Monthly Archives: July 2003

Here's a review of Bob Kane's grave.

Years ago, working with a terrific artist named Will Meugniot, I did a comic book called The DNAgents. We always seem to be on the verge of reviving it but never quite do so. Maybe we should now that they've turned up in a trivia quiz in The New York Times.

I didn't mean to imply that the Quik Bunny was only invented when Quik turned into Nesquik. He's been around for a while. He even teamed up with Superman in a 1987 promotional comic, the cover of which is at left. This leads to intriguing speculations. There are few famous names, real or fictional, who who have not met Superman or at least met some other character who has met Superman. It's kind of like the Kevin Bacon game. Since Muhammad Ali, Albert Einstein, Adolf Hitler and John F. Kennedy all met Superman in one comic or another, they all must live in the same universe as the Quik Bunny. For that matter, I was once a character in an issue of Flash, and since Flash has met Superman, I live in the same universe as the Quik Bunny and if you've met me, so do you. It's one big happy reality.

And I probably shouldn't pick on the Quik Bunny, if only because his voice was — and still is, for all I know — supplied by a terrific actor named Barry Gordon, who was a rock of integrity when he was president of the Screen Actors Guild. Come to think of it, this means that everyone who was ever a member of SAG has a connection to the Quik Bunny and through him to Superman. Small world, ain't it?

Tom Shales says a lot of the things I feel about what talk shows have become.

Michael Kinsley and William Saletan each weigh in on the matter of the Great Uranium Fib — an important matter but not nearly as important as the renaming of Quik.

Did you know the Nestlés's people no longer make Quik? Jesus H. Christ. I stop buying a product and ten years later, they change it. They stick a cartoon rabbit on the can and rename it, "Nesquik." Who the hell wants to put something in their milk called "Nesquik?" With a rabbit on the can, no less. Quik was introduced in 1948, four years before I was. As soon as I was old enough to lift a utensil, my mother taught me how to shovel two heaping teaspoonfuls of the stuff into my milk and stir it until either it dissolved or my damn arm fell off, whichever occurred first. Usually, it was the arm because the mystic potion seemed to be made of plastic shavings and even when it did dissolve, it only made the milk taste a teensy bit like chocolate.

That is, unless you did what my friend Mike Hockee did, which was to dump in as much of the can as would fit in the glass, then chug-a-lug the rest of the Quik powder directly. Oh sure, I could have done chocolated my milk the easy way, the sissy way, with Bosco chocolate flavored syrup. But real men drank Quik — or at least, real men who weren't lactose intolerant. I'm not but somewhere around half-past puberty, I began to realize that the less dairy I had in my diet, the better I felt. So I gave up on milk (and therefore, Quik) and look what they've done as a result! In '98, they changed it to Nesquik, which isn't the same. It horrifies me that kids are now drinking the stuff and, worse, that somewhere there's probably some kid pouring it on a bowl of Trix cereal. That's a frightening combination of sugar, artificial coloring and cartoon rabbits on the package.

Bill Moyers interviews Jon Stewart.

This article discusses the ongoing disparity between what scientists believe and what the White House believes.

Don't ask. Just go read it.

If you'd like to see him in action, this webpage has a video interview with him and about a ten-minute excerpt from his act. Funny boy.

Mac King is a very funny magician…or maybe he's a comedian who does magic well. Either way, he does a small but fun show most afternoons at Harrah's in Las Vegas, breaking the long-standing Nevada tradition that says afternoon shows suck. His sure doesn't (and neither does the wonderful ventriloquist Ronn Lucas, who works afternoons over at the Rio). Mac is also a helluva nice guy as I found out when he and I guested on Paul Harris's radio show last year in Vegas — and he's clever, too. He was actually doing real magic tricks over the radio. Obviously, I'm a fan — so it's an honor to be able to direct you to his website.

A veteran is appalled at Bush's swaggering "Bring 'em on" and at the way his administration is treating servicemen. Here's the article.

Here's the weather forecast for San Diego this coming week. It basically says we're looking at partly cloudy conditions with areas of fog in the morning and at night. Highs 75 to 85 with a slight cooling trend kicking in (maybe) on Saturday. Lows 55 to 65 throughout. Here are a couple of tips…

If you're looking for a hotel at this late date, try Travelaxe. This is a piece of free software you download from their website. You tell it what city you want to visit and give it the dates and it then searches a dozen or so online travel agents and finds you all sorts of deals. The first time you use it, you'll see the advantage because it will show you wide discrepancies between what different agencies can do for you. Usually, the prices it ferrets out are cheaper than if you book through the hotel itself. This is a wonderful service to consult at any time, though it's probably most effective at times when a city isn't jammed and the travel agents are afraid of getting stuck with unsold rooms. Still, it may help you find something in San Diego. And if you fiddle with it, there's even a way to get Travelaxe to display its list of hotels in geographic distance from a given location.

