Dick Tracy’s first appearance, October 4, 1931.
Dick Tracy today.
Joe Staton and Mike Curtis are doing great work, making Dick Tracy a lot of fun to look at and read. I heartily recommended clicking here to go to the new team’s first installment in the series, back on March 14, then keep clicking and reading. Then I suggest paying a measly $12/year — $11.88, actually — to join GoComics as a paying subscriber. If you like comic strips it’s a real deal, and the best 99¢ a month you can spend.
I owe Phil Shepardson a lot. When I was a senior in college he lined up an internship for me at the local radio station. I must have done all right, because it turned into a paying job before I graduated. By happy accident, that was how I met Bismo, who called the station when I asked a Star Wars trivia question. “What color is Darth Vader’s light saber?” Bismo said “blue” and I’ll never let him live that down. 😉
Tonight I learned that Phil Shepardson passed away a few months ago. Here’s an obituary. Five years ago, I wrote a bit about Dr. Phil, as we called him at Westfield State College, before there was Dr. Phil.
You know the tirelessly upbeat, fun, and engaging personalities of Cousin Brucie and Stan Lee? That’s what knowing Phil Shepardson was like. He was a true multi-media man and a kindred spirit. Phil loved cartooning, and he would challenge me on my definitions of art vs. illustration, and films vs. movies.
When The Empire Strikes Back came out, I happened to run into Shepardson at a supermarket, and he wanted to know what I thought of the movie. We had a lively discussion about the phenomenon of blockbuster movies merging with fandom, which he didn’t particularly welcome, and he wanted me to explain it to him. Was it a generational thing, or a commercial response to the excellent films of the early 70’s? That was the sort of discussion that Shepardson loved to have. Here’s to you, and farewell, Dr. Phil.
The Atlantic is running a must-see photo series on World War II. They’ll finish it at the end of the month. This picture is from the latest installment, on the Allied invasion of Europe.
One of the garage door torsion springs broke. Yesterday I called the local office of the Precision Garage Door franchise. The technician is here now, and he seems like a good guy, but the price he quoted was outrageous. The whole job should cost about $250, taking into account that we live in an expensive area, but they wanted $350 just for the springs! None of the cars are in the garage, so the work doesn’t have to be done immediately. I told him I’d pay the $75 service charge and he could leave. He called his boss and I got a better price, and it’s still way too much, but I can live with it to get the work done on a Saturday. Anyway, watch out for this outfit. I’ll never use them again.
Mr. Trololo says, in his own unique way, “life is good!” In his case, it was good despite chafing under the yoke of Soviet-era Russia.
This video went viral about 18 months ago. At first I didn’t recognize it when it was pointed out to me today, but then I remembered watching this segment of The Colbert Report.
The Colbert Report
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Last night Jon Stewart had another good opening monologue.
Mitt Romney will be the GOP Presidential candidate, and I’m betting he’ll win the White House. The Tea Party won’t want him because he’s a Mormon and he enacted Romneycare, but he’s OK with the money guys, so he’s in. Romney should make fellow Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown his running mate, and then Democrat Elizabeth Warren will go to the United States Senate. I bumped into Romney once, literally, when he was Governor of Massachusetts, and as I pointed out a long time ago, Romney has a Pratt in his past.
