I’ve been around the northeast quadrant a bit since the New York show a few weeks ago and I’ve seen a lot of people. Good people, old friends, new collaborators, strange and unusual folks. That’s what my life’s about, and I’m proud of that.
I enjoy going to the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention. Compared with, say, the mass of hustling humanity at comics shows in New York, San Diego or on WizardWorld, the Windy City show is like a weekend at the spa. Anthony Tollin was there along with his latest Shadow
The next day we had lunch and dinner with FOCs Charlie Meyerson and his wife Pam (Charlie of Chicago Tribune fame; Pam’s a lawyer and bon vivant) and Rick Oliver and his wife Jade (Honest Rick of First Comics, Jade was a swell comics colorist). George, Charlie and Rick have given us a lot of advice and opinion ever since ComicMix was just a gleam in our eye – Rick is a major commenter in these precincts – and the whole bundle of ‘em are brilliant conversationalists.
Since the best thing to do in Chicago is eat until you burst, we were particularly fond of our dinner with the aforementioned Mr. Pepoy, Simone and Ajax colorist Jason Millet, Hilary Barta (Munden’s Bar, The Simpsons
All this lead up to the main reason behind my Chicago sojourn. Last week I noted there was to be a celebration at Second City for ComicMix commentator and author Kim Howard Johnson and his bookThe Funniest One In The Room: The Lives and Legends of Del Close
The tribute was nothing short of awesome. Howard, Tim Kazurinsky and little-seen improv greats Jonathan Abarbanel, Jamie Swise, and Michael Gellman gave us 90 minutes of Del stories I’d never heard before, the premiere of a one-act play found among Del’s unpublished papers. Deeply personal, astonishingly funny, the event included a half-dozen video clips of Del in his character of “Ozzy Mandas,” commenting on funny subjects like death and destruction… and on his work with John Ostrander onWasteland
I got a chance to have a lengthy conversation with Tim, a man I’ve long admired but never met. We shared a friend and collaborator in the late Eliot Wald, a man with whom I had worked on radio and at the fabled Chicago Seed; Tim and Eliot were writing partners at Second City and worked together atSaturday Night Live
Howard tells me he might be taking the Del show on the road a bit, at least to Los Angeles, probably June 1 at the iO West and June 2 at the Upright Citizens’ Brigade Theatre. If so, I urge you to attend. I also urge you to purchase The Funniest One In The Room: The Lives and Legends of Del Close.
I got back to Connecticut just in time to hook up with John Ostrander and Mary Mitchell, who stopped by for the evening on our way to join Marc Wheatley, Mark Hempel, Howard Cruise, our own Rick Marshall and the fabulous Jessica Bloustein the following day at the Normal Rockwell Museum’s graphic novels exhibit. John, Mary and I jabbered about their upcomingMunden’s Bar collaboration, and we discussed some unfinished comics business involving Mr. Close. But, mostly, John and I had this massive session planning, creating and posturing a brand new comics series.
Rick will be writing (or has written) up a piece about the Rockwell Exhibit; the event was great fun and the staff was enthusiastic and helpful. I’m told their graphic novels exhibit was quite successful and met their goal of attracting move teens and young adults to the Museum. It’s a great place and I urge everyone interested in American illustration to check it out.
All this means there should be a fair amount of exciting new work here on ComicMix from the likes of Hilary Barta, Terry Beatty, Del Close, Barry Crain, Max Allan Collins, Jason Millet, John Ostrander… some new stuff, some returning friends, some stuff for which we might get arrested.
That’s what my life’s about, and I’m proud of that, too.
Mike Gold is editor-in-chief of ComicMix.
DC Comics April 2012 Solicitations
PREVIEW: “Jim Henson’s Tale Of Sand”
DC Comics March 2012 Solicitations
Preview: “Darkwing Duck” #18 — Like A Fenton From The Ashes!
Preview: “Daredevil” #6
Preview: Betrayal Of The Planet Of The Apes #1
MIKE GOLD: Satan’s Retro-Review
MICHAEL DAVIS: David
MINDY NEWELL: Great Books! And 1 Movie!
