Entries Tagged 'writing' ↓

When The Sopranos got huge on HBO, the broadcast networks immediately reacted with typical creativity and pumped a number of poor Sopranos-lite ripoffs onto the air. Of course, they all failed instantly since network TV hasn’t done a decent mob show since Wiseguy, but now that Mad Men dominates the cable drama landscape, do the networks learn? No, they do not, they react by pumping Mad Men-lite ripoffs on the air — The Playboy Club is the first of which to air.

Now, when I first heard about this show I honestly thought it was not a terrible premise: you have a worldwide-recognized brand in the title, an excuse to constantly have hot chicks in skimpy clothes, and in early-60s Chicago even a real-life period setting with plenty of story possibilities.  Unfortunately, whatever potential I might have seen in theory is completely squandered in the execution: The Playboy Club is just a bog-standard soap opera in Mad Men drag. The lead actor’s Don Draper impression is so shamelessly blatant he should really be sending Jon Hamm half his paycheck for this show. Despite obvious lip service paid to period accoutrements, the writing is typical network serial drama nonsense dressed up with allusions toward the social change of the time, as if Hugh Hefner financing a mens’ club where women wore bunny outfits had anything at all to do with it.

Despite all manner of  women flitting about (mostly non-60s-looking and disappointingly poor actors aside from lead Amber Heard, although all she’s asked to do is look alternately scared and mopey) I was bored stiff fifteen minutes in, only pausing to note ridiculous plot contrivances that make no sense whatsoever (there were at least three after that point) and to wonder if the premiere was a double-length episode, as it seemed to be dragging on forever. It wasn’t, fortunately, but by the end I’d heard the word “bunny” so many times it had lost all meaning.  I think it lost meaning for the writers too, as they lines they give Hefner to intone pretentiously use the word as if it were somehow simultaneously synonymous with “radical feminist”, “rock star”, and  “celebrity” instead of simply “busty waitress in a demeaning costume”.

Oh well, maybe Pan Am will be better.

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Another season of new premiere television is upon us. I always take a certain pleasure in watching a fresh crop of pilots contending for attention — the experience is somehow made all the sweeter knowing that chances are better than even any given show will be gone and forgotten within six weeks.

It’s a good thing too, because most pilots suck out loud. Sure, I have fond memories of seeing the first-ever broadcasts of shows like Newsradio and — even of being a small child and my mother saying “Well, we can either try this new show Cheers or watch Mildred have her baby on Too Close For Comfort” — but those experiences are few. Even shows that go on to become favorites often misfire in pilot form (as it’s admittedly extremely tough to both create and master one’s form simultaneously and instantly) or simply aren’t represented properly, given that the broadcast episode may be a hacked up and repurposed version of the network pilot — often necessary due to recasting and late-minute creative decisions (such as raising Maya Rudolph’s profile on Up All Night). Community is one of the shows I’m most looking forward to returning; I watched the first episode when it was first on, didn’t find it all that amusing, then didn’t return to the show for a year and half at which time it became one of my favorites. Same with Arrested Development. There’s room for error and misjudgment here, is what I’m saying.

That said, I’d be pretty surprised if I was watching either 2 Broke Girls or Whitney in 2013 given that right now I’m on the fence about whether I could sit through a second episode of either. I like Kat Dennings from Party Down and some movie (oh wait, it was Thor, wasn’t it? Well, some indie movie too I think) and I’ve liked a good amount of Whitney Cummings’ stand-up work so I definitely wasn’t primed to hate these shows or anything, but yeah…they’re not good.

Whitney is the one Whitney actually stars in, of course, but both shows share a similar sensibility given her co-creator/co-writer credit on 2 Broke Girls so that’s reason enough to cover them together. Also, frankly neither merits coverage on its own — both are basically lame, forgettable shows with a couple of chuckles and few actual laughs; generic sitcoms in every way, from the fake-sounding laughter (I notice I find laugh tracks crazy annoying in unfunny shows like this but  when the show’s actually funny I don’t even notice them, oddly) to the strained-yet-cliched setups to the see-them-coming-from-miles punchlines.  The only notable difference between these shows is heterosexual men will find 2 Broke Girls easier on the eyes and heterosexual women will get the same faint, watered-down Sex & the City vibe from Whitney that’s been infused into every single goddamned thing marketed to them for the past decade-and-a-half. Neither effect is close to enough to overcome the basic lack of laughs, unfortunately.

Honestly, it almost kind of seems like the kind of thing they did fifteen years ago that you don’t see so much of anymore, when they’d sign up any half-decent standup comic with a hook, put them in a sitcom and throw it at the wall hoping for another Seinfeld to stick.  Pretty much all those shows were terrible too; I mean, I liked The Norm Show and someone was watching King Of Queens all those years but let’s be real, Grace Under Fire eventually led to Two and a Half Men. In a way it’s kind of good to know that the standup comic development deal isn’t totally dead — it just didn’t work well here at all.

