Decent Song for a Greater Cause

Julian Lennon puts out his first release in almost a decade. "Lucy" is a tribute to the girl that inspired The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds", even though some wags still feel that it was LSD. Here's the proof: a reproduction of the original drawing by Julian Lennon is included with the disc and in some cases, Julian's autograph. My copy unfortunately did not have the autograph. As for the music, it is very pleasant and open to repeat listenings. However, those pining for the John Lennonish-type vocals that graced Julian's first couple of albums will be sorely disappointed. Julian has a fine singing voice, but no longer any of the nasal quality that his father had. Overall, not the best material Julian has ever done, but far from the worst.

As far as the greater cause is concerned, the real Lucy died recently of Lupus and royalties from this release will be donated to Lupus research.

"THFT!" Blow-Out Sale

In recognition of me ending "The Harveyville Fun Times!" with #75, I am once again blowing out all of my back issue inventory. This means that for $5.00 I will send you 10 random assorted back issues! There is no expiration on this and I will try to accommodate requests, but once they're gone, they're gone, and I won't be reprinting them (at least in magazine format). If interested, please Paypal $5.00 to thft@att.net

Thank you everyone for your support all these years.

Marvel's "Star Comics All-Star Collection"

Marvel's "Star Comics All-Star Collection" is out as of last week. The $19.99 trade paperback compiles all the stories from "Planet Terry" #1 and 2, "Top Dog" #1 and 2, "Royal Roy" #1 and 2, and "Wally the Wizard" #1-2. It even reprints ads promoting the lines from that time including one for "Royal Roy" that has been unaltered and you can see why Harvey got mad at the time since he looks exactly like Richie Rich, complete with original face and blond hair!!!

THFT! to End with Issue #75

I've made the decision to stop publishing and editing "The Harveyville Fun Times!" next year with 75 issues and 20 years unless someone else wants to take on the editing and publishing chores. Any takers? (cover is of recent issue #72)

Saratoga History Museum Honor

If you haven't read on Facebook or the jillion other places I promote myself, I'm being honored as one of 100 famous Saratogans at the Saratoga History Museum now through January. This Friday, November 27, at 6pm, they are having an open house to show the museum. Other honorees include Stephen Spielberg, Olivia De Havilland, Kerri Walsh, Ed Solomon, Lance Guest, Bill Hasselman, among others. I will be there if you are in the area. The Saratoga Historical Foundation Museum located at Saratoga Historical Park: 20450 Saratoga-Los Gatos Road, Saratoga, CA.

Yay! Casper in Hardback and in Color!!!

The "Casper 60th Anniversary Special" is out today featuing the complete St. John "Casper" #1" and complete Harvey "Harvey Comics Hits" #60 (which actually is "Casper" #6). Incidentally, the copy of "Casper" #6 used in the book is my copy. I shipped it to Leslie Cabarga for scanning and he sent it back. Just FYI, as my name wasn't mentioned in the book. The best part besides being in color and a hardback is that it's only $9.95! What a deal! Finally, some respect for lowly Harvey.

Good Evening New York City

Paul McCartney has just released his 347th album since leaving The Beatles, where he sings "Let Me Roll It" for the 45,652nd time in his career. The 94-year-old ex-Beatle said of the release, "I just need to milk it one more time before I join John and George in the sky!"

Ringo commented that he was more impressed with "Two Virgins", and has now approached Paul to be an All-Starr, as this album now qualifies him.

George Martin was quoted as saying, "What?"

McCartney hopes to outsell (and outlive) Yoko Ono's new CD, "I'm Screaming My Head Off and I Don't Know Why". Available at better record stores and Goodwills everywhere.

If You're Stumped About What to Get Me for Christmas

It's the entire Beatles catalog on a handy Apple-shaped USB!!!

Christmas is Coming! Buy My Books!

Didn't mean to scare you...

Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Christmas CD

I saw this on CD for the very first time when I went to Border's yesterday. Does this mean that the other long out-of-print and never issued to CD Hanna-Barbera albums are due out soon?

Hey Hey I'm a Be-Atle!

Me playing the guitar on the new Beatles Rock Band with my friend Grant Grothaus on vocals.

