Category: Ramblings & Reviews

Motivational Misinformation

Post author By Jim Keefe
Post date

Just saw this recently on Facebook…

I HATE memes like this.
Like Rickman woke up on his 46th birthday after being a plumber all his life and decided to become an actor.

WRONG…

Here’s the real scoop…

As a teenager Rickman won a scholarship to Latymer Upper School in London, where he appeared in several school plays. He then studied graphic design at Chelsea College of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art. After graduating, he started a graphic design company, Graphiti, with some friends. He met his lifetime partner Rima Horton at age 19 while in the amateur Group Court Drama Club.

At age 26, Rickman decided to apply to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Rickman supported himself through his two years at the RADA by taking freelance design jobs and by working as a set dresser.

At age 32, Rickman joined the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in The Tempest and Love’s Labour’s Lost, among others. Moving on from the RSC, Rickman spent much of the rest of the 1980s acting in BBC serials, radio dramas and repertory theater.

At 39 Rickman had the starring role of Le Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a part that playwright Christopher Hampton (who adapted the script from an 18th century French novel) developed with the actor specifically in mind – Rickman then performed the unforgettably villainous role first in London and then on Broadway, earning a Tony Award nomination.

At age 46, Rickman was tapped for his first Hollywood film role as the evil terrorist Hans Gruber in Die Hard (1988). “I got Die Hard,” Rickman later recalled, “because I came cheap. They were paying Willis $7 million so they had to find people they could pay nothing.”

All info from Biography.com – Alan Rickman

Then, if you are aware of Rickman’s prior work there’s the added insult that none of that mattered until he “made it” on the big screen – Tinseltown – HOLLYWOOD!

They do the same meme about Jack Kirby…

Skipping over co-creating Captain America at the age of 23, and his wealth of work and artistic innovations in the 1940s and 50s.

Drives me CRAZY! – makes me want to find whoever wrote such simplistic drivel and knock some sense into them…

Marvelmasterworks.com has posted a sequential timeline of Jack Kirby’s comic book work. It’s too long to post here, but just for fun check out Kirby’s published work prior to the 1960s and the Marvel Age of comics (the images don’t seem to load, but the list is all there).

JACK KIRBY: A By-the-month Chronology 1938-1949
JACK KIRBY: A By-the-month Chronology 1950-1959

The lesson to be learned?

No, that’s not it either…

Just try to remember that it’s a lifetime of work that goes into a career, not necessarily the fleeting moments the public remembers.

Also there’s the old “one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration” saying of Thomas Edison’s. (Just try not to think about that whole Edison/Tesla debate too much regarding that.)

That’s all for now as deadlines are looming. But before I go I want to leave you with these words of wisdom from LinkedIn…

My link to what I think of that line of gibberish can be found here.

Ramblings & Reviews

Sidebar – Signing Off

Post author By Jim Keefe
Post date

From left to right, Dwight, Swain and Adrian.
Dragon Con – 2010

All good things must come to an end, and so it is the case with the comic art and pop culture podcast, Sidebar.

Hosts Swain, Dwight and Adrian’s strengths as interviewers came from the fact that they didn’t just ask questions of their guests – they would have actual conversations.

The interview which I discovered Sidebar was with legendary cartoonist, Bernie Wrightson.

The interview that got me hooked was with artist George Pratt.
The first half of the interview covers Pratt’s comic book and teaching career (fascinating in and of itself), but then by the second half the interview just takes off. You travel deep into the Mississippi Delta as Pratt describes research for a novel (See You in Hell, Blind Boy) and meeting Blues men like Jack Owens and Mississippi John Hurt.
If interested, here’s a link to an excerpt of the documentary.
See You in Hell, Blind Boy.

But I digress…

I met Swain, Dwight and Adrian at Dragon Con 2010 when I was lucky enough to table next to them – and then they were generous enough to interview me.

What made that con really memorable was that our tables were right across from Neal Adams. This made for some very memorable sightings.

Stan Lee having a quick chat with Neal Adams. DragonCon 2010 — Stan Lee having a quick chat with Neal Adams.
Dragon Con 2010

Later that same con Sidebar moderated a Batman panel featuring Neal Adams, Paul Dini, Tim Sale and Brian Stelfreeze – it just don’t get much better than that.

I could go on and on, but best you check them out yourself if you haven’t already. HIGHLY recommended.

And to Swain, Dwight and Adrian – Thanks for all the hard work you put into your show. It was greatly appreciated. Wishing you guys all the best – onwards and upwards!

-Jim Keefe

Tags Adrian, Dwight, SideBar, Swain

Ramblings & Reviews

The High Kings are coming to the Twin Cities

Post author By Jim Keefe
Post date

An unabashed plug for the High Kings and their upcoming show at
the Cedar in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015 – 7:30pm
Doors Open: 7:00pm
Advance: $20.00 – Day of show: $25.00
Seated show; all ages

Opening act, SisterTree

Having just been to Ireland for the first time in my life this past June, looking forward to a little piece of Ireland coming to Minneapolis…

Got my tickets – hope to see you there!

Rocky Road to Dublin from a 2008 performance.

Tags High Kings, SisterTree

King Features New York Ramblings & Reviews

The Palm Restaurant’s Wall of Cartoons – Gone.

Post author By Jim Keefe
Post date
4 Comments on The Palm Restaurant’s Wall of Cartoons – Gone.

The Palm Restaurant’s famous walls, drawn on by cartoonists since the early days of the comic strip, are no more.

