Roger Answers Your Questions, Jaquandor

From the guy from Buffalo who does Byzantium Shores.

1. If they re-did the Jeopardy! eligibility rules so you could try out again, would you?

Quite possibly so. I feel ever so slightly jealous that they doubled the values a couple years after I was on. This doesn't mean I would have won $35,200 instead of $17,600 when I played, but it made me wonder. Of course, maybe I'd suck at the game now. Certainly, I'd go in the next three years, when I'd be 60, or not at all.

Somehow I feel like one of those baseball players who came along just before free agency.

2. In retrospect: Should Spitzer have resigned?

In retrospect, no, but that whole thing wasn't going down "in retrospect". It wasn't his sexual behavior that did him in, it was his hypocrisy. Truth is that he never had the patience to be governor; things he could have bullied people to do as Attorney General, with the force of law on his side, could not be achieved as Governor, where give and take is more the requirement.

No doubt that if he were not tainted, he might have continued to sound the alarm about the Wall Street fiasco, as he was working on as Attorney General. Equally true that Wall Street as happy to see him go. The truth of the matter is that I wish he had stayed as AG, but he would have had to resign that position as well, once the Customer Number Nine stuff came out.

I continue to be fascinated by sexual scandals in terms of who gets to stay in office and who has to go. I always thought that Bill Clinton got to stay because there was a general feeling that 1) he already had a reputation as a womanizer, so he didn't have the hypocrite label slapped on him (only the "liar" label) and 2) that the impeachment over sex, and lying about it, was an overreach for something that started off as an investigation of a land deal.

3. What the hell is going on with the Catholic Church? I mean, seriously: WTF?!

The church seems to continue to be tone deaf to the scandal. Some archbishop in New York State is attacking the attackers of the Pope, as though THEY were the problem instead of the pedophile priests and the system that protected them.

SamuraiFrog had a good post about this. The church
treated it as an "internal matter", fearing that somehow admitting it and exposing it would undermind its moral authority. Have they not learned from Watergate? It's the COVER UP that REALLY underminds their moral authority. If they'd gotten in front of this even 30 years ago - John Paul II became Pope in 1978 - then it would have been painful, yes, but not this drip-drip-drip of scandal.

Mr. Frog notes the fact that the church feels selectively persecuted/prosecuted for its religion, that other people did wrong things. OK, and the church also claims that its first Pope knew Jesus personally, which, I'd like to suggest, places it at a slightly higher standard.

The Catholic hierarchy for years has been blaming this problem on the United States' culture and society, as though it had been the "permissive" Americans who regularly ignore Papal dictates on issues such as birth control as the problem. Classic misdirection, but it did not "take", given the worldwide problem.

And the "it happened a long time ago - get over it" argument, not just on this issue, but any issue, such as institutional racism and sexism, has always irritated the crap out of me. Let me say it again: the persecutors oughtn't be able to say "Let's move on" without the adequate response of not only apologizing for the problem, but, to the degree possible, rectifying the problem. This is why the Armenians in Turkey are still, and rightly from my POV, kvetching about the 1915
genocide that the Turkish government still denies.

As someone who protected a priest who had victimized 200 boys, the former Cardinal Ratzinger has given new meaning to "papal bull".
***
Remember last month when I directed you to a link to my guest review for Trouble with Comics, then it went away? Well, as Bullwinkle J. Moose says, This time for sure!



ROG

The Pretentious Blogging Meme

Apparently, I'm in a blogging about blogging mode: From Sunday Stealing.

1. How long have you been blogging?

4 years, 10 months yesterday. Or the day before, if you count the time I wrote it.

2. What made you start?

Discussed here, but what MADE me start ultimately is being very opinionated with no venue.

3. Who inspired you?

Fred Hembeck and the late Steve Gerber.

4. About how many hours a week would you estimate you spend on your blog?

You mean THIS one? Well, probably eight hours writing it, then another five checking out other blogs, getting rid of spam comments, responding to questions, etc.

5. What kind of experience or background do you have with writing?

I wrote for my high school newspaper; in my senior year, had a column called Pa Central (I went to Binghamton Central); snarky before I knew the word.
I co-edited a newsletter in college and edited one in grad school. I edited, for six years, a monthly work newsletter. Wrote some press releases for the Schenectady Arts Council and a little for FantaCo. Edited three and a half issues of FantaCo's Chronicles Series. Inevitably, anything I edited involved a degree of writing as well.

6. Talk about how you come up with blog topics. Where do you get your ideas?

Steal 'em. Well, sometimes, but finding topics is not the problem; the problem is a lack of time to write coherently about certain topics. I have three topics I could write about tomorrow, but will I have time to compose ANY of them?

7. What or who inspires you and your blog?

Life. Politics. Sports. TV. Music. The newspaper. Really, inspiration I get easily; time, not so much.

8. Where and/or how do your brainstorming for your blog?

Anywhere - riding the bus, taking a shower, occasionally, my dreams.

9. Do you have any blogging rules or guidelines you follow?

Probably. I tend not to use language that's likely to offend a segment of my vast readership. I try not to write about the same topic too often in a row. Not only might it be tedious for the reader, more importantly it'd likely be boring for me. Or maybe my approach is ADHD-driven.

10. Is there anything you will not blog about?

Yes. And if I told you what those topics were, that'd kind of defeat the purpose of not blogging about it. "I'm not going to tell you about..."; yeah, right.

11. Do you have any sort of a publishing schedule in terms of day of week or topic?

Well, Tuesday is ABC Wednesday. The 26th of the month is Lydia day. Mondays are memes, sometimes (not this week, apparently). Saturdays are questions, often but not always. The rest I fake.
***
More in re: blogging. I entered Rose's blog hosting contest. Guess what? I WON! I got a confirming e-mail yesterday afternoon, and I have some ideas for a URL, but if you have some thoughts before, say, 1 pm Eastern Time today when I go to lunch and contact the provider, have at it.
***
I noted only a couple days ago that I had appeared in the Trouble with Comics blog. Then Mr. Doane wrote to comment: "My apologies, but Guest Reviewer Month has now been pushed back to April due to some technical problems. Your piece should go up 4/1, Roger. Sorry!" The trouble with this was that I thought he was making a joke; the piece should go up on April Fools Day? Les & Trudy didn't raise someone THAT gullible.

Except that my friend Rocco noted that the piece that had been posted had disappeared. This probably has something to do with Trouble with Comics changing its URL because of changers with Blogger re: FTPs.

