Monthly Archives: October 2015

Everything you need to know about how to cook burgers.

I find myself depressed by the awful storm hitting people in Mexico at the moment. When you look at all the nonsense that goes on in Washington and the waste of resources, you wonder — I do, anyway — why we don't make it our first priority to conserve resources in order to help out in these times when people are dying or suffering.

Another great comic book artist of the past has left us. Murphy Anderson has died at the age of 89. No details as to the cause but he'd been in poor health and declining convention invites for some time now.

Murphy hailed from Asheville, North Carolina where he was born on July 9, 1926. He got into comics in 1944 drawing for Fiction House, doing work that was so polished that in 1947, he moved over to draw the Buck Rogers newspaper strip for two years. He worked for several companies before finding a home at DC Comics around 1950. Apart from brief stints away when he worked for Will Eisner on PS Magazine (an army publication) and later when he produced that magazine himself, he worked pretty much exclusively for DC as long as he could. When he found his output slowing in later years, he began shifting his attention to his own company, Murphy Anderson Visual Concepts, and doing color separation work and other technical chores in comic book production.

He was best known for his work at DC where he was often employed as a kind of utility player, able to handle any position. He frequently worked in the office so he was called upon to do rush covers and ink jobs, to retouch the artwork of others and to work on merchandising art. At times, the DC staff could be very fussy how Superman, Batman and their other superstars were drawn but Murphy was a guy who always drew them "on model."

Murphy produced fine work when he penciled and inked, especially on features of a science-fiction nature like The Atomic Knights or Captain Comet in Strange Adventures. He did a long stint drawing Hawkman, and did the early issues of The Spectre when that feature was revived in the sixties. He also did finished art on hundreds of covers, mainly for Julius Schwartz, the editor with whom he was most closely associated. His style often reminded one of one of his artistic heroes in comics, Lou Fine.

At times though, DC deployed him as an inker. He inked some of their best artists like Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane and Curt Swan — and many fans would tell you that the work of those men never looked better than when "Murph" did the inks — though oddly, neither Infantino or Kane were happy with the mesh of styles, perhaps because Murphy was more of an artist than a tracer. DC also sometimes used him when there was a weak pencil job that needed a lot of fixing. Murphy was the guy who could do anything.

He was an absolutely charming man, gifted not only with artistic talent but a deep, rich speaking voice and a penchant for groan-inducing puns. In the office or at a convention, he was always impeccably dressed in a suit and tie. At the conventions, which he loved doing, he was usually accompanied by his loving wife, Helen, and fans came to love her as much as they loved Murphy. And they loved Murphy a lot. We all did.

William Saletan nicely summarizes yesterday's interrogation of Hillary Clinton at the Benghazi hearing:

Eleven hours after the hearing began, [Chairman] Gowdy gave up. Clinton was exhausted but still in good humor. Her inquisitors, however, were furious. After all the subpoenas, emails, and testimony, the evidence had once again failed to match their beliefs. But the committee did its job. It clarified the truth about Benghazi: Hillary Clinton did nothing wrong. And Republicans can't stand it.

And even a lot of right-wing pundits today are saying the whole thing was a farce and a waste of time. I haven't been a huge Hillary fan but her performance before the committee — and for that matter, her last debate appearance — have sure raised my opinion of her.

I'm reluctant to believe that any non-incumbent could nail their party's nomination down this far before the convention but I'd sure lower my hopes if I were a Bernie Sanders supporter…which I suppose in some ways, I am. (I'm kinda thinking Sanders would make a better Attorney General — or whatever cabinet post deals with corporate crime — than president.) And hey, Lincoln Chaffee has dropped out of the race, leaving Clinton and Sanders to duke it out to pick up his supporters — a guy named Ernie and a 92-year-old woman in Bayonne.

Seems to me the Republican party long ago decided they couldn't beat Hillary Clinton on policies so they need to beat her on scandals. They kinda did this with Bill, too. I am amazed how often since the Clintons became prominent politicians, I've been told by conservative friends or read that Bill and/or Hillary were going to jail within the next month or two. They were going to jail for Whitewater. They were going to jail for having all sorts of people murdered as part of their drug-running operation in Arkansas. (That was Jerry Falwell's Clinton Chronicles video that insisted there was incontrovertible proof.) Bill was going to jail for the Monica thing. Hillary was going to jail for Filegate, Travelgate and having Vince Foster murdered.

