Monthly Archives: October 2006

I don't mean to change the subject from something truly important like who inked the panels that are going on Marvel Comic postage stamps. But Frank Rich has a good column this weekend on where we are with Iraq. Reading the whole thing at the New York Times site requires one of their TimeSelect subscriptions but I can quote these paragraphs…

It is also wrong to liken what's going on now, as Mr. Bush has, to the Tet offensive. That sloppy Vietnam analogy was first made by Mr. Rumsfeld in June 2004 to try to explain away the explosive rise in the war's violence at that time. It made a little more sense then, since both the administration and the American public were still being startled by the persistence of the Iraq insurgency, much as the Johnson administration and Walter Cronkite were by the Viet Cong's tenacity in 1968. Before Tet, as Stanley Karnow's history, Vietnam, reminds us, public approval of L.B.J.'s conduct of the war still stood at 40 percent, yet to hit rock bottom.

Where we are in Iraq today is not 1968 but 1971, after the bottom had fallen out, Johnson had abdicated and America had completely turned on Vietnam. At that point, approval of Richard Nixon's handling of the war was at 34 percent, comparable to Mr. Bush's current 30. The percentage of Americans who thought the Vietnam War was "morally wrong" stood at 51, comparable to the 58 percent who now think the Iraq war was a mistake. Many other Vietnam developments in 1971 have their counterparts in 2006: the leaking of classified Pentagon reports revealing inept and duplicitous war policy, White House demonization of the press, the joining of moderate Republican senators with Democrats to press for a specific date for American withdrawal.

That's why it seemed particularly absurd when, in his interview with Mr. Stephanopoulos last weekend, Mr. Bush said that "the fundamental question" Americans must answer is "should we stay?" They've been answering that question loud and clear for more than a year now.

Rich seems to think that right after the election, Bush and Company will not be so worried about seeming weak or appearing to reverse course and will hurry up the withdrawal from Iraq. The idea is that they will do everything they can to make it a non-issue before this nation (the U.S. of A.) elects its next president. I'm not sure why he (or anyone) thinks that but it's probably a nicer prediction than the one that has America making an all-out blitz to quickly "win" — in whatever way could be spun as a victory.

Martin Gately tells me that the art for the Wolverine stamp is from the first page of Giant-Size X-Men #1. This comic was pencilled and inked by Dave Cockrum…so that credit's right.

John Kowalchuk recognized the source of the Spider-Man portrait. It's from the cover of the book, Marvel: Five Fabulous
Decades of the World's Greatest Comics by Les Daniels and it was drawn by John Romita. So that one's right, too.

I've decided to be really anal and annoying about this. The new Marvel postage stamps (as discussed here) credit John Buscema with the Hulk image. Reader Joe Frank found its source. It's off the cover of The Incredible Hulk #200 and that cover is signed "Buckler & Romita," meaning Rich Buckler and John Romita. John Buscema had nothing to do with it.

And let's also notice that the Hulk has no stomach muscles in the stamp. This is because the drawing was clipped from that cover and someone had to paint out the image of Bruce Banner that was superimposed over the Hulk. But the person who took out that figure only partially completed the drawing to fill in the empty space…so the Hulk has non-washboard abs or whatever you'd call 'em. There are supermodels who'd kill for a tummy that flat.

Okay then. Let's review and correct the twenty stamps, starting with the ten that depict Marvel covers of the past…

• Amazing Spider-Man #1 (Credited to Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko) – I think they got this one right.
• Marvel Spotlight #32 (Credited to Gil Kane) – First appearance of Spider-Woman. Gil pencilled it but he sure didn't ink it and I'm not sure who did. Might be Klaus Janson. John Romita did a lot of retouching on it, however.
• The Incredible Hulk #1 (Credited to Jack Kirby) – Probably right.  Kirby definitely pencilled it and it looks like he inked it, too.  If he didn't, Paul Reinman did…but my money's on Jack.
• Captain America #100 (Credited to Jack Kirby) – Jack pencilled it and Syd Shores inked it. This is the famous cover where Shores got carried away and redrew Captain America's face in his own style…because, as we all know, Jack Kirby never knew how to draw Captain America. Marvel wound up taking a Cap head from an earlier Kirby/Sinnott story and pasting a stat in to put the hero's head back to Jack's style.
• Sub-Mariner #1 (Credited to John Buscema and Sol Brodsky) – They got this one right, probably because I identified Brodsky in an article I published some time ago. And I just have to say that I wish one of their two Sub-Mariner images was by the character's creator, Bill Everett, just as I wish one of their Spider-Man images was pure Steve Ditko.
• X-Men #1 (Credited to Jack Kirby) – Actually by Jack Kirby and Sol Brodsky.
• Daredevil #176 (Credited to Frank Miller) – Correct, I think.
• Fantastic Four #3 (Credited to Jack Kirby) – Kirby and Brodsky again.
• Silver Surfer #1 (Credited to John Buscema) – John Buscema and Frank Giacoia.
• Iron Man #1 (Credited to Gene Colan) – Colan inked by Johnny Craig.

