July 28-30, our friend Misty Lee is doing her terrific new magic show at the El Portal Theater in North Hollywood.  How do I know it's terrific?  Well, first of all, it's Misty and everything she does is terrific.  Secondly, she invited me to a rehearsal and I saw the hard work and sheer creativity that's going into it.  Do not miss this because it's heading for other venues and she may not do it here again for a long, long while.

Misty is one of those people who can just plain annoy you with her versatility.  She acts, she does cartoon voices, she has a line of perfumes and colognes, she conducts seances at the Magic Castle…frankly, I'm not convinced that there's only one of her.  I think there's a neatly-cloned bevy of charming over-achievers.

And remember this: MISTYLOVESME.  That's not a brag on my part.  It's the code you'll type in to get a 10% discount on tickets you order from this site.  I'll be there for the first performance on Friday night, July 28, which is not far off.  If you don't like great magic, just come and enjoy looking at Misty's bevy of stunning lady assistants.  Here's a little peek at one of the rehearsals…

Donald Trump is historically unpopular. I'm real curious why anyone might think he's going to be able to reverse this. And I always think that any president's approval rating contains a lot of people in his party who really don't like the guy and wish he'd quit and go away, but they feel they have to support him because they don't want to give any ground to the opposition party.

Republican politicians including Trump have vowed that their medical plan would take care of people with pre-existing conditions. Oh, it'll take care of them all right. As Jonathan Chait notes, Health and Human Services secretary Tom Price isn't even pretending that that's their goal anymore. The goal now is to put those folks back where they were before Obamacare: Priced out of the insurance market and unable to get any.

If John McCain were uninsured, the surgery he's having now would cost $76,000 — or more than most people make in a year. Also, it's worth noting that the need for the surgery was discovered during a routine check-up. When health costs get bad, the first thing most people do is to skip routine check-ups.

Leonard Pitts Jr. doesn't think we should be asking what's wrong with Trump. He thinks we should be asking what's wrong with us?

This year's Comic-Con International is about hundreds of things but two biggies are remembrances of Jack Kirby and Will Eisner, both of whom were born 100 years ago. Here's a nice article previewing these themes for a newspaper audience.

Sorry to hear of the passing of one of America's great actors, Martin Landau, at the age of 89. Obits like this one will tell you all about his acting career but they'll gloss over his first career. Mr. Landau started out to be a cartoonist and had great success in that field before deciding to try for another.

As you'll see below, Landau drew for newspaper strips, not comic books. At one point though, the belief spread across fandom that he had done the many comic books signed by an artist named Ken Landau. I had met both men so I kept debunking the story that there were one and the same and finally, back when I was writing for Comics Buyers Guide, I decided to settle it once and for all. I contacted Martin Landau and in October of 1998, did the following brief interview with him…

ME: Did you ever draw a comic book in your whole life?

ML: No. I loved comic books, of course. I loved strips and I loved comic books. I remember buying the World's Fair comic in 1939 with Superman, and I still have my copy of Famous Funnies #1. But no, I never worked in comic books, as Ken Landau or any other name.

ME: Do you remember what comics you liked? Books or strips?

ML: Well, Will Eisner was my favorite. The Spirit. He was the best of what we called the "wrinkle artists." These were the guys who drew a lot of folds in clothing and had a lot of texture in their work. Caniff was my other favorite. Those guys…they could create an entire movie on the page. Eisner's work was amazing. I've never seen a storyboard artist in Hollywood who could be as cinematic as what Eisner did on The Spirit. Is he still around?

ME: Still around, still drawing. I see him every year at the San Diego Convention.

ML: Well, when you see him, tell him Martin Landau loved his work. I don't know if that will mean anything to him but he was a terrific inspiration, not just to me but to everyone I knew who drew back then.

ME: Your main experience in comics was with Gus Edson on The Gumps…

ML: The Gumps, exactly. I started working at the News in New York doing illustrations in '47…or maybe it was '46. I was working for them while I was still in high school. Gus had a fellow working with him before me named Sam Hale. He was an old United Features cartoonist and he left. So after I'd been at the News for a few years, I became Gus's assistant. I started off lettering and doing backgrounds and in just a few months, I was drawing whole strips by myself, usually the Sunday page. Gus had a continuity on Monday through Saturday but the Sunday page was an entity unto itself, and he eased me into doing it. At first, he'd write it and maybe rough it out but pretty soon, I was doing the whole thing. I did it for about a year, maybe a little longer.

