Republicans once complained about Bill Clinton using recess appointments to bypass Congress and install Bill Lann Lee in a post in the Justice Department. Now, Democrats are complaining about Bush using recess appointments to bypass Congress and put Thomas Dorr in a job in the Department of Agriculture. At the same time, Republicans who once protected Senator Alfonse D'Amato from punishment (or even much embarrassment) over his ethical violations are complaining, correctly, that Democrats are protecting Senator Robert Torricelli from punishment (or even much embarrassment) for similar breaches.
Add to this the fact that, once upon a time, Republicans felt that every nook and cranny of Whitewater absolutely had to be investigated and, when it was and no Clintonian wrongdoing was uncovered, it all had to be investigated again and again. Democrats said, "Hey, it's old news, already cleared," but now it's Republicans saying that about old Bush/Cheney business deals and it's the Democrats saying, "This has to be investigated."
You can cite other examples as easily as I can. The point is that none of this has anything to do with taking a position on principles. It's all about getting the other guy and saying whatever it takes to make that happen, and everybody knows that.
I'm still waiting for the prominent politician who can rise above this…the one who'll put principle over party, even if if means standing up for The Enemy and/or missing opportunities to bash them. And despite my cynicism, I think that person is going to come along in the next few years…because, if he or she does, he or she is going to have two-thirds of the nation behind them.
A very talented writer and actor named Lorenzo Music died yesterday following months of brutal, heart-breaking illness. He was — like his distinctive, well-known speaking voice — unique. Those who cast him as a voiceover performer often said that just to hear him, no matter what the script or ad copy, was curiously comforting and satisfying. That was absolutely true, and it was an extension of the man himself. He walked through life with a warming aura of creativity about him…one that enveloped all who came near. To be in his presence was to feel smarter, wittier, more creative and, of course, happier — all by osmosis. He had so many gifts, one body could not contain them all. They were always leaking out, enriching others. He was just one of those people it was great to be around.
Lorenzo was born May 2, 1937 in Brooklyn, though he grew up in Duluth, Minnesota. Much later, he attended the University of Minnesota there and became enormously active in the school's Theatre Arts classes and community. He also became enormously active with a lovely female drama student named Henrietta. Together, they started a comedy act that lasted eight years and a life partnership that continued indefinitely, through four children.
In 1967, he switched from performing to writing when he joined the staff of the legendary Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on CBS — although he managed to occasionally sneak onto camera, often with his banjo or ukulele. The show's writers won Emmys in 1969 but Lorenzo decided that variety shows were dying out and that he'd better drum up some credits in situation comedy. To that end, he and his partner, David Davis, accepted a low-level staff position on a new sitcom called The Mary Tyler Moore Show. By the second season, they were story editors on what would be hailed as one of the all-time greatest television comedies and were charged by the production company, MTM, with creating a new series for comedian Bob Newhart. Lorenzo co-created, produced and wrote for his third "TV classic" in a row when he and Davis concocted The Bob Newhart Show, featuring Dr. Robert Hartley and his odd style of psychiatrics. And Lorenzo and Henrietta composed the show's theme song.
Their next project was to develop and produce Rhoda, a spin-off from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It was on this series that Lorenzo returned to performing, supplying the voice of the unseen, perpetually inebriated doorman, Carlton. Later on, an attempt to develop a prime-time animated series called Carlton, Your Doorman was unsuccessful, though the pilot won an Emmy as the best animated special of its season.
I first met Lorenzo when I was called in to write what would have been the second episode of Carlton's show. I found him to be a bright, friendly gent who was brimming with ideas, not just about comedy writing but the world around him. Way too much time was wasted, talking about things that had nothing to do with the job at hand…but it wasn't really wasted. Time spent with Lorenzo was never wasted. He had a way of throwing an idea your way — or, perhaps, introducing you to someone from his wide and diverse list of friends — and letting the magic, if any, evolve.
Professionally, he began to take more interest in performing. That was how the Carlton cartoon show came about, as he did not see himself as an on-camera player, especially after a syndicated talk show he co-hosted with Henrietta was hastily terminated. While doing the pilot for the Carlton series, he came up, almost half-heartedly, with the idea of doing a live-action sitcom set in an animation studio. By way of research, he toured Hanna-Barbera Studios where a casting director to ask him to audition for a role on the Pac-Man series that was then in production. He won the part, which prompted him to put his writing-producing career aside, at least for a while, and devote his energies to voiceover work. (The premise of a comedy set in an animation studio later emerged from the MTM studio as The Duck Factory, written by others using none of Lorenzo's ideas.)
