My lawyer tells me I don't have to pay Ken Levine a royalty if I answer questions on a Friday. Here's a bunch of short ones, starting with the one from Joel O'Brien…
When a TV program is squeezed so much to allow the greatest possible number of commercials, the end credits will be run at breakneck speed and in microscopic size. Sometimes, the credits for the program just run are airing as the next program has already begun. I imagine it has something to do with legal agreements with the writers and producers? Please, Mark. Tell us what you know.
The new practice of rushing through credits as fast as possible is because of a belief that if you have long credits, then commercials, then the start of the next show, you create the ideal interval for viewers to pick up their remotes and see what's on other channels. To prevent that, networks rush the credits…but they can't rush the credits of workers in unions that have negotiated how their credits must be displayed. The folks in unions that haven't gotten that in their deals — and those in positions that aren't unionized — are stuck with however the producers choose to display their names…or not.
Next up is one from Jim Held…
You've been posting a few photos of voice actors at work including the late amazing June Foray. In all these photos there seems to be a big round flat sort of "filter" thingie between the actor and the microphone. I see the mikes also have padding around then I assume to kill the popping of sharp exhales. But what are the big round disk shaped things? More filters?
Yep. And in some cases, they're there to stop spittle from getting on the microphone. Some voices can be kind of moist. You should have seen Mel Blanc doing Sylvester. It was magical but in some ways, it was like having front row seats for a Gallagher performance. And Mel didn't even need a watermelon.
Next, here's one from Craig Buchman…
Are you sure you didn't start your blog sooner than 2000? I've lived in my current place since 1999 and could swear I had been reading your blog at my last place of residence. I seem to remember doing a search for comic books or such and found your blog way back in the day. I've read it regularly since. I really enjoy good writing.
I put up my first website, which was at www.evanier.com, on December 18, 2000. Actually, there was a website there for two weeks before that as I tinkered with the design but since the address hadn't been publicized, it got zero hits. On 12/18/2000, I finally declared it finished and went on a bunch of other sites to announce it…and the thing grew from there.
After a little while, I decided it was too self-promotional (and unfair to relatives with the same surname) to call it that and I set up www.newsfromme.com and relocated it there. But December of 2000 was my first online presence. And by the way, this post is #24,673 so we're creeping up on #25,000. Thanks, Craig.
Lastly, let's take one from a reader who signed his name as "Dennis W."…
Just finished reading DC's collection of the Silver Age Suicide Squad by Kanigher, Andru and Esposito. A question occurred to me that I am surprised I've never seen answered: Why did silver age DC comic stories have chapters?
For a long time, there was a belief that a comic was more commercial if it had a lot of stories in it. Editors would sometimes argue — and sales figures would suggest — that buyers preferred three 8-page stories to one 24-page story because they'd think, "Hey, if I buy this comic, I get three stories, whereas if I buy that comic, I get only one." But the evidence from the sales charts wasn't definitive and there were also sales reports and letters that indicated readers liked bigger stories with more characterization and the feeling of a "big" adventure.
Some of the best ideas the writers had couldn't be squished into eight or nine pages. And it was also easier to come up with one premise for a story than to think of three. That led to a trend towards longer, book-length stories.
But! The editors and execs couldn't completely disregard the data that suggested some readers preferred to get three stories instead of one. So, to kind of have it both ways, someone came up with the idea of making a book-length story look more like three stories by breaking it into three chapters. They did this for a while but eventually, the thinking evolved and sales figures indicated that book-length was jes' fine and there was no need to create the rhythm of the story ending and resuming twice in one issue. Thanks to everyone for their questions.
