Recently on Facebook, someone posted am image of the cover of Superman Family #181, which had a cover date of January of 1977. It was a very odd cover signed by Ernie Chua and I replied with a brief story about it. Several Facebook users suggested I repeat it here so I will…with slight alterations…

I own the original art to this cover. Ernie Chan had just changed his name from Chua back to the original family name and he was selling original art at a San Diego Con. He told me I could have anything in his display for half-price and this was marked at $10, I have a certain fondness for the kind of cover you look at and think, "What the hell was on their mind?" So I handed him a $5 bill. He was quite amazed that I wanted it.

A few minutes later as I was walking around the dealer room with it, Ernie ran up to me and handed me a very nice Batman page he'd drawn which he'd already signed to me. I tried to pay him for it but he said, "No, I insist. I don't want that cover to be the only piece of mine you have in your collection."

He said it was the first piece of art he'd signed as Ernie Chan since all the buyers he'd signed for earlier that day asked him to sign "Ernie Chua."
Incidentally, I pointed out to him that the Superman Family cover was inked but not signed by Vince Colletta. Ernie said, "I noticed. Vince inked in my name but there was no way he was going to put his name on a piece like that."

One correction to what I posted: I hauled the original cover out to scan it for this post and I noticed that on the back of it, the price of "$8" was written. So Ernie was asking eight for it and he gave it to me for four and threw in that very nice Batman page. Don't tell me I don't know how to get a bargain. (Later on, I paid Ernie to do a commission drawing for me and probably overpaid by enough that we came out about even on the deals.)

Showtime is now running a well-made documentary/portrait about John Belushi. It's cleverly crafted with some very effective animated sequences and loads of audio-only quotes from folks who knew him, many of them (like him) deceased. There are also numerous short clips from his work. As in most such films, the short clips are sometimes frustrating teases for the entire sequences which they don't show you. In a few cases, I could remember him doing something wonderful in the part they cut out.

But overall, I was not a huge fan of Mr. Belushi. I kinda wished he'd stuck around long enough to do some movies that would make me one. Animal House was about the only one I liked and while he was quite good in it, the many parts he wasn't in were as good or better. He was in some great sketches on Saturday Night Live but so was everyone in that first cast and most of them, I thought, showed more versatility and more allegiance to what I always thought was the First Rule of sketch comedy. That's the one that says you support the others in the scene. You don't make it "every man for himself."

Belushi moved me towards both a better and worse opinion of its subject. If the picture painted of him was true, he was one of those people who often mistreated others around him but had some sort of likeable, inexplicable quality that caused folks to hold him to a different standard and forgive behavior that they'd condemn in anyone else. I generally do not like such people, especially the self-destructive kind.

And yet, so many people in the doc who knew him spoke with such affection and respect that I kept thinking, "There was more to this guy than I thought." If a documentary can achieve that, it's probably a real good piece of work. You may like it even if you didn't like him. And yes, you know how the story ends…but that was one of the tragic things about John Belushi. Even when he was alive, everyone knew how the story was going to end.

From the 1996 Broadway revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, we have this fine number performed by Nathan Lane, Lewis J. Stadlen, Mark Linn-Baker, and Ernie Sabella. I've probably seen forty productions of this show and this was one of the best…

Happy December. I usually silence the ringer on my main phone line when I go to bed but I forgot last night. At 5:55 AM, I was awakened by what I assume was a Spam-type call. I didn't answer it but it was from Huntington Park, California where I know no one. Every single call I've ever received on my cell that was from Huntington Park was a robocall trying to sell me something.

I couldn't get back to sleep so I just stared at my bedroom ceiling — in particular at a little patch of light from the street outside — until I gave up and got up. I re-read something I'd written the night before…something with which I was quite satisfied when I turned in for the night. At (by now) 7:30 AM, I was a different person reading it and I didn't like what I read and erased most of it. I'm not sure if I need to re-read my work when I'm half-asleep more often or not at all.

All those fund-raising e-mails from Trump I've written about and quoted here have reportedly raised either $150 million or $170 million, depending on which news item you read. They all say that, though the people being asked to give it are being told it's to defend and maybe overturn the election, very little of that loot is going for that. It's going into a fund Trump can use for anything he wants. At times, Trump reminds me of a guy I once worked for who said things like, "In this world, you have to look at every single thing that happens and ask yourself, 'How do I make money off that?'"

It looks though that Trump's going to use at least a little of that money to lose Wisconsin three or four more times. That's at least entertaining.

