Pretty day outside, if you like bleak. Mist, rain, a world of grey. October in the northeast. Bleak.

Not much better inside. It’s becoming a chore to watch some of my favorite television programs. The other night, after sitting through about 10 minutes of The Daily Show, I walked out of the room. I deeply admire Jon Stewart: he’s a national jester and as such, one of our treasures. Four nights a week, he manages to inform and entertain simultaneously, and he does this nifty trick consistently, show after show. He was riffing on the shutdown of the national government and suddenly I didn’t want to hear about it anymore, not even when Jon Stewart was the messenger and the message was leavened with comedy. To hear yet again of the antics of that herd of egotistical narcissists who are our elected leaders – enough! Let them take the nation to hell. I’ll just shut my eyes and cover my ears and try not to breathe in the dust.

Remember the words of Thomas Jefferson: “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice can not sleep for ever.”

I’m not blaming the politicians. They are what they have to be. In a system that values greed above all else, in which congressmen, who are charged with regulating an enormous and ever increasingly complex commonwealth must spend 30 hours a week on the phone begging for money instead of learning what they should know, and in getting what they beg for place themselves in indentured servitude to the check writers, who were taught that education is passing tests, whose egos might need to be damaged before they can even aspire to the jobs they hold, and who have begun to behave like history’s great mischief makers, zealots who are incapable of questioning their zealotry, who are unable to identify with human suffering other than their own…yeah, they are more to be pitied than hated. But such creatures can foster ruination, pitiable or not.

There’s nothing I can do about the Washington mob that’s shaping our collective destiny. But please don’t ask me to share an elevator with any of them.

So I ducked an episode of The Daily Show. Then, the following evening, I got over my snit, stopped wishing that reality to be something other than what it is, and tuned in for my eleven o’clock Jon Stewart fix.

•     •     •     •     •

And now to answer a question you may or may not be asking: can’t we please, for the love of Pete, end on a cheerier note? Okay, how about a dose of…

RECOMMENDED READING: The DC Comics Guide to Creating Comics: Inside the Art of Visual Storytelling, by Carl Potts. There are a number of books like this currently available, including one I wrote. This one, I think, is the best.

FRIDAY: Martha Thomases

SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman

Lez Vamps is an anthology of vampire stories inspired by one single painting by award winning comic artist Mark Wheatley. The book features additional illustrations by Mark, inspired by the stories. It is a vastly entertaining exploration of blood sucking and lust! A perfect Halloween Gift for the, ah, oldest kids you know!

Last year, Mark Wheatley was looking for ways to promote his Facebook fan page, his website and his experiments with online self-publishing. Putting out a free eBook might help drive some traffic.

Now, Mark liked the idea of a free eBook. But he was too busy creating art to write a free book himself. So he opened up the process to his fans. He posted one of his paintings to his Facebook page and anyone inspired could write and submit a short story based on their interpretation of the art. The best submissions, would be bundled together and put it out as a free eBook. It’s a novel way of involving his fans with his art and his Facebook page!

Well, Mark doesn’t do things half-way. So, he got a crew of professional writers and editors to read through and judge the submissions. And he didn’t just slap the book together, but got the project edited by Gary Henry. Mark also designed the interior pages and added even more art inspired by the stories to the final mix. The book is a collaboration of many people, fans and professionals, all brought together and inspired by Mark Wheatley and his vivid vision of vampires!

The result is a short, free eBook of sexy, scary, funny, strange and eclectic vampire stories.

Lez Vamps will be free for the entire month of October. Lez Vamps is available in three standard eBook formats – ePub, Mobi and PDF. The PDF version is an elaborately illustrated book! When we say free, this isn’t “With a Qualifying Purchase: Free” or “Sign Up for this Mailing List: Free,” but the actual “Just Grab it and Run, with No-Strings-Attached” kind of Free!

Download your Free eBook by clicking right here.

And if you are on Facebook, you can keep up with all of Mark Wheatley’s books, projects and art by liking the Mark Wheatley Facebook page here.