In other words, I have outwitted myself. Expect the piece on - April 1? Really, ADD?

ROG

A Couple Links In Lieu of Actual Content

Maybe it's because I've tried cutting back on caffeine. Surely it has to do with Black History Month at church and a presentation I did at the Underground Railroad conference this past weekend. But I am FRIED.

Fried means going to bed when the child goes to bed, between 8 and 9 pm. Going to bed BEFORE my wife, and if you know her sleep patterns, you'd find that astonishing.
So I'm not going to force it. I'll give you a couple links. The good news, I suppose, is that I wrote them:

EDIT: POSTPONED UNTIL APRIL (paragraph below)
Over at Trouble with Comics, the esteemed comics blogger Alan David Doane is having Guest Reviewer Month. And guess who his first contributor is? (And yes, ADD, I DO laugh your claim to my "fame".)

On my Times Union blog, I note how lucky Albany has been with the weather this winter. Those of you from across the country or the world might read that NYC schools and Syracuse University were closed on Friday; Albany got about an inch of slush. Oh, and I dedicate the post to Jason at 2political, who's in the Washington, DC area and gotten far more snow in 2010 than I have.

Finally, I want to point you to the NYS Data Center blog where I highlight the Modern Mechanix blog.

More content tomorrow, I hope.

ROG

Another FantaCo Recollection

Gates of Eden (May 1982) was arguably the best thing FantaCo Enterprises of Albany, NY, where I worked from 1980-1988, ever put out. Had a great Michael Kaluta cover, and work by John Byrne, Steve Leialoha, Michael T. Gilbert, Trina Robbins, Fred Hembeck, Foolbert Sturgeon, Lee Marrs, Jeff Jones, P. Craig Russell, Rick Geary, Kim Deitch, Spain, Sharon Rudahl, Gary Hallgren, and John Caldwell. It was also a disaster commercially. Comic blog impresario Alan David Doane has put together some memories of Gates of Eden,; the title was inspired by Bob Dylan. See what Christopher Allen, my Internet buddy Johnny Bacardi, and yes, I had to say about it here.

I was looking at the FantaCo Wikipedia page recently and it occurred to me that someone should do a Wikipedia page for the late Raoul Vezina. Not only did he do the Smilin' Ed series for FantaCo, he also worked on New Paltz Comix with the aforementioned Michael T. Gilbert. With Don Rittner as writer, Raoul drew a series of Naturalist At Large cartoons, many of which I had bnever seen before.

It came out a while ago, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't still be plugging Fred Hembeck's 900-page anthology again. It includes Fred's seven magazines published by FantaCo, plus about 700 MORE pages of goodness.
***
My, I've been feeling crummy the last four days. And I'm supposed to sing this afternoon. I've had a range of about a half an octave; wish me luck.
ROG

The Breakfast Blog

My friend Dan really cracked me up, when, in his comment to my NaBloPoMo post, he described my blog as one of the "Breakfast Blogs. That what I call blogs like yours, Roger. 'For today's post I'm going to tell you what I had for breakfast this morning! I had exactly what I told you I had for breakfast in yesterday's post, but today I also had a big glass of orange juice! Let me tell you how that came about!' etc."

For the record, I can recall noting my breakfast habits five times in four and a half years, twice in my dedication to cold cereal, especially mixed; one about maple syrup; and a couple times in response to a meme question. OK, and once in answer to this question. That's about once every nine months.

And it's fine that he has a more "slow cooking" blog. Frankly, if I wrote as infrequently as he does, I'm afraid I wouldn't write anything at all. I have so many ideas, or at least pieces of ideas floating around in my head at any given time.
***
What I will tell you is that I went to a comic book show on Sunday, well described by Fred Hembeck here (November 3). Had a grand old time talking with Fred, his wife Lynn Moss, John Hebert and his wife and mother, Bill Anderson, Joe Staton and especially Rocco Nigro. But what Fred and Rocco and I all said at different points was, "Where's Alan David Doane?" He plugged the event in his blog and then no one saw him there. Maybe he was incognito in one of those Watchman or Star Wars costumes; one really can't tell much about a person in a Darth Vader outfit.
***
I've been at a State Data Center Affiliates meeting Wednesday, Thursday and will be today, learning a lot about the 2010 Census, the American Community Survey. and other Census products. I know the Census people really can't say this, but I can: if you don't want some intrusive government person coming to your house, fill out the form and return it right away. The decennial form next year is 10 questions, 10 minutes. Expect me to bore you with this regularly until at least mid-April.
***
I TOLD you the Yankees would beat the...Cardinals I TOLD you the Yankees would win the World Series. Didn't see an inning of it live; mostly caught the highlights.
***
I'm really pleased to announce that I received an acceptance letter this week for the proposal I submitted for Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region, Inc. 9th annual conference in February. I'll talk more about it as it gets closer, but I've been a big fan of Paul and Mary Liz Stewart's work on this for years.

ROG

Doane Made Me Do It

OK, Alan David Doane didn't MAKE me do one of those Facebook thingies; I CHOOSE to do so. Since he sent it a few days ago, my answers are as of lunchtime on Thursday, October 1.

1. What was the last thing you put in your mouth?

Flavored ice pop; more for the hydration than the flavor.

2. Where was your profile picture taken?

In my office at work, I think.

3. Can you play Guitar Hero?

Never even tried. It seems that if the child shows an interest someday, I might give it a go, but otherwise can't foresee doing it.

4. Name someone who made you laugh today?

I was playing racquetball, and my partner made a terrible swing, awful swing, which was so unpredictable that it hit the ball sideways and we made the point.

5. How late did you stay up last night and why?

10 pm, working on a proposal for a session at a conference.

7. Ever been kissed under fireworks?

Don't believe so. I've been under fireworks; didn't like being singed or the volume.

8. Which of your friends lives closest to you?

Probably Bill and Orchid.

9. Do you believe ex's can be friends?

I definitely do. There were at least three at my wedding to Carol and she knew it. Oh, and I thought you spelled the word "exes",

10. How do you feel about Dr Pepper?

Ambivalent. Haven't had it in years.

11. When was the last time you cried really hard?

Listening to an adagio a couple weeks ago. Wrote about it.

12. Who took your profile picture?

No idea. Could have been any one of a half dozen roving amateur photographers in our office.

13. Who was the last person you took a picture of?

My daughter Lydia.

