The Comedy Cellar

Because comic books have such a long history I’m breaking up this series into several parts.

Comic books. Arguably one of the largest industries in the world. To be able to store every comic ever written you would need a city the size of New York and even then I think you would run out of room. No question, comic books are here to stay. So when did this multi billion dollar a year industry actually start.

Actually the origin of comic books is not really known for certain. Up until recently there was one theory of what the first comic book was. Then new evidence suggested that this was incorrect. We may never really know when comic books started but as of this writing the first known comic book was “The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck” which was written in 1837 somewhere in Europe in several languages. In 1842 an English version of this comic was printed for the United States, more specifically New York City. The comic was 40 pages long and didn’t really resemble the comics that we are used to seeing today. There were no word balloons with dialogue. Instead there was text typed at the bottom of each panel to describe the story. A copy of this comic was recently discovered in Oakland CA. The comic itself was done by Rudolphe Topffer who in Europe, was considered to be the creator of the picture story. He created the comic strip in 1827 as a graphic novel. After that he created 7 more graphic novels in many different languages including copies for the United States. These books stayed in print until about 1877. This was considered to be the Victorian Age of comic books which is still incomplete and still being researched even until today.

Even though many comics were printed after that, they have fallen into obscurity and the next known comic book was published in 1894 called “The Yellow Kid.” The Yellow Kid was actually a character derived from the comic “Hogan’s Alley” but the kid was so popular that the comic book became known by his name rather than by the official title of the comic book. Hogan’s Alley was created by a gentleman by the name of Richard Outcault who actually got his start writing for “Truth Magazine”. In an issue of “Truth” he did a character cartoon featuring “The Yellow Kid” and it’s from that initial publishing that the actual comic came into being a short time later. It is believed that Outcault got his inspiration for “Hogan’s Alley” from several cartoonists including Michael Angelo Wolf and Charles Saalburg, both of whom used street kids in their cartoons. It is believed that the title “Hogan’s Alley” came from the song “O’Reilly and the Four Hundred” which starts off “Down in Hogan’s Alley.”

In the next of this series I will be covering what is referred to as “The Platinum Age Of Comics” which spans the years 1897 to 1938 which features the extremely popular “Mutt And Jeff” and “Little Orphan Annie” comics. You don’t want to miss this.

By: Michael Russell

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You might be sitting on a treasure chest without even knowing it. Almost everybody read comic when they were young, so you probably did, too. Some people have the foresight to keep those comics, and they are reaping the benefits now, because comic books value is always unpredictable, and the lucky ones find that they have ones which have extremely desirable comic books value.

There are many factors that decide a comic book’s value. Let us take a look at a few.

1. Condition: The condition the comic book is in is important. This is classified under a lot of headings, from mint, which is the best condition the comic book can possibly be, to poor. Realistically, you can expect most comic books to be anywhere from good to fine, with fine being a grade higher than very good. However, keep in mind that even if the rest of the comic is in great condition, if the cover is missing, the book’s value will come down considerably.

a. Is the cover still on the comic book, first, and if it is, is it on good condition? This is the single most important factor as far as the comic’s condition is concerned.

b. Are there any creases? The less noticeable creases there are, the higher your comic book will be priced.

c. Is the spine in good condition? This is another important consideration. You will start wishing you had never folded it back when you were reading it!

d. Are the staples rusted or discoloured? This is another important factor that decides how your comic book will be priced.

e. Are there any stains? Any kind of stain will lower the price of your comic.

f. Is anything torn, especially the corners? Or are they bent? If they are, obviously the value will go down.

g. Comic books value also depend on whether there are any pages missing. In short, you cannot expect much if the books are almost falling apart.

2. Rarity: As common sense dictates, the rarer the comic is, the higher its value will be. However, here, again, you have to have the cover of the comic to get a good price for it.

3. Popularity: The popularity of the comic in general is a question here. A rare edition of a Batman comic, for example, will fetch a much better price than a comic that is not that popular. Here, again, though, the way you market your comic books can make a lot of difference. There are plenty of collectors who specifically want out of the way comics, so you have to find these buyers if you want a good price for these comics.

If after reading that list, you think you might have something, get a professional to set the comic books value, and you will be all set.

By: Robert Grazian

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All your favorite news can now be seen on the internet through TV news online. No matter what news organization you are hooked, almost all of them are available for viewing online. You can watch the news live or read news like an online newspaper. Every scope is covered ranging from politics, entertainment, technology, crime business and many other more. There are even special reports and feature coverage about certain issues like the energy and environmental problems plaguing not only in America but throughout the entire world.

