Since today is Halloween, it's time for Songs For Saturday to get weird!
Let's head down the rabbit hole with Alice into this strangest wonderland you've ever seen with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with "Don't Come Around Here No More."
Tom Petty was a very weird Mad Hatter.
Next up is Fall Out Boy with "Uma Thurman", a strange song paired up with a quirky video.
Finally, the Foo Fighters with "Learning To Fly". The song is a fairly straightforward rocker but the video gets very... odd.
That's that for today. I hope you enjoy your Halloween safely and remember to be good to one another.
I can tell you when it all started... On the day I almost died for the third time.
But really, it's kind of a complicated story... With a lot of beginnings. But that's what life is... Right? A bunch of beginnings piled up on top of each other...
All the chances you had to not mess it up.
— Max Winter
Today I want to turn my attention to the latest project from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, an original graphic novel titled Pulp.
You might gather from the cover that Brubaker and Phillips venture into the genre of westerns.
Well, they do and they don't.
It's 1939 in New York City and Max Winters is an old man now, struggling to make ends meet as a writer for pulp magazines.
Pulp magazines were precursors to comic books, stuffed with stories of high adventures of men who solved problems with their fists or their guns, crime fighters, explorers, spacemen and cowboys. These magazines were called "pulps" for the extremely cheap paper they were printed on.
Max writes stories for a western character called the Red River Kid, a sort of Robin Hood of the Old West. He's trying to add a little depth to the Kid, going beyond mere shoot 'em ups.
Max is up against a short sighted editor who doesn't want depth, just give him shoot 'em ups. He's also dicking down Max's rate from 2 1/2 cents a word to 2 cents. Hell, he's got a kid in the bullpen who can grind out inventory stories of the Red River Kid for a penny a word.
Max Winters is an old man now and the world is treating him accordingly. He still feels like the same person he was decades ago.
Long decades past when Max Winter roamed the American West as the Red Rock Kid, outlaw.
Max Winter, western outlaw, began when he almost died the first time.
Max, his brother, and his friend Spike were caught between two cattle barons who wanted the land they lived on. The barons hired a gang to burn down their house and gun down everyone. Max almost dies but manages to hang on. Max's brother was not so lucky.
Max and Spike returned with a vengeance against the cattle barons. This was followed by their subsequent life of crime. After eluding the grasp of law enforcement and Pinkerton detectives, Max and Spike eventually make a break for the border and retire in Mexico.
The fictionalized stories of the "Red River Kid" that Max writes are based on his actual adventures.
But the intervening years have not been kind to man who was one the Red Rock Kid. His wife and daughter in Mexico lost to him, his friend Spike dead. Now he ekes out a living in New York City trading on his history as a western outlaw for pennies a word in pulp adventure stories.
A chance encounter with some street hoodlums results in Max getting beat up and having a heart attack.
The heart attack is a wake up call that makes Max confront his mortality. He worries about Rosa, his lover and companion for the last 10 years. He wants her to have some money to help her reach her dream of a house in Queens before he dies.
Max begins plotting a robbery.
Jeremiah Goldman has other plans.
Goldman is a former Pinkerton detective who used to be on trail of the Red Rock Kid way back in the day. Goldman has sought out Winter not for any reward but to employ him to steal some money.
From Nazis.
It's two years before America's entry into World War II but Nazis are still a problem.
This is an Ed Brubaker story so naturally our protagonist Max doesn't have the full story of what Goldman is up to and of course things do not go exactly as planned.
And happy endings are just not in the cards.
Pulp is a short novel, clocking in at 72 pages but it packs in a lot of stuff. It's one story that has stuff set in the Old West and friggin' Nazis.
But mostly it's a story about one man's survival. Max Winters has spent his life defying the odds, even defying death itself only to find he's outlived his usefulness. The opportunity to be useful one last time, not just to get the money Rosa will need but also to get that money sticking it to Nazis is too much pass up.
Max is also a man caught in the gears of economic forces greater than himself. His ranch home lost to greedy cattle barons. His work as a writer diminished and marginalized by cold economic calculations.
