I've received a lot of e-mail asking me what I think of the new movie, Joker. I think I haven't seen it and I don't know when I will. I do get the feeling that the filmmakers made at least nine or ten completely different versions of it, all quite different from one another in the levels of violence and the political messaging, and that everyone who's reviewing it is seeing a different version.
And when some folks tell me "It's the Joker from the comic books," I wonder "Which comic books?" Because I think I've seen at least a dozen distinctly different characterizations of that villain in comics I've read. In one or two, he didn't even seem that much like a villain.
I forgot to mention it but last Thursday night, I was up at U.C.L.A. speaking to a class of future (they hope) Animation Writers. It was a class taught by my buddy Brooks Wachtel, who knows so much about the art/craft that he doesn't need guest speakers but invites people like me in, anyway. The students were bright and attentive and they asked real good questions, many of them about the process of being a writer, not just of cartoons but anything. I'm not much help advising anyone on how to break into the field, having last had that problem in 1978. The business has maybe changed a little since then. But I hope they got something out of what I had to say. I like talking to students like that once in a while because I usually think I get something out of hearing what I have to say.
Halloween is coming soon. That means that people are sending me every possible link and news item that mentions candy corn, an alleged food I have said here I think is horrible. Since I gave up candy of all kinds, my campaign against the stuff is pretty hollow and I no longer have any emotions invested in it. If you want to hear someone rant about its evils, go listen to Lewis Black. He rants way better than I do on the topic. In fact, he rants better than I do about everything since he screams all the time and I yell about once every three years.
My dislike of cole slaw, however, remains firm since restaurants keep interpreting a request for "no cole slaw" to mean "make sure I get cole slaw." That's all I ever really had against the stuff apart from the fact that it's repulsive and disgusting and probably fatal if taken internally. For me, anyway.