As regular followers of this blog know, I really like a cappella singing groups and one of my favorites is a pack of vocalists called Voctave. In this video, they team up with another group — The Swingles — to bring us a Jerry Herman classic from the show, La Cage Aux Folles. This is a song that really should be sung by one person but I'll forgive them the dramatic lapse in this case…

Do vice-presidential debates even matter?  I dunno.  In '88, Lloyd Bentsen slapped the shit out of Dan Quayle in theirs and Bush/Quayle still won.  Then again, the current election is not behaving much like past ones. I thought JD Vance scored some points in tonight's veep debate by not coming off as quite the crazed maniac that he's seemed like recently. Of course, he's not the one on that ticket who's running out of time to temper his image. No one who thinks Trump is a lying looney is going to think, "Hey, I'm going to vote for that guy. His running mate isn't quite as bad as I thought."

But Vance didn't do a good job back-pedaling from "They're eating the dogs! They're eating the cats!" and he looked like the biggest weasel on the planet dodging the question of whether Trump lost the last election.

And I'm probably as amazed as you are that after years and years of doing everything possible to declare Obamacare a disaster and get rid of it, Trump has now decided to claim credit for it working as well as it has. His fervent supporters — and all those red states that have never fully embraced it — have got to be pretty confused over that.

Walz wasn't as great a debater as some of us hoped he'd be. He managed to make a strong case that what Vance is wrong about Abortion but if that issue matters to you in the slightest, I think you already know what side you're on. He also came off as avuncular and honest and he had an answer to the question about Iran and Vance didn't. It wasn't a rout like Harris v. Trump but I think Vance seemed more like a human being and the folks who make up Kamala's campaign commercials got a number of juicy quotes they can use in next week's ads.

That may be the only thing that matters in a vice-presidential debate: Did someone say something that can be used against them and their ticket? Other than that, it'll all be forgotten in 48 hours.

Gary Cundall sent me this, inspired — I assume — by the photo I ran here yesterday…

Did Carl Barks and Jack Kirby know each other? If they did, were you ever around them when they were hanging out? Do you know what they thought of each other?

I just happened to be around at what I believe was the only time they met. It was at some Comic-Con International — don't ask me which one — and while Barks was not an announced guest, he and his wife showed up for a day and sat at a table where Bruce Hamilton was selling the kinds of things, including Carl's work, that Bruce used to sell. Carl was not mobbed because I don't think most people who would have killed to meet him knew he was in the hall so I was sitting there, talking with the Barkses.

Jack and Roz strolled by and I don't think I was the person who did the introductions. I think Bruce did that. Carl and Jack met and if I'd had a cell phone at the time, there would be a photo here of that moment. I would describe the interaction as cordial and mutually respectful. They were two men who wrote and drew comic books but very different comics for different publishers. They were about as far apart as two people could be and still be technically in the same profession and it wouldn't have surprised me if neither had ever read the other's work.

But they were both aware of the great reverence in which so many people held each other and that was pretty much all they had in common. So small talk was exchanged and each wished a long life and prosperity to the other and then Jack and Roz headed on to the table where Jack was stationed. That was that.

A lot of folks assume that everyone in comics knows everyone else in comics even though it's an industry where many people work alone in their own homes or studios and mail, FedEx or e-mail their work to the office. Even if they go to conventions, they don't meet everyone. At the very first meeting of C.A.P.S. in 1975, I introduced a writer and artist to each other. They'd worked "together" for 20+ years through an editor and had never actually met.

In the early days of conventions, it was customary to put all the professionals on one panel — there usually weren't that many around — and often, they were folks who'd never met or even worked for the same company. I moderated one where Gil Kane and Julius Schwartz — who had worked together a lot — got to talking about DC Comics and how it was run and such. An artist seated next to me whispered in my direction, "I have no idea what these guys are talking about." He'd drawn a lot of comics but he'd never worked for DC, didn't know anything about the people Gil and Julie were discussing. And then when I started asking him about his work for other houses, Gil and Julie were whispering to each other, total disinterested in anything he was saying.

Kirby and Barks knew of each other and each knew the other had loads of fans. That was about it between them.

Sergio Aragonés sent me this photo which we took one evening — or at least, I guess we had a waiter take it — and then I forgot all about it but Sergio had a copy. This is a dinner with, left to right, Bob Foster, Carl Barks, me, Garé Barks (Carl's wife), Sergio and Scott Shaw!  I don't know why I look so unhappy in it.  I also don't know where all that hair I had went.

