Todd Klein's Blog, page 308

DC Comics’ Production Dept., 1979 Part 2

75 Rockefeller Plaza, photo © David Shankbone, 2006. Our DC Production Department was on the 6th floor (Jack Harris tells me). I think our windows faced the wall of a building to the left, but behind the one shown here, also part of Rockefeller Center.

Working at DC was an exciting time for me, and in this second article I’ll be showing and commenting on more photos of my workplace from artist José Luis Garcia López taken in February, 1979. Here we go.

Photos © José Luis Garcia López, unless otherwise indicated.

Looking down the row of drawing boards on the west side of the room (see part 1 of this article for a diagram of the Production Room), we have Joe Letterese, Albert DeGuzman, and behind him is my drawing board, the only shot of it in this set. Even with the poor quality of these images, I can make out some things I had up on the wall behind me. On the bulletin board are some cover proofs. The one at upper left is the front and back covers of SUPERMAN VS. SPIDERMAN, which came out in 1976. On the wall at upper right are two versions of a piece of Batman art I did for the inside cover of another tabloid. Here’s the original art:

Art and scan by Todd Klein.

It appeared in the actual book as the background for the contents page I think. That book was BATMAN’S STRANGEST CASES, the “Limited Collector’s Edition” tabloid comic #C-59. Release dates for the tabloids are hard to pin down, but I think it was probably out in April or May, 1978. Like the other staffers, I did all kinds of freelance work in addition to my staff job, though lettering eventually became the main thing. At this point I was trying everything including art, writing and coloring. I was never good at drawing figures, though, so my attempts at comics art were few.

Here’s a photo of me at my drawing board taken by Jack Adler probably in the summer of 1979. The SUPERMAN VS. SPIDERMAN tabloid cover is still on the bulletin board at the top. The HOUSE OF MYSTERY printed cover proof below is issue #263, December 1978. Right of that is DOORWAY TO NIGHTMARE #3 dated May-June 1978. I’m certainly dressed for summer, and while that HOM issue probably came out in October ’78, I think that still rules out summer of 1978 for this picture. Looks like I’m lettering something, and yes, I am left-handed.

Back to José’s photos, here I am wearing cold weather clothes (as are all the people in these photos), leaning on the end of the high counter in the center of the production room talking over something with Bob LeRose. Bob, as many who remember him will tell you, was a great guy with a long history in comics production, though he’d only been at DC a few years in 1979. Before that he worked for many years with artist Al Stenzel producing the comics section of “Boy’s Life” magazine for the Boy Scouts. Bob sat in the last seat in the other row of drawing boards, so we talked quite a bit, and Bob loved to talk and tell stories. He worked almost exclusively on putting covers together, adding the logo and trade dress plus any cover lettering to the art, all pasted on with rubber cement. There was more to it than that, he also had to “make it work,” which often involved moving parts of the art around, or resizing things, and so on. Bob was also a fine colorist, and did lots of that for DC, both on covers and stories.

The counter we’re looking down on is the one with the large flat file cabinets under it, you can see some of the drawers below. Inside would be unpublished art and covers for upcoming books, some older art that hadn’t been put into the art return process yet, large mechanicals (pasted up boards ready to be photographed for printing), and all sorts of odds and ends that wouldn’t fit in regular file cabinet drawers. Just below me is a series of boxes holding art paper, mostly Strathmore one-ply or two-ply bristol board in large sheets which could be cut to size and used for mechanicals, cover lettering, or anything else. The pre-printed (in pale blue) DC art boards for drawing covers and stories were smaller, precut to about 11 by 17 inches, and stored elsewhere.

Another dim view of Bob and I where you can see we’re looking at some very large mechanical that I can’t identify, perhaps a promotional poster. Some of the file cabinets at the back of the room can be seen, as well as more flat files. Incidentally, one of the jobs I took on during the “DC Implosion” when work was slow was to go through all those file cabinets on the back wall and organize them into labeled hanging folders by title and character. When I visited the DC offices a few years ago to research logos, I found many of the folders I made then stored with the contents of those cabinets in the Film Library. It was kind of eerie to see them. I wrote about it here.

Here’s a shot from just behind Bob LeRose’s board looking at the other end of that high counter and past it to Tony Tollin and Jack Adler’s areas. Bob has a number of covers in process on his board, and you can see the lamp he used, which was different from all the others. It had a circular neon bulb surrounding a large magnifying glass, allowing Bob to work close with magnification. The high counter was generally kept clear, but sometimes got cluttered with things being worked on, as here. I’m not sure what all those things are, but at the left end is a roll of something, perhaps brown paper, used for wrapping packages. Can’t identify the rest. Beyond the boards in this row is the photostat drying rack.

