Monthly Archives: May 2003

A gent named Jim Pruett purchased the home in which Johnny Carson lived as a child and is now auctioning it off on eBay. If you don't want to spring for the whole house (bidding starts at $150,000), you can bid on a piece of plaster or wood from the place.

I don't think much of most books about how to write and/or draw comic books. Some have been spectacularly narrow in their viewpoints, either because the author lacked even a basic range of experience or was only interested in getting new people to work the way his company then preferred. It's like if a book on how to cook chicken spoke only of frying and didn't mention that maybe there are other methods, one of which might better serve your interests and skills. Avoidance of this tunnel-vision is one reason that I like the new series of books that my pal Nat Gertler is issuing, publishing comic book scripts for all the world to see.

Another is that in the celebration of the art form, the contribution of writers is too often misperceived or just plain ignored. Yet another is that in his recently-released second volume, he has a script of mine — a plot, actually, for an issue of Groo the Wanderer. This book is called Panel Two, and it's the follow-up to (you guessed it) Panel One, which is also quite wonderful. I suspect a wanna-be comic book writer could learn more from these books than all the others ever issued on the subject. There are intros that explain a lot of the process but the true education comes from seeing how different people do it, and that no one form or approach is "correct." Here's a link to a page that will tell you more about them…or you can just rush to your nearby comic shop and plunk down cash.

I do not recommend trying to make one's career in the comic book business these days. It is not a healthy field in which to invest the kind of creative energy and passion that is usually required to break into a new line of work, and I think it will get worse before it gets better. But if you're dead-set determined to write comic books, Nat's books will show you how. Or better still, they'll allow you to teach yourself.

I think (note the emphasis) I now have this weblog configured the way I want it. And since I'm getting e-mails asking how I liked Movable Type, I thought I'd answer here: I like it fine. Weblog software is a little different from the kind of software one employs to craft a plain, ol' website. For those who don't know, you design a normal site on your computer and then upload its finished pages to the server. With weblog software, you design templates — pages with everything on them except the daily postings — and insert codes where the postings are to go. You upload the templates and then as you write your entries, they go into an online database which constructs the web pages as per the templates. Any time I feel like writing an entry, I can pop up a little window on my desktop, compose that entry (as I'm doing now), hit "post and publish" and — POOF! — it's up on the website. Movable Type inserts the date and builds the archive pages and handles the removal of old messages from the main page as they scroll off. There's more to it than that, of course, but not much.

Constructing the page and getting all the codes formatted was an interesting challenge. The documentation for Movable Type is not as clear as I might have liked but the folks over on its Support Forum are sharp and helpful, and they told me how to do that which I could not figure out on my own. So far, the software has performed without error so I'm happy. Will I remain happy with it? Tune in here for future messages — and not just ones about Movable Type. If there are future messages here about anything, then I'm probably quite happy with Movable Type.

The Discovery Channel is running a show that asks us to — and I quote: "Celebrate the science behind the superpowers and gadgetry of comic book super heroes and heroines. Investigate real-life cases of super-strength, x-ray vision and speed, and discover the scientific feasibility of high-tech superpowers." It airs tomorrow (Sunday) at 9PM and Midnight, but check the schedule to make sure.

Frank Rich writes about the Broadway show, Gypsy — the current version and all that have preceded it.

The other night, Game Show Network's Black and White Overnight ran a What's My Line? from 1957 with a 27-year-old man named Thomas Eagleton as a contestant. His "line" was that he was the District Attorney from St. Louis…but not for long. He soon became Missouri's Attorney General and then its Lieutenant Governor. In 1968, he was elected to the United States Senate and then in '72, he was (briefly) George McGovern's running mate. How odd to see him years before on a game show.

One of my favorite character actors was the late, great Jimmy Finlayson — the only man to ever steal scenes from Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Among Fin's many comic talents was an amazing capacity for double-takes that sometimes graduated to triple-takes and even quadruple-takes. He was a great "reacter," which made him the perfect foil for Stan and Ollie. Often, when one or both did something stupid or outrageous, he would give out with a loud, painful "D'oh!" His cry lives on in the vocabulary of one Homer Simpson as this article relates. [Warning: Beware of annoying pop-up ad. It's enough to make you go "D'oh!"]

I've just been reading the reviews of the new version of Gypsy starring Bernadette Peters. It's one of those times when you really get to wondering if all those folks who saw the same show were watching the same show. Ken Mandelbaum says of Ms. Peters, "Because she's not a natural powerhouse, she must push extremely hard in the dialogue and the glorious Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim songs, and she sometimes runs out of steam from all the effort." On the other hand, Andrew Gans says, "…this Rose shines, seduces, scares and shatters." On the other hand, Howard Kissel headlines his review, "No Gypsy in Her Soul" and says, "Peters still is too much a kewpie doll to be plausible as the stage mother who, in her sick drive for success, makes her daughter a stripper."

On the other hand, Ben Brantley (He's The New York Times) says, "Bernadette Peters delivered the surprise coup of many a Broadway season in the revival of Gypsy that opened last night at the Shubert Theater." On the other hand, Charles Isherwood (he's with Variety; link not available) says, "The controversial casting of the downy-soft Bernadette Peters as the flinty Momma Rose proves to be, as many had feared, a miscalculation that all this talented performer's hard work simply cannot overcome." On the other hand, Michael Kuchwara says, "There's a steely quality here that Peters gets with icy accuracy, a single-mindedness that really defines who Rose is."

And so on and so on. Some thought she and the show were terrific. Some didn't see Momma Rose on the stage. The wide range of views is, of course, the norm. Opinions, after all, are just opinions. But these struck me as more conflicted than usual. Eventually, of course, I hope to see for myself.

Stan Lee is among the guests tonight on Jimmy Kimmel Live. By the way, Mr. Kimmel's ratings have improved a bit lately. I'm no longer hearing rumors that the network is discussing what they might put in his place.

Good article by William Saletan about how George W. is attempting to pass victory in Iraq off as victory over the folks who flew the planes into the buildings.

Photo historian Kevin Walsh runs a superb website called Forgotten N.Y. which is full of pictures of fascinating places in New York. All of the site is recommended, but especially a new page called A Spy at the House of Moe. Yes, it's Moe of the Three Stooges and his brothers. Thanks to Larry Steller for pointing the way.

Michael Kinsley on how Republicans once demanded a Balanced Budget and now want nothing of the sort.

MSNBC correspondent Ashley Banfield ticked off her bosses and a few other folks with this speech she delivered recently about news coverage of the war in Iraq. That alone makes it well worth a read.