DOuG pRATt – Page 363 – Prattling Before the Pratfall

In the Classical Records Department of Your Local Public Library

Coming from the hugely successful first five years of Saturday Night Live, Dan and John tweaked the King Bees sketch concept and came up with a real winner. An exuberant and unique live album, recorded as the warm-up act for Steve Martin.

Palmer Art

Tom Palmer was as much a commercial artist and painter as he was a comic book inker. Here are a few examples.

I love these hard-boiled, cheesy magazine covers.

From short-lived Skywald Publishing, where Sol Brodsky continued in the tradition of his old Magazine Management boss, Martin Goodman.

From Marvel in 1978, this is the cover to the second comic book telling of the Beatles story. Joe Sinnott illustrated the first one, in 1964.

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When I was eighteen, the drinking age was eighteen. Except for taking a couple sips of Miller beer — or maybe it was Schlitz — when I was seventeen, I waited until I was legal.

I’m lucky regarding alcohol, because I’ve seen, and lived with, its effects on others who weren’t so lucky. I enjoy good beer and wine very much, and fortunately there is never a feeling of “needing” a drink. For that I am grateful.

My problem with alcohol is that having a second glass of wine or more than a pint of beer can sometimes affect my sleep. It depends on how much I’d eaten and how late in the evening I had the drinks.

A 4-pack of pint cans from the local craft breweries has been my typical weekly beer consumption. The cost for a double IPA 4-pack is approaching $20, and it’s going to get worse, once the carbon dioxide shortage hits.

https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2022/07/29/co2-shortage-hits-massachusetts-breweries

Lessee… $20/week… if I were to buy every week is… that’s over $1000/year for beer! So I do have an alcohol problem.

Radio, Radio

Somebody says that today is National Radio Day. So be it.

In 1978, after my DJ shift at the radio station, where my net pay was $100/week ($450 today), I’d be in the production studio working on writing and recording commercials. I’d return to my $25/week rented basement room and listen to an amazing new album.

Correction: I checked, and I was taking home $97/week.

The Silver Age Slips Away

Another old comic book pro, Tom Palmer, has passed away. There aren’t too many names left from the 60’s. Palmer arrived to the business later in the decade, earning immediate recognition, especially for his inking on Neal Adams’ run on X-Men. Those issues are among my most all-time favorite comic books.

https://www.cbr.com/tom-palmer-avengers-xmen-tomb-dracula-obituary/