Soon, Lorenzo Music had one of the most-heard voices in radio and television. He would eventually be heard on several more cartoon shows, including The Real Ghostbusters and Gummi Bears, and on hundreds of commercials and voiceover spots. His most famous performances came, however, when he was selected as the voice of Jim Davis's well-syndicated feline superstar, Garfield the Cat.
Lorenzo was not that character's first voice. That honor belonged to Scott Beach, a San Francisco radio personality who spoke for Garfield when the cat was first animated for a brief TV appearance. When CBS ordered up an entire Garfield special, Davis — not quite happy with the choice that had been made — inaugurated a major casting search for the perfect, permanent sound. Hundreds of actors were heard and re-heard before Lorenzo tried-out and Jim said, almost instantaneously, "That's the one." Thereafter, Lorenzo spoke for Garfield on more than a dozen prime-time animated specials (one of which he co-wrote, and several of which won Emmys) and on the Saturday morning Garfield and Friends show, which was on CBS for seven years.
As the writer (and later, co-producer and voice director) of the Saturday show, I was reunited with Lorenzo and came to truly appreciate his acting abilities. He was a thinking performer who would instantly grasp what had been written and, as often as not, come up with a way to maximize the humor. His suggestions were nearly always good, and contributed to making Garfield a truly memorable animated personality.
During this period, Lorenzo came up with the gimmick of keeping his visage from public view…a notion that flowed from all the curiosity he'd aroused when playing the never-seen Carlton on Rhoda. Thereafter, his publicity photos showed him in silhouette, or with something in front of his face, and he declined all TV interviews that would not present him that way. Although he had appeared occasionally on TV before, the stunt had its intended effect of arousing attention. People began wondering about the face that went with the voice and he often chuckled that he was becoming "semi-famous" for not being seen. He received several lucrative proposals to appear on-camera in movies and TV shows or as a commercial spokesperson and was forever considering them but always opting to wait for a better offer. (He once likened it to a great dramatic actor waiting for the right role before he'd perform without his hairpiece. He'd say, "I'm not showing my face for this one.")
Lorenzo was an enormously versatile, brilliant man with interests in a hundred different directions and talents he never had time to fully flex. He wrote music and poetry, he produced short stories for his own and his friends' enjoyment, and he even participated in a dance troupe. For a time, he donated one night per week to taking calls on a suicide hot line. The callers never knew his identity but occasionally, one of them would be pouring out a story — "my wife left me, I'm broke, I have an incurable disease," etc. — and would suddenly blurt out, "Hey, you know you sound like that cat on TV?"
A few months ago, Lorenzo began having health problems. Initially misdiagnosed, they soon turned out to all be related to cancer that had infiltrated his system and spread across his spine and into various nooks of his body. A lot of us knew the end was near when he told us his spine was "riddled with cancer." Any time you hear the word, "riddled," it ain't good. The disease had been, for a time, undetected…up until a visit he paid to a health spa. While being lifted on a massage table by a masseuse, Lorenzo's back broke and doctors subsequently spotted the deterioration. Additional problems quickly followed — a rather horrifying list of them. Still, when I visited him in the hospital, he initially sounded as strong and determined as if he were in for a simple tonsillectomy. The facts of his case suggested he hadn't long to live but, until about a week ago, his spirit and resolve suggested otherwise. Sadly, the facts won out.
It's customary to end these things by writing something like, "Fortunately, he will be with us forever…in reruns of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, The Bob Newhart Show and other programs he wrote, and reruns of Rhoda, Garfield, The Real Ghostbusters, The Gummi Bears and other shows on which he performed. He also leaves behind a terrific family, a legacy of friends who were introduced to one another and inspired by his kindness, and a whole lot of fans." And of course, all that is true. But to those of you who never had the chance to know him, I have to say…
I'm sorry. The work was wonderful, and I know you'll enjoy watching it again and again and again. But being around Lorenzo Music was even better.
IN MEMORY OF LORENZO MUSIC
His family has requested that anyone wishing to
make a donation in his name do so to: The Subud International Cultural Association
5828 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
My longtime pal, Ken Gale, is the anchor of the premier radio talk show in the country devoted exclusively to comic books. 'Nuff Said has been broadcasting since 1993 with guests from the world of comics (including, three or four times now, Yours Truly) and it's presently heard every Tuesday night at 10:00 pm, Eastern Time, on station WBAI (99.5 FM) in New York. You can also tune in via Real Audio and get additional info at the 'Nuff Said website.
