Monday, December 31, 2012
Richard Rodney Bennett, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Richard Rodney Bennett, the British composer who in a long, distinguished career moved with ease among classical concert music, jazz and film, died on Dec. 24 in New York, where he had lived since 1979. He was 76.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Viking Update
The Raw Story: When the sleek, beautiful silhouette of Roskilde 6 appeared on the horizon, 1,000 years ago, it was very bad news. The ship was part of a fleet carrying an army of hungry, thirsty warriors, muscles toned by rowing and sailing across the North Sea; a war machine like nothing else in 11th-century Europe, its arrival meant disaster was imminent.
Now the ship’s timbers are slowly drying out in giant steel tanks at the Danish national museum’s conservation centre at Brede outside Copenhagen, and will soon again head across the North Sea – to be a star attraction at an exhibition in the British Museum.
Now the ship’s timbers are slowly drying out in giant steel tanks at the Danish national museum’s conservation centre at Brede outside Copenhagen, and will soon again head across the North Sea – to be a star attraction at an exhibition in the British Museum.
Worth It For the Crocodiles Alone
Mail Online: It's a real animal house! The $15million Texas mansion filled with dozens of stuffed polar bears, crocodiles and lions
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
The Strange Story of William Faulkner’s Only Children’s Book
Brain Pickings: The Strange Story of William Faulkner’s Only Children’s Book
Sunday, December 30, 2012
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
Another great comic strip collection from Titan Books. Not to be missed by Modesty fans. The large format makes this one especially enticing.
This volume includes the classic stories The Girl from the Future, The Big Mole and Lady in the Dark!
With story introductions that take the reader behind the scenes of Modesty's world, this outstanding collection is not to be missed.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
OrlandoSentinel.com: Woman stabbed drunken joker 9 times during holiday party for teasing, cops say
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
These comic strip reprints are a lot of fun. Titan Books is doing a real service by saving books and comic strips from obscurity.
Amazon.com: The James Bond Omnibus Volume 004 (9780857685896): Ian Fleming: Books: The daring James Bond is back in a definitive bumper edition collecting the second period of Jim Lawrence's celebrated run in comic strip form!
Includes nine of Bond's most thrilling and dangerous missions: Trouble Spot, Isle of Condors, The League of Vampires, Die With My Boots On, The Girl Machine, Beware of Butterflies, The Nevsky Nude, The Phoenix Project and The Black Ruby Caper.
Harry Carey Jr., R. I. P.
The Hollywood Reporter: Harry Carey Jr., who was a member of John Ford's stock company of actors and played in a number of the director's classic Westerns, has died of natural causes in Santa Barbara, the Associated Press reported Friday. He was 91.
I Beat the Average
Daily News Talks: Start Boasting How Well-Read You Are If You Finished Six Books In 2012: Start Boasting How Well-Read You Are If You Finished Six Books In 2012, The Pew Research Center has unveiled its stats on the United States’ reading habits in 2012, revealing that 75 percent of Americans aged 16 and above read at least one book this year. That figure includes printed books, audio books and e-books, an increasingly popular medium.
Readers polished off an average 15 books apiece, a number that was clearly bumped up by voracious bookworms because the median number of books consumed was six. (In other words, half of all readers finished more than six books, and the other half read fewer than six). There’s still time left in the year to squeeze in a few more tomes and bump up your tally – we just hope you’re a fast reader.
Hat tip to Beth Feyden.
Readers polished off an average 15 books apiece, a number that was clearly bumped up by voracious bookworms because the median number of books consumed was six. (In other words, half of all readers finished more than six books, and the other half read fewer than six). There’s still time left in the year to squeeze in a few more tomes and bump up your tally – we just hope you’re a fast reader.
Hat tip to Beth Feyden.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
Monroe County Sheriff's Office - Florida Keys: A Homestead woman was arrested Wednesday, charged with setting fire to a mattress as her ex-boyfriend and another woman slept on it.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Jean S. Harris, R. I. P.
Jean S. Harris, Killer of Scarsdale Diet Doctor, Dies at 89 - NYTimes.com: Jean S. Harris, the private-school headmistress whose 1981 trial for the murder of a prominent Scarsdale, N.Y., physician galvanized a nation mulling feminist perspectives with its story of vengeance by an aging woman scorned, died on Sunday at an assisted-living center in New Haven. She was 89.
