Tagged: Mike Gold

Getting wind of what’s been happening

Getting wind of what’s been happening

Once again we’re away from Second City comic book happenings here in the First City, but at least we can all share Chicago nickname puns as well as the Perseid meteor showers this evening from pretty much wherever we live.  That, and the ComicMix columns from this past week:

As you might expect, Mellifluous Mike Raub is in attendance at WizWorld Chicago, meaning more Big ComicMix Broadcasts than usual:

The interesting thing about many vacations is how much you want to do at the beginning and how little you’ve done at the end.  Mine has gone according to plan in terms of reading (see my column linked above) but not writing.  Ah well, maybe next time…

MIKE GOLD: Only Reliable No More

MIKE GOLD: Only Reliable No More

Well, going to the supermarket isn’t going to be much fun any more.

No doubt you’ve heard about the demise of the print version of The Weekly World News. It billed itself as the world’s only reliable newspaper, and it certainly was that. It was also one of the best-written newspapers in America.

The Weekly World News was a hoot. Its headlines always brought a smile to my face, and on more than one occasion I would be found laughing out loud while waiting in line at the Stop and Shop. No matter how outrageous the premise, each story was written absolutely straight, as though Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden actually had a child or we really had space aliens in the Senate.

Well, maybe that last one wasn’t so reliable. That could be true, I guess.

Quite a number of people who had been in the comics business, including ComicMixers Robert Greenberger and Ric Meyers, were either on staff at the WWN or were regular contributors. The paper also published comics by Ernie Colón, Craig Boldman, Mike Collins, Danielle Corsetto, and Sergio Aragonés. We hadn’t seen such a line-up of first-rate comics talent in a weekly newspaper since Grit stopped running Steve Canyon, Mandrake The Magician, Archie and Blondie.

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Fity-seven channels and nothing’s on…

Fity-seven channels and nothing’s on…

Yesterday was a very special day for lots of folks.  In the baseball world a couple of home run records were set, in the political world attendees at the progressive blogosphere’s Nerd Prom (yes, they have one too) schmoozed with the Democratic presidential candidates, and we at ComicMix celebrated head honcho Mike Gold’s 57th go-round in life.  All the incriminating photos my camera could muster can be found here.  And here’s our review of what we columnist types have been up to this past week:

I finally got to meet all of Mellifluous Mike Raub‘s many M-named sons, and the one with the "S" name.  He’s been busy as usual with the newest Big ComicMix Broadcasts:

I’m on vacation from my day job this coming week, so who knows, you might even see my byline again on something other than my column and this wrap-up…

When San Diego is too far away…

When San Diego is too far away…

Yeah, I guess I’m missing San Diego, in more ways than one.  But then again, they’re missing the Del Close improv marathon here in NYC, so that makes us even.  Not.  Ah well, on to this past week’s ComicMix columns:

I haven’t even begun to keep track of all Mellifluous Mike Raub‘s Big ComicMix Broadcasts, so why don’t you do it for me?:

Tomorrow’s probably going to be a slow day while my colleagues travel and sleep, so it’s a good time to get all caught up!

On The Road Again…

On The Road Again…

A quick note to tell you the ComicMix editorial team is on its way to the San Diego ComicCon International, so we’ll probably be a little light on contributions today. But we’ll more than make up for it the rest of the week!

We’ve got about a dozen of us attending the show, and most of us will be wearing our new multicolored ComicMix t-shirts for easy identification. So, please, feel free to stop any of us and tell us what you think of the site… what you’d like to see on ComicMix… and what you think is going to be involved in our just-about-to-be-announced ComicMix Phase II.

We look forward to meeting you. And for those who won’t be making the show, stay tuned to ComicMix. We’ll keep you right in the thick of things!

Mike Gold, Editor-In-Chief

MIKE GOLD: Getting Nostalgic For Nostalgia

MIKE GOLD: Getting Nostalgic For Nostalgia

As these very words see the dawn of a new week, I shall be at home packing my ComicMix shirts for the San Diego Comic Con International. It’s the most important event in the comics year. Really; don’t read that with any sarcasm because I mean that. I agree with every word Michael Davis wrote in his column last Friday the 13th: it’s a hell of an effort, it’s a hell of a show, it’s a huge event.

But I can’t help but get a little nostalgic for the old comic book shows, where the primary focus was on comic books as a hobby and an art form. These days, most of Hollywood and all of New York moves out for the SDCC; it’s a massive business. Meetings, negotiations, mega-promotions, dealers dealing comic books made unreadable by being embalmed in plastic to other dealers for very high-stakes, lawyers, agents, managers, suppliers… it gets to be overwhelming.

My first national conventions were back in New York in the late 1960s, where the sainted Phil Seuling created the model for the comic book comic book convention. When I was involved with the Chicago Comicon (now Wizard World Chicago) back in 1976 – 1985, I shamelessly ripped off Phil’s format and approach; thankfully, he saw that as a tribute. It was a different world then.