Looking for the truth about this "Code Red" virus? If I were you, I'd take a gander at what Steve Gibson of Gibson Research has to say about it. He's a fiercely independent expert on this kind of thing, and his overview can be read here. It's a bit technical but you oughta be able to get the essence of it, which is that this security breach is real, that it's far from gone and that, if Microsoft issues Windows XP without fixing certain things, this kind of thing will happen again and again and again…
We also recommend Michael Kinsley's latest column, which is about the recent report by the National Commission on Federal Election Reform. It was headed up by Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford (who, let us remember, managed to win one federal election between them…and only because they ran against each other) and Kinsley does a great job of shredding its findings. But he misses one point of trivia: The commission is indignant about the networks "calling" an election before the polls have closed all across the continental U.S., right? Isn't it worth mentioning that in 1980, President Carter actually conceded before the polls had closed in California? Didn't that do a lot more damage to Democracy than the networks calling a few Eastern states? Anyway, here's a link to Kinsley's piece.
I'm up to my pupik (It's Yiddish for belly-button.) in deadlines and next week, I have to spend a few days in a dark editing room and then emerge to appear on a panel at the World Animation Celebration. So updates here may not be as plentiful as I'd like…but things'll be back to normal as soon as I get around eleven scripts and articles written.
Saturday evening (Aug. 4) and Sunday morning (Aug. 5), TV Land is rerunning Inside TV Land: Get Smart, a fine documentary on the making of a sitcom that was very funny, at least for its first few seasons. The TV Land presentation interviews most of the surviving cast members and creators and gets into the story of how the thing came to be. Mel Brooks is conspicuous by his absence but the rest are there, including Don Adams (who played the bumbling Maxwell Smart, Agent 86) and Barbara Feldon (who played his comely sidekick and — later — spouse, Agent 99). And while I highly recommend catching the show, I have to wonder about a few omissions from the history that is reported…
The first "cone of silence" scene was one of the funniest moments ever in television comedy. Unless I missed it, the special doesn't explain how that scene was shot a week or two before the rest of the pilot and, basically, sold the series. (By the way, if you ever catch a rerun of that scene,, note that the voice on the intercom is that of Howie Morris, who directed that and the whole pilot.)
Speaking of Howie: Mention is made of how Ed Platt, who was so wonderful as The Chief, was not an experienced comedic actor. They might have mentioned that Platt was recommended for the part by Mr. Morris who, a little more than a year earlier, had directed Platt in an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. (It was the episode where the Petries accidentally play poker with marked cards.)
And mentioning Howie reminds us of Sid Caesar, whose sidekick he was for years on television. Inside TV Land mentions that Get Smart was the show that pretty much knocked Lawrence Welk off the air. But they might have mentioned that Welk was the one who knocked Sid Caesar off the air, thereby catapulting Howie (and future Get Smart co-creator Mel Brooks) into unemployment. So there's some kind of nice karma/revenge thing working there.
Lastly, Buck Henry was the other co-creator of Get Smart. In past interviews, he has not been reticent to suggest that Mr. Brooks contributed very little and was undeserving of co-credit. Does he not say that here because he has changed his mind, buried his anger or because TV Land cut it out?
Despite these curious omissions, you might want to give a tune-in to Inside TV Land. Better still, catch some real, vintage episodes of Get Smart. Starting early Saturday morn (Aug. 4) and continuing through the day, TV Land is running the first few seasons, starting — unfortunately — with the second episode. It commences at either 3:00 AM or 6:00 AM, depending on where you're watching it…but, hey, that's why God invented the VCR, right?
Carolyn and I spent last evening listening to one of the world's great jazz artists, Chick Corea. There's a certain beauty in watching someone do something — anything — about as well as it can be done. When the skill is playing great jazz piano, so much the better. His new trio includes bassist Avishai Cohen and drummer Jeff Ballard, both of whom are equally magnificent. They're at the Catalina Bar and Grill in Hollywood for a few more nights. If you're in the vicinity or if they wander near you, you'll find that there ain't nobody better.
