Sorry I haven't posted more lately. I spent today in a recording studio directing the first three shows of the second season of The Garfield Show, an animated series I work on which runs in many countries. America, I hear, will soon be one of them. We had a fine cast today. We have our regulars — Frank Welker (as the cat), Gregg Berger, Wally Wingert and Jason Marsden. We have our semi-regulars — Audrey Wasilewski, Julie Payne, Laura Summer and David L. Lander. And today, we had as guest stars, Stan Freberg, Laraine Newman and Jack Riley.
Whenever anyone asks me the secret of directing cartoon voices, I tell 'em it's easy. Hire a cast like that, tell 'em which microphones to use and get out of their way. It's hard work but enormous fun. Having grown up listening to Stan Freberg records (and having purloined much of my sense of humor from the man), I still find it a little unbelievable to be working with him.
Anyway, that kept me busy today, and prepping for the session kept me busy yesterday. But I'm back now.
Oh, yeah. I've also been spending time hassling with my health insurance company. I was already for reform and public options and all sorts of other things that Fox News thinks are the Communist takeover of America. As if to cement my opinion, my provider has suddenly decided to stop covering one prescription medication I've been taking for two years now. With them, it's ten bucks a month. Without them, it's $320. My doctor is confident he can persuade them to cover it…but I have to wonder what folks who can't afford insurance, or can't get it due to pre-existing conditions, do if this drug becomes a necessity. And is this really the best use of my doctor's time?
A few folks have written me about what I wrote yesterday about comic book letter pages. I apologize if I underestimated the effort some put into assembling letter columns in the eighties. Paul Levitz noted that he wrote scripts for a lot of the comics for which he also wrote letter pages; that he was not just "some guy in the office." That's quite true. Long before he was head honcho at DC, Paul may have set the industry record for whipping up more letter pages than anyone else — and I say "may" because I have no idea how many E. Nelson Bridwell did. I'm guessing one of those guys is the champ and the other is first runner-up. (Paul also writes to remind me that when our pal Steve Gerber went to work at Marvel, he produced some of the best letter pages ever done in the ersatz Stan Lee style. They weren't signed with Stan's name but the editorial voice was supposed to suggest it was Stan himself answering your mail…and Steve was very good at it.)
Still, even if it happened a bit later than I suggested, there was a time when letter columns went away, which is a shame. I remember the utter thrill I got the first time I saw one of my letters in print. It was a copy of Aquaman and I was fourteen…and while the letter was childish and I (of course) didn't get paid for it, it was still something I wrote that someone has put into print in a real, sort of, magazine. Long before then, I'd decided I wanted to be a writer if and when I grew up so I can't say that it started me on that road. But standing there in the drugstore, seeing my words and name in print, my chosen career suddenly seemed a bit more possible. In fact, I felt more like a Writer that day than I did the last few times I worked for Disney.