Longtime TV producer/executive Herb Solow recently passed away at the age of 89. Herb was a "behind the scenes" guy involved with so many shows but the one most-often mentioned is the original Star Trek.

As his obit in Variety noted, "Solow was brought in by Lucille Ball after her divorce from Desi Arnaz to help revive Desilu Studios, where he helped develop and sell Star Trek to NBC — after CBS originally turned it down because it already had Lost in Space — as well as Mission: Impossible and Mannix to CBS. If you recall his name, it may be from this end-credit on Star Trek…

I could go on and on about other things he did. Among the other shows that might never have seen the light of a TV tube if not for Herb were Medical Center, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, Then Came Bronson and Man From Atlantis.

At various times in his career, he was an agent at the William Morris Agency, the head of Worldwide Motion Pictures and Television Production at MGM, Vice-President at Paramount Pictures Television, and at Desilu Studios, Vice-President for Live-Action Production at Hanna-Barbara and Director of Daytime Programs for NBC and CBS.

He was well-respected and well-liked in the industry and he did so much, I feel uneasy about mentioning one of his really minor achievements but I must: In 1976, a team of two young TV writers made their first-ever sale to this man, Herb Solow. Those two writers were Mark Evanier and Dennis Palumbo. Thank you, Herb.

I wasn't going to post any more Trump-related material but here's a link to an editorial in the National Review entitled "Trump's Disgraceful Endgame." It's the staff of one of the most staunchly-conservative publications in America telling a Republican president that he's harming the country. One excerpt…

Almost nothing that the Trump team has alleged has withstood the slightest scrutiny. In particular, it's hard to find much that is remotely true in the president's Twitter feed these days. It is full of already-debunked claims and crackpot conspiracy theories about Dominion voting systems. Over the weekend, he repeated the charge that 1.8 million mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania were mailed out, yet 2.6 million were ultimately tallied. In a rather elementary error, this compares the number of mail-ballots requested in the primary to the number of ballots counted in the general. A straight apples-to-apples comparison finds that 1.8 million mail-in ballots were requested in the primary and 1.5 million returned, while 3.1 million ballots were requested in the general and 2.6 million returned.

Okay…so Arizona just certified that Biden won its electoral votes. What is Giuliani now on these lawsuits? One for forty or something like that? A saner strategist might decide they're just making Trump's loss feel more legitimate, not less. One gets the feeling that Trump told Rudy, "Just get me a win anywhere!" Because even reversing the loss in Arizona — which was real unlikely to happen — would still have left Biden well north of 270.

There seems to be encouraging news about COVID vaccines but I won't take them seriously until my doctor takes them seriously. I've gotten a couple of inquiries from folks who are thinking they can stage a comic book convention next March or April who I think are kidding themselves. But maybe they should start thinking about how to configure conventions whenever we're in that transitional stage where the chance of catching the virus is plunging but not yet close to zero.

Will there be cons where you'll need to show proof of vaccination to get a badge? Where masks will be mandatory? (A lot of folks will wear them even if they aren't.) For that matter, will stores like Walmart and Costco and that big supermarket near you require proof of vaccination before they'll let you in to buy a can of salmon?

Some alarming percentage of Americans tell pollsters they won't take any vaccine. I don't know how they can say that when they don't yet know which vaccine it is, how safe it may be, what their personal physicians will say about it and such. But if you're dead-set against letting any vaccine ever into your body, how will you feel if/when CVS Pharmacy says, "No shirt, no shoes, no vaccination, no entrance"? What if the airlines all say it?

Even when this thing is over, it's not going to be over.

This kind of thing is why it's always interesting to dine with my pal, Charlie Frye…

More fun from Floyd…

In this post, I said — and I quote me: "And what do you want to bet the turnout for Biden's inauguration is way bigger than the turnout for Trump's…and Donald refuses to concede that, either?"

That was one of the dumber things I've said on this blog as my buddy Steve Stoliar pointed out in a message this morning…

I'd bet a lot against that statement. Because COVID will probably be at its most widespread and virulent on January 20th, due to the dramatic spike in recent weeks and the undoubted "booster shot" the virus gets from all the idiots who refuse to stay isolated at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year, I think Biden's inauguration will have, like, a dozen necessary people, strategically placed. Biden would want nothing to do with helping increase the number of COVID victims. Trump, on the other hand, plans to have a 2024 launch rally the same day (but of course!) and I'm certain thousands will show up, both in blind, brain-dead support of Trump and to "stick it to" Biden on his big day. Trump cares nothing about whether we live or die — only big numbers that feed his insatiable ego.