1000 Comic Books You Must Read

Here is yet another book that I assisted with about the information on Harvey Comics. My friend Tony Isabella has written an excellent volume as it covers all types of comic books, not just the superheroes. My highest recommendation!!

Josie and the Pussycats

My Josie and the Pussycats article will be appearing soon in "Back Issue" magazine #40.

Fun Ideas Productions News

In case you didn't hear it (or I haven't bragged about it enough to you in person or on Facebook), here is my appearance on the November 4th edition of "The Dan Shahin Show" on KSCU in its entirety.

http://www.vimeo.com/7448204

I'll be posting my appearance on "The Howard Stern Show" from the same day as soon as I get a copy of it.

Also, while I have your attention, please be sure to stop by The Saratoga History Museum anytime from now through January as I'm being honored as one of 100 famous Saratogans. The museum is located at 20450 Saratoga-Los Gatos Road in Saratoga (obviously). It is normally open Fri, Sat and Sun from 1-4pm. There will be an open house reception on November 27 at 6pm. All are invited. I'll be there.

And, for my East Coast friends. If Saratoga, CA, is too far away, you might want to attend the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art at 594 Broadway #401 in New York, on November 19, at 7pm, as they have an opening reception for "The Art of Archie Comics", which I helped coordinate. I don't think I'll be in attendance that day, but the show does run through February 28, 2010, so I may make it out there before the show concludes its run.

Archie Finally Does it Right!

After years of ignoring their past, Archie is FINALLY doing it right, by reprinting their older material in a format intended for collectors. Above you see the cover of the first volume of the collected newspaper strips. These will be followed by various volumes of comic book material focusing on a particular artist or characters in hardback collections. Also, there are now DVD-ROMs that compile a goodly amount of Archie comic book material in archival form.

Who says that material like this has to be only about superheroes. The clincher on this is that the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) in New York is running an art show featuring original artwork from the 40s to the present. The show runs from November through January and features contributions by yours truly, who also brought you the Harvey Art Show last year.

Let me know if you need any further information about any of these Archie products or shows.

Mark Arnold LIVE! on KSCU (Nov. 4, 2009)

I'm scheduled to appear as a guest to talk about my book and other projects live on KSCU radio 103.3 on Wednesday, November 4, at 9pm. Listen, if you're local.

Here's the "Mad" Ad

My dad came through and found a copy of the ad I was looking for in the last blog entry. Although this one is a call for artists, I'm sure if there was a writer's ad, it would have been very similar. Anyway, this ad originally appeared in the September 23, 1956 edition of "The New York Times".

I had contacted Sam Viviano of "Mad" and he did not have a copy and once my dad located this in a local library to me, I sent Sam a copy for the "Mad" archives. Sam said that this ad also is rumored to have been answered by Mort Drucker and Norman Mingo, among others.

The writer ad was supposed to have been responded to by Paul Laikin and Frank Jacobs, but they may have just responded to this same ad, placed by Al Feldstein when Harvey Kurtzman left "Mad" and took virtually the entire staff with him.

Mad Magazine Help

I am writing a book on "Cracked" magazine and one of the interview subjects was Paul Laikin, who has worked for every black and white humor magazine over the years, being editor for many of them, too, including "Cracked", "Sick" and "Wacko". Anyway, Laikin was the first of two writers hired by "Mad" after Harvey Kurtzman left with the staff. New editor Al Feldstein placed an ad in the "New York Times" in 1956-57 for new writers and two respondees were hired: Laikin and Frank Jacobs. Laikin stayed with "Mad" until about 1959 and Jacobs is still there to this day.

What I need is a copy of this help wanted ad. Please let me know if you have access to a copy.

Wonka Bashing

I was reading through Amazon comments about "Willy Wonka" and decided to respond to one of them for kicks. Here's the original post and my rebuttal.

