Flying First Class-- is it worth it?...

I write a decent amount about flying here— I travel for a lot of shows— today I’m flying to Chicago for FanExpo which is possibly my favorite show of the year. In those travel logs you’ll often hear about the times I couldn’t take another second on the particular flight and the idea of a sudden mountain impact was preferable to one more minute of a screaming millennial, a fall down drunk and soon to be vomiting upper class society lady and rude and sometimes downright hostile flight attendants. Flying just ain’t what it used to be.

Until I upgraded to First Class.

It was as if I was a blind man and suddenly I could see.

Before I discovered the Private Lounges waiting at the gate wasn’t much fun either. People carrying on all their worldly possessions would flock to the boarding line creating a mass of confusion as to whether or not you were in line with your group. Now I had my own line. Flight attendants were now happy, no, DELIGHTED to see me as I boarded the plane, hurriedly getting me a beverage as I took my seat in 1A. The cup of coffee I asked for mid flight was served hot in a GLASS MUG with a little design in the cream floating at the top. The food I was served came on an actual plate and had silverware. First Class is somehow sedately quiet. I don’t need to mention that the seats and the legroom are infinitely better than what’s offered in the rest of the plane.

My favorite part? Well there are a lot of them if I’m being honest but probably #1 is being the first one on and the first one off the plane. I hate waiting more than anything in the world that doesn’t involve a dental drill.

I didn’t upgrade to First Class because I’m made of money, I upgraded because I’m not made of patience and spending countless hours in a miserable environment is not how I choose to spend my life.

I know what a lot of you are thinking; “It’s a waste of money.” and I answer to you emphatically;

No. No it’s not.

You know what is a waste of money? Carrying a credit card balance and paying a high interest rate. Look into finding a card with an introductory balance transfer and get that balance paid off PRONTO. Don’t let yourself get in over your head.

What else is a waste of money? How about buying coffee at StarBucks or even Dunkin Donuts for that matter— $3 a day for a Medium Coffee = $900 even if you “only” do it five times a week. When I had an actual job we were making Dunkin runs all the time, so sometimes THREE coffees in a day! Do as I did and buy a high end coffee grinder and coffee maker— there is nothing better than FRESH ground coffee and cost wise it’s like 20c a cup!

Plan out errands so you are keeping your gas tank fuller, eat out less and try some great recipes at home, choose something streaming instead of going to the movies, look at all the things you subscribe to and decide what can get cut— I have a good friend who pays $200 a month for his cable/satellite bill and he says he never watches TV!!

Phone plan $800 a year? Switch over to MINT MOBILE— I pay $15 a month for top notch service on my iPhone. I pay the whole year up front to keep the cost down and I save about $200 a year by doing so. Here’s the plan I use, you can click on the link and have plenty of time to decide before you join.

MINT MOBILE PLAN SIGN UP HERE

Speaking of iPhones, I am always 2-3 generations behind the latest phone— I won’t pay a nickel over $200 for a phone, and its not hard to do. I’ve followed this method of smart phone usage for 15 years without fail. Ditch the land line, do you keep it just for telemarketers?

My point being that you can SAVE money in a lot of places and now you’ll have disposable cash to actually do something that makes your life better, unless you enjoy being jammed back there with vomiting upper class ladies (that story someday soon).

SDCC 2018 First Full Day

Since San Diego Comic Con is Officially This Week I thought we’d review the time we were guests of the show…

Back when he was a part of the show, Will Eisner pushed for these awards.   You have to remember there was a time when a comic shop was a Boys Club and they often were dark and grungy and many didn’t even have an actual cash register.

Will recognized that if we don’t evolve the method of selling comics into viable shops that not only a true comic fan can be comfortable in, but a grandmother, then the industry could never grow itself. 

As a former student of Will’s I was honored to be asked to be one of the judges. 

It was SO much harder than I thought it would be.  There were twenty finalists we had to review.  Of the 20 maybe 5 just had a ways to go to get to the guidelines Will had pushed for.  But even dismissing those 5 was difficult because you saw the passion, you saw the love of the medium, you saw that comics meant something to them and for each and every one of these shops they were someone’s favorite, which is how they got nominated. 

Moving onto the other 15 we got into the WOW! Category.  These are comic shops from all over the United States and the World that I want to visit.  A couple of them like nothing I’d ever seen before and we whittled the group down assigning them a numerical point system.  I’m extremely tough to please with retail, I have a lot of retail experience, but I gave three of these stores scores of 95 and better (two of them got 100).  Perfect stores. 

They’ll announce the final five stores sometime today and the winner will be announced on Friday night at the Eisner Awards ceremony. 

Great experience that I would do again in a second, even though it was extremely difficult. 

That night we met up with our Team Leader Joe Ferrara and his lovely wife Dottie and the other judges at a nearby Brazilian steakhouse that was really five stars.  They have a little knocker on your table and you flip it to either red or green to signal you want them to bring the meat over to your table where they slice it right onto your plate. 

