Help For Kurtzman Help Documentary

Fellow I.T.C.H. member J J Sedelmaier brings attention to a proposed documentary on MAD and HELP creator Harvey Kurtzman. Here's what Phil Michelson has to say:

I am developing a documentary on MAD Magazine founder Harvey Kurtzman and his influential, early 1960’s humor magazine HELP! Working with fellow producer Terry Gilliam (Monty Python) and director Bruce Sinofsky (Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, HBO’s Brothers Keeper) as well as the cooperation of the Kurtzman estate, we feel that this is an amazing and underappreciated story in American cultural and comedic history.

As this is a film about artists, illustrators and the creative process, I thought that you might know some people who would want to be a part of this film. Right now, our two biggest needs are finding people who either knew Harvey (and were involved with HELP!) and most importantly, that dreaded word that every filmmaker dares to mention: Investors.

We could go the Kickstarter route with this effort, but I feel that there may be enough power in the artist community to bring in the funding we seek. Right now, we are about $250,000 short of our current fundraising goals. If there were people willing to invest, or even make a donation toward this film, it would go a long way to insuring that we get most of the wonderful, talented and sorry to say, old timers on camera before it is too late.

Any thoughts or ideas on this subject are most welcome. Thank you for your continued support for this film.

Sincerely,

Philip Michelson

Moondog Films

phil@moondogworld.com

For those who may be unfamiliar with HELP, it was more of its time than was the original MAD. HELP was influential for its use of new artists, many of whom (Skip Williamson, Gilbert Shelton, Jay Lynch and Robert Crumb to name a few) would go on to be the first generation of the Underground Comix movement. Feminist icon and MS magazine publisher Gloria Steinem learned the ropes at HELP. Her replacement was Terry Gilliam who met John Cleese through HELP which later led directly to his being involved with MONTY PYTHON. The earliest revival of Will Eisner's SPIRIT was in HELP. The Kurtzman/Elder strip that would become PLAYBOY's LITTLE ANNIE FANNY ran in HELP and Kurtzman also pioneered the American usage of photo-comic strips in HELP.

Silver Age Sub-Mariner Splash Page Sundays # 16

Often portrayed as an angry rebel, today's splash page from 1969 is one of my favorite depictions of Namor looking as regal as a Price ought to look! Framed beautifully by Marie (still with Mike Esposito hiding on the inks) and featuring a downright beautiful depiction of Namor's consort, the Lady Dorma, as well, it's a lovely symbolic splash. Of course there's also ol' growly Tiger Shark and a rather disinterested looking gentleman named Professor Newell about whom we will find out more in a few issues. Storywise, Roy hits a good stride here with continuity threads continuing and multi-part stories starting to become more and more the norm.

Another Ghost Rider Mask Ad

Way back almost four years ago, we ran an ad for a GHOST RIDER mask from the 1950's. Well, we've run across another!

R.I.P. James Arness

He didn't really have much of a range as an actor. He could do stoic cowboy, intense cowboy and laconic cowboy...and he could do giant vegetable people. Other than that, he was not so hot. That said, he could do iconic better than most and managed to be iconic as THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, Marshal Matt Dillon on GUNSMOKE and, as my Swedish friend Andreas tells me," In Sweden he's most known by far as Zeb Macahan in series "How the West Was Won". I kid you not, every Swede over 30 knows who Zeb is. A true television icon." He was and always will be that--a true television icon.

