I misunderstood the identity of my benefactor. The gift of a copy of the Gerry Jones book, Men of Tomorrow, was not from Jim Henley, which is the name of a fellow who writes me often here. It was from Jim Hanley, who operates Jim Hanley's Universe, which consists of two of the best comic shops in New York. He arranged for the book to be handed to me by Rory D. Root, who sells an equally fine array of goodies at Comic Relief in Berkeley, California. Any of these stores would be a dandy place to buy a copy of this volume…or anything else.

One of the many issues I've flogged over the years (in articles like this one) is that it's ridiculous to state that the Academy Awards have an audience of a billion viewers. The number isn't even close to that. It may not even be close to a quarter of that.

In a piece in the current issue of The New Yorker, Daniel Rodosh says all the same things I've been saying about this.

By the way: I've decided not to Live Oscar Blog this year…but my friend Gary Sassaman will be doing so over on his page. Tune in and see what Gary has to say.

I don't know how many of you have been following the story of Fred Garvin, Jeff Gannon, Male Prostitute. A lot of the major news organizations — ones that skew Conservative and others that fear being accused of Liberalism — have given it little or no attention. If an "opposition party" were in charge of either the House or Senate, we'd already have hearings scheduled, but there's very little that anyone in Washington can ever do to provoke outrage and investigation from their own team. A scandal is only what the other party does.

At least though, it's a gold mine for comedians. Here's a link to a Quicktime compilation of moments from last Friday night's Real Time with Bill Maher. And here's one from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Very funny stuff.

I'm always interested when I see someone who has a strong position on one side of an issue and then changes to the other side. Those instances always give me pause to reconsider not just my view of that particular issue but my whole sense of feeling strongly about any controversial topic. I don't usually change my mind but I always think it's good to shake off the notion that it would be unthinkable to do so.

I'm also very interested and conflicted on the whole notion of the Death Penalty in this country. Therefore, I was fascinated to read this interview with TV host Bill Kurtis, who went from believing strongly in the practice to feeling it was just too ineptly administered. I'm not saying anyone should change their mind when they read the interview…and probably not the book he's promoting, either. But I wish more people were open to the idea that if we're to have a Death Penalty in this country, the system needs some serious repair work.

This weekend, NBC's Up All Night is scheduled to rerun the very first episode of Saturday Night Live from October 11, 1975. Not only that but it's the full, 90-minute version as opposed to the truncated hour that is sometimes aired.

I wrote a piece about this first show here. As you watch (if you watch), you might ask yourself what you'd have thought if you'd been an NBC exec that night. The broadcast was not unsuccessful, but also not all that indicative of what the show could or would become. One of the things I find fascinating about early SNL is the way it was more or less invented "on the air" over its first few programs…a luxury I do not think any show would be granted today. The first week, it showed signs of becoming a good, free-form variety show…but not the all-sketch show it soon became. As I understand it, there was some debate then as to whether the Guest Host slot was a way of trying out folks until one emerged as the person who ought to host every week…or if they really wanted to keep the show as amorphous as it seemed to be its first few weeks. In the end, they seemed to split the difference.

Last evening, I watched that "First Five Years of SNL" special that ran on NBC the other night. Those things are all a bit too self-congratulatory but I found it interesting. It would have been more interesting had it paid a bit of attention to Albert Brooks, The Muppets, Andy Kaufman, Harry Shearer, Father Guido Sarducci and a few other contributors. Supposedly, a longer version of this special is to be released on DVD in a few months. Perhaps some or all will get covered there.

Probably for a limited time, Playboy has put up the text of its 1974 interview with the late Hunter S. Thompson. The first two-thirds, being mostly about which drugs he'd taken and when, is pretty boring but the remainder, which is about Nixon and politics, is well worth a glimpse. Beware the nekkid lady pictures lurking in the margins.

Speaking of DVDs that are finally coming out, Jim Hill says that his sources within Disney are talking about putting out Song of the South in the Fall of 2006. Apart from the release date, this matches what I was told earlier this month and reported here. I was told they weren't sure when but that it could be in time for this Christmas. Next year, since it will be the 60th anniversary of the film, seems more likely.

As mentioned here before, Paramount is finally (finally!) coming out with a DVD release of the 1959 version of Li'l Abner — the one which, unlike this one, actually starred Peter Palmer and Leslie Parrish. Release date for the gen-yoo-wine article is 4/19 and you can pre-order from Amazon by clicking here. I'm told to expect an excellent wide-screen transfer but nothing in the way of extras…but that's okay. It's priced cheap and at least it'll be out. I'm a little surprised not to see Julie Newmar on the cover since you figure she'd stupefy a few males browsing the video racks…but then I never understand the marketing ideas they come up with for these things. Maybe they just figure heterosexuals won't buy anything with show tunes in it.

