and to be able to treat it from Day One. Too often as knowledge of COVID expanded and new treatments were developed, what had been said or done earlier was viewed by some as incompetence…or worse, lying.

I was thinking about that as I read this fact-check on some of the things that have been said about Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to the President and head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Fauci is about to step down and unlike some people, I don't think that's a cause for celebration.

It seems to me the man had an impossible job to begin with and it became even more impossible as The Pandemic became politicized and various factions were angry he didn't say what they wanted him to say. The fact-check identifies a number of out-and-out misquotes of the man.

Merely treating the crisis as a crisis infuriated many. I don't know how you can be the Chief Adviser to Donald Trump and then be the Chief Adviser to Joe Biden without making someone consider you The Enemy. We live in a time when if you're not actively on one side, you're presumed to be part of the opposition. Doctors ought to be on the side of medical accuracy and preventing suffering and saving lives. They should not be attacked because what they're saying might be injurious to the chances of the guy you want to see elected getting elected.

Author-historian Eric L. Hoffman died this morning due to injuries sustained in a recent fire at his home. He was 78 years old and a lifelong devotee of science-fiction and horror movies and all things macabre. A frequent presence and lecturer at Comic-Con International since its earliest days and at other local conventions, Eric was the guy you went to if you wanted to know anything in his fields of interest.

I ran into him at conventions and film screenings for over half a century and we occasionally engaged in friendly debates about this or that…and yet I find that I knew very little about him. I'm told he left no family. I know he wrote and/or edited many books and was regarded as an authority in a fandom that was adjacent to the one in which I dwell…but I'm not the one to write a proper obit for the man. If you see one by someone who knew him well enough, please let me know so I can link to it.

I guess I knew him well enough to write this and to be saddened by his passing and shocked at how it occurred…and to know how well he was regarded by the kind of folks who could write that proper obit. I apologize that this isn't it.

I said in the previous item here that the Linus the Lionhearted cartoon show was yanked off the air in the sixties, "never to be seen again." I am informed by several correspondents that a DVD set of that series is in the works. Let me know if you hear of an actual release date and I'll pass it on here.

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A number of folks are sending me links to order their favorite beans and/or recipes to make their favorite beans. I appreciate that you'd like me to have beans but despite obstacles, I can still order my favorite beans and have. It's just more difficult and expensive than it used to be. And what I wanted was not so much any good can of beans but a specific comfort food I've been eating all my life.

And if we're going to be absolutely honest here about beans, my real all-time favorite beans were the ones they served at the Love's Barbecue chain back when there was a Love's Barbecue chain. All that remains of that chain is this website where you can order their barbecue sauce, which is wonderful if you like a real sweet sauce.

Once upon a time, the site said they'd soon be making the beans available and it still says they will be expanding their product line but they've been saying that since the previous century and I've given up hope. We'll see a complete boxed set of the Linus the Lionhearted cartoon show before we ever see a single new Love's bean.

The Linus the Lionhearted Show was on CBS Saturday mornings from September 26, 1964 to December 11, 1965 and then it moved over to ABC for a few years. It took that long for folks to realize that the program, which starred the characters appearing on boxes of Post cereals, was not a cartoon show but a half-hour commercial for its sponsor. That was when it went away, never to be seen again.

This was good in some ways. Sponsors should not have that much control of content, especially content aimed at getting children to eat more sugar. But it was a shame because it was, despite its Raison d'être, a pretty clever, funny program. And it had a really great voice cast…

In this commercial and on the series, Linus was voiced by Sheldon Leonard and Billie Bird was Carl Reiner. Lovable Truly (the mailman), So-Hi and Rory Raccoon were voiced by Bob McFadden, and Sugar Bear was voiced by Gerry Matthews. But the series also employed at times, Ruth Buzzi, Jonathan Winters, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, Jesse White and other actors then appearing on TV sitcoms and variety shows. Here's a little taste…

Fred Kaplan explains the Mar-A-Lago document scandal and concludes Donald Trump is in a heap of legal trouble. Does anyone think that if Barack Obama had done the same things, Trump and his supporters would not be demanding that America skip the trial and proceed directly to a public beheading?

You all with be relieved to know that my TiVo's guide now lists Harry O as airing on MeTV Plus at 4 PM starting Mondays. They're starting with Episode 1 of Season 1. MeTV Plus has also been airing old episodes of Hawaii Five-O (the Jack Lord version) which was another show I often enjoyed.