In this and his other work, Ed Brubaker clearly has zero chill when it comes to such economic powers working to crush people. In Pulp, Max Winter is such a man who has been crushed and being crushed again. It drives him to desperation to make his mark and to be free of such repression.
Ed Brubaker still has a perfect artist partner in Sean Phillips. A lot of what Brubaker writes involves characters brooding which is a challenge to illustrate but Phillips meets that challenge admirably. His son Jacob Phillips is the colorist and their joint efforts make Pulp a beautiful book to look at.
I'm not as old as Max Winter and I lack the dramatic tragedies of Max's past but I do find I empathize with him. I am currently cast adrift by an indifferent economic machine with few opportunities for someone of my age to climb back on. Like Max, I do worry about the future and if I am too old to have one. I know objectively that I'm not that old and something will work out somehow. But subjectively, I do feel a lot like Max Winter.
Pulp is a thought provoking and emotionally evocative story well told by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.
This week, Monday to be precise,. my daughter Randie and I ventured forth from the Fortress of Ineptitude on a random adventure. A quick road trip to anywhere to see where the journey takes us.
The journey took us to Madison, NC, a small town about an hour north of Greensboro. It has a population of about 2,200 people.
It was about lunch time and we were getting a bit peckish. Randie and I were both determined not to resort to some generic fast food chain. So we stopped in at Bob's Restaurant in downtown Madison.
Bob's is a hole in the wall diner with an eclectic menu of entrees like fried chicken, ham and meatloaf as well as hamburgers, hot dogs and sandwiches.
This was a definitely a small Southern town diner with the place decked out with a race car decor.
This was my first time eating out since the pandemic began. During that time, I had a craving for a basic diner cheeseburger with a fresh, hot crinkle fries. Which is what I got at Bob's. I also had a waitress ask me a sweet as honey Southern accent if I wanted more iced tea which is another thing I have greatly missed.
Dave-El, just happy to be out of the house
We even indulged in desert. Randie had a slice of lemon pie while I had a very delicious helping of peach cobbler. It was a very simple but very pleasant dining experience.
After lunch, Randie and I meandered outside to see what there was to be seen in downtown Madison. Our path led us to the Eclectic Calico. Launched in 2013, the Eclectic Calico ius a boutique offering handcrafted, vintage, and repurposed goods.
It also has a cat. Her name is Bella and she is running for President.
Bella is a soft bundle of fur with a calm and friendly disposition, welcoming of a friendly pet or scratch behind the ears.
We bought a few items including a Bella For President badge.
With our time in Madison done, Randie and I ventured west where we happened upon Hanging Rock State Park.
We spent some time hanging around the park's lake, taking in nature and just vibing.
After we left the park, we came across a sign pointing down a narrow dirt and gravel road towards "Dan River Access". The Dan River is over 200 miles long and flows through North Carolina and Virginia.
We drove down the narrow road and arrived at a point where boaters can lower their boats into the water.
We stood on the banks of the Dan River, watching the water flow by with a low soft gurgling sound accompanied by the gentle rustle of leaves in the autumn breeze. It was a very relaxing moment and one could almost imagine that this is what this river looked like 200 years ago.
From there we continued out journey by car, following often circuitous roads around the Sauratown Mountains. Yellow road signs indicated routes that looked like spastic snakes. Randie thinks this is a lot of fun but I'm the one behind the wheel trying not to think about the steep slope on the side of the road winding its way along the side of a mountain.
Our journey eventually brought us back home to our Fortress of Ineptitude. We were tired when we got back home but it had been a good trip.
Nothing great or elaborate, just a trip to see where the road takes us.
OK, we're less than a week away from election day here in the ol' US of A and I am feeling a little bit of anxiety.
Correction: I am feeling a lot of anxiety.
Correction: I am feeling ANXIETY!!!!!!
I trust that conveys the level of my feeling of...
You know...
ANXIETY!!!!
Yeah, that.
On Tuesday, November 8, 2016, I wrote a post detailing my assurances to myself that Donald Trump's chances of winning the Presidency were slim to none.
