Batman Humor That Went Over My Head as a Kid, Part 5

Batman with Eric Shea as Andy

Come Back, Shame/It's the Way You Play the Game: Cliff Robertson satirizes Western cliches as Shame, instead of Shane as played by Alan Ladd. The references to that classic western proliferate including a little boy (played by Eric Shea) hero-worshipping the villain and following him around, crying "Come back, Shame." What's really concerning is this six-year-old kid is allowed to wander around Gotham City unsupervised. Even Batman and Robin don't bring him back to his parents after they escape from Shame's stampeding cattle, but just leave him to his own devices. 

This episode's window cameo is the weirdest one yet: Werner Klemperer in character as Col. Klink from Hogan's Heroes, but wearing 1966 clothes. He explained he was in Gotham City to catch a spy as if he were still in WWII and the Caped Crusaders tell him to say hi to Col. Hogan. How can a character from the 1940s exist in the 1960s? Only in the Batman 66 universe.

Comedian Jack Carter plays a radio dj but is unbilled.

Catwoman Goes to College/Batman Displays His Knowledge: Bruce Wayne acts as Catwoman's parole officer as she claims to be going straight--to college, majoring in criminality. Stanley Adams (Cyrano Jones from the Trouble with Tribbles episode of Star Trek) plays Capt. Courageous (wordplay on the movie title), an out-of-town cop who arrests Batman after Catwoman frames him. He gets to call the Caped Crusader a "costumed kook." In another cultural allusion, the head of a jewelry firm is named Amber Forever (instead of Forever Amber, a popular potboiler novel). Jacques Bergerac, a popular French actor who appeared on the Dick Van Dyke Show, plays Freddie the Fence. In addition to selling stolen goods, he's an expert swordsman, but not as good as Batman, of course. (In one lame bit, he has a meal of pasta strained through his fencing mask.) TV personality Art Linkletter who hosted People Are Funny appeared in the window cameo.

Batman Humor That Went Over My Head as a Kid, Part 4

Catwoman is about to steal Chad and Jeremy's
voices. Notice how they could just walk right
on stage with no one to to stop them.

The Cat's Meow/The Bats Kow Tow--This second season episode was chock full of real-life celebrities and 1960s cultural references. The main plot involves delicious Julie Newmar as the Catwoman stealing the voices of pop duo Chad and Jeremy who also appeared as essentially themselves on The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Patty Duke Show. They broke up only two years later and Jeremy Clyde pursued an acting career. (He appeared on Broadway in A Patriot for Me, The Importance of Being Earnest opposite Wendy Hiller, and in the Downton Abbey movie.) Also appearing are comedian/talk show host Steve Allen as Allen Stevens, Hawaiian singer Don Ho in the window cameo, and celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring as Jay Oceanbring (get it?) Catwoman and her crew are hiding out in Oceanbring's salon. The Dynamic Duo arrive and are attacked by Catwoman's henchman. Sebring delivers his only line, "Watch the antiques" as the combatants threaten to destroy his expensive furnishings. 

Sebring was a top hairstylist for Hollywood stars including Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, Warren Beatty and Steve McQueen. He dated Sharon Tate. They remained friends after breaking up and Tate married Roman Polanski. He was murdered along with Tate by the followers of Charles Manson and was a character in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Ho appears in the window as Batman and Robin are climbing down from the British Ambassador's office. (BTW, the British Ambassador's dialogue references both My Fair Lady and Winston Churchill.) Also appearing in this episode is Joe Flynn, best known as the petty, incompetent Capt. Binghampton on McHale's Navy, as the manager of a dance instruction studio, again a front for Catwoman's nefarious operations. For some reason, Flynn and Allen were unbilled. 

Batman Humor That Went Over My Head as a Kid, Part 3

In honor of the 60th anniversary of the premiere of the Batman series (on Jan. 12), here are some more Bat episodes with humor than went over my head at 6 years old.

Ceasar Romero with Kathy Kersh,
later Burt Ward's wife.