ME: At the time, did you envision moving on to your own strip some day?

ML: That was the goal, yes. That's what everyone wanted.

ME: But you got interested in acting instead?

ML: Eventually. I started getting that interest and I had to pursue it. But while I was at the News, I loved hanging out with the cartoonists. Some of them worked in the building and there were others who lived out of town but they'd come in once a month or every few months. I had a cubicle for a time right next to Bill Holman. Do you know his work?

ME: Smokey Stover. I have one of his originals on my wall.

ML: Marvelous stuff. Bill was quite a guy and he worked very hard. He had the worst eyesight of anyone I ever knew who made their living with their eyes. He had these Coke bottle glasses — they were the thickest lenses made and even with them, Bill had to get down, with his eyes about two inches from the Bristol Board in order to draw. You know, I have a few originals here. I have a few Terry and the Pirates by Caniff. I loved that work. I was heartbroken when George Wunder took it over. He was one five-hundredth the artist Caniff was. I have a bunch of Edson's Gumps strips, of course. I have a Smitty. I liked all their work. I loved Herriman and Roy Crane…Wash Tubbs. And Winsor McCay, especially.

ME: Do you still draw? When was the last time you drew something for publication?

ML: I draw from time to time. I was drawing this morning…I had a few minutes. I paint. I sometimes do caricatures. But no, I haven't drawn for money since — I don't know — around '51, which is when I left the News.

ME: So we can say with some certainty that you are not Ken Landau the comic book artist.

ML: As far as I know, no. I never drew for comic books. But you know, I had this happen before. When [the nightclub] Studio 54 was open, there was some altercation with some of the people involved. Some fellow who was mixed up in it told the police and told the reporters that he was my brother. They called me and I said, "I remember sisters around the table at home. I don't recall any brothers." I don't recall being Ken Landau the comic book artist, either.

I did convey Martin's regards to Will Eisner, who was very pleased to hear that Landau fondly remembered his work. Will asked me, "Do you know if he was any good as a cartoonist?" I said, "I don't know…but he couldn't have been that bad if he was drawing the Gumps Sunday page at age 22 or so."

Eisner said, "Then it's a shame we lost him to acting. There are a lot of great actors around but we could use more great cartoonists." I'm not sure fans of Landau's acting would all agree.

D23 is going on this weekend. This is an annual convention that the Disney company runs for fans of All Things Disney and there are enough of them to stuff the Anaheim Convention Center to overflowing. The name, in case you're wondering, works like this: "D" for Disney, "23" for the year Walt founded the company in 1923.

I've never been to one of these. Every year, someone associated with the event calls a month or two prior and asks if I'm available to host a panel or two down there. I say yes. They say, "Great! We'll get back to you" and then, as I've come to expect, no one gets back to me…which is fine because I didn't expect them to. Were I not so busy at the moment prepping for Comic-Con (getting work done, writing premises for Quick Draw!, finishing my Harley Quinn cosplay costume, etc.), I might have accepted an invite to go as an audience member just to see this.

As mentioned, the Disney organization has named Jack Kirby a "Disney Legend." See here to read why I am pleased with this and not offended because, you know, Jack really didn't do any significant work for Disney. Since I met the King of the Comics in 1969, it has nagged at me so much that this wonderful man — wonderful as a creative talent, wonderful as a human being — was not properly recognized for his contribution. Most people knew he was a great artist but not nearly enough knew that it was rarely a matter of him drawing up someone else's ideas. Mostly, he drew his own or elaborated and expanded wildly on what he was given. I'm not sure Jack was even capable of just drawing what someone else thought of without adding in a whole lot of Kirby.