Anyway, that's another look at Bob.  This was taken in a restaurant in a golf course that was the nearest decent place to eat near where the Barkses then lived in Temecula.  It was a great evening in — I'm guessing — the late eighties.  In case anyone reading this doesn't know who Carl Barks was, he was a comic book writer/artist best known for doing great stories about Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge…and he was the creator of the latter.  A lot of folks consider him the best comic book writer/artist of all time, at least when it came to the kind of comics he did.

I have a deadline that must be met before I sleep tonight so I'll just give a quick answer to a question that I got from several folks about this post which showed you an article I wrote about the Hanna-Barbera Studio when I was nine years old. Shelly Goldstein was first of about eight folks who asked some version of "Did you write that Hanna-Barbera article for any publication (or homework) or just because you wanted to write it?"

Answer: Just because I wanted to write it. I can't think of any publisher who would have printed it and even growing up in Los Angeles, teachers never assigned homework that consisted of "Write about your favorite TV show." I was reading everything I could find out about the studio that made some of my fave programs and when something's on my mind, I often like to write about it even when there's no money. This is now known as "blogging."

I'll be back as soon as I finish my current assignment.

A lot of my friends online are expressing their shock and sadness to hear that our friend Bob Foster has died at the age of 81. Bob was a cartoonist, a writer, an editor, a storyboard artist…he did just about everything in those areas. It's beyond me to list all the different places he worked and the jobs he had. He grew up in New York, then moved to Los Angeles in '61 to attend Chouinard Art School out here. As soon as he was old enough, he began working for all the major animation studios of the day — Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, Disney, DePatie-Freleng, Ruby-Spears, etc.

I couldn't keep track of all the places he worked or all the places he lived. My phone directory has contact info for him in Oregon, Salt Lake City, Denmark and a couple of different addresses in Los Angeles. Denmark was where he worked for a time as a story editor on Disney comic books for the Egmont company. He did that job at Disney in L.A., too.

During his time in Los Angeles, he wrote, drew and published a very clever underground comic called Myron Moose Funnies, Myron being a forlorn moose with a chronic sinus problem. He was also a charter member of C.A.P.S., the Comic Art Professional Society and for a time, President of the Animation Guild. I'm not sure if he ever made up a résumé of all the places he worked and the jobs he had but if he did, it was a pretty long document.  His presence in the cartooning and animation communities will be much missed.

It's him again. It's Randy Rainbow. I don't know why he's so mean to Donald Trump. Well, yes I do…

Here's the first episode of Quark, a situation comedy that I kinda liked for all of its eight episodes. It was a parody of shows not unlike Star Trek and it was created by Buck Henry, who wrote this installment and no others. But the writing was clever and the cast — headed by Richard Benjamin — was strong and I thought it deserved more of a chance than NBC gave it…or most of their new shows in the seventies.

People are blasting Trump for saying that Kamala Harris is "mentally disabled" but my thought is "Well, that one's not gonna stick." It just reeks of desperation…and really, he'd be saying that about anyone who opposed him. If someone isn't blindly loyal to the guy, they're ugly and communist and fascist and their business is failing and they're weird and crooked and lazy and they hate America and they're rude and dishonest and headed for prison and any other insult that pops into that panicked mind of his.

I think one of the reasons he's not doing better now is that even a lot of his loyal supporters don't take this kind of thing seriously. They may still want the kind of anti-immigrant government he promises. They may have been snookered into believing certain lies about how the economy did under him versus how it is under Biden/Harris. But they don't think all his insults are literal. They're just enjoying the hatred.

Meanwhile, Jonathan V. Last takes us through the scam that is the new Trump watch.

And Steve Benen takes us through a real assessment of how the economy is doing.

Since Trump couldn't win my state if he gave every Californian one of those $100,000 watches and a neck massage, I don't see a lot of political ads on TV. But I see 'em online and don't see a lot that I think will move votes. This one, narrated by Sam Elliott, might…

Here's a terrific interview with John Oliver. I was reminded how when he left The Daily Show, I and a lot of my friends thought, "Well, that sounds like a dumb career move" and how wrong we were. He now has a popular, award-winning show which may go on indefinitely and it's one that we (a lot of my friends and I) all love and respect. I think one of the reasons the show works is how honest Mr. Oliver is. I don't mean that he gets everything right but he sure tries hard and not just because there's a good living to be made there.

If you watch/listen to this, stick around for the whole thing. The last ten minutes are the best part…

The New York Times talked to everyone who was present for the first telecast of Saturday Night Live who'd talk to them and they printed some remembrances. They also reviewed what reviewers thought about the show in its first year.