Well, we know how well that turned out.
Look, in 2016 we had an extremely well qualified candidate for President running against a loud mouth fucking moron. And the polls were in favor of the extremely well qualified candidate.
What could possibly go wrong?
In 2016, Trump's path to winning the 270 electoral college votes to win the election was very narrow; with even one or two states slipping the other way, Trump can't win. Trump needed things to go precisely and exactly right for him to win and I'll be damned if things didn't go precisely and exactly right.
Now we are again in 2020 and once more we have an extremely well qualified candidate for President running against a loud mouth fucking moron. And the polls are once more in favor of the extremely well qualified candidate.
Is it any wonder I'm feeling...
Well, you know...
Yeah, anxiety.
Things are different. 2016 is not 2020.
In 2016, Donald Trump was the ultimate outsider. In 2020, Trump has been in power for 4 years, has an actual track record to run on and despite his efforts to paint himself as superhumanly effective, he really doesn't have a lot to show for it.
In 2016, Trump's uncouth rhetoric was atypical of most politicians and may have been seen as refreshing. In 2020 and 4 unrelenting years of Trump's constant blabbering, there is a high level of fatigue with the man. A lot of people who may have been ready to try something new in 2016 are not so ready to give Trump another go in 2020 because after 4 years of unrelenting Trump, a lot of people are ready to try something new.
In 2016, the extremely well qualified candidate running against Donald Trump had a boat load of negatives, a few self inflicted and deserved but most of that negativity was revved up by right wing media like Fox News, Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh and more. These media forces had spent decades grinding away at the millstone at just what awful people Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill were. In 2020, all efforts to cast Joe Biden as the same sort of dislikeable status of Hillary Clinton isn't working. The nearly 3 decades of hostile drum beat against the Clintons is not something that can be translated to Joe Biden. Hell, there is a virtual army of Republicans signing on to vote for Joe Biden over Donald Trump and it has nothing to do with political ideology and everything to do with the general perception by a lot of people that Joe Biden is a nice guy and an honorable man. Every effort by Trump and his allies to paint Joe Biden and his family has corrupt grifters rings flat.
In 2016, the extremely well qualified candidate running against Donald Trump was a woman. In 2020, the extremely well qualified candidate running against Donald Trump is a man. Look, I don't like that observation at all but let's be blunt. A lot of people pulled the level for Trump in 2016 was from a deep distrust and disdain for a female President. It is a sad commentary on the state of the American electorate but to quote Donald Trump, "it is what it is."
In 2016, thanks to Mitch McConnell's theft of the Supreme Court nomination from President Obama, a seat on the Supreme Court was at stake. The evangelical Christian right voted for Trump to get a conservative majority on the Supreme Court. In 2020, with the confirmation of Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court, mission accomplished with a 6 to 3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court. The impetus for voting for the immoral, unChristian acting Donald Trump is no longer as strong.
In short, 2016 is not 2020.
Maybe I shouldn't be feeling so much...
Well, you know...
Yeah, anxiety.
In 2020, the situation is different and the odds do not favor the loud mouth fucking moron.
But if 2016 taught us anything, never bet against a loud mouth fucking moron.
Back in the early 1970s, Mitzi Shore got a comedy club in Hollywood as part of a divorce settlement. She named it the Comedy Store and transformed it into a pivotal part of the stand up comedy scene.
The Showtime documentary series "The Comedy Store" tracks the shifting fortunes of the various comedians who forged a career within the darkened walls of the this storied club. Tales of booze, drugs and sex weave in and out of the tales of stand up comics who commanded the microphones of the Comedy Store like rock stars, always pushing to redefine the limits of what people find funny.
A lot of these comedians drive themselves hard, too hard. The series tells of the demons that drive Freddie Prinze to suicide and the full bore push that was Sam Kenison's life that led to his terrible and violent death in a car crash on a Nevada desert highway.
Mitzi Shore flits in and out of the story, making and breaking dreams. Oddly, she has not been at the center of the narrative given her importance to the Comedy Store.