And here are the ten that depict these characters in portraits…

• Spider-Man (Credited to John Romita) – I don't know where that drawing's from but it sure doesn't look like Romita inking to me. I'm not even all that sure he drew it unless it's John Romita, Jr.
• The Incredible Hulk (Credited to John Buscema) – As noted, this is from the cover of The Incredible Hulk #200 and it's by Rich Buckler and John Romita.
• Captain America (Credited to John Romita) – Again, as noted, this is from the cover of Tales of Suspense #59 and it's by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers.
• The Thing (Credited to Jack Kirby) – Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott, from an interior page of Fantastic Four #53.
• Spider-Woman (Credited to Carmine Infantino) – I don't think Infantino had anything to do with this. As far as I know, this drawing was done to be the corner cover box on the Spider-Woman comic series that started in '78. It first appeared on the cover of #1, which was drawn by Joe Sinnott, but I believe the corner box was the handiwork of John Romita. And you know, we wouldn't have to do most of this if Marvel had just shown these stamp designs to John Romita before finalizing them. He could have identified most of these and could even have drawn some stomach muscles on The Hulk.
• Sub-Mariner (Credited to Gene Colan) – This is a John Buscema drawing, a fact which Gene Colan himself noted this morning on the Gene Colan Mailing List. I'm going to demonstrate how much useless knowledge I have about old comics by telling you that it's from a unique 4-page pin-up section that ran in Fantastic Four #128. Ah, but that's not the real trivial part of the story which I'll post here tomorrow if I remember. Anyway, the drawing was pencilled by Buscema and inked by John Verpoorten.
• Silver Surfer (Credited to Jack Kirby) – Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott, taken from the mirror world and the cover of Fantastic Four #50.
• Elektra (Credited to Frank Miller) – Someone will need to double-check me on this but I think this is from a panel in Daredevil #168, my copy of which is in a box under another box behind a whole bunch of boxes. If it's from that issue, it was pencilled by Frank but inked by Klaus Janson.
• Iron Man (Credited to John Byrne) – I don't know this one but that looks like Bob Layton inking to me.
• Wolverine (Credited to Dave Cockrum) – It's Cockrum but it's either from a very fuzzy stat or someone else inked it. Does anyone know the source of this drawing?

For that matter, does anyone have any corrections to or arguments with my list? An artist's work appearing on a stamp is a very big deal. Some of the artists represented on the DC stamps called it one of the great honors of the careers. It would be nice to let the Marvel artists who are represented and/or their families have a thrill that has the proper names attached.

Fred and Barney selling Welchade Grape Drink. Alan Reed does the voice of Fred. The dinosaur's sounds, the dialogue by the vendor and the voice of Barney all come from Mel Blanc. More than that ye need not know…

Here's another report on last Saturday's CAPS Banquet honoring Jack Davis and some other guy who draws for MAD.

We have long since lost our sense of amazement that there seems to be no paying gig beneath the dignity of William Shatner. In fact, we have a certain admiration for the fact that the man doesn't take himself that seriously. In that sense, his new project should have much to admire.

David Letterman had Bill O'Reilly on last night in a show taped the previous Monday. If you didn't see it, I'll summarize: Dave was practically yelling at O'Reilly about the Iraq War and how senseless it seems to him to keep getting American soldiers killed for reasons that, to him, don't make any sense. Bill largely avoided engaging the host in direct terms, preferring to joke to the audience that their relationship wasn't as sour as it appeared; that they really went bowling together all the time. To the extent he responded, O'Reilly fell back on his old line of insisting that "geopolitics" are too complicated to be understood by anyone who thinks we could or should just pull out of Iraq. That was not a bad tactic, given how Letterman constantly jokes about how little he comprehends of what's in the news.

It's nice in a way to see David Letterman passionate about anything but if he thought he was influencing the opinions of any significant number of viewers, he's probably wrong. Telling O'Reilly — here's a quote — "You're putting words in my mouth, just the way you put artificial facts in your head" is funny but Letterman also brags that he's never seen O'Reilly's show or read his new book so the insult lacks a certain gravitas.