He did not live to see proper recognition for his work but we pretty much have it now. It may take time to propagate throughout the community but as you'll see in the video below, the folks who own the Marvel properties now speak of Jack as a creator or a co-creator. In fact, in some of what they've issued, it feels like they're making a special effort to say it as a way of flushing out old misconceptions. I cannot tell you how happy this makes me. It's like someone came and removed a little, unnecessary weight on my brain that's been sitting up there for decades. (I feel the same way when I now see Bill Finger's role in Batman being acknowledged. It's a smaller weight because I barely knew Mr. Finger and don't feel the same personal debt to him…but it's nice to have that one gone, too.)

This is video taken from the audience of the video shown at D23 about Jack. Some fans of his are upset because a few of the images of the characters are drawings not by Jack. That would be wrong if he was only being celebrated as an artist but he's more than that. He is, as he always was, a creator or co-creator. That contribution is reflected in a John Buscema drawing of the Silver Surfer. There's Kirby in any image someone draws of the Silver Surfer.

After the video, there's a lovely, perfectly-executed speech by Jack's son Neal, who was classy enough to offer the family's condolences to Stan Lee's family for the recent loss of Joan Lee. Stan was present to accept his own Disney Legend proclamation, which pleases me because of my belief that when one loses a loved one, one should get on with one's life and not be overcome by grief. His speech was a little shaky and is being faulted by some for some factual confusion…but come on. The guy is 94 and he just lost his life partner of 69 years. If ever there was a time to overlook getting his dates wrong, this is it.

As steady readers of this blog are aware — yes, there are such people — I spent much of the last few years and the first three months of this one caring for a dying loved one. I can't identify precisely when I knew that Carolyn's breast cancer would be fatal but I sure suspected that well before the doctors said it had evolved into other forms of cancer in other parts of Carolyn. I recall an extended period when at my most optimistic, all I could muster was "It may not kill her but dealing with it is going to be a 24/7 concern the rest of her life."

Then things got worse. A lot worse.

If you've lost a loved one in such a slow, painful manner you know that you tend to serialize your sense of loss. The saddest part may not be the absolute end. In many cases, there's actually a sense of relief that it's over and that the suffering of your friend/relative has ceased. Sheer honesty might even compel you to admit that you're relieved some of yours has ceased as well. You might feel guilty — or think you should feel guilty — but I think it helps to acknowledge that.

This time, I'm writing about an aspect of losing a loved one that I'm sure must be covered in some books and studies but I've never seen that. This is just something I've observed and if the topic makes you uncomfortable, which it might, I suggest you just skip the rest of this posting. It's about the temptation to prolong mourning because of the special treatment you receive from it. People cut you all kinds of slack when they know you're recovering from the death of someone close to you.

One editor of mine didn't read about Carolyn's passing on this blog. He found out about it because a script I promised to have in at a certain time wasn't in at that certain time. That caused him to call and say, "This isn't like you. What's wrong?" I told him and he immediately apologized — like he'd done something wrong — and said, "Just get it done whenever you can." He still takes that attitude with me.

That may actually be the way more editors should be with the folks who write or draw for them. They do not always need the material when they say they do or even when they think they do. But he is now telling me that for the wrong reason. Carolyn's problems are no longer inhibiting my ability to get my work done. If I'm late now, it's me. Still, I have people talking to me like I need extra consideration and some suspension of the rules because I've been through a traumatic experience. I can see where a lot of people would enjoy that.

When I was younger, I worked for a number of months for a guy who had bill collectors in constant pursuit of him. He had dozens and dozens of creditors, many of whom never saw any or all of the bucks he owed them. He mismanaged one business after another and created a domino principle of debts. Company A would crash and burn, leaving him with oodles of bills he could not pay. He would start up Company B and this one would flounder because as money came in, he would have to divert most of it to paying down debts from Company A he was unable to evade. At some point, he'd start Company C to raise the capital to try and make a go of Company B…and this would lead to Company D and Company E and eventually letters of the alphabet that even Dr. Seuss never imagined. Not one of them, at least before I fled his employ without being paid all he owed me, succeeded.

Some people kite checks. This guy kited companies.