One Sick puppy..., November 15, 2008
A Kid's Review

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is one of those movies thats just so twisted its not even funny. The first time I saw this movie, I was about four and it scared the crap out of me. I remember the sadistic, demented Willy Wonka played by Gene Wilder (Who is probably the best thing this movie has as a fan of his other movies.)and the hellish Oompa Lompas with their little songs. Let's not forget that tunnel w/ the snakes and chickens, I had nightmares for months. Was it wrong that I felt sorry for the fat boy who got sucked up the tunnel? Or the little girl who got turned into that blueberry? I mean it was sick!!! Their kids they don't even know their behavior is wrong! I mean of course I know its fake but still. You never even know what happened to them (their actually is a small line about them being alright but I didn't hear it until like the 3rd viewing.) The special effects a downright terrible, even for back then. The chocolate river looked like some kiddy w/ mud in it. The musical scores (Besides "The Candy Man") were downright awful.
What I don't understand most is that this movie is considered a classic. Its played regularly on tv, and was shown almost daily at my school. If this movie is for you that's fine, you're entitled to your opinion, no need to bash me in your comments, that's just stupid. All I want to say is that I have no idea how a movie that was a critical and box office flop became regarded as a children's classic. This movie is way to disturbing for young children and maybe some adults. I'm even a fan of the book and I don't like this. What we fans need to a truth to the book adaption. Then we'll be satisfied.

and now my response:

I'll take issue with your comments as well (just for kicks). Anyway, I saw this movie originally when I was 4 in the theater in 1971 upon first release! Yes, it was freaky and weird and a bit disturbing especially during the boat ride, but it became my favorite movie of all time, and leaps and bounds greater than that inferior "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" movie, which I so much wanted to love, too, but couldn't, and "Charlie" WAS more faithful to the book.

The main problem with the book is Roald Dahl. Even though I love him as an author and he has great ideas, some of his book ideas really don't translate well to the motion picture screen and "Willy Wonka" solved the majority of those book problems and made it a better story, as a result.

Strange if you are a fan of the book, as you state, then you should remember the kid sucked up the tube and the girl who got turned into a blueberry as those remained unchanged from the book.

Actually for years it WASN'T played on TV. It was, in the early 70s, but by the late 70s through the mid-80s due to ownership changes from Paramount to Warner Bros, it remained strangely hidden from view.

Finally, I take great issue with your comment "The special effects are downright terrible, even for back then". Actually, they were state-of-the-art for 1971. Really! When the words pop up saying "brat" and "cat" and "mother" and "father", those were actually the very first computer graphics, and this was the first feature film to use them. They were also used at the same time on "Sesame Street" and the then brand-new "Electric Company" TV shows. Without those effects, you wouldn't have all those Pixar films and all those feature films you have nowadays that rely so much on computer animated effects, including "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". In "Willy Wonka", this was the best you could do in 1971. You can't bash a film's special effects for that.

Of course, you are entitled to your own opinions, but please do some research before making "factual" statements that are presented as "truth".

Many Casper Comics Coming Out

These are the covers of some various "Casper" comic books out now or coming soon. The three are the new "Casper and the Spectrals" series (issues #1 and 2 shown here), the "Casper 60th Anniversary Book" and the "Casper Halloween Treat" giveaway (also featuring "Little Lulu"). There's even more soon, but I've been sworn to secrecy for a little while longer....

Harvey in Roy Thomas' "Alter Ego" #89

Make sure to pick up Roy Thomas' "Alter Ego" #89. It has extensive coverage of Harvey's horror and superhero titles. Basically, it covers everything non-humor, although it does talk about "Flip!". Yours truly helped out with some of the information and images.

More Quality From Yoe!

I really enjoy Craig Yoe's books ("Comic Arf", "Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-creator Joe Shuster", "Weird but True Toon Factoids"), and this one is more of the same, a high quality observation of a neglected aspect of the comic world. One thing it would have been great to have unearthed are some scandalous Richie Rich artwork by Ernie Colon and Lennie Herman. As it is, there's some great stuff in here and more surprising is who it is sometimes by.

What? No Harveys!!

I picked up this book and was sorely disappointed that not one Harvey comic book story made the grade. It might be a rights issue with Classic Media, but it seems a shame that not one "Casper" or Richie Rich story was accepted. Granted, I love "Sugar and Spike" and "Dennis the Menace" and have an appreciation for all things Walt Kelly, but the lack of a single Harvey story is inexcusable. At least Dark Horse has reprinted some of these stories in their 5-volume series. I was hoping for at least one...

