Comic Wars

In this age of movie DVDs that issue a month after a movie debuts in theatres, novelizations and comic-book adaptations of films are essentially anachronisms of the pre-Betamax era. Yet such tie-ins once played an important role in publicizing films, as well as serving as a souvenir of the flicks.

The current issue of ALTER EGO, a magazine about comics history edited by longtime comics writer/editor Roy Thomas, features a fascinating article by Thomas about how the comic-book adaptation of STAR WARS came to be. Folks may recall that the novelization of STAR WARS (by Alan Dean Foster, ghost-writing as George Lucas) came out in paperback about a year before the movie; and the six-issue STAR WARS movie adaptation began running a few months before the movie came out -- raising fears at Marvel that the adaptation would be a fiasco if the film bombed. Lucas and his assistants approached Thomas with the project, since Lucas, a comics fan, specifically wanted Thomas to write the adaptation and Howard Chaykin to illustrate it. The plan was to raise consciousness of the film using the comics miniseries.

The movie, of course, did not bomb. Whether the comic book helped add to the movie's bottom line may never be known. But the project certainly helped Marvel; once the movie started going gangbusters, the comic sold in prodigious amounts -- especially after Marvel reprinted it several times, in multiple formats.

As the Year Turns

There are advantages to living in a big city, and we enjoyed one of them last night: We rang in the new year at the Walt Disney Concert Hall watching Lyle Lovett and his Large Band. Lovett is a singer-songwriter who has escaped genre boundaries; he plays and sings country, gospel, jazz, blues, pop, standards, and rock -- sometimes all in the same song. The experience was delightful, and marred by only one problem: We had the "Terrace" seats, which are balcony seats that overhang the edge of the stage. That meant we were extremely close to the stage; but Lovett, apparently not used to "theater in the round," faced forward throughout the performance. The only time we got to see his face was when he turned to thank the backup singers to his right. The folks sitting to his left, and behind him, probably had it worse.

We opted out of trying to attend the Rose Bowl Parade in person this year, and instead watched it on KTLA. This was the first broadcast in years where Bob Eubanks' traditional sparring partner Stephanie Edwards was absent. Last year, when it rained on the parade, Edwards was exiled to the precipitation-soaked streetside while Eubanks luxuriated in broadcasting pavilion with his new (younger) female co-host. Apparently, she was on her way out, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. Eubanks, meanwhile, was as crotchety as ever. He waxed enthusiastic whenever horses were mentioned, but snarled random imprecations, Tourettes-like, at other attractions. His most noteable attack came when a cadre of Star Wars fans from around the world marched in perfect formation as the "501st Legion,"clad in Storm Trooper armor. He first snapped, "They're groupies!" as his co-host explained who they were; then shouted, "There's a bunch of guys who need to get jobs!" He finished the broadcast by announcing that his contract was up, in an apparent bid to renegotiate it. I liked him better on "The Newlywed Game."