Monthly Archives: November 2018

This is not my real post about Stan Lee. I haven't even started on it yet because, among other reasons, I keep getting calls from friends or from reporters who want to interview me about Stan. There's also this fire thing going on in my state affecting many people I know and care about. That's kind of distracting, too. We're still under a Too Much News Watch.

The trouble with having mixed feelings about someone is that there are those who just want to dwell on the negative ones. The last interviewer wanted me to really dump on Stan but before I fully realized that, we'd had a conversation that was about 95% positive from my end. The fellow's probably busy at this very minute trying to build his piece around the 5%. And me? I'm thinking maybe I should stop giving interviews for a while.

I am impressed with some of the posts I see around about Stan and how much he meant to so many lives. Is there anyone who doesn't have a photo of themselves with him? It's quite a contrast from when his old collaborator Steve Ditko passed away. Nobody had a photo of themselves with Steve.

Those of you who feel like I do that our friend Jack Kirby was wronged by credits in the past, please remember that (a) Marvel now credits Jack where for decades they did not and (b) a lot of people who are writing news stories about Stan today do not know the difference or the significance of "creator" as opposed to "co-creator." And the phrase "Hulk creator Stan Lee" does not mean that Stan was the sole creator of the Hulk, just as the phrase "Los Angeles Dodger Clayton Kershaw" does not mean that Clayton Kershaw is the only Los Angeles Dodger.

Also, while I'm at it: Joe Simon was not merely a writer who worked with Jack Kirby. When asked what he did and what Joe did, Jack used to say, "We both did everything except that Joe was better at dealing with business matters than I was." And there are some other errors in obits for Stan I'll try to address here later or tomorrow or sometime.

Wow. I have so many things to say about this man that it's going to take me a while to distill them down into a piece I feel comfortable posting here. I kept meaning to write it in advance but I never made it a high priority because as poor as his health has been in recent years, it just never felt like he was going to go away. Or that if he did, someone wouldn't find a way to bring him back next issue.

His achievements in the world of comic books were awesome. I happen to think they're not exactly what a lot of people think but I don't doubt their size and endurance. I knew him since 1970, worked for him a few times, talked with him at length and fielded an awful lot of phone calls from him asking me questions about comic books he worked on. He really did have a bad memory, if not when he first started telling people he had a bad memory, then certainly later on as he turned more and more into the Stan Lee character he'd created for himself.

That's all I'm going to write now.

It's proving to be difficult to say goodbye to Nick Meglin, who worked for close to half a century at MAD magazine, including serving as its co-editor. He passed away at the beginning of June and since then, people have been writing about him and talking about him and they held a memorial service in New York not long ago and yesterday, we had one here in Los Angeles. Members of his family spoke as did his colleagues and friends including Arnie Kogen, John Ficcara, Sergio Aragonés, Bill Morrison, Tom Richmond, Charlie Kochman, Sam Viviano and me.

If you read MAD between 1956 and 2004, you laughed at something (probably many things) written by Nick Meglin…and probably not credited to him. And if you laughed at something he didn't write in that magazine, he probably should get half-credit for it either because he discovered the guy who did write it or was so important in setting the style for that magazine comedic attitude. As I said in my little speech, the sense of humor that permeated MAD — a snotty, cynical look at the world around us tempered by charming self-deprecation — was to a great extent Nick's sense of humor.

Anyway, we talked about him and toasted him and roasted him and told at least a few stories that might have prompted someone who didn't know Nick to wonder, "And you say you actually liked this guy?" Not "liked." Loved. I think this was the last Nick Meglin Tribute but who knows? Everyone had such fun, maybe we'll make it a series.

Here's Julien Neel — my favorite one-man singing quartet — with a famous lullaby. You probably know some of the words to this song but I bet you don't know all of them…

Brian K. Rice is the president of the California Professional Firefighters, a group which represents more than 30,000 front line firefighters, paramedics and first-responders in my state…a state where massive fires are still destroying folks' lives and homes. Donald Trump doesn't like California. It voted overwhelmingly against him and its leadership continues to oppose much of what he does.

The fires are destroying a lot of communities that went for Trump but they really don't matter to this man. His hate for his perceived enemies is way more active than any loyalty to those who have supported him…and of course, it's inconceivable that he would rise above that "them or us" mentality and not seize on every possible opportunity to attack "them." So he put out a nasty tweet and this is the response from Mr. Rice representing the firefighters…

The president's message attacking California and threatening to withhold aid to the victims of the cataclysmic fires is ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to those who are suffering as well as the men and women on the front lines.

At a time when our every effort should be focused on vanquishing the destructive fires and helping the victims, the president has chosen instead to issue an uninformed political threat aimed squarely at the innocent victims of these cataclysmic fires.

At this moment, thousands of our brother and sister firefighters are putting their lives on the line to protect the lives and property of thousands. Some of them are doing so even as their own homes lay in ruins. In my view, this shameful attack on California is an attack on all our courageous men and women on the front lines.