I want to thank all of you who wrote to tell me of a local market in your area that carries Heinz Vegetarian Beans, especially the guy in Alaska. I'll stop in on my way back from a lunch meeting and grab a couple of cans.

I have no comment on the Student Loan Forgiveness except this: A lot of folks who are fine with your, my and their tax dollars going to very, very rich people sure get upset when that money goes to people who are not very, very rich.

I also have no real comment over the release of the Mar-A-Lago affidavit. It's only been out for an hour or so and journalists are still scrambling to figure out what much of it means. Any minute now though, we should begin getting the articles about why urging this document's release is the latest mistake of Trump and whatever lawyers he can find to represent him this week. Every Trump move lately seems to generate those articles, even from people who are supposedly on his side.

To answer a question I keep getting asked in e-mail: I have absolutely no convention plans or appearances lined up. Barring further plagues, I'll probably be at WonderCon in Anaheim, which is March 24-26 next year. That's all for now.

As most of you know, one of my neighbors when I was growing up was Betty Lynn, an actress who did many things in her long career but was best known for playing Thelma Lou, the girlfriend of Deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show. The Lynns were more than neighbors to the Evaniers. They were more like extended family, and Betty was more like my unofficial aunt.

Late in life, Betty moved from West Los Angeles to the town of Mt. Airy, North Carolina — a town that prides itself on resembling and celebrating The Andy Griffith Show. So I didn't see Betty for a long time but in June of 2019, while in North Carolina for a comic book convention, I made a side trip to Mt. Airy and spent the day with Betty. I am oh-so-glad I did because Betty passed away in October of last year. She was 95 years old.

Since 2004, she had been working on her autobiography with two gents — Jim Clark and Tim McAbee — and it was very close to going to press. Jim and Tim finished it up and it has recently been published as Becoming Thelma Lou. It's a very good book that isn't just about The Andy Griffith Show. One of the oddities of becoming famous in show business is that people forget about all the other stuff you've done. The story of how Betty (born in Kansas City, Missouri) found her way to Broadway and then to Hollywood is a fascinating one with much in there about entertaining the troops in World War II, working in radios and movies and on live television…and many other shows on which she appeared.

I heard most of these stories from Betty…and reading the book is like sitting with her and having her tell them to you. There were stories in the book I never heard and many I enjoyed experiencing again. I highly recommend getting it, which you can do by clicking here. I wish she was here to sign it for you. You would have loved her. I certainly did.

Okay, you've been warned. Readers of this blog have read a lot here about certain foods I cannot eat. This post is about something I not only can eat but often do. Since I was a wee lad — and yes, I know those of you who've seen me recently will have trouble believing I was ever wee but I was — I've been eating Heinz Beans…

…and not just any Heinz Beans but Heinz Vegetarian Beans, the ones that come in the green can. My mother served them to me when I was wee and continued to do this as I grew increasingly less wee. When I began buying my own groceries, I bought them. One can find them in any local market in the 8 ounce size and the 16 ounce size as seen below…

…or I should say, "One could." Apparently, for many months now, there has been a severe shortage of Heinz Vegetarian Beans around this country…or at least in markets that get my business. I didn't notice because I don't buy my Heinz Vegetarian Beans when I go to the market or order online from them. Every few months, I order a case (twenty-four 8 oz. cans) of Heinz Vegetarian Beans from Amazon and put them in my cupboard. When I'm close to running out, I order another case.

The last case I bought arrived on January 28 of this year and I probably finished off the earlier case and dug into this one around the beginning of March. I immediately noticed these weren't quite as good as they usually are but what I didn't notice was that the expiration date on these cans was way closer than usual. Usually when I get a case, I have two years to consume them.

I figured I just got a not-as-good-as-usual batch but I didn't eat them as often as I usually do. Recently though, I opened a can, took one bite and threw them out. That's when I finally looked at the expiration date. It was September of this year…less than a month away.

I immediately checked out other online sources — Amazon and a few others. None of them has the 8 ounce size. Amazon has the 16 ounce size but the price is way up. None of the local market has even a single can of Heinz Vegetarian Beans.

But I did notice that all the online merchants had cases of something called either Heinz Beans or Heinz Beanz.

Heinz Beans and Heinz Beanz are both described as"Baked beans in a deliciously rich tomato sauce" and the ingredients seem to be pretty much the same. They're also not that different from my beloved Heinz Vegetarian Beans, though I don't think the kind I've been eating since I was wee are baked. I ordered a few cans of Heinz Beans and also a few of Heinz Beanz figuring, "How different can they be?"

