This whole thing started with this post and it will probably end with the next one but I don't guarantee that.

As near as anyone can tell, Mike Sekowsky began drawing comic books in 1941.  He was eighteen years old and for most of the forties, his work could be found in Timely Comics, which was what they called Marvel back then.  For a long time, he worked in the "bullpen" (meaning "in the office") next to an artist named Chic Stone.  Stone told me Sekowsky was by far the fastest artist of the many who worked there and, in the opinion of most of his co-workers, the best.  He drew every kind of comic they published ranging from super-heroes to funny talking ducks.

Mike rarely liked to talk about those days so when I knew him, I didn't get most of my questions answered. I know he had a brother named George who worked there and elsewhere in comics for a while.  I also know that he'd put in a full nine-to-five (plus overtime) job at Timely and then at night and on weekends, draw for other companies.  For a decade or three there, he was one of the most prolific comic book artists who ever lived.

There are a lot of stories about Mike coming to the rescue of some other artist who was in terrible deadline trouble.  Joe Giella used to tell about the first time he got an assignment to ink a story for Stan Lee at Timely…

It was a six or maybe eight-page story someone else had penciled. It was my tryout for steady work if I got it in on time and did a decent job on it. I took it home to work on but somehow managed to lose it on the subway. It was never seen again. I tossed and turned all night, worried I had destroyed all chance of me having a career in comics.

The next morning, I went to Stan Lee and was practically in tears telling him what I'd done. He gave me another copy of the script and told me I had to now pencil and ink the story or I was through there. The problem was at that point in my career, I wasn't good enough to pencil the job. I was through.

Mike Sekowsky came to my rescue. He didn't know me and I didn't know him but he heard about the predicament I was in and he came to me and said he'd draw the story for me and he did. He penciled the whole job in just a couple hours. I inked it, Stan liked it and my career was saved. I told Mike that I'd pay him his page rate as soon as I could afford it but he said, "Forget it. Just do that for someone else who's in trouble someday."

But there are also stories about his fondness for alcohol and for women who were not his then-current wife. We needn't go into the latter but the drinking played a big part in his career in comics. He wasn't as good or as reliable when he was drinking.

Still, he always had work. In the early fifties, he began working for DC Comics. At any given time, DC had a number of editors and if, for example, you worked on Mort Weisinger's books, you worked on no DC comics except Mort Weisinger's. There were sparse exceptions to this and Sekowsky was one of them.

He worked for several at the same time, often on books in desperate deadline trouble. And of course, he worked for other companies. In the fifties, though DC gave him plenty to draw, he also turned up at Ace Periodicals, Atlas Comics (aka Marvel), Better Publications, Charlton, DC, Dell, Fawcett, Fiction House, Gilberton, Hillman, Lev Gleason, Nesbit Comics, Quality Comics, St. John Comics, Toby Press and Ziff-Davis Comics. He also ghosted at times on at least a half-dozen different newspaper strips.

Most of his DC work was for editor Julius Schwartz and whoever was editing the DC romance comics at the moment. When Schwartz needed someone to draw a new comic featuring Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Martian Manhunter and (occasionally) Superman and Batman, he turned to Sekowsky. No one else around then could or would draw The Justice League of America.

Fans at the time had mixed reactions. Generally speaking, they loved the comic but some wished it was drawn by an artist who drew prettier, more graceful super-heroes who looked more like they looked in their own books.  I kinda felt that way at first but came to appreciate just how good Sekowsky was at designing panels so they told the story. That included panels that required him to cram in a dozen or more characters. In one issue where the Justice League of America met their "Golden Age" counterparts, the Justice Society of America, Mike had to draw this panel…

Fourteen characters, one big caption and two big word balloons in one panel. And that was by no means the most challenging panel he was called upon to draw in that series. I really enjoyed that book. In fact, I really enjoyed most of the comics Sekowsky drew back then. He was especially good at giving his heroes weight and mass, and at making the female characters attractive and alive. I'm sure others preferred the way others drew Wonder Woman but I thought he was the best ever at making her both pretty and powerful at the same time.