The president's assertion that California's forest management policies are to blame for catastrophic wildfire is dangerously wrong. Wildfires are sparked and spread not only in forested areas but in populated areas and open fields fueled by parched vegetation, high winds, low humidity and geography. Moreover, nearly 60 percent of California forests are under federal management, and another two-thirds under private control. It is the federal government that has chosen to divert resources away from forest management, not California.

Natural disasters are not "red" or "blue" — they destroy regardless of party. Right now, families are in mourning, thousands have lost homes, and a quarter-million Americans have been forced to flee. At this desperate time, we would encourage the president to offer support in word and deed, instead of recrimination and blame.

Trump won't retract or apologize. He's one of those people we've all encountered who lacks the decency and strength of character to say "I was wrong." His people will probably protect him from even reading the above statement and if he does hear that firefighters are pissed, he'll just send out another tweet praising the brave men and women everywhere who put out fires and he'll say his beef is with state leaders, not them. But never have we had a "leader" who was so incapable of thinking about anything but his own interests.

John Rogers, who served as president of Comic-Con International since 1986, died today, He'd been suffering from glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. John began working for the convention in 1978 when it was but a fraction of the huge event it has become. He presided over its awesome growth, handling a very difficult job with great wisdom, great patience and a total understanding of what it takes to make something like that function so smoothly.

All of my memories of John are of him in a hurry. I only saw him at Comic-Con and they were quick chats because he always had a hundred and one things to tend to. The more I learn about how Comic-Con operates, the more impressed I am that so much goes right. John would have been the first person to remind you that this was not wholly because of his efforts. He was quick to give credit to everyone on the staff. But he sure did his part of it well. A real nice and hard-working guy he was.

I have something I have to do this afternoon. Maybe I'll tell you about it later.

If I were to write anything right now, it would probably be about the pains and frustrations over the deadly, destructive fires that aren't over yet. I might talk about the extreme assholishness of the President of the United States with his morning tweet. But I guess it was to be expected of a man who is incapable of thinking about anything except self-congratulations or the demeaning of his real or imagined enemies. With those people gaining power, we may be closing in on that scene in the movie Bananas where the dictator completely snaps and orders that all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half-hour and to wear it on the outside so this can be checked.

A real president would have tweeted his sorrow, his determination to aid the victims and a pledge to do more to prepare for disasters of this sort. Unfortunately, that might have meant doing something decent for people who didn't vote for him.

I love images of old Los Angeles. Here's a video tour from the forties displayed side-by-side with the same route as it looked just two years ago…

That's right — it's a Too Much News Day. When I went to bed at 3:30 AM, it felt like about a quarter of the state was on fire. I woke up at 8:30 to find that another quarter is being evacuated. None of this is anywhere near me but I must know fifty people whose homes are threatened or, in at least one case, gone. I know this is stating the obvious but it's terrible. Just terrible.

So I had to turn the news off. The local stations have had reporters on the scene all night and have pre-empted regular programming. The correspondents are right in the thick of the fires sending back incredible footage and dispensing a lot of valuable information about evacuations, shelters, blocked roads, etc., but I could do without the live "how does it feel to lose everything you own?" interviews. We can kind of assume it isn't a great feel-good moment for most people.

And I have to wonder if those newspeople and their crews aren't getting in the way of the fire fighters. Just before I went to bed, I saw a reporter talking live on camera turn to a passing fire official and ask, "Do you have time to speak with us?" and the official barked back a "No" with the loud subtext of "I can't stop to chat. I have something kind of important to do, you putz!"

Still, he was nicer than Trump talking to any reporter who steadfastly refuses to be his stenographer. That's his definition of Fake News, you know: It doesn't match the way he wants it reported. They stubbornly refuse to write that he beat Hillary in the popular vote and had the most-attended inauguration ever. When he makes his expected nasty comment about how California deserves this, the press will probably screw him over by quoting him accurately.

Trump and the instability that always surrounds him is the other reason there's Too Much News. I think the word "meltdown" is way overused these days, being applied as it is to any sort of disagreement or visible annoyance that can be exploited for YouTube hits…but it's really starting to apply to Trump. I'm thinking that if and when he ever holds another press conference, the news media should drive him completely out of his head by only sending black women to ask questions. So odd to see a man who couldn't say enough nasty things about Barack Obama demanding respect for the presidency.

And as predicted here, the election still isn't completed. And I just got a text alert about the fire that's popped up in Griffith Park saying they may be evacuating the animals in the Los Angeles Zoo. If they had pandas there, I'd call up and offer to house them in my house until this is over but I don't think they have pandas. And I have to stop watching TV because when I do, it's hard to remember that this will all be over. Someday.

I'm feeling bad for the folks who've been evacuated in Ventura County and up north in and around Paradise. I have friends in both areas and it must be agony to spend the night in a strange place, wondering if your home will still be there whenever you can return to your address. At this moment, the fires are at 0% containment so they aren't going to be gone soon.