Well, I found out: Very different. And not, to my taste, very good. So I called the Heinz Consumer Support number and spoke to a nice lady who told me Heinz has been having an immense shortage of many of their products since The Pandemic began. She assured me it's only temporary and there will come a day when the green cans of Heinz Vegetarian Beans will be as available as they ever were. But she declined to speculate on when that day might be.

I didn't say this but I would guess that they're putting all their resources towards making sure no one can't get Heinz Ketchup. They have a huge market share of ketchup consumption and might feel it would be jeopardized if people start having to try other brands. Some people don't seem to know that there are other brands.

But that's just a theory on my part. She consulted her computer to see where I might obtain some of the limited cans of Heinz Vegetarian Beans that are out there. No market within a hundred miles of me has the 8 ounce cans. Two small markets that are, respectively, eight and ten miles from me might (might!) have a few of the 16 ounce ones. I think I'll just patronize the Sellers' Market and pay what it'll cost to get some 16 ouncers from Amazon.

I also asked the lady on the phone what the difference is between Heinz Beans and Heinz Beanz. She said they're pretty much the same product but one is made in Canada and one is made in Great Britain. There are slight differences in the formula and one of those countries thinks the product is more commercial with the extra "Z."

I guess they're okay but you know how it is: You get used to a certain taste and your sensory buds get frustrated when they don't receive it. When I eat another brand of beans — I recently tried Bush's and VanKamp's — I'm not disappointed because I don't expect them to be exactly like the beans of my childhood. But when beans with the name "Heinz Vegetarian Beans" on the label don't taste like the Heinz Vegetarian Beans I've known all my life, they just taste wrong to me. I'm going to give my Heinz Beans and also my Heinz Beanz to my Cleaning Lady.

We've been talking here about Comic-Con in years past and I mentioned the El Cortez Hotel in San Diego. Here's a brief TV news item about the con when it was at that hotel back in 1975. Shel Dorf is identified as the founder of the annual event and that's not exactly true. It's kind of a mistake that Shel encouraged and which no one bothered correcting very often in the con's earlier days.

In almost every news report back then about comic conventions, reporters fixated on one of two aspects or both: People dressing up as colorful characters and/or people paying then-outrageous sums for old comic books. You rarely saw anything about the contents of comic books or about the people who made them. This report is fairly typical. Jerry Siegel, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Gil Kane and many more important figures in the industry were present at the '75 con but they go unmentioned.

If and when I post some news coverage of more recent conventions, you'll see a lot about people dressing up as colorful characters and/or the presence at cons of stars of smash hit movies and TV shows. And even this report talks about Star Trek…

A friend of mine in Las Vegas just e-mailed to tell me that work crews are removing the name "Bally's" on the outside of Bally's Las Vegas, the big hotel at the corner of South Las Vegas Boulevard and East Flamingo Road. The place started life in 1973 as the MGM Grand but in 1986, Bally's — a company that started by manufacturing pinball and slot machines — bought the casino-hotel and renamed it.

A new hotel called the MGM Grand opened farther down the strip in 1993. It is still there and still named the MGM Grand. I think.

The Bally's company was purchased in 1996 by Hilton Hotels and then in 1998, Hilton split off all its casino-type operations into a company called Park Place. In 2003, Park Place was renamed Caesars Entertainment since they owned Caesars Palace along with other hotels. Then in 2005, Caesars Entertainment was acquired by Harrah's Entertainment.

Thoroughly confused? Wait, it gets worse: In 2010, Harrah's Entertainment was renamed Caesars Entertainment Corporation.

And worse: Back in 2003, one of the oldest casino-hotels in Vegas, Binion's Horseshoe, got into a huge legal battle with the the Culinary Workers Union and the Bartenders Union. A messy situation ensued and when it was over, Binion's Horseshoe was acquired by Harrah's, back when it was still Harrah's, but they soon sold it off to a company called MTR Gaming. Harrah's retained the rights to the name "Horseshoe" and some other intellectual property so Binion's Horseshoe became Binion's Gambling Hall.

Caesars Entertainment Corporation has been using the name "Horseshoe" on some of its properties around the world so now Bally's is being renamed Horseshoe Las Vegas. That's why they're taking the name "Bally's" down.

Back when I was playing Blackjack and counting cards, my two best winning streaks occurred at the original MGM Grand on The Strip and at Binion's Horseshoe downtown. Counting those cards was tough but not nearly as tough as keeping track of what any of these places was named and who owned them at any given moment.