Mark Evanier's Blog, page 3

Through the Grapevine

Just did some surfing on the Internet and saw an amazing number of rumors that Donald Trump is dead, is about to be dead, had a stroke, is having some limb amputated, etc. As far as I can tell, not one of these comes from anyone who would be in a position to know if one of those things was true. Someone heard it from someone who heard it from someone who heard it from someone who heard it from someone who heard it, etc…

I wish people wouldn't do this. I also wished that when other "sources" who also had zero credibility were saying Joe Biden's health was much worse than it obviously was. Some guy who got onto my Facebook friends list was at one point telling everyone that Biden had died…then when Biden was suddenly out in public again and looking pretty healthy, the "friend" decided that "That's a double who's been made up to look like Biden" was a more plausible explanation than "I was wrong." Needless to say, that rumormonger is no longer on my Facebook friends list.

It's That Time Again…

It's September…the time when Summer winds down, the kids go back to school and Evanier hits you up for money. This blog costs me several thousands dollars a year to maintain and keep running…and yes, it can be done for less. But some years ago, I tired of it occasionally crashing and being off-line and I had one too many episodes where things went wrong from a technical standpoint and I had to drop everything — including paying work — and put in the hours to undo whta had gone kablooey.

Also, the "tech" side of maintaining a blog was getting to be a little too much for my limited expertise in that area. Twice in the last twelve months, I've had to pay a few hundred bucks to a WordPress Expert to do things that would have made me feel like one of the Three Stooges trying to remove someone's spleen.

So I signed up with a service that has kept things online for your (and my) pleasure. It makes things easier for both of us but now, once a year, I ask you to donate so I can make up the outta-pocket expenses of blogging almost every day. I have turned down offers to sell paid advertising or allow sponsored guest posts or to section off parts of the blog that will be open only to subscribers…stuff like that. I want to keep it absolutely free for all and "free" can sometimes be expensive.

Thus, today we start a Send Me Money campaign that will annoy you no more than reading this post and subsequent reminders…and the reminders will go away as soon as I receive enough to cover my expenses. If you can't afford it, fine. I understand…and I want this blog to be not only ad-free but guilt-free, as well. If you can afford it, thank you very much…

Today's Video Link

I gave up watching most of Bill Maher on HBO because I felt that more and more of what he said and did on Real Time was click-baity (to coin a new term we need).  He also got on a kick of discussing medicine and health with all the expertise of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on a bad day.  Once in a while, Maher presents something I think is very perceptive and even very funny but not often enough to make it Must-See-TV for me.  I like him a little more on his Club Random podcasts if/when he gets a guest who interests me (as he does occasionally) and lets them talk (as he also does occasionally).

That said, I found it well worth my time to sit through all of the hour-and-a-half he spends this week with Woody Allen.  If you do, you'll wish Maher fawned less and talked less but there's a real good interview in there if you're patient…

Today's Bonus Video Link

I kept meaning to post this but I also kept not getting around to it. This was on Seth Meyer's show a few weeks ago and it's one of the cleverest things I've seen on late night teevee in many a year…

Doctor Know-Something

A recurring message on this blog is not to get your medical advice from (a) The Internet or (b) anyone who seems to have studied medicine on The Internet. Even before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stepped into power and began managing our country's health care without the slightest fucking clue as to what he's doing…replacing the counsel of learned Men and Women of Medicine with the whims of know-nothings…I've been urging you to not believe what you see and hear online.

This does not apply to one corner of The Internet. The American Medical Association is stepping up to fill that void via this YouTube Channel. But even there, they constantly advise you to believe Your Doctor over anyone with a keyboard who thinks they know all about diseases and aches and chronic conditions…

Today's Video Link

I haven't mentioned it lately on this blog but I have an odd semi-preoccupation in the kind of high-speed car chases that seem to pop up about once a day in Southern California and, obviously, elsewhere.  My main fascination is with how the news covers them.  A police pursuit is one of the few times that TV brings us something live with no idea what might happen, when it will happen, etc.

On your local news, when the News Director decides to pre-empt regular programming or turn the news telecast over to one of those live events, he or she has no idea how long they'll be locked into that coverage and if it will end peacefully or with someone dying. Many of them lead us on and on and on and then turn out to be not very interesting. Sometimes, they last so long that the TV station has to cut away or their helicopter has to turn back without showing us the resolution.

But I'm also interested in the mechanics of how the police handle such matters. Somewhere back on this blog a few years ago — I can't locate it at the moment — I mentioned a new invention that was being tested out as a way of stopping fleeing automobiles. It's called The Grappler and some police forces around the nation have been using them.

Here's a recent chase in which the car being pursued was stopped by The Grappler — and what happened when the driver being pursued tried revving his or her engine to perhaps break free of that Grapple. There's no audio on this…

Crowd Control

Every year on Saturday at Comic-Con, I host two back-to-back panels — Quick Draw! and Cartoon Voices I — that fill Hall 6BCF to the point where hundreds of folks who want to get in can't get in. And every year, some person posts on Facebook or somewhere that one or both of these panels failed to attract much of an audience. I don't know why they do this in their off-time from, I'm guessing, handling the fact-checking at Newsmax.

So every year (starting last year), I post a photo of the audience just to remind you that you can't believe everything (and sometimes, even anything) you read on the Internet. Here is a shot from the stage during this year's Quick Draw! game…

If you click on that image, it will get taller and wider on your screen. It was taken by Tom Richmond, who was one of our competing cartoonists in the game. Does that look like not that much of an audience to you?

Today's Video Link

Can you spare an hour and twenty-four minutes? I've been sleeping weird hours and this morning at 3 AM, I was lying awake in bed, trying to decide whether to get up and go to my office or try to get back to sleep. I picked up my cellphone, flipped over to YouTube and randomly began watching this interview with Stephen Colbert at the 2024 Paley Festival. I ended up watching the whole thing and found it fascinating and enlightening and it confirmed my belief that Mr. Colbert is one of the smartest people ever to appear regularly on television.

Ben Schwartz is the interviewer and he's also great. The conversation is not political and, of course, not about the current situation. It's just about Colbert and who he is and how he got that way and I couldn't go back to bed after watching every minute of it…

328 Days From Today…

Believe it or call me a bigger liar than our president…but it's almost time to start thinking about next year's Comic-Con International in San Diego. As the subject line says, we have 328 days until it convenes — which, by an odd coincidence, is the same number of panels I expect to be hosting at the event.

But they've just announced that Returning Registration will take place on Saturday, October 4, 2025 at 9 AM West Coast Time. That means that if you had a paid attendee badge for the 2025 gathering, you can log in then to try and score one or more for '26. You can verify your eligibility for that badge sale by logging into Member ID account on this page. If you aren't eligible for this scramble, don't worry. Your day will come.

And I'm only kidding about the 328 panels. I probably won't even do half that number.

Golden Great

A lot of folks think that all the comic book creators of "The Golden Age" are gone. Well, almost. There are a few of them still with us…like Sy Barry, the longtime artist of the newspaper strip, The Phantom, and an important contributor to DC Comics, among other firms, from the late forties to the late fifties. Read all about him and a recent honor.