Thursday, January 03, 2008

First post.

I am still trying to decide if I am going to do this in Dutch or English.

Heck, I am still trying to decide what I am going to use the blog for. I wanted to secure the name, but in fact writing about my life as a sitcom writer here in Holland is just one of the things I could make this about. I have written sitcoms for almost twenty years now, so that would qualify as a subject or at least a title. In which case, it probably should be in Dutch, because I don't see why it would be of interest to anyone abroad.

On the other hand, I also write about television and humor for several magazines here in Holland and I could use this blog to give all my writings a permanent home. Again, Dutch would be the main language used.I could also use it to publish some of the interviews I did with some of the American sitcom writers I have not yet sold or had to bring down to their absolute minimum for publication. Last year I talked to Ken Levine, Jim Burrows, Rob Long, Lee Ahronson and Ian Gurvitz. Here's Ian, by the way. I also have an earlier interview with Phoef Suttton about his Cheers career and more.

But I also collect American comics and newspaper strips from the fifties and write about comics for the Dutch fanzine Stripschrift. I have been writing about comics (from all over the world) for more than 30 years now and have interviewed such greats as Will Eisner, Jean Giraud (Moebius) and Jeff Jones. I have found rare war material from Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzman, which I could share. Or long runs of Stan Lee's comic strip work. I regulary send stuff to Roy Thomas to use for his excellent publication Alter Ego (a fanzine from Twomorrows about comics and comic creators from any period Roy likes or worked in). And I collect and scan rare art from various artists, which I could share here as well. All this would be in english, of course.

But... the main reason for me to pick this up right now is because I did my spring cleaning early this year and need a place to sell my surplus stuff. I will be listing all my double Timely books here to sell. You will have to add postage, but so had I when I bought them. It's usually best to buy a few at the time. I'll list the possibillities when I get back to post the list.

So, to lure all you potential buyers in, I will start by writing about the comic books and newspaper strips I like or have something interesting to say about. I'll start with Stan Lee and Dan DeCarlo's forgotten early sixties newspaper strip Willy Lumpkin. Which, due to the bloggers tradition of having the last post first, you will already have seen.

12 comments:

Ger Apeldoorn said...

Be the first to comment.
Oh, wait. That's me now.

Okay, be the first of the rest.

Believe me, I know how it feels.

Unknown said...

What I was actually wondering...

1)Are you planning, with your experience, to give a seminar in Holland about comedy-writing? (Like Ken Levine did in L.A.)

2)Are you planning to sell your Cheers-scripts? :-)

3)What would your advice be to two young writers (Dutch&Belgian)whom are at this moment finishing a book full with humor?(Short stories,sketches, theatreplays) I mean, advice in the sense of which channels we could/should use.(Links to websites, something like that. We have been searching a lot on the internet but someway, somehow it's hard to find stuff about comedy-writing in Holland. And especially when it comes down to experienced people sharing their knowledge)

I think, for example, that it's great what Ken Levine is doing, also with all the tips on his blog for writers. Maybe, you could use all your knowledge to give a sense of direction to a lot of people that are interested in writing comedy in Holland/Belgium. Well, it's just my opinion.

Cheers,

Sérgio do Carmo

Ger Apeldoorn said...

Yes, I am planning to sell my Cheers scripts... as well as the Murphy Brown, Bob Newhart, Mary Tyler Moore, Taxi and tons of others from the Paramount school, although I do intend to scan a few of them in and compare my earlier versions with the actual broadcasts in one or two posts.

Angelo said...

Wow!!!
What a nice blog...
I was searching for Willie Lumpkin Newspaper Strips everywhere and you posted very beautiful strips.
I really like Dan DeCarlo's art.
I hope we can join our forces to try to find also the other ones.
A question: I have the daily ones reprinted on Marvel Age, do you need their images too?
Thank you

Ger Apeldoorn said...

Angelo, thanks for reminding me that there were some dailies reprinted in Marvel Age. I used to have evry issue of that magazine - and I believe I still have! I will dig them out and scan those as well. I also have a couple of scans from originals from Heritage and a whole month's worth of dailies. I may also have more special material later on, but that will take a little bit more research.

Angelo said...

I am glad I helped you.
I repeat I would like to help you more to find the other missing strips.
P.S. I am the one you contacted in Ebay

Angelo said...

May I ask you if you know how many Willie Lumpkin Newspaper Strips they published in the newspapers?
When they did start and when they did stop?
One of my dreams is to find them all...
I really hope we can work together.

Ger Apeldoorn said...

Willy Lumpkin appeared in newspapers from the end of 1959 until the first month of 1961. So there should be about 350 dailies and 55 sundays. Before that Stan Lee did another strip called Mrs. Lyon's Cubs with Joe Maneely. That is even more rare and difficult to find.

If you haven't got the Dan deCarlo book, I can recoomend it. It has a whole chapter on all of Dan deCarlo's newspaper strips, including his and Stan Lee's short run on My Friend Irma in the early fifties.

As soon as I have more, I will show it here. I will also show some other Stan Lee and Dan deCarlo stuff that may be lesser known...

Angelo said...

Please write me to my e-mail address to organize to work together to find the missing strips, if you agree

Angelo said...

My e-mail address is:
mamonie32@gmail.com
feel free to write me
Angelo

Silvio Spotti said...

Well please do it in english ,so we can understand,here from Brazil too.
We speak portuguese ,but they teach english at school.

JohnnyDep said...

Will you be publishing an article on the mid-to-late 50s Mad imitation humor magazines? Are there any books on this subject?