Hey, how do they make ice cream sandwiches?

Two other matters. My mailbox is jammed with messages from folks who want to know if I've heard that Steven Spielberg is making or may make a movie adapting the classic comic book, Blackhawk. Yes, I have. And since I wrote that comic for a while, they want to know what I think of this news.

I really don't think anything about this news that any fan of the comic book in any of its incarnations wouldn't think. If they proceed with the film, I hope it's good. There's a quote from me many years ago that has since been attributed to others and I want it back. It's "Never get possessive about characters you don't own." Yeah, I wrote Blackhawk. So have at least thirty other guys with many more to come. We all probably feel (or felt) we did it "right" at least in terms of a comic book published at the time we did it. That might or might not be the way to go with a movie made today…and since none of us get to decide that, I'm not going to spend the time to ponder that.

I hope it's good. That's my answer.

In other news: Remember that video I embedded of the Tachibana High School Marching Band from Kyoto performing at someplace Disney? This one? Well, Jeff Peterson writes to inform me — and I quote: "The Tachibana High School Marching Band visited Disneyland on December 29, 2017, just before their participation in the 2018 Rose Parade, the logo for which you can see on the tubas. The video you posted was taken on Main Street, at the intersection of Center Street, facing west. The eucalyptus trees in the background are original trees from the Anaheim orange groves, which now border the Jungle Cruise attraction."

Thanks, Jeff. That clears that up…but I still don't know why I'm up at this hour.

Just read about a half-dozen essays about James Comey, spanning a wide range of political viewpoints. I'm trying to decide for myself what I think of the guy and I think what I think of the guy at the moment is pretty much what Matt Yglesias thinks of the guy. Comey is a bit of a hero in that in the era of Trump, we need government officials who will say no to corrupt orders. And Trump is the perfect explanation of why we need that.

One key sentence from the Yglesias piece is when he quotes Adam Serwer…

"…the FBI is petrified of criticism from its conservative detractors, and is relatively indifferent to its liberal critics." And over the course of 2016, it showed — when Mitch McConnell wanted Comey to keep quiet about Trump and Russia, he did. When Trump-friendly elements among the rank and file wanted him to speak up about Anthony Weiner's laptop, he did.

Therein lies a lot of the reason why we have Trump in the White House. So it may be difficult for some of us to be glad there are/were people like Comey in our government. But at least he said no some of the time.

For another view of Comey, read Matt Taibbi. I'm not saying he's wrong; just that at the moment, I'm leaning towards the other Matt's characterization. Your mileage might vary as might mine as I think more about this. I'm also trying to decide why the hell I'm up this early.

Here's the uncut version of Stephen Colbert's interview with ousted FBI director James Comey. The cut version has yet to air in my time zone. If you haven't watched it yet, watch this version instead of that version.

You can and will draw your own conclusions about Mr. Comey. I'll just say that I think Colbert is a better interviewer than 95% of those who do this kind of thing on news programs…

Around two years ago, one could find on the Internet a lot of rumors that CBS was unhappy with Stephen Colbert's ratings and were fixing to either swap his time slot with James Corden's or dump him entirely. I never thought there was anything to those rumors other than that some people who didn't like his show just liked reading that it was doomed. But Colbert's still there and he's doing great. In fact, as this article notes, greater than anyone else on in that day part.

I like his show a lot, though I might like it a little more if he talked less about Trump and more about other things. But what he's doing is working fine so I don't expect a change.

I used to cook for myself from time to time but rarely do anymore. Apart from a severe Lack of Time, my urges have been killed by watching cooking videos online and realizing that I haven't the knowledge or patience to do it well. The unspoken subtext of every Alton Brown video to me seems to be "Everyone but Alton Brown is too dumb to prepare food properly." I actually like watching him in action because he's very entertaining, he does seem to know what he's talking about and once I see him make a meat loaf, I can tell myself "I don't have the time or skills necessary to make a meat loaf!" I rather enjoy being freed from feeling I should do that.

Lately, I sometimes watch Food Wishes videos from Chef John. Here he is telling you (a) how to make a ketchup at home and (b) why it's really, really stupid to make ketchup at home. This is the kind of cooking video I like: The kind where after you watch it, you feel really good about not doing it yourself…

Not long ago here, I had to report on the passing of cartoonist Lee Holley, who was best known for his comic strip, Ponytail. Lee was another one of those guys who did very fine work for a long, long time without getting a lot of notice. Our mutual friend Willie Ito sent me the following and I got his okay to share it with all of you…

I was absolutely shocked hearing of Lee. It was just last February that I was in Palm Springs and tried calling him for lunch. Unfortunately, the number I had was not the right number for Lee. I figured the next time I'm in P.S., we will connect.