My Movie Firsts

Some random movie firsts from my life:

1^st Dracula Movie—Dracula, Prince of Darkness

1^st Disney Movie—The Absent-Minded Professor

1^st movie I saw without my parents—Double Trouble

1^st movie I had to stand in a long line for—Yellow Submarine

1^st movie I saw with a girl—Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang

1^st James Bond movie—Diamonds Are Forever

1^st adult date movie—Used Cars

1^st X-Rated film—Teenage Cruisers

1^st Marx Brothers film—Animal Crackers

1^st movie on videotape—The Rocky Horror Picture Show

1^st animated feature film—The Jungle Book

1^st favorite film star—Jerry Lewis

1^st film star I got an autograph from—Stefanie Powers

1^st film star I saw in person—Bob Hope

1^st WC Fields film—The Fatal Glass of Beer

1^st M-rated film—The Eye of the Cat

1^st R-rated film—Twitch of the Death Nerve

1^st movie on DVD—The Avengers

1^st blaxpoitation film—Shaft

1^st martial arts film—The Five Fingers of Death

1^st screwball comedy—It Happened One Night

1^st Cary Grant film—Father Goose

1^st Clint Eastwood film—A Fistful of Dollars

1^st favorite actress—Julie Andrews

1^st favorite movie song—Supercalifragilistic

1^st favorite movie cowboy—John Wayne

Bud Collyer and Comics

Bud Collyer, later known as an author of religious books and as a popular TV game show host on shows like BEAT THE CLOCK and TO TELL THE TRUTH, played SUPERMAN on radio throughout the 1940's. Here are a couple of photos of Bud reading a SUPERMAN comic. The cropped one below with the odd expression has been printed many times in many places but I'd never seen the other before with its additional, mint condition National and All-American comics of the day!

Honey West by Elaine Lee and Ronn Sutton

There are a lot of comics out there these days competing for your hard-earned money...and not as much of that hard-earned money to go around anymore. Sometimes, a recommendation from a friend is what's needed to get you to try something out of your norm. Here comes that recommendation.

Tomorrow on the stands besides the 23 DEADPOOL titles, the 14 CAPTAIN AMERICA titles, the 9 GREEN LANTERN comics and the odd issues of anything DC that aren't tied in to the latest company crossover...you'll find HONEY WEST # 4.

If you aren't familiar with the character, Honey West is best remembered for her TV incarnation of the early sixties as played by the late Anne Francis. She was, in essence, designed to be an American Emma Peel before THE AVENGERS had even debuted on these shores. She was cool in her jumpsuits, she was clever, sexy and, quite frankly, she could kick your ass with martial arts. If that didn't work, she'd sic Bruce, her pet ocelot, on you. She also had lots of bathing scenes, got in lots of compromising situations and just generally had some fun TV times.

Well now she's back in a new comic book series from Moonstone, the second story arc of which is done up nicely by writer Elaine Lee (best known for the play STARSTRUCK and its subsequent graphic novel) and artist Ronn Sutton, a regular (and invaluable) contributor to our Wally Wood and Gray Morrow blogs.

The pair captures the spirit of the TV version of Honey quite well without outright imitation. The story has a Hollywood background and reminds me a bit of Mike Barr's MAZE AGENCY--with its fair-play mysteries and oh-so-clean artwork-- with more than a dash of Mark Evanier's CROSSFIRE thrown in.

Sutton as an artist is a talented industry veteran who's flown pretty much under the radar for years but he's also a comics fan and pop culture historian of the highest caliber and recognizably references the classic Wally Wood sci-fi style in the space movie scenes. His look is, as I said above, clean and easy to follow as opposed to, say, last week's KIRBY--GENESIS # 0 which had me thoroughly lost. Fancy art has a place in comics and elsewhere, but without storytelling, it really isn't comics, is it?

Yes, this is the second issue of a 4 issue story arc. While you're at your comic shop, there's a good chance they have a copy of the previous issue lying around or else can get you a copy. The good news is that there are two more issues after this one from this team. Actually, HONEY WEST by Elaine Lee and Ronn Sutton IS the good news. Buy it, read it and I think you'll enjoy it.

Many thanks to Ronn for the advance look!

UPDATE--Elaine Lee writes to say: if people can't find the first issue in their local shop, they can get Honey directly from the Moonstone site at:http://www.facebook.com/l/def40FI3n51Y5Vx7966R7MZWtGw/moonstonebooks.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=31