For every citizen TV news online is becoming more interactive with the iReport capability that enables any individual to upload their own news online. As an iReporter, you can even be featured online alongside the rest of the hundreds of iReporters composed of different men and women coming from all walks in life. You can even set your own news preference whether you like news locally or all the news in the international scene. Weather forecasts are also made available with the aid of weather report agencies. Extended weather forecasts for an entire week are usually given. There is also a cool feature for you to make the news domain as your own homepage so that you will always be kept in touch with what is happening around the world. Most of these news sites have blogs so that web users can also discuss anything they want to tell, like the stories of the U.S troops overseas. Online news is not only available for viewing but also for listening because online radios, sharing the same content as the site, gives radio enthusiasts the experience of news delivered through radio. With the help of prominent news, magazine and entertainment partners, you can even receive special news emails from the site itself so that you will always be kept informed. You will never again miss the news headlines each day.

By: Geraldine Oaks

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Photos of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s baby were sold to People magazine for $4.1 million recently. Yes. You read that correctly, $4.1 million. What is our fascination with celebrity? Is it the larger than life movie stars? Is it the glamorous lives they lead? How is it people can name every character from Grey’s Anatomy but come up empty when asked to name their state senators?

It’s because we are obsessed with celebrity. We need entertainment scoop and there isn’t a shortage in finding it. The E! Network dedicates itself to nothing but entertainment. Searches result in countless pages on your inquired subject. There certainly isn’t a shortage of magazines on it either. Supermarket stands sell them. Bookstores sell them. You can also subscribe to these magazines online. Websites such as Mags For Less offer a variety of entertainment magazines to choose from.

Here is a partial list and brief description of the top selling entertainment magazine subscriptions in the U.S.:

People Magazine – A weekly magazine focusing on celebrity and human interest stories. People Magazine is best known for its yearly special issue which names its “50 Most Beautiful People” and the “The Best and Worst Dressed” of the year. The magazine chooses to cover stories about the people who are causing the news and who are caught up in it, or deserve to be in it. Their mantra is to cover people and not issues. Entertainment Weekly – Entertainment Weekly’s primary concentration is on entertainment media, targeting a more general audience, particularly young people and women. The magazine features celebrities on the cover and addresses topics such as TV ratings, movie grosses, production costs, concert ticket sales, ad budgets, and in-depth articles about scheduling, producers, etc. Premiere – Premiere Magazine is for the people out there who REALLY love movies. The magazine covers everything you want to know about movie watching and movie making. Some of the features include interviews, profiles, and behind the scene looks at soon to be released movies. National Enquirer - Find out what’s going on the lives of the big starts and other Hollywood celebrities. Inquiring minds want to know. The National Enquirer prints all the gossip you can’t get from your typical newspaper. Star Magazine – Every week Star Magazine covers the latest celebrity news from Hollywood to Buckingham Palace. Weekly features include horoscopes, puzzles, advice, and the latest celebrity fashion trends. Rolling Stone – Rolling Stone is THE music magazine of music magazines. It features cutting edge music reviews, in-depth interviews, provocative photos, and award-winning features. The magazine also covers political and social examinations of the world today and how these issues affect the reader. Vanity Fair -Vanity Fair focuses of literature, art, fashion, politics, and personality. It’s devoted to readers who are interested in contemporary society and culture. Features include photo essays and interviews with leaders in the entertainment industry with book, film, and music reviews. US Weekly – Gives a revealing insider’s look at all the trends and personalities important to the entertainment

As you can see, entertainment magazines are in no shortage. From the latest scoop on Tom Cruise to a behind the scenes feature on Peter Jackson’s new movie, your appetite for celebrity can be quenched in the magazine of your choice.

By: Joel Simkhai

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I have always been a movie fanatic for as far back as I can remember and although I have enjoyed all genres, I especially gravitated to comedy movies for the most part. My father and I would sit watching comedy movies and laugh until it hurt and on Fridays in the summer, it was always a given that my parents would take my sister and I to the Drive-In Theater. (Does anyone remember them?) If it was a comedy, that was a double plus for us. So, for me to say that I love comedy movies would be a vast understatement and for me to make a Favorite Top 10 list is literally next to impossible. In fact, making a Top 20 would be hard enough as it is, but I am going to try anyway. I will cover groups of movies and some solo movies and then try to accomplish my feat for the evening. And although this will be my most difficult task to date, I will most definitely enjoy the memories that these movies provide to me and hopefully for you also.

The In-Laws with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin is so funny and enjoyable. The way that Falk’s character slowly gets Arkin’s character, Sheldon, involved with all of his CIA shenanigans is priceless. A definite must see for those who have never heard of this gem. “Serpentine Sheldon, serpentine!”