It goes on. Ben Carson said the other day on the radio that Hillary wouldn't be the nominee because she'd be behind bars. (He then went on to predict Joe Biden would be the nominee. An hour later, Biden announced he wasn't running.  This isn't my joke but someone the other day complimented Carson on the fine work he was doing to destroy once and forever the stereotype of the Smart Brain Surgeon.)

And this week's National Enquirer has a headline story that there's finally proof Hillary covered up something-or-other in the Vince Foster matter and is going to jail. They'll sell a lot of papers and then nothing else will happen except maybe that Hillary will go on to a higher office. That's how this always works.

We all need to have secure passwords for a lot of things in our lives, most of them online. In this article, two researchers at the University of Southern California, Marjan Ghazvininejad and Kevin Knight, have come up with a way to generate crackproof passwords. It involves creating little poems like…

Receiver Mathew Halloween
deliver cousin magazine

I ran that one through this webtool that calculates how long it would take a hacking program to guess the password in question. Assuming a scenario in which the program is making one hundred trillion guesses per second, it would still take 1.12 hundred billion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion centuries to try every combination with that many characters in it. That oughta be safe.

Then again — and I couldn't resist checking this — if you use the same computer program to try and crack the password "Marjan Ghazvininejad," that would take 1.25 thousand trillion centuries. That's not as secure but isn't it enough?

PBS recently aired a concert-style rendition of the musical, Show Boat. I'm not sure how I feel about this material being performed by people in tuxedos and formal gowns but there was a lot of talent on the stage and the New York Philharmonic playing the score. Fred Willard, of all people, played Captain Andy.

Here's the video of the entire production which runs just shy of two and a half hours, just in case you want to watch some or all of it. Your local PBS outlet may also be rerunning it tomorrow if you want to watch it on a real TV instead of your computer screen…

• One thing I've learned from the Benghazi hearing: "With all due respect" is something you say to precede a statement showing no respect.

If you live in Abu Dhabu, Qatar or Australia, keep an eye out for the Illusionists tour. This is a travelling show of some of the world's best magicians including Mark Kalin, Dana Daniels, Rick Thomas and my buddy, the world's greatest comedy juggler, Charlie Frye. I haven't seen this show of course but I've seen these folks perform and they're all real, real good. Check here for more details.

Here's the video of yesterday's ceremony in which Bob Kane received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame…

I haven't watched it. If anyone does, lemme know if anyone says anything interesting or the name "Bill Finger." It would not surprise me if someone did, as Finger has started receiving his new credit (It was on an episode of Robot Chicken last week!) and everyone involved in Batman seems to be sensitive to the issue these days.

I've received several e-mails asking me if I'm horrified that Bob Kane is receiving this star and others asking me what it will take to get one for Bill Finger. Taking the first matter first: Nope, not horrified. I think Bob Kane deserves an honor like that. Even if one was only the co-creator of Batman…well, come on. It's Batman. How many people had even a little to do with the creation of something that beloved and important and iconic? I had my problems with Mr. Kane, who was not the nicest man in the world but I went to his funeral because…well, Batman. That's why I went to his funeral. And it's why I think he merits one of those stars.

I will add that I also think people often take things like those stars too seriously. They are, after all, a promotional tool for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, doled out for the promotional needs of others. They are not a definitive judgment on greatness and achievement. There are actors and disc jockeys you never heard of who have them. There are folks of tremendous accomplishment who don't. Clint Eastwood, Paul Simon and David Letterman — to name but three — aren't there.

As for how to get one for Bill Finger…or for that matter, Jack Kirby: There's a process and it's much more difficult for someone who's deceased since they give out so few posthumous ones. Here's the nomination procedure but don't bother starting the process. The folks who award the stars may deny this but really, the only way anyone like Bill Finger is going to receive a star is if sometime when a new Batman movie or TV show is coming out, someone at the studio decides to throw the studio's clout (and the $30,000 fee) behind the effort as part of the promotion of that movie or TV show. They can make that happen. You and I really can't…and besides, it's $30,000.

