Monthly Archives: November 2011

Joe Giella currently draws the Mary Worth newspaper strip but most of you probably know him for the fine work he did for DC Comics for many years on Batman, Green Lantern, Flash and other features, especially in the so-called "Silver Age." He is a lovely, generous man…which makes it all the more infuriating that someone — probably someone Joe trusted — grabbed precious artwork when Joe's back was turned. The investigating officer asked me to post this here…

Joe Giella recently contacted the Nassau County, NY Police Department in regards to the following missing [and presumed stolen] artwork. The list is as follows:

• Silver Age Flash #144, pages 1 & 9
• Detective Comics #329, pages 7 & 8
• Green Lantern #107 Cover

The loss is put at approximately $12,000.00. Any assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated, and anyone with any information can either contact Nassau County NY Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244 TIPS [1-800-244-8477] or joconnor@pdcn.org.

Be on the lookout for those pieces. Joe is one of the good guys and it would be great if his many fans could help him recover his property.

In other police-related news: Steve Rude posted bail but there is still the need to cover legal fees. If you've ever wanted to own a piece of art by this fine illustrator (i.e., if you've ever seen his work), you will never get a better price. Visit his website and check out his auctions and other offerings.

Umpteen people have recommended Microsoft Security Essentials to me as a fine (and free) anti-virus program. I'm sure it must be great for some folks — maybe most folks — but I tried it after I ditched AVG and before I installed Avast, which is what I'm now running. Though it was made to work especially well under Windows 7, which is what's on my computer, MSE didn't agree with my system and things locked up during most scans. This was disappointing because I usually get along fine with Microsoft Anything, plus I like the idea of running software that has the same initials as me.

No such lockage has occurred with the free version of Avast Anti-Virus. It's so far operating unobstrusively and, it would seem, well. I will report back on any change in this condition.

For those of you concerned about the fire at the Magic Castle the other day, here is what I'm hearing. The Castle is closed all this week and the management hopes to be able to announce on Friday when the place will reopen. There does not seem to be an official cause yet given for the fire but the relevant Internet forums are saying that it was triggered by roofers who were doing repairs. That is not a final verdict. The fire was in the attic which did not house anything irreplaceable but there was water damage (and perhaps some smoke damage) elsewhere in the building. Professional restoration crews are already on the job and there's no reason to assume the Castle won't be made whole again though it may require some bucks above and beyond what insurance will cover. And that is all I know at this time, not just about this but about anything.

From Robert Barnes…

Thank you a thousand times over for the link to the Caesar's Writers video. I have never seen so many funny people in one place and it's obvious they all had a lot of love and respect for each other. Was that you in the video sitting next to Howie Morris?

It must have been great to be there that night. I wish I could have heard the conversations backstage. I also wish we'd heard more from some of the people I didn't know more about like Gary Belkin and Danny Simon. Thanks again.

Yes, that was me sitting next to Howie Morris. Howie and I went to dinner earlier at a restaurant near the theater and wound up joining a table with about half the dais. The best line I remember from that table occurred when Sheldon Keller was talking about an encounter in the forties with Milton Berle. He said, "Berle was at the Paramount Theater" and in less than a second, Larry Gelbart jumped in and added, "Yeah, and his cock was at the Bijou."

Danny Simon isn't represented more in the show because he was not feeling well that evening. In fact, he took ill during the proceedings and left about two-thirds of the way through. It's not too noticeable due to deft camera angles and editing. (By the way, I'm amazed how well-shot the video was. That theater was not made for TV and they had to put the cameras in some less-than-ideal spots but still cover a long line of eleven people who were jumping in and out of the conversation, often unexpectedly. Notice how many times someone starts speaking and the camera is right on them. The camera guys and director did a good job of guessing who was about to talk and being ready for it.)

Gary Belkin's presence there involved a certain amount of courage. Gary's wife had died not long before and he became something of a recluse. He initially declined to appear but a couple of friends nagged him and threatened to drag him from his apartment at knifepoint and spirit him off to the theater. He ultimately came under his own power and I think it may have been the only public appearance he made after he became a widower and before he passed. I was pleased he was there at all and he was pleased that he actually got a couple of big laughs.

Yes, those men were fans of each other and there was a lot of love up there on the stage. There were also a few resentments and mostly-concealed jealousies. That's kind of inevitable when you have a gang of folks who were all at one point more-or-less equal and then one went on to become the most produced playwright of the century, one became a movie star, etc. It would be odd if a band of peers who came to have wildly-different income levels didn't have some points of bitterness…but they were very happy to be together that night and managed to leave most of the bad stuff at home.

Before I leave this topic: I forgot to mention that the video posted here is very close to the complete program. A version that aired on PBS was seriously cut so if you saw it there, you may still want to check out the version posted here.

And I must correct an omission on my part. Bob Claster did the great job of hosting the evening but the initial idea for the event came from a fine writer-producer named Aron Abrams. Aron secured Mr. Gelbart's participation and help, then was wise enough to bring Bob into the project. Aron passed away less than a year ago and while he had many credits on television, he had a special pride in Caesar's Writers. He should…because it was a terrific and important evening.

In my report on the Al Jaffee evening, I neglected to mention the award that was bestowed upon him. I also neglected to tell you a little about CAPS, the group that bestowed the award in question.