Let It Ride is one of the most unique comedies I have ever seen, in that, every character is nuts. I mean, in every comedy you have some normal people and then the funny ones. But this movie has no normal people. It takes place at the race track and everyone is a funny character. Richard Dreyfuss is great as Trotter, as he is with every character he portrays. What About Bob?, Moon Over Parador & The Goodbye Girl, to name a few, are terrific Dreyfuss movies.

Since I already mentioned it, What About Bob? is a classic with Dreyfuss and one of my favorites, Bill Murray. I love watching Murray drive Dreyfuss crazy ever so slowly during the course of the movie. ‘Baby Steps’. And when you speak of Bill Murray, you have to acknowledge Stripes, Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters, Scrooged and of course, Caddyshack. What a terrific cast Caddyshack had. It was Harold Ramis’ first attempt at directing and he did a fantastic job in making what is now a Golf Country Club classic that had so many memorable lines delivered by the irrepressible Rodney Dangerfield. The war between him and Ted Knight was hysterical. “Hey, who stepped on a duck?”

The Producers is a Mel Brooks masterpiece and a screenplay Oscar winner. Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder are so superb in those roles. The idea was to sell much more than 100% of a Broadway play to investors and make sure it is a flop by acquiring the worst script, ‘Springtime For Hitler’, the worst actors, director, music and anything else to assure a quick closing. This way they could keep the money without paying the investors back. But of course the play is a hit and there is no possible way they can pay everyone back, since they sold about 5000%. So they end up in jail and do they learn their lesson? Nope! They produce ‘Prisoners In Love’ and sell the warden 200%. While on the subject of Mel Brooks, how can I not list Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, History Of The World Part 1 and another favorite, Blazing Saddles. The absolute Best Comedy Western of all time, period. Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Mel Brooks, Slim Pickens and of course, Mongo (Alex Karas). What a blast!

The Pink Panther movies are some of the best works of the great Peter Sellers. Inspector Clouseau had to be one of the funniest bumbling fools to ever grace the silver screen. A Shot In The Dark, The Pink Panther Strikes Again and Revenge Of The Pink Panther were such great vehicles for Sellers. And on the topic of Peter Sellers, how about Being There, The Mouse That Roared and Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb. Peter Sellers plays 3 roles in this movie and makes them all so funny and memorable, a tribute to his comedic acting genius.

A Day At The Races with the Marx Brothers would make my Top 5 of all time no matter how long a list I had. I loved the Marx Brothers and this movie is one of my absolute favorites. They were so off the wall and this movie had so many incredible funny scenes. Then you have A Night At The Opera, Monkey Business, Duck Soup and Horse Feathers.

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein was so great to watch as a kid. Here were the monsters of the times that used to scare us, Frankenstein, Dracula and The Wolfman, and now here they were in a comedy with one of the best Comedy Teams of all time. What a treat! That whole scene with Costello in the hotel room and Lon Chaney,Jr has already changed into the Wolfman. Lou didn’t know it and is so close to getting killed. A great comedy effect of anticipation.

Sleeper is a great Woody Allen movie. The premise was he was revived 200 years after being frozen cryogenically. The results were as funny as you would expect from an early Woody Allen movie. Let me also give tribute to Bananas, Annie Hall, What’s New Pussycat?, Play It Again Sam, Take The Money And Run and Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid To Ask).

Monty Python And The Holy Grail is a true classic with so many funny and out of the ordinary scenes. I especially loved the scene with the sword fight at the bridge and the loser has his limbs sliced off one by one and yet keeps insisting that he is winning the battle. Even when he is just a torso on the ground he states, “So we’ll call it draw then?” Let’s also throw in Monty Python’s Life Of Brian and Monty Python’s Meaning Of Life. On the side, I must mention that if you ever have the time to see a play on Broadway, then by all means go see Spamalot. I laughed the whole entire play and you don’t even have to be a Monty Python fan to laugh your fool head off, as I did.

It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was the first comedy movie of it’s kind. It was the first movie with an all star cast like that. Anyone who was anybody in comedy at that time wanted to be in that movie, even if it was just a small cameo appearance. If you weren’t in that movie, you weren’t on the comedy map, so to speak. One of the great comedy premises for a movie and an absolute amazing cast of actors, headed by Spencer Tracy. A must see for any generation.

The Nutty Professor and The Errand Boy are terrific comedy performances by Jerry Lewis. I know the word genius is used a lot but Mr. Lewis certainly proves that he is in those two classics. The Nutty Professor remake with Eddie Murphy was fantastic too. A virtual tour de force comedy performance by him with all of his family characters. Plus, I must mention two movies with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis together to complete his work: The Stooge and The Caddy. “Whose you’re little whosie? Whose you’re turtle dove?”