14. Was yesterday better than today?

Well, it's a toss-up. Yesterday was more productive, today is more fun.

15. Can you live a day without TV?

Well, for myself, it happens quite a bit, judging from my DVR. But 30 minutes/day for the daughter is magic.

16. Are you upset about anything?

Not actively.

17. Do you think relationships are ever really worth it?

I do.

18. Are you a bad influence?

I used to be; ah, those were the days...

19. Night out or night in?

Well it's choir night AND it's garbage night, so I won't be in the house until 10 pm.

20. What items could you not go without during the day?

I've gone without the computer but prefer not to.

21. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital?

My friend Mike Attwell, I believe. He's much better now.

22. What does the last text message in your inbox say?

What's a text message? Are we talking cellphones? I haven't used the feature. If we're talking e-mail, haven't used the feature in a very long time.

23. How do you feel about your life right now? It could be worse.

24. Do you hate anyone?

Not presently. Though there are plenty who tick me off.

25. If we were to look in your Facebook inbox, what would we find?

Lots of virtual plants I haven't gotten around to accepting.

26. Say you were given a drug test right now, would you pass?

Not if it was looking for caffeine.

27. Has anyone ever called you perfect before?

Yes, and they were WRONG.

28. What song is stuck in your head?

You Make My Dreams by Hall & Oates; my wife says the bit in 500 Days of Summer using that song is one of her favorite parts of any movie EVER.

29. Someone knocks on your window at 2 a.m., who do you want it to be?

You know the anxiety if someone doing it would negate whatever joy it would have. Really, it couldn't wait until morning? But if it was one of three friends I haven't seen in 20+ years, MAYBE they could get away with it.

30. Wanna have grand-kids before you’re 50?

Moot point. I'm over 50, was over 50 when the CHILD was born.

31. Name something you have to do tomorrow?

Go to my daughter's school to see the Apple Run, whatever that is. EDIT: It's a bunch of kids in the five kindergarten classes running around a track of about 200 meters,. the girls and boys riun separately. Lydia won her heat.


ROG

That Equinox Tradition! Ask Roger Anything!

Ask Roger Anything comes at a really opportune time. Answering your questions really revs up the batteries. Leave your questions in the comment section, or if you're really shy, e-mail them to me.

I don't know about other bloggers, but I need the relationship that blogging can provide. Often, and this is both counter-intuitive and slightly nerve wracking, I'll go look at other blogs when I "should" be working on my own. This is not so I can steal from them, though a meme or six has come that way, but because I need the electronic esprit de corps.

A little bit ago, I noted that I don't really write this blog and that I often have the content of a piece go in a different direction than I had initially planned. Likewise, I learn a lot from commenting elsewhere, including about me.

From Gordon's noting the passing of a friend, I learned how much I regretted dropping - 20 years ago! -a methodology that I used to use to keep up with friends. From ADD's piece on creator rights, I realized that there is a parallel between those who want to protect the status quo ("they signed the damn contract; it's their own fault") and some forms of Christianity, which I will call fundamentalism (not a great word, really, but understood - or misunderstood well enough for this purpose). Whereas trying to create a more equitable distribution of wealth fits into (my) loosey-goosey "liberal" theology that suggests that getting to the right end is more important than the literal reading of "the law".

So back to the issue at hand, just about anything goes. I do not recall a question yet that I did not answer, and answer with the truth; the whole truth and nothing but the truth will cost extra.
***
Brian at Coverville played my John Hiatt-Elvis Costello request, the lowest rated song on the show, alas!
***
Also Musical: Jaquandor's ten film scores, or filmscores.
ROG

Unabashed Plug: Conversations with ADD

Alan David Doane (pictured at left) is a mensch. Now, for those of you not down with your Yiddish, mensch means a person having admirable characteristics, such as fortitude and firmness of purpose.

Or you could say, ADD is a PITA, which means pain in the tookus. I mean that in a good way. As Christopher Allen describes him, Alan is an agent provocateur.

ADD was one of those young people who were customers of FantaCo, the comic book store/publishing empire where I used to work in the 1980s. Subsequently, ADD became a noted blogger in the comic book realm. This week - September 1st, 2009 - marks the ninth anniversary of his Comic Book Galaxy's original launch, and "approximately the tenth anniversary of my beginning to write about comics online," he noted.

To mark the occasion, he has released his third eBook, Conversations with ADD. It is nearly 300 pages long, and "contains nearly four dozen interviews, including cartoonists, writers, artists, publishers, editors, comics retailers and bloggers."

I had the chance to look at a preview copy, and I got to read interviews with some of my favorite creative people, including Peter Bagge, Howard Chaykin, Tony Isabella, Denny O'Neil, Harvey Pekar, and Walt Simonson, along with the ever-enigmatic Dave Sim. There's a piece on Earthworld Comics owner J.C. Glindmeyer, who really DOES do Free Comic Book Day right, as I can attest from personal experience.

There is even a brief interview in there with a historic relic, yours truly. I should note that it's largely ADD's persistence that got me to blog about old FantaCo stuff such as the counterfeit Cerebus or the Fantastic Four Chronicles, so you can partially credit (or blame) him.

ADD's POV comes through in his questions without overwhelming the interviewee, a delicate balancing act. Of course, many of the subjects have their own strong personalities, so the resulting interaction can make for a lively piece.

These interviews span the entire last decade, which in part gives a snapshot into the comic book market over the period.

As Mark Evanier likes to say, Go See It!
***
Since I'm plugging things:
The Vermont Monster Guide by Joseph A. Citro, illustrated by Stephen R. Bissette
Harvey Pekar: Conversations, edited by Michael G. Rhode
From the Wall Street Journal: Spider Mouse? Marvel/Disney Mash-Ups for True Believers. Analysts applauded Disney’s offer to buy Marvel, announced Monday, saying that the move would help the company make inroads with boys.
But were they expecting Gooflactus?
We do know that Hitler is ticked. And the fandamentalist internerds are all whiny.

Photo stolen from Fred Hembeck. Probably taken by Lynn Moss.

ROG

Blogiversary Numero Quatro

When I say that I have posted every day for four years, and I say, "I don't believe it," I'm not being rhetorical. Given the whimsical way I started this blog, AND my notorious lack of discipline, I figured it'd last a month or two, maybe until the JEOPARDY! saga was finished, or after I made some observations about the daughter until she hit those early milestones.