[. . . .]
Mrs. Harris was sentenced to 15 years to life, and spent 12 of those years at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, N.Y. But she managed to salvage that seemingly wasted period through a remarkable second act. She counseled fellow female prisoners on how to take care of their children, and she set up a center where infants born to inmates can spend a year near their mothers. Then, after her release in 1993 following a grant of clemency by Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, she set up a foundation that raised millions of dollars for scholarships for children of women in prison in New York State.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
[. . . .]
Mrs. Harris was sentenced to 15 years to life, and spent 12 of those years at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, N.Y. But she managed to salvage that seemingly wasted period through a remarkable second act. She counseled fellow female prisoners on how to take care of their children, and she set up a center where infants born to inmates can spend a year near their mothers. Then, after her release in 1993 following a grant of clemency by Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, she set up a foundation that raised millions of dollars for scholarships for children of women in prison in New York State.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Cliff Osmond, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Cliff Osmond, a prolific character actor on film and television and an instructor who estimated that he had taught more than 10,000 actors, died on Saturday at his home in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. He was 75.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Shake It One Time for Me
La Crosse: Asked if he knew why the officer was there, he said, “No, not really.”
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
CBS News: A cattle ranch in Texas swears by a secret ingredient that makes its beef juicer: Beer.
Texas T Kobe ranch in Wallis pours beer into the hay its cows eat, CBS affiliate KHOU-TV reports. The ranch says the yeast in the double IPA helps promote digestion and improves the flavor and texture of the herd's meat.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Texas T Kobe ranch in Wallis pours beer into the hay its cows eat, CBS affiliate KHOU-TV reports. The ranch says the yeast in the double IPA helps promote digestion and improves the flavor and texture of the herd's meat.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Ray Collins, R. I. P.
CBS News: Ray Collins, who invited guitarist Frank Zappa to join the band that eventually became the Mothers of Invention, has died at age 75.
Collins' friend Patrick Brayer tells the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin that the musician from Claremont, Calif., died Monday, five days after a heart attack.
Collins brought Zappa to R&B cover band the Soul Giants in 1964. By 1966, they had become the Mothers of Invention, releasing their first album, "Freak Out," on Verve Records.
Collins' friend Patrick Brayer tells the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin that the musician from Claremont, Calif., died Monday, five days after a heart attack.
Collins brought Zappa to R&B cover band the Soul Giants in 1964. By 1966, they had become the Mothers of Invention, releasing their first album, "Freak Out," on Verve Records.
Marva Whitney, R. I. P.
"Soul Sister #1": Marva Whitney – the woman James Brown dubbed “Soul Sister #1″ – has passed away aged 68.
Whitney was a featured vocalist with the James Brown Revue in the late ‘60s, performing with Brown on tour in America, Europe, North Africa and in Vietnam during the war. She recorded several songs for Brown’s King Records including her biggest hit, a rewrite of the Isley Brothers track ‘It’s My Thing (You Can’t Tell Me Who to Sock It To)’. She’s also known for her song ‘Unwind Yourself’, which has been sampled numerous times, most notably by DJ Mark the 45 King on his 1987 track ‘The 900 Number’ and on DJ Kool’s 1996 hit ‘Let Me Clear My Throat’. In 2006, Whitney collaborated with DJ Pari and the James Brown inspired Japanese funk orchestra Osaka Monaurail to produce a new album, I Am What I Am. The success of this revival saw Whitney return to the touring circuit to play shows in Japan, Europe and Australia.
Whitney was a featured vocalist with the James Brown Revue in the late ‘60s, performing with Brown on tour in America, Europe, North Africa and in Vietnam during the war. She recorded several songs for Brown’s King Records including her biggest hit, a rewrite of the Isley Brothers track ‘It’s My Thing (You Can’t Tell Me Who to Sock It To)’. She’s also known for her song ‘Unwind Yourself’, which has been sampled numerous times, most notably by DJ Mark the 45 King on his 1987 track ‘The 900 Number’ and on DJ Kool’s 1996 hit ‘Let Me Clear My Throat’. In 2006, Whitney collaborated with DJ Pari and the James Brown inspired Japanese funk orchestra Osaka Monaurail to produce a new album, I Am What I Am. The success of this revival saw Whitney return to the touring circuit to play shows in Japan, Europe and Australia.