The Comedy Store series does suffer from a lack of a cohesive narrative structure. Series writer/director Mike Binder moves from subject to subject with no real pattern.
Next week's episode is being billed as a "season finale" which might suggest the Comedy Store series is an ongoing project? As much as the club has a very long history with Comedy over the last 5 decades, I don't think there is that much story to be told.
Fargo
The death of Doctor Senator is one damn death too many for Loy Cannon. He's turning up the heat on the Faddas.
He co-opts Odis, the nervous cop with all the PTSD who is in the Fadda's employ. Loy informs Odis that he works for him now.
Odis gives up Gaetano's location and Loy Cannon uses two other resources he recruited last episode. Dressed as whores, Zelmare and Swanee gets the drop on Gaetano's men. Our two larcenous lesbians are on a mission to bring in Gaetano alive but things take a turn when Swanee shoots Gaetano in the head.
How thick headed is Gaetano? He survives being shot in the head. He wakes up chained to a chair where Loy Cannon has one of this men beat the crap out of Gaetano. Repeatedly.
Justo, under pressure from the crime family in New York to finish of Loy Cannon once and for all, orders Loy's son Satchel to be killed. Satchel is the son being held hostage by the Faddas after the son swap in the first episode. Thankfully Rabbi is able to save Satchel from being shot.
Meanwhile, the letter that Ethelrida Smutney wrote last week exposing Oraetta has been received by Dr. Harvard. Oraetta charms her way out of trouble with her employer. But the evil grin on her face at the episode's end means Oraetta is going to kill someone.
Elsewhere on TV....
I am trying to avoid spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery and it's 3rd season while my family continues its slow slog through season 1 and I presume eventually season 2. But my efforts on remaining spoi9ler free have not been completely successful. I know things. But by the time my family finishes getting through the first two seasons, I may have forgotten the things I know about the 3rd season.
On my own, I am watching Star Trek: Enterprise, the prequel series that followed Voyager. I have over the years caught various episodes from the show's 4 seasons but I am making an effort to watch key episodes to follow the narrative of the show. Right now, I am to season 3 as the Enterprise chases down the Xindi, an alien race that has launched an attack on Earth. I'll have a more detailed analysis of ST: Enterprise in a future Tuesday TV Touchbase.
Until next time, stay safe, remember to be good to one another and keep it down, will ya, I'm tryin' to watch TV here.
I once heard it said that dogs will decide if they should put something in their mouth by putting it in their mouth.
Our dog Rosie makes such decisions by this process.
"What is this thing?"
"Is it... food?"
"Should I put this thing in my mouth?"
"It might be food."
"Well, let's put this thing in my mouth and find out if I should put this thing in my mouth."
And thus our dog Rosie begins the scientific process of answering the question...
Is it... food?
Sometimes I am the subject of Rosie's scientific inquiries.
On occasion, the four members of our family are lined up on our sofa in the living room of the Fortress of Ineptitude: my wife Andrea, my daughter Randie, Rosie and myself. We're watching television or something when Rosie looks at my left arm and wonders...
"Is it... food?"
Rosie sniffs of my arm.
She follows that up with a lick of her very long rubbery tongue.
Rosie is not quite sure.
"Is it... food?"
"Should I put this arm in my mouth?"
Well, the only way to answer if she should put my arm in her mouth is... to put my arm in her mouth.
I then feel sharp pointy teeth grasp my arm, not my biting me enough to break the skin but enough for Rosie to receive additional input.
"Is it... food?"
"Should I have this arm in my mouth?"
I look into her dark, sparkling eyes.
"Food doesn't normally look me in the eyes like that."
I say firmly, "Rosie, no!"
The dog is puzzled. "Food doesn't usually talk to me."
Still, Rosie's questions remain.
"Is it... food?"
"Should I have this arm in my mouth?"
Randie extricates Rosie's jaws from around my arm. Rosie lies contentedly between us, watching Alex Trebek.
Last year, my wife Andrea and I ventured forth from the Fortress of Ineptitude to see the animated film The Addams Family.
