Monthly Archives: January 2019

Comic book artist George Pérez has announced his retirement from the field at the age of 64. George drew so many popular comics — the kind publishers keep in print due to an undying demand for the material — that it will feel like he's a current presence in the industry. That will be the case for the rest of his life and long after. In a statement published on Facebook and elsewhere, he wrote in part…

…please don't feel sorry for me about all these life and career changes. Thankfully I earn more than enough income through royalties to have a comfortable life wherein I may never need to work again. Unless, of course, something really tempting comes along and I'm given sufficient lead time. Hey, you never know.

Long story short, I will be just fine. I've had a wonderfully good run doing exactly what I have wanted to do since I was a child. Now I can sit back and watch the stuff I helped create entertain whole new generations. That's a pretty nice legacy to look back on. And so much of that is thanks to all of you, the GREATEST fans in the world. I am humbled and forever grateful.

I guess his many fans would take this all as sad news but I think it's wonderful that a guy like George can retire and have that comfortable life. Artists from earlier generations in comics did not always have that available to them when, as in George's case, health issues arose. They did not receive royalties or in most cases, any form of pension or health insurance, way back when. A guy who did the quantity and/or quality of work George did but did it a few decades earlier could easily have wound up living in poverty once he could no longer produce pages.

Something a lot of people forget about producing comics is that they're hard work. They're even usually hard work when you do them poorly. Writing scripts at the pace that the industry has often demanded…filling pages with drawings…that can take an awful lot of hours per week. I've met an awful lot of the writers and artists of comics' first and second generations. Whenever I met one of their wives, as often as not, she would tell me, "I was always so worried about his health…staying up 'til all hours getting work done…even dragging himself to the board [or typewriter] when he was sick…"

Usually, like George, they loved the job — and I know George a little. He's a great guy and he wasn't kidding about "…doing exactly what I have wanted to do since I was a child." No one ever put more effort and passion into each page. I wouldn't fault him if he'd retired just because he felt he'd worked enough in his life. He deserves to live in leisure, maybe in a big mansion full of servants who wait on him hand and foot. It would also be nice if it was on a street full of similar mansions for the folks who had to ink all those lines he drew.

In my remembrance of Carol Channing, I mentioned how she played a cabaret-style show once at the Magic Castle and how my friend Shelly Goldstein went to see her. (Shelly, as we just noted, has her own cabaret-style show coming up.)

The day after we saw Carol there, I wrote this about it here…

The intimate audience was packed with stars, including Lily Tomlin, Florence Henderson and Donna Mills. Joanne Worley was there, too. Joanne Worley was Carol Channing's understudy for Hello, Dolly and the story is that when they met, Ms. Channing told Ms. Worley, "You're very lovely and you're very talented and you're never going on." (And she never did. Over the years, Carol Channing did over 5000 performances of that show and never missed a one of them.)

Last evening, a loving audience heard her sing her big songs, tell anecdotes from her life and even do some uncanny impressions. And not only did she sing to us, we sang to her. During her rendition of the title song from Hello, Dolly, Carol sang the part that Dolly sings to the waiters. Then, when she got to the part that the waiters sing to Dolly, she said, "I can't sing that because I'm Dolly…so you all sing it to me." And we did — quite well, I might add.

That was a great, fun moment and I just stumbled across about a minute of it on YouTube. Carol did two nights there and I have a feeling this is from the other night, the one Shelly and I weren't present for. But it went just like this…

In the last few months, I occasionally read (but did not mention here) articles about a guy here in Los Angeles they called the "Dine-and-Dash Dater." He would meet women via dating sites, set up a dinner, meet them at the restaurant, eat, then sneak out, leaving them with the check. Well, the cops finally caught the guy. Here's how they nailed him.

Yesterday, I wrote about how while I was in Las Vegas, I scored a great hotel room for not all that much money. This kind of thing is fast becoming an exception there — a too rare exception. I've been going to that city since the mid-eighties and watched the cost of everything rising faster than mere inflation can explain.

The most likely explanation is this: Those who sold goods and services to tourists there discovered that they could raise prices without losing customers. A guy who sold hamburgers for $5.00 found that when he raised their price to six bucks, he sold no fewer burgers…or if he did, he didn't lose enough that his profits did not go up. And the same thing happened when the hot dogs became seven bucks or eight. There was a point when increases became cost-ineffective but there was much more room to hike them than you would have thought.