JOHN OSTRANDER: 101 Mistakes
MARC ALAN FISHMAN: Justice League Light Vs. Justice League Dark
MARTHA THOMASES: George Lucas, Black History, and African-American Comics
Dennis O’Neil – Sick, Sick, Sick
REVIEW: “Wally Wood: Strange Worlds of Science Fiction”, by Glenn Hauman
REVIEWS: “Annie Hall” and “Manhattan”, by Robert Greenberger
REVIEW: “In Time”, by Robert Greenberger
REVIEW: “Bloom County: The Complete Library, Volume One: 1980-1982″ by Berkley Breathed, by Andrew Wheeler
MARC ALAN FISHMAN: Justice League Light Vs. Justice League Dark, by Marc Alan Fishman
Primeval Volume Three, by Robert Greenberger
Busting, by Robert Greenberger
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Robert Greenberger
Transformers: Dark of the Moon, by Robert Greenberger
Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Next Level, by Robert Greenberger
Thanks Mike–it was really great to see you as well. I'll keep you informed as the LA Del event(s) unfolds (I can't wait to announce the guest list!). Thanks for plugging the book, and I'm looking forward to seeing what Mr. Ostrander does with Del's notes. Not only is Del still performing by way of his (sort of) skull, nine years after he died, he's still doing comic stories for you!
It was great meeting you and your lovely wife and daughter as well, Mike!Glad you liked my artwork. That "Steve Canyon" 60th anniversary strip I drew for "Air Force Times" last year is pretty gol-darned huge, isn't it?
You bet. I've described it as a 16 panel page. But I strongly suggest people judge for themselves:http://www.militarytimes.com/static/projects/page…
Max Alan Collins AND Terry Beatty, name-dropped in the same sentence as "exciting new work" and "returning friends"…Oh MY! Could it be? That would be SO cool! Seriously, I'm very excited by the possibilities. Collins and Beatty are a team that is right up there in the pantheon of artistic teams with Englehart and Rogers, Rogers and Hammerstein, Ostrander and Truman, Lennon and McCartney or Baron and the Dude!
Nice, but personally, I prefer Rogers and Hart.
Thank you sweetheart. This is why I love you so much.
I'm glad to have the internet so that I can voice forty years of grievances over the neglect here in the good old US of A of the film "GOLD" which stars Del Close as the formidable foil the HAWK. I would argue with anybody that this is Del's signature role on celluloid and yet whenever there's a comedy confab this sixties relic is overlooked, avoided or just plain dissed as is the case with "Howard" Johnson's unfair depiction in his otherwise laudable bio "The Funniest One in the Room". It's one thing not to like the film but "Howard" gets his facts wrong. My name is Levis not Lewis and the film opened and ran in London at the Classic Piccadilly Theatre in London in the early seventies. There wasn't a distributor in America who had the balls to exhibit this madcap anti-establishment message which still today has more to say than most of the trash produced by a crumbling culture. The film, you see, has nude bodies that are caressed rather than mutilated with swords and point blank gun blasts. Nudity still scares but maybe someday will figure out collectively that it's healthier to view a naked body than to watch a clothed body disfigured. And, just for the record, "GOLD" touts quite a pedigree. On the tech side Paul Ryan did much of the camera work. He has since been second unit director of such classics as "A River Runs Through It" and "A Simple Plan". Production Manager, the late Tom Goodwin, won an oscar for "Educating Henry" and Zoran Perisic oversaw the special effects on "GOLD" before going on to such films as "Superman" and "Return of Oz". The legendary MC5 crank out three original tunes and Brooklyn cowboy Rambling Jack Elliott warbles the the theme song. The film has just been restored from Festival earlier this year.
Well, Bob, we've discussed this before, and as before, I wish you luck with Gold. And yes, I got your name wrong–it was very difficult to read from the copy I viewed. But as I've told you, my comments reflect the words of both Del and Garry Goodrow, who both starred in the film, as well as Charna Halpern. And I'll stand by my comments based on my own viewings. BTW, I have nothing against nudity–very much the opposite. I don't think it's a very good film (everybody has to learn somewhere, and it sounds like it was a very early film for many of your crew). But I will say that it's a very interesting film, and I wish you the best of luck with it. As I have said–and feel free to quote me–it's the Citizen Kane of pornographic westerns.