Today's Cinema Sunday post is about the live action films featuring the Addams Family than came out in the 1990s. Andrea and saw those in the theater when they came out and recently we re-watched them with our daughter Randie and our dog Rosie.
The Addams Family is based on the characters from the cartoon created by cartoonist Charles Addams and the 1964 TV series and was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (who would go on to direct the Men In Black films).
The film stars Anjelica Huston, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance as Morticia Addams, Raul Julia as Gomez Addams, and Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester. The film focuses on a bizarre, macabre, aristocratic family who reconnect with who they believe to be a long-lost relative, Gomez's brother Fester Addams, who is actually the adopted son of a loan shark intending to swindle the Addams clan out of their vast wealth and fortune.
The plot (such as it is) centers around the 25 year absence of Fester Addams. After all these years, Gomez is still heartbroken over their falling out and longs to reunite with his beloved brother.
Gomez's lawyer Tully Alford is heartbroken over owing a ton of money to loan shark/con artist Abigail Craven and longs to get some of the vast Addams family's wealth to pay her off.
A fortuitous resemblance of Abigail's son Gordon to Fester prompts the hatching of a scheme. Gordon as Fester will get back into the good graces of Gomez Addams and locate the secret vault where Gomez keeps the family's wealth.
Abigail poses as a German psychiatrist named Dr. Greta Pinder-Schloss and tells the family that Fester had been lost in the Bermuda Triangle for the past 25 years until she found him in some tuna nets, stricken with amnesia.
Gomez is suspicious of "Fester" who is unable to recall important details about their past. Gomez's wife Morticia reminds "Fester" of the importance of family among the Addamses and of their vengeance against those who cross them.
Gordon grows closer to the Addams family, particularly the children Wednesday and Pugsley. It is a familial affection that Abigail does not care for, wanting only for Gordon to find the hidden vault.
Tully learns that as the elder brother, Fester is the executor of the Addams estate and therefore technically owns the entire property. Arranging a restraining order against the family, Tully has the family evicted from the house. This leaves Abigail, Gordon and Tully time to locate the vault and get past the booby traps protecting it.
Meanwhile, the Addamses are forced to move into a motel and find jobs. For instance, Morticia tries to be a preschool teacher. It does not go well.
Gomez grows increasingly depressed.
Abigail captures Morticia and threatens to kill her if Gomez does not give up the family fortune.
Fed up with his mother's behavior and constant berating, Gordon rebels against Abigail using a magical book that repels Tully and Abigail out of the house and into open graves dug for them by Wednesday and Pugsley.
Abigail's story that she found Fester in some tuna nets, stricken with amnesia was actually true. Gordon was really Fester all along.
With the Addams family reunited and whole once again, Morticia tells Gomez she's pregnant.
The birth of the new Addams baby kicks off the sequel, Addams Family Values (1993). After the birth of Pubert (yes, they really named him that), the parents watch over the child in his crib with one of the funniest exchanges ever.
Gomez: "Oh look! He has your father's eyes!"
Morticia:"Oh, get those of out of his mouth!"
Wednesday and Pugsley keep trying to murder their infant brother so Gomez and Morticia Addams hire a nanny to keep them from doing that.
The nanny they select is Debbie Jellinsky who is, of course, a serial killer. Her thing is to marry rich bachelors and murder them for their money. And Li'l Debbie has her eye on Uncle Fester.
Wednesday is suspicious of Debbie. So Debbie tricks Gomez and Morticia into sending Wednesday and Pugsley to summer camp.
Oh dear God, no! NO! Not summer camp!!!
Camp Chippewa is super white washed camp experience managed by ridiculously chipper Gary and Becky Granger who are really big on conformity. Wednesday has zero fucks to give about Gary and Becky so they try to break her spirit by locking her in the Harmony Hut and forced to watch Disney movies.
It seems to work when Wednesday shakily leaves the cabin, smiling and offering to participate in camp activities.
Don't worry. Wednesday has a plan to unleash hell!
Meanwhile, Debbie has gotten married to Fester while forbidding him to see his family again. He's reluctant to agree but he does because he's never had sex before and it turns out sex is great!