And the Animation World Network website is currently serializing online, the autobiography of the prolific cartoon producer-director, Gene Deitch. They've recently put up several chapters having to do with the years wherein he ran the Terrytoons studio, which included the creation and supervision of Tom Terrific. To say it was probably the best thing that operation ever produced is a pretty feeble compliment…so let's say that it was one of the cleverest cartoons produced for TV at a time when there were a number of clever cartoons being produced for television. It was cheaply produced — transparent characters, one voice actor, and the entire musical score was provided by one harmonica — but it worked. Deitch doesn't tell as much about the production of the series as I'd have hoped but what's there is fascinating. It's especially worth a visit just to see Jules Feiffer's quickly-sketched storyboard for a never-produced sequence showing Tom T. as a bitter old man. (Feiffer worked on Tom Terrific and a few other Terrytoons projects of the day.) Here's a link to that chapter…or you can click here to read the whole book.
Some good may yet come of the whole Gary Condit/Chandra Levy potboiler. While many journalists have run amok with saturation coverage and "facts" of dubious accuracy, a few have demurred. This, of course, has given them less to write about…so they're writing about the press reporting and how sloppy it's been. Bob Somerby over at The Daily Howler continues to quote the journalists and pundits and point out how what they're reporting doesn't make sense and/or check out. At Salon, Joshua Micah Marshall is citing conflicting press reports (here's a direct link to his piece) and noting out how The New York Post is now standing by its story that Ms. Levy left a series of messages with Condit's private answering service in the last days before her disappearance…while Newsweek is standing by its story that she didn't. And at Slate, William Saletan is keeping a scorecard on how thoroughly — if, at all — various journalists retract a now-discredited story about Condit having an affair with a minister's daughter. Here's a direct link to Mr. Saletan's play-by-play account. Would that the more mainstream press engaged in more of this about themselves.
Those Wacky Websites: Well, someone has finally come up with a good and valuable use for the Internet. Check out www.menwholooklikekennyrogers.com.
Nice article on our pal Stan Sakai and his creation, Usagi Yojimbo, in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Click here to go there. Aloha!
One of the all-time great comic book writers, Bill Finger, passed away in 1974. Among his many achievements was that he wrote the first Batman story and most of the early ones that established the character and his supporting cast. Some have argued that Finger should be billed as co-creator of Batman but, for contractual reasons, the late Bob Kane received sole credit…and still does.
It may be a slight exaggeration to say that Finger died in poverty but, clearly, he never received just compensation for his role in making Batman perhaps the most lucrative property ever in comics. To this day, he is spoken of on convention panels — by those who know his work as well as those who knew the man — as one who was extremely wronged. Alas, his tenure in comics was at a time when publishers were too-often successful in avoiding the payment of royalties or reprint fees. If Finger had received the same kind of minimum deal that new writers in the field now get without even asking, he would have been a very wealthy man. (He also was ousted from the company for a time for his role in a brief, unsuccessful attempt by some writers to form a union. Maddeningly, Finger's employment was terminated shortly after Kane had received a buyout on Batman worth more than a million dollars.)
The comic book business has always been somewhat behind other fields in treating its creative talent with decency. The Writers Guild, for example, has long policed residuals for its members' efforts in film and television. In fact, even after a member passes away, the WGA collects such cash and forwards it to the member's heirs. If no heirs can be located, the Guild searches for them. The Writers Guild of America, East (the New York outlet) has posted a web page listing missing or deceased members for whom they are holding bucks. You can see it by clicking here and, if they haven't updated it yet, you will see the name of "William Finger" on it. He has unclaimed moola from episodes he wrote of the Batman TV show, as well as 77 Sunset Strip. Thanks to the fine folks at DC Comics, the WGAe has been notified of the particulars of the Finger estate, and it will receive whatever bucks he was due.
I'm not entirely sure why I'm showing/telling you this. I just thought it was interesting and that someone might find a moral somewhere. His estate now receives money when his comics are reprinted but, while he was alive, the one episode that Finger wrote of the Batman TV show paid him more residuals than all the Batman comic book stories he authored, combined.
By the way: At the moment, the list also includes the name of Gerard Allesandrini. Gerry is the brilliant creator of the revue, Forbidden Broadway, which I have long touted. I called Gerard and he'll be picking up his money. You may also spot the name of Charlie Rogers, who was the main writer for Laurel and Hardy in their glory days. Rogers, who passed away in 1956, is owed some cash for his work on A Chump at Oxford, which was released in 1940. If you know of any of his heirs, either drop me a line or call the Writers Guild of America, East and ask for the Residuals Department.