Archaeology Update
Cosmic Log: Archaeologists have uncovered a 2,750-year-old temple near Jerusalem, along with pottery and clay figurines that suggest the site was the home base for a ritual cult, the Israeli Antiquities Authority said Wednesday.
AbeBooks’ Most Expensive Sales in 2012
AbeBooks: AbeBooks’ Most Expensive Sales in 2012: Our top 25 sales from 2012 illustrate the broad nature of rare books. There are modern first editions of iconic books, significant religious and theological works,and pioneering books of science and discovery. Our most expensive sale was a copy of Johann Bayer’s 1603 celestial atlas with 48 lavishly illustrated tables portraying the constellations identified by the Greeks and a 49th table showing 12 newly discovered constellations – it sold for $47,729. This was the first star atlas to cover the entire celestial sphere, and introduced a new system of star designation known as the ‘Bayer Designation.’
Houston McCoy, R. I. P.
www.statesman.com: Houston McCoy, the Austin police officer who stopped University of Texas Tower sniper Charles Whitman more than 46 years ago, died early Thursday afternoon in a rest home in his hometown of Menard. He was 72.
Forgotten Books: Passage by NIght -- Hugh Marlowe
Harry Patterson has written under his own and several other names, the most famous of which is Jack Higgins. The others include James Graham and Hugh Marlowe. I've mentioned several times over the years that the first book I read by him was one of the Marlowe books, but a good many years passed before I learned that it was by Patterson.Like a lot of Patterson's early books, this one's a thriller, it involves boats, and it's full of action: chases, torture, gunfights, escapes, twists, and turns. It's set at about the time of its publication (1964), and Castro's taken over in Cuba, ruining Harry Manning's business and causing him and many others to flee. Manning hangs around the Caribbean and takes tourists on his boat for spearfishing expeditions, but when a plane is sabotaged to kill a specific passenger and winds up killing a number of others, Manning gets involved. He agrees to help the CIA find the culprit, and complications ensue.
I sometimes think that Patterson does everything wrong. He uses adverbs. He embraces cliches. And it doesn't matter a bit. Somehow it all works (at least for me), and I much prefer his early to middle-period books to the later ones that made him a zillionaire. The early ones, like Passage by Night, are tough and fast and fun. Some of the bad guys are really evil, while others turn out to be almost sympathetic. Some characters you might think would be villainous turn out to be right guys. I always get a kick out of these books.
Just as an aside, here's a wager Harry Manning would have lost: "I'll have a small bet with you. A hundred dollars American. A year from today, Castro will no longer rule Cuba?"
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, R. I. P.
Fox News: A U.S. official says retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in 1991, has died. He was 78.
Free Today for Kindle
The Hunted (The Hunted Series): Dave Zeltserman: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Will you be able to figure out the mind-blowing secret of THE HUNTED? From the author of the groundbreaking 'man out of prison' noir trilogy (Small Crimes, Pariah, Killer) comes an exciting new novella series mixing hardboiled crime with government conspiracy. In this first explosive novella, THE HUNTED, Dan Willis is unemployed and desperate when he is recruited by The Factory. Trained to hunt down and kill insurgents hellbent on destroying the country, Willis methodically and efficiently performs his job. But there's a dark secret behind The Factory, and when Willis discovers it no one is safe...
Big Earl Rides Again
Now Available for Your New E-Reader!
Dying Voices (The Carl Burns Mystery Series): Bill Crider: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Pecan City, Texas, is a quiet, uneventful town. Hartley Gorman is a sedate, fundamentalist college (although a dean was murdered there once—in Bill Crider's One Dead Dean). English professor Carl Burns is about to begin yet another year in such a place, with only the eccentricities of his fellow teachers to entertain him. Even Burns, perpetual worrier that he is, envisions the worst of his problems to be the pigeons that have roosted in the attic above his office and the uninspired students that have enrolled for his classes.
But what Burns hasn't counted on is the Edward Street Seminar, a conference that Burns has been assigned to run, which honors one Edward Street, former HGC professor and, lately, Hollywood celebrity. When Street comes back to Hartley Gorman and proceeds to offend everyone in town, and then turns up dead in his motel room, there is no shortage of suspects and Burns really begins to worry!