Debbie proceeds to kill Fester.
Correction: Debbie proceeds to try to kill Fester. Repeatedly.
She blows up their entire mansion home just to find Fester standing in the smoldering ruins, patiently waiting for his wife and for more sexy times.
Things happen as Fester, Wednesday and Puggsley reunite with the rest of the family at the Addams estate.
But Debbie has had it UP TO HERE with Fester and this whole crazy bunch.
Debbie straps the family to electric chairs, explaining how she killed her parents and previous husbands for incredibly selfish and materialistic reasons.
While facing mortal danger, the Addamses are nonetheless sympathetic to Debbie's tale.
Thanks to baby Pubert (really!), Debbie's attempt to electrocute the Addams family backfires, reducing Debbie to a pile of ash and smoldering credit cards.
Both Addams Family movies are extended sight gags, taking the stereotype of the American nuclear family and reversing the polarity, normalizing the macabre. The plots of both movies center around "normal" people trying to scam their way into the Addams family wealth using Fester in some way.
What makes both movies worth the trouble are the extraordinary performances of the actors involved.
Raul Julia is a perfect Gomez Addams, a man of action and passion, a romantic at heart who will quickly take tempered steel in hand to defend his family. Sadly, Raul Julia was quite ill during the filming of Addams Family Values and died in 1994.
Angelica Houston inhabits Morticia Adams with a serene sensuality, her eyes preternaturally wide. It was an effect that was achieved in the worst way. Apparently, there were straps affixed to the back of Houston's head to pull her face and her eyes into that strange and alluring composition. Per Angelica Houston's account, yes, it hurt.
The standout performance in both movies is Christina Ricci as Wednesday. Ricci was 11 years old when the first Addams Family movie was made. Her deadpan delivery of Wednesday's most ominous observations and her most chilling threats made her a force to be reckoned with. The highlight for Wednesday is her violent uprising against the privileged kids and counselors at Camp Chippewa in the sequel.
Here's a video compilation of some of Wednesday's best moments.
Addams Family was Barry Sonnenfeld's first time as a director and the sheer stress of directing a major motion picture made him sick.
Cost overruns on the production made the movie studio Orion sick with worry as well. So they sold the movie to Paramount who finished the movie, released it and made a bunch of movie when the film did well at the box office which I'm sure made Orion fill sick all over again.
Both films are fun diversions for a Halloween theme movie night. They are slight confections saved by gorgeous sets designs and really good acting performances.
Next week, Cinema Sunday returns to the filmography of the Marx Brothers.
Until next time, stay safe, be good to one another and sit down, we're watching a movie here!
This week, Songs For Saturday puts the spotlight on The Breeders.
The Breeders are an alternative rock band out of Dayton, Ohio, led by Kim Deal.
Let's kick things off with the first Breeders song I ever heard, "Cannonball" and arguably still my favorite song by Kim and the gang.
"Cannonball" is a veritable sonic casserole with it's distorted vocals and frizzy feedback. There's a lot going on in this record as it barrels forward like, well, a cannonball.
Next up is "Safari" which is from a 1992 EP of the same name. This is when Kim Deal enlisted her twin sister Kelley to play guitar for the band.
"Safari" has a strange, almost ethereal quality,.
"Divine Hammer" is another of my favorite songs by the Breeders. "Divine Hammer" along with "Cannonball" was a part of the Breeder's Last Splash album.
Last Splash was a seminal moment for the Breeders but it was also a herald for some bad times for the band. A year after the success of Last Splash, drug and alcohol issues hit the band hard, forcing the Breeders into a hiatus in 1994 with both Deal sisters in separate stints in rehab.
Wrapping up today's post is a Breeders song I've posted before, "Shocker in Gloomtown", a cover of a song by fellow indie rockers Guided By Voices.
I hope you enjoyed this selection of my favorite songs by the Breeders.
Until next time, remember to stay safe, be good to one another and to always keep the music alive.
I've written a couple posts under the title The Joker Infinitum about the ubiquitous appearances of DC's biggest super villain, the Joker War in Batman and DC's Black Label series The Three Jokers.
