Dennis the Menace and Disney

Fantagraphics has issued volume one of "The Complete Dennis the Menace", a great companion series to complement "The Complete Peanuts". I will be buying these volumes as they are issued.

Also, the fifth wave of Disney Treasures DVD's are due to be issued on December 6. A couple of them ("Spin and Marty" and "Elfego Baca/Swamp Fox") aren't necessarily in high demand for my tastes. But the other two ("Donald Duck, volume 2" and "Disney Rarities") are. The "Rarities" issues many of those one-shot cartoons that Disney produced over the years that really have no place elsewhere, like "Ferdinand the Bull" and "Ben and Me", etc. I hope there's a volume 2 someday as they still left a few out.

I am anticipating "Donald Duck, volume 2" also, but there are quite a bit of repeats from the "Disney War Years" collection. I guess that's to be expected. I can't wait for volumes 3 and 4.

"Spin and Marty" has always bored me. Maybe, because I haven't seen it in 20 years, it might seem better. And I've never seen "Elfego Baca" or "Swamp Fox", but I'll give them a chance. I would rather see "Zorro" issued, but time will tell.

Always highly recommended.

-Mark.

I Quit My Job!

For security reasons I won't reveal where I was working, but I will say it was a local newspaper and the management style and everything else left a lot to be desired, so much so that it affected my abilities to sell effectively. If you e-mail me at thft@att.net, I'll let you know where I was working and what happened. It's a relief to finally be starting a new job in a week.

-Mark.

HAYWARD COMIC CON October 1st

I just received this notification from Steve Wyatt about his next Hayward Comic Con. I will be attending (probably wearing my "Harveyville Fun Times!/Mark's Rare Comics" shirt. So stop me and say, "Hi!"

Information below...

-Mark.

Hey Everyone

Hayward-Con is ON! October 1st, 2005, at Centennial Hall in Hayward, CA

Come join our special guests:

MARSHALL ROGERS
ALEX SUVIAK
DAN BRERETON,
TONY DeZUNIGA
NATE WATSON and
TIM VIGIL
(Receive a special print done for Hayward-con by Tim for the 1st 200 people thru the door) AND MORE!

Join us at the show for Hourly Door Prizes, Lots of great Comics and Toys and Much MORE!

Pixar Death

My dad sent me this obit...

In a blow to Pixar Animation, whose success has been attributed to its story-telling skill as much as its computer creativity, Joe Ranft, head of Pixar's story department, was killed in an auto accident on Tuesday. The driver of the car also died when it plunged off Highway 1 in Mendocino County into the ocean. A third man escaped through the car's sun roof. Before joining Pixar, Ranft, 45, worked at Disney, co-writing
Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King.

-Mark.

Free Video Storage

I probably shouldn't say it here, so you would have to ask me if you want more information. I went to the monthly Mac Filmmakers Meeting at Apple Headquarters in Cupertino, CA, and they had a guy who mentioned where you can do storage of videos for FREE on the Internet. This may not last long, but for now the Internet is still expanding, so anything's possible and the sky's the limit.

E-mail me at thft@att.net if you are interested to learn more.

-Mark.

Horoscopes

I get my horoscope e-mailed to me daily. Here's mine for today: "You could feel overextended today, MARK. You always want to help everybody. This puts pressure on you when there is a deadline coming up. Everyone runs to you with their problems! Today you should try to empower people to come up with their own solutions. Tell people that you will help them if they get completely stuck, but that they need to take more initiative right now. They can build more self-esteem by handling things on their own." Now tell me the truth, could this honestly apply to anyone reading this right now. I take horoscopes with a grain of salt. I do have my own superstitions, but can anyone honestly live their life completely by what a horoscope says? Any thoughts?

-Mark.

Gas

I'm not as worried about the gas prices going up as much as the residual effects it will have about everything else going up. Since virtually every business is dependent on gasoline in some way, be it the trucks they use or their own personal transportation, the prices of everything will have to go up to justify this mess. It's kind of like when real estate prices started going way out of whack here in California. It's made the prices of food in restaurants go sky high as what you are now paying for is not only the food, but the rent. Now you will have to pay for the gas to get your food to the restaurant, so a burger will be soon $20. Sucks. I'm staying home.

-Mark.

TV Shows on DVD

I'm really enjoying the many TV shows that they are now putting on DVD. Complete seasons of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "All in the Family" and "Green Acres" can be had for only $20-40 each. That's a great deal for over 10 hours of programming on each. And, the writing on some of these classic shows is better than anything you could see on TV today. I hope that this will cause a renaissance in good TV writing again (probably won't), and I hope that it will help the powers-that-be to dig further into their vaults and release some really weird stuff ("My Mother the Car", anyone?)

Anyway, there are still a lot of good shows that have yet to see a DVD release at this time. I hope that this changes soon. Examples being "I Dream of Jeannie", "Maude", "Get Smart", "Batman", etc. Well, we'll see. Stranger things have happened.

-Mark.

Mark Schultz

I just went to a signing on Saturday with Mark Schultz at Lee's Comics in Mountain View, CA. For those unfamiliar with Schultz's work, he is the creator, writer and artist behind "Xenozoic Tales" and his style closely resembles Wally Wood at his prime. "Xenozoic" was on TV as "Cadillacs and Dinosaurs" about a decade ago. I am hoping to put up a couple of pictures in the next couple of days.

Also, Peter Jennings R.I.P.

-Mark.

Mary Tyler Moore

I'm really happy with my purchase of season two of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". Strangely enough, I had never seen these episodes before. I started watching "MTM" around the 5th season and never went back to these older episodes much as they always looked so washed out. Well, that's been corrected and they finally look brand new once again just like I remembered them looking. I encourage you to purchase (unless you hate the show) as it's better written than anything currently on TV today (except maybe "The Simpsons"). Comedy writers should watch this and learn. This is also a bargain at around $20 unlike season one which had a much higher list price (that has since come down.) Let's hope that they release all seven seasons.

-Mark.

The Harveyville Fun Times! #60

"The Harveyville Fun Times!" #60 is printed and ready to mail. This issue is slightly late because I was sick for most of July and I am currently having a money crunch. Printing it was even difficult monetary-wise. But it is ready to go and has a lengthy interview with Mike Kazaleh ("Ren and Stimpy" comic book) and a look at 1990 by Chris Barat and a tribute to many fallen cartoon creators by Joe Torcivia. You can subscribe by logging on to http://thft.home.att.net.

-Mark.