Yet here I am. I've really tried NOT to write more than once a day. I don't have time. How did I do THIS year?
2008: May, September, November, December; 2009: January, February reached goal
2008: June, October; 2009: March one extra post
2008: July, August; 2009: April three extra posts
So that's 374 posts in the past year, not to mention my other blogs here and here and here and my work blog here.

One of the things about blogging, of course, is that one doesn't do it in isolation. I don't think some people realizes that blogging is more than the writing. Near-twin Gordon talks about the 70/30 rule - I don't know if it's original with him, but it doesn't matter - which is that 70% of the time you blog, but the other 30% of the time you spend reading and commenting on other blogs.

This has gotten more tricky this year by two factors:
1) my wife's internship, which has made use of our single computer more difficult. Perfect example happened yesterday, when I got up at 4:35 a.m. to work on this post, but my wife ALSO got up at the same time to do school work until 5:55; given the fact that I have to wake the child at 6:30 and leave at 7...
2) my embrace of Twitter and, to a lesser extent, Facebook. I was reading the March 2009 Ladies Home Journal this week - it was left in the lunchroom - and someone wrote that Facebook is "a big time suck."

That "other" time is important; it keeps me informed, even if it's about weird stuff. But also one starts to actually care about those other people. When Tom the Dog tweets: "Today was a good day. Tomorrow will be better. I feel like I've turned a corner. About time." a few days ago, I hope that means he'll start blogging again. When Scott gets laid off from his job, I feel the need to commiserate. Yet I've met neither of them.

The great thing about this busyness is that I stopped worrying about the number of hits I get on a given day, or my Technorati score, or any of that. I AM happy that this blog is still in the top three or four when one Googles Roger Green.

This coming year, I've decided that I need to do a few specific things:
I'm going to continue to do ABC Wednesday because it forces me to stretch.
I need to do my long-promised list of Beatles songs in order of what I'd want on to hear on a desert island; some of the biggies will not fare well.
I need to continue my year-by-year analysis of Oscar-worthy movies so I can finally make my list of my favorite movies (though one on my list is certainly NOT Oscar-worthy).
And of course, my once-a-month Lydia piece.

I MAY miss a day or two. It's much more likely given the fact that I'll be away for a couple weeks this summer without computer access. Or maybe I'll just post YouTube videos like Eddie does when he's stressed. I will likely, in the words of Alan David Doane, reposition some stuff for sure.

Thank you all for coming by. Comments are always welcome.
ROG

Fat Tuesday

Today is Mardi Gras and that, of course, reminds me of New Orleans and the whole "should Nawlins survive?" conversation.

Specifically, I was thinking about a recent podcast called The KunstlerCast, "a weekly audio program about the tragic comedy of suburban sprawl," featuring James Howard Kunstler, author of The Geography of Nowhere and The Long Emergency, among others. It was the distinguished Alan David Doane, who said such kind things about me recently, who turned me on to Kunstler.

In episode #52, Duncan Crary, the host/producer of the Kunstlercast, was wondering, and this is a broad paraphrase: Isn't New Orleans culturally cool enough to try to save? And I think there's a part of me that shares that viewpoint. Kunstler, for his part, indicated that the city may survive in a smaller form, although, with global warming, who knows?

I suppose the argument that it's under sea level, so it is foolish to save it would resonate more with me if people weren't also rebuilding in fire zones in California, flood zones further up the Mississippi and other places that have been destroyed more than once. A friend got hit by two Florida hurricanes in one year a few seasons back. I'm still convinced that some earthquake is going to carry half of California into the ocean.

But let's fret about that another time:
Mardi Gras 1941 and 1954 and 2006, just after Katrina.
Take Me to the Mardi Gras
jamming with the Meters
ROG

The Year In Review: Mixed Media

As pop culture goes, my participation in same was pretty dismal. But I'm going to plod on and describe the highlights.

COMICS
Last month, the Comic Reporter asked its readers to "Name Five Memorable Comics-Related Things About 2008 (A Book You Read, An Experience You Had, An Event That Made You Take Notice -- Anything That Would Help You In The Future Recall This Year." I failed to participate there, but I will here.

1a. Fred Hembeck's book came out, and I'm mentioned in the thank yous; I like seeing my name in print, what can I say? This also meant that I actually went to more comic-related shows (three) than I have in a while. At two of them, I saw Fred.
1b. At one of those shows, someone actually asked ME to sign some FantaCo Chronicles I worked on 25 years ago. What an ego boost!
1c. I also saw my friend Rocco Nigro, and re-met the inestimable Alan David Doane, who was probably an annoying teenager last I had seen him, rather than the charmer he is now.

2. Someone put out a Wikipedia page for FantaCo, a place I worked for 8.5 years, this summer. Frankly, the page was awful, riddled with errors and omissions. Fortunately, the guy contacted me, and it became the mission of mine and of my old buddy Steve Bissette to rectify the record; the thing is not perfect, but it's a WHOLE lot better. The incident also gave me a chance to get in contact with former FantaCo owner Tom Skulan for the first time in nearly a decade.

3. Reading Kirby: King of Comics by Mark Evanier. It explained a lot about Jack's motivation the times I dealt with him on the phone in the early 1980s.

4. The deaths of Steve Gerber in 2008, who unbeknowst to him helped inspire this blog, and of Raoul Vezina, 25 years ago.

5. Freddie and Me by Mike Dawson, which, among other things, made me want to listen to more of the music of the group Queen.

MUSIC
I got maybe a dozen 2008 albums all year, by Lindsay Buckingham, Elvis Costello, Randy Newman, REM, She and Him, Brian Wilson, Lizz Wright, a couple others plus the MOJO take on the Beatles' white album. I liked them all at some level, but the even snarlkier than usual Newman album "stuck" the most. More old fogey music I received for Christmas and haven't heard enough to judge: Paul McCartney, James Taylor and Johhny Cash. The latter is a 40th anniversary double CD/DVD box set of his Folsom Prison concerts; just on a quick listen, I'm happy to hear the Carl Perkins and Statler Brothers tunes for the first time.

MOVIES
A paltry number of 2008 pics so far: Iron Man (my favorite), Young@Heart, Man on Wire, Vicki Cristina Barcelona, and Synecdoche, New York. Three of them, IM, MoW and VCB made the Top 10 list at the WSJ along with WALL-E, Slumdog Millionaire and a bunch of other films I will try to see.
Yes, I did see some 2007 films in 2008 and I will undoubtedly see some 2008 films in 2009. Still, five is worse than the seven I saw last year, and catching up on video just doesn't seem to happen, not that it's entirely comparable anyway.

