January 7th is Russian Christmas. May your days be merry and bright, and let nothing you dismay.
A Gift From Fatale
This is a gift I received way back in 1995 from Fatale actress Traci Adell:
Perhaps she noticed my abiding interest in photogenic women. It’s a terrific book, by the way. One of the photogenic stars featured is Julie Newmar:
Like Traci, Julie Newmar is 5’11”.
On Broadway, in the musical Li’l Abner, Julie Newmar played Stupefyin’ Jones:
Stupefyin’ Jones, for you young pups unfamiliar with Al Capp’s brilliant syndicated strip Li’l Abner, was an unbelievably beautiful woman. Wikipedia describes her perfectly:
“Stupefyin’ Jones: A walking aphrodisiac, Stupefyin’ was stunning — literally. So drop-dead gorgeous that any male who glimpsed her froze petrified in his tracks and rooted to the spot — in a word, stupefied! While she was generally favored by the males of Dogpatch, she could be deadly for a confirmed bachelor to encounter on Sadie Hawkins Day. Statuesque actress Julie Newmar became famous overnight for playing the small role in the 1956 Li’l Abner Broadway musical (and the 1959 film adaptation) without uttering a single line.”
Live-action Fatale had much in common with Stupefyin’ Jones, being an irresistible Siren—though live-Fatale was intended to have, in addition to devastating beauty, a will-sapping, strength-sapping kiss.
Traci was ideal for the role.
Once when I was with Traci somewhere, somebody overheard my name being mentioned, walked up to me and said, “Are you THE Jim Shooter?”
Hence the opening line of this note, which accompanied the copy of Va Va Voom! She gave me.
What a sweetie. Those of us who worked with her too briefly at Broadway Comics admire her tremendously. We miss her.
Once more with feeling, Traci Adell is one of the most beautiful people on the planet. She’s photogenic, too.
NEXT: Finally, I Swear, the Web of the Snyder
Jim Shooter
RE: "I'm interested in hearing about your time working for Continuity in the 80's. Neal solicited a Megalith title with your writing credits in the 90's just before Continuity quit publishing the title."
It's on the list. Thanks.
Defiant1
Marco,
I didn't see that. I may not have been reading the blog in July. Certain individuals online are more interested in airing their personal gripes about me or my opinions. That was the case for awhile last year. I don't really come here to read about why people do or don't like me or what I say. Between that and intentional misquotes and lies that pop up about me, I get bored with it. In periods like that, I go spend my time elsewhere. If I was reading the blog then, I just missed it somehow. Thanks for quoting it!
marco
Defiant1
You talking about that storm in a teacup over girls called Brandy always being strippers? That good-natured banter seemed to fizzle out quite amicably. I always appreciate your contribution to the feast of reason and flow of soul around here, and I'm sure plenty of other people do. Just lay off the Scandinavians!
Defiant1
Not that. My friends and I were laughing quite a bit at that.
Years ago I joined a certain Valiant messageboard. The board was essentially a mixture of unknowledgeable fans genuinely seeking information, dealers trying to pawn off their overstock of worthless (post-Shooter) Valiant comics, and overflow members from the CGC messageboard looking for modern comics that might be a lucrative investment (Shooter era Valiant). At the time I was a member, there was a lot of negativity towards Jim. The people stuck with the worthless overstock were looking for customers. They were essentially vultures mingling in the discussions. I would criticize the post-Shooter comics and it pissed them all off. Eventually, the webmaster got pissed at me because I criticized (showed no reverence), to the people who run the CGC. He was getting excel files and running statistics for them. He copped an attitude and threatened to ban me from the board. Realizing that banning me might cause division in the fan base, he put it up for a vote as to whether I should be banned or not. I won. I was allowed to stay. After seeing the members one by one vote aye or nay, I realized that people I did favors for were voting for me to be banned, and people I disagreed with were voting for me to stay. I decided that what I liked about Valiant was not being represented there. I left rather defiantly. It did create a division in the ranks. Certain members immediately wrote me asking me to come back. I refused. One very popular member there held on to the notion that he could use psychology to get me to rejoin. He would write me regularly as if he was my loyal sidekick. He'd go back and tell the members lies that I was his buddy and that if they needed a favor from me, he'd be able to get whatever favor they wanted. I had created my own messageboard (a marketing experiment) and despite telling him "don't go enlist members from the Valiant site", he did it anyway. They came over blindly thinking I was desperate and wanted any members I could get. I coasted for a year trying to figure out what he had to gain by trying to be my buddy. Eventually, I got tired of him and his two-faced lies. I humiliated him invisibly behind the scene and pissed him off so much that he left me alone. He went back and continued his lies (now all negative) about me on the Valiant site and it took a few years for some people to realize he was a manipulative slimeball. He still has a lot of friends that he sucked up to that believe his lies. They don't know the conversations we had by email where I told this guy to stop.
I don't beg for people to believe the truth. I don't agree for the sake of agreeing. Some don't like the way I deal with confrontational issues. There are dozens of people who know of me from the Valiant site and have a negative attitude about anything I say. I do nothing to discourage it.
The admin of the messageboard eventually apologized. I accepted his apology.
Much in the same way that Jim is deemed a pariah, many Valiant fans feel that way about me. They pop up from time to time and I've either insulted them, or one of their friends. It's something I expected when I infuriated the guy who liked to suck up to me as he was my best buddy in the world. He knew better, but he played the innocent victim.
I've actually had dinner with a guy who runs a different Valiant messageboard. Him and his mom were in my state one week. His mom made a fuss about me and wanted to hook me up with some of her lady friends. She wanted me to take a vacation and visit them. When people actually know me, I don't even have to talk. They can read my expressions and know exactly what is on my mind. People online aren't trained yet.