The bottom line, of course, is that both men got what they wanted. O'Reilly, who's very smart when it comes to moving product, got the plug for that new book and probably looked like a hero to his target audience for being willing to venture into enemy territory. Rush Limbaugh hasn't done that in years…and wasn't even any good at it when his opponents couldn't razz him about his drug use. Letterman got a promotable guest and better than his usual ratings. (He had a 4.0 compared to a 4.2 for a Tonight Show rerun opposite him.)

Anyway, nice to see my old pal Jeff Altman in the guest chair after Bill. I couldn't help think that they consciously decided they had to follow a guest Dave clearly despises with one that he loves. Jeff tried a story about a time he and Dave went to a guy's house so that Jeff could see an old car he might purchase. The telling of the anecdote got a little awkward as Jeff, apparently on the spot, decided he'd better not mention that the fellow selling the car was Jay Leno.

To view a video of the O'Reilly segment (and a fact check on what little Bill did say, as scored by an admittedly Liberal site) go here.

Last year, as reported here, the United States Postal Service announced (and earlier this year, issued) a sheet of postage stamps featuring ten characters from DC Comics. I almost typed "properties from DC Comics" because the images were obviously selected with merchandising considerations in mind. Many fans wondered why one hero was selected over another, and the answer is that at any given moment, the company has reasons to promote one hero over another. Some of those would include making sure the heroines are represented, which is not a bad reason.

To no one's surprise, a pane of Marvel stamps has just been announced for 2007. No specific release date is given in the press release you'll find if you scroll way down this page, but I'm guessing it'll coincide with that year's Comic-Con International in San Diego. One hopes that Marvel will do what DC did, which was to foot the bill to arrange the presence of the artists who are still with us and whose work is depicted on the stamps…or at least, as many of them as were able to attend. In Marvel's case, it won't be as many.

Before they can do that though, we have to correct some of the artist identifications on the press release…and these names are also being printed on the obverse side of the stamps. They have a Sub-Mariner portrait credited to Gene Colan when it's actually by John Buscema. They have a Captain America portrait credited to John Romita when it's actually by Jack Kirby. (That one's off the cover of Tales of Suspense #59, which was done years before Romita came back to Marvel.) I think the Spider-Woman drawing is Romita not Infantino and the Hulk drawing — I'm not sure where it's from — may have been pencilled by John Buscema but the linework and face are definitely John Romita. Some of the cover images are credited to both penciller and inker and some only to the penciller. Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia and Syd Shores are therefore among the uncredited. It would be nice to get these right, especially if Marvel's going to spring to get some of these folks — the few who are still with us — out to San Diego.

Also, continuing with my complaints, the art has not been treated well. The ten cover drawings have been squished to fit the stamp proportions. (This was done with the DC stamps but it was not as overt.) Also, there's an art oddity in there…and yes, I know this is quite trivial. The Silver Surfer stamp is a flop. I don't mean it's a failure. "Flop" is the term when a drawing is flipped mirror-image. In this case, it's the cover of Fantastic Four #50. Years ago, someone pulled the drawing — by Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott — and flopped it to fit some specific composition in an ad or piece of merchandising. It's been used and re-used over and over since then and no one's ever bothered to flip it back or to return to the original. The drawing works that way, of course, but it's a wee bit off in subtle ways.

Lastly, since I'm being an unrelenting kvetch here, I'll complain about one more thing. Marvel has routinely employed some very talented letterers and there are also many wonderful fonts out there that replicate great comic book hand lettering. There is also a very common, awful font called Comic Sans that no one would ever use in a Marvel Comic because it's so ugly and sloppy. Whoever designed these stamps used Comic Sans for the new lettering.

Dan Kravetz sent the following, which is in reference to this item from the other day…

It is correct that Welch's grape products had nothing to do with Robert Welch, who founded the John Birch Society. The Welch's Candy company had little to do with the JBS, either. Robert Welch had been employed by his brother James O. Welch, who owned Welch's Candy, until he retired in 1956. He founded the JBS in 1958. Welch's Candy was acquired by Nabisco in 1963, ending any possibility that consumers of Junior Mints and Sugar Daddies might have been helping to fund the JBS.