As I recall, I was at the first Seuling show to crack the 300 barrier. That’s 300 fans. Today, San Diego has more than 300 pros in attendance. Hell, it’s got more than 300 lawyers in attendance. Back then, most of us were amazed there were so many of us all over the nation. For the first time, we realized we were not alone. We weren’t that unusual. Comics were not hip; hell, from a real-world point of view, they weren’t even very profitable. This was before the direct sales market – we have Phil to thank for that, too – and comic book stores only sold back-issues. There were no action figures or posters or alternate covers; in fact, there wasn’t much of an original art market as neither DC nor Marvel returned the art in those days.

As a young fan, I was exposed to older fans’ nostalgia. I read The Spirit and Justice Society, and I met people who gave me access to Milton Caniff and to The Shadow and to old time radio and movie serials and other relics of The Greatest Generation’s lost youth. Guys like Jim Steranko and Al Williamson would personally turn me on to great artists and concepts and projects. I was exposed to America’s popular culture history, and it was great fun.

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Once you’ve finished That Book…

Once you’ve finished That Book…

Nerds, geeks and thinking people everywhere are settling down to read J.K. Rowling’s latest and last adventure of Harry Potter prior to packing for sunny southern California.  At least that’s what they tell me; I’ll wait for the easier-to-heft paperback, thanks.  But there are no queues at all to read ComicMix columnist contributions from this past week:

If you see Mellifluous Mike Raub at San Diego, speak loudly and clearly into the mic!  Here are his contributions as he hits the Big Seven-Oh:

Have a safe flight of fancy, everyone!

MIKE GOLD: My All-Time Favorite Comic Book Cover

MIKE GOLD: My All-Time Favorite Comic Book Cover

They don’t draw comic book covers like this any more. And, well, that might be a good thing.

These days, we’re in a phase where covers are particularly boring. When it comes to the great American staple, the heroic fantasy comic, most are over art directed and too posh for their own good. Few actually have anything to do with the story inside; they are simply generic poster shots. When I stare at the big Wall-O-Comics at most shops, my eyes quickly glaze over. They generate little enthusiasm and manage to completely ignore the sense of wonder that makes comics magic. At best, I walk away from the Wall thinking “gee, that Captain America cover sure would make a swell statue.”

Yes, I still use the word “swell.” I’m trying to bring it back.

Look at a few of the really great covers. If you’re at all interested in the genre, how can you pass ‘em up? They are exciting, intriguing and most of all, they appeal to the sense of wonder.

 

Yeah, they’re all ancient. But don’t try to tell me they’re childish. Putting on a mask and fighting crime and/or evil as the result of some event that wouldn’t even cut it in Greek tragedy is childish. We’re simply negotiating the price.

However, some covers were simply wonderfully absurd. They are so far over the top you’ve just got to check them out. In fact, there are so many of them that there’s an entire website devoted to the topic, run by cartoonist Scott Shaw!. It’s called Oddball Comics and you’ve got to check it out. He’s got about a trillion such covers there. But I don’t know if he’s got my all-time favorite comic book cover.

 

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MIKE GOLD: The Darknight Contrarian

MIKE GOLD: The Darknight Contrarian

I used to have a reputation for sometimes being kind of negative. That comes with the career in radio and “journalism,” and I’ve worked at overcoming it. But, like most childhood pleasures, not using a skill doesn’t mean you no longer know how to use it.

For example. I have come to the conclusion that the Paris Hilton affair has become a legitimate news story (it didn’t start out that way), and that she got screwed.

After listening to a bunch of experts and pundits and reporters, it seems pretty clear to me that Hilton is doing time for being Paris Hilton – people in similar situations, and, sadly, there’s no shortage of them – would be given community service or pay a fine or be under house confinement. Being locked up at the taxpayers’ expense for such a violation is nearly unheard of. And, yes, in California as well as most of the rest of these United States the sheriff is charged to run his prisons as he sees fit.

Hilton was busted for violating her plea agreement. As such, she was real stupid. Hilton is despised for being an “artificial” celebrity, as if there’s any other kind, and for being a whinny spoiled brat. I understand; she is a whinny spoiled brat. But that’s not against the law; if it were, I’d have a much, much easier time going shopping here in Fairfield County Connecticut.

So Hilton is serving time not for breaking the law but for being a high-profile stupid whiny brat. She has my sympathy; fair is fair and, as she said while she was being hauled off to the slammer kicking and screaming for her mommy, this is not fair.

For example. Everybody seems bent out of shape about the conclusion to The Sopranos, including ComicMix’s own John Ostrander.  I think the ending was fine. Not great, not awesome, but exactly on the money.
 
This is a show that lost its raison d’être the moment actress Nancy Marchand died, back in 2000. Her character, momma Livia Soprano, was the story’s anchor. Without her, the plot never was as compelling, nor was it as understandable. It was reduced to its core element: Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, the family of Made Men.

And that’s what the ending was all about. It didn’t matter if Tony got wacked in the restaurant in front of his family. If it didn’t happen then, if could just as easily happen the next day or the day after. Being a mob boss is not a “safe” job – Al Capone ran his mob for about seven years, and was only a functioning operative in that mob for a total of about a dozen years.