Anyway, Whitney seems like a smart chick so I’m sure she’s banking the money she’s got rolling in for as long as both shows are on the air, and that’ll give her a good position from which to launch her next project. I doubt their cancellation will hurt her too badly, although I’m sure she’d prefer the shows would be huge successes that make her a household name I don’t see that happening.  (But hey, people watch Two and a Half Men, so what do I know anyway? Right? Right?)

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This was one of those things I read about as a kid and then wondered for years afterward if I’d dreamed it or what.  From the Amazing Heroes Preview Special #2, Winter 1986 (coincidentally co-edited by Mark Waid, who would go on to write his own justifiably acclaimed run of The Flash):

(click to embiggen)

To put this into context, at the time this came out DC had just finished publishing Crisis On Infinite Earths, issue #8 of which featured the death of Silver Age Flash Barry Allen and in issue #12 of which Kid Flash Wally West picked up the scarlet speedsuit. As a Flash fan at the time, I hadn’t been at all thrilled about the former, but the pain had been somewhat mitigated by the promise implied by the latter. And now, news that in fact Wally wasn’t even a lock for the next Flash series? That it might not even star a super-speed character? THE HORROR.

Of course nothing ever came of this and Wally ended up getting his own series by Mike Baron and Jackson Guice in 1987, but I’d love to know how far along this other concept got before it was scrapped and whatever became of it, especially if there was any concept artwork. I do recall thinking that the Tangent version of the Flash sounded somewhat similar at least as far as having light-based powers, but it’s really not much of a leap to go from the name “The Flash” to light-based powers once you decide you’re not locked into super-speed. Still, I’d love to know if there’s any connection between the two.

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From http://twitter.com/aaronpoehler. Looking at the amount of stuff built up I should probably do this more often. Or maybe you should just follow me because even this isn’t exhaustive, there were some twitter-only posts that have been excised here and oh geez don’t you feel like you missed out now?

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To be honest I haven’t really been enjoying a lot of Matt Fraction’s recent Marvel writing and I never did get around to reading Casanova (the return of which is this interview’s putative subject) but I thought he encapsulated something here I’ve never really seen expressed before this well and this concisely.

No one ever talks about how the heartbreak of independent comics is that all your friends let you down. We never say that out loud. We never come out and say, “You know what’s bullsh*t? How my best friend didn’t produce work on time.” That’s the thing. It’s a hurtful, painful thing. No one ever talks about that. What happens when you ruin your relationships with all your friends because life gets in the way and you fumble, because doing this much work for free is a motherf*cker. No one comes out and says, “Doing this much work for free is a motherf*cker.”

If you’ve ever wondered why your town — every town — doesn’t have dozens of cool bands putting out new music all the time; a wide variety of blogs, zines, books, and other publications microfocused on the concerns and issues of the community; and a supportive, collaborative environment in which people of all kinds produce and share the fruits of their creativity freely and without fear: this is why.

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If there’s anything I love, it’s the intra-band bitching that leaks after a band breaks up. While there’s money to be made people hold their tongues, but as soon as the door closes you always get some choice tidbits.

Former Foreigner lead singer Lou Gramm moaned to Spinner recently:

As you tour the country, there’s another version of Foreigner out there with another lead singer, just like Journey, Styx and several other big bands from that era. Is that a strange thing to know that you’re being “replicated,” in a sense?

It is. It totally is. But what’s stranger to me is that, as I’ve learned talking to people who see those shows, is that in many cases the audience, especially if they’re younger, don’t even know it’s not the original lead singer. In Foreigner’s case, as I understand it, the singer was actually trained to deliver pretty much exactly everything as I did it, note for note. If I were in the audience and learned that while I was there, I’d get up and leave. I think when the band name remains the exact same, but something as important as the lead vocal is different, it’s misleading. It’s like false advertising.

Now, this is a pretty baffling exchange for a few reasons, not least Spinner interviewer Chris Epting going all the way around the barn there instead of simply using the common and familiar word “replaced”. Both act like replacement members in touring classic rock bands from the 70s is somehow a brand new and disturbing trend when in fact it is absolutely 100% the status quo.  There is no way anyone who gives enough of a shit about Foreigner to go see them isn’t aware nearly every other band they like (Chicago, Lynyrd Skynyrd, REO Speedwagon, Pink Floyd, AC/DC, the Rolling Stones, Queen, Yes, Heart, Van Halen, Def Leppard, the bands mentioned above by Epting, um, basically every band ever played on classic rock radio ever) features a mix of supporting players filling in the spaces left around the few remaining functional originals. This is in no way surprising or disheartening for bands whose heydays were thirty years ago. That’s why on the rare occasions you have an all-original-members tour by any classic rock act it’s promoted heavily, because if you don’t everyone assumes the opposite.

