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April 8, 2002 · 4:30 AM PDT · link

WE HEREBY PLUG and recommend a lovely little book entitled A Gallery of Rogues: Cartoonists' Self-Caricatures.  It's a whole buncha pictures of the world's greatest cartoonists drawing themselves, as collected by the late Mark Cohen.  Mark was a much-trusted artists' agent — a description that is too often an oxymoron.  But he was a good guy with a true love of silly pictures and the people who create them.  For his own collection, he amassed self-portraits and they were compiled into this hardcover book, with interesting and informative bio-text by R.C. Harvey.  You can, in fact, order a copy from R.C. Harvey's website and if you ask politely, he may even sign it and draw his own caricature in the front of the book, as he did in mine.  Even if he doesn't, this is the kind of volume that has a very special, labor-o'-love feeling about it, so I hope they sell a lot of copies.

Matter of fact, I'll sell one for them right now: Attention, Gary Grossmann:  Yes, there's a self-portrait of Sergio in this book and, yes, there's a drawing of Groo in that self-portrait.  There.  I just moved one copy...and maybe more if any of you have a little taste, good sense and thirty bucks.  If this thing weren't great, would I be writing a plug for it at 4:30 in the morning?  Of course not.

April 8, 2002 · 3:30 AM PDT · link

ALAN KING has a nice remembrance of Milton Berle in The New York Times.  Here's the link.

April 7, 2002 · 4:30 PM PDT · link

MEMBERS OF the Screen Actors Guild are currently voting on a proposal that would allow Talent Agents to become more involved in the producers' end of TV and movies.  This is an abominably bad idea for reasons which are well-articulated in a letter from Richard Dreyfuss that's posted over at www.actorsrights.org.  While you're there, you can find loads of other reasons why this should be voted down.  Let's hope it will be.

April 7, 2002 · 12:30 AM PST · link

BACK IN 1965, one of those cartoon studios that is no longer around produced 39 half-hours of a silly, hip, cheaply-animated series called Roger Ramjet.  Like the Jay Ward cartoons (which they vaguely resembled), the shows made up for the factory-second animation with superior voice work and very funny, very hip scripts.  The latter — and some of the former — were provided by the comedy writing team of Gene Moss and Jim Thurman, while the lead role was essayed by the unparalleled Gary Owens.  Gary (seen above, at right) is easily one of the funniest, nicest men in the teevee/radio business.

Two DVDs of Roger Ramjet episodes have just been released.  If you ever saw the show, no further recommendation is necessary.  If you never had the pleasure, believe me — it's a pleasure.  The shows move like gangbusters, paced in a manner that reminds one of another Owens enterprise, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, of which it was said, "If you don't like a joke, just wait.  Another will be along in twenty seconds."  Moss and Thurman had a wickedly wonderful sense of humor which also manifested itself in a hilarious local kids' show they did for L.A. television called Shrimpenstein.  (One of these days, I'll have to write a long piece for someplace on Shrimpenstein but I can't resist quoting one thing here.  It was a live show with Moss playing a character not unlike what Boris Karloff would have done if he'd had Soupy Sales's job.  It was on Channel 9 here opposite Roger Ramjet on Channel 11.  One afternoon, a Shrimpenstein sketch became hopelessly fouled-up.  A prop didn't work and so they had no ending.  Moss sighed, turned to camera and said, "While we try to fix this, kids, why don't you turn over to Channel 11 and watch Roger Ramjet?  It's a lot funnier than anything you're going to see here today.")

Having the two programs opposite one another was agonizing for me since, in those cro-magnon, pre-VCR days, I had to pick which to watch.  Figuring that since Roger Ramjet was animated, it would get rerun, I usually opted for Shrimpenstein — a sound strategy but, alas, it meant I didn't get to see all the exploits of the fearless Mr. Ramjet.  I remember some of what's on these new DVDs but some of it is new to me.  Please buy these so they'll make more and I'll eventually be able to see all the episodes of one of the cleverest cartoon shows ever done for TV.

