Monthly Archives: July 2010

Scott Marinoff told me about this. The Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California recently released nearly 100,000 pages of presidential records and eighty hours of videotaped interviews relating to the 37th president of these United States. Included in the batch was this letter (PDF file) penned on February 21, 1973. In it, John D. Ehrlichman, who was then the Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs wrote to cartoonist Garry Trudeau to request the original art to a Doonesbury Sunday page — the one for February 11, 1973.

It's one of those strips in which every panel is the same long shot of the White House and we "hear" voices coming from within — in this case, both ends of a phone conversation between Richard M. Nixon and his wife Pat, who are in different sections of the building. Nixon says to his spouse, "I have this nagging feeling I've forgotten to do something today" and he asks her to read him a copy of a schedule he left in the pocket of his other suit.

She reads it to him and there's three hours alloted for one foreign affairs meeting and two hours for another and so on…until she gets down to "Domestic Affairs — 4:00 – 4:15" and Nixon cries, "That's it!"

That's the page Ehrlichman, who was in charge of meeting with Nixon about Domestic Affairs, wanted to hang on his wall along with other comic strip originals he owned, including a Pogo and a Broom Hilda. There is no information as to whether he received it and no info as to whether he later put any of his comic strip collection up in his cell. On April 30 of that year in connection with the Watergate scandal, Nixon requested and got the resignations of Ehrlichman and his fellow advisor H.R. Haldeman. On January 1, 1975, Ehrlichman, Haldeman and former Attorney General John Mitchell were convicted of multiple Watergate-related crimes and sent to prison for, in Ehrlichman's case, eighteen months.

There's also no information as to whether Mitchell ever requested the infamous Doonesbury strip for May 19, 1973 in which he was proclaimed as "Guilty, guilty, guilty." But I suspect not.

If you're driving the 5 Freeway to or from San Diego and seeking nice, not-expensive places to dine, I have two suggestions. A few years ago, Carolyn and I lucked into a nice little Japanese eatery in an outdoor shopping center just off the 5 in Solana Beach and now we try to stop there every time we're in the area. It's called the Samurai Restaurant and it's about a half-hour north of where the Comic-Con is held — 22 miles to be more precise. They're open for lunch 11:30 AM 'til 2:30 PM on weekdays, dinner from 5 PM to 10 PM every day.

And you've seen me rave here about the Five Guys hamburger chain, which is ubiquitous in parts of the East Coast but just now starting to edge into California. There's been one in San Diego for a while but it's on a military installation and not open to the public. They've just opened one that we can all visit at 2445 Truxtun Rd., San Diego, CA 92106. That's about six miles (maybe fifteen minutes) from the Convention Center but if you're on the 5 heading to or from S.D., you'll be passing about two miles from the place. (There's also a Five Guys in Carson, just off the 405, for those of you who'll be heading south via that route. Despite appearances, I do not own stock in this company.)

This is coming out in October. It's a 272 page hardcover called MAD's Greatest Artists: Sergio Aragonés: Five Decades of His Finest Works, featuring the silly drawings of my best pal (male division) and the fellow some call the best cartoonist in the business. Frankly, I think compliments like that are like loaded pistols. I wouldn't point one at a friend. But some people do call him that and nobody seems to argue much.

I believe the way this book started out was that someone said, "Hey! Let's put out a book containing everything Sergio has ever drawn!" That sounded peachy until the publisher realized they were talking about maybe a 22,000 page book…and that would have only covered this century. So they scaled the notion down to everything Sergio had drawn for MAD…and that would only have been around a 7,000 page book which still wasn't practical. Finally, inevitably, they decided to just do a "best of" collection and this is it. I'm not sure just what's in it but there's no way they could have selected that many pages of Sergio that wouldn't be worth buying. Advance order it from this link.

I seem to have solved my iPhone problem…the one I described here. When it first cropped up, I tried doing a hard reset. It didn't help. I appealed here for help. Several billion of you wrote to suggest I try doing a hard reset. Not that I really expected a different result but I tried doing another hard reset. Sure enough: Didn't work. I tried doing another and another. The sixth or seventh somehow cleared up the problem. Why? Beats the heck outta me. But it's working now so I'm not going to ask questions. Thanks, all.