It’s especially ludicrous in reference to fucking Foreigner, which was never a cohesive unit in the Beatles/Zep manner: the band changed rhythm sections and additional players constantly, with guitarist/bandleader Mick Jones (yes he and the guy from the Clash have the same name, let’s move on please) and Gramm remaining the only constants until Gramm quit and was replaced in 1990. Of course, Gramm did rejoin for several years after discovering for the first time that no one gave a shit about Lou Gramm singing outside of the context of Foreigner, but considering everyone else in Foreigner including him had been replaced by Jones before, it’s idiotic to pretend his being replaced post-2003 is in any way shocking. Yes, the current lineup features just one member who played on their classic radio hits, but the lineup from 1992-2003 with Gramm singing had two. Cheap Trick, this band ain’t.

Coincidentally, I happened to catch Foreigner’s Rockin’ at the Ryman blu-ray recently and given what I saw there, I suspect I know the root cause of Gramm’s whining: no one gives a shit he’s not in the band.  I can’t lay claim to ever having been a big Foreigner fan, but after watching the performance I have to give it up: the group delivers a surprisingly convincing and coherent set. It’s impossible to deny the pros Jones has drawn together from such second- and third tier bands as Hurricane (best known, no shit, for having members who were brothers of the dudes from Quiet Riot) and Dokken play the songs properly and recognizably, delivering a crowd-pleasing set I have to admit found a whole lot more enjoyable than I would have predicted. Against all odds, they never come across as half-hearted or worn-out journeymen — the band plays together well without slavishly imitating the licks from the records. They look like they’re having fun, they look like a rock band, they play exceptionally well and surprisingly expressively. In the end, they manage not only to sound like an actual band, but to sound like, well, Foreigner.

As per usual (for vocalists in particular) what’s really behind Gramm’s outburst is bruised ego. There was never any deception or intention to fool anyone into thinking current singer Kelly Hansen is Gramm — in fact, Jones goes out of his way on Rockin’ at the Ryman to thank Hansen in such a way that it makes clear to the audience he wasn’t the original singer, but gives him credit for doing a great job filling in. So he sings Foreigner songs like they are on the records? What a fucking shock! Should he sing them like they were Hurricane songs? Is that what the audience paid to hear?

No, it’s not. When people buy a ticket to see band like Foreigner they want to hear the songs they know from the radio, sounding like the songs they know, played enjoyably and well, and based on what I saw on Rockin’ at the Ryman, they get it. Gramm’s presence is simply not necessary. Would some audience members prefer Gramm up there, well sure, probably. But no one knows better than the classic rock audience that you can’t always get what you want — especially when it comes to live performances of songs that were radio hits in 1977. And to imply anyone was lied to or tricked is so ridiculous and self-serving it helps illuminate Jones’ reasons for moving forward without Gramm: like a spurned spouse, Gramm wanted nothing more than for Jones to fail without him, therefore proving his irreplaceably unique genius was crucial to the band’s success. And when the real world doesn’t confirm his out-of-proportion assessment of his own importance, he lashes out: well it must be Mick’s fault then! I’m still special! I’m still special!

Fuck off, Lou Gramm.

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I don’t think it really hit me until this week that with DC Comics’ “New 52″ linewide relaunch beginning next month, August is basically linewide endings as they (hastily, in some cases) wrap up their current line. I picked up the final issue of the Superman ‘Grounded’ storyline (#714) more out of curiosity than anything — remember, it was a similar wrap-up that brought us Alan Moore’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” so it wasn’t out of the question the thing would be decent. I certainly wasn’t expecting much: it’s hard to imagine a coherent storyline remaining anywhere after the penultimate chapter has been unceremoniously yanked and replaced with a years-old inventory story about Superman’s dog.  My impression of Chris Roberson’s fill-in run as writer is that he’s spent a lot of time doing damage control, explaining away all the dumbass out of character bits J. Michael Straczynski wrote before leaving — which may not be entirely accurate, seeing as all I’ve read of Roberson’s run is his first issue on the book, the Flash issue, and this one — and there’s more of the same here, followed by a perfunctory everything-relaunches-next-month-so-nothing-we-do-matters wrapup ending that manages to be so boring I can hardly believe it: (****SPOILER ALERT*****) Superman gives signal watches to his friends so they can work together better and somehow thereby save the Earth and somehow that totally doesn’t stand out at all in a time when practically no one wears watches anymore and anyway it seems like text messaging would work just as well as a communication medium but oh well the end.  Upon closing the book I thought something I bet I’m going to be thinking a lot this month: “Well, that was pretty shitty, but at least it’s over.” As a longtime reader, sometimes one has to accept that as the most satisfaction you’re going to get from some comics.

Also, I’m not really one to speculate on the amount of effort put into any creative work or to draw unsupportable correlations between amount of effort expended and perceived quality of finished work, but John Cassaday’s cover work on this series sure has looked lazy and uninspired.  At one time it seemed he could do no wrong but I can’t even recall the last time his work looked more than passable. Granted there’s a lot wrong with this run that striking cover art can’t fix, but it certainly doesn’t help that all of his work for the series (the giant S logo first issue aside) has been static, pedestrian, and occasionally cringeworthy (#705). Taking a look at the collected covers of the run I keep spotting some semi-decent covers I missed along the way, but clicking to fullsize inevitably reveals each is a variant alternate cover by another artist, each of which far surpasses whatever cover Cassaday contributed. George Perez’ alternate cover on this issue is a really nice piece of work, Cassaday’s makes Superman look like a halfwit.