You can find out more about Roger Ramjet over at www.rogerramjet.com.  You can also order the DVDs (or the primitive VHS releases) on-line from Amazon, either over at that site or by clicking on the Amazon box farther down on this page.  Either way, you'll get to see a lot of very funny cartoons that you've probably never seen before.  And how often we do get that opportunity?

April 6, 2002 · 5:00 PM PST · link

I love this kind of thing:  Matt Frondorf put a 35mm camera (the kind that takes film) in his car and aimed it out the window.  Then he connected its shutter release to the odometer on his car.  The first photo he took was of the Statue of Liberty.  He then drove west in as straight a line as possible with his camera rigged to take one photo every time the odometer ticked off another mile.  3,300 miles and 3,300 photos later, the last picture was of the Golden Gate Bridge.  You can see all 3,300 pictures at this website.  (Thanks to my buddy Daniel Will-Harris for calling my attention to this one.  Daniel's website is a great place to visit if you're interested in fonts or web graphics or even rodents.)

April 6, 2002 · 2:30 PM PST · link

CONAN O'BRIEN has recently been having a lot of fun exhibiting figurines obtained from a Catholic products catalogue.  The line — and these were meant seriously; that's why they're so funny — depicts Jesus participating with kids in various sporting activities.  There's baseball, basketball, hockey, etc. — even Tae Kwon Do which, Mr. O'Brien notes, is an example of Jesus counseling children to settle their differences via hand-to-hand combat.  Anyway, if you're interested in obtaining any of these, here is a link to the website for the company that sells them.

(You'll have to hunt around the site a bit.  They have them segregated by sports, so the Jesus Playing Soccer figure is not on the same page as the Jesus Goes Golfing statue.)

April 6, 2002 · 2:00 PM PST · link

ANYONE HERE remember Flav-R Straws?  I didn't think so.  But I do and I've written a little piece about a favored way of turning my milk blue when I was a kid.  You can read it over in NOTES from me.

Recommended Reading: Michael Kinsley's latest syndicated column — which you can read by clicking here — makes some intriguing points about human cloning and the politics surrounding the concept.  I have no idea how I feel about the topic but this piece sets me to thinking...always a dangerous activity.

April 5, 2002 · 8:00 PM PST · link

INTEREST IN THE UPCOMING Evening With Stan Freberg (hosted by moi) is running high...so high that it's been moved to a larger venue!  We will probably fill this one up too, so act now or don't come whining to me, whiner that you are, that you couldn't get a seat.  We're going to run a bunch of cartoons that Stan did voices for...for Warner Brothers, Republic, UPA, maybe MGM and a few off-brands — and I should explain that these are being chosen (by Jerry Beck of Cartoon Research) more for their historical importance and rarity than their entertainment value.  Some will be very entertaining indeed but one or two may stink a little.  No matter.  The idea here is to hypnotically regress Mr. Freberg (a la Bridey Hammerschlaugen) and force him to tell us what he can recall about his days as a voice actor, from the early forties, until today.  Matter of fact, one of the offerings will be Little Go Beep, a rather recent WB theatrical short which features the voice of Guess Who.  So a good time should be had by all.  Here's our "ad" again with updated info:

April 5, 2002 · 2:00 PM PST · link

I THOUGHT FANS of the old Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (of which I am one) would enjoy this news photo.  Mr. Rowan is no more but Dick Martin and a number of cast members and other celebs were present the other day when a star was unveiled for Rowan and Martin on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  That's Dick kneeling with the plaque and Ruth Buzzi is just behind him wearing a baseball cap.  At right is a cluster of cast members: Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Lily Tomlin, Joanne Worley and Gary Owens.  (Gary is partially obscured by Arte.)  At left are some guest stars, including Dick Van Dyke, Don Rickles and Richard Crenna...but let me point out the real stars in this photo.  The gent with the purple tie kneeling at left is Johnny Grant, "the Ceremonial Mayor of Hollywood and Chairman of the Walk of Fame Selection Committee," who I mentioned in this article.  And the woman peeking out from behind Dick Martin's head is his wife, Dolly, who was the star of the cinema classic, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.  If I had my way, it would be Dolly getting the star and Dick looking on in loving admiration.

