Speaking of statuary from Dark Horse Comics — as I was, a few days ago — they've been issuing this wonderful set called Classic Comic Characters.  They're wonderful little figurines of your favorites from the funny pages, including (so far) Nancy, Sluggo, Krazy Kat, Ignatz, Popeye, Prince Valiant, The Phantom, Olive Oyl, Felix the Cat, Fearless Fosdick, Terry (of "…The Pirates" fame), The Dragon Lady, Flash Gordon, Little Orphan Annie, Beetle Bailey, Sarge, Li'l Abner, Daisy Mae, Mandrake, Blondie, Dagwood, Smokey Stover, Bluto, Wimpy, Alley Oop and (coming soon) The Yellow Kid, Little Nemo and many more.

They've also issued a figure of Albert the Alligator (from Walt Kelly's brilliant newspaper strip, Pogo) and in June, the above Pogo replica will join the ever-widening throng.  Well, actually, Pogo will look even better than he does above.  These are pics of prototypes.  The design of the Albert statue — which you can purchase right now from places like Bud Plant Comic Art — was improved a bit after the catalogue photo was taken and Pogo is still being even further refined.

The statues are being sculpted by folks at Yoe! Studios, supervised by demon cartoonist Craig Yoe, with these two under the intense scrutiny of my best friend in the whole world, Carolyn Kelly.  She is uniquely qualified to supervise Pogo stuff because not only is she a fine artist but she also sometimes sat on her father's lap as he drew the strip.  The possum is in good hands.

And yes, we're still sticking by our Enron prediction…though we're even a bit less confident about it.  A lot of this may come down to whether other, similar corporations (like Dick Cheney's Halliburton Industries) go the same way.  But mostly, it may come down to whether the public decides that all those campaign contributions represented a genuine quid pro quo betwixt Mssrs. Bush and Lay — and someone has got to be working double-time coming up with dirty jokes that play off those names.

For those of you still trying to decide for yourself, here's a link to an article in The Washington Times that insists that Enron got nothing for their money.  And here's a link to a piece by Robert Scheer that argues just the opposite.  My current feeling is that if you wholly believe either, you're a ninny.

Hey, wanna hear Ron Taylor sing?  I'd recommend the cast albums from the two shows I mentioned in the obit below but if you don't have them handy, you can hear a song he performed for Channel Umptee-3, a cartoon show I worked on that managed to last a whole season on WB without anyone ever seeing it.  If you click on the link below, you should be able to hear a song with lyrics by me, music by Brad Ellis and an arrangement by Walter Murphy.  But most of all, you'll hear Ron Taylor in all his glory…

Another day, another damn obit.  In the picture above, the big black guy is Ron Taylor, who unfortunately is now the late Ron Taylor.  The photo is from the recent Broadway show, Ain't Nothin' But the Blues, which had Ron as a co-creator and one of the stars.  He earned Tony nominations in two categories and won much acclaim — a nice thing, for Ron had done excellent work for years in jobs that left him largely unseen.  Most notable was his voicing of the plant, Audrey II, in the original off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, singing "Feed Me" with glorious abandon and treachery.  That's Ron you hear on the cast album, and he functioned in that off-stage capacity for something like a thousand performances around the country, bringing more to the role than anyone thought possible.

He was also much in-demand as a studio singer and you heard him countless times in commercials and doing back-up duties in your favorite songs.  (One of many where he stands out: Ron provided the deep bass voice on Billy Joel's a cappela hit, "For the Longest Time.")  Ron also did cartoon voices, which is how I came to work with him.  He was a lovely man with a glorious voice.

We have quite an interesting Time Machine operating on The Game Show Network's "Black-and-White Overnight" series.  Tonight (this morning), they ran an episode of What's My Line? that originally aired October 27, 1963.  The Mystery Guest was Ethel Merman, who was plugging It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World which was, she said, set to open in New York on November 17.  GSN generally runs these consecutively but some shows are missing from their library and, once in a while, they jump from one period to another for no visible reason.  If they continue in sequence this week, they'll be running the shows just before and just after the assassination of President Kennedy.

One assumes the "post" comments will be of interest, particularly those of panelist Dorothy Kilgallen, who later got involved in one of the countless investigations of the murder.  Two years later, following several trips to Texas to interview Jack Ruby, she was found dead in her apartment.  There were no indications of foul play but most J.F.K. conspiracy theorists want to believe that she was murdered because she was about to blow the case wide open.  Anyway, you might want to set the VCR or TiVo…

Topic for discussion: An insurance company is covering the World Trade Center.  The policy specifies a payout of up to 3.5 billion dollars for a terrorist attack.  Since destruction is total, the maximum amount applies…but wait!  On September 11, 2001, was there one terrorist attack on the World Trade Center?  Or were there two, for a total liability of 7 billion?

Three and a half billion dollars hinge on this answer.  For more details, see this article.

It's a good six months from release but I thought I'd mention that Dark Horse Comics will be bringing out a "PVC set" of Groo characters.  These are little 4" tall toys made out of PVC polymer that come all painted and ready for display.  Matter of fact, most people leave them in the neat little box.  Sergio has done elaborate model sheets for the sculptures and we're expecting them to look real neat.  A few other Groo items will be released before '02 — the year of Groo's 20th anniversary, can you believe it? — is over.