The darkroom, where all the in-house photostats were made, was in a separate room down the hall a bit, and Shelley Eiber, not in these pictures, was the person making most of the “stats.” If we needed something copied, a logo or anything else from the files, we’d put it in an out-tray for Shelly with the size percentage of the stat we wanted and our name, as in “85% LeRose.” Some of the logos I’ve shown in my “Logo of the Day” feature on Facebook have those markings. Shelly would bring the stats out of the darkroom and put them on the rack to dry, which took about 10 minutes or so. Shelly was a smart person to get on the good side of. When you did, she’d give your requests priority, and let you come into the darkroom and make your own stats when she was busy with other tasks, a good way to learn the process and try new things, as well as get your own work done faster. Photostats use a photographic process that creates a positive copy of something from a paper negative that’s thrown away. Digital publishing has pretty much eliminated the need for them. Last time I was at DC, a few years ago, Shelly was still on staff there, working in the Film Library. Certainly the longest tenured person in this article, and now that Paul Levitz is off staff, probably the longest tenured person at DC, if she’s still there.

An empty desk in production was always fair game for a freelance artist who needed to finish up some work or make corrections, and here’s artist Ross Andru sitting at Steve Mitchell’s desk doing that. He’s lowered the board so it sits flat, and has his work spread out on it. Wish we could see what he was working on. At left is Bob LeRose again.

The desk in front of Bob LeRose was the seat of Steve Mitchell, who is also not in these pictures, probably out for the day. Steve also worked almost exclusively on cover paste-ups. He, too, loved to talk, and had many freelance artist friends who would come in and stand on the other side of the low counter to talk to him. It just so happened that standing there put one out of sight of Jack Adler when he was in his office, which worked out well for them, as Jack would chase away gabby freelancers if they spent too much time in the room. Some of them came over to chat with me on occasion, and if they crouched down behind my desk, they could also evade Adler’s eye. Jack was kind of like the umpire in baseball, he’d give you a few minutes for a conference, then walk out to break it up, but if he was busy or not around a lot of gabbing happened. And smart freelancers knew Jack also loved to talk, and if they could get him into the conversation, they managed to hang out in the room longer. ADDED: Both Bob Rozakis and Jack C. Harris think Steve had left staff by this time, another victim of the Implosion. That left Bob LeRose as the only full-time cover man, but I recall Albie and I helping him sometimes.

Just about every artist working for the company came into our production room at some time while I was there, to chat or ask questions or just hang out. Freelancing can be a lonely business. The writers came in too, though they tended to spend more time with the editors, we didn’t see them as often. Of course, those who lived close came in more frequently, but that was the majority back then. While artists and writers who lived far away could mail in their work, those who lived close enough to make a day trip of it usually came into the office regularly to deliver their work in person, and took some time to socialize while there.

Somewhere behind Bob’s desk is another machine called a Varityper Headliner. I’ve looked online, and I can’t find an image of the model we had, only newer and smaller ones. It was sort of a miniature darkroom which you could look into through some kind of red-tinted viewport. Photographic paper in rolls was fed in and headlines were made one letter at a time on the roll from about a dozen available alphabets on large disks. You rotated the disk to the letter you wanted, positioned the paper with some kind of rollers, and clicked to expose the paper until you had the entire line of large type you needed. Then the paper continued through photographic baths to fix it, and came out the other side. Clunky and time-consuming, but this was the only set-type we could produce, all other type, like that used for letter-columns, had to be sent out to be set photographically in galleys at a type house. If there was an error, you had to cut and paste to fix it. Thankfully, digital publishing has eliminated all that!

I think this is the front-most desk in that row, which looks unoccupied. It had been the desk of John Workman until he left to become the art director of “Heavy Metal” magazine at the end of 1977, and I can’t recall anyone being hired to replace him at the time. Perhaps the workload was already shrinking due to the “Implosion,” and Jack Adler didn’t feel there was a need for another person working on covers, which is what John mostly did.