If The Internet has taught me nothing — and I readily admit that's possible — it's that some people get angry when you don't like something they like or when you like something they don't. I can kinda understand when it's something like me liking Kamala Harris and them liking Donald Trump. After all, the vote in California might be so close that my one vote (for some reason, I only get one) might cause her to win the state, thereby denying its 54 electoral votes and therefore the Presidency to Donald.

But some folks in my e-mailbox and online forums get really upset when my tastes don't line up precisely with theirs on matters where mine don't make a bit of difference to their lives. It's well known that I think cole slaw is the single most repulsive thing anyone could possibly put in their mouths and this bothers some people who love it as if I'm about to make it illegal and get it banned. This is not likely to happen and, believe me, I've tried. Lord, how I've tried.

Someone is really, really upset with me because I have a low opinion of the 1966 Marvel Superheroes Cartoons. And someone else is really, really, really bothered that I don't love all those old movie serials about heroes like Captain America. The latter accused me of not respecting the creative genius of Captain America's creators, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, even though I pointed out that they didn't like that serial either. Maybe he thinks that Joe Simon and Jack Kirby didn't respect the creative genius of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

I think some people need to learn to live in a world where other people have other opinions. Some others — or maybe some of the same people — need to learn to live in a world where others have different skin colors or religions or maybe don't even conform to certain rigid ideas about genders. Life is so much easier when you don't let differences make you furious.

Hey, I've got a great one here…one of my favorite movies, The Comic starring Dick Van Dyke and Michele Lee. Van Dyke plays a comedian from the silent days whose story has elements of the lives of Stan Laurel and Buster Keaton and a few others. Billy Bright is the name of the comedian that Dick plays and he's not a nice man. That may be one of the reasons why this film didn't go great at the box office when it came out in 1969.

Van Dyke gives a great performance and there are a lot of good character actors in here including Carl Reiner (who directed and co-wrote), Ed Peck, Pert Kelton, Gavin MacLeod, Barbara Heller, Fritz Feld and even Mickey Rooney. (See if you can figure out which actor in this film was dubbed by June Foray and you'll probably notice at least three separate voiceovers by Paul Frees.)

There are a lot of riches in here including a look at one of my favorite places in the world, the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax — which was still open and operating when this movie was made. I thought it was a great film and I hope you do too…

As Heather Digby Parton notes, Trump is really hammering this McDonald's thing hard and I can't believe it's going to move many (maybe any) votes. The folks who'll believe it matters are the ones who would never not vote for him. I can understand scaring people into thinking Kamala Harris is going to import billions of illegal aliens into your neighborhood but who would feel personally threatened if she fibbed about making fries at McDonald's four decades ago?

I actually don't believe anyone thinks any political candidates tell the truth 100% of the time, not even Trumpers who claim their guy does. If you're for a given candidate, you rationalize their omissions or exaggerations as "This is what they have to say to get elected."  And you want them to get elected so you excuse it because their opponent is a bigger liar and one must fight fire with fire.  I don't think I've ever for voted for someone who didn't at least color the truth a little. Maybe Jimmy Carter didn't but that might also explain why he lost in 1980.

I have a number of e-mails about this. Bruce Jones wrote me that Harris might be able to dig up Social Security records to show that she was paid by some McDonald's franchisee. Garth Gersten wrote me to say, in part…

Trump got his McDonald's talking point from someone (I forget who) that says Harris did not list McDonald's on her resume when she applied to be a prosecutor, nor at any other time. But, most people don't list fast food jobs they had in high school when they are applying for a job after graduate school, unless they were relevant. And working at a McDonald's for a summer during high school is not relevant to 99% of the jobs out there – unless, perhaps, you were a "manager."

I do not think she would have been required to list it on her application to take the California State Bar, either. I don't recall listing my high school job on my application to the California State Bar.

Yeah. And I never had a McDonald's-type job but my résumé omits about 80% of the things I've done — mostly stuff I didn't think would impress anyone or because it was something I'd like to forget.

As Will Saletan notes in this video listing the Top 10 Stupidest Trump Lines, Trump is now claiming that "someone" (no name given) tracked down the manager of the McDonald's (again, unnamed) where Harris claims she worked and this person remembered that 40+ years ago, she didn't work there. The other nine stupid things are also pretty stupid…

By the way: I'm not following the Eric Adams matter much but if he dunnit — and it's sure sounding like he did — this is another one of those cases where two things would be true of a scandal involving a public official. One falls under the general category of "Gosh, that person broke the law" and the other falls under the heading of "Gosh, that person was stupid to think they could get away with this." Either one is a perfectly fine reason they shouldn't be in power.

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