• A Time For Outrage… by Richard Cohen, Washington Post
• …Especially From Republicans by George F. Will, Washington Post
• When Going Gets Tough, The Tough Shred by Daniel L. Schorr
• Bush to Lay: What Was Your Name Again? by Robert Scheer, Los Angeles Times
• Hold Your Horses by William F. Buckley, Jr.

And here we are, more links to comedians' websites…

• www.riptaylor.com — Rip Taylor
• www.richardlewisonline.com — Richard Lewis
• www.amazingj.com — The Amazing Johnathan
• www.cutitout.net — Dave Coulier
• www.jackiemason.com — Jackie Mason
• www.jonathanwinters.com — Jonathan Winters
• www.smothersbrothers.com — The Smothers Brothers
• www.rita-rudner.com — Rita Rudner
• www.emophillips.com — Emo Phillips
• www.gallaghersmash.com — Gallagher

And it's not up yet but I can't wait for www.irwincorey.org.

I have lots of talented friends.  I can't do much more than write silly stuff and cook turkeys in my George Foreman rotisserie oven.  But I have friends who can sing, dance, juggle…even sound like other people.  One who can do all those except maybe the juggling is the incomparable Christine Pedi, who is oft-referred to as "Christine Pedi of Forbidden Broadway."  She no longer performs in that show but when she did, she won raves for her uncanny carbons and burlesques of celebs like Ethel Merman, Liza Minnelli and Elaine Stritch.  (I saw her do Liza at least a dozen times over the years and watched the impression get broader and broader.  It's had to, since Liza is now doing an increasingly-broad imitation of herself and Christine has to stay ahead of the real thing.)

You can read a nice article about her that ran in The New York Times by clicking here and another piece on TheatreMania by clicking here.  And you can see Christine on your very own TV.  She's scheduled to do a number this coming Tuesday (January 22) on The Rosie O'Donnell Show.

Funny story how I met Christine: She was appearing in a production of Forbidden Broadway that was appearing at the Tiffany Theater here in Hollywood — an excellent company that included Brad Oscar, who is now on Broadway, playing Franz Liebkind in The Producers.  (That is, when he isn't filling in for Nathan Lane as Bialystock.)  I took a group of friends to the Tiffany to see the show — a group that included Stan Freberg and June Foray.  After the performance, which we all loved, Stan wanted to meet the cast and, of course, they all wanted to meet one of America's great satirists.  So we all massed in the lobby and when Christine met Stan, somehow the subject of his career doing cartoon voices came up.  She said she wanted to get into the field and Stan pointed to me and said, "That's Mark Evanier.  He does the Garfield cartoon show and he can tell you all about the business."

So she came over to me, introduced herself, told me that she was fascinated by the business and asked me what June Foray was like.  I pointed to the lady standing next to me and said, "She's exactly like that woman."  (I felt like Woody Allen: "I just happen to have Marshall McLuhan right here…")

A friend who works for The Game Show Network assures me that they are going to rerun the two episodes of Press Your Luck in which an unemployed air conditioning mechanic named Michael Larsen figured out a way to beat the "wheel" for over $110,000. And no, he doesn't know when they're going to do this. Says he, several options are being considered. He's guessing the decision will be made any day now. We can only hope.

Okay, first off, I want to point out how much the Enron logo resembles the Mad Poiuyt, an optical illusion featured many years ago on the cover of MAD Magazine.  You can draw your own connection in terms of both creating the illusion of something where nothing exists…or an impossible puzzle…or something like that.  Secondly, I want to say that I'm still standing behind my prediction that George W. Bush will escape from this, relatively unscathed…but I feel a bit less sure of that prediction than I did when I posted it.  The press and pundits, for whatever reason, suddenly seem to be pouncing on this one in a way that suggests that they won't let it go.  In a sense, it's already hurt Bush in that this and the pretzel incident have declared that it's once again okay to ridicule our current Chief Exec.

(How long before someone floats the question that the pretzel story was a contrived cover story to mask that Bush injured himself because he's drinking or doing heavy drugs?  If and when those jokes start, they'll be like Clinton dick references.  We'll never hear the end of them.)

A couple of articles have made me rethink this thing a bit, most notably those that suggest that Dick Cheney is being hidden (and is still stonewalling about his energy task force) because he's more enmeshed in Enron skullduggery than is currently known.  Naturally, this is just the rumor mill at work but lately, scandal-connected rumors have a way of becoming impervious to disproval.  There are still plenty of folks who are certain that Vince Foster was killed, that Hillary's using FBI files to blackmail her enemies, etc.  When Bush defenders say that no one can prove he or his close associates did anything wrong…well, that may be so.  I suspect it's so.  I also think the Clintons, Gore and others were injured by a lot of allegations that were unproven or were even disproven.

