I am pleased to announce that we can now retire the Nick Nolte mug shot, which we were all sick of seeing on comedy shows, as the Current Scariest Celebrity Photo. The booking snapshot of Mr. Jackson has easily edged it out for the honor. And I post them here to make a point: I think a lot of the damage done to Nolte's career was not so much in what he did to get arrested (does anyone even recall?) but in that picture. The guy just looked like a lower life form and the photo, which even made it into a bit on the Oscars, kept his humiliation front and center. Neither I nor anyone else watching from afar can say for sure that Michael Jackson committed the crime of which he stands accused. But get used to that mug shot. We're going to be seeing it for some time and every time we see it, it will be selling the notion that Jackson is not quite human, as well as reminding us of the accusation. Whether it's valid or not.

A reporter there just had Jermaine Jackson on the phone and he blew up, declaring Michael's innocence, telling off the media for giving air time to people who claim to represent his family but don't and…well, here. I can back up my TiVo and transcribe it. Here's Jermaine…

First of all, I'd like to say the whole family supports Michael 100%. I'm very disappointed in the system in which things were done. At the same time, Michael is in very strong spirits because he is innocent. We're tired of people…sick and tired of people speaking on my brother's behalf, on the family's behalf, who do not know us. So you put these people on national TV, on international TV, and they say these things and the public is saying, "Oh, wow, is he really like this?" He is not eccentric. We had an incredible, wonderful childhood and what they're doing is bringing him down with the very thing that he loves, his children, his family. Michael is about peace. They don't know us. But this will reveal itself and I am sick and fucking tired of everybody saying these things about my family. Well, we will fight and we will stand up and everybody that knows this family around the world will support us because at the end of the day, this is nothing but a modern-day lynching. This is what they want to see, him in handcuffs. You got it. But it won't be for long, I promise you. I'm sick and tired. Sick and tired.

At this point, the reporter jumped in and said, "Believe me, I have no idea what you're going through…" Jermaine came back with…

No, you do not know because you don't walk in my shoes. You don't walk in my shoes but you put these people on national television to say these things. They don't know our family. We are a family and we will continue to be a family. That's my love right there [referring, I guess, to a shot of Michael then on the screen] and we support him 1000%. I have nothing else to say. Goodbye.

Then he hung up as the reporter, Kyra Phillips, tried to keep him on the line. It was a fascinating, angry outburst and probably not unjustified. One doubts that Michael will be proven innocent at all, let alone as innocent as Jermaine says. But you can understand why a guy's brother would say what he said, and he's right that an awful lot of people who don't know the Jacksons at all are getting plenty of face time.

An interesting contrast. While I was posting the previous item and taking some calls, Jackson deplaned and managed to get into a van without the CNN cameras catching him. They've just caravaned to the office where he will

Oh, wait. They just got a shot of him getting out of the van and heading into the sheriff's office. The newsfolks were practically orgasmic to notice that he was in handcuffs. They're now replaying that shot over and over.

As I was saying: They had copters covering the caravan to the sheriff's office and to fill airtime, they brought in their legal correspondent, Jeffrey Toobin, in split-screen. Toobin was an oasis of actual information, ticking off real legal points, correcting much that had been said in the preceding hour. He explained the actual laws covering to what extent a minor can be compelled to testify in a sexual molestation case. Very interesting, very informative. But now that Jackson has arrived, they've left Toobin and gone back to folks theorizing about Michael's personality, what's on his mind, how he'll defend himself, etc. It's like someone in the control room said, "Enough facts! Let's get back to speculation!" And they've now rerun the shot with the handcuffs about ten times in six minutes.

It's an O.J. world again. If I were Leno, I'd have the Dancing Itos come out tonight and do another number. Just to remind us.

In 1967, editor Dick Giordano was shaking things up at the Charlton Comics Group. Charlton was a cheapjack company that paid writers and artists at rates ranging from poor to involuntary servitude, then printed their wares on presses that Gutenberg had discarded as outmoded. As was occasionally the case in comics' early days, you could treat the talent and its work like dirt and still occasionally get decent-to-good work out of them, plus the intermittent masterpiece. Giordano upped rates a fraction and treated people well in non-monetary ways, and so managed to increase the frequency of gems. One which happened almost as an accident was the one-shot story, "Children of Doom," which appeared in Charlton Premiere #2. It was slapped together in record time by Giordano, writer Denny O'Neil and artist Pat Boyette to fill a void created when another planned second issue fell through. O'Neil was a relatively new author to comics and he came up with a haunting tale set in the days following a nuclear holocaust. Pat Boyette was also rather new to comics and he illustrated it with a striking approach with heavy reliance on black-and-white scenes in what otherwise was a color comic. Pat had actually wanted to do the whole story without color but Charlton execs chickened out and the comic wound up being partially colored. You can make a strong argument that this made it even more arresting and eerie.

I bring this up now because my chum Scott Shaw! covers the book today over in his Oddball Comics column. He gives a much better summary there than I do here, and I suggest you go see what he has to say. "Children of Doom" came and went with very little notice. It didn't warrant a sequel, didn't impact comics of the day…didn't even get noticed by a lot of comic book fans. But those of us who did notice it will never forget it, so it's nice that Scott is again calling it to our attention.

The plane is pulling into a hangar with people inside. They say this is a strong indicator that Jackson is inside.