This is your last reminder that this Sunday, August 5, PBS is debuting an episode of Great Performances subtitled Recording The Producers: A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks. What it is is a documentary about the recording of the cast album/CD, filled with generous excerpts from the score and (I'm told) a lot of kibbitzing from the sidelines by Mr. Brooks. Oughta be worth a tune-in or tape. But be aware that Sunday is just when PBS is distributing the show to its affiliates. When your local channel airs it is another matter. KCET in Los Angeles, for instance, is running it the following night, Monday at 8 PM.
The David Letterman show sent a video crew to the Comic-Con International in San Diego to shoot a segment. It's tentatively scheduled to run on Late Show this coming Monday, July 30.
A few months ago, I recommended a visit to Gary Grossman's website and the purchase of his terrific book on the George Reeves Superman TV show called Superman: From Serial to Cereal. If you don't have a copy, you should and — lucky you — he's having a sale on them. Go over to www.supermanbook.com and order a copy before he wises up and cancels the sale.
Michael Kinsley offers up a pretty simple explanation of why the privatization of Social Security cannot possibly work. Here's that link. And here's a nice little piece by Roger Simon about the seventies.
Back in 1995, the fine folks at Wildstorm issued a set of Groo Trading Cards that are still avidly collected. The main set consisted of 153 cards drawn by Sergio Aragonés with clever-but-difficult-to-read quips on the rear by Yours Truly. The same set also included nine harder-to-find "Images of Groo" cards featuring artwork by Mike Allred, Kevin Nowlan, Stan Sakai, Dave Sim, Sam Kieth, Simon Bisley, Jeff Smith, John K. Snyder III and Jim Lee.
Now, here's where it gets complicated. Sergio originally signed 500 of the regular cards — the ones that comprise the set of 153. Let us call those "autographed cards" for the purpose of this discussion. He also signed and drew sketches on 50 of what we'll call "sketch chase cards." One side featured a little sketch and autograph by Señor Aragonés; the other featured a printed picture of Sergio explaining what the cards were. Here's an example of the two sides of one of these. (Obviously, what was sketched varied from card to card.)
These are very rare. (How rare are they? Here's how rare: I wrote the word balloons on the front of them, I've had thousands of packs of Groo cards pass through my mitts…and I've still never seen one of the chase cards in person, let alone obtained one.) They go for a lot of money — generally between $50 and $100.
The "autographed cards" are, however, worth a lot less — perhaps five or ten bucks. This is because, at conventions and store appearances, Sergio signs thousands of autographs and these are often on Groo trading cards that are thrust beneath his pen. When he does this, it creates something that is utterly indistinguishable from the "autographed cards" so they're much more common and their number is growing. For that reason, we've tried to avoid referring to the "autographed cards" as "chase cards," since the latter term implies rarity and a limited supply, neither of which is true of these.
Alas, every so often, some dealer either intentionally or unintentionally advertises one of the "autographed cards" as rare, and some buyer thinks he's getting one of the scarce "sketch chase cards" and pays accordingly. The other day, one sold on eBay for $66.75. The auction listing will scroll off soon but for now, you can see it by clicking here. The seller called it a "chase card" and he was in error when he said they were all signed in black ink but otherwise, he did not really misrepresent anything. He just did not make clear (or perhaps did not know) that, though the card he is selling was one of 500, Sergio has since created another two or three thousand and will doubtlessly sign more.
I have notified the eBay seller and he says he will put things right with the buyer…but the rest of you, beware. And if you see someone else making the same mistake, point them towards this page.
As I hope I made clear in an article I wrote and posted on this site, I treasured my friendship with the late, great Bob Clampett. (That's Bob at lower left on the set of Time for Beany. The puppeteers are, left to right, Daws Butler and Stan Freberg; the gent with the clipboard is Klaus Landsberg, who founded KTLA television in Los Angeles.) I loved the cartoons Bob directed of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. I loved the puppet and cartoon shows he produced of Beany and Cecil. But most of all, I just loved Bob…a witty, friendly gent who took a genuine interest in his many fans and who was unsparingly generous with his time and knowledge. It's nice to see that he still lives, not just in his amazing body of work but all over the Internet.
Here's a rundown of six venues…
Bob Clampett Productions, which does a splendid job of presenting and protecting Bob's work, maintains a must-visit website at www.bobclampett.com.
