Here’s more about the initiative to restore and preserve the boyhood home of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel. I can see the point of getting ordinary people to contribute, and I’m glad there are famous names associated with this project, including Stephen Colbert and David Letterman, but why doesn’t Warners take care of it? They own Superman.
Category: Stephen Colbert
Batman joker Colbert
Stephen Colbert has finished his Make McCain Exciting Green Screen Challenge. He gets in a couple of good critiques of two of the final entries, including an excellent Batman-related joke the submission is lacking.
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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Major Colbert Coup
If there were any doubt of Stephen Colbert’s clout, tonight he had both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama live on his show. Not together, and Obama was on camera remotely, but still very impressive.
Battlestar Colbertica
There was a new Tek Jansen installment on Stephen Colbert last week. I’ll leave it to you to find it on ComedyCentral.com. There was also this funny pass-off from Jon Stewart to Colbert.
[flv:/Video/2008/APR/ColbertGalactica.flv 440 330]Thanks to my buddy Bismo, we’re very much into watching Battlestar Galatica on DVD. Very impressive with Emmy-winning special effects by Bismo’s friend Mojo Lebowitz, as seen on the Panasonic PT-AX200U projector! We’re about to start season 3, so the last thing we knew, the Cylons were occupying the new terrestrial settlement. Please, no spoilers!
Coffeeless Colbert
I’m feeling lazy tonight, so instead of lovingly transferring a Colbert Report video from the FiOS DVR, I’ll embed it from Comedy Central. This means, of course, it will probably no longer be available to you viewers who are visiting here in the future.