TELEVISION

Oh, heck, TV deserves its own posting. Thanks to technology, it's about the only thing I have even a modicum of a chance to (barely) keep up with.

ROG

And the other thing

Last weekend was extremely busy. I went to a library discussion on Saturday afternoon, more about which I'm pretty sure I'll share eventually. That night, Carol and i got a babsitter (yay!), ate dinner at some place called the Pump Station, then went to the Palace Theatre to hear the Albany Symphony Orchestra participate in A Night of Italian Opera, celebrating Puccini's 150th birthday. There were selections by Verdi, Donizetti, Rossini, Puccini, of course, and others (Honoring the Capital Region's Italian-American Community.) The baritone was a last minute replacement for another singer, and he was good, but the other three especially the mezzo-soprano, were quite expressive. It was more fun that it may sound. Thanks to the couple who gave us the tickets.

Sunday after church and our church's stewardship luncheon, I went to a comic book show in Albany (actually Colonie) described by ADD here and here.

Monday, I took off from work so I could catch up on things. I did get to watch Bill Moyers. Instead of his usual recent fare of voter fraud, misleading political ads and of course the economic meltdown, he sat with Mark Johnson, "the producer of a remarkable documentary about the simple but transformative power of music: PLAYING FOR CHANGE: PEACE THROUGH MUSIC. The film brings together musicians from around the world — blues singers in a waterlogged New Orleans, chamber groups in Moscow, a South African choir — to collaborate on songs familiar and new, in the effort to foster a new, greater understanding of our commonality." You may have seen the Stand By Me video on Evanier's page, but there's lots more.
***
Uncharacteristically, I actually replied to Five For Friday this week.
ROG

October Ramblin'

I have no idea how or why, but someone I do not know wrote to me and asked: "Do you know why Amy Madigan was not cast as Allison French in the 2008 movie Appaloosa. She's married to Ed Harris who co-wrote the screenplay, directed & starred in the movie?" I wrote back, "I have no idea except that Renee Zellweger is younger and more famous."
I did also include a couple quotes:
September 13, 2006
Harris' wife, actress Amy Madigan, informed the [SF] Chronicle that she won't be appearing in the film because there's no role for her in it.

October 16, 2007
Tavis Smiley: How is [Ed], by the way?
Amy Madigan: He's wonderful. He's directing a film right now in New Mexico called "Appaloosa" with - and he's also acting in it - with Viggo Mortensen. He's playing his part in that, and Renee Zellweger and Jeremy Irons, and they're just riding horses, and they have guns, and it's a very cool story, based on a Robert Parker novel, as a matter of fact.
Tavis: After 23 years of marriage...?
Amy: Twenty-four.
Tavis: Twenty-four years - you guys are used to being apart, I guess, for extensive time?
Amy: Yeah, but I still don't like it. We're just revisiting - we're lucky because when we're together we really have all that time, but it's still difficult.
***
I Am the Walrus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The song also contains the exclamation goo goo g'joob with "koo koo g'joob heard clearly in the second. Various hypotheses exist regarding the origin and meaning. One is that the phrase was derived from the similar "koo koo ka choo" in Simon and Garfunkel's Mrs. Robinson, written in 1967. However, the film The Graduate, where "Mrs. Robinson" debuted, did not appear until December 1967, a month after "I Am the Walrus", and The Graduate Original Soundtrack (which contained only fragments of the final version of "Mrs Robinson") was not until January 1968.
***
There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the 'drive-through' Mastectomy where patients are forced to go home just a few hours after surgery, against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.
Lifetime Television has put this bill on their Web page with a petition drive to show support. Last year over half the House signed on. Sign the petition if you feel so moved; you need not give more than your name, state, and zip code.
Possibly not coincidentally, there was a story on ABC News last week about a father and daughter who both had breast cancer. I recall that Ed Brooke, former US Senator (R-MA) had breast cancer. Here are some stats. So while over 99% of people getting v=breast cancer are women, men can get it too.
***
alan david doane has started a blog to promote his freelance copywriting services. I understand he works in both UPPER and lower case.
***
An old friend, Elinor Brownstein im very excited that the musical she wrote is being produced: Oy Vay, the Musical
***
Chicken soup for stressed-out pandas
The Wuhan Zoo in central China has been feeding its two pandas home-cooked chicken soup twice in a month to reduce stress and give them a nutritional boost, a zoo official said Friday.
***
"A church squabble of ten years' standing at Wallpack Center, NJ has developed a very singular phase. When the church was built, some ten years ago, the church people were divided on the subject of the site. Later, their choir became the center of the quarrel. A part of the congregation wanted the organist and singers of their choice, while others were opposed to them. The past few weeks the feeling has been getting more and more bitter. A few days ago there was to have been a special service, for which another organist was engaged, but on gathering at the church the congregation was amazed to find that someone had entered the building and, after daubing the organ inside and out with tar, had sprinkled on a bountiful supply of
feathers. The whole organ, cover, keyboard, stops, pedals, and all had received the double coat. This is certainly the most ridiculous display of petty vengeance on record". From the News and Observer, Raleigh, NC, October 26, 1883. (Re-printed in The American Organist, October 2008, p. 52.)
***
Condolences to my friend Mary whose brother Tim died at the age of 46 after spending the last 10 years of his life fighting a battle with adult onset myotonic dystrophy, a form of muscular dystrophy.

ROG

Blogging about blogging can be habit-forming

We've gotta stop meeting like this.

As a result of a difficulty I had with one of my other blogs on Blogger - this weird bX error that others suffered through too - I copied this blog (and that one) in its entirety to WordPress this past month. I’m not that familiar with WordPress, though my Times Union blog appears on it, so I will play with that at some point. But this Blogger blog will still be my primary blogging outlet until further notice, if only because whatever minimal promotion I’ve done has been to the Blogspot address. Also, I haven't followed up to post the subsequent items on WordPress, so that is a factor.

I added a couple of bloggers to my sidebar. One is Gary who describes himself as the "old dude". He’s only 16 years older than I am, so I wouldn’t call him old at all; gotta be at least 25 years older than I am to be old. He's, er, more politically conservative than I am, but he can tolerate me, then I can tolerate him. In fact, it was Gary's sidebar that inspired me to START to tweak mine, so that at least I can see when at least some of the bloggers listed they last posted. (Yeah, Yeah, I can do the RSS feed thing; I just haven't.)