Gail Simone ended Secret Six really well this week; though the book had fallen into my “I’ll get to it when I have time” category of late, resulting in a stack of eight or nine issues I had to catch up on first, the book remained consistent thoughout its run even if the art quality did decline (somewhat inevitable for a second- or third-tier book as good, quick artists tend to get poached away quickly). This issue takes the concept out on a high note, wrapping up in appropriate fashion and reminding readers of the series’ unique qualities. Hopefully whatever follows won’t instantly piss all over the series; unfortunately the upcoming Suicide Squad book doesn’t look too promising, but let’s leave next month to next month for now.

I caught up and finished out Simone’s Birds of Prey run as well; though the series technically doesn’t end until this week (I think) the last two issues are a Marc Andreyko two-part fill-in so she’s been done for a bit. This run didn’t work as well as her previous Birds stint; as noted elsewhere, constantly shifting artists make consistent tone impossible and though the characters retain their personalities and signature charm (i.e. Simone making sex/internet jokes through their mouths) the stories didn’t really seem to go anywhere or do anything. More than anything the series feels like a casualty of DC editorial’s constantly changing directions and shifting priorities over the past few years; hopefully they’re committed enough to the New 52 direction for Simone’s new Batgirl series (one of the books I’m most looking forward to, actually) to avoid such pitfalls. *koff*

Along with the regular DCU books, all the three-issue Flashpoint tie-in miniseries finish up this month as well. It’s little surprise that the Azzarello/Risso Batman: Knight of Vengeance book is far and away the standout, this conclusion featuring a stunning sequence that would justify the book’s existence even if the rest were garbage, which it’s not. So far, this is the one story told within the Flashpoint framework that works well enough to survive outside of it; it helps that Azzarello does more as a writer than just say “Okay, in the world of Flashpoint Ambush Bug has Firefly’s powers and is an Australian woman” and expect the reader to give a shit. It comes across as a solid Elseworlds tale of the sort that might have appeared in Legends of the Dark Knight once upon a time.

It’s difficult not to feel disappointed at Secret Seven for featuring something like six pages of George Perez art in the first issue with the rest of the series filled out by what looks like either an assistant or an imitator, but even if the wrapup was more of the same-old-same-old wholesale killing of alternate versions of familiar characters that typifies these stories, at least there’s a nice gesture for fans of Milligan’s old Vertigo Shade the Changing Man series buried in there, so that’s something anyway.  Maybe this book will turn out to have a whole bunch of hints hidden within about the New 52 status of these characters, maybe not, I don’t know. And maybe if Perez had drawn the whole thing I’d be enticed to reexamine the book later on, but all in all I’d characterize it as disappointing — and I’m someone who read enough of Ostrander’s Suicide Squad to actually care about these third-tier characters, so I can’t imagine most people finding this essential reading.

I’m enjoying the DC Retroactive specials (probably disproportionately to their quality, honestly) but one thing they really reinforce is how temporary any particular interpretation of these characters are, particularly once you get below the A level. I mean, a villain like Abra Kadabra is generally only going to show up once every four or five years anyway, so when the relaunch cycle tightens to the point you have four Flash relaunches in five years (not an exaggeration) every appearance of the character becomes essentially a new reimagining by an entirely different creative team. It’s a good perspective on the flexibility of serial characters: don’t bother get too worked up about whatever way they screw up in any relaunch, because whatever doesn’t sell will be canceled, everything that’s taken out now will be reinserted later by someone else, and whatever doesn’t work will be forgotten — except by continuity detail obsessives, who are clearly not the target audience for these things anymore. If something as dumb/disturbing/outdated/all-around WTF as Comet the Super-Horse can’t be successfully and permanently removed from the DCU without someone eventually putting it back, nothing can.

Also, who chose the reprint stories for the Retroactive books? Because if there’s one story the audience for these books has already read about eighty times and almost certainly has at least three printings of already, it’s “No Evil Shall Escape My Sight!” which was stuck in the Green Lantern 70s book for some reason. That’s not a bonus. It doesn’t even make sense thematically since main artist Mike Grell didn’t draw it. Fortunately they picked a great reprint story for the Flash 80s book — in which the main story was enjoyable, if hampered by a shitty coloring job that somehow managed to be both garish and murky along with error-ridden — but missed the trick by not including the killer cover by current Flashpoint artist Andy Kubert so I addressed that omission by putting it at the top of this page. (You’re welcome.)

Art inconsistencies kept the Wonder Woman 80s issue from resembling a product of that era even slightly — definitely not up to the standard set by the Gene Colan work in the reprint — but it’s good to see some things never change, like Roy Thomas compulsively taking a page and a half in every issue to recap old stories no one but him and Mark Waid give a crap about. This issue was a minor pleasure at best, but I have to admit chuckling when I saw the selected reprint was the story right after Diana got her new halter top.

