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October 20, 2001

I REALLY ENJOYED The Warren Companion, a new book from TwoMorrows Publishing, edited by Jon B. Cooke and David A. Roach, chronicling the company that brought us Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, Famous Monsters of Filmland and many other intermittently-wonderful magazines from the sixties and seventies.  (Full Disclosure: I write a column for another TwoMorrows publication, The Jack Kirby Collector.)  Expanded from an issue of Comic Book Artist, this 288-page volume is filled with interviews with Jim Warren himself and many of those who contributed stories and/or artwork to his magazines over the years.  One does suspect that most parties are speaking nicer of one another than they might have, were their employer/employee relationships a more recent memory.

Still, the book does succeed in capturing a lot of what was, at the time, obviously unique to Warren Publishing.  Its monarch was a charismatic, mercurial entrepreneur whose long list of skills did not include going unnoticed.  Through determination and ingenuity — neither of which are intrinsic to most publishers — he built not only an empire but a new format for comics.  Others emulated with much less success, and I suspect the explanation is to be found in this historical overview: Others simply did not work as hard, and throw themselves into pioneering and nurturing a fragile marketplace as did Jim Warren.  Read all about it in this nifty new book.

ALSO, THERE was a recent article in Salon entitled "Bin Laden As Lex Luthor" in which writer Gale Holland attempted to view the world's new real super-villain as cut from the same mold as Superman's arch-nemesis.  I don't really endorse the analogy (and told her that when she interviewed me for the piece) but, hey. I'll link to any piece that quotes me.

By the way: As I mentioned recently here, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has begun charging for on-line access, which means I can't read my favorite political columnist, Gene Lyons, at least for free.  Fortunately, a thriving e-mail network has erupted so someone sends it to me each week...and the website, www.bartcop.com has started posting it regularly.  Lyons' column appears Wednesday mornings so it'll probably turn up on Bartcop later that day.

I have no political observations this week.  I'm battling a deadline and, even if I weren't, I think I'd be avoiding the news.  From what I can tell, we're well into the category of Lotsa Scary Stuff, and the reporters have so much time to fill, they're making it sound like more of a crisis than it is, inflating by hours the six minutes of actual news they have to offer.  And the White House may be launching the ground war just in time, insofar as keeping domestic support up and running.  If they can't announce some sort of major "win" soon — i.e., we've arrested some major terrorist, bio or otherwise, or killed someone close to Bin Laden — the patience of certain right-wingers will be exhausted.  We are long since past the stage where they'd be screaming about incompetence and possible impeachments, were they getting the same level of results from President Gore.

MY BUDDY Earl Kress noticed something interesting on Late Night With Conan O'Brien.  Not long ago, they unveiled a new set which shows a majestic New York skyline.  When the show returned to the air following the 9/11 tragedies, the skyline was draped in funereal cloth as if to suggest a city in mourning...a nice touch, but one that apparently had an additional purpose.  The folds in the cloth caused some segments of the skyline to be totally obscured and, if Earl's deduction is correct, the drape was placed carefully so that the folds covered the World Trade Center.  Its Twin Towers were right in the center of the skyline, situated such that it would have been in the background of every two-shot of Mr. O'Brien and whoever was in the guest chair.  Perhaps this was just a temp measure until they could have the backdrop repainted, or perhaps so they didn't want to immediately show the panorama minus the World Trade Center.  Whatever, the drape has now been lightened so it no longer obscures that area...and you can now see that the skyscrapers have been removed from the tableau.

In the meantime, the late night shows are struggling with what to rerun when they need to do this.  The Tonight Show will be dark next week and they're re-airing shows from earlier this month.  In fact, on 10/22, they're recycling the broadcast of 10/11, which already reran last week in the NBC Overnight slots.  That was a pretty good episode but three times in twelve days?

LIKE MANY folks who live in L.A., I am good at spotting celebrities as I go about my daily routine.  For some reason, I go through periods when I seem to run into the same ones over and over, and I occasionally find myself observing their public "performances."  For instance, years ago, wherever I went, there was Rip Taylor.  I saw him so many times in so many places, I figured it had to be some kind of franchise deal — you know, like Starbuck's or Mrs. Field's.  Somewhere, a company was telling people that for a modest investment, they could open their very own Rip Taylor.

I once eavesdropped on, and was impressed by, the way he handled an awkward situation with some tourists who sort of recognized him.  A couple from Dubuque (or wherever) began gushing over how much they loved him on TV and simply had to have his autograph...but as the lady fished out paper and something for him to write with, she said something that made it clear they both thought he was Paul Lynde.

Mr. Taylor did not show any sign of reaction, nor did he embarrass them by correcting their error directly.  He knew that once he signed, the issue would be unavoidable so he made like he hadn't heard what she'd said and then told them, "Thank you for not yelling my name out and attracting attention.  Sometimes people see me and they yell, 'It's Rip Taylor,' and everyone looks and it's embarrassing."  You could see the tourists' expressions change as they realized this was not Paul Lynde, and both made the too-obvious gesture of saying, "Thank you, Mr. Taylor," hoping he hadn't noticed their mistake.  But of course, he had...and he'd spared them a moment of humiliation.

Lately, I am unable to do any marketing without encountering Robert Klein and I am delighted to report that he is as funny and charming in the produce section of Gelson's as he is on stage.  He's currently doing the Bob Patterson show, which neither I nor most of America is watching.  Matter of fact, I suspect more people are seeing him in the market, where he jokes with other shoppers, greets folks who approach him with some tenuous connection ("My sister-in-law was the Production Assistant on your third HBO special") and makes no effort to either disguise who he is nor attract undue attention.  Nothing I overheard was quotable, even when he was behind me in the checkout line, paging through some tabloid and registering shock, if not at the headlines than at the fact that folks pay good money to read them.  Still, I have seen long-running TV shows that I thought were less entertaining than watching Robert Klein buy groceries.  I think it's a series.

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