Month: February 2009

Yore Gang

Jackie Cooper is still alive, but another member of the “Our Gang” cast has died. Shirley Jean Rickert, who wasn’t one of the better known players, has passed away at age 82. She’s the girl with the curly blond locks, as seen in the memorable “Fly My Kite” from 1931. Here is the complete 20-minute 2-reeler.

[MEDIA=22]

Grandma was played by Margaret Mann, who was born in Scotland in 1868. Whenever I watched this installment of The Little Rascals, as the series was called for TV syndication, I didn’t understand why there was an electric switch on the utility pole, and I knew it had to be harder than it looked for a bunch of kids to saw down the pole.

But what I really want you to notice is the unique and wonderful music by Leroy Shield. It’s quirky, catchy, original and unforgettable to anybody who heard it while growing up. Yet incredibly, Shield received no screen credit from producer Hal Roach. In the 90’s a band from the Netherlands (Holland gets mentioned a lot here, huh?) called The Beau Hunks released some fabulous CD’s of Leroy Shield’s music. Here’s a delightful rendition of “Hide and Go Seek”, which is featured prominently towards the end of “Fly My Kite”.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/FEB/HideandGoSeek.mp3]

Segue the beguine

One of the things that came about with the rise of FM alternative album rock radio in the late 60’s was the search for perfect segues between songs. Finding that just-right combination — sometimes a tight cut, other times a fade-out going to a fade-in — was a thing of joy to a disk jockey.

Today, with streaming services like Music Choice on cable TV and TheRadio.com on the Web, if a transition between songs strikes my fancy I have no idea if it was done intentionally by a person, or by accident by a computer. The use of narrowly focused genres is, for me, really limiting. I wish every service offered a totally wide open, free-form channel. In the 60’s you’d hear Donovan followed by Frank Sinatra. Steppenwolf and Dionne Warwick, back to back. The thing that drove the all-time greatest morning man in radio, WABC’s Herb Oscar Anderson, crazy was the very thing I loved — variety, from hard to soft.

Tonight on the drive home I heard Wall of Voodoo’s “Mexico Radio” (which has always sounded to me like it was inspired by Adam Ant), and the old DJ brainwaves got going, and in my head I heard the perfect follow-up track. So I’ve put them together on the audio player.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/FEB/WallofK3.mp3]

D.F. Rogers, Con Man

Last weekend, D.F. Rogers was at the NY Comic Con. The big surprise was seeing Gene Colan there. Last May and June, Gene was at death’s door, but Gene is still with his family who love him and his fans who admire him, and for that we are all grateful. Dennis sent some photos from the show, with captions.

Gene Colan with Captain American #117 page

Gene Colan checking out something I acquired at the convention — a page of original art from Captain America #117, penciled by Gene forty years ago. This is the issue that made me a Marvelite and True Believer!

Joe Sinnott with Captain America #117 page

Joe Sinnott holding the page from Captain America #117. Joe didn’t ink Gene Colan often enough, but this was one of their best (and earliest) collaborations. Joe said that he loved to ink Gene’s pencils because he could do a lot of brushwork on those patented Gene Colan shadows. Two of my all-time favorite artists — and people! I never fully realized until recently that they, along with the immortal Stan Lee, produced the issue that hooked me on Marvel Comics!

D.F. Rogers with Gene Colan

Gene Colan and D.F. Rogers at the 2009 New York Comic Con. It was a dream come true to see Gene back at the Convention after a one year absence due to health issues. He had a steady line of admirers who stopped by to say hello and get their art or comic books signed by Genial Gene.

D.F. Rogers with Joe Staton

Joe Staton and D.F. Rogers with two pages of art that I purchased from Joe. Archie published a four part “modernization” of Jughead last summer – with art by Joe Staton and Al Milgrom. This is the first page splash and the last page splash — fun stuff! It just came out a few weeks ago in a trade paperback and the art is reproduced much better there than in the original “digest” sized issues.

Thanks, Den! That reminds me. I have a couple of pictures of my own to show, from the NY convention back in November. Here I am holding the original Iron Man art to the cover of the Marvel Comic Tales of Suspense #93, drawn by Gene Colan. It could be mine — for only $42,000! I’d be tempted, but Eric starts college the fall of 2010.

DOuG pRATt holding TOS #93 cover

I’ve always had a particular fondness for that comic book. Here’s a cropped, high-resolution panel scan from a page of the TOS #93 interior original art. Ya gotta click to enlarge it, y’know…

Original art from Tales of Suspense #93

… and this is artist David Lloyd, who illustrated Alan Moore’s famous political thriller “V for Vendetta,” which was later made into what I think is pretty darn good movie.

David Lloyd with \

Dumber Runner

Why am I doing this?

Congratulations! We’re honored that you will be one of the competitors in the 113th running of the Boston Marathon. Registration for this year’s Boston Marathon sold out in record time, and we look forward to delivering you a memorable experience.

Oh, it’ll be a memorable experience, all right. When I’ve collapsed on Heartbreak Hill and they’re putting me in an ambulance. Every year I say I’m not in shape to run it, but this year I really mean it!

Man does not live by blog alone…

Daniel Lyons, the professional writer and editor who, for a time, was the blogging Fake Steve Jobs, has a column in Newsweek for everybody who ever thought they could make a living by blogging.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/183666

DogRat is a hobby. I’m not selling anything, there’s no advertising, and I have absolutely no expectation of the blog being anything more than an expense and time waster. For that matter, I don’t focus on any one thing, like the popular weblogs devoted to mining every minute bit of detail about a single subject. For me, DogRat is purely a vanity outlet.

Besides the single-subject blogs, I think the single-author blogs that work the best are the ones used to promote whatever it is the author really does for a living — cartoonists Jimmy Johnson and Scott Adams, and writers Mark Evanier and Brian Sibley, for example. Beyond those, the really big blogs, as Lyons says, “aren’t really blogs — they’re media companies that happen to feature, among other things, the work of some bloggers.”