The Practical Jokers/The Jokers' Provokers: This episode was ABC cross-promotion night! Bruce and Dick are settling into watch The Green Hornet, another William Dozier comic-book series, when the Joker interrupts to give Batman and Robin a clue to his next caper. Then when the Dynamic Duo are scaling yet another building, Howard Duff appears in a window. Duff was starring in ABC's Felony Squad (1966-69) and he appears in character as Sgt. Sam Stone. Interestingly, Ben Alexander of Dragnet was also a regular on this series and had earlier made a Batman cameo. (His commitment to Felony Squad prevented him from recreating his Dragnet role on Jack Webb's reboot of the series on NBC.) Duff would appear as the Special Guest Villain in Season 3 with his wife Ida Lupino. They played a pair of hippie-slang-spouting alchemist-scientists types Dr. Cassandra and her hubby Kabala. Interesting that Felony Squad has disappeared without a trace and its only remnant is the star appearing in a window on Batman for a few minutes. There are Felony Squad episodes of YouTube. I watched one for a few minutes. God, it was cliched and boring.

The obligatory gun moll in this episode was played by Burt Ward's later wife, Kathy Kersh, possibly the worst actress to play a villain's love interest/assistant. Terry Moore was pretty bad too as another Joker girl--Venus in The Zodiac Crimes three-parter. Kersh was hired for her gorgeous looks and figure, not her dramatic skills. Unlike Gail Hire (Egghead's Miss Bacon), Leslie Perkins (Minstrel's Octavia), Diane McBain (The Mad Hatter's Lisa), and many other more competent actresses, Kersh gave no depth to her character, the vain Cornelia. Ward divorced her after a few years and married two more times.

More Batman Humor That Went Over My Head as a Kid

Loren Ewing, Doodles Weaver (Sigourney
Weaver's uncle) and Art Carney
In the "Shoot a Crook Arrow" episode
of Batman

Shoot a Crooked Arrow/Walk the Straight and Narrow: The second, much campier season of Batman premiered with Art Carney as The Archer, a low-rent, wanna-be Robin Hood. Carney was inspired casting for this role since he was best known for playing the blue-collar, lovable sewer worker Ed Norton on The Jackie Gleason Show. Norton was the opposite of the debonair Errol Flynn image of the noble bandit. In fact, I remember Carney as Norton making a joke about a weirdly dressed fellow cruise ship passenger on the Gleason Show. "He looks like this week's Special Guest Villain," Norton quipped. I remember thinking Carney was a Special Guest Villain just a few weeks earlier. 

As the Dynamic Duo descend the side of police headquarters to pursue the escaping Archer, they encounter this episode's window cameo, Dick Clark, then host of the ABC music series, American Bandstand. (Although what Dick Clark is doing in police headquarters is never made clear.) There's also a reference to The Music Man with Bruce Wayne informing Dick Grayson, "we've got trouble, right here in Gotham City." Veteran character actor Sam Jaffe appears as Zoltan Zorba, the first poor Gotham City resident to receive a $100 bill from the Wayne Foundation (which turns out to be a counterfeit bill courtesy of The Archer). Jaffe was best known for playing Dr. Zorba on Ben Casey. There's also a corny lecture from a police officer who chides a complaining female motorist that Batman gets away with speeding through Gotham City without so much as a ticket. The cop informs the griper Batman is pursuing criminals but under normal circumstances he's the safest driver in GC. The other drivers applaud. Robert Cornthwaite appears as Allan A. Dale (get it?), the fussy, clench-jawed administrator of the Wayne Foundation grants and secret accomplice of the Archer. This character is coded-gay with a handkerchief tucked up his sleeve and creepy admiration of Batman's cowl.

Aunt Harriet's Lament

Madge Blake as Aunt Harriet

Not long after I first set foot in Stately Wayne Manor, I knew Bruce Wayne, the guardian of my orphaned nephew Dick Grayson, was in reality Batman, the scourge of crime and Dick was indeed his youthful  associate Robin the Boy Wonder. Did they think I was stupid or something? At least once a week, Alfred the butler would pull Bruce aside, often in my presence, and inform him in a stage whisper, "It's the Bat-phone, sir." Did they think I was deaf as well as blind? Then he and Dick would offer some lame excuse about fishing or bird watching and charge off into the study and disappear for days on end. Did they think I wouldn't notice they never took a car on their expeditions? The few times I encountered Batman, I recognized Bruce's voice and his distinctive chin through the cowl.