On the flat part of the board are a rubber cement can and rubber cement thinner can, the one that looks like a small version of the Tin Man’s oil can from “Wizard of Oz.” When your rubber cement was too sticky, you added some thinner, which was, I’m sure, a deadly petrochemical of some kind. On the counter beyond are in/out trays and a light box. On the tall counter in the back are some small machines we used, though I’m no longer sure what some of them are. At left is a combination radio receiver and phonograph album player to provide music. Choice of music was always a hotly debated topic, though, as there was little everyone liked, so sometimes it was just off. Another thing probably up there is a dry-mount press for attaching art to illustration board using a sheet of dry glued paper that would adhere when heated. The one with the lid up might be for making copies of artwork on acetate. That looks like a small refrigerator on the right, not sure what it was used for. There was a coffee room refrigerator for bagged lunches, so I doubt that was it.  There was also a machine for laminating: sealing things between two sheets of clear plastic to preserve them, and probably more.

On the bulletin board above left are some pieces dry-mounted by Bob LeRose. This was his personal gallery. Some may have been things he colored, but he also enjoyed doing that with the paper towels he dried his coloring brushes on, making colorful abstract art.

Right of that is a printed promo piece featuring the logo of the first Superman movie, something we were all excited about then. It was released at the end of 1978, and we created another DC tabloid comic about it, above, for which I did most of the production work. Right of that are what look like other tabloid cover proofs, but I can’t identify them.

Freelance colorists also used available spots as they found them, but Adrienne Roy, wife of Tony Tollin, had her own regular drawing board in the DC bullpen, another room across the hall from production where freelancers could sit and work. Wish I could identify what she’s working on. Tony tells me:

“Not only did Adrienne have her own assigned desk (first in the bullpen and later John Workman’s former desk), she also had a Warner Communications after-hours employee ID card, allowing her 24-hour and weekend access to the offices. (I didn’t have such a card, though letterer Ben Oda did.) Adrienne sometimes worked ’til midnight or later on hot jobs, so she spent a lot of time in the bullpen with Ben as he finished his last pages.) Jack Adler and Sol Harrison both found it useful to have an in-house colorist readily available who did not have staff duties, so Adrienne did a lot of last-minute freelance jobs, often at enhanced commercial rates.”

Another look at Adrienne working. That’s clearly Superman on the page, but I can’t say what book it’s for. Even in this poor and blurry view, I think I can identify it as the work of artist José Luis Garcia López, who took these pictures, which would have given him a good reason to be interested! A paper towel for blotting excess color off the brush is right beside her. I don’t see her color set, it must be off to one side.

Here’s another picture I can’t place. It’s me making a photocopy of something, but I not in the production room. There must have been another room for copiers, that’s a different one in the foreground, and I’m told the hooded thing is an art projector used for copying small layout drawings larger onto art paper. Two possible brand names are Artograph and Lucigraph.

Another view of the copier. That boxlike thing seems to be some kind of autofeeder.

The final photo from José is of editor Paul Levitz in his office. A very young Paul working hard, as usual! Other editors that I’m sure were on staff at the time are Julius Schwartz and E. Nelson Bridwell sharing an office, Joe Orlando, Jack C. Harris, Murray Boltinoff, Joe Kubert (but only in the office occasionally), and possibly Larry Hama and Al Milgrom. The latter two were also let go during the “DC Implosion,” I think, so probably gone at the time of these photos. Other staffers included President Sol Harrison, who spent a fair amount of time with us in the production room, often to offer us freelance work for licensing projects, Sol’s secretary Midge Bregman, Publisher Jenette Kahn and her secretary Carol Fein, art director Vince Colletta, Film Library head (and letterer) Milt Snapinn, publicist Mike Gold, and probably a dozen others I’m forgetting. Those were the ones I most often had contact with, anyway.

Working at DC then wasn’t always fun and games. During the Implosion times were tense, as we all knew layoffs were likely. Sometimes tempers flared. Art and coloring for stories and covers often came in late (a perennial problem in comics), and then we’d have to bear down and work hard to get them pasted up, corrected, marked up, approved by editors, and out the door to the separation house in Connecticut, often while the DC delivery man, Eddie, paced impatiently and complained at the front of the room until he finally had everything for the day and could drive them there. Sometimes we were up late doing freelance work and had a hard time getting through our day jobs. Commuting could be tough due to weather, transit strikes and accidents, and other obstacles. Mistakes were made by us, provoking anger from editors and our bosses.