"Cold Turkey" and "Zotz"

I was just told about two movies that I think I would love, but they came out on VHS about 100 years ago and no DVD release is on the horizon. I don't understand the movie companies withholding their inventory. Warner Bros. and Disney have figured it out at least and have put some of their more obscure movies out as a "print on demand" DVD available through the Internet as in the case of Warner Bros. or as part of a Movie Club as Disney has done. Both are not available in stores.

The other movie studios should take a lead from this and should rerelease every single solitary movie in their inventory, especially if their is a major star, like "Cold Turkey" has Dick Van Dyke, Bob Newhart and a number of others, while "Zotz" stars Tom Poston and was produced by William Castle.

What is wrong with the studios? It's easy money to put this stuff out in either limited release as explained above or in box sets by subject or star or director.

As a fan, it's very frustrating and baffling.

Entertaining Memoir from One of the Last Classic Cartoon Voices

I just met June Foray and Stan Freberg at the recent Comic Con International in San Diego. I was in cartoon voice bliss. Two greats in one day in one setting!! It would have only been surpassed if Mel Blanc, Daws Butler and Paul Frees were also there, but they have long ago left this mortal coil.

Anyway, June is one of those people that may not be a household name, but you HAVE heard her voice, be it as Rocky, the Flying Squirrel (pictured on cover) or Granny in the Warner Bros. cartoons or two different Witch Hazels, one for Disney and another for Warner Bros.

Or, you may have seen her in various live-action roles in such places as "Green Acres", or as the voice of "Talky Tina" in a classic "Twilight Zone" episode where she creepily states, "I'm Talky Tina, and I'm gonna kill you!!"

This book is well-written and covers her entire life and career. It's a little rushed on discussing some of her voicework and I think she spends a little too much time on her formative years, but that's minor quibbling as I really knew nothing about her childhood. Read about the life and career of one animation's greatest LIVING legends!!

Also (plug plug) if you get a chance and like animated cartoons, pick up my book "Created and Produced by Total TeleVision Productions". Unfortunately, June never voiced anything for them.

This is a great book and a great asset for my own book about TTV

I sought out this book for its coverage of many voice artists that are now deceased particularly Norma MacMillan and Jackson Beck. This was a very helpful reference for my book about TTV called Created and Produced by Total TeleVision Productions. It was also a good read about other known and unknown vocal talents. Highly recommended!

Very Good But Not Excellent Stuff From Kurtzman and Company

I would have given this five stars, but I fault Fantagraphics for doing some artsy-fartsy production on the various "Humbug" cover reproductions by also reproducing the various tears, wrinkles and missing pieces from the covers to make them look old. While the book goes on and on about how meticulously they rescanned and recreated missing artwork (for which this is worth a 5), they fall far short with these travesties posing as covers. It's like intentionally putting in scratches on a digitally remastered film. If I want a crappy copy of "Humbug", I certainly can pick one up at a show or on Ebay.

As far as material goes, this is very good, but not excellent Kurtzman material as other reviewers have said. Best is the parody of "Around the World in 80 Days" which is possibly why it is touted on the slipcase, but the other stuff doesn't hold up as strongly, despite great artwork.

BTW, I am currently at work about the history of "Cracked" magazine and although this book doesn't state it, Jaffee, Elder and Davis all bailed out to "Cracked" for a short time before eventually returning to "Mad" (in Jaffee and Davis' case) and "Playboy" (in Elder's case).

As for Kurtzman, I have always considered "Trump", "Help!" and especially "Mad" to be far superior to this. Overall, it looks good, but it leaves you kind of limp. Fantagraphic's lousy issue cover reproductions kind of imply this as well.

It's worth buying the deluxe limited edition for the original autographs of Jaffee, Davis and Roth.

New History Book on Underdog and TTV Out NOW!!

Now you can order my second book "Created and Produced by Total TeleVision productions: The Story of Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo and the Rest" at BearManor Media

Also available at Amazon

Front cover by Mike Kazaleh ("The Simpsons", "New Adventures of Mighty Mouse")

Back cover blurb by Scott Shaw! ("Scooby-Doo", "Captain Carrot")

Written by Mark Arnold ("The Best of The Harveyville Fun Times!")

