Cartoonist Johnny Hart Dies

Mike Gold

ComicMix's award-winning and spectacularly shy editor-in-chief Mike Gold also performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com and on iNetRadio, www.iNetRadio.com (search: Hit Oldies) every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week – check www.getthepointradio.com above for times and on-demand streaming information.

6 Responses

  1. Elayne Riggs says:

    I had no use for his religious intolerance, but as I just lost my dad and he was the same age I'm not going to speak ill of Mr. Hart. Besides, I'll always have him to thank for "Frammin' at the jim-jam, fripping in the krotz," whatever that means.

  2. Russ Rogers says:

    "I'm happy to see everyone feeling like their old selves…and not a moment too soon. We are about to be decimated by Gur Khan and his horde of evil bandits!"Ta Moa has found another community that has been attacked by bandits. "Time has passed and the villagers recover as best they can…" without worry or making any preparation for the next coming invasion of bandits. Wouldn't it be strange if this comic just followed Ta Moa from place to place, just to see all his friends wiped out again and again by Gur Khan and his men. He and the baby have been the only survivors of two attacks now. *SPOILER ALERT*Next issue, Gur Khan and his men burn down the village and kill everyone… except Ta Moa and the baby, who just narrowly escape. And in issue #6, Ta Moa and the baby make it to the big city! Unfortunately, the city has had problems recently with bandits…

  3. James says:

    Russ,Do you ever just sit back and enjoy? Does everything get analyzed to death? You must be exhausted! Although I find some of your comments amusing (like the Mexican wrestler comment) I find a great deal of them to be a bit mean spirited. I, too, enjoy the reprints on Comicmix but am truly excited at the idea of new comics. I am willing to reserve judgement, particularly harsh judgement, until I have a lot more to go on. I have enjoyed this book and look forward to where it will go. Relax Russ! You may be pleasantly surprised! And hey Comicmix where is week #5?

  4. Russ Rogers says:

    I don't want to sound mean spirited. I really LIKE "The White Viper." That is the reason I write comments. I want to see "The White Viper" become the best story it can be. I try to be constructive. I'm not just trying to be a sarcastic ass. As of Issue #5, the White Viper has received 30 comments, most came on Issue #1. Of those, I have made 15! I'm the only commentator to comment on every issue so far. Yeah, everything I read gets analyzed to death and sometimes I'm exhausted. I realize that it's a bit neurotic. It just seems strange (and a little sad) that a comic can (potentially) have ten of thousands of readers and only TWO people make any comment!

    • Rick Marshall says:

      Russ, you'd be amazed how very little the popularity of an article (whether it's comics, an interview or a blog post) has to do with the number of comments it receives. While I'd LOVE to see more comments on the site here – especially the sort of proportionate traffic/comment ratio you've mentioned elsewhere – the fact of the matter is that the most popular articles we've posted rarely turn out to have the most comments. In fact, only one or two of the highest-traffic articles we've posted this year have more than 5-10 comments.It boggles my mind and defies explanation, but it's true. I'm as surprised by this situation as you, in many cases.

      • Russ Rogers says:

        Articles with high traffic can be from the vagaries of Google and what ever fad is currently at the top of the "Text Search Hit Parade." I think it's good to review what is getting a LOT of hits. And why. It's also good to think about what is a "good hit." A good hit is someone who comes to ComicMix, explores several different pages (especially the comics) and then … comes back another time. The BEST hit is someone who regularly comes to ComicMix and regularly clicks through to the advertisers! Eventually the BEST hit is someone who comes to ComicMix and then BUYS the ComicMix comics or swag. The worst hits are people who click into ComicMix and realize that this has NOTHING to do with "Hannah Montana Nude Pictures," so why did they get sent here? The people who have no real interest in comics or ComicMix but just get misdirected here.What if ComicMix had a very simple review system for the comics it presents? Sort of like the review system that YouTube or Amazon has. You can rate each issue ONE to FIVE stars. Only registered users can rate comics. This encourages people to register and return. And it gives instant feedback to ComicMix, the creators, and to other readers on what is being viewed, rated and enjoyed. Even if people don't review, keep track of the number of PAGE VIEWS each comic title gets. And then have a listing in the Comics catalog that ranks the comics from Most Viewed or Highest Rated, as well as views by reverse chronology (which is all we have now) or Alphabetical. What I'm suggesting is probably a technical nightmare for Brian Alvey and the "Alvey Elves." And it may already be on the grand "ComicMix Improvements List." Speaking of Improvements: Did you catch the cool new Advertising space in the Floating "Info Window" in the comics reader? It's subtle and cool! A real tech tweak!If counting Page Views and Ratings works for the comics … it might work for articles and columns as well. The problem with this scheme comes when Columnists, Reporters and Comics Creators on ComicMix start "trolling for traffic" by pandering to the Internet Bottom Feeders.