i just finished taping a radio spot with Dan Best, my co-writer on Monsieur Leotard. It'll only be five minutes and it's on tomorrow at five o'clock in the morning, so it can't possibly do any damage. The interviewer had never read a 'graphic novel' before (not even this one as his place holder was at page 10), as he insisted on calling it even though I took great care to avoid the use of the term anywhere on the book. The interviewer asked me to explain what one is. He didn't like my version and asked for Dan's instead. I grinned and watched Dan squirm around on that one. When an interviewer asks me why he should read graphic novels, my standard response now is to say 'good lord, not you, you're far too stuffy.' But I've been in a good mood this morning as Anne got back from a week away last night. This interviewer hadn't done any reading up for this brief breakfast spot and I'm thinking he thought we were a couple of cheery characters who had just produced this novelty thing for a laff. I'm hoping he went into a slight panic when I mentioned From Hell and Johnny Depp, because attention swiftly switched to Dan.


The above is a panel from Al Capp's Li'l Abner. Capp was once a very funny cartoonist, famous for the Li'l Abner strip cartoon that ran from 1934 to 1977. I have just found the following video clip via Tom Spurgeon's link, which takes place some time after Capp lost his ability to be funny (humour requires a degree of humility), and in which he takes on John Lennon. It's a famous moment in, not just the history of the baloney that interests me, but the history of people.



This commentary on the Wikipedia page for Capp amuses me: "The cartoonist visited John Lennon and Yoko Ono at their Bed-In for Peace, and their testy exchange later appeared in the documentary film Imagine. Introducing himself with the words "I'm a dreadful Neanderthal fascist. How do you do?", Capp sardonically congratulated Lennon and Ono on their Two Virgins nude album cover: "I think that everybody owes it to the world to prove they have pubic hair. You've done it, and I tell you that I applaud you for it." Lennon sang an impromptu version of his The Ballad of John and Yoko song with a slightly revised, but nonetheless prophetic lyric: "Christ, you know it ain't easy / You know how hard it can be / The way things are going / They're gonna crucify Capp! "
According to an apocryphal tale from this era, in a televised face-off, either Capp (on the Dick Cavett Show) or (more commonly) conservative talk show host Joe Pyne (on his own show) is supposed to have taunted iconoclastic musician Frank Zappa about his long hair, asking Zappa if he thought he was a girl. Zappa is said to have replied, "You have a wooden leg; does that make you a table?" (Both Capp and Pyne had wooden legs). The story is considered an urban legend."