LITTLE TRIVIA TREASURES continue to turn up on Game Show Network's Black and White Overnight.  The other morn, they aired an I've Got A Secret from 1959 that I recall seeing when it first aired.  I would have been seven at the time but my little feat of recollection is nothing compared to one of the guests on that broadcast.  His name was Jack Chambers and his secret was that he'd memorized that day's edition of The New York Herald-Tribune.  Before the show, he'd absorbed all the news stories and, after his secret was revealed, the panel grilled him on random articles.  He couldn't recite pieces verbatim but he had almost all the details.  There was, for instance, a news story about a boating accident that had claimed a dozen lives and he was able to recall the names and ages of the victims.  He'd also memorized the crossword puzzle.

I remember Mr. Chambers from a brief period when he had a unique show on one of the local TV stations in L.A.  Basically, each day, he'd memorize that morning's Los Angeles Times and viewers could call up and quiz him on anything in the paper.  Usually, it was restricted to news stories and the crossword puzzle but, some mornings, he'd announce he'd had a little extra time so he'd also memorized the sports section or all the recipes...and I vividly recall one day when he included the comic strip page and someone made him quote the dialogue in Moon Mullins.

The show was only on for a few weeks, as I recall.  I guess once viewers saw that he could do it, they lost interest.  I suspect if they did it today, everyone would figure it was a trick; that the guy was reading it off the TelePrompter or something.

ANYONE WATCHING the new format on Crossfire on CNN?  They've completed the process of turning it into Wrestlemania, adding in a live audience and two new hosts on the left.  They even have a bell that rings to signal the end of rounds.  James "Ragin' Cajun" Carville is now the liberal main man but most of the heavy lifting so far seems to be delegated to Paul Begala, who comes armed with a good sense of Theatre and a raft of cheap shots about George W. Bush's military record and electoral legitimacy.  They're of a piece with all the cheap shots about Clinton's genitalia we've endured for eight years and I don't much like them (the ones about Bush or Clinton).  Still, I have to admit that there's a certain fun in seeing Bob Novak getting bitch-slapped, time and again, by the same kind of thing he and his fellow Republicans have done for years to Democrats.

The problem with a show like this, of course, is that it really is Wrestling.  One guy always has to take the liberal position; the other has to defend the conservative viewpoint, no matter what.  Show me a man who consistently takes the liberal or conservative side on every issue and I'll show you someone who hasn't thought things through very far...or maybe, as in this case, doesn't really believe in the positions he defends to the death.  In his newspaper columns (like this one), Novak has been critical of a number of actions, or lack of action, on the part of the Bush Administration.  But put him in the Crossfire format and he has to defend Bush about everything and act like all criticisms are childish nonsense.  Same with the guys on the other side of the table.  Ultimately, you get the feeling any of them could easily switch chairs if the money's right.  And may.

Oh, well.  At least, the new Crossfire gives us a choice.  We can watch it and see the liberal mop the floor with the conservative.  Or we can switch over to Hannity and Colmes on Fox and see the conservative mop the floor with the liberal.  Maybe one of these days, some network will put on a show where people discuss issues from different viewpoints.

JUST ADDED a few new panelists to the events I'm hosting at Wondercon.  You'll see their names in a day or three when I re-post my schedule.  Also, concurrent with Wondercon in the same hotel and operated by the same management is a thing called ProCon, which is a series of seminars for folks who write and draw comic books.  On Sunday afternoon, assuming the calendar works out, I'll be babbling on for an hour or so about how not to get screwed over when you're hired to create something...kind of a spin-off from our articles here about Unfinanced Entrepreneurs.  I hope to be joined in this discussion by another writer if he's willing, but I have enough painful anecdotes to go it alone, if need be.  Don't we all?