Little known fact. I was responsible for Lee getting in the animation business. I was attending Chouinard and in T. Hee's cartoon class. Lee was sitting in the back of the room very quiet and seemingly out of place, especially since he was in his full white Navy uniform. He was just mustered out of the Navy and checking out the school. I approached him and started a conversation. He was very soft-spoken especially with a classroom full of rather hippy, Bohemian, oddly dressed cartoonists around. Even the instructor T. Hee was dressed rather unconventional.

I saw the drawing Lee was working on and was rather impressed. I asked to see his sketch book and I was blown away by it! I was working at Warner Bros. Cartoons at Termite Terrace at that time and although production manager Johnny Burton said he was not hiring any inexperienced artists, I convinced him to see Lee's portfolio. The rest is history. Lee was hired on the spot. He advanced very quickly and soon found himself in Friz Freleng's unit assisting Gerry Chiniquy, one of the premiere animators for Friz.

Lee and I became fast "cartoon" friends. We would spend the evenings at my kitchen table working on our own comic strip ideas. He was working on a teenage strip that looked very promising. I was freelancing for Petersen Publishing at that time and referred Lee to the editor of Teen Magazine. The strip was published as a two-page feature that brought great reaction. Meanwhile, Warner's would close up shop during summer vacation. Lee, who was from the Monterey area, went home but made a visit to Carmel Valley to visit Hank Ketcham.

When we all returned from our respective vacations, Lee confided in me that he'd gotten an offer from Ketcham to assist on the Dennis the Menace strip. Hank finally found an assistant he could entrust and he himself could move to Europe. Lee did the Sunday pages as well as the spinoff licensed merchandise. He worked at Ketcham's Carmel Valley studio by the swimming pool. That is where he acquired his love for sports cars. He had a little MG and later a red MGA and then a Porsche. It was the ideal car to tool around Carmel.

He would meet fellow cartoonists at the Cracker Barrel which was a hangout meeting place for local cartoonists who would show up in sports cars also. Lee tried to interest Post-Hall Syndicate, the syndicate for Dennis, in his teenage strip now called Ponytail. Post-Hall was a bit discouraging since Lee was now too important to Hank. Lee, being a bit discouraged, sent it to King Features Syndicate and they jumped at it.

Now Lee was faced with a dilemma. To sell to a competing syndicate was a big "no-no!" How to tell Hank, especially long-distance? Meanwhile, Post-Hall was up in arms and threatened to buy out Ponytail from KFS. They (Post-Hall) should have had first refusal. Eventually, the smoke cleared and Ponytail was a hit.

Lee and I were very close friends both socially and professionally. He had a getaway place in Palm Springs but his home was in Aptos, California. Unfortunately, Lee must have been flying to his home in Aptos when he crashed.

In a follow-up message to me, Willie wrote…

When Ponytail started, Lee found himself extremely busy. Post-Hall Syndicate needed a good healthy lead time on the Dennis Sundays also allowing for time to train a new artist. King Features needed a six-week lead before the launch on both the Sundays and dailies. With Ponytail, Lee drew and also had to write the strips.

During one of his decompressing breaks at the Cracker Barrel, Playboy's Eldon Dedini suggested he submit one of his cute "girly" cartoons to Playboy. It was any cartoonist's greatest dream. At Dedini's urging, Lee submitted a one page, color gag cartoon and he expected the usual reject or extensive creative changes. Much to his surprise, Playboy bought his first time out cartoon and a few months later, it was in print. The Cartoon Editor suggested he might consider being a regular contributor. Needless to say, much to Lee's reluctance, he had to decline.

He finally left Ketcham and his whirlwind career started. It wasn't too long before Ponytail was up to 300 papers.

Aww. I never met Harry Anderson but I saw him perform a number of times — at the Magic Castle and other venues. He was always slick, funny and able to send the audience out chuckling. I always thought it was interesting that he basically played two roles in his performing career. One was as an unscrupulous con man who would bilk you of your last greenback if he could get away with it. The other was as a judge.

To be truly great at magic, you need more than the ability to deal off the bottom of the deck or palm a coin or misdirect an audience's attention while you hide the potato under the cup. You need a talent for delivery and it's not far removed from the talent needed to tell a joke effectively. Most magic tricks have punchlines and like an expert comedian, you have to be able to time them just right. Mr. Anderson was an expert comedian and an expert magician and no one did a better job of intersecting those skill sets.

Kind of a busy week ahead, ending with the San Diego Comic Fest, which I expect to enjoy aplenty. But I have to get about ninety-three things done before I can get to it so don't expect to see a whole lot of me here.