One of the best things they've done is to issue a wonderful DVD that is ostensibly a collection of cartoons from the Beany & Cecil cartoon show. But it's so loaded with extras about Bob's life and times that it's really an interactive look at the man and, either way, well worth your purchase. The cheapest place I've found to order it online is a place I've never patronized called Digital Eyes. They sell it for $20.99 plus $2.90 shipping, as you'll see if you go there. (You can also obtain it at any decent DVD dealer.)
Each week, Cartoon Network presents three uncut Clampett classics on their series, The Bob Clampett Show. To find out when it airs, click here and go to their schedule.
The opening titles for The Bob Clampett Show feature a wonderful mix of animation and puppetry (much as Bob's career did). They were executed by an outfit called Curious Pictures and you can read how they did it — and view what they did — at their website. Click here to go there.
An expensive limited-edition portfolio of cels has been made from the Clampett-supervised model sheets of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Tweety. If you can't afford the folio, you can at least view it online at their website.
Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman has written a number of fine articles about Bob and his work. One is over on the www.bobclampett.com website while another can be read at this link.
All of this is a woefully inadequate way of expressing my thanks to Bob's wife and son, Sody and Rob, Jr. Last week, they made the long trek from L.A. down to the Comic-Con International in San Diego where they presented the annual Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award to a 49-year-old kid whose mother watched Time for Beany when she was carrying him. I have a lot of awards in which I place little stock. This one's different…because it has Bob's picture on it.
Several of you have written to ask that I keep pointing you towards non-partisan articles about the Florida recount. They are few and far between, for most who write about it seem to be breathlessly spinning to say that their guy deserves to be in the White House, damn all laws and precedents. But you occasionally come across an article that looks at the bigger picture…like this one by Renata Adler in The New Republic.
I agree with almost every word of Richard Cohen's column about the Gary Condit Affair. Here's a link, just in case you want to see what I agree with.
Interesting article by Penn Jillette (of "…and Teller") over on their website, www.sincity.com. Both halves of the duo post diary-type entries that are well worth reading but I really enjoyed Penn's latest, which you can reach directly by clicking here. Browse around some of the others while you're over there.
I have now received something like twelve e-mails which had attachments bearing the W32.Sircam.Worm@mm virus. The way this sucker works is that, if your system becomes infected, it picks a random file from your hard disk and e-mails an infected version of it to everyone in your address book. It comes in a message that says something innocuous like, "I send you this file in order to have your advice," or the Spanish equivalent. Since it comes from you, your friends may think it's okay to open but if they do, their system becomes infected with it and the plague continues to spread. In the meantime, the worm is doing assorted other nasty things to your system. So far, it only seems to be infecting Windows systems that are not running Windows NT or Windows 2000…but you should be on guard anyway. You should also…
Be suspicious of any attached file, even if it comes from someone you know well. Be especially wary if the message to which it is attached says something bland like, "Here is the file you requested" or "I hope you like this file."
When you send someone a file, attach it to a short e-mail message of the kind that could not be generated by a stranger who writes virus programs. In other words, say something personal in your text so that the recipient will know that you intentionally sent the e-mail.
Spring for a good virus checking program. I use McAfee VirusScan, which seems to do the trick. It's made for folks who have permanent on-line connections via networks or cable modems, and it will access the McAfee site once a day to update itself, if necessary.
Now, here's a scary image: Above, you see a gentleman named Buck Steele and, yes, that's his real name. I know it sounds like a great TV western star of the fifties but Buck Steele is, in fact, 42 years old and he manages an AutoZone parts store in Pahrump, Nevada. This year, perhaps from too many months sniffing all those crankcase oil fumes, he was seized by an inexplicable urge…to fashion a Groo costume and to don it for the Masquerade Competition at the Comic-Con International in San Diego. Which, as you can see for yourself, is just what he did. For his aberrant efforts, he won a $200 prize — which should serve to all as proof positive that there's money to be made by debasing yourself and performing aberrant actions in public. This goes a long way to explaining the American political system.
My pal Jerry Beck is forever filling his Cartoon Research website with vital nuggets of animation info. In case you haven't checked in today, I'll save you a click and mention this one: A year or three ago, the folks over at Columbia/TriStar International Television decided to syndicate a package of old Columbia and UPA cartoons, including those of The Fox and the Crow and the early appearances of Mr. Magoo. They hauled long-untouched negatives out of their vaults, struck off beautiful new prints, transferred them to video and packaged them into 65 half-hours they call Totally Tuned-In. The series is being sold around the world but has yet to land an American berth. I'm sure it will soon and then you'll get to see these lost treasures, many of which are quite wonderful. In the meantime, you'll have to settle for this: The website for a Singapore-based kids' network is offering up online clips from the shows it airs, which includes Totally Tuned-In. Here's the link and if you go there right now, you may be able to catch a minute or two from one of the Fox & Crow cartoons. But stop by Jerry's site first.