Three or four blocks north of the convention (depending on how you count) there's a very large, well-stocked Ralph's Market. It's open 24 hours at the corner of G Street and 1st, and it's a great place to buy snacks, beverages, Tampax, Pringles, toothpaste, sandwiches or whatever you need. Every time I've gone into it in the evening, it seems like half the convention is wandering around in there. In fact, last year I actually found myself in a business discussion next to the frozen foods.

Parking at the convention stinks but there's an excellent shuttle bus system which is explained on this page of the con website. In fact, the whole con website is full of valuable info, including ways to get to the con that you probably didn't think of.

I have some other tips over on this page. But if you're new to conventions and in need of an introduction, I refer you to Thomas Reed, who's an old hand at these things. Over on his website, you can download an excellent, all-inclusive guide to attending a comic book or science-fiction convention, including travel tips and a lot of common sense advice.

Lastly, I'll be a nag about this and suggest you consult my list of the convention events I'm hosting. Most of them are shaping up to be great program items…and not at all because I'm moderating. (It's kind of the other way around. I claim the best events to host.) The Seduction of the Innocent panel on Thursday at 1:00 should be an amazing view of the book, Dr. Fredric Wertham and the Senate subcommittee investigation of comic books. We have rare video footage of the hearings and an interview that Dr. Wertham gave in 1966 which has never been seen anywhere since then. Al Feldstein, who was the man behind EC's horror and crime comics will be joining us to discuss the book and the footage — and even he hasn't seen some of the tape I've come across.

The Jack Kirby Tribute Panel (Friday at 11:30) will have some surprises you won't want to miss. So will the Quick Draw Panel later that day at 2:30. And the Cartoon Voice Panel (Saturday at 4:00) is going to be one of the largest gatherings ever of the top performers in the art of animation voicing.

And I should make special mention of the panel I'm hosting just before it — on Saturday at 3:00. Ray Bradbury, Forrest Ackerman and Julius Schwartz have collectively logged about 230 years participating in the world of science fiction and fantasy. Julie co-published the very first science fiction fanzine ever and its first issue featured the first index anyone had ever compiled of science fiction motion pictures. This list was compiled by Mr. Ackerman in 1932. Later, Julie became an agent and in 1941 sold Bradbury's first professional story. Last year, a packed house loved hearing just Ray and Julie reminisce. This year — with Ackerman added in — should be 50% better.

You can also consult the convention website and here you'll find a list of all the panels, including the ones I'm not moderating. But you'll only want to attend those when I'm not doing one.

I haven't caught Stan Lee's new animated series Stripperella yet. But like you, I've heard this report that a former stripper in Florida is claiming she came up with the idea and pitched it to Stan while giving him a lap dance in a local club about a year ago.

I know Stan pretty well, I think. The idea that he would go to a strip joint in Florida and get a lap dance strikes me as more incredible than anything he ever put in a comic book. Besides, what man ever really listens to an attractive woman while she's taking off her clothes?

This whole thing with Bush's State of the Union address and the bogus uranium story is amazing. I've tried to follow all the different scenarios and not a one of them makes a lick of sense. I think Democrats are being disingenuous to claim that the now-discredited info was a major reason for going to war in Iraq. But I also think the Republicans are being disingenuous to insist that because the head of the C.I.A. has taken the blame, the president is off the hook and the story is over. I don't know about you but I find the prospect that Bush knowingly lied less scary than the notion that he could actually believe such a serious report when so many people around him knew for months it was at least dubious, if not outright untrue.

I've never bought the notion that "I didn't know" was an acceptable excuse for the President of the United States, especially when it involves something as serious as Americans being sent off to fight and die. I didn't buy it when Lyndon Johnson told us the Pentagon had phonied up reports to him; didn't buy it when Richard Nixon said all the unethical deeds were committed by overzealous underlings without his knowledge; didn't buy it when Ronald Reagan and the previous President Bush claimed to be "out of the loop" on the whole Iran-Contra affair, etc. Maybe I'd have bought it if they'd fired and/or prosecuted the people who did all those criminal or foolish things behind the presidential back…but they never do, because those people really did not do anything they didn't want done, and might say so if they were cut loose. Is Bush about to sack George Tenet for allowing the Oval Office to believe and disseminate a discredited report? No, according to the New York Times, "President Bush said today that he retained confidence in Mr. Tenet and that he considered the matter closed."

I never thought the Clinton underlings who went out and repeated the "he did not have sex with that woman" denials really believed them. I doubt I'm going to believe the Bush backers who will now say "It was wholly Tenet's fault" really believe it, either. The name of the game here is not to get at anything resembling the truth. It's to give your supporters something to say so they don't look too stupid defending you.