I hope they do it for Finger. It won't make up all the way for decades of neglect and lack of credit but it would be appropriate, given the new recognition that his name oughta appear wherever Kane's does.

This is an entry to Mark Evanier's list of the twenty top voice actors in American animated cartoons between 1928 and 1968. For more on this list, read this. To see all the listings posted to date, click here.

Most Famous Role: Speedy Alka-Seltzer.

Other Notable Roles: Davey (of Davey and Goliath), Gumby (at times), Ralph Phillips, Reggie VanDough (on Richie Rich), Buzz (on Frankenstein Jr.), hundreds of children both male and female.

What He Did Besides Cartoon Voices: Dick Beals started in radio and quickly became the go-to guy for everyone who needed a child's voice and didn't want the hassle or risk of hiring an actual child.  He often redubbed real little children on TV, movies and especially commercials and for several decades was one of the workingest voiceover actors in the business.

Why He's On This List: The sheer volume of his work.

Fun Fact: Dick stood 4'7" but never let his height limit his achievement.  For instance, he drove cars and piloted planes using special controls.  He usually showed up for recording sessions in a suit and tie, reportedly his way of reminding those he worked with that he was an adult, not a child.  He was also a very fine actor.

Boy, this is a tough one. Comic actor Marty Ingels has died at the age of 79 from a massive stroke. He was best known for his starring role on the 1962 situation comedy, I'm Dickens, He's Fenster. He was Fenster. Before that, he was a "discovery" and protégé of Jerry Lewis who stuck Ingels in one or two of his features and then left all his scenes on the cutting room floor.

Briefly, he had a recurring role as Rob Petrie's army buddy Sol on The Dick Van Dyke Show. True story of how he got the part: Ingels was dating a waitress who worked at the International House of Pancakes in West Hollywood. One night, he's sitting there in the wee small hours, waiting for her to get off work. At various times in his life, Ingels had a dread, almost crippling fear of being alone. That was when he didn't have the dread, almost crippling fear of being around other people.

So he was sitting there in the IHOP and who should walk in but Carl Reiner and Sheldon Leonard? He had read in Variety that they were producing a new TV show and that evening, they'd gone to see a play in order to get a look at some actor. Instantly, Ingels — who was then without any show biz prospects — got his lady friend to rustle up a waiter outfit for him. He put it on and waited on their table and was very funny. Either Reiner or Leonard asked him, "Are you an actor?" He said he was. They invited him to come in and audition…and he got the part.

He was in two episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show before they got rid of him. He admitted in later interviews that he was impossible to work with, going through massive mood swings and alternately being too friendly to people and then too hostile. When he got cast in I'm Dickens, He's Fenster, he had problems, too. And one time when he guested on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, he had what he later described as an on-air nervous breakdown and he walked off the set during the program.

Eventually, most of his performing career went away, though he did occasionally do voiceovers. In his autobiography, he told the story of how he got his first cartoon job for Hanna-Barbera in 1982 as the voice of Pac-Man. It's a nice story that somehow overlooks the fact that he'd done voices before that for the studio — on The Catanooga Cats in 1969 and on The Great Grape Ape Show in 1975.

Mostly, Ingels acted as an agent and as someone who circumvented agents. Let's say you wanted to hire Orson Welles to do a commercial for your product. You called Mr. Welles' agent and offered $200,000 for his services. The agent might tell you your product was below Mr. Welles' dignity and your offer was below his established price. So you then phoned Ingels who would find a way to get to Welles, talk him into the deal…and of course collect a commission on it. Ingels made a lot of money doing this and made enemies of a lot of agents in the process.

There are a great many other stories about Marty Ingels. Earlier this evening when I first posted this, I told one of them that was not flattering. I just (a few hours later) read it again and decided that it was too soon to tell that story so I've deleted it. My apologies to his friends and family for posting it at a time when they deserve a little peace. I'll see how I feel in a week or two and may or may not repost it.