At times like this, I always feel great amazement that we waste so much in terms of money and resource to battle non-existent dangers like a caravan of poor, displaced individuals who'll probably never get here…and we don't consider being better prepared for actual, for-real disasters like these. Or we're worried about Muslim terrorists (who are rare) and not about the Caucasian ones (who actually kill people).

I can't watch any more of this. I'm going to bed.

The melodious folks who call themselves Voctave sing the title song from Disney's Beauty and the Beast with guest soloist Sandi Patty…

Chuck Jones over at Forbes magazine crunches the numbers and shows that all the good news of the Trump Economy is just a continuation of the Obama Economy. But maybe Donald deserves some credit for not screwing it up…so far.

As Conor Friedersdorf writes, we are closing in on a series of moments when Trump is going to expect Republican officials and members of Congress to endorse the concept that he and his aides and family cannot be investigated or held accountable for any infractions of the law. He's just short of saying "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and Congress would let me get away with it!"

Call me a cockeyed optimist but we've just had an election which has shown that the backing of Trump is a liability in some areas for those running for office or another term. I'm thinking there are some Republicans who are going to think what Trump is angling for is going too far. Remember they're kind of being asked to protect Trump from criminal prosecution when they don't know what crimes he may have committed which may come out later. A lot of Republican Senators and Congressfolks during Watergate were leery of protecting Nixon for that reason.

And there have got to be some current Republican leaders who are thinking there could be a big opening to run for President in 2020 if Trump is too mired in scandal to run or there's a sizeable G.O.P. movement out there to get a guy who'll advance their agenda without all the scandal Donald brings to the party. You couldn't take advantage of that opportunity if you'd voted to shield him from the law.

At least, I hope someone's thinking like that.

Last night was the 55th anniversary of the evening the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World had its world premiere at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.  It was also the 55th anniversary of the evening that the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood opened.  A packed audience was there to see the movie in its natural habitat (where it ran for 66 weeks!) and to mark the birthday of a wonderful place to watch cinema on a wide, wide screen.

The ceremonies were hosted by a couple of gents involved in the history of the building, followed by Karen Sharpe Kramer, the widow of Stanley Kramer. Mr. Kramer produced and directed so many fine films, Mad World among them.  Karen then introduced two special guests — the lovely (still and forever) Barrie Chase and Sandy Hackett, son of Buddy.

Barrie is one of only three people who had speaking roles in the film who is still alive. The other two are Nick Georgiade, who played the detective working with Norman Fell's character, and Carl Reiner. Mr. Reiner, who is 96.7 years old, is reportedly not going much of anywhere these days…and if he did make an appearance, it might not be to celebrate this movie which he wasn't all that wild about. It was great though to hear Barrie talk about the film. In the past when she appeared at screenings of Mad World, Mickey Rooney was usually there and not inclined to let her or anyone else say anything.

The film was the film…which I love for reasons I've written about here in the past. It's not the slapstick I like so much as just seeing all those great comedians interacting with one another and performing at the height of their comedic powers. Everyone is just so good in it…even Milton Berle, who otherwise did not leave behind much supporting evidence for his status as an important comic.

Mad World is available in a DVD/Blu Ray set from Criterion and even though I can be heard on the commentary track along with my pals Mike Schlesinger and Paul Scrabo, I only recommend this set as something you watch after you've seen the movie on a big screen with a big, enthusiastic audience. It's quite a different film watched alone or with a small group on your home TV. It was quite different on screen last night at the Dome.

You may be wondering how my friend Amber liked it. As you might recall, I held off showing it to her because I wanted her to experience it for the first time the way I did, 55 years ago — at the Cinerama Dome with a full house. Well, sadly, she wasn't feeling well enough to go. I may have to keep fooling her into liking me until the 60th anniversary screening.

An hour ago, I was lying in bed looking occasionally at news headlines on my iPhone. The "active shooter" at last night's horrible murder spree in Thousand Oaks had not been identified and I was thinking how so many people are waiting for that info to see if it can be of any use to them. Like if it turns out he's a Muslim, those who want to ban or restrict Muslims will be happy they have that new little weapon to add to their arsenal. Or if he's a militant Vegan, that could be useful to any hostile carnivores or maybe to the meat industry.

And of course, these incidents are always helpful to the cause of those who simply want to make guns — especially automatic and semi-automatic weapons — harder to acquire. Since I'm more or less on their side, I can temper my horror at the news with a sliver of silver lining and think, "Well, maybe this will convince more people we need to do something about guns." Which is a kind of baseless optimism because it never does. (Actually, it isn't so much a matter of convincing more people we should do something. It's a matter of convincing them to do something, which is not the same thing. I do not expect this to happen in my lifetime.)

So now they just said the shooter was "a former Marine who may have had PTSD." I'm not sure what anyone can do with that but someone will try.

This has been Today's Post About Yesterday's Mass Shooting. Stay tuned for the next installment of Today's Post About Yesterday's Mass Shooting…coming sooner than you'd like to your computer screen.