Fontella Bass, R. I. P.
FOX2: The music world lost a great voice overnight Wednesday. St. Louis born R&B and Gospel great, Fontella Bass, passed away Wednesday night.
According to Bass` daughter, Neuka Michell, the singer suffered a heart attack on December 2nd, 2012. Bass tried to hold on, but died of complications around 9:45 p.m.
Fans most fondly remembered live performances of ‘Rescue Me’. Bass co-wrote and sang the 1965 hit. That single sold more than a million copies and stayed at #1 for four weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 R&B Chart. The hit has been covered by such music goddesses as Aretha Franklin, Linda Ronstadt, Cher, Melissa Manchester and Pat Benatar.
According to Bass` daughter, Neuka Michell, the singer suffered a heart attack on December 2nd, 2012. Bass tried to hold on, but died of complications around 9:45 p.m.
Fans most fondly remembered live performances of ‘Rescue Me’. Bass co-wrote and sang the 1965 hit. That single sold more than a million copies and stayed at #1 for four weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 R&B Chart. The hit has been covered by such music goddesses as Aretha Franklin, Linda Ronstadt, Cher, Melissa Manchester and Pat Benatar.
I For One Welcome Our New Metal Masters
Advanced humanoid Roboy to be ‘born’ in nine months | KurzweilAI: Meet Roboy, “one of the most advanced humanoid robots,” say researchers at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the University of Zurich.
Their 15 project partners and over 40 engineers and scientists are constructing Roboy as a tendon-driven robot modeled on human beings (robots usually have their motors in their joints, giving them that “robot” break-dance look), so it will move almost as elegantly as a human.
Their 15 project partners and over 40 engineers and scientists are constructing Roboy as a tendon-driven robot modeled on human beings (robots usually have their motors in their joints, giving them that “robot” break-dance look), so it will move almost as elegantly as a human.
Forgotten Music -- Obscure Christmas Songs
I've been putting some on the blog for a good while now, and some of you might think it's time I stopped. So I will. But not before I link to this list where you can here some others I didn't include. I like many of these (and the ones I've been posting) more than the standards, and it's always good to hear something a bit different.
15 Obscure Christmas Songs That You Need To Hear
15 Obscure Christmas Songs That You Need To Hear
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Gerry Anderson, R. I. P.
Arts & Entertainment - CBC News: Gerry Anderson, puppetry pioneer and British creator of the sci-fi hit Thunderbirds TV show, has died. He was 83.
Dennis Lehane Update
www.accessatlanta.com: Author Dennis Lehane is offering an unusual reward for the person who finds his family's beloved missing beagle.
Lehane says he'll name a character in his next book after whoever finds Tessa, who disappeared from the family's home in Brookline, Mass., this week.
Lehane says he'll name a character in his next book after whoever finds Tessa, who disappeared from the family's home in Brookline, Mass., this week.
Free Today for Kindle
Lady in the Mist: Winter Frost: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Upon her arrival in Shoal Harbor, Maine, Lily Jackson hears eerie moans that the locals claim are the ghostly cries of the unfortunate Breckenridge women. Running from loss and setback in Cincinnati, Lily needs the job as semi-psychiatric caregiver for Andrew Breckenridge, but the storm she has to weather from the oldest Breckenridge brother is severe. Clinton Breckenridge is a brooding man used to getting his own way, and he’s not convinced Lily is the right person to help his troubled younger brother.
Even as Lily starts picking up the pieces of Andrew’s tortured psyche and finding out his dark secrets, another mystery looms before her. Andrew’s lover has gone missing in recent months and no one knows what has happened to her, or if her voice has joined those of the other Breckenridge women. Before she knows it, Lily finds herself in danger—thrust directly into the eye of the raging storm.
Happy Boxing Day . . .
. . . even if nobody knows what it is or why it exists.
What Is Boxing Day? — FactMonster.com: Despite its name, Boxing Day, which is celebrated on December 26 in Great Britain, has nothing to do with pugilistic competition. Nor is it a day for people to return unwanted Christmas presents. While the exact origins of the holiday are obscure, it is likely that Boxing Day began in England during the Middle Ages.
