Category: Comic Books

Use The Force, Charlie Brown!

I’ve never been to the Comic-Con in San Diego, but they don’t need me there because it’s the biggest fanboy (and girl) convention anywhere. The fun includes everything from Charlie Brown to Star Wars, and Mark Evanier will be there, of course. If I were attending, on Friday I’d have to run from his panel with EC artist/writer/editor Al Feldstein over to this one:

4:45-5:45 It’s a Great Comic-Con, Charlie Brown — Together for the first time at Comic-Con, Warner Home Video, United Media and the Schulz Estate bring you a Peanuts voice cast reunion in celebration of several great holiday DVD releases this September and October. Featuring Chris DeFaria (Peppermint Patty), Gabrielle DeFaria Ritter (Pigpen), Lisa DeFaria (Peppermint Patty), Sally Dryer (Violet and Lucy), Robin Kohn Glazer (Lucy), Jason Mendelson, Hilary Momberger (Sally), executive producer Lee Mendelson, and Jeannie Schulz, the wife of Charles M. Schulz.

Wow! I’d love to be there. An hour devoted to celebrating the fun of Peanuts, and an opportunity to say hi to Jeannie Schulz and Lee Mendelson.

Hajdu, Don’t Make It Bad


Peanuts, June 22, 1952

Comic books, like the movies, were under attack in the 1950’s. Movie people were accused of being communists, and comic book people were accused of causing juvenile delinquency. A book by David Hajdu, called The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, gives some serious thought to what happened and how it influenced later events beyond comic books themselves. Stephen Colbert, who’s obviously a comic book fan, interviewed Hajdu a couple of weeks ago.

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There’s irony in the “TV 14” rating that’s so prominent during Colbert’s introduction. It’s almost like the Comics Code Authority seal that appeared on comic books after the big scare. Oh no! How did that commercial get left at the end of the interview?

EC Comics publisher William Gaines did a lousy job testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1954. His entire testimony is at this link. He should have emphasized that his horror comics were inspired by radio shows such as Inner Sanctum, Lights Out, and The Whistler. But there was probably no defense against the public sentiment of the day. In a way, losing the comic book business was the best thing that could have happened to Gaines, because he was left with MAD Magazine, which was far more subversive and influential anyway, and it ended up being vastly more successful.

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CSI: Cardboard Submarine Immersed

When FiOS kicked in with all of the HD channels I wasn’t getting, but should have, I also started getting HD Video on Demand offerings. I like Gary Sinise’s work, so I watched a few episodes of CSI: NY. One was really good, another was pretty good, but one was flat-out lame. Here’s the big finish.

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This really gets my comic book fan hackles going. It portrays comic books as having a bad influence on kids, and I’m really tired of that misconception. In fact, it makes comic book readers look stupid, and their parents too, because in the show what those kids needed was some adult supervision.

How old is the character supposed to be whose friend drowned in the cardboard sub? At the oldest I’d say he’s 35. And the death happened when he was, say, ten years old. Better make it eight. Ten-year-old kids aren’t that stupid. OK, so that means the flashback takes place 27 years ago, in 1981. The drawings appear to be the character Bullseye, from a Frank Miller issue of Daredevil. Miller took over writing the series in late 1980, and that type of ad was long gone from comics by then. The age of the newsstand comic book was pretty much already over, and comic book shops had taken over. Further, there weren’t any “Laughing Larry” type figureheads that I can recall, for any of the cheap outfits advertising in comics. And the idea that he’d still be in business is, well, silly. But I bet the character actor playing Laughing Larry had a good time with the part, because he looks like he usually gets stuck playing a gangster.

Polaris Sub ad from Marvel comic book

Above is one of the original ads for the cardboard submarine, taken from a 1967 Marvel comic. I never owned one, but Boing Boing has a picture of the real thing, also from 1967, at this link. Hmm… maybe they’ll do a show where some kid dies abusing the Digi-Comp 1.

Once Upon A Time The Superheroes

On YouTube is a French documentary, in English, about comic books that’s from a 2002 UK DVD, when the first Spider-Man movie was released. It’s called Once Upon A Time The Superheroes, and I haven’t watched it yet, but from a quick scan it looks pretty good, although not in the league of Jonathan Ross’ In Search of Steve Ditko. I’ve put together a playlist that assembles the ten parts.

(Did you notice what’s strange about the opening moments?)

A Cool Exec With a Heart of Steel

When I was in the 11th grade, for Christmas I wanted nothing but records, and one of those albums I wanted because of one song in particular…

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… later, in 1975, Paul McCartney did this song:

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Titanium Man and the Crimson Dynamo are Iron Man villains. The comic book stories I read forty years ago were wild and unbelievable, but today what’s even more unbelievable is those same super-hero stories are the basis for major high-budget movies. The Superman movie in 1978 I thought of as an exception to the rule. The Hulk TV show, a re-working of the The Fugitive, was more typical of what was being done with comic book material.

The previews for the new Iron Man movie look good, and it’s getting generally favorable reviews. Hey, it’s better than playing Grand Theft Auto 4. Now that’s trash!

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I’m glad that the comics I loved as a kid are finally socially acceptable, because believe me it was tough remaining a comic book fan past junior high school. It’s beyond my comprehension how we got to this slick, crowd-pleasing, powerhouse movie from these humble, semi-animated beginnings that nobody over twelve dared admit to enjoying…

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Tecch Support

A little ways back I posted a clip from the first Superman movie, with Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor. In that scene his henchman, Otis, played by Ned Beatty, has a black eye. Lex gave it to him earlier in the movie after Otis screwed up a slightly challenging technical assignment.

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Those numbers may as well be an IP address! I love this scene, and I’m fond of quoting it at work, because it perfectly dramatizes the reality of life in high tech, where support people who are earnestly working hard, and trying to do their job right, nevertheless totally screw it up.