At the end of the dinner Joe performed a song for us, and it was a stunner.   Check my Instagram for a photo from the night.

Joe’s story is pretty amazing— his shop, Atlantis Fantasy in Santa Cruz, was the shop they used in THE LOST BOYS (one of my favorite movies of all time) and he’s rubbed shoulders with the true giants of the industry, as Joe and Dottie themselves are giants. 

Bond Tuesdays...OCTOPUSSY (1983)

I don’t know why I would ever have chosen to see OCTOPUSSY in theaters, but see it I did. There is a time in your life where the only thing you can do is go to the movies and 1983 about fits. My best friend in High School was also a Bond fan so maybe he talked me into it.

This is the James Bond film where Bond, James Bond, licensed to kill British Secret Service Agent, idol of millions, smooth, dapper and the essence of cool in the 60s not only jumps the shark, he smashes head first into the ramp— Bond might have been cool in the 60s, but in the 70s they decided to make him a clown and in 1983 they went all in.

Many people left the theater saying this was the worst James Bond movie of all time, they said that until 1985 when Bond returned in A VIEW TO A KILL and then they all said THAT was the worst James Bond movie of all time, or at least since that time he dressed as a clown, but with these Bond films just when you think the bottom has dropped out we hit a new low.

Either way— VIEW TO A KILL is next up but right now we’re dealing with this mess. Roger Moore was older than Sean Connery when they hired him, if that makes any sense. It was showing in the last movie and it’s worse now. The womanizing has always been a low point of the character for me but its especially uncomfortable now. At least Maude Adams is only about twenty years younger than he is, rather than the seemingly forty year difference of most Bond girls. Moore was, from everything I understand, a gentleman with a good sense of humor— he and the producers saw the Bond films as escapist fun entertainment. I wish I agreed with them. One more Moore and then we’ll have Timothy Dalton liven things up.

BOND: ** It’s not his fault he’s getting old, but they should have done something with the character— there’s nothing worse than a skirt chasing old guy.

MUSIC: * I think this is Carly Simon again, I didn’t like her other one much, I like this one less.

VILLAIN; Maude Adams who was in MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN is here as the title character, and she’s kind of the bad guy until she’s not. **

BOND RATING: ** the bottom has dropped out kids, and we’re sitting in it.

BOND will return, but you’ll wish he hadn’t, in A VIEW TO A KILL, but we’ll be skipping that entirely since we already reviewed it.

So after Moore left Timothy Dalton came in as Bond for two films, both of which, THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS and LICENSE TO KILL we reviewed the last two weeks. Next up would be Pierce Brosnan who I thought would be an excellent choice as Bond.

I was wrong.

Because this is MY blog— and MY reviews we’ll be jumping the Brosnan’s since I think they are worse than the worst of the Roger Moore ones and getting into Daniel Craig.

Next week.

Flight and Fashion

NOTE: I think this fits FREELANCE ADVICE— when I taught at Massachusetts College of Art— strictly teaching seniors— I helped to prep them for their coming success. My last class of FREELANCE was to have them come in dressed like I was an art director and somehow they managed to arrange a meeting to show me their portfolio. I’ve got a large advertising budget and do I want to trust it with this newbie?
The truth is with the internet and with freelance you’ll be judged 95% by your portfolio— but that 5% matters too— because if you look like a stoner or you look homeless you’re not getting hired because the art directors job is on the line.

Even though the days of in person reviews are pretty much over—you can run into opportunity— and how will you look? I can hear the screams of “you should judge” coming from many of my artist friends, but I live in the real world and impressions matter.

Been traveling a lot lately and I have to say that I saw more men dressed like Pierce Brosnan and David Beckham than I did guys dressed like Gumbah's but then avoiding the Newark Airport completely may have aided that.

Gumbah's (you might type it Goombah's-- but that's incorrect) are not exclusive to Jersey, Boston certainly has its share.  In fact, on the plane heading from Reagan National in DC back to Logan my wife and I sat across the aisle from each other (we both like aisle seats) and pretty much had our rows to ourselves-- but then a young man with Gum-tendancies plunked down a seat away from her and I figured we were in for a show.

Not so-- this young man pulled out a book, Raymond Chandler's LADY IN THE LAKE as a matter of fact, and he spent the flight immersed.  I was impressed.

Shameful that I instantly mistook him for a mouth breather-- but that's how he was dressed.  Because dear readers, we only get one chance to make a first impression.  Unfair or not, that is a fact, and you never know who is going to be standing next to you in a restaurant line, seated across from you in a plane or waiting in line at California Burrito at Reagan (excellent).  That first impression is your chance to impress.

I get airline travel is uncomfortable-- you're sitting in this seat for a few hours, you're sitting at the airport, you're going through security and because some moron attempted to make a bomb out of his Keds we all have to take our shoes off in the US (Ironically you DON'T take your shoes off at Japanese airports but you do take your shoes off almost everywhere else in Japan).

But I'd argue that comfort doesn't necessarily equate to pajamas-- if your clothes fit and they are the right materials you can be comfortable and still avoid looking like an unmade bed.