After a decade of low-budget cheesy special effects science fiction films, the early 1960s was particularly quiet, ceding to television series such as Star Trek and The Time Tunnel. But, also released in 1966 was an eye-opening spectacular that had a plausible premise, strong cast, and the next generation in film special effects. Fantastic Voyage may be remembered today for Raquel Welch in a tight outfit, it is also a step forward in cinematic SF. Thankfully, it preceded 2001: A Space Odyssey by two years.

At a time when miniaturization was making home technology smaller and more sophisticated, the idea of inserting a tiny sub full of humans into the body of an ill scientist seemed the next logical step. The body in question was the victim of an assassination attempt and his knowledge and life had to be saved so a daring experiment was to be undertaken. Forget that the sub is nuclear-powered and the physics doesn’t quite make sense, but this is an ambitious leap forward in man’s quest to understand himself.

Once entering the body they have to contend with antibodies, foreign matter, and a ticking clock. So of course things go wrong en route to the blood clot located in the man’s brain. Harry Kleiner’s screenplay (from a story by a story by Otto Klement and Star Trek’s Jerome Bixby) ignored the original intent for being a Jules Vernesque escapade and dashed the sense of wonder in favor of a dated Cold War vibe.

Richard Fleisher, a skilled and versatile director who helmed Barabbas, Doctor Doolittle, Soylent Green. and yes, Conan the Destroyer, brings his A game to the film, never letting the mind-blowing special effects overwhelm the adventure. He let his cast, led by Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, Edmond O’Brien, and Donald Pleasence, actually act and treat this as a plausible mission. Harper Goff, who gave us the Nautilus in Fleisher’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, provided the designs for the Proteus while Ernest Laszlo  made the blood stream a hallucinogenic treat. Leonard Rosenman made a conscious decision not to add music until the crew was inside the scientist’s body so it added to the unreal feel of the location. All told, the film worked better than anyone expected earning it Oscars for Best Art Direction – Color  and Best Special Effects.

The film’s unheralded star was actually Isaac Asimov, who wrote the novelization and corrected numerous logic and medical flaws which were later incorporated into the film, keeping it from being silly. His work was fast while the filming was repeatedly delayed so the book was out a full six months ahead of the film making many think it was an adaptation of his work.

All told, though, today’s CGI easily beats the traditional special effects, automatically making the film feel old. The Cold War stuff distracts from a human adventure and the writing is stiff in places while the direction is leisurely compared with today’s quick cut culture. But this was a pioneering effort that restored a modicum of respect for the genre, paving the way for Kubrick and those who quickly followed. As a result, the film is well worth watching.

Therefore, it’s good to see that the transfer to high def was pretty solid although not perfect. The mono mix is transferred nicely so both add up to a pleasant viewing experience at home.

As for the extras, an incomplete collection from the Cinema Classics Collection DVD are repeated here, including

Most but not all of the supplements from the Cinema Classics Collection DVD have been ported over to this Blu-ray release. They include: Commentary by Film and Music Historian Jeff Bond; Lava Lamps and Celluloid: A Tribute to the Visual Effects of Fantastic Voyage (17:40)which is a useful tutorial on how they accomplished it all; Whirlpool Scene: Storyboard to Scene (2:22); and the Trailer and TV Spots (13:07). Additionally, there is an  Isolated Score Track With Commentary from Bond, who knows his stuff accompanied by Jon Burlingame and Nick Redman.

It seems like every day I read about another editorial cartoonist losing his job, and that’s a real shame.

Editorial cartoons are one-panel comics that told an entire story that commented on the news of the day. It wasn’t long ago that this stuff was run on the front page of many, if not most, great American newspapers. Everybody had one on staff – except the Metropolis Daily Planet, which, oddly, didn’t seem to hire many cartoonists. Most newspapers also deployed syndicated editorial cartoons as well. Many weekly newsmagazines reprinted them, and The Week still does.

There were brilliant editorial cartoonists. And by “brilliant,” I mean text-book phenomenal. My favorite was Bill Mauldin; other greats include Ron Cobb, Paul

Conrad, John Fischetti, Herblock, Thomas Nast, Carey Orr, John T. McCutcheon (there’s a rest stop on the Indiana Toll Way named after him) and Theodor Geisel. Yep, that’s Doctor Suess. There are brilliant cartoonist out there today, although they’re a bit harder to find. These include Steve Brodner, Mike Luckovich, Pat Oliphant, Mike Peters, Ted Rall, and Tom Toles.