Howard, I don't feel much like a pissing contest with you but, "what the hey?" It's the journalism gene in me that so wants to set the record straight. When I gave Del his check for services in the paltry amount of $75.00 for services rendered he told me that although he would cash it he had had so much fun making the film that he would have happily worked for nothing. I saw Garry Goodrow a week ago last Friday evening and he's doing well and should be getting called for roles frequently as he is a rare and unique talent. He effectively reneged on the interview he had with you and we have written it off as "comedic self-loathing" because unquestionably Garry turns in a superlative performance as Captain Harold Jinx of the State Police. Just as with Del I fed them both the outlines of character and plot and they built from the foundation. "GOLD" is a grand example of filmed long form improv created by two of the greats of the genre who deserve recognition for their efforts. I don't know what Charna's trip is, I can only speculate. I've never met the woman but am looking forward to the opportunity. "GOLD" was filmed several years before she met Del and she might resent that this was part of Del's druggie period. It was the sixties. In my previous comment I mentioned some of the tech guys who worked on the film because of the egregious slight where you, Howard, state categorically that there were "as many sequences out of focus as not". That is so blatantly wrong that it deserves no less than a retraction. It would be like finding a typo in your book and saying "there are as many misspelled words as not"! Most of the sequences in the movie are incredibly beautifully filmed. That being said, I appreciate the comparison to Citizen Kane!!
Well, Bob, I don't want to take up more space here, so I think we willl just have to agree to disagree. When I saw it, a large portion of it was out of focus, but it's always possible that I saw a bad print; if so, I would welcome the opportunity to see a restored version, and if I'm wrong, will gladly note it in the next edition of the book. I have no idea why Garry changed his mind as of last week, but I certainly agree that he should be working all the time–he's a good guy. I can only tell you Del's feelings about it; I'm sure that he had a great time filming it, but he did not feel it was a very good film. Sorry. Again, I wish you luck with it, and if the audiences enjoy it, that's what matters. I enjoyed many of the performances, particularly Del's, and I'm glad you made the film and that it still exists. If, as the Psychotronic Film Society used to say, the only bad movie is a boring movie, then this is not a bad movie.
The observation that GOLD has "as many sequences out of focus as not" may have been a function of the transfer process to video or DVD. Is there a clean transfer of GOLD available on DVD? I haven't seen GOLD and I'm moderately curious.But, I don't think Charna Halpern's not liking the movie would need to have anything to do with it being from "Del's druggie period." She just might not have liked GOLD based on it's own merits. Maybe Charna has seen a lot of great improv and (even though this is Del Close and Gary Goodrow) GOLD just isn't up to that standard. GOLD may be a period piece and doesn't hold up after 40 years. I've never met Charna Halpern. I've never seen GOLD. But could it be that GOLD just isn't that funny?GOLD sounds a bit like a lower budget, more nekkid "Head," "200 Motels" or "The Magic Christian." Frankly there are a many wacky, anti-establishment, psychedelic, low budget, largely improvised romps from this period. And as a general rule, these romps are period pieces that don't translate well over the years. And the MC5 are impressive, but not as well known as the Monkees, Zappa or Badfinger.You can rail against the stodginess of American distributors, but 40 years have passed since then. No American art house was willing to run this during the hey day of Rocky Horror? Could GOLD have been passed up by comedy confabs because … well, it's just not that funny? The reviews I found for GOLD (on an MC5 web site) were not glowing. http://makemyday.free.fr/gold.htm Here's a line from one review: "No question, it looks like everyone had a blast filming it, and with the proper 'medication,' most viewers will too." The days of my needing 'medication' to enjoy a film have long since passed.But let's get back to Del. Here is somebody who is considered a comedy GURU, one of the great comedy philosophers and teachers of the last 50 years. And what had been preserved of that? Don't you think it's sad that a comedy legend's signature role on celluloid is a $75 weekend romp in the desert?
Hi Russ,No question whoever has the "potcorn" concession where "GOLD" plays will make the big bucks but you can still enjoy the experience without falling off the wagon. I'm pulling dvds out of circulation until I make a batch from the recently restored version at which time I'll happily take your order. Your comments raise several issues not all of which I have the time to address right now but I do want you to understand just how hard it is to independently produce a feature film outside of the bailiwick of Hollywood. My advice is: write poetry. Until you try and write scripts to fit either a police procedural or a1/2 hour sitcom with canned laughter it's difficult to understand just how confined the dominant pop culture really is. I've had an agent who straight out of central casting advised me to rewrite a sensitive script with "more sex and violence". "GOLD" breaks out of that mold with an invigorating "elan vital". It still stands tall forty years later as was obvious at an enthusiastically received screening at the New York Film & Video Festival earlier this year. And it's not at all sad that Del is immortalized as the HAWK in this romp(in the woods). Factor in inflation and cost of living and $75 meant more than a couple of tanks of gas! It's important to remember we were making a statement outside of the established propaganda pushers.
I'm a brilliant conversationalist? Please tell my kids.