Monthly Archives: May 2009

One of my "pet" issues is stopping the exploitation of the young and aspiring by entrepreneurs who seem (sometimes deceptively) to be in a position to make their dreams come true. In the field of cartoon voiceover work, we have a lot of folks out there who are offering "coaching" and lessons and access to agents, and kids who yearn to follow in the voicesteps of Mel Blanc and June Foray flock to them. Some charge reasonable rates and do their charges much good. But some charge them a fortune and deliver little of value. One way to separate the latter from the former is that the former often turn down potential students as lacking sufficient talent. The sleazy kind never seems to turn away anyone who has sufficient cash, no matter how little promise they may show.

Artists get scammed in different but no less scummy ways. Lately, aspiring or outta-work animators are being solicited to enter "contests" in which they labor for free on projects which may or may not ever amount to anything…and if successful, may or may not reward their volunteers. The terms might as well say, "We get everything, you get nothing except what we decide to give you." That's not good for an artist's wallet, career or soul. (Last time I pontificated on this subject, I got an e-mail from a self-proclaimed "enterpreneur" who insisted there's nothing wrong with gambling and he pointed out that I once spent a lot of time playing Blackjack. I wrote back to him that, first of all, I didn't bet my career on Blackjack, and I was also playing a game with clearly-defined payoffs if I won.)

Lately, Amid Amidi over at Cartoon Brew has spotlighted a couple of these cases of getting kids to work for free by calling it a contest. Here's one and here's another. Amid and I have friendly disagreements about many aspects of the cartoon biz but we're on the same page on this one. And I fear that with the economy zooming about like a well-greased luge ride, it's only going to become more prevalent.

The L.A. Times, a newspaper with declining sales, on the declining market for newspaper comic strips.

One of the great things about the Internet is that it brings people together. For years, I was aware of a fine TV writer named Mark Rothman. He worked on a number of successful shows, including The Odd Couple, Laverne & Shirley and Happy Days. Once in a while, someone even got us confused because, as we all know, all comedy writers named Mark might as well be the same person. We had many mutual friends but we'd never met.

We met over the Internet…and earlier this year when he started a blog, I recommended you visit it. He's a funny guy and he tells a good story. Many of you have written to thank me for sending you his way.

This afternoon, we finally met in person…over lunch at Nate 'n Al's deli in Beverly Hills. This is more or less the natural habitat of two Jewish comedy writers. He had the chicken liver plate and he squished his carrots into the mashed potatoes. I had a half a corned beef sandwich on rye and a cup of chicken noodle soup, and then I got a "to go" order which I took to my mother. I figured you'd all want this information.

We swapped stories and discovered that we knew even more of the same people than we'd previously thought. I had a great time and it reminded me to mention the following here: If you aren't going to Mark Rothman's blog, you're missing a lot of great show biz anecdotes and observations.

Conan O'Brien (who I think cut me off the other day on Barham Boulevard) is prepping to take over The Tonight Show with Jay Leno shifting to a 10 PM show. Lynn Hirschberg takes a look at how Conan's getting ready.

Last night, I had the sad chore of putting up an obit for my pal Vince Davis, who among his many other credits was the producer for several seasons of Garfield and Friends. I couldn't find a photo of Vince but Norman Quebedeau, who was one of the many fine artists who worked on that show, sent me this one that he took in the office. That's the Vince Davis some of us remember…and will never forget. Thanks, Norm.

Those "I'm a MAC, I'm a PC" ads with Justin Long and John Hodgman are often very clever. I don't know if they ever sell any MACs but they're very clever. Right this moment, there's one on the home page of Salon that is quite entertaining.

I never know how to phrase what I'm thinking now about my pal Vince Davis, who passed away on May 6 due to kidney failure. I'm sorry to lose Vince, who was a great guy and a great cartoonist. I'm not sorry that he's out of pain. The last few years, his life had only been about fighting to stay alive, checking in and out of hospitals, wasting away physically and emotionally. I'm told his wicked sense of humor remained intact until a few months before the end, when even that part of him failed. After that, there was no real reason for him to stick around.

Vince was one of those quiet talents, working in animation and on the occasional comic book project, never calling attention to himself, sometimes not even signing his work. He did some wonderful work for Bill Spicer's Graphic Story Magazine in the late sixties. In the early seventies, he was in a few underground comics. Mostly, he worked in animation, working his way up from layout and design to directing and producing.

He produced the last few seasons of Garfield and Friends, which was the first time we worked together after several decades of friendship. He was very good at his job, though he had one failing. He was a soft touch (usually) when he was approached by someone desperate for work…someone he knew needed a job but maybe wasn't up to the demands of the assignment. So he'd hire them anyway and when they handed in something unusable, he'd just redo it himself, even though it added many long, uncompensated hours to his work week. (Vince, I should mention, was not related to Garfield creator Jim Davis. This did not stop someone on an animation website from claiming he got his job through nepotism. No…he got it because he was good.)

I could write a lot more about Vince but there's no way I can top what animator Mark Kausler wrote about his and my pal. Go there. Read a lovely tribute to a lovely guy.

I must have a dozen photos of Vince in my files but I can find none of them tonight. Instead, I decided to illustrate this with a panel from "Comic Book Fans," a three-page comic book story Vince created around 1972. It was a harsh but loving slam at those of us who wallow in funnybooks…written and drawn by an admitted wallower. That's Vince in the above scene, annoying Bill Spicer. The story struck a note with fans of the day and it was reprinted in several magazines and issued as a huge poster that was literally wider than Vince was tall. I just read it again and it made me smile, partly because it reminded me of myself but mostly because it reminded me of Vince.

Several of you inform me that the unintelligible word in the song "Caldonia" is "mop." This, of course, raises a new question, which Randy Skretvedt already addressed in an e-mail to me…

That's the word, clearly audible in both the Louis Jordan and Woody Herman recordings. Just why they say "mop," that's a question for the ages. Probably for the same reason that dissonant post-war jazz (ugh!) was called "bop" and contemporary music is called "hip-hop." Not to forget the Ames Brothers' hit "Rag Mop," and a Louis Armstrong number of the late '40s called "Mop Mop."

Enough with Mop, Bop, and Hip-Hop; I'll stop with this slop before I pop. Or before you call a cop.

Okay…Randy isn't sure. Anyone else have an idea?

The other day (in this post), I said that whoever sent me the largest tip could name a topic and I'd write something here on that subject. I got a lot of nice small-to-medium gratuities from you folks — thank you kindly — and one huge one from a gent who seemed to have earned the right to tell me what to write about. So I contacted him and asked…and his request was that I write something here about what a great president George W. Bush was, how the Iraq War was a stroke of genius, how the nation is so much better off because of Bush 'n' Cheney. Based on past e-mails this gent has sent me, I came to the conclusion he wasn't kidding.

I took it as a challenge. I decided to write a little piece about the positive accomplishments of the Bush administration and all the great things that will surely come out of our invasion of Iraq…and you have to believe me that I tried. I don't hate those guys but I think they did a really, really bad job of doing everything except enriching the upper class at the expense of everyone and everything. I've been trying for two days now and I've spent way too much time on it and, well…

I just sent the guy his money back. That amazes me as much as it's probably amazing you at this moment. I really thought I could be bought and I'm amazed to find out otherwise.

So the "contest" is open again with the following rule change: The top donor can name a topic for me to write about but it can't be about the wonderfulness of George W. Bush or anyone like him. If you'd still like to send me a tip via PayPal, you can do so via this link. If you don't get to name a topic, you'll at least get the warm glow of knowing you helped me buy weird stuff off eBay.