As I'm sure you've heard, a Portland-area massage therapist has accused Al Gore of sexual misconduct in a 2006 encounter. I don't know what really happened there and neither do countless folks on the Internet who've weighed in on the matter. I especially like the ones who admit there's no proof either way and we'll have to wait to see what the investigation says…and who then proceed to convict or exonerate Gore, depending on whether or not they believe in Global Warming.

Like I said, I don't know what happened there. Presumably, Gore knows and the woman in question knows, and perhaps they've said enough to certain associates or investigators that those folks have opinions that are worth something. But if you're not in that select group and you think you know, you're wrong. Even if your theory eventually turns out to be correct.

Veteran comic artist Gene Colan is "on the mend," as they say…recovering from a busted shoulder and the death of his wife. I spoke with Gene yesterday and he sounded good. Put it this way: He sure sounded like a guy who's going to get past all this and get back to a normal, albeit reconfigured life. I sure hope so.

The last comic book Gene drew was an acclaimed issue of Captain America (#601) which I believe is up for an Eisner Award, three weeks from tomorrow night. Gene has authorized his agents to put some of the original art from that important book up for auction. The bidding commences over here and if you're interested, I wouldn't dawdle about leaping into the bidding. Some folks are going to bid because it's a great, historic issue. Others will bid because it's magnificent artwork. Still others will bid because it's for a good cause. The smart people will bid for all three reasons.

But don't worry. I'm going to call up later today and ask them to move it to a few weeks later to give us all more time to prepare. I'm sure that won't be a problem.

Hey, a lot of you get around down there using San Diego's fine trolley system. If you're one such person, you'll want to take a look-see at this page. It tells of special hours and routes during the con and you can also get yourself a multi-day pass. Thanks to Scott Marinoff for telling me about this.

The schedule of events will be released shortly but I'll give you a little tease about Cartoon Voices II, which my pal Earl Kress and I are hosting on Sunday, July 25 at 11:15 AM in room 6A. As with Saturday's panel (Cartoon Voices I), we'll be assembling and interviewing a dais of fine folks, experienced in the art of speaking for animated characters. But we're especially excited that the Sunday panel will include the voice of Judy Jetson and Penelope Pitstop, among many others…Janet Waldo! There's one not to miss.

It's been more than two years since the world lost a great talent in Dave Stevens and some of us lost that plus a good friend. As I wrote at the time, Dave was truly one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life…and was certainly among the most gifted.

It is in no way surprising that his work is still with us…still being reprinted, as he hoped it would always be. I am delighted to report that the folks at IDW Publishing have just come out with an amazing limited-edition book that is a "must" for any fan of Dave's artistry. It's a 12" by 17" hardcover that reprints every single page that Dave did of his splendid work, The Rocketeer. What's more, all seven covers and all but two of the 119 interior pages have been scanned at high-resolution right off the original black-and-white line art. You see all of Dave's smudges and pasteovers and stray pencil markings. (There's at least one lettering correction in there that I did for him but I'll be darned if I can find it…)

No, you don't get to see the pages in color but there are other places you can buy that. Only in this handsome volume do you get to see exactly what Dave drew, reproduced at the size he originally drew it. It gives you some sense of his painstaking, agonized devotion to detail. Some of us wrote a lot after Dave's passing about how intense he was about getting every inch of every panel right…but nothing any of us could say would help you understand that as well as getting up-close-and-personal with his raw, unfiltered brush lines.

The book will set you back $100 and when you see it, you'll be glad you spent the money. I also recommend that if you want a copy, you order it now. By that I don't mean next week. I mean right this second. At this link, you can purchase one and either arrange to have it shipped to you or arrange to pick it up in person at the Comic-Con in San Diego this month. (That's right, folks. It's this month!) This book will sell out and it will sell out soon. Get one while you can. Scott Dunbier, who put it all together, did an extraordinary job.

Matt Taibbi on a lot that's wrong with the press these days.