This has proven true of shows. It's proven true of souvenirs. I don't know if it's proven true of hookers — remind me to tell you of my brush with one — but it wouldn't surprise me. It's certainly proven true of basic food items.

As readers of this blog know, I have a festering obsession with the price of Crystal Geyser bottled spring water. The CG Roxane company bottles it at seven different locations across the United States — Tennessee, New York, New Hampshire, Arkansas, South Carolina and two in California. I haven't sampled every version but my favorite H2O in Los Angeles comes from their bottling plant on Mt. Shasta in Olancha, CA.

In most areas, they offer the basic Crystal Geyser label and also the Roxane label but in some areas, the 365 water sold at Whole Foods is CG Roxane water. I've also seen their water sold as the house brands at Trader Joe's, Sprouts Farmers Markets, Walgreens and others. Same water, same bottle, different label. Some chains make deals with different water suppliers. I haven't checked lately but a few years ago, the gallons sold at Trader Joe's locally were from CG Roxane, whereas the smaller bottles were from a different bottling firm.

In L.A., the price of a gallon ranges from 99 cents to about $1.49. As I noted here, Whole Foods was selling Crystal Geyser gallons for $1.99 side-by-side with their house brand label of THE SAME WATER for 99 cents. Lately, the Whole Foods I patronize has only the latter. I'd like to believe that because I exposed the practice on this blog, they gave it up.

A few blocks away, a 99-Cent Store has Crystal Geyser gallons for 99 cents, making Crystal Geyser water the only item which costs the same at Whole Foods as it does at the 99-Cent Store, albeit with a different label. And it's more expensive at the CVS Pharmacy which is next to the Whole Foods. It's $1.29 there.

Okay, so let's get back to Vegas. When I checked in Sunday night, I went out for a late night meal at a White Castle — remind me to tell you about that, too — then went next door to a Walgreens to get a gallon of water for my room. They had CG Roxane water there with the Roxane label…for $2.69 a bottle. Later, I went to a CVS there and saw it with the Crystal Geyser label, also for $2.69 and the next day, went into a little convenience store where it was — wouldn't you know it? — $2.69.

You think Russian collusion is bad? How about that, huh?

Of course, I paid it. What am I going to do? Hail a cab and have him take me off the strip to a super market where, I imagine, I could save $1.70? All of Vegas has become like that now. It's like, "You're our prisoner while you're here and no matter where you turn, no matter where you go, a slice of pizza is seven dollars."

But I still like the place. In the next part, I'll tell you a few of the reasons why.

So Donald Trump's "major presidential announcement" is that in exchange for border wall funding, he's offering Democrats nothing new. What a shrewd negotiator this man is.

Not nearly often enough, my friend Shelly Goldstein takes the stage somewhere and favors us with songs and stories. March 3rd, she will be favoring those of us in the Hollywood area with "How Groovy Girls Saved the World" and the Groovy Girls to whom she refers are sixties stars like Petula Clark, Lesley Gore and Mama Cass. Ms. Goldstein will be warbling lots of tunes made famous by divas of that decade…and if she doesn't want to be ruthlessly heckled by me, she will also include some of the witty song parodies she herself has written, too. As a delightful bonus, she will also be joined on stage by Mark Arthur Miller who also sings great.

Get your tickets early because there are many people who know what an entertaining show she always delivers so seats are already disappearing. Those seats are at the Catalina Bar and Grill, aka The Catalina Jazz Club. By either name, it's located at 6725 Sunset Boulevard, which is a couple blocks east of Highland in Hollywood. If you want to join us for dinner, beverages and a fine show, order your tickets at this link. It's the place to be.

The past week, newsfromme.com has been coming to you live from Las Vegas. I had a script deadline of epic proportions and once upon a time when that happened, I would often hop a plane to that town and work in a hotel room. For a long time, I couldn't do that because I had ill loved ones who needed me nearby in Los Angeles but right now, I don't.

I'm not sure why being there helps me get work done but it sometimes does. So last Sunday night, that's where I headed. I just got back…and in case you're curious, I had no delays with TSA either coming or going. In fact, I breezed through today and had a very charming exchange with a lady who's not getting paid at the moment and likes Trump less than I do.