The Palm with it's legendary wall of cartoons. — The Palm with its legendary wall of cartoons.

White walls where the drawings once were.

From New York’s Pix 11 on the closing of this historical steak house….

“The owners of the original Palm restaurant decided to permanently close the space after renovating it proved to be too costly. The Palm had been a fixture at 837 2nd Avenue in Manhattan since 1926. The restaurant is known for it’s caricature-covered walls.

Artists hand-sketched the cartoons in exchange for meals throughout the years. Many worked at nearby King Features Syndicate, a comic company. The famed walls were restored in 1995.

Today, Palm restaurants worldwide are run by direct descendants of the founding owners. It was impossible, they said in a statement, to take the original artwork with them.”

When I worked at King Features back in the late 80s, King Features was at 216 East 45th Street. At the end of the block where 45th met 2nd Avenue was the Palm.

Along with restaurants like the now defunct Pen and Pencil (another steakhouse where cartoonists hung out), The Palm was part of New York’s legendary Steak Row.

Here’s a little fun fact, steakhouses were in abundance in the area because in the early part of the 20th century the slaughterhouses were located just down the street along the East River where the UN now stands. But I digress…

The first time I ever went to the Palm was when I was working on staff up at King Features as their colorist. My boss at the time, Frank Chillino, told me that Joe D’Angelo (King Feature’s president at the time) just had lunch recently with some cartoonists at the Palm and they had added some new cartoons to the walls. My job was to go over there, bring some paint, and add some color to them. I got there before the restaurant was open for business and carefully added color between the lines of permanent marker the cartoonist had drawn – and for the life of me I can’t remember which characters they were.

What I do remember was looking at those beautiful walls filled with cartoons…

The following are pics from an old New York Magazine spread.

Some vintage shots.

A few more from Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York.

I got to have lunch there once, and on King Features’ dime, with fellow Comic Art Department staff member Jerry Craft. Not being a steak connoisseur (hotdog anyone?) I was completely out of my league in the restaurant but soaked up the atmosphere as it was one of those New York and cartooning institutions.

That little piece of comic history is gone now. Glad I was at least a part of it in some small way.

Update October 2021:
Jump ahead 6 years and I’m at JFK in New York City. At the Palm Restaurant in the terminal I notice drawings strangely reminiscent to the old illustrations that were destroyed from the Palm in midtown NYC.

Palm Restaurant in the JFK Terminal – October 2021

Old Palm Restaurant in midtown NYC (Pic shown upthread).

Looks like they had someone reproduce them in some manner, but looking up close I’m not exactly sure of the method. Curiouser and curiouser…

Tags King Features, New York, The Palm

Ramblings & Reviews

David Letterman

Post author By Jim Keefe
Post date

Late Night with David Letterman premiered in 1982 and was a staple of my tv viewing during my formative years (ages 17 on up).

Madonna and Sandra Bernhard on Late Night with David Letterman - 1988 — Madonna and Sandra Bernhard on Late Night with David Letterman – 1988

When I first moved out to New Jersey to go to the Kubert School, one of the first priorities was to get on the waiting list for tickets to a taping of Letterman.

Letterman caricature done my first year at the Joe Kubert School (January 1987). — Letterman caricature done my first year of the Joe Kubert School – January 1987

When I eventually did get tickets, it was a show featuring Jerry Garcia & Bobby Weir from the Grateful Dead. Going to 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City to see the taping was one of those memories that stay with you. The lobby at 30 Rock was filled with Dead Heads offering hundreds of dollars for anyone wishing to sell their tickets. (The tickets were free). Having waited so long to get the tickets, selling them never crossed my mind.

When Letterman eventually moved to CBS and the Ed Sullivan Theater I mailed in a request to be put on the waiting list again. The Late Show with David Letterman debuted August 30, 1993, and I was able to get tickets within the first few weeks of it’s premiere.

Top image: Postcard saying you were on the waiting list. Bottom image: Ticket to the Late Show. — Top image: Postcard saying you were on the waiting list.
Bottom image: Ticket to the Late Show.

Having been passed over to host the Tonight Show in favor of Jay Leno, Letterman’s move to CBS with his own show was monumental and every show those first few weeks Letterman got a standing ovation. The show I attended was no exception. Coincidentally Jerry Garcia from the Grateful Dead was on the show that night as well, playing with Paul Shaffer and “The World’s Most Dangerous Band.”

Initially Letterman’s Late Show beat out the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in the ratings, but eventually the ratings slipped and Letterman was behind Leno and Ted Koppel’s Nightline in the ratings. Right in view of the Ed Sullivan theater a billboard went up in Times Square proclaiming Leno as number one.

Letterman followed up brilliantly with the following…

One of the things that made Letterman so great was that he had on guests no one else knew how to handle (Howard Stern, Andy Kaufman and Richard Simmons come to mind), and though sometimes there was a danger of the segment jumping the rails, Letterman always kept it on track and made it memorable.

And then of course there were guests that no one else would have had on.
Like underground comics creator Harvey Pekar…

I haven’t watched The Late Show regularly in years, and watching it recently as the show wraps it’s very clear that I’ve been missing out. It’s such a pleasure to see the enjoyment Letterman’s having these final few weeks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWsVrJoww60

Letterman was the gold standard as far as talk show hosts go in my book.

Norm MacDonald (at the end of this stand-up clip) has summed it up better than anyone else, so I’ve leaving with the following…