Some things I've learned in my nearly half century on the planet about travel:

1. No baseball caps.  This is a hard and fast rule for all men over the age of eleven.  You should not wear one ever.  Not backwards, not forwards, not ever.  You are trapping sweat and how often do you wash this thing?

2. No shorts.  Veronica found this out the hard way.  Planes are kept pretty chilly-- as are most airports.  Pants make a lot more sense.

3. Comfortable shoes.  I like to travel with two pairs of shoes-- the ones I'm wearing (usually slip ons) and another pair in my bag.  If I'm traveling light I only bring one pair but that's not great for your feet.  This past trip I wore my boat shoes (Sperry's to be exact) and they are the softest most comfortable shoes I own.  I will only wear these between May and October and then only in 75+ degree weather since they are made to be worn without socks.  Points off for me however because I ended up being barefoot in the airport going through security which means I'll have to boil my feet.

4. Layers-- layers are great-- weather changes and so do conditions, a sports jacket or a casual dress shirt over a nice T-Shirt works well to add or subtract for comfort.

5. The right pants-- since deciding I'll only wear shorts at the gym or around the house I've had to find warm weather pants-- linen is great but I don't like wearing light colored pants and I don't like wearing black pants so it's tough to find a pair that work-- but they are extremely comfortable.

Jeans-- did you know they are different weights?  I guess I did but I've only just discovered the joys of 9 oz jeans vs 14 oz jeans.  9 or 10oz Wrangler's breath and move with you-- I love 'em.  I'm a child of the 80s so stone washed is my favorite.

6. Stay classic and you never go wrong.  If you follow trends expect to find some pictures of yourself that make you laugh in a few years, stay classic and you'll always look good.

AMERICAN EAGLE STAMP COUPON

Over at Me-Graphicnovels.com we’re introducing fun back into comics with things like value stamps—check out the site and see that FUN HAS RETURNED TO COMICS!

NOW IT CAN BE TOLD: My Take on DC Comics Batman '66

In 2014 DC Comics announced it was doing a comic book version of the classic Adam West Batman.  Long tired of the psycho Batman or the Batmen in Rubber Suits I was happy to hear this, I also suspected it would be treated like a comedy which would certainly be fair, the final season and probably half of the second season (the show ran three seasons) was outright comedy.

The thing that made the show a hit though, was the first season.  The characters were treated mostly straight and it was the situations that brought the humor.  A lot of over the heads of kids humor that made grownups laugh-- but overall it was a solid show for that first year.

Of course I reached out to an editor at DC I knew who was unfortunately not editing the title and there was already a writer in mind.

See, I had an idea for it-- I would take the first 34 episodes that made up the first Season and I would ignore the rest.  My version would be an alternate universe version which tried to hold up the integrity of the first season as a sort of what if.

"That won't work-- they want Batgirl in it." 

I understood that, and reasoned that there was a way to work her in, just re-imagined a bit.  Yvonne Craig, who played the character, told me once that she really disliked that the producers insisted she could only kick the bad guys, because it wasn't seen as lady like to have her do anything more.  I would have made her closer in spirit to Diana Rigg's Emma Peel on THE AVENGERS who used full on Karate on her enemies making her a formidable addition to the team.

You see in Season One Batman was like Jack Webb in DRAGNET.    He was so straight he was square.  He not only didn't understand why others were having so much fun, he didn't care.  He was too busy getting the job done.

THAT is what made him funny. 

The biggest reason for this was Lorenzo Semple who was the brilliant writer behind the pilot and who wrote the initial Bat-bible that was designed for all the other writers but most of them failed to follow it.    This lead to writers who didn't get the base concept of the show and instead pushed it towards comedy.

By Season Three the show was a parody of itself, and Batman was often made to look ridiculous.  The humor become so low brow that adults stopped watching it and it became essentially a kids show.

The comic book series went on without me and with a variety of artists.  The stories ranged from really fun to pretty bad and yes, they were more like a continuation of Season Three which was completely opposite from what I wanted to do.  Had I gotten the assignment and had to draw some of the scripts offered I don't think it would have worked out.

I was touched that there were some comic fans who petitioned to get me on the book, and I thank them for their efforts. 
As a way of thanking them I'm going to run an adaption of my version over on www.undercoverfish.com for free sometime at the beginning of the summer.  I'll let you know here when it's running.

Who Is Wearing The Costumes on Marvel Team Up #128??

This comic was published in the 1980s— and its a rare photo comic cover— well it turns out the guy in the Spider-Man suit is a co worker of mine and the guy in the Cap outfit is a well known artist in the industry and the whole thing was shot on the roof of then Marvel Comics Headquarters!

So who’s in the suit?

He’s listed right here in the credits of SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH;

America’s top comic book letterer Jack Morelli is the guy in the Spidey suit— picked to wear it because he was in shape (he still is) and could fit in the very unforgiving costume. Cap is legendary artist Joe Jusko— and if you ever see either of them at a show ask them to tell the backstory behind the cover because its a hoot.