I also added Demeur from Gary's sidebar, just for some political balance. (Did I mention that Gary's rather conservative?) Also, WayneJohn seems more comprehensible than the so-called "blogger help".

Another is yet another damn blog from Alan David Doane, who currently kvetches a lot about his dental work. See, I do all my kvetching right here. And speaking of ADD, I liked this link he found about what makes a good blog.

My near-twin Gordon had a post about all the cool things he’s doing on his blog. I must admit I didn’t understand about 70 percent of it.

One of my blog posts was linked to the Comic Reporter this past month with this single sentence: "One retailer recalls the 1987 Comic-Con." No mention of my name; no mention, even, of FantaCo. Talk about being damned with faint praise.

I came across a blogpost that read as follows: "A friend of mine, Roger Green, often reminds me that the enemy of excellence is not the pitiful or horrible, but rather just the good." No, it was not me. I found the post and replied: "It seems also true the perfect can drive out the good; if I can't be perfect in my relationship with God, I might as well give up."

Another blog post about face transplants cites "Roger Green, president of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons, said: "This particular surgery is a way of giving back a life to a patient who has been horribly scarred by burns, trauma or a tumour."
***
In other news, my HP printer died, quite a few months ago, actually, and I was forced to go out and buy a new one. It’s a Brother, which not only prints but copies, scans, and if I had a phone line for it, faxes. It only cost $70, but after you add in the USB port cable and various ink cartridges, it was closer to $200. Still, once I’ve mastered the scanning technique - assuming I master the scanning technique - you’ll be able to see some of the results on this blog.
ROG

The Omnivore's Hundred

ADD writes:

Andrew Wheeler posted this challenge on the Very Good Taste blog...here are the rules:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten. (I've opted to italicize; my blog, my rules.)
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

Alan's American Variant: I asterisked (*) any items that are unknown to me. Most of the starred items, I have heard of, but I don't know what they are. Pathetic, I know.

(Oh, Johnny B. hates tomatoes, it seems.)

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho*
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi*
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses*
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes - specifically apple
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper*
27. Dulce de leche*
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda*
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (I've had each, but not together; would certainly eat it if offered)
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly*
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal*
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu*
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi*
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle*
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine*
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin*
64. Currywurst*
65. Durian*
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost*
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu*
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong*
80. Bellini*
81. Tom yum*
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate*
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa*
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano*
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I should note that I didn't cross off anything, because I'd try it in theory. Faced with a whole insect, who knows?
Also, many of the thinks I checked on the list, I tried only once, and didn't particularly enjoy.

ROG

BOOK REVIEW: Freddie and Me

I wasn’t a big fan of the rock group Queen. I do own their Greatest Hits album on vinyl, but that’s it. But Mike Dawson was a HUGE fan. In his comic book autobiography, Freddie and Me: A Coming of Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody, Dawson talks about how his upbringing in England and eventually in the United States was heavily integrated with the music and the lives of Freddie Mercury and his band. This wasn’t just the background music in his life a la the movie The Big Chill; these tunes were core elements that affected the decisions he made throughout his early years.

The book is funny, and occasionally sad; it’s specifically personal, yet has a universal sense as well. For instance, when he notes how much he hated those Queen fans-come-lately who only knew "Bohemian Rhapsody" as the result of the movie "Wayne’s World", it sounds like any number of comic book, art and music fans I’ve encountered over the years.(I think this speaks to Tosy’s feelings about the overplayed title tune of this book. If you’re a big fan of the group Queen or, oddly, George Michael, you’ll almost certainly love this book. If you’re a big fan of any musician or artist, you will certainly relate to the passion upon which Dawson draws.
***
Coincidentally, Freddie and me is one of several items for sale at ADD’s graphic novel sale.
***
Go to this episode of Coverville and hear the rare Michael Jackson/Freddie Mercury demo to the Jacksons’ hit "State of Shock" that ultimately featured Mick Jagger on guest vocal.
ROG

FantaCo redux

How do you leave the past behind
When it keeps finding ways to get to your heart.
- From the musical Rent.


As some of you know, I worked at FantaCo Enterprises, a comic book store that was involved with conventions, mail order and publishing from May 1980 to November 1988. After I left, I figured, "OK, that was THAT chapter in my life," and I would just move on.

Well, no.

In part because of the nudging of a certain party, I wrote a piece or two about the place I spent 8.5 years working, with another piece coming later this month. Then I discovered that some people had warm recollections of FantaCo, the store, the conventions and the various, and eclectic, line of publications.

What brought this to mind were TWO e-mails I got in the past week. One wanted to get hold of FantaCo owner Tom Skulan concerning a publication about magazines such as EERIE and CREEPY, and he wanted to include the FantaCo publications of the genre.

(Truth is, I have a three-year-old e-mail of Tom's and don't know if it's any good.)

The other e-mail was from a guy who wrote:
One question I have is about the Fantaco/Tundra imprint. According to many sources, right around 1990, FantaCo proper disappeared, and instead comics with a Fantaco/Tundra imprint appeared. Kevin Eastman, publisher of the short-lived Tundra Publishing, seems to have been involved (as a book of his, "No Guts No Glory" was published by Fantaco/Tundra). In my Wikipedia entry, I deduced that Eastman bought out or absorbed Fantaco around this time. Am I correct in assuming that? If not, do you know the real history? (I know you left the company around 1988, but I thought you might have kept up with their story.)

I have no idea. The idea of Tom allowing anyone to "absorb" FantaCo seems out of character, but as the writer notes, I wasn't there. (Hey, anyone out there know?)

This latter writer, not so incidentally, has put together the FantaCo Wikipedia post. It is incomplete, as it does not even mention the book publications, such as Splatter Movies, Video Screams, The Amazing Herschell Gordon Lewis, a couple HGL screenplays, Midnight Marquee #33 (I think), and two books about Famous Monsters. I was tickled, though, to see the list of references, including Steve Bissette, who I knew in the day, and have been reacquainted with as a result of the Internet; and, well, me. I'm also cited, BTW, in the Fred Hembeck Wikipedia post.