I suggested that maybe after the end of these two projects, maybe DC should give the Crown Prince of Crime a break for awhile.
However, given all the pressures being put upon DC by their new AT&T corporate masters, I don't see DC leaving their most popular villain on the shelf for very long. Hell, they might give the Joker his own series.
Well, they did it before.
In 1975, DC was throwing a lot of things at the wall to see what might stick. One of those was an ongoing series starring the Joker.
How do you do a solo series starring a psychotic murder clown?
Well, for nearly a year and a half, editor Julius Schwartz and his writers figured out... something.
The Joker#1 by Denny O'Neil, Irv Novick and Dick Giordano established one template, having the Joker cross paths with another super villain, in this case Two-face.
Quite frankly, a battle with Two-Face should have occurred in issue #2. Below is an interior page from Joker#1.
Another option for the Joker series was giving our Crime Clown different heroes to fight. Issue #3 pitted our strange, green haired laughing villain against a strange, green haired laughing hero. Created by Steve Dikto (Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and more), the Creeper was ostensibly a good guy but with his bizarre appearance and his propensity for maniacal laughter, he was frequently misconstrued for being a villain.
The Joker#4 sends our laughing larcenist to Star City where he goes up against Green Arrow. There, the Joker steals the Star City Star that hangs from the Star City Bridge that leads into (wait for it!) Star City.
And the Joker falls madly in love with Dinah Lance so naturally he kidnaps her.
Here are some interior pages from Joker#4 by Elliot S! Maggin, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez and Vince Colletta.
After an issue running up against the playing card theme criminal gang known as the Royal Flush Gang, the Joker went up against the World's Greatest Detective.
No, not Batman! Sherlock Holmes!
During rehearsal for a play about the Sherlock Holmes, the actor playing the title character gets bonked on the noggin and thinks he really is the master detective himself.
Meanwhile, the Joker is in town up to stuff 'n' junk and "Sherlock Holmes" is determined to stop him.
Here's a bit of interior story and art by Denny O'Neil, Irv Novick and Tex Blaisdell.
Irv Novick was my favorite Joker artist. His take on the Joker with the elongated chin and those perpetually arched eye brows made for an especially creepy Joker.
The Joker#7-#9 followed the formula of the Malevolent Madman encountering other villains include Superman's arch nemesis Lex Luthor.
Here is the splash page from issue #9 of the Joker crossing Catwoman's path.
The end of Joker#9 breathlessly announced that in issue #10, the Joker would meet his greatest challenge, taking on the Justice League of America.
But Joker#10 was never published. Word was there was a completed story out there somewhere, already drawn and ready to go, with a completed cover and everything.
All this material remained a mystery for 43 years until it finally saw print in a Joker Bronze Age Omnibus that came out in 2019.
Here is the cover art for Joker#10 complete with 1976 era cover dress.
And here is the splash page from that story.
The art is credited to just Irv Novick but looks like Vince Colletta did the inking.
The story itself is straight up bonkers!
The doctors at Arkham have decided to give the Joker a lobotomy to straight up put an end to his insane murder stuff. The Joker does not want to have a lobotomy and is willing to sell his soul to get out of this.
The devil shows up willing to make a deal.
For some reason, the Devil looks like Elton John.
Anyway, the Joker gets to work killing the Justice League. Here are some pages about that.
The Joker pranks Wonder Woman into hanging herself with her own magic lasso? Whoa! That is sick!
Here's the thing, the story for Joker#10 does not end. The last page includes a surprise appearance by... the Joker's father.
I mean, what the hell?
We will never know what pesky plan writer Marty Pasko had for comes next. There is no Joker#11 lying in a drawer somewhere to tell that tale.
So that is an overview of the crazy oddity of the Joker's own comic book from 1975 and 1976.
It is not quite the innocent time now as it was back in the 1970s. The Joker today is portrayed as even more unhinged from reality and with a cruel, sadistic streak that was not permitted in the days of books with the Comics Code Authority approval seal.