Afterwards, Trump will — in a rare display of accuracy — claim that thousands more attended his rally than Biden's sparsely attended inauguration. And he'll probably throw in how many more attended his first inauguration than attended Biden's as well. Welcome to the New Order.

And he'll probably add, "And wait'll you see how many turn out for my next inauguration in four years!" Yeah, you're right. I momentarily forgot about that disease we'd all like to not have to think about. And it sure will make a nice contrast if it's Biden on one channel being sworn in with a minimum of "Your Majesty" and Trump on another doing one of his "the world loves me" rallies.

Biden ought to announce he's dispensing with galas and balls and parties and all the royal trappings that, frankly, I always thought My Ideal President would dispense with just because they're wasteful and not what America's all about. We elect a public servant. We don't crown a King. He could set a good example by saying, as I have long wished every president would, "I thank you for your confidence in me and the best way I can thank you is to get to work instead of partying all night." And he'd also announce he would not play golf while in office.

Gene Davis wrote to ask…

I've been reading your blog for a couple of years now and really enjoy it. Thanks for all the information and entertainment.

You've done so much work involving voice actors for television programs. Have you ever done any similar work for advertising interests making radio or television commercials? If not, was it a personal choice or an understanding that people in your position don't work both sides of that street? How does working for advertisers differ from working on programs for voice actors? I'm not referring to a famous actor or entertainer who lends his/her well-known voice to a company (for example, Gene Hackman for Lowe's).

I directed Lorenzo Music a few times for Garfield-related advertising. It was exactly the same as directing him for the cartoons. He read the copy, I said either "Let's try it one more time" or — more often — "That's fine. Let's do one more for protection, then move on to the next line." Lorenzo needed about as little direction as any actor who's ever worked in animation.

And I directed Gary Owens once for some network promos — oh, and I also once directed promos with Mark Elliott, a veteran announcer that most folks think of as The Disney Movie Trailer Guy. This is Mark Elliott but that's not the thing I directed him for. It was the same amount of effort on my part as it was with Lorenzo. They read it once, it was fine, we did it again just in case…and we moved on. If you've hired the right voice folks, it's real easy. The casting and booking are often the hard parts.

But that's about the extent of it. I haven't done any more advertising stuff not because of any personal choice but because no one's asked me. The above minor instances were easy because no one who outranked me was present. I've heard (and even witnessed as a spectator) times when the sponsor or the ad agency was present, kibbitzing about every syllable of every word uttered as if the wrong read of a "the" would cause the entire commercial to fail and the company making the product would go bankrupt and the ad agency would follow them into receivership and everyone's children would starve to death.

I've had a little of that in directing cartoon voices…producers or network people sitting behind me, telling me they didn't like the way a line was read. But not much. I'd have no overall objection to working on commercials. It would depend on the product and the circumstances — who I'd be working with, whether I'd have a boss sitting behind me, etc.

The Washington Post has an "Oh, My God" piece about how Trump has been coping with his loss to Joe Biden (poorly) and with the repeated failure of his legal team to do anything to reverse the outcome.

And what do you want to bet the turnout for Biden's inauguration is way bigger than the turnout for Trump's…and Donald refuses to concede that, either?

The e-mails from Trump's minions continue to arrive. They've probably sent something like two hundred of them to an e-mail address that has never given them a dime and many of those messages tell me that President Trump considers me a True Patriot and is grateful for my support. Alternately, a few of them scold me for not sending anything and some of them address me as "Gary," plus I've gotten two for "Rick." All at the same address.

They all take for granted that I believe that Trump won by a landslide and that fraud is denying him his rightful second term. Sometimes, they claim that Democrats all know that too and we're all in on the scam. I'm waiting to see some sort of explanation for why, as state after state certifies the Biden win, Trump's forces don't show some of this undeniable mountain of evidence to a judge or even to Tucker Carlson. I can't imagine why. Can you?

Philip Bump has a theory: It doesn't exist.

Our pal John Ficarra was an editor at MAD for thirty-eight years. Do you know how many funny ideas and articles he dealt with in those years? More than ten! Read how some of them came about.

This just might be my all-time favorite YouTube video and I'm thinking of watching it every morning when I first sit down at the computer, just to get my day started properly. Take this video full screen on your computer and cue The Overture of Overtures…