April 5, 2002 · 12:30 AM PST · link

NOPE.  Still don't have time to post much of anything, but that should change, this weekend.  Speaking of this weekend, I wanted to mention that my longtime chum, Scott Shaw!, is appearing in Santa Cruz this Saturday with his high-larious Oddball Comics Slide Show.  Here's a link to an article about Scott that will tell you where he'll be and what he'll do.  And if you can't make it to Santa Cruz, you can at least click to his daily column at www.comicbookresources.com.

And after you go there, enjoy more intellectual content by clicking here.  And still more by clicking here.  Hi-Ho!

April 4, 2002 · 12:00 AM PST · link

STILL SWAMPED but I wanted to recommend Colleen Doran's new column over at Slush Factory.  Colleen is a magnificent creator of fine comic books and she gives good, hands-on advice for anyone in any field who's coping with deadline problems and an inability to output work at a desired pace.  Can't imagine how anyone could have gotten themselves in a bind over this kind of thing but, if it happens to you, heed her words.

And if you're desperate for some good, intellectual content, click here.  Or here.  Or even here.

April 3, 2002 · 3:30 AM PST · link

BARRING SOME planet-shattering news, there won't be any updates here for a day or three.  The operator of this website is buried in deadlines and scarcely has time to post this.  But keep checking back because he'll make it up to you.  Somehow.  Hey, if you're really bored, here's a link to a website all about cheese!

April 2, 2002 · 1:30 AM PST · link

A REVIEW/REPORT: How Now, Dow Jones is what some call a "lost musical" — that is, one that is almost never performed.  With a book by Max Shulman (creator of Dobie Gillis), lyrics by Carolyn Leigh and a score by Elmer Bernstein, it arrived on Broadway in December of 1967 and departed 220 performances later, having lost its entire capitalization.  That it ran as long as it did was largely due to an incredible advance sale which, in his book The Season, William Goldman attributed to the title.  The show had no huge stars (Tony Roberts, Brenda Vaccaro and Marlyn Mason were the three biggest) and its creators had no great track record...so the huge pre-sale had to be because of the title.

Goldman claims it was irresistible to "theatre party ladies" — women who arrange charity functions wherein a group sells a huge block of theatre tix to its members.  The title suggested something light and frothy about the stock market, which was perfect for the kind of businessmen who pay for tickets to such charity events.

That's Mr. Goldman's theory and I can't say he's wrong...though it occurs to me that it also suggested something similar to How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, which had been a huge hit, not all that long before.  In any case, though the show had one semi-hit song — "Step to the Rear" — it wasn't a success, and hasn't been revived often since then.  Until last evening.

Monday evening, the Musical Theatre Guild staged — for one performance only — a "concert version" of How Now, Dow Jones at the Pasadena Playhouse.  Since I never saw the Broadway version, the following is just a hunch: I think we saw a better show than the folks in New York 35 years ago.  Even without sets or much in the way of rehearsal, and with actors who were still (mostly) reading from their scripts and had never before performed it before an audience, the production was enormous fun.  The four lead roles were performed by Larry Raben, Mary Jo Mecca, Jennifer Gordon and Doug Carfrae and all were excellent.  Also excellent was the musical direction by Brad Ellis, who is a helluva talent and a helluva guy.

This is the kind of thing that "concert versions" should do: Shows that won't otherwise get performed and which may even profit from a humble production.  I suspect How Now would have gotten lost in a full-scale production with sets and costumes and choreography but it worked well on the Pasadena Playhouse stage.  The storyline doesn't make a lot of sense —

Oops.  Just realized I haven't summarized the storyline.  Briefly, a woman named Kate works on Wall Street as "the voice of Dow Jones," announcing the latest averages.  She has been waiting years for a low-level broker named Herbert to marry her.  Herbert, however, won't wed until he gets a promotion, which won't happen until the Dow Jones average hits 1000, which it never has.  (This is 1967)  Frustrated, she runs off and has a one night affair with another low-level stock market employee named Charley, which results in her getting pregnant.  Charley's about to marry someone else so, in a panic to give her child a father, she announces that the Dow has hit 1000.  This touches off a huge buying boom, followed by all sorts of financial disaster when her fib is revealed and...well, like I said.  The story doesn't make a lot of sense —

— but it almost doesn't have to.  The songs are fun, the book is peppered with funny lines and the actors have wonderful, juicy roles which they play to full advantage.  You can't go see this production but maybe its reception tonight will prompt others.  This is a show that does not deserve to be lost.