380 pages! Full color covers! Complete TTV history!

From Fun Ideas Productions and BearManor Media!

Order your copy today! Only $29.95!

George's Greatest Miss

What a disappointment. This should have been a career-encompassing greatest hits. Instead, we get an album of random tracks that are too top heavy on four of George's albums "All Things Must Pass", "Cloud Nine" and "Brainwashed", and "Concert for Bangla Desh" and virtually ignore everything else. Many have said this should have been a two-disc set. In light of that, here is a more coherent single-disc set that actually does cover George's entire solo career:

1. My Sweet Lord
2. What is Life?
3. Bangla Desh
4. Give Me Love
5. Dark Horse
6. You
7. This Song
8. Crackerbox Palace
9. Blow Away
10. All Those Years Ago
11. Wake Up My Love
12. I Don't Want To Do It
13. Got My Mind Set On You
14. When We Was Fab
15. Handle With Care
16. Cheer Down
17. My Sweet Lord 2000
18. Horse to the Water
19. Any Road

I Finally Replaced Archie's Car

I am so happy. I went to Supercon in San Jose last weekend and found an item that was stolen from me years ago...Archie's Car!!!!

The genesis of this story dates back to 1969 when The Archies were HOT and Post cereals had various Archie items included in their cereals or as sendaway items. For example, there were cut-out records on the back of the boxes and a sendaway of Jughead's beanie.

One of the items was a small plastic car included inside of boxes of "Alpha-Bits" referred to as "Archie's Car". There were cut-outs on the back of the box of Archie and the gang that you were supposed to insert into the car and a cut-out of a garage.

The cut-outs were later discarded, but I always loved my Archie's Car. Later, in 1989, I had a party at my apartment in San Francisco, and invited people from my work at KBHK-TV 44 at the time.

I invited my boss and he brought along his wife and son. His son was about 9 years old at the time. I had a habit of having favorite toys on display on my bookshelves; Archie's Car being one of them.

Anyway, I noticed that the boss' son was looking at the car at the time, but figured he'd just put it back after holding it. Next day, I was cleaning up and noticed that my Archie's Car WAS GONE!!!

HORRORS! I was so mad. And I couldn't tell the boss, because I had no real proof that he actually took it. I only saw that he was looking at it, so I let it go.

Years later, I wanted to replace my Archie's Car and looked for it at shows and in stores and later on line. I never saw one. At one toy show, someone had a red one, but I wanted my yellow one back. (The car also was available in blue, apparently, but I've never seen one.)

Time after time, I checked Ebay to no avail. If you look up Archie's Car on Ebay, typically you will see the "Burger King" versions, which I also own, that feature Archie and the gang actually in the driver's seat.

Anyway, at last Saturday's Supercon, I was looking around...and THERE IT WAS!!! And it was YELLOW!!! It looked just like the one that was stolen, so I purchased it without hesitation. Cost me $20, which seemed fair. Of course, I would like to have not had to pay to replace it, but now the search is over.

And here it is (see photo above)!!!

Finally Found Thurl Ravenscroft Album!!!

I finally found a download of a very rare Thurl Ravenscoft album!! For those who don't know, Ravenscroft was the voice of Tony the Tiger for over 50 years!! He also sang the theme song to Disneyland's Haunted Mansion and the Grinch song in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "No Dogs Allowed" in "Snoopy, Come Home" among other things.

This particular album was available as a digital download and is everything I expected. Ravenscroft narrates the story behind the Gospel song and then sings it. I had the pleasure to interview with Ravenscroft a few years ago, and I asked him if there were any plans to issue this to CD and he said probably not. Sadly, it turned out to be his final interview and can be found in "Hogan's Alley" magazine.

I would still love to see it rereleased. Despite a download, I'd still be interested in a vinyl version of this, so if you see one cheap, please let me know...

If the Rich Just Paid More Taxes....

Interesting chart that was sent to me showing that the rich only pay about 35% of their income in taxes currently. In the past, they have paid up to 91% of their income and guess when we were strongest economically as a country, when the rich were paying that much!!!