I watched Joe Biden take a lot more words than necessary to tell us that he's not running for The Big Job and my first thought was "I don't know how I feel about this." Then I read this piece by Josh Marshall and I thought, "Yeah, I guess that's how I feel about this."

That's a photo from The Merv Griffin Show, a very long-running talk show that few talk about today…though many have told me that this boxed set is an incredible array of great guests and great conversation. Today on Stu's Show, Merv's career will be among the topics as we do the second part of a long, long overview of TV talk shows. In the first part, we made it as far as half past Johnny Carson. Today, we pick up with talk of Carson's later shows, of Merv and Joey Bishop and Dick Cavett and I suppose David Frost and some short-lived entries. I dunno how far we'll get but I believe we'll be starting out with an out-of-sequence discussion of how Stephen Colbert's doing. [SPOILER ALERT: I think he's doing just great.]

I say "we" because I'll be participating in the discussion along with your genial host Stu Shostak and his two resident TV critic/experts, Wesley Hyatt and Steve Beverly, and we'll also be answering e-mails from viewers and I don't know what else. All I can promise you is talk about talk shows.

Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there. Webcasts start at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern and other times in other climes. They run a minimum of two hours and sometimes go to three or beyond.  Shortly after a show ends, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a paltry 99 cents each and you can get four for the price of three. See if johnnycarson.com will give you that kind of a bargain.

I have deadlines and doctor appointments today so I'm going to take another — probably futile — stab at not posting much more today than this message. I wouldn't bet money on me refraining.

Like you, I have no idea if Joe Biden will vault into the presidential race, nor do I know if I'll be pleased if he does. The more and more I think about this election, the more I think we're in for at least one big moment when someone or something kicks over the chessboard, the pieces fly in all directions and we start over again, almost from scratch. Well before voting day, we'll look back at those moments when Hillary had the nomination in the bag, Trump was way out there in the lead, some guy who's become a contender had single-digit support…and it'll be hard to believe that was all part of the same election. All I know for sure is that Lindsey Graham will still be able to fit all his supporters into a Mazda with room to pick up hitchhikers.

There seems to be a silly controversy raging over the new Captain America story arc in which a black guy dons the costume. Not that anyone seems to care about the character's creators in matters like this but co-creator Jack Kirby proposed long ago that Steve Rogers stop being Captain America and pass the costume on to others…including at times, a black man, a woman, a naturalized citizen and eventually one of every kind of human being that makes up the United States of America. Jack also had an idea that Mr. Rogers should be placed in suspended animation again and should awake in the far future to become the Captain America of a post-America world. I have a page or so about Jack's proposals in the new biography of him that I'm writing and hope to have published by the 100th anniversary of his birth, which is in August of 2017.

In the above paragraph, when I said "Mr. Rogers," I meant Steve, not Fred. But Fred Rogers would have made a great Captain America, too.

I will be a guest tomorrow on Stu's Show as part of a panel discussing the history of Late Night Television. We'll probably spend much of the show discussing the current state of that form, mainly with regards to Stephen Colbert. I'll post more details and a link late tonight.

The above iconic logo was created by the late, great Ira Schnapp. So were most of the other great logos that appeared on the covers of DC Comics from some time in the forties until around 1967. He did almost all of the cover lettering from '50 to '67 and also did the calligraphy for some very effective advertising in the books.

He was a major talent whose work has too long been overlooked but in the last few years, it has been rightly celebrated. The website Dial B for Blog did a long feature on his work that contained a lot of biographical information. Recently, Todd Klein (himself, a superb letterer) recently completed a more in-depth look at Schnapp's life and work, aided by access to the Schnapp family. To read Todd's superb report, start with Part 1, then read Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6.

The last part of Todd's series will also give you a look at a recent art show staged by my buddy Arlen Schumer, a graphic designer who has been among the greatest champions of Ira Schnapp. Like Arlen, I believe Schnapp is a major figure in the history of comics and that his graphic designs have bled into other areas. He really was one of the great lettering designers of the twentieth century. Go find out about him.