Somehow, I have, much to my surprise, started to feel some responsibility towards the history of the FantaCo flame, even the stuff that happened after I left. It must be the librarian in me. Steve Bissette has already tackled some of this in his four-part series on Gore Shriek Steve's contributions to Henderson State University also addresses the topic. Others who have noted it include Fred Hembeck, of course, and Dennis Dread.

So, at SOME point, I'll have to deal with the incomplete legacy of FantaCo. I'll probably start with the Mile High listing. But, for all sorts of reasons, which will be revealed sooner or later, not for a few weeks. Meanwhile, if you all have some solid information re: FantaCo, especially FantaCo publications, and the FantaCo/Tundra relationship, please let me know. My thanks. The information gods will truly thank you.

ROG

Dealing with Stuff

Saw a couple people yesterday that reminded me about my war with stuff. There was a period, once upon a time, when I coveted stuff - new music, new books, pretty much what every good American has been trained to do. Yet at the same time, I admired people who had a better handle on stuff. I knew this couple from my former church who lived in a small house, and they had a rule that for whatever came into the house, something of equal size had to go out. Music, books, magazines were purchased, but something else had to be passed along.

This is why I have rules about playing music; if I own it and am not playing it, what's the point? To "have"? (Whereas I'm keeping my Warner Brothers' Loss Leaders LPs for a reason.)

Alan David Doane, noted comics blogger, and former FantaCo customer, came by my house yesterday morning and took a comics magazine-sized box of periodicals out of my house. It included early Amazing Heroes (back when it WAS mag size), about 30 Comics Journals, and various and sundry other bits of comics journalism from the early 1980s. As I looked through the box, I had a twinge of nostalgia, especially for a square-bound CJ featuring the Pinis and Elfquest. But an even stronger sensation was this: I will never read these magazines again. ADD will enjoy having them much more than I at this point. And, if he finds any FantaCo-relevant info in there, ADD will tell me, making it a win-win.

Less than an hour later, I had lunch with Mitch Cohn, who used to work at FantaCo and edited 2/5 issues of the Chronicles, Gates of Eden and Deja Vu. (Mitch says hi to Fred and Rocco.) In the course of catching up on our lives - he's teaching English in NYC - Mitch wondered whether Tom Skulan, former FantaCo owner, still had this copy of Abbey Road purportedly signed by all four Beatles. I said no, he gave it to me for Christmas or my birthday in 1984 or '85. Here's the weird thing about that; I often forget that I have it. There was a show of Beatles memorabilia to which I had contributed some pieces, but the Abbey Road, which was/is NOT with my Beatles' materials, totally slipped my mind. So,I'm thinking that I probably should just sell it. Of course, this would probably involve authenticating the signatures. The Beatles were notorious for letting their surrogates sign on their behalf. But having it to "have" it just isn't making sense anymore.

It's not that I'm immune to wanting stuff altogether. Sure I'd like a stereo HDTV some day. But my now 21-year-old, pre-SAP, pre-V-chip TV still works, and I'm not throwing it to the curb (probably not literally; there are rules in this city against that) for something I want but just don't need.
***
Things that are bugging me:
*the way the US Census discounts, or more correctly, uncounts married gay couples
*this cartoon featuring Barack Obama; I think it's racist. No, it's not the New Yorker cover.
*and I feel rather callous about this one, but after Martha Raddatz, the ABC News White House correspondent reported on the death of former White House press secretary, who died of colon cancer at the age of 53 earlier this month, anchor Charlie Gibson thanked her, adding "I know how hard this story was for you." Undoubtedly, some affection develops for someone one talks with on a near-daily basis, but hearing "how hard" it was for Martha, who was showing no visible signs of emotion, made me wonder how aggressively the network was in dealing with the Bush administration. (No, that's not the ONLY thing that made me question that.) And it made Martha's reaction part of the story, which made me uncomfortable.

Roger Answers Your Question, Roger and Anthony

Roger from Albany wonders: So how are you feeling now after your accident?

The problem is that I'm healing, feeling better, so that inevitably I overdo. Friday, for instance, I was carrying a bag in my right arm that I guess was too heavy, for my left side, where I broke my rib four weeks ago tomorrow, ended up in pain not unlike what I experienced two weeks ago. Still, I am healing, and I actually lifted my left arm almost straight up. I can't run, but i can trot, which I couldn't do the week before . The only thing that gives me really tremendous pain is sneezing. (Yes, i do talk to myself; ask my wife.) Oh and the picture was stolen from ADD, but then again, he stole my whole post, just as he promised.

Anthony asks: If it is not too late, I would like to ask a question, of a mildly philosophical and yet somewhat personal nature.

What do you think is the most critical quality or characteristic for a politician (make that statesman) to have in order to effectively govern, and why do think this?

First off, you assume that someone CAN effectively govern. Let's posit that that is possible.

Second, you assume it's not too late. After listening to a half dozen podcasts by James Howard Kunstler (curse you, ADD), I wonder. (On he other hand, ADD did have his own quasi-theological treatise.

Third, let me touch on a trait that are NOT necessary: be the kind of person with whom I can have a beer. Besides the fact that I don't much like beer, I've thought it was a bizarre criterion for picking leaders.

I suppose the chief characteristic I'm looking for in a politician is integrity. I think that one can lead more effectively that way. And it's not just beyond reproach, like Caesar's wife. It's a value system that makes one feel that the politician/statesperson wasn't bending to which ever way the political winds are blowing. I'm not saying that John Kerry was doing that in 2004, but sometimes it FELT like that.

Of course, one has to have real Christian values, such as looking out for the greater good, rather than just for his or her cronies. One does not profess to be a Christian, or indeed, a member of any faith, to achieve this; conversely, public piety does not Christian values prove (see Bush, George W.)

I read about this town along the Mississippi River that was flooded in 1993. The town decided to move the entire town to higher ground. So while neighboring towns are inundated again in 2008, this small town is literally high and dry. That took leadership, and an integrity that this was taking place to help everyone.

When I was in college in New Paltz, NY in 1974, a Congressional seat opened up. The Republican incumbent, Howard Robison of Tioga County, decided not to run again in this massive district that ran through at least five counties and looked like a giant curved hot dog, running from Ithaca (Tompkins County) through my hometown of Binghamton (Broome County) all the way to Woodstock and New Paltz (Ulster County). Four Democrats and five Republicans vied for the seat.