The longest-running musical in the world is the off-Broadway New York production of The Fantasticks, which opened on May 3, 1960. That's right: May 3, 1960. Every few years, it posts a closing notice, thereby arousing enough interest and business that they rescind the end date and keep it going. Well, they're now saying it will close on August 12. We'll believe it when it happens.
Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme have set up their very own website over at www.steveandeydie.com. You can order a few of their CDs there (including a new issue of Golden Rainbow, a sixties' Broadway musical that fell into the "famous flop" category) but the real reason to visit is the gallery of vintage photos. You forget how long they've been around and how they've worked with everyone. I'm predicting here and now that, after the current resurgence of interest in The Rat Pack dies down, we'll be seeing Steve and Eydie biopics and impersonators.
Well, I don't know about you, but I had a pretty terrific time at this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego. If you were there, you probably did, as well. The place was packed and while no official attendance has yet been reported, they probably cracked the 50,000 mark with ease — which is all the more amazing at a time when you remember that very few comic books can sell even half that many copies per month. The spirit inside the hall was good, the people were all interesting (every last one of them) and, yes, Gene Colan was properly surprised at his surprise party. This is not to say there were not gripes, most of which had to do with the proverbial embarrassment of riches…
"The Exhibit Hall is just too big." It is. It was too big last year and, this time around, it was even bigger — so big, in fact, that several folks told me they just gave up on the concept of seeing all or most of it and instead picked one section to explore. With even more expansion planned for the future, I think the day is near when the con will have to be sub-divided; to have one section of the hall devoted wholly to publishers, one to back issue dealers, one to anime dealers, etc. This brings us to…
"Look how much of this place is not about comics!" Every year, less and less of Comic-Con International has to do with comic books while more and more is about motion pictures, animation, video games, glamour art and so on. I don't know if this trend is bad for the convention — I suspect it isn't — but it sure doesn't bode well for the publishing of comic books.
"There are too many events I want to attend opposite each other!" This year, the con had more than 300 programming items, including panels, lectures, presentations, film previews and seminars. I oughta know; I felt like I hosted about half of them. There have always been good and intriguing events occurring simultaneously but, if the comments I heard are any indicator, this is becoming more frustrating to some, having to pick which once-in-a-lifetime panel they're going to miss in favor of which other once-in-a-lifetime panel. (Fortunately, this year, all but one of the dozen panels I moderated were videotaped…though no one yet seems certain how and where those tapes might be available for viewing. I'll be presenting partial written transcripts here in the weeks to come but that's not like actually seeing and hearing the full event.)
"Where have all the Booth Babes gone?" This was only a gripe of some. Others were pleased that there were fewer unclad women about to hawk tawdry products. There was, however, one young lady strutting about dressed in something crocheted out of about ten yards of dental floss, her plasticity almost inviting one to wager on which parts of her, if any, were original equipment. Were I a betting man, I'd have laid a hundred bucks on clavicle and wisdom teeth.
"As the con gets bigger and bigger, the food gets worse and more outrageously priced." This is true. Next year, I'm packing a lunch. I also heard tales of folks parking miles away and/or paying a few appendages for the privilege.
These are, of course, "complaints" that stem from the success of the convention. They wouldn't exist if the thing weren't as popular as it's become, and it wouldn't be as popular if it weren't so damn much fun. Ergo, the peeves aren't likely to go away in the future, especially if the convention operators continue to do their usual fine job of convention operating.
By the way, to those of you who are e-mailing me to say you loved one or more of the panels I moderated: A lot of the credit should go to the con's splendid programming director, Gary Sassaman. And, in the spirit of learning from bad examples, some should go to all the dreadful, miscast panels I've been on and/or hosted at conventions over the last three decades. I believe that if you get the right panelists together with the proper topic, a rhesus monkey could moderate and you'd have an interesting panel. (Matter of fact, wouldn't you go to see a panel moderated by a rhesus monkey? I know I would.)