Of course, I never let on that I knew. It would endanger me and spoil the boys' fun as well as jeopardize the safety of Gotham City and indeed the world. On many occasions, the Caped Crusaders prevented global catastrophe. So I just played along, acting the dithering clueless aunt. 

I entered Bruce and Dick's lives when my niece and her no-good acrobat husband died in a circus accident. Dick is actually my great-nephew. His mother was shunned from the family when she joined the disgusting profession of trapeze artistry. No one in our family has ever been associated with the degrading profession of show biz, let alone the even lower realm of the circus. But Dick is my only living relative and I cared deeply for him. When I heard that Dick had been adopted by millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne I hot footed it over to Wayne Manor to provide a maternal influence and some homecooked meals for the poor dear. (Actually, it was after Alfred had mysteriously died, but he later came back to life and insisted I stay.) Besides, there was something unsavory about a bachelor raising a young boy by himself if you know what I mean. 

Anne Baxter as Zelda the Great. I think that's a
stunt person, not Madge Blake suspended
over the tank of boiling oil.

Living with Batman was dangerous and I did face my share of trouble. There was the time I was kidnapped by this awful magician woman and she suspended me over a tank of boiling oil. Bruce paid the ransom and I was released unharmed but my shoulders were sore for a week. Then Alfred enlisted me in pretending I was Mrs. Batman so the Masked Manhunter could avoid a forced marriage to another conniving female, Marsha Queen of Diamonds. I think the young folks would have called me a beard. I nearly fell for the famous pianist Chandel, but he turned out to be a con man. It was lovely drinking root beer with the dear man, but I sensed there was something not quite right about the set-up, and I'm not just talking about his designs on the Wayne fortune, if you catch my drift.

Everything changed when Dick got his driver's license and Barbara Gordon and Batgirl suddenly showed up at the same time. I think there's a connection there. Dick didn't seem to need me as much. So I went traveling, even visiting Londinium. Eventually Dick went to college and I felt like a useless appendage around Wayne Manor. Batman moved his headquarters into Gotham City and as a result Bruce was at the Manor less and less. I missed the excitement of costumed crooks breaking into the house now and then. The Bookworm gassing me, Clock King threatening to kidnap me, being mistaken for the Black Widow. After a while, Bruce had me placed in the Gotham City Home for Old Ladies. Bruce and Dick would visit me occasionally. I read about the original Robin becoming Nightwing and several new Robins replacing him. I like to think by keeping my mouth shut, I was aiding in Batman's crusade against crime. 

Batman Humor I Did Not Get as a Child

George Sanders as Mr. Freeze #1

Batman (1966-8) was my favorite TV series when I was a kid. But I thought it was a serious action-adventure thriller. Turns out it was a campy spoof. In rewatching several episodes, I've discovered so many jokes and pop culture references that went over my head.

Instant Freeze/Rats Like Cheese--In the cliffhanger, the Dynamic Duo are frozen solid by the cool, cruel Mr. Freeze (George Sanders, one of the few Oscar winners to play a Special Guest Villain, and the first of three actors to play this role on the series). The second segment starts with Batman and Robin in a "de-icing chamber" where the temperature must be raised slowly to save them. The delicate operation is performed by a doctor referred to by Chief O'Hara as Vince who over-emotes. I now know this was a reference to the highly dramatic Vince Edwards who played the lead on Ben Casey, a popular medical drama which was just finishing a five-season run.

The Bookworm Turns--Jerry Lewis pops out of a window as Batman and Robin are scaling an abandoned factory. What is Jerry Lewis doing living in a factory? 

