Ya know, sometimes you can take great pains to be thoughtful and fair, only to say something that backfires in an unexpected way.
Animator Gerard de Souza has read Schulz and Peanuts and he considers it be a good and balanced biography. He suggests another book as an example of character assasination — Walt Disney: Hollywood’s Dark Prince, by Marc Eliot.
Believe me, I’ve read “sensational”, I own a paperback copy of Marc Eliot’s Walt Disney, Hollywood’s Dark Prince. Unlike Eliot’s total raping of Uncle Walt’s image, Michaelis doesn’t have an agenda but more of thesis; Charles Schulz was a red blooded human being with ups and downs and frailties as the rest of us mere mortals; multi-faceted more than the warm puppy we believe we knew.
This was spotted by Mr. Eliot, who fired back with…
I know you’re trying to be a writer, or a critic even, but try not to kill the messenger in your comments. I hardly raped Walt Disney’s “image,” whatever that might possibly mean.
Thanks.
Marc Eliot
I hope De Souza isn’t about to get embroiled in a controversy other than the one he intended to be a part of. De Souza says of the Michaelis book and the comments on Cartoon Brew:
What I found ironic this past October reading the Cartoon Brew posts is that while many disqualified the author for not knowing Schulz, many posters hadn’t even read the book choosing to sycophant with the Schulz friends and family posters, proverbially wanting to storm Michaelis’ residence with pitchforks and torches, verbally skewering any positive reviewer including the genius of Bill Watterson for a balanced objective academically critical review of the book. I choose not to judge films based on trailers as is common in cyber- nerddom; I chose not to discuss a book which I haven’t yet read.
At this link you can hear me tell Monte Schulz that when I first read about the complaints that members of the family had with Schulz and Peanuts, my sentiment was, “Well, yeah, of course they’re not going to like it!” But as I got into the book I could see that Michaelis was indeed determined to drive home a certain characterization of Sparky. Call me a flip-flopper if you must, but I changed my mind and decided that Monte and Amy and Jeannie have reasons to be upset.
One of the things I can’t stand is when somebody reveals something about themselves, and they do it with honesty and in sincerity, then later somebody uses it against that person. It’s analogous to somebody saying, “Give me a stick so I can beat you with it.” Charles M. Schulz openly broached the subject of his moods and anxiety in Good Grief! by Rheta Grimsley Johnson. That admission seemed to be the stick that Schulz handed to Michaelis.
The divorce and affair were off-limits to Johnson when she wrote her authorized biography. Fair enough. That was personal business, and it would keep until Schulz was no longer with us. But that’s not what bugs me about how Michaelis has presented Schulz. He has taken the 80/20 rule and reversed it, so that 20% of the man became his single most defining characteristic.
Something that I must acknowledge about Schulz and Peanuts that impressed me is that it’s obvious Michaelis did nothing else but work on this book for more than five years. I can also tell from the last half — especially the last third — being so rushed, that the original manuscript must have been much longer. Monte Schulz says it was 1800 pages! I’m looking forward to reading Monte’s essay in The Comics Journal #290, which should be out in a few weeks.
This is a picture of The Beatles that I bet you haven’t seen. It’s the original concept for what became the infamous butcher cover for the initial pressings of the US LP “Yesterday and Today.” The idea was to give the impression that the woman was being disemboweled. Pleasant, eh?
The Beatles hated the way Capitol in America put out their records, and they felt their material was being butchered. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band was the first LP that was released exactly as it was in the UK. Well, almost. It was missing the inner groove at the end of side 2. This is how it sounded.
This is how it sounded in the UK, assuming you had a manual record player that left the tone arm down.
Note the superior sound quality of the British pressing. Listen carefully at 28 seconds and you’ll hear Ringo’s shoe squeak; however, at the end, the full three seconds of the inner groove don’t play. The CD release of Pepper has it played in a loop, but this single-play recording is from an LP.
Rubber Soul records being inserted into sleeves, England 1965
One of the best known Beatles song anomalies is the false start to “I’m Looking Through You” on Rubber Soul that is missing on the UK version. But instead of that, I’ll offer the rarely heard hi-hat intro to “All My Loving.”
And finally, here’s the end of “Penny Lane” as it was originally heard on the radio in America and Canada. The horn will either sound strange to you or, if you’re old enough, it will be something very distant, yet familiar.
Bear with me for a bit of silliness. Here is a message thread that started with my father pointing out the news about the gigantic Antarctic ice shelf collapsing.
—–Original Message—–
From: George
You might want to think twice about purchasing any waterfront property right now.
Well, we smart owners of real estate in Arizona are hoping for beachfront property when the “big one” finally cracks down the San Andreas fault and dumps California into the Pacific Ocean.
Here I am, changing the direction of the exchange…
—– Original Message —–
From: Doug
Hey, I saw that movie! It was Superman I. Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor, putting a nuke in the fault. “Bye, bye, California. Hello, new west coast. MY west coast. Marina del Lex.” OK, so I’m a fanboy.
… and this is my younger sister elaborating on what I said…
—– Original Message —–
From: Marianne
Remember “Otisville” on the map? Lex didn’t even allow his loyal follower one measly town!
(Fangirl, sister of fanboy)
…to which I say…
—–Original Message—–
From: Doug
OtisBURG, with the “R” backwards. I’ll check to be sure.
… and Lawrie finishes it off.
—–Original Message—–
From: Lawrie
You guys are just too funny!
Well, we fanboys take this sort of stuff seriously, so I did indeed check, and here’s how that scene in the movie really goes. (Isn’t Gene Hackman impressive? Some actors would have considered this role to be a throwaway job, but Hackman is completely compelling. No wonder Kevin Spacey, who played Lex Luthor in last year’s Superman Returns, borrows from Hackman.)
I was wrong! It’s not the “R”, but the “S” that’s reversed; which, now that I think about it, makes sense because it’s a sly reference to Superman’s “S” emblem.
This week the family of Jerry Siegel, Superman’s co-creator and original writer, won a victory in court. A lot of people have linked to the New York Times article about it, and I will too.
Superman was a sensation from the get-go, as was Batman. Bob Kane took sole credit for creating Batman, but a writer named Bill Finger actually had a lot to do with it. The characters were teamed up early in their existence, as heard in this brief clip from an old radio show.
