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September 9, 2001

OKAY, what you see at left is the cover of the latest collection of old Groo stories we have out.  The Groo Library reprints in glorious color four tales from back in the days when we were busy sinking Marvel's Epic line.  It took us ten years but, by God, we did it.  The Epic line is history.  Gone.  Finito.  Past-Tense.  As defunct as the first and second companies that published our silly barbarian.  And if you'd like to read the kind of stories that accomplished that, you can pick this thing up at your local comic shop.  Of course, if you want to earn this site a couple of nickels, you will order it from the Amazon folks (whose stock is sinking like Epic did — from carrying Groo books, no doubt) by clicking here.  We get a teensy-tiny cut of any orders placed by folks who go there via our link, not just this one book.  Go through our site, buy stuff, make us happy.  Gracias.

AT THE RISK of turning this website into Obit Central, I'm posting a couple of articles I wrote years ago about great comic book artists who left us.  One is about Curt Swan and the other, which I put up a few days ago, is about Manny Stallman.  They were both men who did amazing work and who really, really loved drawing comics.

OUR HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION: If you get anywhere near Las Vegas between September 13 and October 7, head for the Rio Suites Hotel, any afternoon except Monday.  My pal Ronn Lucas is doing a daytime show show there and...well, how often do you get to see the best ventriloquist working today?  If you saw Ronn on the Jerry Lewis Telethon, you know how funny he is.  A whole hour-or-so of him and his puppet pals is a joy forever.

WE ALSO RECOMMEND: The Reprise! series, which stages musicals for short runs with scant scenery at U.C.L.A.'s Freud Playhouse has opened a terrific version of the Sherman Edwards-Peter Stone musical, 1776.  Roger Rees plays John Adams, Orson Bean (with lotsa make-up) plays Ben Franklin and the cast includes Marcia Mitzman Gavin, Thomas Ian Griffith, John Scherer, Hamilton Camp, Larry Cedar, Stuart Pankin and other splendid performers.  I enjoyed it a lot but, as is often the case with these hastily-mounted productions, you wish the cast had had another week or two of rehearsal and try-outs.  A friend of mine who was in one of them once told me, "We did about a dozen performances and, by the last one, everyone knew what they were doing."  1776 closes September 16.

The Los Angeles Times recently ran an interesting article about the excisions that Richard Nixon obtained in the film version of 1776.  We've talked about them on this site and this piece has more info.  But it's one of those links where you'll have to hurry because they'll begin charging for access to it any day now.  (Ignore the Times' review of the new production of the play, by the way.  Their critic knows not of what he writes; at least not this time.)

SOME OF WHAT we've been saying here about the Gary Condit matter is said, with greater eloquence and examples, by Eric Boehlert over on Salon.  Here's a link.

HEADS UP!  Results of the big press recount of the Florida vote will be released Monday, September 17.  You can count on both Bush and Gore partisans finding some way to argue that the numbers prove, inarguably, that their boy won the state.  You can also count on so many missing ballots, inconsistent standards, instances of fuzzy math and general chaos as to cause history to record it all as one of those, "We'll never know for sure" matters.  Let me know if you spot one public figure or pundit saying, "You know, this all casts doubts on the claim that my chosen candidate won."  You won't.

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