Harvey Kurtzman created MAD Magazine, which is, sadly, apparently about to fold. Kurtzman also inadvertently helped put Monty Python together, as I explained here.
There’s a brand-new book out, called The Art of Harvey Kurtzman, and I’m sure if I buy it for Dennis on his birthday, he’ll buy me a copy for my birthday. That way we don’t feel like we bought our own copies.
I have more posts to publish, but a couple of things have come up, including a surprise bit of correspondence from somebody who I have featured prominently here. I’d like to say more, but I don’t know yet what direction this exchange will take, so for now the prudent thing for me to do is remain silent.
P.S. (24-hours later): Now it can be told. The mystery correspondent is none other than the stunning PRUDENCE BURY herself. I kid thee not. Prue has some things she would like to say, as you will soon see for yourself.
Tonight is the first installment of Stephen Colbert’s visit with the troops in Baghdad. Gen. Ray Odierno, under a direct order given by his Commander in Chief, gave Stephen a buzzcut! Don’t miss it!
I love Colbert, but I’m enough of a realistic/cynic to suspect the timing of his visit to Iraq isn’t coincidentally following Conan O’Brien’s first week on his new shift. And this week’s issue of Newsweek features Colbert as guest editor. It’s out now, but our copy (I’ve subscribed to Newsweek for 25 years) didn’t arrive in today’s mail.
Greetings from the Dunkin’ Donuts in Winchendon, MA, where around the corner is the end of a dream. Tokyo Game Action was Andy McGuire’s dream of turning a vacant bowling alley into a video arcade that was so good it would be a destination for serious gamers — and for Eric it was.
Nearly six hours after the auction began to liquidate all assets, it’s still going. I’ll post more about this later from home.
The radio program Marketplace has a segment on the struggles of syndicated cartoonists in the age of print media turmoil. The story starts at about 4:15 in the audio player.
[audio:http://download.publicradio.org/podcast/marketplace/morning_report/2009/06/05/marketplace_morning_report0550_20090605_64.mp3]I still get two daily papers, and last night, through Amazon.com, I subscribed for the first time to The New Yacker — er, Yorker — magazine. I figure it’s the one weekly periodical that should persist in printed form.
Stephen Colbert’s face has been sitting on the blog’s header for a reason. Next week the shows he recorded in Iraq will be aired. And next week’s issue of Newsweek is guest-edited by Colbert. (Note: the comments that are currently on the page at that link look like mine would if I weren’t so good about killing spam.)
Forty years ago, and for years more after that, I admired Charles Schulz and Stan Lee more than anybody else. My new idols are Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart.
Correction: Colbert arrived in Baghdad yesterday. There will be four shows, each aired the day it is produced as they are in NYC.
