Monthly Archives: July 2016

This is to remind anyone who checks out this blog this evening that I'll be on the radio later.  My buddy Ken Gale is guest-hosting The Hour of the Wolf, a long-running fantasy-oriented radio program which is heard in the wee small hours on WBAI FM in New York.  He'll be asking me about what I jokingly refer to as my career writing comic books and other things.

It runs from 1:30 AM to 3 AM East Coast time, which is 10:30 PM to Midnight where I am on the West Coast. If you're up at that hour, listening to me answering Ken's questions might be among the more interesting things you could be doing, sleep notwithstanding. If you're near New York, dial up 99.5 on your FM dial. If you're not near New York, it'll be streaming on the WBAI website.

Politifact, which is getting a real workout during this presidential campaign, lists 17 times Donald Trump said something and then denied he'd said it.  Remember the good ol' days when if a candidate did this more than about three times, he or see was branded a "congenital liar?"  That didn't just mean they lied for personal reasons.  It meant they had a mental defect that caused them to lie for no good reason.

Have you seen Bill Maher's closing scold on this week's Real Time? It's pretty good…all about how "Trickle Down" economics has never worked as its advocates predict. Over and over, they try it. Over and over, it fails. I don't know why Democrats aren't selling this message louder…

Like a lot of you — if my e-mail is any indication — I've been watching the Johnny Carson reruns on Antenna TV. I find most of the shows fascinating, if not in an entertainment sense then in a time capsule sense. At least once an episode, someone makes a reference to something then in the news that I've either completely forgotten or vividly recall.

There are also announcements of things that are interesting in a hindsight context. The other night on a show from the eighties, I heard Carl Reiner talk about an upcoming film he'd written and would be directing and was now casting…and it was a film that I'm pretty sure was never made. He also talked a bit about the next movie he planned to make with Steve Martin…and that one was made. It was Dead Man Don't Wear Plaid.

I enjoy these shows but I continually wonder what the audience is for them. Have you noticed a certain trend in the commercials? Here's what was sold during the 90-minute episode that aired last Saturday night. They're grouped by commercial breaks…

• Commercial for free samples of a new kind of catheter
• Commercial for free samples of O2Pur home oxygen kit
• Commercial for Varidesk
• Commercial for attorneys who seek to represent patients who took the drug Invokana

• Commercial for car insurance from A.A.R.P.
• Commercial for Life Alert ("I've fallen and I can't get up!")

• Commercial for Miracle Ear hearing device
• Commercial for attorneys who seek to represent patients who took the drug Taxotere

• Commercial for 4th of July Sale at Sit 'n Sleep mattress stores
• Commercial for local (Los Angeles) news show
• Commercial for San Diego Zoo
• Public Service Spot warning people not to take too much Acetaminophen
• Commercial for local (Los Angeles) film festival

• Commercial for attorneys who seek to represent people who were victims of nursing home abuse
• Commercial for Lipozene quick weight loss drug
• Commercial for attorneys who seek to represent women who used the Essure Birth Control device

• Commercial for the Atomic Beam military-grade flashlight
• Repeat of commercial for free samples of O2Pur home oxygen kit

• Commercial seeking donations to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
• Repeat of commercial for free samples of a new kind of catheter

• Repeat of commercial for car insurance from A.A.R.P.
• Commercial for the D.R. Power Mower
• Repeat of commercial for local (Los Angeles) news show
• Third repeat of commercial for free samples of O2Pur home oxygen kit

And then the first thing after the closing credits was a repeat of the commercial for attorneys who seek to represent patients who took the drug Taxotere.

The third break and part of the last one were obviously placed by the local channel, KTLA 5, which retransmits the Antenna TV feed so take that out of consideration. The other commercials were the ones Antenna TV was able to sell. The conclusion we can draw is —

Oh, wait. You may be wondering what a Varidesk is. A Varidesk is a special stand for your computer that raises and lowers it so you can choose to work standing up or sitting down. It's a great invention and I have one for one of my two office computers here. Everything else except the D.R. Power Mower (which may have been placed by KTLA), the auto insurance and the military-grade flashlight relate to illnesses — either trying to treat a medical condition or suing someone because of it.

So the conclusion I make is that people who watch Johnny Carson reruns are in poor health. A lot of them are probably elderly but Invokana is for diabetes at any age and Taxotere is for cancer and there are younger people who need catheters and home oxygen…and I don't think a lot of older people used the Essure Birth Control device. So it's mostly about being sick.

Before a recent recording of his show, Stephen Colbert took an audience question about how he met his wife. It's a great bit of storytelling and if I could figure out how to embed it here, I would. But I can't so you'll have to go see it.

A day late for us: John Oliver discusses the Fourth of July from a British POV…

Here's one of the nicer things we can say about Donald Trump: He's probably not anti-Semitic. He just doesn't want to do anything that would cost him the votes of that crowd. Matthew Yglesias has more on this viewpoint.

Okay, so no criminal charges will be filed against Hillary Clinton in connection with her e-mail handling. This can't surprise anyone. The folks who hate her figure that every time they accuse her of something and she doesn't get indicted, it's because the "fix" was in. It couldn't possibly be because their charges were bogus. The folks who like her are probably sighing with relief. She gets accused of so many things that you can't be sure one of them won't stick. Still, they can't be too surprised either even though this one probably had more substance to it than Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate, Vince Foster and several others.

Anyway, I really don't have anything to say about this. The Republicans will scream 'til Election Day that the fix was in. The Democrats will say, "Nothing to see here, let's move on." Such is the way politics works these days.

In other news: Best Buy says my delayed order is "out for delivery." I'm sure you were all dying to hear that. The clock is ticking down 'til Comic-Con starts and once again, I'm looking at all I have to do before then and wondering if there's any way to get them to delay the whole thing for a while. It wouldn't be a big deal. Just put it off for two weeks?