The Clock King's Crazy Crimes--In yet another window cameo, Sammy Davis, Jr. appears in yet another abandoned factory. But unlike Jerry Lewis, he at least has an explanation for being there--he's rehearsing his act and begins "Birth of the Blues" as he closes his window. A rehearsal studio in a closed-down factory that makes watches? (Clock King's hideout). Also in the episode Batman and Robin go on a wild goose chase seeking a female accomplice of Clock King--Thelma Timepiece--at a drive-in where they munch on Bat-burgers. 

The Dynamic Duo with Samantha's Dad

The Puzzles Are Coming/The Duo Is Slumming--This time the window cameo made a bit more sense. The Dynamic Duo are scaling an apartment building rather than an abandoned factory, so it makes sense someone would pop out of a window to see what weirdoes were climbing up their building. But it's Santa Claus (the episode aired on Dec. 22, 1966) played by an uncredited Andy Devine, veteran comic actor who appeared in everything from John Wayne films like Stagecoach to Jack Benny's radio show. Santa promises to bring the caped crusaders a present if they'll reveal the location of the Batcave. Adam West looks right at the camera and says, "If you can't trust Santa, how can you trust" and then promises to call St. Nick at the North Pole with the secret spot. 

Also in this episode the villain was the Puzzler, played by Maurice Evans, best known at the time for playing Samantha's father on Bewitched. But he was a Shakespearean actor (winning an Emmy for playing Macbeth opposite Dame Judith Anderson) and he constantly quoted the Bard. Now at least I recognize the quotes. This was originally going to be a Riddler episode, but Frank Gorshin was tired of playing the role, so they rewrote his part as the Puzzler. How ironic this great British stage star is remembered for his appearances on American TV sitcoms and as Dr. Zaius on Planet of the Apes.

Saturday Morning Super-Heroes, Part 4: Superfriends

 

"You have reached the Superfriends. Please listen carefully as our options have changed. Press 1 for Superman. Press 2 for Wonder Woman. Press 3 for Batman and Robin. Press 4 for Aquaman. Press 5 for the Wonder Twins. If you wish to speak with Wendy or Marvin, they have gone back to school. If this is a criminal matter, please hold and a hero will be with you shortly. If this is an Earth-shattering life extinction crisis, please hang up and kiss your ass goodbye." I used to imagine that would be the automated response you would get if you called the Hall of Justice, the headquarters of the Superfriends.

This animated hour-long series began on ABC in 1973 and ran under various titles until 1985. The Justice League had been adapted in animated form as part of the 1967 Superman-Aquaman Adventure Hour on CBS with Superman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and the Atom as featured members. For some reason, Aquaman was not a part of this combo even though he had his own series produced by the same company, and Aqualad was a team member of the Teen Titans which rotated in the guest spot of the show. 

This series, produced by Hanna-Barbera, took a decidedly different tone at first. Instead of interplanetary mayhem and supervillains, the superheroes dealt with "timely" issues such as pollution and overpopulation and their antagonists were not evil but well-intentioned and just a bit mixed up. Instead of battles, the episodes always ended with a civilized discussion on the proper way to deal with the problem at hand. (Yawn!) The Superfriends were accompanied by "junior" superfriends--sort of summer interns--Wendy, Marvin and the canine Wonder Dog who spoke like other Hanna-Barbera mutts Astro and Scooby Doo with an R in front of every word.

Wonder Twin Powers Activate!

The New Super-Friends Hour saw the departure of Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog--I guess their internship was up and they had to go back to school--to be replaced by the Wonder-Twins, a pair humanoid aliens with actual superpowers, and their useless pet monkey, Gleek. (Even more annoying than Blip on Space Ghost.) The girl Jayna had a legitimately cool ability to transform herself into any animal she chose, but the boy Zan had the lame power of changing into different forms of water. How much times can you make yourself into an ice-bridge?