I HAVE A PET PEEVE which might be termed "The Trivialization of Words Which Oughta Be Inflammatory."  It's when you take some minor injustice and liken it to some true, monumental wrong.  I know a voice actor who can't get hired by a certain studio because the folks there who do the hiring think he's not very talented.  Instead of accepting that, he says, "The studio has blacklisted me," thereby trying to make them seem as evil and misguided as the industry-wide conspiracy that once drove certain talented writers and actors out of the business and, in a few cases, to their deaths.  One employer deciding on his own not to hire someone does not constitute a "blacklist."  In the same spirit, an animator I know has taken to describing the current spate of layoffs as "The Holocaust."  Frankly, I don't think one should invoke words like "The Holocaust" unless actual murders and racial genocide are being committed.  (Years ago, when I first got into computer bulletin boards, I believe I started a rule that caught on.  It stated you weren't allowed to describe someone as a Nazi unless they were actually heiling Hitler and/or invading Poland.)

This brings us to the recently-expressed sentiment in some quarters that Speedy Gonzales cartoons have been "banned."  No, they haven't.  The Cartoon Network, which controls them all, has simply decided not to show them at this moment, the same way the Cartoon Network doesn't show a lot of films that it owns.  "Banning" would be like if the government came in and forbade the exhibition of any animated motion picture that featured a supersonic rodent character, voiced by Mel Blanc doing a cliché Mexican accent.  That is not what has happened here...but do an Internet search for "Speedy AND Gonzales AND banned."  See how many write of the cartoons' absence as if jackbooted government censors have kicked down doors and burned all the prints.

The films in question have been generally withheld because there is no upside to exhibiting them...only potential problems.  The folks at Cartoon Network have about a thousand Warner Brothers cartoons in their library plus zillions more from Hanna-Barbera, MGM, Ruby-Spears and other producers.  Given the rapid rate at which audiences seem to tolerate and even enjoy reruns, there is no harm (to them) in omitting a few cartoons that involve racial stereotypes from the schedule.  There is, however, a possible downside if certain groups protest and/or sponsors get uncomfy.  I think it's dumb to get upset over a silly little cartoon mouse and even dumber to fold in response to that pressure (or, dumbest, the possibility of that pressure).  But I understand why they do it.

Only they don't, really.  In truth, Cartoon Network occasionally sneaks one of those racially-sensitive films into the air with no fanfare.  I don't know if they've run a Speedy Gonzales lately but they will, probably without calling huge attention to it and thereby daring folks to object.  The more they can do this, the closer those cartoons are to joining the normal rotation.

Also: Currently on the Internet, one can sign several petitions (like this one) that ask Cartoon Network to free the imprisoned Señor Gonzales.  Ordinarily, I think protest movements designed to move TV networks are a colossal waste of time that almost never cause the desired change.  This one, however, might have some impact.  A groundswell of requests — or even a trickle that can be passed off as a groundswell — could provide some moral cover for Cartoon Network.  If and when they run the cartoons more blatantly, objections can be met with, "We're only bowing to demand," thereby making them look less like spreaders of ethnic caricatures and more like public servants.  In any event, the Speedy Gonzales cartoons will eventually lose their leper status and be aired more routinely on TV...whereupon they'll be largely ignored.

This is because of one point which I don't think alters the current argument but I might as well make it.  It's that the vast majority of cartoons that featured Speedy Gonzales were pretty lousy.  The character is kind of cute and might still have some merchandising potential...but more than half his cartoons were done during the late period wherein DePatie-Freleng Studios was producing the cartoons for Warner Brothers.  The non-Speedy cartoons created under that arrangement are rarely shown and no one cares, no one clamors to see them, no one mounts protests demanding their exhibition.  The Speedy cartoons from that period are no better.  Of the earlier Speedy Gonzales cartoons, it's true that one won an Academy Award and three more garnered nominations...but by that point, so few theatrical cartoons were being made that, each year, WB could pretty much designate which of its films would get nominated.  At the time, they had great merchandising hopes for the mouse so WB applied its corporate muscle there.  (Also, Friz Freleng — who was directing Speedy's appearances — was the senior director and he wanted the films hyped for Oscars.)

