Looks like the “Bring Back MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000” KickStarter campaign successfully raised $5,764,229 – add on an additional 600,000 from the add-ons store and it went over 6,300,000!
That means 14 new episodes!
As a card carrying member of MS3TK from way back (and a KickStarter supporter) I couldn’t be happier!
To celebrate I’m sharing a Sally Forth page in homage to MS3TK from December 2, 2012. Written by Francesco Marciuliano, pencilled by Craig MacIntosh and inked and colored by myself (Jim Keefe) – Hope you enjoy!
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. 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!
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
The Palm Restaurant’s famous walls, drawn on by cartoonists since the early days of the comic strip, are no more.
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…
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…
Late Night with David Letterman premiered in 1982 and was a staple of my tv viewing during my formative years (ages 17 on up).
Bill Murray and David Letterman – 1982
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 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.
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…