Challenge of the Super-Friends moved away from Afterschool Special territory and back into comic-book land. Less learning and more bashing. Gone were the Wonder Twins and that obnoxious monkey. The core five--Superman, Batman and Robin, Aquaman and Wonder Woman--were joined by JLA members from the comic books Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Hanna-Barbera created DEI hires Apache Chief, Samurai, Black Vulcan, and El Dorado (Note: I am in favor of DEI.) Their conflicts now centered on the Legion of Doom, 13 supervillains, mostly from the DC comics headed by Lex Luthor and including the Riddler, Scarecrow, Bizarro, Cheetah, Black Mantis, Solomon Grundy, Giganta, and Toy Man, not to be confused with the Toyman who appeared in the Filmation Superman cartoon in 1966-7. The Legion holed up in a spaceship in a swamp and always managed to get away at the last minute.

All this time Olan Soule and Casey Kasem did Batman and Robin's voices, but for the final iteration Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, Adam West returned to his role after the cancellation of CBS' The New Adventures of Batman. Kasem continued to voice Robin. I wonder how Soule felt having to relinquish a role they had played for almost a decade. The Wonder Twins rejoined the group who were now mainly occupied with Jack Kirby's Darkseid, his nephew Kalibak and henchman De Sade (voiced by Tony winner Rene Auberjonois, later of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Benson. Side note: In the 1986 Tony Awards salute to all the Best Play winners, Auberjonois read the excerpt from the 1966 winner, Marat/De Sade.) An interesting sexual twist was provided in this series of episodes. Darkseid was obsessed with Wonder Woman and wanted to abduct and marry her. Oh, and Firestorm and Cyborg were slipped in here as teen Super Friends to add to the youth appeal. (Olan Soule switched from Batman to voicing Prof. Stein, half of Firestorm's secret identity.)

Saturday Morning Super-Heroes, Part 2: Batman Cartoons

In 1968, there were many national tragedies such as student riots, Vietnam and political assassinations. Not as momentous, but devastating to me at the time--when I was nine--was ABC's cancellation of the Batman series after three seasons. Granted the show was running out of steam with Batgirl being brought in to bolster the ratings. Plus the number of episodes per week was cut down from two to one with the cliffhanger element eliminated. Sharp viewers might have noticed that interior scenes not taking place on existing sets such as Stately Wayne Manor, Commissioner Gordon's office or the Batcave, took place in black voids with no walls to save building costs. To add insult to injury, NBC was ready to pick the show up for a fourth season, but ABC had destroyed the expensive Batcave set. The Peacock Network balked at spending $100K to build a new set and passed, thus condemning the campy adventure series to oblivion. I read somewhere that they planned to send Robin/Dick Grayson to college and eliminate Chief O'Hara to save on expenses, leaving only Batman, Batgirl, Alfred, and Commissioner Gordon as the regular cast. Aunt Harriet (Madge Blake) was cut after the second season. Part of the appeal of the series was Bruce and Dick were grown-up boys living in an adolescent fantasy club house (Wayne Manor/the Batcave) with Aunt Harriet as a sort of dithering house mother. Batgirl's introduction in the third season introduced a weird dynamic with the dynamic Daredoll as a possible female mate for Batman. She was unlike the threatening villainesses of previous seasons such as Catwoman and Marsha, Queen of Diamonds. Batgirl was a "nice" girl and not a dangerous vamp. But anyway, I digress.

Fortunately, the Caped Crusaders continued in animated series. Since these shows took on the format and general tone of the Batman 66-8 series, we can regard them as unofficial fourth and fifth seasons. The Adventures of Batman premiered on CBS in September 1968 on Saturday mornings after the ABC live action series was cancelled. These seven-minute segments, often in two parts with a cliffhanger like the ABC series, were part of the Superman/Batman Hour. Olan Soule provided Batman's voice (the veteran character actor had appeared on ABC's Batman as a newscaster during a King Tut episode) and disc jockey Casey Kasem was Robin. Thirty-four segments were produced by Filmation Studios. In addition to Batman, Robin, Alfred the butler, Commissioner Gordon, Chief O'Hara and Batgirl, recurring characters included the hold-over supervillains Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Catwoman, Mr. Freeze and the Mad Hatter. Ted Knight, later of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, supplied most of the villains' voices as well as that of the narrator. Larry Storch of F Troop did the Joker. Jane Webb was Batgirl and Catwoman. There were more team-ups with super-villains since they had to pay fewer actors. Penguin, Joker, Ridder and Catwoman often joined forces and in one memorable episode, the Joker was elected (unfairly) Mayor of Gotham City and Penguin and Riddler joined him in the city's new crime-first administration. Donald Trump took a leaf from the Joker's book, if you catch my drift.