In the past, I've witnessed or participated in too many discussions of errant conception. One too-common mistake is to pack the dais with more participants than can comfortably be accommodated by the time constraints. Some cons think they have to put every guest on some panel or if, say, they're having something called a "Golden Age Panel," they have to include every body on the premises that was in comics before 1970. I once moderated a Golden Age Panel with, I think, 18 people on it and it was ridiculous — especially since two of them were Julius Schwartz and Gil Kane, each of whom is/was a panel unto himself. More is not always better because, with so many up there, no one gets to speak very often, which means their minds drift. General rule of thumb: When your panelists aren't paying attention, neither is your audience. That is, if you can even keep an audience.
I prefer panels with only a few participants. Seven is the max, five is better, three is just fine. Some of the best convention events I've hosted were just me interviewing one fascinating human being.
A large mistake that I think some conventions make is as follows: Whoever's in charge of programming thinks up some interesting (to him) topic, paying little or no attention to the expertise of the folks who'll be available to speak to said topic. He'll decide there should be a panel on — and these are all real-world examples — "Morality in Comics" or "The Art of the Fight Scene" or "The Karma of Super-Heroes." Then he will populate this panel with guests who have no interest in addressing the topic (assuming they even understand it, which is not always the case) and it will be unenthusiastically attended by fans who'd rather hear those people talk about their actual work. The topic of the panel should flow from those available to appear on it, not the other way around.
Anyway, I'll have more to say when I get around to writing up a whole column or two for Comics Buyers' Guide. For now, I'll just say that if you weren't at the con this time, start saving your dimes for next year, because it was great. If you were there, you have no need of my encouragement. You're already setting aside the money…and wondering where the hell you're going to park.
While I'm off at the Comic-Con International in San Diego, I thought I'd post some links and recommendations here, starting with a plug for Randy Skretvedt's terrific book, Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies. I never like to use the word "definitive" to describe something because it asserts that there's no reason for anyone else to tackle the topic…and, of course, there's always more to be said about anything. But Randy, who has had access to scripts, notes, studio records and data, has assembled a stunning portrait of how Stan and Ollie did what they did — which, of course, was to make the best run of comedy films ever made by anyone anywhere. You can order your copy of this "must-have" volume from Amazon-dot-com or, better still, via the website for Past Times Publishing.
You can also order some obscure Laurel & Hardy films (as well as other vintage videos) from A-1 Classics. They have a number of tapes that feature the solo comedies of The Boys but what interests me most are the foreign language films. For a time, the films Stan and Ollie made were not dubbed for other countries. They would actually re-film each movie — sometimes, several times in several languages — with Laurel and Hardy doing their dialogue phonetically and other actors brought in, where necessary, to play supporting roles. Hearing Stan and Oliver speaking Spanish or German is fascinating enough…but these foreign films also feature many scenes that were either never filmed for the American versions or filmed and cut out. Usually, they would take two two-reel comedies done for the American market and stitch them together with added scenes to form a makeshift feature for foreign release. Los Calaveras, for instance, is a Spanish language feature that combines two shorts — Be Big and Laughing Gravy — along with bridging footage and, for the Laughing Gravy part, an entirely different ending. Fascinating stuff.
The Broadway musical of The Producers (which we loved) will be the subject of a fancy coffee table book that will reprint the script along with photos and facts of its production. And on Sunday, August 5, PBS will premiere "The Producers": A Musical Romp With Mel Brooks, which will take us behind-the-scenes of the recording of the cast CD. If you can't wait 'til August 5, you can see about 5 minutes of the recording session (and hear samples of most of the songs) at this website.
Speaking of Mel: You can download sound clips and images from all his movies at The Mel Brooks Humor Site. But the most interesting thing there is a 1997 interview he did with The Jewish Journal in which he talks about doing The Producers as a big, splashy Broadway musical and maybe getting someone like Nathan Lane to star in it.
If you're a fan of Sheldon Mayer's wonderful comic book, Sugar & Spike, there are two websites you'll enjoy. Here's the link to one of them and here's the link to the other one.
Funny column by Molly Ivins on the proposal to rename North Dakota. Here's that link.
Good article over on Salon by Jaime Weinman about how Nick at Nite and TV Land, among other channels, delete scenes from the shows they're running to make more room for commercials. Here's that link.
Lastly: Michael Kinsley has a good piece on the stupidity inherent in the notion that we should have a constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning. (Like me, he thinks it's a cure for which there is no known disease.) Here's that link.