Now I would like to write about some comedy movies of more recent times. There’s Something About Mary is hysterical with so many unique scenes that have never been done before, and in comedy that is extremely hard to do. The scene with Matt Dillon and the dog is one of my most favorite scenes of all time. I literally fell out of my chair laughing at that one. He accidentally kills the dog and tries to resuscitate him by giving him an electric jolt with the live wire from a nearby table lamp. Ben Stiller has really made a name for himself in the business, which makes sense knowing that his parents are Jerry Stiller and Ann Meara. And when talking about Ben you must mention Meet The Parents, Meet The Fockers and Night At The Museum.

Analyze That with Billy Crystal and Robert DeNiro was great and though it was a sequel to Analyze This, I loved it even more. The scene when DeNiro comes down to the Shiva with his robe open and nothing on underneath was hysterical. “Hey, who do you have to f*#k around here to get some bacon? Not you I hope.” Mr. DeNiro, as everyone knows, is a tremendous serious actor, but he delivers comedy equally as well, as he did in Midnight Run with Charles Grodin. They were supposed to make a sequel for that but never did. I wish they had. Other Billy Crystal movies I have loved are City Slickers 1 & 2, Mr. Saturday Night and When Harry Met Sally.

Liar, Liar with Jim Carrey is terrific. But of course, I love Carrey in everything. He is so animated, rubbery faced and one of my favorite comedic actors. I love the outtakes at the end of the movie also. They really show his improvisational abilities well. Then there is Bruce Almighty, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas and Me, Myself & Irene.

My Cousin Vinny is a well written and wonderfully acted comedy movie with Joe Pesci, Fred Gwynne and Marisa Tomei. In fact, Miss Tomei won an Oscar for her role. The chemistry between the three of them on screen was terrific, as were all of the courtroom scenes. In the words of the judge, “What’s a yute?”

Something’s Gotta Give was very funny with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. What a great script. I think it should have won an Oscar for Best Screenplay. Of course, you can never go wrong with Jack in the movie. He has such a great face. Even in the horror flick, The Shining, he makes me laugh. The Witches Of Eastwick, Terms Of Endearment, As Good As It Gets, Batman and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and so many more are such an amazing body of work.

Stir Crazy with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor is absolutely hysterical and their chemistry together was wonderful to watch. They did a few more movies together and they delivered some belly laughs also. Another You, Silver Streak and See No Evil, Hear No Evil.

My honorable mentions, which would definitely make it to my list if I did a Top 100, are Used Cars, Tommy Boy, Lady In Red, Airplane, Weekend At Bernies, Hooper, Smokey and The Bandit, Animal House, Home Alone 1 & 2, Evil Roy Slade, The Naked Gun Movies, Repossessed, Fire Sale, The Road Movies with Bob Hope & Bing Crosby, Carry On Teacher, Arthur, 10, Cheech & Chong’s Up In Smoke, Clifford, Meatballs, The Jerk, The Court Jester, The Inspector General, The Birdcage, Neighbors, Porky’s, My Favorite Year, Night Shift, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Seems Like Old Times, Easy Money, Back To School, Kentucky Fried Movie, Bachelor Party, Forrest Gump, Toy Story, Chums At Oxford, Police Academy, Trading Places, 48 Hours, Cheech & Chong’s Nice Dreams, Start The Revolution Without Me, Gremlins, Lost In America, Defending Your Life, Modern Romance, The Scout, Cat Ballou, Back To The Future, Clue, Beverly Hills Cop, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Fletch, The Golden Child, Crocodile Dundee, Tootsie, Soapdish, A Fish Called Wanda, Good Morning Viet Nam, Coming To America, Mrs. Doubtfire, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Edward Scissorhands & Buck Privates.

Whew! As you can see, I pretty much named almost every darn comedy movie ever made but there are so many that I love and I could write about them for a year and not make a dent. And yet, I know that somehow I still may have forgotten some. Anyway, here it finally is:

My Favorite Top 10 Comedy Movies

1. The Producers

2. It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

3. A Day At The Races

4. Blazing Saddles

5. Monty Python’s The Holy Grail

6. Liar, Liar

7. The Return Of The Pink Panther

8. There’s Something About Mary

9. Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein

10. The In-Laws

Here is my next 10 if I would have made the list a Top 20:

11. The Errand Boy

12. What About Bob?

13. Analyze That

14. Dr. Strangelove

15. Stir Crazy

16. The Nutty Professor (Both Versions)

17. Sleeper

18. Caddyshack

19. Let It Ride

20. My Cousin Vinny

Well, if I left off something that you would have liked to see on this list…tough. You try to narrow down your favorite genre to a Top 10 and see how far you get. This was definitely the hardest list I ever had to write and the only good thing about it is this: any other Top 10 list I ever write will seem so easy by comparison! Once again, thanks for reading from THE COMEDY TORNADO!!

By: Paul Venier

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