Actually, I never thought consumers of Sugar Daddies could do much of anything. The only time I tried one, it tasted like sweet tar and I couldn't get my jaw unstuck for about nine hours. What an awful candy. I could never understand why anyone would buy that when the same stores sold Krackel bars, Peanut M&Ms and Butterfingers. (And watch: I'll get more angry e-mail about my taste in candy bars than I do about my views on the Iraq War.)

It seems odd to write of having a "good time" at a memorial service. I mean, you're in a room filled with people who are only there because of the death of a loved one.

That said, we — his friends — had a good time last Thursday night at the memorial service for Lennie Weinrib. It was fascinating because the speakers ran the gamut — from a gentleman named Tony Monaco who gave Lennie his first acting job…to actor Alan Oppenheimer, a longtime friend who visited Lennie in Chile just two weeks before Lennie died. Sid and Marty Krofft spoke about their long association with Lennie, which even predated their first TV series, H.R. Pufnstuf. (Lennie co-wrote that show and did half the male voices, including that of the title character.) Billie Hayes, who played Witchiepoo on that show, talked about Lennie. Jackie Joseph, who appeared with Lennie in the famous Billy Barnes Revues, talked about Lennie. (Jackie was there with her ex-husband, Ken Berry, who was also in some of those shows.)

Our pal was also remembered by producers (Bonny Dore) and writers (Paul Pumpian) and directors (Wally Burr) and actors (Eddie Carroll and Edie McClurg). Gary Owens spoke eloquently of his friend, Lennie. I suspect Gary could describe a cockfight and sound eloquent but in this case, his affection and respect for Lennie came through loud 'n' clear. A number of Lennie's other fellow voice artists were also present, including June Foray, Bob Bergen, Gregg Berger, Greg Berg, Phil Proctor and Neil Ross. But of course, the most important speaker was our hostess for the evening — and a talented vocal performer, herself — Lennie's first daughter, Linda.

(The Weinrib bloodline seems to have talent chromosomes in it. Linda's kids are following the tradition and Lennie's two daughters in Chile, Grace and Heidi, seem to have it, too. Grace is a successful painter. Heidi has a fine singing career going and was recently a finalist on a Chilean program not unlike American Idol.)

Linda told a wonderful story about her father that I'd heard but forgotten. When Lennie enrolled at U.C.L.A., he was pursuing what was then his goal in life: To become a doctor. He had already begun medical training when, one day, he met a fellow student — a red-headed lady who was there to study acting. She invited him to see her in a play and he did. It was that evening, Linda says, that her father had an epiphany. As she put it, "He realized that you could also make people feel better by making them laugh." A few days later, Lennie switched majors and not only joined the red-headed lady in many of her classes but he became her scene partner, often performing with her.

The red-headed lady couldn't make it to the memorial service but she sent a lovely floral arrangement and a note about how much Lennie had meant to her. Linda didn't find out it was from her until after the ceremony so she couldn't mention it. But if you were there, you might be interested to know that the biggest bouquet was from Carol Burnett.

Before I forget, I'd like to thank Stuart Shostak, Vince Waldron and Earl Kress for helping me whip up a video overview of Lennie's TV and movie career. I'm thanking them the best way you can thank people on the Internet: I've linked their names to their websites.

When I got home — and it took a while because no one wanted to leave — I found an e-mail from a friend of Lennie's. It said, in essence, "I'm not going to be there because memorial services are about death." I suppose some are…but this one was about life. It was a life that ended too soon, true…but it was still quite a life. I hope you heard what we all said, Lennie. I'm not sure if you were in the room but I know you're still somewhere on the Internet.

Okay, here's what I don't get. Dick Cheney goes on a radio show and…well, here. Here's how The New York Times is reporting the matter…

The White House found itself fending off questions on Friday about what Vice President Dick Cheney meant when he agreed with a talk-radio host that there was nothing wrong with dunking a terrorism suspect in water if it saved lives.

Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, said Mr. Cheney was not endorsing water-boarding, a coercive interrogation technique that simulates drowning and that many have said qualifies as torture. Mr. Snow said Mr. Cheney was not, in fact, referring to any technique, whether it was torture or not, because administration officials do not discuss interrogation methods.

Maybe I'm dense here but the White House position seems to be as follows: Let's say there's a terrorism suspect. Let's say he has some information which we must have in order to save lives. So what do we do? We don't torture him. We dunk him in water in some manner that does not constitute torture and this gets him to spill his guts.

Pretty wimpy terrorists if you ask me. We put them in a dunk tank, seated on that little plank, and start lobbing softballs at the target. And they yell, "No, no! Don't get me wet! I'll tell you whatever you want to know!" Maybe all terrorists think they're witches or something.