Here's a tip if you're going to Vegas and considering staying at one of the many hotels that are part of the vast Caesars Palace/Harrah's empire. It includes those places plus the Rio, Bally's, the Cromwell, Paris, The Linq, Planet Hollywood and many others. Before you book a room, join their Total Rewards club and get a price quote via the Total Rewards site. I scored my room for basically the Resort Fee price.

Resort fees are mandatory add-on charges that are not quite hidden but they still come as a surprise to some people. Let's say you find a room price of $75 a night. There may also be a Resort Fee of, say, $35 a night. That gives you a package of perks and depending on the hotel, it may include high-speed Internet, access to their spa, free bottles of water, free newspaper and a few other things. Whatever the bundle, it is probably not worth it to you and it is not optional. You pay it or you don't stay there…so your $75 room is really $110 a night. Plus tax.

I stayed in Las Vegas for five nights. One of those nights, my basic room price was $15. Two of those nights, it was $5 per night. And for two nights, it was $Zero. That's quite a deal even if you add on the Resort Fees. Of course, it had a lot to do with the town not being busy and the fact that in Vegas, they want their rooms filled at any price because empty rooms do not go down to the casino and lose money at Video Poker. Neither do I but they haven't noticed.

Other times of the year, that room could run $300 a night. Plus Resort Fees and tax. Anyway, I got a better price via the Total Rewards site than I could anywhere else on the 'net, including webpages that swear they have the lowest prices. Just something to keep in mind.

If you want to know more about Vegas Resort Fees and how much they can add on to your bill, this site will fill you in. More on my trip tomorrow and for the next few days here.

Nice obit today on our friend, Batton Lash. You can read it here.

• Trump should just tweet his State of the Union address — in 280 character chunks. It would keep him busy for a week and we could all mock his spelling.

• Reporters like talking to Rudy Giuliani because they always get two stories out of one interview. First, there's the one where Rudy admits something damaging to his client Trump's case. Then there's the one the next day when he walks back everything he said the day before.

Busy finishing (I hope) a script today. I have to fly somewhere tomorrow so I'm hoping at least one TSA agent shows up for work so I don't have to pat myself down.

There will not be much posting here today and probably tomorrow so try and find something else on the Internet to amuse yourself. I hear there's this new thing called "Google" that may help a little.

The other day here, I posted a link of Richard Sherman playing the piano in Walt Disney's office on the Disney lot. This video is a little tour of that office. You'll briefly see Richard in it. In the same scene, the lady wearing the black blazer is his wife of over sixty years, Elizabeth. Often when Richard performs "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" — which he does a lot — he gets to the line about "…and now me girl's me wife" and he points to Elizabeth and yells, "And she's sitting over there!"

Walt's office is actually two offices, connected. One has the desk he sat behind — and no, if you tour it, they won't let you sit there — and the other was a "working office" with tables and low chairs so he and associates could sit around and look at plans and artwork and discuss them.

Both were repurposed and redecorated after he died in 1966. Both have been restored back to the way they were the day he went to that big Carousel of Progress in the sky. This was possible because Dave Smith, who I believe was the first Disney archivist, went into Walt's rooms right after Mr. Disney died and Smith photographed every single detail.

The offices are not open to the general public but if you have an "in" with someone high in the Disney organization — say, Mickey or Donald or even Huey — they can arrange for you to join one of the tours which are conducted several times a day. There's a wait list for folks who work for the studio and they get selected by some kind of lottery.

A friend there got me in last September and I took along Maggie Thompson, who was in town visiting and working on Pogo stuff with me, and my assistant John Plunkett. It was kind of amazing if you stood in there and thought about the history that occurred in there. In case you never get to visit the Mouse Mecca, here's a little peek…

WonderCon, which takes place at the Anaheim Convention Center March 29-31 has just announced its third wave of Special-type Guests and, proving that some conventions never learn, this third wave includes me. My esteemed colleague Sergio Aragonés, was announced during a previous wave so I'll guess we'll be doing a panel together on when the next Groo comic will be out (soon, soon…) and we'll grab two other speedy cartoonists and do our Quick Draw! game, plus I'll be hosting five or six other fun events over the three days.

WonderCon is run by the same folks who bring you the annual Comic-Con International in San Diego each year. WonderCon is smaller (so is Utah) but not so small that you can possibly run out of things to see and do and buy. The other main difference it has to its the larger con — and this is a B.F.D. is that tickets are available.

They will not be available forever. This con, like all good conventions and bad politicians, will sell out eventually. But you can get tickets now. Do not take this information lightly.