The convention is a small one by the prevailing standards of comic book conventions in that city.  That's one of the things people like about it.  I also like the big one in July but for different reasons.  The reasons to like this one are the reasons it was founded…by a few of the folks involved in the founding of the other one.  It's not mobbed, it's not high-energy, it's not just about current product, it's not all about companies selling you that current product and a lot of it's about comic books, especially older comic books.

I will be hosting or appearing on six panels over its three days.  You can read the entire programming schedule here.  If you're anywhere nearby and the topics you see on that schedule appeal to you, you might want to come join us.  Which reminds me of another way in which this convention is different from the monsterpalooza in July.  You can still get into this one.

Also if you're in the area: Monday, April 23 and Tuesday, April 24, my oft-plugged-and-with-good-reason friend Frank Ferrante is performing his wonderful show at the North Coast Repertory Theater in Solana Beach — two evenings, two shows each at 7:30 PM. The theater (I just Google Mapped this) is 19.6 miles north of where the San Diego Comic Fest is being held.

Info and tickets may be found here. A bunch of my friends and I will be at the Monday evening performance, watching as Frank miraculously transforms himself into one of the greatest comedians who ever lived. I don't know how he does this but it probably involves witchcraft.

• Comey says Trump is morally unfit to be president. Trump says Comey was the worst FBI director in history. Let's just agree they're both right and neither of them should be holding public office.

This is the Tachibana High School Marching Band from Kyoto performing at someplace Disney — and boy, are they good. This is a Facebook video embed so you may have to turn the audio on…

Friends keep asking me what I think will happen with or to Donald Trump. That's right: They've gotten so desperate to figure out where it's all heading that they're asking the guy who writes the dialogue for Groo the Wanderer. There's a great credential as a prophet.

What I'm doing now is passing the buck. I send them to someone who seems wiser than I on the topic…and that could be anyone except Donald Trump. At the moment, I'm thinking your best prognosticator may be Adam Davidson. If what he says is true, you'd better get used to hearing the term, "Crime family."

For a limited time, BBC Radio has free online streaming of some audio productions they did of great Broadway musicals. For instance, you can listen to a recording of Guys and Dolls starring Mandy Patinkin, Claire Moore, John Challis and Anita Dobson.

Or Kismet or Sweeney Todd or Carousel. Mandy Patinkin is in the production of Carousel, too.

No, no…don't thank me for these links. Thank Shelly Goldstein who sent the links my way.

I keep getting calls and e-mails asking me about the revelations in the continuing drama surrounding Stan Lee, who probably never imagined that things would be so dramatic when he was 95. I've been reticent to write much about it for two reasons, one being that I'm not in touch with Stan at the moment. I'm in touch with a few folks who are and they tell me things are under control. Other reports say things are not, including some heartbreaking stories about Stan being unable to sign his name at a recent convention appearance without someone spelling it out for him.

One thing I can offer that may help a wee bit: I seem to have to keep reminding friends who are dealing with elderly people that getting old often means Good Days and Bad Days. Their health Monday may be very different from their well-being on Tuesday and neither may be indicative of the average. That would seem to be the case with Stan…Good Days and Bad Days.

My distance from it is one reason I don't want to get too involved. Another is that, at least from afar, it seems to me that there are already too many people involved and that reporting on rumors and on circumstances that change from day to day doesn't help. It probably just makes things worse.

A friend who's a psychologist and I were once discussing why Show Biz Marriages that end — marriages where one or both partners are famous — seem to always end in such anger and recrimination. He pointed out to me that, first of all, a lot of non-Show Biz Marriages end in similar pains and screaming. You just don't hear about those break-ups because you've never heard of and don't care about the combatants. Good point.

But he also said that once the break-up battles are being fought in the press, everyone thinks they're being defamed in front of the whole world and it's emotions times ten. It becomes ten times as difficult to pull it back and find common ground. People can't "unsay" things they said about each other in the media, especially in these days of Google Search and cached webpages.

It's probably too late for the Stan Lee matter to be moved out of the Glass House.  I tell myself that as I hesitantly link to, and therefore send more eyes to this article by Gary Baum in the Hollywood Reporter as well as this article by Ben Widdicombe in the New York Times. They don't just tell two different stories. They tell about eight. I'm assuming the truth may be in there somewhere but maybe not.

What I would take away from the two of them is that We Don't Know. Since it's None of Our Business, it doesn't bother me that We Don't Know but we don't and it won't make things any better if we pretend we do.

How do they make pineapple juice? Easy. They get a bunch of pineapples and they feed them into the glopeta-glopeta machine…