He drew the Wonder Woman comic for a while, including a period when she no longer wore her traditional costume and the book bore only a slight resemblance to what William Moulton Marston had created back in 1941. Mike became the writer and editor of that comic along with others he drew. In the early seventies..  All was well at first but he began having loud and large fights with the management at DC.

Other staffers who witnessed the battles felt that most of Mike's problems were drink-related.  When he got mad, he drank and when he drank, he made everything worse for himself.  Soon, he was no longer a writer-editor there and could get only occasional penciling work from DC and a few other companies. He was having serious trouble making a living.

So what did he do?  He wrote a letter. I'll tell you about that letter in the next part of this.

Assuming Pete Hegseth doesn't resign and Donald Trump doesn't throw him under a speeding Greyhound Scenicruiser, Secretary Hegseth will be the third cabinet member to be impeached and removed from office.  At least, that's what Fred Kaplan says in his latest column.  A brief excerpt…

Hegseth has alienated many members of the armed forces, on many grounds. He came to Trump’s attention as a Fox News host who spoke out against the court-martialing of three officers on charges of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, arguing that war is about killing and that, therefore, the term war crimes is a contradiction. (Trump pardoned the three after he won, even though their crimes were so heinous that several of their own soldiers testified against them.)

And it can't happen to a nicer guy.

The national touring company of Boop! The Musical is in Hartford at the moment and it moves to Philadelphia next week. It isn't scheduled to hit Los Angeles — which is supposed to be its final stop — until next July. So I still have plenty of time to decide if I'm going to go see it.

Here's why I might not: It's a non-Equity tour, done outside the province of the actors' union. Everyone who goes to see live theater sees a great many non-Equity plays but those are little productions that do not command top ticket prices and are not done in the kind of theaters that host Equity-blessed shows. When Ms. Boop and her mobile extravaganza get to town here, it'll be at the Ahmanson, one of the two largest and most prestigious theaters in L.A. When it welcomes the touring company of a Broadway-type production, it's usually welcoming an Equity show.

Usually, that is. But recently, the Ahmanson housed a non-Equity tour of The Music Man while the Pantages — the other major theater for plays and musicals in L.A. — had a non-Equity production of Tommy. The former drew mixed reviews. Many attendees loved it but here's some of what the L.A. Times critic, Charles McNulty had to say…

The touring production of Meredith Willson's The Music Man that opened Tuesday at the Ahmanson Theatre isn't an Actors' Equity Assn. production. When I listed the revival, directed by Matt Lenz, among my fall preview highlights, I assumed it would be of the caliber we have come to expect from Center Theatre Group. I attended Tuesday's opening and was disappointed to find a community-theater-level production beneath the superficial sheen of a commercial national tour.

There is a case to be made for non-Equity theater, though it's probably better made regarding shows in smaller cities with smaller theaters. This recent article in The Los Angeles Times gives a good summary of the pros and cons. I can see both sides.

So will I go see Boop! when it comes to town? I dunno. And like I said, I have plenty of time to think about this.

This runs forty-five minutes but I found it worth my time. Maybe you will too. It's Dustin Hoffman discussing his most famous (or maybe challenging) film roles. I met Hoffman once at a screening of The Producers — the version with Zero Mostel — back when it was a difficult film to see. It had left theaters, it was rarely on TV and home video had yet to be invented.

After the film, a little spontaneous group formed in the parking lot — about six people plus Hoffman — talking about the movie and how close he'd come to playing Franz the Nazi in it. He was fascinating, holding court as he did. He had yet to make most of the movies he discusses in this video but he had much to say about acting in general and some of it is in this video. I think we all just hung out in that lot for about an hour.