While I was off in San Francisco, my main TiVo received the latest software upgrade, which includes the "TiVo to Go" feature. The way this works is: If you have your PC networked to your computer, you can record a show on the TiVo, then transfer it to your computer hard disk and watch it on your computer or — and here's the "to go" part — you can transfer it to a laptop or burn it to a DVD and take it elsewhere to view.

Because TiVo is under constant assault from networks for making it way too easy for folks to record their shows in digital, uploadable format, TiVo to Go has been designed with a couple of silly restrictions. You're assigned a number they call a "Media Access Key" and this designates the PC on which the transferred shows can be watched. Supposedly, this will discourage the swapping of recorded shows over the 'net…but of course, there are dozens of software and hardware methods one can use to do this without employing a TiVo. I can even use one of my other TiVos, which comes with a built-in DVD burner, to record a show onto a DVD, then copy said DVD onto my computer. TiVo to Go also requires you to specify your own, personal password for playbacks and enter it every time you view a program you transferred to your PC. Again, this makes things a little more difficult for the honest user but probably won't prevent anyone who wants to swap shows from accomplishing what they wish to accomplish.

The shows are saved on your computer in a special file format with a ".tivo" extension. These are playable via Windows Media Player if you have the right codec installed. For those who don't know: A "codec" is a file interpreter that enables a player to decode an audio or video file. You probably already have many codecs on your computer. If you don't have the proper one, TiVo has a list of ones you can purchase…but don't do that. Not when I've found that the free Media Player Classic will run the files just fine.

TiVo also says you have to purchase Sonic MyDVD software if you want to burn a show to a DVD, but if you search around the Internet, you'll find folks explaining how to do this with DVD burning software you may already own, such as Nero. You may also be able to find instructions on how to convert a ".tivo" file to a plain, old-fashioned MPEG file that you can edit like any desktop video. It's a bit complicated for the novice but I'm betting there will be a simple conversion utility available before long.

So what do I think of this new TiVo feature, so far? I think I am not sure why I will use it. Still, if I do find a purpose, it at least seems to work okay on my little set-up here. I have lots of stuff on my harddisk I don't use…so what's one more?

People keep writing to ask what I think of Men of Tomorrow, a new book by Gerard Jones, which focuses on the backstory of the gents who founded and built the comic book industry, with special emphasis on Harry Donenfeld (who founded and owned DC Comics), on Jack Liebowitz (who ran that company when Harry was drunk) and on Jerry Siegel and Bob Kane (who made that company into something when they co-created its star characters). Until the other day, my answer to that question was that I hadn't gotten my mitts on a copy of Gerry's book yet but expected to, shortly. Mentioning that on this site the other day prompted Jim Henley (thanks, Jim) to have a friend come up to me at WonderCon and present me with one, and I read it in my room that very night.

So now, my answer is that it's a terrific book, easily one of the most important things ever written about the history of the American comic book. I just left a message on Gerry's voicemail asking him to call me so I could tell him that directly, and now I'd like to tell you.

For some time now, I've been telling people that any understanding of comic book history has to flow from an understanding of the Depression-era generation, particularly of the culture and world in which young men in New York then resided. Most were Jewish, a few were Italian, and some managed to be one but bond well with the other. Most of the writers and artists of comics' first years shared a certain common background, finding themselves at an early age expected to bring home a paycheck and contribute to the family's subsistence. Spurred on by some creative muse they'd derived from movies, pulps and comic strips, they scurried to make that living in comics before it became necessary for them to give up on that dream and go build a career in some metal-stamping factory. Siegel and Shuster…Bob Kane…Jack Kirby — all of them, young and determined and talented in one way or another — built an industry because they had to. They needed a place to earn a living.

That story has been told before, though rarely as well as Jones does in Men of Tomorrow. What he does that is truly unique in my experience is to explore the lives of the men who financed that industry…the Donenfelds, the Martin Goodmans, the Charlie Gaineses. And then he details the intersection of the financiers and the creators. Guess which generally got the better of that marriage. And yet, the book is not rooted wholly in the rich publisher/screwed creator mentality…even though that is generally what occurred. Gerry sifts through the lives and motives on both sides to discuss how they needed one another and how they used one another. It really is a most remarkable narrative.

I am cited repeatedly in the book as a source of info, and most of what's in there (the bulk of which did not, of course, come from me) corresponds to my knowledge of the facts. There are a few places where I'd quibble, but none of those affect the over-all portrait of the players, nor do they alter any of Gerry's astute observations and deductions. Maybe we can do a convention panel one of these days and discuss a few of these areas. Overall, the worst thing I can say about this book is that there are many places where I wish its author had expanded on a certain player or event and written more. It's such a rich, insufficiently-explored topic that it deserves further exploration…and this book deserves purchase by anyone interested in how the comic book industry came to be.