Here’s the proof: midway through that final episode, Anthony Junior became Christopher Moltisanti, which, as we all know, is what his father should have wanted all along. He got the mob-connected job in the film business, he got the mob-connected car, he’s always had the mob-connected father but now daddy finally delivered for him. Life goes on with the Nelson Family of New Jersey, and what goes around stays around. Nothing changes.

And, sadly, that’s what The Sopranos had been about.

For example. George W. Bush.

I’ve got nothing.

And, come to think of it, neither does George.

Mike Gold is editor-in-chief of ComicMix.

MIKE GOLD: What Makes America Great

MIKE GOLD: What Makes America Great

These are the most important words ever written:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

That’s the First Amendment, in its entirety. It’s elegant, isn’t it? But did you notice what word isn’t there? Look again.

The word is “except.” There’s no “except” in the First Amendment.

That’s what makes the United States of America great. It’s where we separate the wheat from the chaff. The democracies from the dictatorships. The good from the evil.

Ask around and some people will tell you that the Supreme Court ruled the First Amendment doesn’t give you the right to shout fire in a crowded theater. If the utterer is smart, that quote will be attributed to Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. The problem is, it’s bullshit, twice-over.

Number one: in ruling on the case of Schenck v. U.S. in 1919, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., wrote: “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.” The emphasis here is mine; those critical words are usually left out of the debate. You’ve got to be lying, and you’ve got to actually cause damage. However…

Number two: Schenck v. U.S. was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1969 in the case of Brandenburg v. Ohio, which ruled that speech could only be banned when it was likely to incite imminent lawless action, such as a riot. The majority noted yelling fire outside a building to prevent people from entering is quite different from encouraging people to stampede out.

The Constitution doesn’t say “but in case somebody figures out a way to allow people to get their words heard by a whole lot of other people all at once, a federal agency is going to appoint a brilliant comedian to figure out which seven words can never, ever be uttered, no matter how inadvertently, no matter how pointedly, and no matter how necessary or how puerile they may be – and we’re going to fine the shit out of people who ever use those words.”

Last week, ComicMix’s Glenn Hauman, a First Amendment freedom fighter of the first order and with the street cred to prove it, ran a piece about how a federal appeals court ruled against the FCC in their fining broadcasters for the dissemination of inadvertent obscenity. In his article, Glenn substituted asterisks for the vowels in the dirty words. I know Glenn; that reflects his highly tuned sense of irony. Glenn’s also a very considerate guy: he doesn’t want to get you in trouble if you’re reading ComicMix at work and your boss sees the naughty stuff. I’m not quite as considerate.

It’s Glenn’s prerogative as a writer, so I didn’t fuss with his choice. The fact is, when you see “f*ck” you read “fuck.” When you see “sh*t,” you read “shit.” When somebody indulges in euphemisms, people know exactly and immediately what the bad words are. But you’re not going to get Battlestar Galactica on the air unless you say “frakkin’.” And, no doubt, pay Yosemite Sam his royalty.

It’s ridiculous. It’s hypocritical. Even if these words had any meaning or any shock value any more, there is no reason to be so judgmental. People who think ill of those who use cuss words yet drive while on their cell phone are a much bigger threat than those who are subjected to their self-righteousness.

About 20 years ago, DC Comics’ editorial honcho Dick Giordano assigned me the task of representing the company at the redraft of the much-hated (and now completely impotent) Comics Code. Yep, Dick has a fantastic sense of humor. At the meeting, one of the first things I asked for was a list of the dirty words that can’t be used. Fair is fair, I pointed out. Marvel’s rep, the much-missed Mark Gruenwald, agreed. Since we were Marvel and DC combined, we got to assign the editors from Harvey Comics and Archie Comics the task of coming up with the list. Okay, that was sophomoric, but if you knew either Mark or me, you’d get it and you probably do anyway. A week or two later, Al Harvey and Victor Gorelick came in with a great list.

They passed the list around and we debated the merits and demerits of the words, adding a few that Al and Vic missed – the very few, actually; it was an extensive list. Then we all exploded in laughter at the astonishing bullshitness of the situation. One of the editors – I won’t reveal which – said “What’s the difference? The Code censors are going to ignore all this anyway.” Which is exactly what happened. Immediately.

We censor in the name of the Children. You know, those Children who are raised in nunneries, who, if they were never exposed to television or radio or literature or people like me, would be good, pious and safe. The kids who presently live on Earth-53. We divert everything with which we are uncomfortable into the “oh, no, we’re doing it for the Children” file. That’s a lot of crap. If you raise your kids honestly with good, sound values, if you teach them right from wrong and you show them how to be strong and the ways to stand up for those values, you won’t have anything to worry about. Stop hiding behind the kids.

There’s plenty of stuff going on to worry about. Language doesn’t make the cut.

Mike Gold is editor-in-chief of ComicMix.com. Be afraid, be very afraid…