A courtroom. A Witness, hand on Bible, is being sworn in. The Witness asks: “Well, I swear to tell my truth and nothing but my truth. Does that count?”
I don’t think that counts.
In re yesterday’s post: My nemesis, super producer Jon Stern recalls that he first read “Starchie,” the original and best Archie parody, in a copy of “The Mad Reader,” a compilation of old Mad stories that he’d inherited from his big brothers. Mad used to bundle its old stories into digests that us Mad-hungry kids would buy from the spinner racks. What we didn’t know was that the stories were all bundled from comics/ magazines that were issued two or three decades before we were born. So in the mid-80’s, young Jonny Stern was reading an Archie parody from 1954 — before he’d ever even seen a real Archie comic. But he knew it was great. The best thing a kid can read is something he/she doesn’t understand, something that gives them a glimpse of the bigger world, the adult world. I suspect Jon’s covert readings of Starchie (under the covers, with a flashlight, when he was supposed to be asleep) are at least a little responsible for him being the evil, tyrannical, super producer he is today.
Anyway, if you want to be like Jon, you can read Starchie here.
As an aside, Jon and the great Bill Oakley (also a subscriber) once tried to collaborate on a series about the staff of Mad Magazine in its heyday— which is a very cool idea — and the fact that it didn’t move forward with those two guys attached is yet more proof that TV is broken.
More Archie:
I’m pretty sure that this is the nakedest Archie you’re ever going to see (outside of fan-fic). So enjoy.
And draw.