We're now watching another plane that just landed at Santa Barbara Airport. They're reasonably sure Michael is on this one. A reporter just explained that they had a tip that Jackson had left Vegas on a plane with a certain tail number and the plane now landing seems to have the same tail number. Ergo, they have concluded it's the same plane so they assume Jackson is aboard. Professional newsmen are actually discussing this on CNN. One just said, "This is either Michael Jackson's plane or a hell of a decoy." Sounds very important.

Just watched CNN spend 10+ minutes showing us a Lear Jet landing at Santa Barbara airport. We saw it land, we saw it taxi. We heard a hapless newsguy try to keep talking the whole time despite the fact that all he had to say was that they had information that Michael Jackson was inside and that he was arriving to surrender to authorities. Finally, it turned out that Michael was not on the plane. They now have various reporters discussing the means by which Jackson might be travelling to the sheriff's office.

Bush is in England, bombs are exploding in Istanbul and Iraq, killer storms are flooding the Eastern seaboard…and on CNN, the most important issue is whether The King of Pop is on a plane or in a van. Fill in your own snide remark.

Let me tell you about Floyd Norman. Floyd Norman is a veteran of the animation business dating back to the Disney Studios, circa 1960, and he looks exactly like the sketch at above right that someone did of him. Over the years, he's worked as a writer and/or layout guy for almost every major studio but mainly for Disney and Hanna-Barbera. He did wonderful work for their shows and movies and comic books and comic strips but he really distinguished himself in one category: Drawing insulting cartoons of his employers and fellow cartoonists. For years, it's been a singular honor of the animation business to make it into a Floyd Norman sketch, and all hail him as The Master. A while back, a batch of his doodles were collected into a very funny book called Faster, Cheaper. We now have a sequel. Son of Faster, Cheaper can now be ordered at this website and if you have any interest at all in the cartoon biz, I urge you to do so. (I think but am not sure you can order the first volume here. If you buy one, you'll want the other.)

Are you sick of discovering that you're somewhere your cell phone won't connect? I am. I have Cingular service and once, I was unable to make a call while in a Cingular office. The guy behind the counter just giggled, "Yeah, they don't work here." Anyway, you can investigate where cell phones don't work — or add your own data — by entering The Dead Cell Zone.

Another great thing to do in Southern California this Friday evening is to go hear Shelly Goldstein sing "Songs for Lovers and Those They've Dumped." That's the title of her one-woman show which she performs here and there — "here" being L.A., "there" being London — when she's not busy with writing-producing assignments. She is a superb singer and a brilliant wit, and she'll be singing and witting for one show only at The Gardenia, an intimate supper/night club located at 7066 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. For reservations, call (323) 467-7444.

Reading the news articles about the mess Michael Jackson seems to be in, I noticed the following line in this report…

The 12-year-old boy at the center of the Michael Jackson child molestation scandal may have confessed to his psychiatrist that the pop singer plied him with wine and sleeping pills when he allegedly molested him, according to sources. The boy has also hired Los Angeles attorney Larry Feldman, the same lawyer who represented the family of a 13-year-old boy who made similar allegations a decade ago, the sources said.

"The boy hired that attorney?" The boy is twelve years old. His parents presumably hired the attorney. These are the same parents who let their kid stay at the home of Michael Jackson, reportedly in the same bed, long after rumors and jokes about Jackson and pedophilia were common knowledge. And then these parents did not apparently know about or report the violation of their son. It only came to light when a psychologist heard enough about it from the kid to feel a report to the police was warranted.

If the allegations are true, Jackson ought to be in prison. And I've love to hear a good reason why Mom and Dad should not be in the adjoining cell.

Forgive me for stating the obvious but in this world, some things just make you feel you have to blog.

Over in The Village Voice, R. C. Baker reports on several books about comics, and even quotes me while he's at it.

What does the staff of a humor magazine do when they get laid off? Why, they offer themselves for sale on eBay, of course! (Thanks to Tom Galloway for noticing this.)

I signed up some time ago to have Special Weather Statements from the National Weather Service e-mailed to me as they are issued. Just moments ago, I received a long one which began as follows…

Special Weather Statement
400 PM PST Mon Feb 24 2003

…Rain and mountain snow for southwestern California tonight and Tuesday…Winter Storm Warning in effect above 5500 feet for the mountains of Santa Barbara…Ventura and Los Angeles counties…

A winter storm approaching the coast has already brought showers to the central coast of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. The showers will increase in coverage with rain expected to quickly spread south to Ventura and Los Angeles counties this evening. Rain…heavy at times…can be expected overnight across southwestern California. An isolated thunderstorm will be possible as well. The heaviest rain is expected along south facing slopes and foothills. The rain should gradually diminish from north to south on Tuesday.

And then it went on for many paragraphs to warn of floods and road-closings. Because I knew no rain was forecast for today and I hadn't noticed the message date, I made a loud Scooby Doo sound…"Ruh?" Eleven minutes later, another Special Weather Statement arrived in my e-mailbox. Here it is, in full…

Special Weather Statement
1100 AM PST Tue Nov 18 2003

Please disregard previous special weather statement dated Feb 24 2003.

This is kinda like all the reports about Iraq/Al-Qaeda links and Weapons of Mass Destruction and leaked memos, except that it got corrected on its own and by the folks who were wrong in the first place.

Do you like the comic strip, Fox Trot? Of course you do…so here's a link to the web page of its cartoonist, Bill Amend. And there's a link on there that will let you read lots of Fox Trot strips.