Look at the 1920s before the Great Depression, the rich paid the least in taxes and look what happened? THE GREAT DEPRESSION!!!

During WWII and after, when they were paying a lot, we were doing GREAT economically as a country.

As the rich have paid less and less since the 1950s, our economy has gone down and down accordingly. IT'S ABSOLUTELY AMAZING, but not totally unexpected.

So wealthy people, you know what to do. Your fun is over. It's time to pay more than your share to help us low paid individuals out and SAVE OUR COUNTRY!!!

This is the bailout we need!!!

Paul and Ringo in Concert Again

Only about 29 years too late....

Cracked Book

I have been told to write a new blog entry due to monumental demand (alright one person), but that's enough for me to do another plug for my upcoming book on "Cracked" magazine.

The book is going to be called "If You're Cracked, You're Happy: The History of Cracked Mazagine" and will be published by Bear Manor Media.

I am currently in the process of interviewing as many of the original creators as possible including John Severin.

I am also in the process of indexing every issue ever published including the annuals and specials and am currently up to 1969.

I'll post periodic updates here, but please feel free to comment or give me any assistance on the project. I would like to know if anyone has a "Who's Cracked?" T-shirt from 1958, or any other rare "Cracked" merchandise?

Please email me at thft@att.net if you have anything...

Finally! Finally! At Last!! At Last!!

Tracks like "Kingpin" and "16 Golden Bits" are enough to qualify it as a classic, but "A Date With Danger" and the "Tonight Show" parody truly bring it over the top...

It's great to have this finally in high fidelity on compact disc instead of listening to my old vinyl recordings.

Highly recommended...

The Collection I Have Been Waiting For For Years

This is the Stan Freberg collection I have been waiting for as it does indeed collect not only the A-sides of virtually every Stan Freberg record as released but the B-sides as well!!!

Some of these have never been compiled on any album before. For instance, you probably have heard Freberg's version of "Ya Got Trouble" from "The Music Man", but have you heard his version of "Gary, Indiana"?

I say virtually because there is at least one single ("Comments For Our Time Parts 1 and 2") that still eludes compilations, but this is a minor complaint due to the excessive datedness of the track and the fact that it really isn't very funny anymore.

Buy this and Tip Of The Freberg (Includes Video) and be in Freberg heaven!!!

Jr’s Fun To Draw

Jerry Beck was gracious enough to post scans I made from a book called "Jr's Fun To Draw". Rather than re-type his entry, I will post a link to "Cartoon Brew" here:

Cartoon Brew

-Mark.

SNL Better Again

I posted this on Facebook, but it turned out well enough, I made it a blog entry.

I feel SNL is finally getting better again after being lousy for a number of years. SNL has always been kind of hit and miss with the better years being 1975-1980; 1982-1985; 1987-1992; 2004-present, and I've watched it since the beginning. I think they took more chances in the beginning especially with the musical guests where they could have a jazz artist or classical artist, where as now it's just the latest pop or rap act. The comedy writing and acting was more daring and sharp in the early days a lot of the time as well, and if a sketch didn't work, it didn't seem to go on for 20 minutes, except maybe Bill Murray as the lounge singer. I didn't like it then and I don't like it now when re-watching them recently on the full season DVDs.

I actually wish that the show wouldn't be live anymore. Since I live in California it's never live anyway. It could easily be "live on tape" or actually filmed so that there weren't any flubs and the sketches could be tighter since the writing and acting isn't as strong. Also, I think it's time Lorne Michaels be put out to pasture. SNL has gotten stale and stiff like he has. Watch the early shows and he seems to have an enthusiasm that is totally missing now. So what if he created the show...

Harvey Art Show at the MoCCA in New York City!!

I haven't had a chance to write about it until now, but I went to New York to view and participate in the Harvey Art Show on January 14-16, 2009. The show runs at the MoCCA at 594 Broadway #401 until April 25, but I was there to appear at the Official Opening for the New York version of the show, despite the show having a soft opening on December 16, 2008.

