Anyway, I wrote about the TV series Life on Mars at Mayor Sam last fall, because I loved the concept so, so much. (Those ABC bastards don’t even have shows up to link to anymore!!) Briefly, a cop gets hit by a car in the present, and wakes up still a cop, still in NYC, in 1973, and spends the rest of the series trying to figure out if he’s in a coma, dead, time travel, etc. The episodes were filmed with a yellow glow, and include some great groovy scenes of hippies, old cars and attitudes, and even the Twin Towers (in the first episode only. Why, did the CGI cost too much?) Also lots of 70’s tunes, of course. I’m not into music at all, but a lot of people liked that the most.

The actor is a quite hunky, 40ish Irish guy who never let his accent slip once. Harvey Keitel – well, I’ve liked him better in other things. I really liked Gretchen Moll, and grew to like her more. The Sopranos guy with a stache overacted.

But I want to be clear that Life on Mars didn’t die a peaceful death. ABC killed it, with ugly knife wounds all over the place. They were GIVEN the premise, and a lot of the episode plots, from the very successful UK series of the same name (which has a spinoff). ABC HAD the setup, the familiar audience, the interest, the timing, the characters, even some of the dialogue from the England show. The cast changed, of course, and the one big change, and quite an improvement, was just moving the show from England to NYC. So why couldn’t they keep it alive??? Read more »

By “friends,” I mean my favorite TV shows, but no, I’m not exaggerating. I look forward to certain shows all day or all week. And then I get a little nerdy, and run over to TWOP (Television Without Pity) to see what those guys have to say about it. (Diff shows draw different commenters. Some are smarter than others. You have been warned.) I love my TV shows.

Life on Mars is dead and buried.  Prison Break has been pronounced dead by Fox for 3 months now, with just a few shows left, moved to the always dead Friday. I’ll write about them later. But Reaper, the rare show that works as both a comedy and a drama, and is totally, always compelling, has just recently been pronounced dead by Hollywood Reporter. I think it’s a premature burial, and still very much alive. Let’s work to save the one that still has a chance to live… (Full disclosure: before I became this cartoonist person, I worked in the studios for a few years, and so I analyze behind the scenes as much as in front of the screen.)

About Barack Obama: “I can’t believe it’s been 100 days and he’s still standing. Do you think it’s like Reaper, and he made a deal with the Devil?” © D. Barstow 2009, All rights reserved.

If you liked The Screwtape Letters, (yes, by the same C. S. Lewis who wrote the Narnia books, which are much better than the movie The Chronicles of Narnia – although I haven’t seen the movie :) ), you’ll love Reaper. Read more »

“Nice, but the one at Disneyland was better.” All rights ©D. Barstow 2009

The topic for Illustration Friday this week is “impossibility.”

Well, the suitcase is talking, right? And sometimes it seems an impossibility that I’m a real cartoonist. More later.

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Notice anything different? I’m redoing the colors & tweaking the design. This takes forever, as I never learned CSS properly – and actually, I don’t know who has memorized the mess, anyway. Does anyone know a css app that would be helpful with this, maybe have shortcuts? Anyway, comments on the changes are welcome.

The Drawing & idea

Once upon a time, there used to be many magazines and papers that used cartoons, and one that bought a lot was called something like Travel Weekly, or Travel & Conventions. (actually, I forget the name, but it was out of NJ.) You know it’s an older cartoon because no one carries suitcases like this anymore! It’s all soft poochy things, or ones that have wheels, that have soft flexible sides. That are getting smaller each year, to fit the airlines new regulations and extra charges.

Anyway, a good portion of travel time seems to be spent at the carousel, waiting for baggage to come down, and wondering if someone, anyone, will pick me up to take me to the next destination. Cause they have to wait for me, to wait for the bags, to wait for the handlers…

It’s just a quick sketch, that took longer than I would have liked, since I didn’t know how to draw the carousel.

Which brings us to Disneyland. When I first moved out here, I kept hearing about Knott’s Berry Farm, and the name alone was enough to turn me off. Read more »