When Did You Learn That Darth Vader Was Luke's Father?

"When Did You Learn That Darth Vader Was Luke's Father?" is the question over at Smeghead's Saved From the Paper Drive blog today.

He has an amazing answer: less than a year after STAR WARS was released -- in 1978. In the first issue of the STARLOG sister publication titled FUTURE.

It didn't even make the cover.




It's all here.

I bought that issue back in the day and have no memory of the revelation.

Now, let's see, when did I know about it? 

Moments before seeing the damn movie, through no fault of my own.

Time Magazine, back when Time Magazine mattered, published a big article about EMPIRE maybe a week before the film came out. I avoided that article like the plague because I hate spoilers. 

I believe the "Luke, I am your father" plot point was revealed in there. (I'm not breaking my concentration to go and Google it, so feel free to do so if you wish.)

Anyway, so there I am, young Mike Lynch, in 1980, in line at Southgate Mall Triplex Movie Theatre in Maple Hts., OH, paying my $3 and these two guys behind me are talking excitedly about EMPIRE. And then they talk about the amazing revelation, the biggest deal in the whole movie, about Darth Vader being Luke's dad. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that incredible?

I could have killed them.

Fat Superman

STAR TREK: All of the Auto Destruct Sequences

So, when the captain is really up against the wall, what can he do?

He will have to sacrifice his ship and set the self-destruct in a very dramatic way.

Here are (I think) all of the sequences from TOS (The Old Show), STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK, TNG, STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, STAR TREK: VOYAGER and even a surprise at the end of this 10 minute compilation.

Mr. Zip and the 5 Little Digits

Here's a promotional poster from 1964 introducing the US Post Office's new "Zip Code" and its speedy, ruddy-faced mascot, Mr. Zip. Artist uncredited.

Just 5 little digits! For instance 20500 -- What are they? That's zip code talk. It's the number for the White House. Why, even a postal clerk in Kwigillingok, Alaska, can mail directly to PResident Johnson -- with these numbers!

The campaign to promote the zip code was big. There were even Zip Code Parades, like this one in Tucson in 1965!

The "Mr. Zip" ad campaign was pervasive. I remember receiving a little pin like this one when my class from Roosevelt Elementary School visited the Iowa City Post Office. 

The POs even had testimonial dinners to honor local businesses who used the zip code correctly. There was a "Miss Zip Code."

Local post offices received press releases from the Federal Post Office to give to the local newspaper.

“[Mr. Zip] won’t be seen on the comic pages. In fact, Postmaster [fill in name of local postmaster] says, he [Mr. Zip] is expected to perform a much more vital role in both the business and social life of the community.”

The campaign embraced comics, since those little kids who read them would one day grow up and become Zip Code users.

Kids, even "Dick Tracy says: Protect Your Mail Use Zip Codes!"

There was a 1968 comic book too:

More here.

Here's the real poop on who he was and who created the guy:

Mr. Zip was actually created in the previous decade for the Chase Manhattan Bank.

I had no idea that before the USPS owned the little fellow, he worked for Chase! Oh, and then he worked for AT&T. So, really, by the time he was hired by the Post Office, he was a third-hand cartoon. He was originally created by Harold Wilcox in the 1950s for the Cunningham and Walsh advertising agency. 

It was later acquired by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), who offered its use to the Post Office Department at no cost. The Department made a few minor changes to the Mr. Zip design, including elongating his body and at times giving him a letter to hold in his hand. The Post Office Department also eventually changed the cartoon’s name from the original “Mr. P.O. Zone” to something catchier – Mr. Zip. Though Mr. Zip’s design was rather simplistic and “crude,” as noted by Postal employees, his whimsical characteristics would help him gain public recognition.
- The Zip Code Promotional Campaign

... And remember, as of January 1, 1967, using the "Zip Code" is the law.

More: Introducing Mr. Zip by Abby Curtin.

Hat tip to Tom Heintjes!

Video: Steve Breen Draws

Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist Steve Breen talks about his "Dennis Rodman visits North Korea" cartoon, and then proceeds to draw, live, on the air, on a show titled "Prime Time with Taylor Baldwin."

Brian Sanders Draws MAD MEN

Photo of Brian Sanders at work on the MAD MEN poster by Guy Sanders.


What do you do to promote your show about the 1960s?

MAD MEN gets a real 1960s illustrator to draw this poster. If you live in NYC, you've already seen it in the subways.

The New York Times has a story about it here.

What does it mean that the beige Don Draper is looking at the dark suited Don Draper? What's up with those cops? More at Inside TV.

Hat tip to Leif Peng! Thanks, Leif!

When Character Design Goes Bad

I found these above little fellows, who are the cover boys for a childrens book, to be a little creepy.

Just look at their swollen jowls and red noses and the lines under their eyes. It's the morning after for these lads. Kind of like a wrong-side-of-the-tracks version of those Kellogg's elves.


Those chaps are the dwarfs in SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, copyright 1955 by Wonder Books, Inc. Illustrations by Art Seiden. My pal Leif Peng, at his Today's Inspiration blog, has a couple of great items about Mr. Seiden: a bio here, and some more art here.

OK, now I will concede that Mr. Seiden is a man of great talent, but the Wonder Books people must have told him to go as far off-model from the Disney version as possible. Miles off the Disney model. Whereas Disney made cute cherubs, they might have advised, make your guys chubby wee grubs.

They all have this bad boy Michael J. Pollard twinkle in their beady eyes. And that's just not the right way to look at Snow White!

Below is the book:

Video: Pat Oliphant

The editorial cartoonist Pat Oliphant is one of the creative individuals in
¡Colores!, a PBS program. that runs about half an hour You can skip to his segment here.

OHEA Smart Bed Makes Itself

Very funny and I could not stop laughing -- but seriously: it's a good idea! This
OHEA Smart Bed does actually make itself.



Hat tip to Noelle Stevenson! Thanks!

Read Mark Anderson: Writing Cartoons

Drawing cartoons is a weird thing to do. Even though the end product is a silly little picture, it takes some serious thinking and ability to make it look easy.

And the thinking part is the hardest part.

Coming up with ideas is not easy. You have to be aware and ready to pounce on a good idea.

But how do you generate ideas on a regular basis? Good, funny, original ideas?

Here are some ideas, old and new. The new way to generate funny gags is, in my opinion, a better one.

The old correspondence course from the Cartoonists' Exchange had a couple of devices for generating cartoons:

The Comic Character Creator:

The Laugh Finder:

But, really, these dodgy old techniques with spinning dials randomly pointing to characters and situations, never worked for me.

I recommend taking a look at what my pal Mark Anderson posted today: Writing Cartoons – 9 Ideas For Generating Ideas for some terrific habits to being a successful, working cartoonist.

Go and read it.