Words of Discouragement

The first time I met Joe Sinnott was at the 1972 New York Comic Art Convention that I attended with, and thanks to, mih.

That was the first time Joe met Jack Kirby, as well as my only time meeting Kirby. It was made extra memorable when, with me an earnest 16-year-old fanboy, Kirby actually pushed me out of his way to speak with someone! Joe never pushed me out of his way, but I used to push him around when he found a wheelchair useful. 🙂

Another interesting New York ’72 encounter was with the comic book professional named Kane who wasn’t Bob. When I mentioned my hope of drawing comic books, he replied, “Kid, we don’t need the competition.”

Using a thinly disguised name, this is another less than flattering memory of the pro in question, from the highly respected comic book writer/editor, Archie Goodwin. Keep in mind that Goodwin had previously written numerous projects for him to illustrate.

1-Track Tape

Techmoan discusses a piece of audio equipment that I used to know very well in my radio days. A Spotmaster broadcast tape cartridge deck.

The sample he has could record as well as play tapes. Those were used in the production studio at the station where I worked and I had one in my little news room.

I produced a countless number of carts for news broadcasts. Those were either taken from phone calls recorded on reel tape and edited onto cart, or dubbed from cassette recordings I made in the field.

In the broadcast studio there were Spotmaster decks that only played tapes. Those didn’t have a VU meter. Another difference was they had a large, square play button that lit up when the tape was running. Much better for working live on air.