What Is Boxing Day? — FactMonster.com: Despite its name, Boxing Day, which is celebrated on December 26 in Great Britain, has nothing to do with pugilistic competition. Nor is it a day for people to return unwanted Christmas presents. While the exact origins of the holiday are obscure, it is likely that Boxing Day began in England during the Middle Ages.
Free Today Only for Kindle
Three from Blasted Heath: The Vanity Game, Hot Wire, and The Unburied Dead.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Keiji Nakazawa, R. I. P.
The Japan Times Online: HIROSHIMA — Keiji Nakazawa, author of "Hadashi no Gen" ("Barefoot Gen"), an iconic comic about the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bombing, has died of lung cancer at a hospital in the city, sources said Tuesday. He was 73.
Charles Durning, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Charles Durning, who overcame poverty, battlefield trauma and nagging self-doubt to become an acclaimed character actor, whether on stage as Big Daddy in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” or in film as the lonely widower smitten with a cross-dressing Dustin Hoffman in “Tootsie,” died Monday in New York. He was 89. He died of natural causes, The Associated Press reported, citing Judith Moss, his agent and friend. Charles Durning may not have been a household name, but with his pugnacious features and imposing bulk he was a familiar presence in American movies, television and theater, even if often overshadowed by the headliners.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Overlooked Movies: Being There
Sometime in the late '60s I picked up a paperback copy of The Painted Bird and was bowled over by it. Later I read Steps and Being There and thought they were both great. For some reason I didn't read any of his other works, and when I saw this movie I was unaware of the plagiarism accusations that are still controversial and unresolved. I don't know or care who wrote the books I read. They're fine works, no matter who wrote them, and this is a very funny (and frightening) movie.
Peter Sellers plays Chance the Gardener. Chance has spent most of his life gardening for a very rich man and watching TV. He has no other life, which is okay with him, as he's a man of very limited intellect. When his employer dies, Chance is loosed on the world wearing a rich man's clothes and carrying his TV remote control. By chance (ha!) he's taken in by another rich man and his wife (Melvyn Douglas and Shirley Maclaine, who misunderstand his name as Chauncey Gardner. Before long, his simple conversation (all he can talk about is gardening) is being taken as metaphorical wisdom. He never pretends to be any more than he is, but people see what they want to see, and by the end of the movie he's being considered as a candidate for president.
That's the bare outline, but it's also pretty much the whole movie. Sellers is great, and so is the supporting cast. If you haven't seen it, you really should.
The final scene, one of the most memorable and most discussed in the movie, isn't in the novel, by the way.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Jack Klugman, R. I. P.
News from The Associated Press: Jack Klugman, the prolific, craggy-faced character actor and regular guy who was loved by millions as the messy one in TV's "The Odd Couple" and the crime-fighting coroner in "Quincy, M.E.," died Monday, a son said. He was 90.
It Might Be too Late to Order for Christmas
The Robert E. Howard Foundation: Now available: Back to School by Robert E. Howard. This volume presents, in black and white facsimile, all of the known, surviving school work of the author from Cross Plains, most of it never before published. Includes work from English, History, Biology, Geometry, Physics, and more. This soft cover book measures 8.5 X 11 and has 450 pages, with introduction by Rob Roehm.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
The Silver Alibi (A Big Earl Stark Western): James Reasoner: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Big Earl rides again!
Earl Stark was once a fast-shooting stagecoach guard in Texas before taking up the study of law, becoming an attorney, and eventually being appointed a federal district court judge. Now he combines a keen legal mind with a frontiersman's gun-handy toughness to bring justice to the Old West.
One of New York Times bestselling author James Reasoner's most popular characters, Judge Earl Stark is back in a brand-new 27,000 word short novel full of action and mystery. THE SILVER ALIBI finds him dealing with feuding mine owners, bushwhackers, cold-blooded murder, and a wild ruckus that lands Judge Stark himself behind bars before he can nab a ruthless killer.
Earl Stark was once a fast-shooting stagecoach guard in Texas before taking up the study of law, becoming an attorney, and eventually being appointed a federal district court judge. Now he combines a keen legal mind with a frontiersman's gun-handy toughness to bring justice to the Old West. One of New York Times bestselling author James Reasoner's most popular characters, Judge Earl Stark is back in a brand-new 27,000 word short novel full of action and mystery. THE SILVER ALIBI finds him dealing with feuding mine owners, bushwhackers, cold-blooded murder, and a wild ruckus that lands Judge Stark himself behind bars before he can nab a ruthless killer.
