Ten days ago I spoke here about Maus. It’s been revealed that one week before then, on January 10, Maus was banned from a school district in Tennessee.
Jonathan Pierce, the board member who initiated the vote to remove Maus from the eighth-grade curriculum, said during the meeting that the Holocaust should be taught in schools, but this was not the book to do it.
Today happens to be Holocaust Remembrance Day. So now the question is, what Holocaust books does the McMinn County School Board allow in its schools? Being Tennessee, gotta wonder if they’re teaching “Intelligent Design” as scientific fact.
Peter Robbins, the best-known voice of Charlie Brown, has taken his own life. It’s being said that Robbins was the first voice of Charlie Brown, but I am not certain of that.
It’s both fun and frustrating, tracking old films and TV shows — the ones that are still covered by copyright — from one outlet to another. I was in the middle of watching every episode of the original The Outer Limits from 1963-64, in order and commercial-free, on Amazon Prime. Before I could get to the second (abbreviated) season, the series was no longer included with Prime subscriptions.
I didn’t know where it could be found for free viewing until replacing Fire TV with Roku, and there it was, with commercials, on the Roku Channel. I intentionally skipped one of the second season episodes, saving it for last. Then, with only the final episode remaining to be seen before returning to the skipped episode, The Outer Limits disappeared. But where? I don’t know.
Eight of the very best episodes are in a LaserDisc box set I own. The episode I skipped is, by far, the most familiar and renowned. “Demon With a Glass Hand,” written by Harlan Ellison. This picture was taken when resorting to Plan B, and watching it on LaserDisc.
Robert Culp and Arlene Martel in Demon With a Glass Hand
Having not watched “Demon with a Glass Hand” in a long time, I was able to see something new in it. In a moment of, “it’s so obvious!” I realized it is a perfect template for a video game.
The action starts at street level, with Trent capturing and interrogating an alien invader. He learns how they are arriving on Earth, and how to kill them, which requires hand-to-hand combat. He has the goal of destroying the alien’s method of entry and, along the way, he must find the fingers that are memory modules for the computerized glass hand that is mysteriously grafted onto his arm. There is a terrible secret that can’t be revealed until the hand is complete. From there Trent enters the famous Bradbury Building. He must defeat the aliens he encounters at each level, with new aliens continuing to arrive as he climbs upstairs, floor by floor. He meets the only other human in the building, a girl who is told by the hand how to help Trent.
My resident video game expert informs me that Ellison was involved with a game version of his story “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.” Being so perfectly suited for adaptation as a video game, I don’t know why “Demon With a Glass Hand” wasn’t given the same consideration.
If you have never seen “Demon With a Glass Hand” here is a copy on Daily Motion with a link to — WTF?? — InfoWars! I have no frickin’ idea why the demonically possessed Alex Jones has been associated with this video.
Another complete copy I found, on Vimeo, requires getting permission to embed it, which I’m not going to request. If you would prefer that copy, here’s the link: https://vimeo.com/637062245
This is some silent Technicolor test footage done at RKO in the 1930’s. Most of it is rather mundane, so the video will start at the good part, with Dolores del Rio encountering a creature from Son of Kong.
Last week I noted that Art Spiegelman’s Maus won a Pulitzer Prize. It was the first, and so far it’s the only, graphic novel to be awarded that distinction.
The category of graphics that the Pulitzer people have recognized for exactly one hundred years is editorial cartooning. But no more. From now on, the category will be called Illustrated Reporting and Commentary. Cartooning is not illustration, and if they think this somehow dignifies the craft, it doesn’t work for me.
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists seems to be taking the change in stride. Maybe some of their Illustrated Reporters and Commentators will have something to say about it.
FYI for cartoonists entering the @PulitzerPrizes. From their site: "The Editorial Cartooning category is now called Illustrated Reporting and Commentary. Redefined last year, the category recognizes "a distinguished portfolio of editorial cartoons or other illustrated work"