It may also be that the scandal of Enron will be that all the sleazy things that were done weren't illegal; that the company bought the necessary regulatory changes to allow a lot of practices that clearly should have been illegal.  This viewpoint is convincingly discussed in an article Scott Rosenberg wrote for Salon.  Most of it's in their "subscriber only" section but the Smirking Chimp website has reposted the whole thing where you can read it for free.  Here's the link.  This is the piece that has most caused me to think maybe this thing won't go away for a while.

You want to get a big reaction to something you write?  Just mistype the name of the man who did the voice of Jonny Quest's father.  The role was played at various times by John Stephenson and Don Messick but never by Mike Road, as I said in my article in the current issue of The Jack Kirby Collector.  Road provided the voice of Roger "Race" Bannon and I swear my brain knew that, even if my typing fingers didn't.  The error — reported to me by many, some in high dudgeon — mars an otherwise splendid issue of John Morrow's must-have mag for fans of Mr. Kirby.  This is one of those publications that I don't even have to plug since if you have even the slightest interest in J.K., you're already grabbing up every issue.  If you haven't and you want to, here's a link to the website for TwoMorrows Publishing, issuers of a number of terrific publications.

By the way, Roy Thomas's Alter Ego, which I also love, will soon be doing an issue devoted to the late, great John Buscema.  They'll be running the text of at least one of the panels I moderated last San Diego Con in which John participated.  The one we had with John, John Romita, Will Eisner and Mike Royer will probably turn up in The Jack Kirby Collector.

I've received a number of e-mails tonight regarding my position on anonymous posters on Internet forums.  (My apologies if I didn't respond to yours; I'm behind on a deadline.)  It might save us all some time if I clarify one point…

Freedom of Speech does not include any right to have a captive audience.  You can talk all you like but your First Amendment rights are in no way being harmed if I opt not to listen…or even if I announce that the sound of your voice disgusts me so much that I'm taking a hike.

I enjoyed participating in www.comicon.com and may drift back there someday if it seems to have regained an atmosphere more conducive to discussion.  I like the folks there (most of 'em, anyway) but I've decided that I no longer want to be a part of a community where anonymous posters drive the discussions into inane and angry directions.  Put simply, I've reached the stage where it doesn't work for me.

One e-mailer accused me of "taking my ball and bat and going home."  Well, first of all, it's not my ball or bat.  The forum can go on jes' fine without me.  Secondly, if you're not enjoying the game, I think you owe it to everyone — especially, yourself — to go home.  I'm home.  And if I have the sudden urge to get surrounded by angry people, I can always get the voice credits for Jonny Quest wrong again.  Thank you.

I enjoy the good conversation that one usually finds in Newsgroups and on chat boards like the one at www.comicon.com.  I have generally been able to tolerate the occasional clown who posts with the sensibilities of — and often, the same motives as — a 12-year-old making prank phone calls.  One of the problems inherent in public electronic communication is that those who post often think they're going over better than they probably are.  You often see debates where some guy is like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail:  He gets his arms and legs whacked off but he's too danged stupid to know it. (Actually, that's not the best analogy because, on discussion boards, such wounds are usually self-inflicted.)  Much of the problem occurs when a forum allows, as most do, its participants to hide behind handles.  Anonymity is a great empowerer of the craven, giving them the opportunity to hurl mud at real people (i.e., those whose identities are known and undisputed) who, in turn, can only return fire at phantoms.

I believe in always being polite and respectful to all who post.  If you do a Google Search on my old messages, I think you'll find that I always have been.  I am, however, beginning to feel that simple rules of courtesy need not extend to those who cower behind monikers; that in the electronic chatting community, they are and ought to be treated like second-class citizens.  The other day, a message on www.comicon.com attacking a friend of mine struck me as so egregiously rude and stupid that I found my breaking point.  I have withdrawn from that forum and decided to do likewise in any venue where such folks run too rampant.

The reaction, at least in my e-mail, has been interesting.  The rude messager is defending himself on two grounds, one being that I am somehow suppressing his free speech by taking umbrage and refusing to participate any longer.  This is, I'm afraid, an altogether typical response.  A lot of folks seem to think that the First Amendment means that they can post something stupid and no one else is allowed to say it's stupid and/or to refuse to listen.

His other defense is that he is functioning in the time-honored role of critic.  He compared himself to Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woollcott — both of whom, as far as I can tell, always wrote what they wrote under real names.  (They could both also spell.)  He accused me of being "thin-skinned," even though — in this case — I was not the one being criticized.  I wrote back to him that I've had my writing trashed by The New York Times and other such publications.  A badly-written slam by an anonymous crank on a computer forum is barely a gnat bite by comparison.  Really, I find his position indefensible and assume he will soon disappear, at least under that name.  Perhaps, when he starts over under another identity, he will be a bit more judicious.

None of this is an immediate call to action on my part.  I just felt I ought to write here about this change in my attitude.  I intend to continue to be civil and helpful to all, even the anonymous guys as long as they behave themselves.  But I've decided that hiding behind a handle does not show much respect for others and that, when such folks get abusive, they forfeit the right to be treated with any respect.  Perhaps if this approach becomes the Internet norm, more forums will be erected wherein the participants have to use their real names, thereby accepting responsibility for what they write.  It could only elevate the level of the discourse.