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Saturday, December 22, 2012
Lee Dorman, R. I. P.
Rolling Stone: Lee Dorman, bassist for Iron Butterfly, died on Friday at the age of 70, the Associated Press reports. According to a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department, Dorman was found dead in a vehicle on Friday morning and may have been on his way to a doctor's appointment.
Jimmy McCracklin, R. I. P.
SFGate: Jimmy McCracklin, one of the most prolific blues singers and songwriters of all time, with a recording career that spanned 1945 to 2010, died Thursday at Creekside Healthcare Center in San Pablo after a long convalescence.
Larry L. King, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Larry L. King, a journalist, essayist and playwright with a swaggering prose style and a rollicking personal one, who left Texas as a young man but never abandoned it in his work — turning out profiles of politicians, articles on the flaws and foibles of American culture, searching autobiographical essays and, most famously, the book for the Broadway musical “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” — died on Thursday in Washington. He was 83.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
8 Incredible Sunken Treasures Discovered
8 Incredible Sunken Treasures Discovered: Scattered across the ocean floor, there are more than 300 million shipwrecks, containing billions of dollars worth of cargo. These are some of the best treasures that have been found.
Friday, December 21, 2012
A Kickstarter Project of Interest
There's an Alamo connection. Check it out.
PHIL COLLINS AND THE WILD FRONTIER by Ben Powell — Kickstarter
Hat tip to Tina Karelson.
PHIL COLLINS AND THE WILD FRONTIER by Ben Powell — Kickstarter
Hat tip to Tina Karelson.
Seduction of the Innocent -- Max Allan Collins
This book is set in the year 1954. I was around then. I was 12, and I was reading EC Comics. Lots of others, too, but some of the stories I saw in EC Comics have stuck with me to this very day. I can remember the panels as plainly as if I'd seen them last week. They were potent stuff, for sure. I read the newspapers in those days, too, mostly the sports pages (not much has changed with me in the last 60 years), but I was vaguely aware of the activities of Dr. Fredrick Wertham, who wrote a book with the same title as this one, and of the congressional hearings on comic books, in which America learned that comic books (especially EC Comics) were to blame for juvenile delinquency and many other assorted ills.
I was even more aware of the results of this hearing a bit later, when the "Approved by the Comics Code" seal started to appear on the comics (we never called them comics, by the way; they were "funny books" even when they weren't funny). Not long after that, I lost interest in comics. The guts had gone out of them. I moved on to the SF digests and never looked back. I was vaguely aware of the Marvel revolution in the '60s, but it was too late for me by then. My interest was finally revived the the Underground Comix in the late '60s and early '70s, but I never read comics again the way I once had.
One comic I did keep reading was Mad. Gaines quickly turned it from a comic book into a black-and-white "magazine" so he didn't have to deal with the Comics Code stuff, and somehow, although my mother tossed all my funny books, the old issues of Mad survived. I don't have issue #1, but I do have a nice little run starting with #2. I bought the paperback collections, too, and I still have the first three or four of those.
Which is all by way of introduction to this thoroughly entertaining novel by Max Allan Collins, in which Dr. Werner Fredrick appears before a congressional committee made up of the same people who questioned Wertham. So does Bob Price, whose testimony is remarkably similar to the words spoken by William Gaines when he testified before the committee in '54.
Not long afterward, Fredrick is murdered (this didn't happen to Wertham). Jack Starr gets involved because he and Maggie Starr (his stepmother) deal with comic strips through their syndication company. There are plenty of suspects, including Price. There's a comic book artist, a comics reader, a publisher, and some other social critics. All have their reasons to want Fredrick out of the way. You can play the guessing game about which real people the characters are based on, or you can go to the "Tip of the Fedora" at the end of the book, where Collins spells it out. I think many of you won't need to do that. And if you don't think this book is relevant now, you haven't been following the news lately.
Besides the dandy storytelling here, there's the Glen Orbik cover, which replicates one of the more famous EC covers, plus a lot of illustrations by Terry Beatty in the good old EC style. Lots of bang for your buck here. The book comes out in February. Be on the lookout; you don't want to miss it.
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