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 Saturday, November 03, 2007
Secrets behind the Comics
Posted by maggie
My Secret #1 is (remember it this time, Maggie) copy the doggone post before hitting "Post to Weblog." Try it again ...
I just pulled out my copy of Secrets behind the Comics, a 1947 pamphlet by Stan Lee (illustrated by Ken Bald, lettered by M. Acquaviva) and found it fun yet again.
Secret #1 is:
"Stan Lee is the Managing Editor and Art Director of Timely Comics Inc. He has been in complete charge of more comic magazines than any other living editor. Some of the many comic magazines which Stan Lee has edited and been Art Director of, are:
"Marvel Comics, Blonde Phantom, Human Torch, Official Comics, All-True Crime, Young Allies, Sub-mariner, Justice, Millie the Model, Patsy Walker, Miss America, Junior Miss, Georgie, Willie, Hedy, Tessie the Typist
"And dozens more ..."
Secrets included how to recognize artists' styles (comparing and contrasting work by Ed Winiarski and Vic Dowd, both of whom drew "Hedy Devine"). It's a neat booklet -- has it ever been reprinted?
11/3/2007 5:15:05 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00) 
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Do You Know Secrets behind the Comics?
Posted by maggie
The Evil Gremlin ate this posting -- and you'd think I'd have learned by now, but ...
Snarrrlll
11/3/2007 5:08:08 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, November 02, 2007
When Daylight Savings Time Ends, Do You Know Where Your Smoke Detectors Are?
Posted by maggie
The weekend lurks right around the figurative corner, and it's this Sunday that we emerge from Daylight Savings Time. I mention it now, because on more than one occasion, weekend conventions have confused my VCR timers or my own plans. If your video recorder is at all elderly, it won't make the change automatically (and, in fact, I've long since disabled my DST "ability" on that equipment, since it's now a disability).
Also, I remind you that you're supposed to change the batteries in any smoke detectors in your habitation this weekend. It's a good routine, no downside. Just saying ...
11/2/2007 8:33:50 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, November 01, 2007
A New Whedon TV Series? Yay!
Posted by maggie
A friend just sent me this link to an interview with Joss Whedon about his new series, Dollhouse, starring Eliza Dushku.
It's just one more reason we should all cross our fingers that the issues in a potential writers' strike are quickly resolved for the happiness of all.
11/1/2007 12:38:17 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tales from the Crypt Was Also on NPR
Posted by maggie
I don't know how many folks clicked through to hear my son's Halloween music musing on National Public Radio yesterday, but I thought I'd point out that on the same Morning Edition with that broadcast was a featurette on Tales from the Crypt.
The interview featured Papercutz Editor Jim Salicrup, and I'll just mention that, before long, CBGXtra will feature a brief video interview with Jim on that same Tales from the Crypt series. I'll give you a heads-up on our video before much longer. Whee!
11/1/2007 12:22:36 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, October 31, 2007
How Times Change
Posted by maggie
It used to be, when I had an annoying cold, that Mom would consign me (chest smeared with Vicks smelly petroleum jelly) to a nest of fluffy pillows, wherein I would lounge, wheezing and coughing and aching, to plow through my stacks of aging comic books. On my bedside table would rest a large glass filled nearly to the brim with what she called "ice-cream chocolate milk." It was milk with Quik blended in, then re-blended with generous scoops of vanilla ice cream that were left more in particles than was the case in ordinary milkshakes. It was deliciously throat-soothing: a comfort that clearly added to the already-beneficial nature of the rest, Vicks, and comic books. Today, in the sixth day of a wheezing, coughing, headachey cold, I sit at the office computer terminal to wrap up the next issue of Comics Buyer's Guide. Ah, but when I'm done? I'm thinking about fluffy pillows, ice cream, and comic books. Have comics helped you cope?
10/31/2007 8:49:01 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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And Here's Stephen's Halloween Music Essay
Posted by maggie
You can simply read the text -- or you can listen to the report, complete with Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and more -- at NPR.
10/31/2007 8:25:56 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Stephen Thompson on Morning Edition
Posted by maggie
Son Stephen just called to let me know that he's scheduled to have a brief essay on NPR's Morning Edition on Halloween (tomorrow). That is, of course, if breaking news doesn't pre-empt it till next year.
