Sunday, December 6th, 2009 by Matt Wardlaw
While I wasn’t a big comic book reader growing up (GI Joe, Archie, etc), I did discover and enjoy my share of newspaper comics. My grandfather was a retired newspaper editor, and when I would visit my grandparents in Abilene, TX, part of our morning ritual was reading the paper together. He had strict but simple rules – I had to return the paper in its original condition – all sections in order, after I was finished reading it. In exchange for following the rules, I had access to the world and entertainment news that I craved, and more importantly, access to the comics page!
I started out reading the standard comics that most were reading in the ’80s – Peanuts, of course, Garfield, and also The Wizard of Id and Hägar the Horrible. I had started reading at a very early age, so as I advanced further, my interests deepened into the more reality-based waters of Doonesbury and Bloom County. Check that – I LOVED Doonesbury and Bloom County. Add in The Far Side to that list, and you had the big three list of comics that I was reading in the ’80s.
And then Calvin and Hobbes came along in 1985. As far as I was concerned, comics were going to end for me whenever Berke Breathed decided to end Bloom County (I just had no idea that he would do it so soon, dammit!), and I had very little use for the new school of comics. But Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes was an unavoidable tractor beam for a young kid like me – a strip that spoke about and illustrated all of the things that I enjoyed about being a kid, along with the not-so-enjoyable parts. For me, there had never been a strip that captured so perfectly the life of a kid – friends, parents, being left at home with the torturous babysitter, annoyingly icky girls, and that damn bully at school. (more…)
Tags: Berke Breathed, Bill Watterson, biography, Bloom County, Bookshelf, Calvin and Hobbes, comics, D.X. Ferris, Doonesbury, Garfield, Hägar the Horrible, Matt Wardlaw, Nevin Martell, The Far Side, The Wizard of Id, those damn kids are on my lawn again
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Thursday, March 5th, 2009 by Dw. DunphyNo time for love, Dr. Jones. The fakes await! As I mentioned last week, this post is devoted to the cinematic musical alter egos (and some non-cinematic ones as well) and as Jon Cummings mentioned last week, he did it first. Undaunted, I’m sending my posse over to his abode to knock ‘im into shape. Yes, my posse consists of a penguin, a rabbit and a cat that has used up one too many lives.
So Opus, Bill and all the rest never made it to the movies, but they should have, and considering how bankrupt Hollywood is for ideas, they may yet get there someday. In the meantime, we have volumes of Berke Breathed’s Bloom County comic strips and a flexi-disc with two of Billy and the Boingers’ (formerly Deathtongue) “hits.” “I’m a Boinger” is rather hard on the ears, the kind of sledgehammer comedy fans used to send to the Dr. Demento show after listening to too much “Weird Al” Yankovic. “U Stink But I Love U,” on the other hand, is obnoxious, but was performed by the very real hardcore band Mucky Pup
. They even got the tuba in, so big points for that.
Last week, I gave credit to Bill Nighy for singing his parts in the film Still Crazy
. This week, I’m doing the same for Hugh Grant. What an insane world we live in. Having never seen the film Music and Lyrics (2007), all I knew about it was that Grant played a former pop star from a band (loosely modeled on Wham!) called PoP! His forte was the music, but now as a writer for hire, he’s contracted to create a hit tune for rising pop music starlet and he’s in need of a lyricist. Enter Drew Barrymore, a lyricist on the rise. The rest is rom-com history. Now, there was no need for Grant to sing on the soundtrack, as I think an audience would have given him that latitude. I mean, it’s Hugh Grant. He’s not a singer and nobody really expects anything at all from him. To my shock, “PoP Goes My Heart” is a rather faithful approximation of ’80s synth-pop and I have to offer my apologies. What I will not apologize for is a Wiki blurb indicating David Hasselhoff covered the song and had a hit in Germany with it. I’m calling Bravo Sierra on that one… (more…)
Tags: Aristophenes, Arts, Berke Breathed, Bill Nighy, Bloom County, Bob Mould, Carole King, Cheech And Chong, Christ, David Hasselhoff, Diane Lane, Drew Barrymore, Eli Janney, Fee Waybill, Girls Against Boys, Hair, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hugh Grant, Jesus, John Cameron Mitchell, Laura Dern, Lou Adler, Mamas And The Papas, Mucky Pup, Music, Music And Lyrics, Paul Cook, Paul Simonon, Plato, pop, Rent, Steve Jones, Still Crsazy, Superstar, The Clash, The Dukes Of Stratosphear, The Fabulous Stains, The Sex Pistols, The Swirling Eddies, Traveling Wilburys, XTC
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