There were perks, too. Meeting famous people, like Christopher Reeve, above, as they visited the offices (with editor Jack Harris and myself in a photo by Jack Adler). Meeting artists and writers whose work you admired and perhaps had grown up reading. Lunch out with company friends or freelancers. Occasional parties in the office, or out of it. Being invited to free movie screenings. Visiting the rest of Rockefeller Center for free, including the roof deck on the RCA building, and all the great stores, museums and attractions in the area on your lunch break. In all, it was a wonderful experience, and one I feel lucky to have had, and the comaraderie and friendships forged then are warm in my memories to this day.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this trip down memory lane. Thanks again to José for providing the photos that made it happen. Other articles you might enjoy can be found on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

DC Comics’ Production Dept., 1979 Part 1

ADDED: I’ve revised this post thanks to new information provided by readers, one of the great things about the internet. I think we now have a definitive year and month when these pictures were taken, and you can read about that below.

Image © Todd Klein. All photos © José Luis Garcia López, except as noted.

Photo of José Luis Garcia López © Todd Klein, 2010.

A few weeks ago long-time ace DC artist José Luis Garcia López posted a number of photos he’d taken in the DC Comics production department in or around 1979. They were from a contact sheet, not the original negatives, so the quality is not the best, but I found them fascinating, bringing back a lot of memories about working there. José has graciously allowed me to use them and he sent me the entire contact sheet, so I’m going to post all the pictures here with comments. The diagram above is of the offices at the time, as I remember them. I was hired to work in the DC Production Department in the summer of 1977, and it was quite exciting for me. I’d been a comics fan for many years, and here I was working at the company, meeting artists and writers, working with editors and other staff. And the offices were in Rockefeller Plaza, just off Fifth Avenue between 51st and 52nd Streets, so in the middle of mid-town Manhattan with all that had to offer. I loved it! I commuted in from New Jersey for about a 7.5 hour work day. Most of my time was spent doing art and lettering corrections at a drawing board, and putting together letter columns and text pages, physically pasting together all the elements (no digital publishing then). Here we go with the photos by José…

As you walked into the production from from the hall, on your left was the space of Assistant Production Manager Bob Rozakis, shown sitting here at his desk, probably proofreading some finished comics art. If so, the pencil in his hand would be a blue one. Behind him is a life-size Superman promotional figure printed on card stock. I think the arms and legs had moveable joints. To Bob’s left is a file cabinet with what look like comics makereadies or proofs, printed comics cut and folded but not stapled, and without the cover, the final printed version sent to DC right before the books were stapled and trimmed and went out from the printer to the distributors. It was usually too late to fix or change anything by then, but they were sent anyway. Bob commented: “The pile of proofs on the cabinet would come in from the printing plant and I would keep them till we received the copies of the finished books.” On Bob’s right is a desktop rack holding finished comics art ready to be worked on by production artists like me. When I needed a new thing to work on, I’d go up to Bob and ask for the next one he had ready (and they were in order by how soon they needed to go to the printer). On the cubicle wall at far right are printing schedules.

Bob and I always got on well, though he maintained a “boss-employee” relationship that lasted through the ten years I was on staff, including the final five years when I was Assistant Production Manager and Bob was Production Manager. In addition to his staff job, Bob was writing quite a few comics stories for DC on a freelance basis. Nearly all the production staffers did some freelance work for the company at home in their “spare” time to supplement staff income, which wasn’t a lot even for the time.

The next cubicle over was for Production Manager Jack Adler’s secretary. At the time I believe that was Lillian Mandell, but she must have been out to lunch or out for the day when these pictures were taken. In her seat is Mike Catron, typing something at her typewriter. I contacted Mike, and he told me he was on staff between October 1977 and November 1978, so that narrows down our window of time for these photos. As you’ll read further down in this post, new evidence suggests a later date, though, and Bob Rozakis and I think Mike continued to do some freelance writing for DC after he left staff. (Mike doesn’t recall that.) If so, it would help explain why he was typing at Lillian’s desk instead of in his own office, which Mike reports “got turned into a place for storing junk after I left.” 

When I asked Mike if he might know what he was typing, he replied:

“Yes, I can make a pretty good guess about what I was working on. It had to have been copy for one of the DC promo pages that ran in all the books, touting that month’s other releases. It was DC’s version, at that time, of the Bullpen Bulletins. Bob Rozakis edited those pages and I wrote all the copy and compiled the list of on-sale titles. So I was probably writing some last-minute promotional copy for Bob.”

On the desk are in/out trays, a phone, a rollodex for addresses, tape, a stapler, a small porcelain roller in a tray of water for moistening envelope flaps, and a Santa Claus thing that Rozakis thinks Lillian used as a pencil holder. Behind the typewriter is a file cabinet with what look like binders on it, and a Wonder Woman figure matching the Superman one is on the wall.