CAPS is the Comic Art Professional Society, a group founded in 1977 by Sergio Aragonés, Don Rico and myself. There was a pressing need for a place in Los Angeles where folks who worked in comic books and print cartoons could converge. To fill that need, we started this organization and began meeting monthly and soon after we also began having annual banquets.

Let me confess to something here. Though I was pleased to see Al Jaffee honored and similarly elated by previous evenings and other celebrations of great talents, I originally opposed all suggestions that CAPS honor anyone. I am intermittently and inconsistently anti-award.

I have been involved in the founding of about a dozen groups of writers, cartoonists, artists, etc., of one kind or another. In every single case, when the organization process commences, almost the first suggestion someone makes is that we set up some way to honor each other and give trophies. This is generally proposed by someone whose main motive is that they very much want to win such a thing and who plans to look humbly shocked when he or she is nominated.

Believing as I do that one cannot say, for example, that this guy who draws funny ducks is "better" than that lady who draws ninja warriors, I can't take creative awards too seriously. On the other hand, they usually make their recipients very happy and though I am sometimes anti-award, I am always pro-happiness…and with something like the award for Al Jaffee, there's another aspect. There's absolutely nothing wrong with loving someone and telling the world in some way that you love them. In fact, there is something wrong with not celebrating a guy like Al Jaffee.

So I have come around on the subject of awards. I have seen them go to the wrong people for the wrong reasons but I have also seen them go to the right people for the right reasons. And I have decided to gripe about the former but to focus on the latter.

The award CAPS gives out is called The Sergio and as you can see above, it's a statuette that looks like Sergio Aragonés. Odd tale of how that came about…one I've told here before. Here, copied 'n' pasted from an earlier posting here, is that tale…

Not long ago, the current CAPS board decided to present an annual award that would honor some great cartoonist's lifetime achievements. Sergio was asked to do an appropriate design sketch, and he did. It featured a generic cartoonist. This sketch was then turned over to master sculptor Ruben Procopio to turn into a statue, which he did. Along the way, it was decided to make two adjustments without Sergio's knowledge. One was to make the generic cartoonist look like Sergio. The other was to call the award The Sergio.

And actually, a third decision was made by the CAPS Board without Sergio knowing of it at the time. They decided that at the dinner to present the first one to Jack Davis, they'd also surprise Sergio and hand him the second.

That's right. Sergio Aragonés has now won so many cartooning awards that in order to receive any more of them, he has to design them himself.

So that's how the award came to look like and be named for my amigo. Al Jaffee, who is as fond of the real Sergio as anyone, seemed very pleased to get one. I will believe that for the rest of my life or until I see it offered on eBay, whichever comes first.

My good friend and occasional collaborator Steve Rude was arrested last night in connection with an ongoing dispute he'd been having with some neighbors. I do not know any more about the incident than that but I do know that Steve is one of the finest artistic talents in and around the comic book community these days. I also know that in my dealings with him over many years, he has always been a man of great honesty and heart. And I further know that he has had money problems since a decision he made a few years ago. Put simply, Steve decided to not take the job offer that paid best and to instead work on projects he cared about and just kinda hope that they yielded sufficient cash to live on.

So far, they haven't so this morning, his website announced a sale to raise money for bail and legal fees. I would hope he's made bail by now but even if he has, there will be legal fees to pay. This means you have one of those great opportunities to simultaneously help out a deserving guy and get yourself a great bargain. Go to his website and buy something. In fact, while you're there, buy several somethings.

Sometime back, I told you how happy I was with my virus checker program thingie, AVG. I would like to update that remark by telling you I recently got rid of it.

I had a problem with it. I called their Tech Support folks and they suggested I upgrade from plain ol' AVG Anti-Virus to AVG Internet Security. I spent the loot, upgraded and the problem went away. When it came time to renew AVG Internet Security, I paid for the renewal. When the program updated itself soon after, it suddenly had all sorts of new features, including turning off Windows Firewall (which had never failed me and which generally receives higher marks from reviewers) and replacing it with AVG Firewall. The many aspects of AVG Internet Security began slowing my computer down and there didn't seem to be an easy, permanent way of turning all of them off. And when I did succeed in turning one off, I got a lot of angry messages that said, "You Are Not Fully Protected!!!" or words to that effect.

I called Tech Support again and I had a conversation that pretty much went like this…

ME: How do I turn this feature off?

THEM: You can't.

ME: Well then, how do I turn this feature off?

THEM: You can't.

ME: Well, is there anyway to turn this feature off?

THEM: You can't.

And so on. The Tech Support guy had nothing to suggest other than that I try upgrading to an even more expensive, elaborate version of AVG. He couldn't guarantee it would run better on my system than what I had but it was worth a try. I replied that my problem seemed to be that AVG was doing too much, not enough, and asked if for what I'd paid them, I could just downgrade to plain ol' AVG Anti-Virus. He said no, they're separate programs and if I want the simpler version, I'll have to pay for a whole new installation.

AVG is off my computer and out of my life. I'm now running the free version of Avast, which seems to be doing everything I want except that it occasionally pops up little ads for non-free products. I'll let you know if I keep on liking it.