He got away with a fair amount of it because he could tell people that his mother had just died. She hadn't. In fact, telling someone that would usually remind him he hadn't called her lately…so after he explained to some creditor that he was behind because of his mother dying, he'd call Mom to say hello. More than once, he lost track of who he'd already lied to. He'd inform some bill collector that his mother had just died only to have the collector say, "You told me that nine months ago. Haven't you buried that poor woman yet?"

It was a great excuse…a kind of "Get Out Of Jail Free" card he could use to gain forgiveness for almost anything. I experienced a little of that when my mother died (really) and a lot more since Carolyn passed, not that I've used my card.

It's important to me to move on, to put it in the past — not the forgotten past but the remembered kind — and return to whatever normality I can manage. This is not a moral stance so much as a personal one. It's just better for me.

It's also what Carolyn would have wanted. I know that because I knew her but also because I can't imagine who would not wish that for their loved ones. That is, if they were sane and their loved ones were truly loved ones. And yet I am well aware that there are those who lose a relative or close friend and proceed to wallow in grief and depression for a long, long time. Some feel guilt for things they did or didn't do. Some think that if you loved someone, that's what you have to do: Show yourself and everyone how miserable you are without them.

And some of them seem to enjoy it. They enjoy the attention and support. They enjoy others asking, "Is there anything I can do for you?" They enjoy the "Get Out Of Jail Free" card when they fail to meet obligations.

Two things made me think about this and inspired me to write this piece. One is that since Carolyn passed, I've received calls from several folks in the world of medicine who treated her and now they're checking to see how I am. They seem pleasantly surprised when I tell them I'm doing fine. I miss her terribly but I haven't let that get in the way of doing things I need to do.

One nurse who worked in palliative care and who knows what I do for my dubious living asked, "Are you writing anything?" I told her I'm writing everything I'm supposed to write and then some. She said, "Good. I've known writers who saw a death in the family as an excuse not to write." I can sure understand that. I've known writers who, if they were out of their favorite potato chips, thought that was a perfectly rational reason not to write.

Also, two weeks ago in Vegas, I was walking through Caesars Palace and I overheard one sentence from a woman strolling with some male acquaintance. I don't know what came before or after this sentence but I clearly heard this sentence…

"Be nice to me. I'm still getting over Mom's death."

Frankly, I think you should be nice to people all the time. If you know they're under stress or have too many problems, you can avoid adding to the pile just then…and if that's what the woman meant, okay. I get that. But the way she said it — and the fact that they were out in a vacation paradise at the moment, not in an Emergency Room or some other kind of crisis center — made me feel that was not the case. I think she just thought she had a little privilege going because her mother had died.

A phrase I've come to dislike in politics is "Get over it!" Like, "Trump won! Get over it!" Or "The Supreme Court just ruled our way and not yours! Get over it!" That's not the same thing as "Someone died! Get over it!" A death is a finite, arguable thing with no chance of reversal. Court decisions can be reversed. Elections can be viewed as flawed and the process can be fixed. With deaths, about all you can do is to get over them and it's wise not to make it take a long time. Reconfigure your world to work as much as it can without the departed person around…but as for the basic loss? Get over it. No matter how much you cared about the person, get over it. Even if it means people treat you like everyone else and you have to start meeting deadlines.

• Has Trump gone one day in office without doing at least one thing that Republicans would have condemned had it been done by Barack Obama?

The wonderful wisecracks of Chico Marx and his writers…

I will be a guest at the Baltimore Comic Convention, which happens September 22-24 at the Baltimore Convention Center in, of all places, Baltimore. This will be the first time I've been to a convention on the east coast since 2008. I'm not sure what I'm doing there yet but a panel or two about Jack Kirby seems likely.

There was no Trump Dump today and I'm going to see if I can hold off all weekend. I find myself trapped between my duty as a citizen to remain informed and my increasing desire, every time I read what that administration is doing, to block all internet sites except mine and the ones that just display baby panda videos.

Wasn't Richard Turner great on Penn & Teller: Fool Us last night? It reruns many times this week so try and catch it if you haven't yet. He was the first act.

Hey, does anyone in or around the Los Angeles area want a few crates of old Penthouse magazines? They sent me the thing to me for free for like a decade and a half and I need to clear them out of my storage space.