Here’s another photo looking over Mike’s shoulder. Probably an IBM Selectric typewriter.

There are no photos of Jack Adler or his work space, but you can see a little of his walled cubicle in the background of this photo of freelance colorist Tatjana Wood talking to Anthony Tollin, in charge of coloring, and also a colorist himself. Tony would go over work brought in by freelancers like Tatjana, and she was a talented pro, so I doubt he often had to ask for any changes unless it was a matter of a costume color being wrong, or something like that. Colorists also had to have their editor look over and approve their coloring work, so they sometimes did corrections from that in the office. The colors had to be marked up with codes for the separators, and that might be something they were discussing. There’s a file cabinet to Tony’s left with a standing rack on it, and on that what looks like the kind of box used for photostat paper. Behind Tatjana and I think in front of Jack Adler’s office are some comics spinner racks that appear to be empty, and another life-size figure of Batman. You can see a window right of that. They were recessed in the walls somewhat. On Tony’s bulletin board is a sign saying COLOR DEPARTMENT, and below that are pinned some printed covers and the printed color guides Jack Adler had made to show the colors available then and how they would print. (I wrote about this in my blog post about coloring comics old school.)

Here’s another photo of Tony’s desk from a different angle. Tony’s desk is actually positioned between two windows, so the ones in my diagram aren’t that accurate. His drawing board is the same as all the ones in the room, with a surface that could be angled upward at the back, and an area on the left that remained flat. Tony has his phone on the left and a pencil sharpener and T-square on a small table or file cabinet on the right.

You can see more of his pinup wall here, and I was hoping I might see something on it that would help me narrow the date, but I can only make out a few. At the top left is the front and back cover of the Pizza Hut promotional reprint of BATMAN #123 from 1977, below that are some BAT LASH covers printed in 1968-69 and some kind of ad dated 1975 to the right. However, Bob Rozakis spotted something I missed. He says,

“On the right side of Tony’s bulletin board are the color guides to “Bat-Mite’s New York Adventure” (from DETECTIVE #482, which went on sale in November 1978). Tony would not have the color guides back to hang on the wall until after the story had been separated and (presumably) printed.”

Bob went on to suggest the photo shoot date should then be early in 1979.

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

That Bat-Mite story was written by Bob Rozakis, and featured a number of staffers. Above is the art from page 5, which I bought from the artist, Michael Golden. In the top row of panels are Bob Smith, Milt Snapinn, Tony Tollin and myself. In the group shot below you can also find Michael Golden, Rozakis, and editor Al Milgrom at front right. Needless to say, WE all loved that story!

Behind Tony sat Joe Letterese, a long-time production staffer. I’m not sure when Joe started at DC, but it was probably some time in the 1950s. Joe is doing either lettering or art corrections on interior art pages. He has a pile of “to do” pages under his T-square on the left, and some finished pages on the counter to his right. In this picture I can see that there was a low counter between these drawing boards and the windows and wall with file cabinets below it, something I’d forgotten. Between Tony and Joe there’s a pile of books on the counter, probably bound volumes of comics from the DC library that Tony had pulled out for reference. On Joe’s bulletin board upper left is what looks like a printed cover proof for SUPERMAN VS. MUHAMMAD ALI, the tabloid-size comic that I believe was released early in 1978. (Tabloid refers to the page size of 10 by 13 inches, much larger than a regular comic.)  Also on the counter next to Joe, behind the finished art pages, is his rubber cement can, and a cup I can’t identify. Just under Joe’s face on the side of his board are jars and cans, at least one of which would be white paint for corrections, and another water for rinsing brushes. Ink would be in a stoppered bottle. We used Higgins Black Magic ink and Pro-White correction paint mainly.

In the original version of this post I added, “Too bad the calendar on the wall can’t be read.” How wrong I was! Reader Michael Gallagher commented, “The month shown on the calendar has 28 days, and ends on a Wednesday, so that would be February 1979.”  What an astounding feat of detective work, Michael, you should be on CSI! While the dates are unreadable, I agree the calendar seems to have 28 days, with three on the top row right of the art, three rows of seven, and a final row of four ending on Wednesday. Even if we have the number of days wrong, the only month in 1978 ending on a Wednesday is May, which is too early based on other evidence. In 1979, only January and February end on Wednesday, so it has to be one of those. Finally, there’s a large number 2 at the upper right corner which might also indicate the month. February, 1979 is what I now think is correct for when these pictures were taken by José. And Joe Letterese was the kind of guy who would keep his calendar on the correct month. Thanks for the help, Mr. Gallagher!