Just to name a few. If you’re unfamiliar with either the concept of editorial cartoons or of any of these great people, go Google around. You’ll be glad you did.

What confuses me is that this is simply another part of newspapers divesting themselves of that which makes newspapers unique, in the name of “being contemporary” and in the cause of losing less money. That’s throwing out the baby and drinking the bathwater.

The Chicago Sun-Times recently fired all its staff photographers and gave iPhones to its remaining street reporters. Newspaper photography shows us a moment in time that does not, and cannot, exist on television or in any streaming media. Historically, newspaper comic strips were the second-most read part of the paper – just below baseball box scores (in winter, the football betting line). Now that there are very few two-newspaper markets, everybody has pretty much the same comic strips, reduced to the size of postage stamps.

The Sunday newspaper supplements are a thing of the past. A few survive, but have little worthwhile. Some gossip, a nice puff piece about some ersatz celebrity, the horoscope, and now that Macy’s owns all the department stores, a dwindling number of advertising pages. It’s been so long that even I had to count on my spell checker to make sure “rotogravure” was spelled correctly. It was, but that’s because my nostalgia gene is hyperactive.

And now, editorial cartoons rapidly are going the way of the buggy whip.

It’s all very sad, and I can say that without tingling that nostalgia gene. The editorial cartoon is an important part of what makes a newspaper great.

Oh, yeah. I know. Some of you younger folk are going to have to Google the phrase “newspaper” as well. Go ahead. You’ll learn something about what made this nation great.

THURSDAY MORNING: Dennis O’Neil

THURSDAY EVENING: The Tweeks

Dear Paul,

Paul, Paul, PaulPaulPaul, Paul.

I hope this letters finds you well.

You and I have had our differences over the years but I still remember when I used to hang out in your office and just talk to you and all the swag you bestowed upon me.

Clearly our styles have clashed and the differences we’ve had have been huge.

Like it or not Paul, you and I have a shared history that history includes your absolute undeniable contribution to Milestone Media. Without Paul Levitz Milestone would not have ever existed. I recently said just that at the Milestone 20th anniversary panel at the San Diego Comic Con. You have taught me a lot Paul and like I said rather you like it or not you’ve been instrumental in a lot of my career.

When I first became President and CEO of Motown Animation & Filmworks you and I were talking at a San Diego Comic Con event when a drunk colorist I trained and arranged his first professional job, rolled up to me in front of you and started talking shit about how horrible a human being I was because I fired a friend of his off a project. I was right about to do something very un-CEO like and put my fist in his throat when you lightly touched my arm and said softly “Michael you’re a CEO now, you will always have a target on your back, let it go.”

I did.

I know I’m a bit of a pill Paul, but no more than Todd McFarland, Frank Miller, Harlan Ellison or scores of other artists who have over-the-top take-no-shit-personalities.

Love me or hate me, I’ve earned respect. How many people do you know have a magnet school auditorium named them, were named Mentor Of The Year by Mentor magazine, has 12 count them, 12 Michael Davis day proclamations from 12 different cities because of my work with kids and education, a PhD… and on top of all that I’m cute as a button.

Paul, I am who I am.

You are who you are, one of the most influential people in comic book history if I hated your guts (which I don’t) I would still respect that. I don’t hate you, Paul. I miss you. I miss those Levitz talks, especially the ones that ended with me carrying out a huge Batman or Superman or Lobo statue.  All of which you’ve given me (when you liked me).

I’m super glad to see you are writing again. The Darkness Saga is on my top five ever-favorite story lines, the others being Watchmen, Dark Knight, Camelot 3000 and The Killing Joke. Paul, I’d like to invite you to my annual Comic Con party. We can sit down and swap Bob Wayne stories. I’ll tell you all about the time Bob took me dinner in Texas and how he continuously reminded me there were no black people within a-hundred miles. I wasn’t scared (much) it was all in good fun.

Again, I hope you and yours are well, call me, let’s do lunch, and bring some money so you can eat too. :-)

WEDNESDAY MORNING: Mike Gold

THURSDAY MORNING: Dennis O’Neil