I was a member of the New Paltz Democratic Club and we heard from three of the Dem candidates; the fourth the Town of Union (Broome County) supervisor Knopp (or something like that) didn't bother, because the core of the population base skewed east and we were on the western fringe. The three who came were a young lawyer from Binghamton, who at least one member ended up supporting; Bill Schecter (sp?) a Woodstock lawyer and perfectly acceptable choice; and Matt McHugh, the district attorney from Tompkins County. As the anti-establishment type that I was, I felt I would be least likely to support McHugh, whose job title epitomized "The Man". But I wish I could tell you now what quiet elegance the man had where he expressed his viewpoint and I realized that, despite my initial misgivings, it as clear to me that he was the best man for the job. He oozed character. Maybe three or four others (John Vett - who would later become mayor of New Paltz; Tom Nyquist - who would also eventually become mayor of New Paltz; Tom's wife Corinne) also supported McHugh; everyone else went to the local favorite, Schecter.

I never worked so hard on behalf of another person in my life until I cleaned out my mother's shed last fall. I went door to door carrying petitions and got at least 125 signatures. I attended a number of "meet the candidate" house events. One of Matt's great gifts was not only the ability to remember people's names, but specific details about them. "Hello, Mary, how's your husband Bob's lumbago?"

Matt even gave me a ride from New Paltz to Binghamton so I could visit friends, and on the two-and-a-half hour drive debated the issues of the day. I didn't agree with all of his positions. I specifically recall his position against abortion, based on his Roman Catholic upbringing which I didn't share, and yet we found ways to agree to disagree while embracing our common ground.

The results of the primary was that Matt McHugh won the primary. He lost the part of Ulster County in the district, but I was pleased to note that HE WON NEW PALTZ!

For the general election, one of my professors, Glenn McNitt, who had been backing Schecter, helped organize polling phone banks, and I made a lot of calls. McHugh would be running against Al Libous, the mayor of Binghamton, whose politics I HATED. Of course, McHugh won the general election and served until the end of 1992, when he declined to run for reelection.

He is currently on the board of http://www.abanet.org/rol/europe_and_eurasia/board_europe_eurasia.html the America Bar association Rule of Law Initiative.

Anthony, I know I've fallen far afield of your question. Anyway, I think people sense authentic or inauthentic. Well, some of the time.

Oh, and thanks for your defense of me by that "opiate of the masses" guy. Peculiar, the post itself was primarily a thanks to my church choir director, whose last service is today; I never expected that sort of response and feel rather ill-equipped to go one-on-one with that type.

ROG

Roger Answers Your Questions, ADD

The inimitable Alan David Doane, with whom I spent much of last Saturday afternoon, along with John Hebert, Rocco Nigro and Fred Hembeck wrote: I have five questions, which if you answer them all, I will steal your responses and put on my blog, because that's just the kind of guy I am. And he is. He really is. He's also a guy who hates his cell phone but keeps it charged, whereas I often don't know where the phone and/or the charger are.

What is your favourite comic book story?

Yeesh. I must admit a fondness for the Defenders when Gerber was writing it, and I love a good origin story (Spider-Man, Hulk), but ultimately, I end up with Giant-Size Man Thing #1.

When reading comics, do you focus on the writing over the art, the art over the writing, or both about equally?

Serviceable art will allow me to read a well-told story. The most beautiful art will not save a terrible story line. One of the comic books I hate the most has to be Spider-Man #1. The McFarlane art was tolerable at best, but the story was so gawd awful, I stopped buying the title after 3 or 4 issues. Given the fact that I LOVED-LOVED-LOVED Peter Parker/Spider-Man, it was painful, but necessary. This was NOT the Peter I knew. The Spider-Man was more like Spawn. Loathsome.
When the Pinis used to come to FantaCo to do Elfquest signings, Richard used to rail against the comic fanboys who cared about art to the exclusion of story, and I thought he was absolutely right.
That said, sometimes the art DOES move me. I was buying Sub-Mariner during Bill Everett's second run, and I loved the look.

Who do you think is the greatest comic book artist still alive today and why?

Well, besides Fred G. Hembeck, who should be considered just based on the sheer number of characters he's drawn? I'll cop out and say Art Spiegelman because he helped bring the comic form out of the comic book ghetto.

What's your happiest memory of working at FantaCo?

I almost always loved when our publications came in, but I'm going to pick something rather arcane.
There was a graphic novelization of the Stephen King's Creepshow drawn by Berni Wrightson in the mid-1980s. Having connections in both the comic and horror markets we knew, both instinctively and from comic and horror film stores we dealt with that there was still a demand for this title. The publisher, we ascertained, still had many copies of the book. I wrote to the publisher- nothing. I called the publisher - I was told the book was no longer available, which I knew to be untrue. Finally, I reached someone who acknowledged that they had copies but that it was not worth it for them to send it out only to deal with a huge percentage of returns.
So I said, "What if we bought them non-returnable?" I thought the guy's teeth were going to fall out. "Non-returnable?" So, we took 100 copies of it at 70% off the $6.95 cover price, put them in the store and listed them in a Fangoria ad, and blew through them. So I called again and said, can we have another 100?" By this point other stores were clamoring for this book, so we ordered an additional 500, and sold it to these horror book stores, and a few comic book stores, at 40% non-returnable. The stores got to sell a book they could otherwise not get, we made a decent profit even wholesaling someone else's book, and we kept the Wrightson book from just being remaindered. My persistence in dealing with this publisher was, strangely, my favorite FantaCo moment.

Here's another: I just came across in the past week a letter that one of FantaCo's mail order customers sent to me. Why it should resurface now, I have no idea, since we've only been in the house since 2000. (A 1989 article about the comic book Shriek was also in the pile.) This guy worked for Ryko, and he would send me, his mail order purveyor, free music.
Roger-
Good to speak to you on the phone today (1-26-88)...I'm finding Ryko fans in the strangest places.
Hope you enjoy these guys - I chucked in a couple 3", too. The one with no writing is "They Might Be Giants", a couple of guys from Hoboken, NJ. I like this not for the swag, but because apparently I was giving him service worthy of him sending me free stuff. Still have that unlabeled TMBG disc.

What do you think is the single best publication FantaCo released in its history?

While I have a strong affection for the Spider-Man Chronicles, which I edited, I'm going to say Gates of Eden, which Mitch Cohn edited. No, I'm NOT going to pick the Amazing Herschell Gordon Lewis and his World of Exploitation Films, no matter how much you beg, Alan.

ROG