Here’s a better look at Joe himself. He was a good guy, and I enjoyed working with him, though he wasn’t really a comics fan, and to him it was just a job I think. Joe did some freelance cover lettering from time to time, but I don’t think he did much, if any, story lettering, at least not when I worked with him. Below the shelf in front of his desk is an open area with no file drawers, and it’s full of stuffed boxes, don’t know what was in them. Probably comics and color guides.

Sitting at the desk behind Joe is Albert DeGuzman, who everyone knew as Albie. Albie was from The Philippines, possibly one of the artists recruited by Joe Orlando from there to do work for DC. I’m not sure of his history before he joined the staff, but I know he did a lot of reconstruction of old comic art for the company as a freelancer: touching up photostats of old printed comics pages from the 1940s to make them useable for reprints. (DC did not think to archive their printed comics in any way except to keep copies bound in hardcover volumes until the early 1950s, when they started saving film negatives of all the books. Before that there were only some newsprint proofs, but not a lot of those were saved.)

This spot was occupied by Morris Waldinger when I started in 1977. Morris, like Joe Letterese, was a long-time production staffer, with the company since at least 1953, since he celebrated his 25th anniversary with the company in 77 or early 78. But 1978 was also the time of the “DC Implosion,” when corporate decisions and poor sales led to about half the company’s comics being cancelled. That meant less production work, and Morris was let go at that time. Exactly when Morris left and when Albie was hired I don’t know, but I’m guessing there was a lengthy gap between the two, which would support our new photo date of February, 1979. Albie is also doing corrections on comics art, and from the clean look of his work area, I’d say he hadn’t been there very long at all. He was another guy I enjoyed working with, always cheerful and trying to make jokes in a language that was not native to him, which made them even funnier. Albie did all kinds of freelance work on the side, including quite a bit of lettering. Note that through the window you can see the side of another building, which was our view, not very exciting. I think our windows faced west.

I’ll wrap this up next time in Part 2. Other posts you might enjoy can be found on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

 

Gardening

This weekend I’m planting annuals. I’m about two weeks behind schedule due to our California trip, I usually do this Memorial Day weekend. The hardest part is prepping the large flower beds that surround the perennial garden in the front yard. I prepped this bed in mid-May, but that was as far as I got, and in the meantime, all the weeds grew back, so I had to weed and rake it out again.

Here it is all prepped.

And planted with Impatiens, the annual that does best in our yard, and therefore the one I use most. I did also put in some Lobelias, Verbena and Begonias. Got most of the planting done, I still have eight New Guinea Impatiens to place in pots and planters in the backyard tomorrow, and then I need to mulch everything. I might hold off on that until next weekend, we’ll see.

During the week I took a few photos of what’s blooming in the yard now. These are all perennials, starting with Trumpet Honeysuckle.

Dianthus. I love the color of these, but I just had to pull out many of them because they had overgrown their planters and were no longer blooming well. This one stayed.

In the pond it’s Water Lily time again. This is the first bloom, last year we had about five I think.

Bet you’d never guess what these tiny weedlike flowers are. It’s Parsley! I left a pot of it out last summer hoping to attract Black Swallowtail Butterflies to lay their eggs on it, and then enjoy the caterpillars and perhaps more butterflies, but I had no takers. I left it out all winter, and this spring it came back strong and is blooming profusely. There are some small beetles enjoying the flowers.

Spiderwort, though this picture doesn’t really capture the almost flourescent blue glow of the flowers.

The roses out front are doing well.

The first Buddleia or Butterfly Bush bloom has just opened, haven’t seen any butterflies on it yet.

The Day Lilies are out, each flower open for just one day.

And as I walk around my own private Eden, I have to remember to watch out for the occasional snake in the grass, like this young Garter Snake the cats and I enjoyed watching one day. The mosquitoes are out now, too. But we still enjoy our yard all the same.

San Diego Surprise

As reported here a while back, I was disappointed in this year’s hotel room lottery for San Diego ComicCon. Despite getting my application in within minutes of the opening bell, none of my 20 hotel choices came through, and I got a hotel out in the valley, several miles away from downtown. I was prepared for a slightly different con experience this year as a result, but this morning I received an email from Travel Planners (the hotel reservation company for the Con) telling me they had some closer rooms available for those on their waiting list.