One thing I noticed about him: I'm 6'3" and he was around 5'6". I had noticed that when I was standing, talking with someone shorter than I was, they'd sometimes talk to my chest, not wanting to look up. They were kind of in subtle denial that they were short and others were tall. Not Hoffman. When he addressed me, he bent his neck so we could make eye contact. He was not threatened by that even though he was a star of some magnitude and I was (basically) nobody. I think of that every time I talk to someone way shorter who wants to pretend we're the same height.

Anyway, like I said, I found this interesting…

La Orquesta Metropolitana de Madrid plays a song you all know…

All eyes now seem to be on Pete Hegseth and/or those who would oust him. John Oliver's show last night made a very strong case that such as ouster should have happened months ago. But if you're thinking Trump himself will order that, I refer you to Fred Kaplan and his latest column in which he says…

What Trump does with Hegseth depends in part on what he wants to do in Iran. If he resumes bombing, as he said he might do after the midterms, then Hegseth provides useful cover. If he decides not to restart the war, as he also signaled might be the case a few days before the election, then Trump needs someone to blame for what he would now acknowledge is a mistake. Donald J. Trump doesn't admit making mistakes. So Hegseth would take the fall.

I keep recalling — and I may already have quoted it here — Jackie Mason's great joke about Nixon during Watergate. "Every week, they caught him doing something illegal and every week, someone else went to prison for it!"

If you're curious as to why so many races from last Tuesday's election remain uncalled, here's a good, non-partisan explainer…

Here, in thirteen-and-a-half minutes, is how things went on Fox News last Tuesday evening…

I have a sudden flurry of e-mails asking pretty much the same thing that Vic B. wants to know…

Every year, I try to get tickets for the San Diego Comic-Con and every year, I fail. Can you please tell me the best way to do this?

Okay: The first thing you should be doing is getting ready for Open Registration. It takes place next Saturday, November 14.  Well in advance, read this page and do as it says.

If that doesn't work, you have a few other avenues. One that you probably don't want to use — but I'll tell you about it just because it is an option — is to purchase one or more Legend memberships to the Comic-Con Museum. It gives you many perks and privileges and each membership at this level gets you one (1) pass for the entire duration of Comic-Con. Alas, one costs $1900. Don't look so shocked. I told you you probably wouldn't want to do it.

At the other end of the expense spectrum is becoming a volunteer at the convention. You give them some hours, they give you a badge. I don't know how available this option is but some folks make good use of it.

Beyond that: Some folks gain admission by working with or for an exhibitor or becoming part of the programming. I have no idea how you'd hook up for that so I have no link to give you. But if you can arrange one of those connections, that'll get you in.

One thing I will caution you not to try: Buying badges on ebay or Stubhub or anywhere people offer alleged badges. They're often phony and even if they're real, they're non-transferrable.

Lastly, here's another option you might not like but a lot of people do. A lot of people have a great time in San Diego during Comic-Con without setting foot inside the convention center. Each year, there are more and more activities and exhibits and strolling cosplayers and things to see outside and in nearby facilities — no badge necessary. The San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog will tell you about some of them when we get closer to con time. That's also a good blog to visit for news about the con and they sometimes have valuable tips about attendance.

That's all I can tell you. Please don't ask for more tips because I don't have any.  Good luck!

My favorite movie — It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World — debuted at the Cinerama Dome Theater in Hollywood on November 7, 1963 so today is its birthday. I guess. I saw it on November 23, the day after President John F. Kennedy was murdered, at that theater. My parents and I joined a roomful of people who'd been off-and-on glued to their TV sets long enough to be in desperate need of a diversion, preferably a funny one. It was the right movie at the right time.

As you may have heard, the Cinerama Dome theater is being refurbished and will be reopened (they say) on some unspecified date in 2028. I hope they show Mad World, if not as their first film upon reopening, then soon after. The theater was built to show that movie so it would be appropriate. It's also the best possible place to see that movie. Once they announce they're showing it, hurry and get in line behind me.