Post-Election Thoughts III: Cabinet of Horrors

Trump's closest advisors

My emotions are in turmoil about the election. We are being asked to "normalize" Trump. Now if it were Kasich, Jeb Bush or even Rubio, I wouldn't be in such despair, but Trump goes beyond that. I do accept that he's won, but if I support him and wish him well, it would be like supporting all the racist, crude, disgusting things he said and did during the campaign (and everything before that). It would be saying, "It's okay to be racist and to discriminate against Muslims and make fun of disabled people." It's okay for a MALE, buffoonish, sexist crude oaf with questionable business practices and violent tendencies to be my president instead of a highly qualified FEMALE who may have made a mistake with her email (a mistake which many of her predecessors as Secretary of State evidently also made). BTW, ain't it ironic Pence is trying to keep his emails secret?

Liberace and the Closeted 1960s

Liberace explores dualities on Batman

We got a peak at Liberace's real life in the recent HBO telefilm Behind the Candelabra. He also popped up as a guest star on a  DVD of a Laugh-In episode I bought for 50 cents at a used book store. And of course there is the infamous episode of Batman where he played the dual roles of Chandell, a variation on his public persona of a flamboyant pianist, and Harry, Chandell' gangster twin brother. The HBO film exposes the schizophrenic nature of the star's career and personal life and America's wink-wink attitude about homosexuality and "fabulousness" during the peak of his prominence from the 1950s through the '80s. In the Steven Soderbergh-directed feature, which was deemed too "gay" to be released in theaters, we see Liberace's schmaltzy stage act hiding his true same-sex-saturated lifestyle. His managers knew the truth, but covered it up, fearing homophobic attitudes would ruin his lucrative career. There's a telling scene where the pianist is pontificating for an adoring group of chorus boys that Jane Fonda and Ed Asner should stay out of politics. Performers are not here to change the world, he says, just to entertain. It was clear Liberace wanted to stay in the closet and the idea of changing anyone's mind about gayness was out of the question.

Michael Douglas will probably win an Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award for his performance. Matt Damon as his boyfriend will be submitted as a Supporting Actor so he can win too, but his role was equally prominent.

Carmine Infantino, 1925-2013

Comic book legend Carmine Infantino died this week at 87. The DC artist and editor is credited with saving Batman in the early 1960s--before the campy TV show--by giving the Caped Crusader a "new" look. He replaced Dick Sprang's childish boxy, angular drawings with a fluid, almost avant-garde style. He also co-created the Silver Age Batgirl (in response to ABC's request for a female companion for the Gotham Goliath). There had been a previous Bat-Girl--Betty Kane, niece of heiress Kathy Kane, secretly Batwoman. But the new Batgirl aka Barbara Gordon, daughter of Police Commissioner Gordon, was not a silly teenager with a crush a Robin, like Betty. She was a "dynamic daredoll."

Infantino also created the new Flash and launched the Silver Age of Comics. After World War II, many superheroes titles were scrapped with only the big three--Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman--surviving. Responding to a demand for more caped do-gooders, Infantino re-invented the Golden Age Flash and launched the Silver Age of Comics. More Golden Agers such as Green Lantern, Hawkman, and The Atom, were reborn. He also co-created such heroes as Deadman, Animal Man, and The Elongated Man, an amateur sleuth able to stretch his body like Mr. Fantastic, Plastic Man, and Mr. Gum.

He was magnificent at sci-fi settings. His futuristic cityscapes for the planet Rann in the Adam Strange series always took my breath away. Strange was an archaeologist who travels to distant Rann by means of the zeta-beam to save the Rannians from whatever menace was befalling them that month. Evidently, they needed someone from Earth to solve their problems since they couldn't handle any themselves.