Lastly for now: I continue to get ready for Comic-Con in the hope that Comic-Con is getting ready for me. I urge you if you are attending to take the time to visit the convention website and do a little prep work. Jot down the program items you want to see. Figure out where you're going to eat and where, apart from the main hall, you're going to wander. Make note of the booth numbers of exhibitors you want to visit and get a sense of which portions of the hall are mostly likely to have the exhibitors who interest you. If you care mainly about old comics, you shouldn't be wandering around amidst the videogame companies looking for antique funnybooks. A lot of the complaints I hear about Comic-Con flow, it seems to me, by not knowing where to find what you want. You should especially download the Quick Guide. The convention you want to attend is probably in that building someplace. You just have to do a little planning to find it.

When Sam Glanzman died earlier this week — at the age of 92, not 93 like I initially said — I hope he knew how many fans he had. Judging by my e-mail and the reaction on the Internet, he sure had a lot of them — an impressive feat for a guy who never, in more than five decades in comics, drew Superman or Batman or Spider-Man or any of the classic super-heroes. I think people liked the power in his work. He drew mostly strips we might think of as "manly" and he never prettied things up. His soldiers looked like they were actually fighting a war.

Of course, he knew what that was like. Been there, done that. His autobiographical combat tales were some of the best "war comics" ever, even the stories that in no way touched on weaponry or killing.

One of Sam's friends and benefactors, Drew Ford, has brought a lot of that work back into print or at least Kindle. I highly recommend U.S.S. Stevens: The Collected Stories and that link will not only get you a copy of the book but you can click on Sam's name and find your way to other books of his work. I favor his wartime experiences over his fantasy heroes but it's all fine, fine work.

You can tell how hard he labored over his pages even when, as was not uncommon, the pay rate was way low compared to the value of what he did. This was true of most of the men of his generation when they worked in comics. Some of today's readers, when they come across a comic they don't like, leap to the unfortunate insult that the work was "knocked out for a paycheck" and that the artist was a hack. ("Hack" is one of those words that is used with so many varying definitions that it's practically worthless as a descriptor. I often am not sure what people are trying to say when they use it.)

It has been my observation upon meeting so many comic creators of that era that it was true of amazingly few of them. There were a number of artists whose work I didn't like who, I came to realize, worked like hell on what they did and cared passionately about what they handed in, regardless of the paycheck. That did not always result in comics that I thought were good but it would have been wrong to dismiss the material as something that some guy just banged out for the money. I learned to respect the effort even if I couldn't always respect the output.

With Sam, it wasn't necessary to separate the two. Every panel showed a lot of thought and a lot of time. It wasn't always pretty…but then when you're drawing stories of life and death and brutality and battle, "not pretty" is utterly appropriate. I never had the pleasure of having one of my scripts illustrated by Sam but he was exactly the kind of artist I liked to have get those assignments. People sometimes speak of great comedians who get every possible laugh out of a script. Sam got every possible moment of emotion and drama and humor.

He was also the kind of creative talent adored by his editors, and not just because the pages arrived on time. The other day, I received this e-mail from Don J. Arneson…

I was the Comic Book Editor at Dell Publishing in the '60s. Sam was arguably the best illustrator I had the privilege to work with. His historical accuracy and personal commitment to his art produced exquisitely detailed illustrations that are the most memorable of all the artists I worked with. I am deeply saddened by his death. I wish to extend my condolences to Mrs. Glanzman. I no longer have any of Sam's art, but their memory remains locked in my own life and mind as simply the best.

Don included his phone number in the e-mail so since I'd never met him, I rang him up and we had a lovely, long conversation, much of it about how terrific Sam Glanzman was. Mr. Arneson worked with some superb illustrators at Dell so his evaluation of Sam as the best he had is no small praise. I thought it was important that I share that with you.

