Saturday, January 30, 2010
Return of Cat Lady part 2
This page (as well as the forthcoming page 3) are scanned from a different copy of the comic than page one. Adequate Publishing's comic book line is so obscure that very few complete issues remain, and most collectors are willing to pay top dollar for a few pages of story.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Poop-A-Lot Returns
Boy, what a hack this guy was. No originality at all. It sure was different back in 1939.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Carpé Diem and Horus Cat
Carpé Diem, born Dolores Diamanski-- one of the unsung female heroes of the Golden Age of Comics. Gone but not forgotten. I hope to have some scans of her Crazy Cat Lady comics here in the future. So funny that her Horus looks so much like my good friend Horus.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Poop-A-Lot Jones (1939)
Back then, they could really get away with kinds of gags that would never get into a modern comic book.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Uncle John hated Andy Kaufman
This is just a random memory that popped into my head this morning and made me laugh, so I wanted to write it down.
When I was a kid at some family gathering at my parent's house in the Bronx, our rich Uncle John the retired banker was one of the guests. He sat in my father's comfortable Archie Bunker chair and, since he had a captive audience, he began to pontificate on the state of culture and the media, which he thought were in terrible shape.
To illustrate his point that our entire society had gone to hell in a handbasket, he described in detail the Andy Kaufman Mighty Mouse routine. He had seen it on Johnny Carson or Dick Van Dyke or Johnny Cash or something, NOT on Saturday Night Live. He did not remember Kaufman's name, he just referred to him as "this fellow." If you can imagine a distinguished-looking white haired republican with a well-manicured mustache livid with furious anger describing in minute detail every aspect of the Mighty Mouse routine, you've got the picture. I was rolling on the floor. I mean that literally-- I had been sitting on the floor when he began his tirade. I remember he ended by saying incredulously, "THIS is what passes for ENTERTAINMENT nowadays!"
I told him excitedly, "I saw him do that routine on Saturday Night Live! He's one of my favorite comedians!"
Uncle John never liked me.
When I was a kid at some family gathering at my parent's house in the Bronx, our rich Uncle John the retired banker was one of the guests. He sat in my father's comfortable Archie Bunker chair and, since he had a captive audience, he began to pontificate on the state of culture and the media, which he thought were in terrible shape.
To illustrate his point that our entire society had gone to hell in a handbasket, he described in detail the Andy Kaufman Mighty Mouse routine. He had seen it on Johnny Carson or Dick Van Dyke or Johnny Cash or something, NOT on Saturday Night Live. He did not remember Kaufman's name, he just referred to him as "this fellow." If you can imagine a distinguished-looking white haired republican with a well-manicured mustache livid with furious anger describing in minute detail every aspect of the Mighty Mouse routine, you've got the picture. I was rolling on the floor. I mean that literally-- I had been sitting on the floor when he began his tirade. I remember he ended by saying incredulously, "THIS is what passes for ENTERTAINMENT nowadays!"
I told him excitedly, "I saw him do that routine on Saturday Night Live! He's one of my favorite comedians!"
Uncle John never liked me.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Theories on standup comedy
I am not nor have I ever been a standup comedian. But since I've worked with a number of comediennes over the years, I've been forced to endure more standup than I would have liked to. There are two basic approaches among the many that I would like to single out for criticism here in this blog. Now the point of both of my blogs is to write about stuff I really LIKE, so this entry doesn't fit either one. That also explains why there are so few entries in either blog, I have a hard time not being judgmental. I listen to Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra mp3's telling me not to be judgmental every single day, yet still find it hard to be an artist without theories, or to have theories without separating the wheat from the chaff and making a definitive decision on what works and doesn't work for me.
Okay, the two approaches to standup I have the hardest time with are sort of inverse versions of each other.
The first is the kind most used by hosts of shows. I get the sense these are all guys who think they should be more successful than they are, and they're angry at everyone because of it. If they could draw, they'd have become cartoonists so they could sit at home and make fun of everybody in private, but since they have no talent whatsoever, they decide instead to go into standup "comedy." They come unprepared for their own gigs, walk out and grab the mike like an alpha male chimp, then glare around the room looking for people who are different to make fun of. This guy will come up with cute nicknames for each of the people in the crowd. The idea is to hope that the tourists in the audience are too stupid or drunk to realize that he really means the insult and he actually does despise you and only want your beer money and for you to tip the bartenders.