But Speedy's films aren't particularly great and most people — including many who are protesting their unavailability — probably wouldn't watch them if they were routinely available.  That, of course, is not a reason to "ban" anything.  It is, however, an excellent reason to not run them...at least, not very often.

A FRIGHTENING STATISTIC: The third issue of our current Groo mini-series — Groo: Death and Taxes — is now in stores.  Gary Grossmann, who is perhaps our most dedicated fan, informs me that, as of that issue, there have been 4391 original Groo comic pages.  Yow.

April 1, 2002 · 1:00 AM PST · link

NO, NO APRIL FOOL'S DAY jokes here...but they're popping up across the Internet.  Drop by everyone's favorite search engine, www.google.com and click on the link that says, "The secret technology behind Google's amazing accuracy."  And check out today's headlines on www.broadway.com.

March 31, 2002 · 1:30 AM PST · link

AS USUAL, we recommend the new issue of The Jack Kirby Collector, and not just because we have a column inside.  Editor-Publisher John Morrow does his customary fine job of assembling articles and artwork about The Man, and the tabloid format enhances the latter so much that you won't mind (much) the hassle of storing the thing.  The cover is something of a gem.  In 1969, Jack was snookered into producing a ton of artwork for a Los Angeles-based company called Marvelmania International — a mail order firm that had licensed the right to manufacture Marvel merchandise in the guise of a fan club.  The fellow who operated Marvelmania was not the most honest guy in the world.  I worked there a while and quit when the full magnitude of his duplicity became apparent.  Many of us were either never paid, or paid way less than we were owed.

Jack was promised hefty sums of cash to draw dozens of things, including eight posters of Marvel heroes that the guy at Marvelmania promised to market.  The eight drawings represented some of Jack's finest work, and he actually inked them himself, which was something he rarely did.

Only four of the eight were ever issued and, though poorly printed, they sold well...which, of course, did not mean that Jack received the promised hefty sums.  He got only a few bucks for the four that were released and nothing at all for the others.  The Captain America drawing that adorns the above cover was one of those that weren't printed as posters — and what a terrific, dynamic piece of work it is.  So are all the lost Kirby treasures you'll find in The Jack Kirby Collector, which you can find at your local funnybook shop or order direct from www.twomorrows.com.

It'll run you $9.95 and if that strikes you as high, just remember it's $9.95 more than Jack got for drawing the Captain America poster.  Einstein supposedly once said there was a compensating rule of talents.  That is, if you were very, very good at playing the violin, you'd turn out to be very, very bad at something else to balance.  Jack Kirby was very, very good at creating comic book art and very, very bad at getting paid for it.

THE WONDERCON is in Oakland, California from April 19 through 21.  Wanna know what panels I'm hosting?  Good.  Then this button won't go to waste...

AS ALL CONNOISSEURS of quality television are well aware, the new version of the game show Press Your Luck is called Whammy! and it debuts April 15 on the Game Show Network.  They've jazzed it up with bells and whistles and high-tech goodies, none of which should harm the strategy/chance elements of the program that I always found fun...but none of which should help, either.  You can see a short on-line preview of the new version by clicking over to this page.

RECOMMENDED: www.ifilm.com is a website that allows you to watch short films (or excerpts from them) on-line.  I've had occasional technical problems there but they have an abridged version of one film which you may find worth the hassle.  It's a brilliant short called "Truth in Advertising," and it's all about the ad business.  It was, in fact, made only to be shown at one advertising industry function but it was too good to not make it into the real world.  If you're feeling adventurous, here's a link that will take you to the ifilm page for it.  And, yes, that's Colin Mochrie among the players.

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