My favorite of John Raitt's many appearances was not in The Pajama Game or in the many exciting, memorable moments he gave the world from the Broadway stage. Not that there was anything wrong with any of them. He was as fine a singer as there ever was, and he sure set a fine example of what it meant to be a musical comedy star. But my favorite John Raitt moment came around 1964 and it took place on the stage of the auditorium at Ralph Waldo Emerson Junior High School in West Los Angeles. That night, as a fund-raiser for something-or-other, my mother and I attended a show that a couple of the teachers had thrown together, mostly with talent from the faculty.

The cast, performing songs and sketches, consisted of a number of teachers, a few students…and an advertised "Surprise Special Guest Star," who was rumored to be someone very famous. Who would it be? A few years earlier, before any of us had been students at Emerson, a similar benefit had closed with Jerry Lewis. Legend had it he came out for what to have been ten minutes and it turned into more than an hour of songs and banter and falling off the stage. Would we get Jerry again? If not, then who? We all expected someone equally stellar, and a lot of names were bandied about in tingly expectation. None of those names were John Raitt, in large part because few of us had heard of Broadway Legend John Raitt. We had kids in my class who hadn't heard of Broadway. So when he was announced like the biggest star in the world, most of us went "Who?" and felt a little cheated.

But actually, that was just us students. The parents who were present — my mother, for instance — sure knew who John Raitt was, and they were more than a little delighted. And I knew who he was, sort of, and I realized I should have guessed it might be him. There was a girl in some of my classes named Bonnie who occasionally sang (I think she was also in the show) and I knew her father was the guy in the movie, Pajama Game.

So Bonnie Raitt's dad came out to perform. With great wisdom, and some knowledge of the ability of our school band, he brought along his own piano player. And he proceeded to sing for maybe forty minutes…songs from Oklahoma! and Carousel and a couple from Gigi, as I recall. What I really recall is him just winning over that whole audience. He had the adults from the moment he walked out on stage, and he even won over a couple of the teenage girls just because he looked so danged handsome. But by the time he closed, he had everyone in the house cheering, and very happy it wasn't Jerry Lewis.

A few years ago, I attended a concert by Kristin Chenoweth and as a surprise — planned, I am sure — she introduced John Raitt in the audience and had him come down on stage to do a number with her. Backstage afterward, I met him and told him about the time I'd seen him at my junior high school and how impressed I'd been. He had only a vague memory of that performance, and I think he was wondering why I'd brought that up instead of one of the many wonderful things he'd done in more impressive venues. But he did appreciate that he'd done something I thought was very, very good. I hope, wherever he is now, he appreciates that so many people feel that way about so many things he did.

I was going to post every day of our trip but owing to the frequent rain, things got a bit too hectic and I got a bit too weary. I really enjoyed the WonderCon itself, and San Francisco is a great city. But I had enough problems and plans that were cancelled due to weather to make it, on balance, a pretty unpleasant trip. Today, however, there seemed to be blue sky around so Carolyn and I walked down to a great restaurant for Dim Sum (here's its website) and then rode the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf. By the time we got there, it was pouring rain and we finally just gave up and headed for the airport early. It was that kind of excursion.

Sunday at the WonderCon, I did two panels — one with Sergio and me talking about our work together, and one about Comic Books for Kids. The latter featured Arnold Drake, Gail Simone, Bill Morrison, Scott Shaw! and Amanda Conner. Just to cause trouble, I launched into a theory I've developed that comics may have irrevocably lost the younger audience; that there's too little comics can offer that a kid can't get cheaper and easier (and with sound and motion) via Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, VHS tapes, DVDs, PlayStation and many more we could all mention. No one on the panel (or even in the audience) really agreed with me…but that's okay since sometimes, I'm not entirely sure I agree with me, either.

No real memorable exchanges on the convention floor. It was nice to see Tony DeZuniga and Ernie Chan — two fine comic artists I haven't seen nearly enough of, these last few years. I also ran into the son of the late Alfredo Alcala, who's currently assembling a book of his father's work, as well as curating an exhibit of same. I had nice conversations with Neal Adams, Dave Stevens, Tom Yeates, Al Gordon, Jim Silke, Bob Burden, Dan DiDio, Trina Robbins, Steve Leialoha, Scott and Judith Shaw, Steve Lieber, Erik Larsen and others I'll probably remember when I'm less tired.

Gotta go unpack. More normal posting resumes later, plus I'll start playing Catch-Up with my e-mailbox.

Meant to post yesterday and even the day before but the WonderCon, here in soggy San Francisco, hasn't allowed me a lot of time. The place is packed, the panels are fun, and there are way too many people to see and stuff to look at.