10/30/2007 12:18:03 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Not to Worry ... Or Maybe We Should Worry?
Posted by maggie
Almost immediately after I posted yesterday's remarks, we lost phone service here in Iola. Seems a cable was cut about 10 miles away, and repairs were under way. When would service return? Well, later in the day. (Just before I went to bed last night, my cell phone was operative again, so we were offline less than 12 hours.)
So no problem. Except that we don't yet know whether e-mails out or in have been lost forever in the aether. And we don't know who tried to reach us unsuccessfully. And, wow, it was frustrating trying to get our jobs done. (I'll just check this spelling via Goog ... Oh. No. Never mind. I'll just call my buddy ... Oh. No. Never mind. Maybe my cell phone? No. Never mind. And so on.)
Which brings up dark thoughts about what we could do if we had a real emergency. What ever happened to the Civil Defense system, anyway?
10/30/2007 6:11:50 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, October 29, 2007
Why?
Posted by maggie
Why is it that, when a show is popular enough that multiple seasons are released on DVD, the earliest, most varied, wildest episodes are nowhere to be seen? I refer (as I did in an earlier posting) to SCTV. There are four seasons available on DVD -- and a three-disc set that Kindly Brent brought in this morning. That set is titled SCTV: Best of the Early Years, and I must say that I deny the title. The earliest episode is dated Oct. 21, 1978 -- and the best of the early years, doggone it, are those for which Harold Ramis was Head Writer and appeared in the show: 1976-77. Doctor Tongue's House of Cats, the aforementioned Ben Hur (in which Ben Hur was told that his mother and sister had become -- not lepers but -- leopards), the installment-long Captain Combat (with his sidekicks Mr. Green Fatigues and Gunny Rabbit -- and introduced by kiddie-show host Muley, who was Harold Ramis as the Grapes of Wrath character played by John Qualen) ... Impossible to describe, so it'd be absolutely terrific to have any of these to show the delicious difference between the always-imaginative, wildly varying early sequences and the 87 virtually identical later routines featuring Edith Prickley or the McKenzie Brothers. Obviously, later episodes had charm of their own, but my heart belongs to the fresh delights of syndicated episodes from 1976 and 1977. I hope I have some few buried among the stacks of Beta tapes that languish on my shelves -- but I'd prefer to put money in the pocket of Shout! Factory, which is the firm that's been releasing these other sets. Come on, guys. Let's see SCTV: The Harold Ramis Years!
10/29/2007 11:05:58 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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It Figures
Posted by maggie
I watch virtually no broadcast TV these days, preferring to wait till seasons wrap up enough for a DVD release. The Daily Show and Colbert Report on Comedy Central are so timely I try to watch them (the next day). And the one show I watch as it airs is Heroes. So what happens? The only other broadcast show I want to watch this week is tonight's American Masters on PBS: a 90-minute episode titled "Good Ol' Charles Schulz." It goes on today at 8 p.m. Central Time. Which is precisely when Heroes Season Two Episode Six, "The Line," airs. The difference between these days and the torments of the 1960s is that I have multiple recorders and grim determination. But still ...
10/29/2007 10:46:46 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Sunday, October 28, 2007
And at Half Price Books I Found ...
Posted by maggie
... for a total of $13, a bunch of public domain silents. Quality of prints is almost certainly mediocre, with film run at the wrong speed, but the films are excellent and will do until Kevin Brownlow or someone similar does The Perfect Restoration:
Blood and Sand 1922 [One of Rudolph Valentino' hits.]
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1920 [John Barrymore in the dual role]
The General 1927 [This is one of my favorite movies, and I'm sure the print doesn't come up to the magnificent Brownlow restoration of the Buster Keaton classic, but it was part of the set.]
The Hunchback of Notra Dame 1923 [A Lon Chaney classic.]
The Mark of Zorro 1920 [Douglas Fairbanks buckling swashes.]
Pollyanna 1920 [Mary Pickford playing "the glad game." Hayley Mills was great 40 years later, but I'm curious to see this earlier version.]
Robin Hood 1922 [Douglas Fairbanks at the top of his form.]
10/28/2007 6:35:44 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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