A baby and a dog. Sent to me by Peter Cunningham…

Links? We got 'em…

• William Saletan examines what was on the mind of Donald Trump Jr. when he agreed to the meetings that have confirmed collusion. The answer basically is "nothing."
• Fred Kaplan on how easily Trump is manipulated. When Donald was elected, a lot of us thought, "Well at least he's a skilled negotiator." He's proving to be even worse at that than I was at age 10 when I traded away my beloved Sandy Koufax baseball card for five of unknown Philadelphia Phillies.
• Kevin Drum notes that the infamous towering, impregnable 2,000 mile wall Trump swore he'd build is being scaled back. It may turn out to be a few yards of side-by-side croquet wickets.
• Sarah Kliff explains the latest version of the Republican Health Care Plan. It's another attempt to simultaneously please G.O.P. senators who want to cover as few Americans as possible and G.O.P. senators who are afraid they won't get re-elected if that happens.
• Amy Davidson Sorkin on the problems that Republican senators and congressfolks have in opposing Donald Trump. They can't get re-elected if they lose Trump supporters and they sure don't want to have a solid Republican challenger.

Nate Silver's website says Trump now has 55.0% disapproval and 39.3% support. I wonder how many on each side will never budge, no matter what happens.

Just what we needed: A new controversy in this country. Steve Whitmire, who has played Kermit the Frog since the death of Jim Henson in 1990, is being replaced. Mr. Whitmire is not happy about this and says that the folks who have the power to make such a decision had two issues with his work, though he does not say what those two issues are. He also suggests that he was blind-sided by their decision and that he did not have a chance to discuss remedies prior to their decision.

I know nothing more about this than you do. I thought Whitmire did as fine a job in the role as anyone possibly could. The few times I've met him, he seemed like a nice fellow who was very, very happy to have the job and one who was well aware of the awesome responsibility that came with it. The fact that he has gone public with his side of the matter suggests to me he is not afraid to have the two reasons become public knowledge, though unwilling to reveal them himself. So I dunno what to make of it…

Recently, Senator Al Franken did a six-part mini-show for the Funny or Die people called Boiling the Frog with special guest Dave Letterman. I embedded Part One a few days ago and Part Two last night and was going to embed Part Three today and so on…but instead I've set them up so if you click below, all six should play in sequence. I think…

A thought keeps nagging at me: As long as Donald Trump is president, it's going to be like this. No matter how long he occupies the Oval Office, he is never going to become Presidential. He is never going to be a unifying force. He is never not going to be under the shadow of scandal, criminal wrongdoing and deeds that Republicans would insist were impeachable offenses had they been done by a Democrat. That's just who the guy is.

Maybe you already figured this out but I'm just now starting to feel foolish at being shocked by any of it. It's like being upset when a dog takes a crap on your lawn. That's what they do. Here are some links…

• Kevin Drum summarizes a newly-emerging alleged abuse of power: Did Trump or his aides make a deal to settle a $200 million dollar money laundering crime for a measly six million in exchange for possible dirt on Hillary Clinton? You know that song, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas"? I keep hearing it playing in my head, only it's "It's beginning to look a lot like Nixon."
• As Ed Kilgore notes, Obamacare is a lot more popular than anything Republicans have offered up to replace it. And most voters — including a surprising number of Republicans — don't want to see it repealed. They want Republicans to work with Democrats to make it work better. But you know, the crazies will explode if it isn't repealed so it has to be repealed. (By the way: I don't quite get polls about how many people want it to be "repealed and replaced." Doesn't it matter to any sane human what you replace it with? I'll bet I could design a health care plan that even the most Obama-hating politician would think was worse than keeping Obamacare.)
• Frank Rich thinks that Republicans will abandon Trump in droves as we near the next big Election Day; that the new Republican Health Care plan is in a death spiral; and that we have a new "Saturday Night Massacre" in our future when Robert Mueller gets close to indicting members of the Trump administration.
• Dylan Matthews describes for us what Trump's idea of a tax cut is. Guess what kind of people get almost all of the benefits. Guess real hard.
• As Heather Long notes, people who used to be optimistic about the U.S. economy are scaling back their expectations. If Trump can't make businesses feel better about the future, he's really not good for much of anything, is he?

If you were wondering if Trump-bashing was the reason Stephen Colbert's ratings are up, know this: Last night's guest appearance by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski gave the show its best ratings in two months. Wonder how many of those viewers stuck around for the musical appearance at the end by Scarborough's rock band. Hard to believe the man could be worse at anything in show business than he is at hosting a morning show.