If you like your conventions even smaller, Sergio and I will be at the San Diego Comic Fest earlier that same month. This is a more intimate assemblage with no big Hollywood guests and more emphasis on comic books, especially older comic books. If that sounds appealing to you, the con might be appealing to you. Hope to see some of you at one or the other.

Voice actor Bradley Bolke has left us at the age of 95. He was heard in many cartoons and commercials produced out of New York and was probably best known for the role of Chumley in the 1963-1966 Saturday morning cartoon show, Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales. Chumley was an amiable walrus who tagged along with his penguin pal voiced by Don Adams. The show may not be remembered much but Chumley was. That's where Chumlee, the fellow on Pawn Stars, got his nickname.

Bolke was the brother of the fine comedian and voice actor Dayton Allen, who was born Dayton Allen Bolke. Bradley did occasional on-camera work (he was in the 1964 film, Diary of a Bachelor) but was mostly heard, not seen. He was heard in The Wacky World of Mother Goose, The Year Without a Santa Claus and many other shows, plus no small number of commercials. Perhaps most impressive is that he was in the cast of The First Family, the John F. Kennedy spoof starring Vaughn Meader which may still hold the record as the fastest-selling comedy record of all time.

I never had the pleasure of meeting or working with this Mr. Bolke but those who did spoke well of him…so I'm sure it would have been a pleasure.

A friend whose name you may know but who doesn't want it published wrote me a long message which I'm condensing down to this…

The sudden news that we'd lost Batton Lash hit me like a tsunami. I am somewhat amazed because while I certainly knew Batt, neither of us would describe the other as a close friend. We never ate together. We never vacationed together. I don't think I ever saw him outside a convention and all we did there was to chat and exchange compliments and pleasantries. Still, I find myself unable to think about anything else and to not be quite depressed at the news.

Your site has had some wonderful advice especially after Carolyn died about coping with grief and death. Do you have anything now which might make it easier to deal with this?

Well, it may help to acknowledge that one of the reasons a loss like that of Bat hits us hard is that he was roughly our age and we can't help thinking, "Gee, that could have been me!" As I've been mentioning here lately, one of the things that irks me about being 66 is that while I have a lot of friends who don't show or act their age, I have some who are determined to think older and to mention their depleted mortality in every third sentence.

I know a guy who's 72 and every time he sees that someone he knows of has died at the age of 75, he announces, "Guess I've only got three years left." Because we all know that people die at the exact same age, regardless of their physical conditions.  (One time when he said it, I pointed out to him that the person had died in a traffic accident.)

Don't do that. Just don't. It's the worst kind of self-destructive negative thinking. As for being jolted by an unexpected death, remember the words of the recently-deceased author William Goldman. At the end of The Princess Bride, he wrote, "Life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all."

Yeah, it sucks that a great guy like Bat or [INSERT NAME HERE] is here one day, gone the next.  So what are you going to do about it?  You sure can't stop it.

So I'll tell you what you're going to do about it: You're going to learn to live with it.  You're not going to like it but we live with lots of things we don't like and we find ways to cope with them and to minimize the harm they do to us.

When Carolyn was in what her doctors knew with rather uncanny precision would be her last year, I spent much time with Palliative Care (and later, Hospice) people. Palliative Care deals with "the quality of life" of a very sick person and even though I was not their patient and was covered by completely different healthcare, they spent a lot of time with me, making sure I'd hold up, get through it and retain whatever sanity and powers of judgement I had to apply. That was because the quality of Carolyn's remaining life had so much to do with me handling all the responsibilities and duties that fell on my rounded shoulders.

No one said this exactly to me but taking in all that they did say, I formulated the following view: The trick in coping with the death of someone you care about — whether that death has occurred or is just imminent — is to find the sweet spot between accepting that death and being paralyzed by it.

You don't want to be unaffected or unmoved by someone dying because, well, what kind of human being would you be if they told you someone you know just passed and you said, "Who gives a shit?" But too much grief is not good for your health. It's stupid to screw up your own life just because someone else lost theirs.

Celebrate the deceased. Remember them and if it's at all possible, try to keep alive something positive they brought to the world. But don't let the loss of them cause you to lose any part of yourself. If the departed was a good person, they wouldn't want that for you. And if he or she wasn't a good person…well, why are you overmourning them, for God's sake? You've got better things to do.