Hey, did you see that Stephen Colbert is in this week’s normally conservative-to-milquetoast Parade magazine? It’s a good article. Don’t miss it.
By the way, I didn’t watch Colbert with Jon Stewart on the Emmys last week. I clean forget they were on! Sorry.
Since it seems I’m the primary provider on the Net for the audio from the two flexi-discs that Marvel Comics produced in the 1960’s, I thought I’d offer them with superior sound compared to what I posted five years ago. Here they are, remastered for the best possible audio fidelity.
Technical notes:
In 15 minutes you can learn about a Pratt family’s origins in England. I don’t know if there’s a direct connection to my own family. What I want to know is why there’s a rat in the middle of our name!
Note: This is a customized YouTube player with a playlist. It’s fairly intuitive to figure out.
One more comic book related post for today. There’s a fun video on YouTube from a fellow who posts his stuff under the header The HAPPY SHOW! It’s the Voices of Marvel record, from Stan Lee’s Merry Marvel Marching Society, put to a Flash animation.
The audio for this came from a transfer I made five years ago and posted here on my original Web site. I know it’s my recording because of the thump in the flexidisc that results in a “heartbeat sound” while artist Don Heck is on the phone.
I don’t know where the “Scream Along With Marvel” audio came from, but it’s not mine. The one I made sounds a lot better. I trimmed out most of the gap between the two songs. Did I do that five years ago, already?
[audio:http://209.51.142.186/~dogatco/mmms/mmms67.mp3]P.S. The HAPPY SHOW! has separate videos for my audio transfer of the Scream Along With Marvel songs. I’ve put them together in a customized YouTube player.
The BBC documentary about comic book creator Steve Ditko is available on YouTube. Being lazy, I waited for Mark Evanier to provide the link. It’s a particularly good link, because it will play through the entire 60-minute program.
[NOTE: Well, this sucks. The playlist is gone and the player is SNAFU. Evanier’s embedded player is likewise broken. Once again I emphasize that when I can download from YouTube I do it. And I’ve done it just now.]
This sort of material is, in a way, validation of a hobby that I held onto so strongly, but only with some difficulty, in my youth. If you knew how tough it was as a 15-year-old to be enthusiastic about comic books back then, you’d appreciate how satisfying it is to see the people who created those comic books treated with the same respect as professionals in any other legitimate business. Much of the credit for that must be given to Stanley Lieber, otherwise known as Stan Lee.
Stan has always been a tirelessly upbeat promoter of the industry, and his praise for the work of others is undeniable. Every single Marvel Comics “Bullpen” artist — from Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, to Gene Colan and John Romita, to Don Heck and Dick Ayers — did some of their best work for, and with, Stan.
As great a creative force as Jack Kirby was, his dialog was extremely stilted, to the point of sometimes being unreadable. As powerful as Kirby’s art was, the editors at Marvel’s competitor DC weren’t wrong in calling his characters ugly. Ditko’s drawings of people were likewise unattractive, to the point of being grotesque. Stan, as editor and art director, was essential to making it possible for Kirby and Ditko to realize their fantastic visions, and for making their work palatable to Marvel’s primary buying audience — children.
Having said that, I was a bit dismayed that Stan’s normally jovial composure broke somewhat when Jonathan Ross pressed him on the point of giving Steve Ditko co-creator status for Spider-Man. I fully appreciate the legal and financial ramifications of saying a character worth hundreds of millions of dollars belongs not to a corporation, but to people. Taking the next step and saying credit rightfully belongs to two people, not just one, further complicates the matter.
In the documentary, Stan explains that Ditko refused to accept use of the word “consider” in a letter that Lee wrote to Steve, acknowledging his contributions to the creation of Spider-Man. Lee seems to want to brush off the word as if it carries no implication, yet he uses it again when Ross insists on a clarification. The adult in me understands and accepts Lee’s position, but the fan in me is disappointed.
In a post about Grace Kelly in the movie The Swan I asked who the boy was that played her younger brother. It was Van Dyke Parks, first a child actor, but best known for his musical collaborations with Brian Wilson.
Van Dyke’s lyrics have been characterized as being obscure, most famously the line “columnated ruins domino” in “Surf’s Up,” a song that was originally a centerpiece of the SMiLE album that Wilson abandoned, but finally completed and released in 2004.
Here is “Surf’s Up” as recorded for the Beach Boys album of the same name in 1971. Another great example of the virtues of Vinyl Music. Rubber Soul.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/SEP07/SurfsUp.mp3]