The Joker's own comic book from the 1970s was a wild and wonky ride, a mad race to take something that shouldn't work and somehow make it work.
Last night was the 2nd debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
I made my case to not watch it. I told my wife, "But Andrea, there are perfectly good reruns of Big Bang Theory over on TBS."
But Andrea prevailed on our civic duty to be informed citizens. Well, she didn't use those words. It was more along the lines of "We should really watch this."
Li'l Donnie was better behaved this time. Less yelling, less turning from orange to burnt umber, less interrupting.
He did do a lot of eye rolls and smirking.
And lying. Oh my God! So much lying!
Joe Biden stayed on message, still providing a counterpoint to everything Trump lacks: intelligence, wit, empathy, a plan.
Joe did accidentally refer to the white supremacist group the Proud Boys as the Poor Boys.
And I think Joe did himself no favors with the comment that the oil industry will need to be phased out at some point.
Trump immediately cast those remarks as "shutting down the oil industry right now".
It's the kind of thing that gives unneeded fuel to the fire Trump keeps stoking that Biden is a closet socialist.
Other than that, Biden was made a case that he's not a far left icon of the Democratic Party.
“This guy ― he thinks he’s running against somebody else. He’s running against Joe Biden."
Li'l Donnie did try work in Hunter Biden, insinuating that money Hunter received for his board position with the Ukraine gas company made it's way to Joe.
Joe Biden not only emphatically shut that down but the topic of foreign financial influence gave Biden his opening to attack Trump on the same subject.
Whatever tempest in a teapot Trump tried to stir up over whatever damn thing or another that Hunter Biden is or is not involved with faded as Biden kept a laser focus on issues of management of the pandemic, health care and the economy.
There was a telling exchange which underscores Trump's greatest weakness against Biden.
Biden said, "It’s not about my family or his family, it’s about your family. We should be talking about your family. But that’s the last thing he wants to talk about.”
Trump's reply to that: “That’s a typical politician statement. I’m not a typical politician.”
So Trump dismisses Biden's statement as being a "typical political" thing. In short, Trump would rather rag on Joe about some fanciful conspiracy theory centered around Hunter Biden than talk about what is important to American families?
This just underscores Trump's lack of empathy compared to Biden's expressions of concern.
Time and time again, Biden hammered home the cold reality of a quarter of a million people dead from COVID-19, the millions who are out of work and without insurance and the millions who will lose coverage for pre-existing conditions if Trump's lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act is successful in the Supreme Court.
Trump once again had nothing on health care. He tried to promote the repeal of the mandate requirement of the ACA as some kind of big win but after four years still cannot offer a specific plan of his own for health care, particularly providing for coverage of pre-existing conditions.
Donald Trump said this: "The rules protecting people with preexisting conditions will always stay."
What the fuck is he talking about? The only "rules protecting people with preexisting conditions" are within the ACA. If the Supreme Court sides with Trump's lawsuit to overturn the ACA, then the ACA is gone and gone with it are the "rules protecting people with preexisting conditions."
NBC News’ Kristen Welker was the debate moderator who did a pretty good job at keeping the debate on track; it helped the rules allowed her to mute the microphone of anyone speaking out of turn.
Trump even took a moment to compliment Ms. Welker on her handling of the debate.
I fully expect that Trump will be on Twitter with a different harsher assessment of Ms. Welker and the whole debate.
Well, the good news is we don't have to go through this again. All bad things (much like good things) must end.
We're in the finally countdown measured in mere days when the American people will speak and hopefully enough Americans of wisdom and empathy will make the right choice and show Donald Trump the damn door out of our house once and for all.
I can't take any more of the lies, the uncaring attitude, the stupidity, the disregard for laws and our institutions.
I'm tired of always feeling anxious and depressed and worried with this blithering idiot in the White House.
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Sick of political posts? Well, I'm sure as hell tired of 'em!
Coming up...
Later today: a comic book themed post. The Joker's solo series from 1975.
Saturday: Songs For Saturday features music from the Breeders.
Sunday: For Cinema Sunday, a look at both the Addams Family movie from 1991 and it's sequel.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another.