Admittedly I’ve always been a DC guy who buys some Marvel books and DC has really grabbed the spotlight with the relaunch lately and blah blah blah but truth be told, I’m finding it really hard to give even the slightest shit about the mainline Marvel Universe right now. Fear Itself as one of those incoherent non-story crossovers has subsumed the line within a really groan-inducing cover treatment and really seems to bring nothing to the books it derails other than the typical “There sure is a big planetwide tragedy happening right now!” immediacy. I’d been enjoying Avengers Academy but the recent “War is hell, even comic book war” issues, while well written and drawn, are just too steeped in the false drama and pathos of Fear Itself to describe as enjoyable. I’m hoping the book gets back to what it was doing (well) soon.

Marvel’s recent ‘Big Shots’ branded second-tier relaunches would seem to be more up my alley, although I’m already completely bored with the Bendis/Maleev Moon Knight after four issues. I can’t really blame them for trying a different approach to the character after three or four relaunches by different writers across the last several years have all failed to light up the sky, but correspondingly they can’t blame me as a reader for finding that different approach idiotic.  They should have gone all the way and titled the book “New Avengers Solo” because it’s basically just more of the oft-mocked talky-talky-talk found in Bendis’ other Avengers books, only here the novelty is that the chatty-cathy talking heads are all in the main character’s head so the chatter isn’t punctuated by Big Important Fight Scenes.  The problem is, since it’s all internal that also means the chatter very very rarely does anything to advance the action. Throwing in a guest appearance by the number one Bendis-pet character no one else in the world gives the slightest fuck about doesn’t do a lot to relieve the tedium. This will probably outlast Bendis/Maleev’s similarly boring Spider-Woman series, but I can’t see them sticking with it past a year. I certainly won’t be.

Fortunately I found Mark Waid’s Daredevil #1 enjoyable and pleasantly free of the pervasive “every book must reflect the same view of the Marvel Universe at all times” approach, with sharp art and a less crushingly tragedy-suffused approach than the book has seen of late. It feels a lot like Waid’s Legion of Super-Heroes relaunch actually, which keeps me from getting my hopes too high as a number of Waid’s books seem to start off strong and then drift as they go (Irredeemable has felt that way since the first year, I’m afraid) and I’m not enough of a Daredevil fan to read the book when it’s not all that good (I dropped it after Brubaker quit) but based on Daredevil #1 I’m cautiously optimistic. Keep the art this sharp and I’ll stick around, but if they start subbing out Rivera and Martin for less skilled draftsmen within the first year it might be a problem.

I find myself feeling much the same about Greg Rucka’s parallel Punisher relaunch: I have high hopes for it, but then I’ve had high hopes for every Punisher comic I’ve read since Garth Ennis stopped writing them and those hopes are rarely rewarded. The premiere issue seemed fine, even promising, but I felt like it barely got things rolling — admittedly it’s difficult to show something we haven’t seen in a Punisher story before without going to the FrankenCastle extreme, but I felt like all we really got here was the basic premise of people shooting other people and then getting shot by the Punisher for doing so, without a lot of indication of where Rucka plans to take the series. His approach seems solid enough though and he’s usually dependable working within the crime milieu so I’m on board for the foreseeable future, especially considering how plagued with delays Jason Aaron’s Punisher MAX book has been. In any case Rucka’s approach seems like a good fusion of the hardcore Ennis approach into the less adult Marvel Universe setting, without going to the “let’s have Punisher fight Stilt-Man” extreme of some previous volumes. As Punisher #1′s go, it wasn’t the best (what are we up to now, Punisher v9? v10?), but I’ll put it top five, easy.

Finally: month after month both Zenescope and Antarctic Press continue to print comics and somehow the cover of practically every single issue makes me shudder to think of the people buying them — and even Zenescope and Antarctic can console themselves that at least they’re not Bluewater, duping creators and readers alike with substandard, barely comprehensible garbage produced for miniscule or nonexistent wages.  I guess unsold WTF back issue bin fodder has to come from somewhere, but following in the footsteps of Todd Loren and George Caragonne seems of dubious wisdom and I just don’t get why anyone would bother to put the effort into publishing something guaranteed 1. to be shit and 2. not to make a lot of money.  As the comics industry continues to contract I wonder how long these tiny niche-market publishers can possibly continue to justify printing and distribution; after all, there were many Marvel and DC series that not even 5000 people in the country were interested in buying, and I have to imagine the audience for these indie books is exponentially smaller than even the lowest-selling Marvel/DC book. (Okay, maybe not Street Poet Ray).  Still, as shoddy as these books are — and without any intention of ever reading any of them — I will mourn the day they no longer carry such material on comic shop shelves because comic shops used to be a refuge for weirdos, outcasts, and odd ducks everywhere, and frankly a visit to a comic shop without seeing at least one cover on the rack that makes you shake your head in wonder and disgust isn’t really a trip to the comic shop. Rest in peace, counterculture.