If you have a subscription to The Wall Street Journal or feel like signing up for one of their free subscriptions that permit very limited access, you might want to read their article called "How Trump Lost the Midterms." It contains a lot of reasons, all of them probably valid to some extent.

I could add on a dozen more, mostly about Trump increasingly coming off as unstable and so untruthful as to raise doubts among even some of his most devoted supporters. Most of the reasons the article gives fall into the general category of Refusing To Listen To People Who Knew Better, especially about Iran.

For some time now, I've been sleeping odd hours, often wide awake at the computer in what to anyone else is the middle of the night. A few hours ago, lying in bed, I watched the weekly summary that The Daily Show posts most Fridays of its Monday-Thursday headline stories. Even though I watched that material when it was first telecast, it was interesting to me to see it in hindsight and condensed down into one 48 minute reprise.

I'm always impressed with the caliber of the writing on that program, especially when one considers how swiftly much of it needs to be created. An awful lot of it takes on extra meaning when watched later so I thought I'd link you to it. Jon Stewart's rant about pollsters was dead-on even though in this instance, the pollsters were pretty much on-target.

If you can spare the forty-eight minutes, it might give you an insightful perspective on the Election Day we all just experienced. If not, try watching it at four in the morning…

Avi Green wrote me to ask…

Hello, I'm a Pennsylvania native who now lives in Jerusalem, Israel, and I've looked at your site once in a while. I watched Garfield and Friends in my childhood, and I know about your Judeo-Christian background, which is why I decided now to ask for your "Ask Me Anything" category: have you ever visited Israel, and ever wanted to familiarize yourself with your heritage connections?

Come to think of it, have you ever wanted to visit Armenia as well? On the former country, where I live today, there are plenty of great sites you might want to visit, like Jerusalem itself and the Old City, Hebron's Cave of Patriarchs, the Galon Fortress, which was recently renovated, and even the Israel Museum in Jerusalem as well as the National Library. Why, come to think of it, if you ever decide to visit Jerusalem, you might even want to try riding the light railway system that's been in operation for 15 years now. And if you visit Holon, they have a cartooning museum located there that can be worth checking out as part of your own career in animation and comics.

So, have you ever paid Israel a visit, or would you want to for as long as it's possible?

Never visited any of those places, nor had any interest in that kind of travel. I could give you a whole list of reasons starting with my food allergies and my dislike of sitting in an airplane for more than a few hours at a time, as well as my complete inability to learn more than a few words of any foreign language. But really, I've just never had much interest in sightseeing or going to places I've never been just because I've never been there.

I keep getting and declining invites to comic conventions in the United Kingdom or South America and, once in a while, Asia. No, thank you. Not interested, especially now that I'm having trouble walking. I used to love going to Las Vegas and now I don't have the slightest urge to go there…and I don't see that changing.  But thanks for asking.

Fred Kaplan has an article up with the startling headline, "In a Shocking Update, Netanyahu's Main Opponent Is Joining With Two Arab Parties to Make a Government." Here's an excerpt…

Fast on the heels of Tuesday's mind-blowing American midterm elections, Israelis are forming a new government that seems hardly less astonishing — a ruling body for the Jewish state that includes Israeli Arabs.

Israel held its own national election last week, but it resulted in a stalemate. Neither of the two main coalitions — one helmed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the other by opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot — on a majority of seats in the parliament. Thus, neither could form a government. But there was one intriguing outcome in the vote count: Two Arab parties together won 19 seats — almost twice as many as the 10 seats they won in the previous election. If either Netanyahu or Eisenkot invited the Arabs to join his coalition, he would have enough seats to win.

Kaplan doesn't foresee a long life for any new government who might emerge from this marriage…but it oughta really shake things up while it survives. And might cause the end of Benjamin Netanyahu's time in power.

Sorry to hear that the online magazine Salon is shutting down. I've linked to many articles there and found many more that I enjoyed. They're apparently keeping the archives online indefinitely so you can still read what's there, at least for a while. Enjoy it while you can.