Hey, I have to write a Groo letter column in the next day or so. If you've been thinking of sending us a letter, do it today.

Hope you had a safe-n'-sane Fourth of July. It was real noisy in the evenings no matter where I was this past weekend. Private fireworks in L.A. are illegal but you'd never know that from the racket, which did not sound in any way patriotic. I assume we had the usual instances of fires and personal injuries but that this kind of thing will never stop. Some folks will never give up their amateur pyrotechnics and instead stay inside and watch 1776 and Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Much to do today but there will be more posted here later.

Sad to hear of the passing of actress Noel Neill. She was best known of course for playing Lois Lane first opposite Kirk Alyn's Superman in the serials and then later opposite George Reeves for many years on the first TV series. A lot of different actors and actresses have been identified with roles based on comic book characters but no one was ever more closely identified than Noel as Lois.

Which is not to say that's all she did. She was a frequent screen presence, appearing in dozens and dozens of movies before she ever got near her signature role. She was a lovely presence on screen and obviously a very reliable professional. One of the things that made the 50's Adventures of Superman show so successful was the talents of its three leading players — her, Reeves and Jack Larson. The scripts were often silly and the show was shot cheaply, quickly and often with scenes wildly outta order. You had to be real good to do it at all, let alone to make the material work as well as they did.

Noel was a darling on the comic convention circuit, thanks in large part to her close associate Larry Ward. Larry took great, loving care of her and serves to be acknowledged as her friend and protector. He has written a touching piece about Noel that will tell you more about her long, enviable career.

I had the honor of speaking with Noel on several occasions and interviewing her at one convention. She was delightful and very honest with the understandable restriction that she didn't want to speak ill of certain people. A lot of people came to that panel and others she did to "meet" the lady they'd loved so on television. I'm pretty sure no one was ever disappointed.

She died yesterday at her home in Tucson, Arizona at the age of 95. But as we all know, Noel Neill as Lois Lane will live on forever.

• Dear Restaurant Industry: I've spent years avoiding items labelled "Cajun" or "Chipotle." Did you really have to start in with "Sriracha?"

Comic-Con International starts in San Diego sixteen days from now. I used to post long lists of tips to enjoy/survive it but I got outclassed by Tom Spurgeon so I'll just send you to his list. Pay particular attention to #2, which is to do online research before you go, and to #21, which is to go see at least one of the panels I moderate.

They'll begin posting the programming schedule later this week and once it's up, take the time to really go over it and make notes on what you might want to see. It also don't hurt to look at the list of exhibitors and at the map of the grand hall and to notate some booths or areas you want to check out. Wandering about with no idea where you're going is a good way to not get a lot out of the experience.

I'll add one more tip to Tom's list: Don't complain about the crowds. As I get older, I find I have a lot less tolerance for folks who, for example, stray from air conditioning when it's 101° out and then bitch n' moan about how hot it is…like I can do something about that. Comic-Con is crowded and in many areas, very loud. If that's going to distress you, do a favor for yourself and anyone who'll have to listen to you whine about that, and don't go.

This especially applies to those of you who've attended a lot of these cons over the decades and seem to expect that one of these years, you'll walk in and find that we're all back at the El Cortez hotel, there are less than 3000 of us there and you can sit by the pool and talk comics with Jack Kirby. If that's what you're seeking in San Diego, there's another con that tries to get as close to that experience as is now humanly possible.

And one more thing in that vein: If crowds and noise bother you, stay the hell away from the videogaming section of the convention floor. The folks who run those exhibits deliberately try to clog the aisles and out-decibel everyone else.

The convention website is a great resource. So is The San Diego-Comic Con Unofficial Blog, though their panel expert there hasn't seemed to notice yet that there are about eight panels that I do every year in the same time slots in the same rooms. They do tend to be dismissive about panels that are about comic books or which lack hugely famous people on them…but there's still a lot of good info on that site.

Pace yourself. Accept that it's not humanly possible to get into everything you want to get into or to see everything you want to see. Do not neglect the basics of life like sleeping or eating or bathing. Especially bathing.

I'll probably think of other things between now and Preview Night. For now, just remember that there's a great time to be had there but you need to do a little advance work in order to find it. The convention won't entertain you but if you know how to use it, it's a terrific place to entertain yourself.

Recently here, we talked about a certain 1983 episode of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson featuring among its guests, Richard Pryor and the infamous Rod Hull and Emu. I said wrongly that it was Pryor's first TV appearance after that ghastly "accident" in which he suffered serious burns. It wasn't. I have since learned that it was his third time on with Carson after setting himself on fire. It was however his first appearance after what was supposed to be his final surgical reconstructions on his face.

The first time he was on with Johnny after the ghastly incident was in late 1980, a few months after the incident. That same night, Bob Hope was on and here's an article about it by Bob Mills, who was one of Hope's legions of writers.

I was on the set once when Mr. Hope guested with Mr. Carson and I've written here before about what I observed. As noted, Johnny was annoyed at Hope's plug-heavy appearances but I guess he wasn't annoyed enough to refuse to allow them or to say something that indicated his displeasure.

Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin recreate a Sondheim moment from Sunday in the Park with George…

What was the first word spoken when man first landed on the moon? We all know Neil Armstrong's first word when he stepped out onto the surface of the moon but what was the first word spoken by one of the astronauts who landed there once they'd landed there?

Texas Governor Rick Perry says it was "Houston." And since Rick Perry says it, you can just about bet the moon that it ain't true.

• If Trump wins the election, I'm blaming Hillary Clinton. Because if Donald ran unopposed, he'd lose for sure.