This was a surprise, as I hadn’t known about or asked to be on a waiting list. I can only guess they put me on because none of my original choices were available. I followed the new booking instructions, and now have a room in a nice hotel about 4 blocks from the convention center. I assume it’s nice, it’s a chain I’ve stayed in elsewhere, and must be pretty new, as I don’t recall seeing it in past years. Yes, it’s more than $100 per day more than the valley hotel, but I’m fine with that, I’d much rather be in walking distance. Thanks for the last minute save, Travel Planners!

Incoming: GET JIRO!

© Anthony Bourdain, Joel Rose and DC Comics, Inc.

I really enjoyed lettering this new hardcover graphic novel that arrived here today. The story is funny and full of great characters, and though being a foodie will help you enjoy it, I think anyone will have a good time reading this tale of intrigue and war among the power chefs of a slightly different Los Angeles That’s CHEFS, not CHIEFS! The art by Langdon Foss is great, and the coloring (which I’m seeing here for the first time) by Dave Stewart and José Villarrubia is also quite delicious. I suggest you have a look.

And Then I Read: SWAMP THING 9

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

I really like what writer Scott Snyder is doing in this title. Yes, it’s the basic good vs. evil battle, but he’s made it work by wrapping it around characters we care about: Alec Holland and Abigail Arcane. Abby has been co-opted by The Rot and turned into that creature you see on the cover, and she’s bent on the destruction of Swamp Thing (Holland). But these two have a long history and a complex relationship, and Snyder uses it all to turn the story another way effectively. The ending suggests another character with a long history is about to return as well. Looking forward to it!

the art by the tag team of Yanick Paquette and Marco Rudy is great. This is one of Yanick’s pages, but the styles are close enough to avoid any jarring shift. In fact, it’s hard to tell without checking the credits, though Rudy’s faces are a little different. Both artists are clearly inspired by the work of past artists like Steve Bissette and John Totleben, without slavishly imitating them, and that works for me.

Highly recommended!

 

Ray Bradbury

Very sorry to hear of the passing of Ray Bradbury, a favorite author of my teen years. That’s my copy of “Martian Chronicles” printed in May, 1951. “The night came down around them, and there were stars.”

Crystal Cove State Park, California

Last batch of vacation pics, I promise. We spent a few hours at this park about a half hour south of my brother’s home in Huntington Beach, on the recommendation of Ellen’s sister Anne, who had been here many years earlier. Full of interesting folded rock formations and tide pools, this large section of beach and cliffs was well worth a visit. And, being where it is, also the setting for quite a few Hollywood movies, including two versions of Treasure Island.

Up above the beach it was desert-dry, and this Prickly Pear Cactus was blooming.

There were some other wildflowers, don’t know what this one is. We entered the park at three places and walked the beach at each one through some wildflower areas.

Some of the rocks and tide pools. There were small crabs and a few tiny fish in them, but none of my pictures of those creatures came out well.

A bigger tide pool. These shots are all from Treasure Cove at the northwest end of the park, which is several miles long. It had the best tide pools of the places we tried.

Here’s Ellen in front of the cave, for scale. Not very big, but just right for Ben Gunn.

One is not supposed to “collect” anything from the park, or even touch the living creatures in the tide pools, but this fragment of shell was so pretty I thought it deserved a picture. I think it’s part of a Sea Urchin shell.

It was very pleasant to sit by the rocks as the waves broke over them. And relaxing.

The rocky cliff face was full of visually interesting fragmentation. Without scale reference this could be a massive wall in the Grand Canyon.

Ellen on the beach.

Me on a different one, Huntington Beach, in the evening of another day, just before we had to pack for home. We had a great time visiting with Russ and his family, and on our week in California, but it’s good to be home.

Hearst Castle, San Simeon, CA

I first became interested in the life and home of William Randolph Hearst after seeing the film “Citizen Kane,” very loosely based on his life. One of the best films ever made, in many opinions, and it led me to reading about the real man and his massive home in California, where the elite of Hollywood gathered to party in the 1920s-40s. About 15 years ago I actually drove past the place on a birdwatching trip, but the group had other agendas, so we didn’t stop. This trip I determined Ellen and I would visit the Hearst estate, and we spent a sunny afternoon there last week. We signed up for two tours: the Grand Rooms, and the Upstairs Suites ones. The estate is now owned and operated by the state of California (though much of the massive estate is a working ranch not owned by them). It’s run well, and we enjoyed our tours and time on the grounds very much. Incidentally, Hearst himself never called it a castle, though the main building is the size of one. To him it was “the ranch.”