If what we're doing to these people so terrifies them that they betray their cause, isn't it — almost by definition — "torture?"

William Saletan discusses Rush Limbaugh's response to the Michael J. Fox ad. In a day or so, I'll post some of the comments I've received but in the meantime, Saletan has an interesting view of it all.

Sadly but not unexpectedly, we now have confirmation of the passing of veteran comic book and animation creator Don R. Christensen at the age of 90. Chad Frye, the president of CAPS, spoke to his daughter a few minutes ago and called to let me know.

I don't know if most comic/animation fans reading this can imagine the length and breadth of the man's career. Don was an animation storyman at Warner Brothers (Bob Clampett called him one of their best) before he began doing comic books. He produced a staggering number of scripts for Western Publishing's Los Angeles office, working on all the major Disney, Warner Brothers, Walter Lantz and Hanna-Barbera comics. He's easily one of the ten most prolific writers the medium has ever seen.  He was also a very nice gentleman.

Someone who knows not of time zones woke me up at 6 AM to ask if I could confirm the death of Don R. Christensen, the prolific comic book writer (and occasionally, artist) for Western Publishing Company and other firms. And this wasn't even a magazine or newspaper calling. It was just a devout fan of Disney Comics who couldn't wait another minute to know. He'd sent me an e-mail at 4 AM my time and when I didn't respond in two whole hours, he decided to phone. A number of other folks were content just to write and to not expect us to be checking the mailbox here, 24/7.

All I know, I'm afraid, is that one Italian-language Disney site is reporting that Don passed away on October 18. I found this out by checking Tom Spurgeon's fine news site, The Comics Reporter. The Italian site just says that Don died and there's no explanation of how and where they learned this. Since Don was born in 1916, one tends to assume a report like this is true but I think I'd like a more direct source, preferably in English, before I leap wholly to that conclusion.

And the next time someone wakes me up at that hour to ask me anything, I'll post an obituary about them. And then I'll go make it accurate.

Live or dead (and I'm still hoping for live), Don was one of the great talents in the world of animation and "funny animal" comics, and one of my favorite people when he lived in Southern California and I fraternized and occasionally worked with him. He authored countless scripts for the Dell Comics and Gold Key Comics produced by Western Publishing Company, including Magnus, Robot Fighter and one of my all-time favorite specials, Donald in Mathmagic Land. Don was also Western's "go-to" guy when a comic book required that puzzle pages be designed, plus he authored dozens of non-comic kids' books for the outfit.

Because people are always making the understandable mistake, let me remind the comics/animation community that there have been two separate and unrelated men named Don Christensen in the cartoon business, along with a Don Christiansen — who also was not the same person. The Don Christensen of whom I write here is Don R. Christensen, who sometimes signed his work as "Don Arr" or "Don Arr Christensen." He is not the Don Christensen whose name you'll see in the credits of old Filmation cartoons, although Don R. did do a few brief jobs for that studio.

Of course, if anyone has any solid info on his current health or lack thereof, please write. Or phone at a decent hour.

Here we have an "in-show" commercial from The Flintstones that has Fred (Alan Reed) and Wilma (Jean Vander Pyl) hawking Welch's Grape Juice, which was one of their sponsors. Jean also did the voice of Pebbles.

As a kid, I was an enormous fan of The Flintstones but this did not cause me to down large quantities of Welch's Grape Juice. All products of the Welch's company were verboten in our household. Why? Because a very wealthy man named Robert Welch had helped found The John Birch Society, which was a reactionary political group. I guess it's still around but you don't hear much about them these days. Back in the sixties, however, they seemed to be all over California and the TV news, with their crazier members demanding that the U.S. drop a couple of atom bombs on Moscow.

Robert Welch made his fortune from candy products he'd invented, including the Sugar Daddy, Sugar Babies and Junior Mints. He and his company were apparently unconnected to the Welch's Juice Company but most people didn't know that. It was a pretty common misconception among my family's circle of friends and I'm certain I saw it stated as fact in several newspapers. Anyway, we didn't want any of our cash going to the Birchers so Welch's products were not on our shopping list. I didn't particularly want to eat any of them but for a time there, Welch's Grape Jelly came in great looking Flintstones glasses and it was sad not to be able to drink my milk from one. Years later when I found out that we'd boycotted the Welch's grape product people under false assumptions, I wanted to run right out and see if the markets had any grape jelly with Fred and Barney on the jars but I was about fifteen years late. Sigh.

Here's that commercial…