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From Skymall catalog:

Poorly-edited copy aside, I find it difficult to believe that either hypothetical character in this paranoiac scenario could ever manage to send the message depicted without tacking some sort of emoticon on at the end — most likely, the ever-salacious winking smiley face. Going out of the way to capitalize the W in ‘Wanna’ really sells the desperate yearning and insecurity underpinning this pitch though, and for that I doff my hat to you, ad mockup graphic designers who have apparently never actually seen a working BlackBerry.

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I realized recently that what with my recent forays into experimentation it’s been a little while since I uploaded a straight-ahead rock song. This one is loud and has a lot of guitars (as well as some salty language) so sensitive ears should beware.

Drums played by Ryan Tully-Doyle, bass played by Paul Szewczyk. Basic tracks recorded by Mark Haemmerle at Haemmerle Productions, mixing and additional recording by Aaron at Clairemont Mobile Garage.

Spray Vandalism by Aaron Poehler

“Spray Vandalism” ©2011 Aaron Poehler and published by Family Scam (ASCAP)

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I’ve mentioned before that the piece of writing I get the most email about is far and away “The Strange Case of Bobby Fuller”; that hasn’t changed. In recognition of the 45th anniversary of Bobby’s tragic death, some recent communiques:

Aaron:

Rod Crosby, writing you here from El Paso, Texas. I read your “Strange Case” article many years ago, and forgot how absolutely stunning and focused it is in its impact.  I say that, because I just re-read it from top to bottom today, which marks the 45th. year since Bobby’s demise.
Your article is better than a Reader’s Digest, or a Cliff’s Notes, as you touched on every major facet of the band’s story in the longest-short, shortest-long, all inclusive version I have ever read.
Your article is timeless, and more, gets better with age, as does the Bobby Fuller, BF4 legacy, which continues to grow leaps and bounds due to so much interest from people all over the US, and now the world, thanks to the cumulative, talented efforts of people like yourself.
Bobby died one month and 17 days after I got married in ’66, and on the 27th. of this month I turn 66.   My band, Rod Crosby & The Intruders from the ‘ 60′s, is still playing, and the BF4 hit songs are at the core of the set lists.   I’m still carrying on the legacy, and will continue to do as long as I can stand, on or off a stage, and hold a guitar.
I was interviewed today by one of the local ABC affiliates, who is doing a segment on this evening’s news remembering the BF4 on this day.  I was honored to say the least.  They called Rick Stone first, but he was not feeling well, so Rick asked me to go in his stead. Got home, read your article, so it has been quite a day.  Take care, and thanks for everything.

Warm Regards,

Rod Crosby
El Paso, Texas

Thanks again for the kind words, Rod. The news segment is available online here — it turned out pretty good! They got a decent amount of the story in for such a short piece and it’s always nice when Bobby is remembered. (I believe Rick Stone took the haunting photo above.)

maura manning

hello-
i would just like to say that it seems very clear that mr fuller was murdered ( i believe you are right on the melody angle) and then soaked in gas probably to set him on fire in the desert then dumped at his house. i think it is fucking disgusting and the guys that did it ought to be dead and i think they were on lapd to have any influence with the coroner. i would also like to say that he was a truly great musician and person as far as i could tell and it makes me upset to think about it. i have some ideas about whom they are if you were interested.
thanks for writing something truthful about it,
m. manning

Thanks Maura, it says a lot that Bobby’s loss was such that even today the details can be so upsetting. It’s truly tragic to lose someone with such potential.

brian s

Hi Aaron -

I enjoyed your article, on your web site, about Bobby Fuller.

I’m kind of curious as to how, and why, cases, get closed, and ‘sealed.’ I’ll ask my girlfriend about that. She’s a lawyer who commutes to Sacramento, so hopefully she’ll have some info on that.

Meanwhile, I used to do copywriting and proofreading-I’m just a guitar player now-and couldn’t help noticing that you used the phrase, “The Sunshine State”, when you mentioned about Bobby and the band heading off to see record labels while they were in California. California is known as ‘The Golden State’, Florida is the “Sunshine State.”

Not being critical, just showing how it’s not as easy to purge oneself of proofreading ‘issues’ as some might imagine.

Take care,
Brian

P.S. Thanks again for the article; it’s a good one.

Haha, there you go–no matter how much a piece has been gone over — and that one was gone over at least three times before print publication and another time before posting online — there’s always something!

Eric Galati

Dear Mister Poehler,

Thank you very much for your excellent article on Mister Bobby Fuller and the Bobby Fuller Four,”The Strange Case Of Bobby Fuller”. There is so much I should comment upon but for now I shall ask one question and perhaps you will have an answer. You give excellent information on complete sets on compact disk of Mister Fuller and his group,Bobby Fuller Four,which one would never have been easily informed of. One of the unfortunate facts is that the Del Fi sets ,”Never To Be Forgotten” and “Shakedown! The Texas Tapes Revisted” unlike the three volumes of “El Paso Rock” are no longer available, except as used, and the label Del Fi closed after the death of producer and owner Mister Bob Keane. Are you aware of where they are available new at non-exploitative post-modern prices or if another label is planning to reissue them. It truly would be great if Mister Richard Weize’s Bear Family Records were to issue his recordings.