After parking at the visitor center and buying our tour tickets, we were shuttle bussed up the three-mile drive to the hilltop estate. Seen from the highway on the coast, it doesn’t seem that high, but when you’re up there the views are spectacular. Our tour began outside the front entrance of Casa Grande, the Big House, with its two giant bell towers. Hearst and his architect Julia Morgan began working at the site (the family’s previous summer camping spot) in 1919, first building one the the three guest houses for Hearst to live in while work on the Casa Grande proceeded. Morgan and Hearst worked together to integrate his collection of European art, largely from the Medieval and Renaissance periods, including quite large pieces like massive carved ceilings, tapestries and fireplaces, into the design.

Behind that giant door is the Assembly Room, where guest would gather each evening at cocktail hour to swap stories of their daily activities. Hearst did not believe in letting guests sit around, and there were plenty of things for them to do, including horseback riding, swimming and tennis.

Part of the ceiling in the entrance foyer leading to the Assembly Room. As in “Citizen Kane,” the scale of the large rooms in this house is anything but cozy.

Another view of the Assembly Room. Hearst and his mistress, actress Marion Davies, would usually greet guests here and invite them to dinner…

…in the Refectory, another very large room.

Part of the ceiling in The Refectory. Unlike in “Citizen Kane,” Hearst did not travel around Europe looting the place for his collection, but bought most of it through antique dealers. He generally sent employees to make purchases, because when anyone saw Hearst come through the door, their prices would skyrocket. Despite his fortune, inherited from his father, a successful miner, and his newspaper empire, Hearst was a big spender, and always in debt. When things weren’t going so well in later years, some parts of his collection were sold off.

Here’s a large and impressive painting that survived. Indeed, much of the house is well filled with rare art and architecture, though some parts of the outside are not finished. Hearst and Morgan worked on the estate from 1919 to 1947, when Hearst had to leave for health reasons, but some things were rebuilt several times as Hearst changed his mind about them.

A small example of the many beautiful carved wood panels.

Here’s the Billiard Room, still quite large, but a bit more human in scale, and beautifully decorated.

This was my favorite tapestry in the building. The other room in this tour was the movie theater, which is charming (and where we saw some of Hearst’s home movies), but too dark for a good picture.

Back outside I liked this view of the Casa Grande from the tour starting point, as we waited for our second tour to begin.

Our second tour took us first to the second floor to see some of the 38 bedrooms. This is part of the Doge’s Suite. Loved this door, and a matching one is in the next bedroom.

Another room in the Doge’s Suite. This was for Hearst’s special guests, including several presidents and all the top movie stars.

Part of the ceiling in the bedroom above.

The Library, always a highlight for me in any large house. Hearst had a fine one, and was an avid reader.

After several other bedrooms, the tour took us up to the third floor, the Gothic Suite, which was Hearst’s private retreat, and one many guests never saw. I was fascinated, if a little horrified, to see many of the lamps shaded with handlettered Gothic parchment documents.

This is Hearst’s office, and what a magnificent one it is! Another library lines the walls, and the ceiling is not an antique, but designed by Morgan and painted by a contemporary artist in a charming faux medieval style. Hearst ran his empire from here by telephone, and often had his editors up for meetings as well.

A portrait of the Hearst as a young man.

Looking out one of the open balconies, a portion of the ornately carved wooden roof.

After our tours we were invited to spend as much time as we liked in the gardens and grounds. Here’s a view of the ocean.

The gardens are well-maintained, and lots of things were blooming, attracting this swallowtail butterfly.

The three guest houses might seem small compared to Casa Grande, but each is mansion-sized with numerous rooms, though none are open for tours.

I loved the door on this one. Look for all the facial profiles in the brasswork.

While not quite as ornate as the Big House, they’re full of interesting details.

The grounds have lots of marble staircases and statuary, and the feel is very Mediterranean.

Perhaps the best-known feature of the grounds is the massive Neptune Pool, which looked like a wonderful place to swim and relax. Indeed, we did sit out there for a while.

Under the tennis courts is another, equally impressive Roman Pool for indoor swimming.

Tired but happy, we eventually reboarded the shuttle bus, which stopped on the road down for this more distant view of the hilltop estate. A marvelous place to visit, which I’d recommend to anyone.

 

California Coast Wildlife video

Five minute video from our trip featuring Sea Lions, Sea Otter, Harbor Seal, Elephant Seals and Red-Tailed Hawk.