Friday panels went well. "The Art of the Cover" featured Neal Adams, William Stout, Alex Ross and Adam Hughes, all talking about what it takes to design a right and proper cover for a comic book…or even a record album, CD or DVD. I got Neal to speak a bit about the problems and personalities of working at DC Comics, back when he was doing so many fine covers. He made some interesting points — if anyone there recorded the panel, drop me a note so I can quote some here — about how at the time he came to Batman, he felt it was being drawn by too many people for whom the character was just a guy in a costume and just another assignment. (These are my words, not his.) What made his interpretation of the character different, and the covers he drew special, was that he came to it all with some love of the hero and appreciation of why it would be neat to be that guy. Neal was effusive in his praise of the other panelists, especially Adam Hughes, who he said is doing covers where you want to buy the book and throw away the insides. And that's about all I can remember at this late hour.

Later that day, I got to interview Arnold Drake, one of the great writers of comics' Silver Age and one of the most articulate, candid gents it's ever been my pleasure to know. Arnold co-created The Doom Patrol, Deadman and Stanley and His Monster, to name but a few, and wrote dozens of other comics for DC, including Batman, Challengers of the Unknown, Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis and one of my favorites, Tommy Tomorrow. Actually, they were all among my favorites. Back in the days before comics carried writing credits, I became a Drake fan without knowing who he was or that he'd written so many of the stories I liked.

Saturday morn's Tribute Panel for the great Will Eisner was well-attended, with friends and fans gathering to hear Sergio Aragonés, Jeff Smith, Scott Dunbier and Charles Brownstein remember the man. Then we had to cancel the Golden/Silver Age Panel due to a certain paucity of guests who worked in comics in those eras. Two who'd been announced for the panel were unable to be there, and there was no one else on the premises to take their places. Reminds you how the creators of comics' first and even second generation are becoming an endangered species, and that we need to preserve and protect the few we have left.

Later, I was on a panel of Animation Writers, then I got to play Drew Carey (at a considerably lower salary but with a better haircut) for our "Quick Draw!" game, where Sergio, Jeff Smith, Scott Shaw! and Steve Leialoha battled it out, sketching as fast as humanly possible. If you've never seen us do this at a convention, ask someone who has and they'll tell you you have to see it. The room was absolutely packed with folks, some of whom could actually see the drawings being done.

Not much else to report at the moment. I'm waaaaay behind on e-mail (note the five "a's") so please bear with me. More regular posting will resume here shortly.

For reasons I'll mention in a moment, I really don't want to get the Social Security debate going full-blast on this webpage or in my e-mailbox. But since I linked earlier to a Democratic "calculator," I thought I ought to link to a Republican-type one. Folks sent me links to this one and this one and this one, and I have no idea which is the most accurate. I suspect none is truly accurate since the Bush plan still seems to be so unformed and lacking in specifics and likely to change.

That's one of the things that makes me suspicious of the arguments in its support…and no, it doesn't work the other way around. If someone proposes a new plan — especially one involving numbers — a perfectly valid criticism of it is that it is vague and incomplete. It seems to me the administration strategy at the moment is to get a lot of folks to pledge loyalty to the proposal, then to work out the specifics later. It's like signing a contract to buy a house and the realtor says, "Don't mind those blank pages in the middle. I'll fill them in when I think it's time." To some extent, we bought the War in Iraq on that basis, if only with regard to its predicted costs. Given how far wrong this White House was with those dollar estimates and how they keep revising the prescription drug plan costs upwards by tens of billions, I don't think they've earned a lot of trust with regard to financial projections.

And then the other thing that makes me suspicious of the Bush proposal for private/personal accounts is that the sales presentation for it seems to be predicated on just plain, old-fashioned lying about the health of the current set-up. It doesn't seem to me to require major surgery. Yeah, it may run a deficit at some arguable point in some upcoming decade. Of what current Federal programs could that not be said? Come up with a plan that will fix all of them and you could probably turn Social Security into a chain of soup kitchens for all I'd care…but right now, I'm afraid of seeing Social Security "fixed" by people who've spent years dreaming of its elimination. The only thing that will convince me is a lot of hard math that doesn't make wild projections about the stock market in the future, and provides a workable Plan B if even the reasonable forecasts are wrong. When George W. Bush talks about not wanting to "lay all [his] cards on the table so my opponents can take a shot at them," I figure we're not going to get that for a while, if ever, and what he finally does propose will be amended and compromised and quite unlike the undetailed wish-dream of Conservatives and Wall Street now being bandied about. So that's why I don't want to spend a lot of time debating the proposal. If you want to without me, be my guest.

A newly-formed union of standup comedians in New York has managed to negotiate a better deal for its members. Details here.