Awaiting your reply.
Have A Blessed And Merry Christmas
God Bless,

Eric Galati

Afraid I don’t have any information on Fuller releases other than what’s on Amazon, but I would hope the rights to Bobby’s music are in the hands of someone that’ll recognize the legacy of his work. A complete box set anthology of the type Bear Family is well-known for producing would of course be ideal, but I would settle for widely available mp3 albums as a lot more realistic in these times.

Gregg Byxbee

Dear Mr. Poehler:
Maybe you can help me figure something out. I’ve searched the Internet for information on when Bobby would have attended Burges High in El Paso but can only find bits and pieces of information … nothing carved in stone. Anyway, I have a 1959 and 1960 Burges High yearbook both show a Bob Fuller but it doesn’t really look like him. Keeping in mind he was a Junior in my 1960 yearbook, so he was around 17 … people do change in 6 years I guess. The 1959 also has a Randell Fuller … could be his brother. Do you know if he would be in any of these yearbooks?

Thank you,

Gregg Byxbee
Florida

Couldn’t tell you, sorry.  Randy is his brother though.

Tom Connole

Thanks for the Bobby Fuller. I really enjoyed reading it.   T

Much appreciated, Tom.

JAMES FREYLER

Hello Aaron -

I’ve read your superb article on Bobby Fuller on your website.  You’ve done a great research job and I was wondering if you could shed any light on a little piece of BF4 trivia.  I have a website Gazzarridancers.com that tells the story about the Gazzarri go-go dancers on the 1964-66 HOLLYWOOD A GO-GO TV show.

One of the dancers that I have recently been in contact with mentioned that she had a close working relationship with Bobby.  She was a go-go dancer (possibly the only one) at “The Cave” , which was located in the Ambassador Hotel (LA area), and said that she always danced when Bobby played there.  Her name back then was Shelley Bonis (she later went on to be one of  Richard Pryor’s many wives).  She also mentioned to me that BF4 appeared once on the Danny Kaye Show (1965?) and she also danced for the band for that gig.  She remembers that they did one song, a cover of the Cannibal & the Headhunters hit, “Land of 1000 Dances”.

During your research on the Bobby story did her name ever come up?  Any info on the Cave or Danny Kaye appearances?  Hope that you find these little tidbits of info interesting and if you can likewise add anything to my story I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

Jim Freyler

I don’t recall Shelley’s name coming up specifically or not during the research for the Fuller piece, though it has been a long time. I definitely do recall seeing her name before in conjunction with Pryor, so it’s hard to say at this point. (The page on Shelley Bonis at Jim’s site is really interesting, including the ultra-cool fact she went on to become a professional astronomer and astronomical historian!)

Kevin Patrick

Hi AF

I stumbled on your blog – while doing some research for a post about Bobby Fuller on mine.  Although we disagree about our love for ‘Let Her Dance’, I found your piece and overall work fantastic.  I’d like to link you on my blog link list if that’s ok.  I took the liberty of directing folks to your article on Bobby.  I’ve always been troubled by the circumstances around his death even though I never knew him or anyone involved with him in any way.  When I hear his music, it has an eerie streak because of all that’s behind the story.

Anyways, great job.

Kevin Patrick
New York, NY

Thanks Kevin.  (One thing on “Let Her Dance” I’ve noticed: it sounds way better in mono.)

Mr Aaron Poehler,

I read with interest your article on the late Bobby Fuller musician.
I noticed that findadeath.com and your article mentioned several locales but no actual addresses, such as where Bobby Fuller’s apartment was located in Hollywood and also the location of where his body was found.
I am sure that you must know these details. Can you kindly share them with me ?
It was only today when I was researching the recent death of Bob Keane the record studio owner that I came across the fact that Bobby Fuller was deceased.
I have a watertight alibi. On the date of Mr. Fuller’s death I was living in England and had never been to the United States – just in case you were wondering about my curiosity.

Yours sincerely,
Barry Jackson,
Long Beach, CA

Um, good to know. But no, I don’t have the actual addresses on hand.

John K. Young

Mr. Poller…

I just read your article about the life and death of Bobby Fuller. I wanted to take a moment and let you know that I enjoyed it very much. It was very interesting and well done.

I had a couple of questions…
Even though it’s been almost 45 years since Bobby’s death, is there ANY possibility that the case might be re-opened? Since there have been “regime changes” at the L.A.P.D over the years and they’ve had to overcome more than a few investigational blunders in those years (O.J., Rodney King, etc), would anyone there be willing to take another look at this bizzare case?

Also…has anyone come forward since the writing of your article and shed any additional light on the subject? I completely agree that this case would be good fodder for a movie or as a Real Life “Cold Case” episode. I feel sorry for the remaining family members, not just because of their loss but also because they’ve never had justice or closure in the death of Bobby. That would have to be the hardest thing for ANYone in their place.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Johnny K. Young
Phoenix, AZ

At this point I suppose anything is possible as far as new developments, but as it’s been 45 years since Bobby’s death the odds of justice being served are admittedly slim.