I met Infantino once at a recent Comic Con and got his autograph on The World of Carmine Infantino paperback edition. I was hoping he'd drawn a Batman or Adam Strange, but only got his signature.

Cinderella vs. Batman and the Passage of Time

Seeing the new version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella on Broadway reminded me of how much I used to look forward to watching the 1965 version on TV every year (This should have been a sign to my parents that I was gay, but never mind that.) It was a big deal because in those days there were only three TV networks and a big, lavish, full-color musical worthy of Broadway was a rare event. Even though we saw it in black and white, it was still a thrill. We did have an aunt and uncle who had color TV and I used to ask if we could go to their house for dinner on Wednesday nights because that was when Lost in Space was on. This was in the second season when the Robinsons finally changed their clothes and got full-color outfits. Now that I think of it, I don't believe I've ever seen that Lesley Anne Warren Cinderella in full color outside of YouTube clips. We didn't graduate from B&W until the mid-1970s. So we must have seen it in grey tones with the whole family including my grandparents visiting from Maine.

Digital Comics, Project Runway, and Comic Book Men

I'm probably the only blogger who will write about those two topics in the title--comics and Project Runway--together in one post. I just happen to be that weird combination of gay man and geeky fanboy. I remember thinking I was also probably the only person in the tristate area who carried both the latest edition of the New Yorker and the new I Zombie in their shoulder bag. I am also probaly the only kid who had Doctor Who paperbacks next to Doestoyevsky on his shelf.

But the strange dichotomy comes under the heading of what I've been reading and watching lately. As you may recall, my partner Jerry got me a Kindle Fire for Christmas and I have been downloading a lot of crap onto it. There's an app for Comics and I have so far downloaded about ten so far. I hope it doesn't take up too much space because I don't know how to put them in the cloud--don't you love these technical terms? I still don't know what cookies are.

I also wander if I should download comics because that will diminish my need for actual print comic as opposed to virtual ones. So far I have downloaded the latest issue of the Fantastic Four, a comic version of the Avengers--the British TV series with Diana Rigg and Patrick MacNee, not the Marvel Superhero group--an indie comic called Too Much Coffee Man, the first Man Mad comic from Mike Allred, Archie's gay friend Kevin Keller's premiere solo issue--see my earlier post on Rick Santorum. The app also had an entire run of the first 20 or so issue of Batman from the late 1930s to the early 1940s. I downloaded an issue featuring the work of Dick Sprang, one of the most prominent artists of the 1950s Batman with the square jaw and the ever-present smile.

This leads me to the new AMC (American Movie Classics) series Comic Book Men. Many cable reality shows are based on collectors of esoterica who have stores where weirdoes come in to sell their stuff and the hook is how valuable this junk is. Pawn Stars, American Pickers, etc. are examples of this genre. This new series is based on the real-life store in Red Bank, NJ owned by Kevin Smith called Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. Smith made several movies incl. Clerks (which I've never seen). Side note: Isn't it weird how cable networks have all sort of melded together. AMC was originally a purveyor of classic Hollywood fare, but now they are a weird amalagm of original programming (Mad Men and The Walking Dead) and this reality stuff, just like TLC and Discover and the History Channel. Anyway, I watched the first episode of Comic Book Men and part of the second (too tired). It's strictly for comic book geeks like me. The four nerds--and I mean that as a compliment--who work in the store greet weirdos who come in off the street trying to sell them some crap from their attics. In between negotiations, the quartet does some goofy stunt like sell overstock at a flea market or play street hockey. I'll have to watch more to form a solid opinion, but it's kinda fun and the type of place I'd hang out at.

But I've grown disillusioned with Project Runway All Stars. The co-dependence between Kara and Kenley is not enough drama to keep me going. The biggest conflict each week is when someone uses someone else's sewing machine. I think the main problem is the designers have all been through this before and there is no Tim Gunn to shepherd them. The last episode I blogged about was the Miss Piggy challenge. Nothing very exciting has happened since.