The show is still called "From Richie Rich to Wendy the Witch: The Art of Harvey Comics" and still features most of the exhibits contributed by Skeet and Linda Rose, Dave Holt and myself, but also some new ones by Kent Meredith and by Adam Harvey.

The major differences between the San Francisco show and this one is that the display area for the Harvey show is larger in New York, but it is the only show going on, whereas the San Francisco display area was somewhat smaller and there were three other galleries to view.

The New York version also had more color with multi-colored painted walls and stencils of various Harvey characters like Hot Stuff or Casper, as well as displays featuring original comic books including some from the Harvey horror era and superhero era and a copy of "Richie Rich" #1.

There were some other new items added to the show including the original artwork to the cover of "Richie Rich" #200. I will be posting a video version of the New York portion of the show soon to YouTube. In the meantime, I have posted photo on Photobucket and have included one of them here.

I flew out early Wednesday morning from San Francisco to New York on Delta. It was great to be flying again and it was the first time I had been to New York since early 2001.

On the Wednesday night Opening, many illustrious people from Harvey history did manage to show up including artist Angelo DeCesare who worked on Richie Rich in the late 70s and early 80s and now works for Archie.

Former Harvey Production Artist Paul Maringelli was there as was three of the four sons of Alfred and Vicky Harvey: Eric, Adam and Alan. Sid Jacobson's son, Seth was there as was Sid Couchey's "de facto" manager and agent, Dan Busha. Harvey fans and former Marvel employees Jim Salicrup and Danny Fingeroth were also there, as were Allan Neuwirth and Nick Biales.

Harvey fan and writer for the "New York Villager" Will McKinley went around interviewing everyone at the show for an article. McKinley interviewed me via telephone a couple of days prior to my arrival in New York.

The Opening was well attended and a few speeches were made by Ellen Abramowitz and Karl Erickson, the museum's curators. The festivities went on for a couple of hours and many photos and some video footage were shot.

Afterwards, Salicrup invited me to dinner at ACME, a great Cajun food restaurant. I had the catfish and we discussed Harvey, Marvel, MoCCA and Papercutz (Salicrup's current company).

The next day I went shopping in 10 degree Fahrenheit weather with snow. It was cold!! After shooting a bit of video of the snow, I did a little shopping at Bleeker Street Records, partially to get in out of the cold and partially to see what they had. I managed to pick up a vinyl copy of the Richie Rich album called "Mysteries of the Deep!". This is not the rapper, mind you, but one of four children's albums released by Parachute Records, a division of Polygram, back in 1983. (I will cover these albums in a future issue of "THFT!")

Later on, after some other limited sightseeing, I went back to the museum for day two and the Harvey Q&A Panel. The panel was moderated by Salicrup and featured Paul Maringelli, Angelo DeCesare, Rick Parker (who worked at Harvey for a few months before later working at Marvel on "Beavis and Butt-Head"), Chris Barat and me.

In looking at the photos and video footage, I have to admit that there were shades of "Adam Awards" in how the presentation looks (see the photo at the top of this blog entry). Kent Meredith, Joe Torcivia and Chris' wife, Nicki were among those in the audience for this panel presentation. Nicki took the panel photos.

Everyone including yours truly had quite a bit to say and an edited version of the footage will be on YouTube soon. Most everyone went out afterwards for another meal at ACME sans Joe, Chris and Nicki.

I contemplated staying through Sunday, but decided since I have had limited funds due to being out of work during November and December, that I just best go home, though I wished I could have stayed longer.

I flew home on American and had an uneventful flight on Friday despite ongoing news coverage of another plane crash in the Hudson Bay on Thursday.

You can view all of the Photobucket photos by clicking here!

Details on the YouTube videos will be posted when I upload them. Stay Tuned.

After April, the show moves to Pittsburgh and the Toonseum.

Harvey Art Show Opening and Panel Talk in New York

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to give you all a heads up reminder that the Harvey Art Show is going on now in New York at the MoCCA at 594 Broadway, Suite 401. I will be in attendance on January 14 for the Opening Reception and on January 15 for a panel discussion featuring Chris Barat and me. Please stop by and say hi if you are in the area...

For more details, please go to the MoCCA website at http://www.moccany.org/ or call 212-254-3511.

Hope to see you there!