The other approach I have zero respect for is the ass-kissing inverse of this-- the guy who comes unprepared, stares around the audience, tries to read the minds of the audience, and tries to tell jokes that would appeal to that "type" of person. This inevitably reveals more about the "comedian"'s personal prejudices than anything else. Oh it's a mostly female crowd! I'll do tampon jokes. Black people on the side there, I'm gonna talk about how great Obama is! At one show, a guy saw a Chinese friend of mine in the audience and asked her, "Hey where are you from? Japan? Korea?" Then was surprised when she seemed unhappy at the prospects of playing along with him any further. To me, these guys think they're chameleons, they think they're David Bowie falling to earth from another planet and they will be all things to all people. But instead, we get to see each of their prejudices MAGNIFIED 100X and we have to wipe their slobber off our asses, which does not endear them to us.
Then they'll leave the stage cursing at us and calling us a tough crowd, but JEEBUS.
In a vague pathetic attempt to put something positive into this theory rant, I will say that two approaches I like in standup are the experimental approach like Andy Kaufman or Angel Yau, and the visionary messiah approach like George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Bill Hicks, Sam Kinnison, etc. and so on.
In general though I have to say I think improv is a superior comedy medium, even though improv comedians look and act more like each other than gay men. And they're all equally as funny as each other hahaha just kidding. The girls are almost always funnier than the boys but the boys get all the good writing jobs on TV shows.
OK I've refused to do standup or improv EVER and my theories and comments should be taken with that in mind-- I'm criticizing from the audience, not from on stage.
Okay, the two approaches to standup I have the hardest time with are sort of inverse versions of each other.
The first is the kind most used by hosts of shows. I get the sense these are all guys who think they should be more successful than they are, and they're angry at everyone because of it. If they could draw, they'd have become cartoonists so they could sit at home and make fun of everybody in private, but since they have no talent whatsoever, they decide instead to go into standup "comedy." They come unprepared for their own gigs, walk out and grab the mike like an alpha male chimp, then glare around the room looking for people who are different to make fun of. This guy will come up with cute nicknames for each of the people in the crowd. The idea is to hope that the tourists in the audience are too stupid or drunk to realize that he really means the insult and he actually does despise you and only want your beer money and for you to tip the bartenders.
The other approach I have zero respect for is the ass-kissing inverse of this-- the guy who comes unprepared, stares around the audience, tries to read the minds of the audience, and tries to tell jokes that would appeal to that "type" of person. This inevitably reveals more about the "comedian"'s personal prejudices than anything else. Oh it's a mostly female crowd! I'll do tampon jokes. Black people on the side there, I'm gonna talk about how great Obama is! At one show, a guy saw a Chinese friend of mine in the audience and asked her, "Hey where are you from? Japan? Korea?" Then was surprised when she seemed unhappy at the prospects of playing along with him any further. To me, these guys think they're chameleons, they think they're David Bowie falling to earth from another planet and they will be all things to all people. But instead, we get to see each of their prejudices MAGNIFIED 100X and we have to wipe their slobber off our asses, which does not endear them to us.
Then they'll leave the stage cursing at us and calling us a tough crowd, but JEEBUS.
In a vague pathetic attempt to put something positive into this theory rant, I will say that two approaches I like in standup are the experimental approach like Andy Kaufman or Angel Yau, and the visionary messiah approach like George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Bill Hicks, Sam Kinnison, etc. and so on.
In general though I have to say I think improv is a superior comedy medium, even though improv comedians look and act more like each other than gay men. And they're all equally as funny as each other hahaha just kidding. The girls are almost always funnier than the boys but the boys get all the good writing jobs on TV shows.
OK I've refused to do standup or improv EVER and my theories and comments should be taken with that in mind-- I'm criticizing from the audience, not from on stage.
Friday, October 30, 2009
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