Hi Aaron,

My name is Rick Kern, a former drummer/vocalist with many local bands in El Paso back in the 60?s ? ?73 when we took to the road for our Fame and Fortune.  We got the fame, but not much fortune.  I just wanted to tell you that I have enjoyed the writings about BF4.  I had a group that had Jim Reese in it for 5 years, after Bobby died.  The group was formed in 1968 and went to 1972. We were called The Basic Sound.  He was an amazing guitar player that could listen to a song and play it almost perfect the first time he attempted it. I was just talking with Dalton Powell a few minutes ago and he was saying that Jim could play Chuck Berry better than Chuck Berry.  Most of the songs thatJim sang and played in our group were mostly Chuck Berry tunes.

I want to tell you about a site that I have put together.  It came into existence as a result of being somewhat nostalgic and also because nobody has ever done this before.  It’s called: www.musiciansofelpaso.com. It’s a work in progress but is coming along quite well.  I would invite you to link it to your site if you would like since there is quite a bit of stuff about Bobby Fuller that I have put on.

I just wanted to take this time to share this information with you.  Please feel free to share my musicians site with anyone you feel that might be interested.

Take care,
Rick Kern

Thanks, Rick, I definitely agree on Jim Reese being an awesome guitarist.  Rick’s site has actually come along quite well: check it out!

Will Bigham
Hi, I saw your Bobby Fuller website, so I thought I’d write to get an expert’s advice. Here’s my problem: I bought the “Never To Be Forgotten” box set, but I HATE the stereo mixes of these songs. They are terrible … and I have another disc with the mono mixes. The mono stuff is much better, and I presume the music was mixed in mono when it was originally released and overseen by Bobby Fuller himself.

So, where can I get good MONO mixes of the Bobby Fuller material? Is there a mono version of the box set? Are there discs I should look for/stay away from? I appreciate any help you can give me, because I’m listening to these stereo mixes right now, and I’m sure Bobby Fuller is spinning in his grave knowing that this CRAP is what fills his supposedly comprehensive box set.

Thanks,
Will

I thought the box included both the stereo and mono mixes in cases where stereo existed.  I recall the first disc being mostly crappy stereo mixes, maybe judicious programming would allow you to skip them. Or these days, just delete them altogether from one’s ipod or whatever and create an all-mono playlist.

I do agree the stereo mixes pretty much all suck. (See above.)

Aaron,

I just finished reading your article pertaining to Bobby Fuller. Very interesting and such a shame that his death goes unvindicated.  I do have a question about the suicide ruling. I don’t know how things worked with insurance companies in 1966 but suicide today means no payout. Was it different back then?  If the mob was behind his death then seems to me that they would want it ruled as murder or of unknown cause. From your explanation of his death and the coroners report a monkey could see that it was murder. I’m in the health field and it doesn’t take a medical background to see this.
I look forward to your answer and again,  great write up.

Susan Ovadia

I’m far from an insurance expert — particularly on what the specifics of policies might have been at a time before I was born — but from what I understand, suicide doesn’t actually mean no payout in all cases today despite it often being portrayed that way in the media. It used to be a blanket provision in all life policies apparently though, and it seems likely that would have so in Bobby’s case, but I don’t know one way or the other for certain.

STEVEN BERRY
Hello Aaron. My name is Steve Berry and I wanted to compliment you on the great article you penned about one of my kid idols, Bobby Fuller.I have been talking with another few BBFF fans nad it remarkable how much misinformation and flat out lies about a mystery that is still not reesolved. I would like to see a full book written on this event…I am utterly amazed that there wasn’t one fan back in the days when this story was being mis reported and facts awere and are as scarce as a virgin at the Chicken Ranch..I was in Vietnam doing my first of two tours with the Marines when i heard about his murder…it blew me away man. Now you are probably thinking that being a Marine and in the business of killing I should have been able to let it go but I am telling you for some reason that moment has beenj in my heart since the day of bad news.I would like to see the case reopened and thoroughly srutinized by people that you can trust and are honest. I think there is a Movie here as well regardless of when it happened ..it a story that needs to be told and if there was foul play as I beleive then maybe we can smoke the bastards out and give rest to Bobby anf his family. Do you know anyhting more than whaat I have read here? Is Randy Fuller still living?Do you think there can be enough interst raised to maybe reopen the case..How does that happen by the way? I wrote a blog about this incident and what effect it had on me being an 18 yr. old kid  and having just arrived in a strange and evil place called Nam.Bobby Fuller had a major impact in my life to say the least.,

Steve Berry

As of last year there was a press release regarding a full-length Bobby Fuller bio being written by Miriam Linna in collaboration with Randell Fuller but it’s been awhile with no news. This kind of project can take awhile though, so hopefully it’s still on the way — I know I’ve been looking forward to reading it for a long time and from the looks of it, there are at least a few people out there who agree.

Bobby Fuller 1942-1966: Never to be forgotten.

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