There are many more Jack Chick shorts on the "Hot Chicks" DVD -- see http://316now.com. Somebody Goofed is by far my favorite one, but others are fun as well. I find that the best narratives are always Rorschach tests, as Rodney Ascher describes.

Abney Park will also be performing at Maker Faire later that day, 8:30pm!

I thought Gerald Scarfe was Ronald Searle for a long time-- very similar drawing styles sometimes, and almost identical signatures-- until I started wondering why Searle was putting a little horizontal stroke through the "L" in his last name. Anyone else have this problem?

Isn't this how sheep survive? They cluster together, and the ones who can jockey their way into the center of the flock are the most protected from wolves.

Meanwhile the "fringe sheep," who pay more attention to the outside world than to flock hierarchy, are the ones who first see new dangers and opportunities. Their job is to make noise about it until more sheep share their view, and if enough agree, the flock moves appropriately.

Generally agree. It all comes down to manufacturing celebrity, which can only be done (reliably, anyway) by an industry. Then you monetize via concerts, fan clubs, merch, etc.

The concert experience, being surrounded by other humans focused on the same thing in a shared time and place, cannot be pirated. It helps if there's also some spectacle, and it helps doubly if some of the spectacle comes from the crowd itself.

Hi-res simulcast concerts, to save on tour costs, might work at some point. Probably safest to start with bubblegum groups.

Good point, Dcer, about PR firms managing fan clubs!

I had the same experience as a kid with my parents visiting NYC-- looking up and seeing the "Madison" street sign-- but I actually *did* convince my parents to find MAD's offices and knock on the door. We got a tour from John Ficarro, and I was completely thrilled and remember it fondly, although Mostlymuppet's comment does make me also remember that I was disappointed that none of the actual "Usual Gang..." was there (let alone people riding on the ceiling in tricycles).

Nick Meglin asked my dad, "So, you actually let him read this crap?" And before we left, John Ficarro gave me a copy of the upcoming issue along with a MAD in Portuguese, both of which I think are still being cherished at the bottom of a drawer.

BTW, my favorite "Separated From Birth?" -- William M. Gaines or Jerry Garcia?

The schlock horror film writes itself! Creepy woman protagonist keeps winning reborning competitions, but no one knows they're real-- like the old Herschell Gordon Lewis movie about the sculptor. She never got over having lost her own baby long ago, and is compensating-- she's doing the babies a favor by stealing them from miserable (she feels) surroundings, "reborning" them (through some vivid, disturbing-to-watch process), and letting them be loved, admired, win ribbons at conventions, etc. "Reborn -- You're never too young for a second chance."

Here's a short story I recently wrote about this, called "The Sex Singularity: When Machines Surpass Human Hotness." It has some very specific near-term predictions:

http://plum.he.net/~pspinrad/writing/sex-singularity.htm