Defiant1
Scantinavian? Is that when women don't have any clothes covering their belly button? I think that's cool.
Jason Burnett
Must have been a heck of a Russian Christmas. Looking forward to more stories. This blog is one of only a couple I like reading.
ja
I forget with whom I was having this discussion about marijuana vs. cigarette smoke damage… but I ran across this new report:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/marijuana-and-lungs-study_n_1197854.html?ir=Science
Turns out that we can all smoke more weed! Yay!
Well, you can. It tears the shit out of my throat, so I'll just watch. =P
marco
Defiant1
Remember this from July 24 2011?:
"I don't know enough about the inner workings of Continuity's publishing to explain much. I will tell the tale of the Megalith story I wrote once at some point."
I'm looking forward to hearing about this too. I rather liked Megalith, but those Continuity books were of such uneven quality, and you never knew if Neal drew them or a squadron of his hivemind clones in the studio there. There was a very poor book, maybe packaged by Continuity for Pacific, about a roller skating vigilante. You can never have too many roller skating vigilantes.
Defiant1
Jim,
I'm interested in hearing about your time working for Continuity in the 80's. Neal solicited a Megalith title with your writing credits in the 90's just before Continuity quit publishing the title.
Chris Hlady
All I can say is, with pictures of Julie Newmar and Traci Adell, I wouldn't be in a hurry to post again, either. 🙂
Jim Shooter
RE: "Do you have any involvement on the Valiant comics coming out later this year?"
Maybe. I did a great deal of foundation work for VEI and a few scripts during the seven and a half months I was on their staff, late 2008 – mid 2009. They kept my involvement secret for some reason. Ask them. Possibly they will use some of the work I did during that time. The stories I wrote freelance before that time, however, a Harbinger story entitled "Failsafe," an Archer & Armstrong story entitled "Birthday Blast" and the outline of an Eternal Warrior mini series with the overarching title "The Quantum Mage Saga" were NOT done Work for Hire. I never signed anything regarding those works. They can't use them.
Anonymous
Hi Jim
Do you have any involvement on the Valiant comics coming out later this year?
augiedb@gmail.com
I just looked up Traci Adell on IMDB and came up with this biographical note: "Tracie now works for UCLA as a coordinator and instructor of mathematics professorial department institutes for elementary school teachers in the Los Angeles Unified Field District."
That is a LOT of words jammed togethe to make a title.
Roger Owen Green
Yes, when I grew up in Binghamton, NY, this was Russian Christmas, tho applicable to all the Eastern Orthodox folks.
There was a segment about noisy leaf blowers on CBS Sunday Morning and Julie Newmar is featured in the piece. I linked to it here: http://www.rogerogreen.com/2011/12/11/the-law-of-diminishing-returns/
Anonymous
Oh man, I bought this book when it came out, and I gave it away a few years later as a gift to a friend of mine. Man I miss that book! The best of its kind! -DA
Defiant1
Oh crap! I've offended everyone from the country Norwegia! I've probably upset the Sweatites too!
Matt Adler
Jim,
When are we going to get more comic reviews? No joke, I come to the website every day because I think your perspective on them is that interesting. I've taken to quoting you in my own reviews!
Paul Dushkind
Julie Newmar is also said to be a sweetheart. Her son has Down's syndrome. She donated voice-over work on an animated video, promoting an organization in Marin County, California, called Alchemia, that helps mentally handicapped people. The video was created by Gene Hamm, a former Hollywood animator, who teaches a computer video class at Alchemia.
She has said that she has no idea why she wasn't invited back to play Catwoman on the last season of Batman.
Jim Shooter
Dear Edo,
True, but around our house, because Grandma Kate was Russian, Eastern Orthodox Christmas was called Russian Christmas.
Bill Vallely
When Eddie Adams (the star of "Li'l Abner" first saw Julie Newmar in her "Stupefyin’ Jones" costume, she quipped "I'm no lezbo, but I'd do her."
Ole M. Olsen
Defiant1:
I know what you mean about eye colour. I'm Norwegian. I guess about 80 % or so of us have blue eyes. That is, a few less than the Swedes. Not exactly exotic. 😉
Defiant1
Julie Newmar is one of the sexiest women in history. It dawned upon me that she's sexier than she is pretty. I saw her at the Dark Adventure Con in 1992. She must've been in her 70's and she was still sexy. She was able to make a teenager blush.
Regarding the picture of Traci, I'm not real wild about blue eyes on people. For me it's the norm. I have blue eyes. My sisters have blue eyes. I like seeing dark brown eyes.. almost a gypsy black. Dark eyes catch my attention. I know blue is considered less common (10% of the population?), but it isn't interesting to me. The strangest eye color I've ever seen was yellow. The girl who had them described them as "butterscotch", and it was an accurate description. For clarification, she did NOT have hepatitis.
I'll have to ask some people I work with if I missed their Christmas.
Anonymous
Yeah, Traci's hot (especially in the red swimsuit pic from yesterday's entry), but I think she has more blog entries now than all your time on VALIANT. Hopefully there are still more cool stories to come out of those days.
Edo Bosnar
Have to de-lurk here just to say that it's not just 'Russian' Christmas – it's also Christmas in Ukraine, Macedonia, Serbia and, apparently, Moldova and Ethiopia as well.
And Julie Newmar is indeed stupifying, and, just as you are THE Jim Shooter, she is THE Catwoman. Always was, always will be.
JayJayJackson
"Guaranteed to stupify any human male dead in his tracks." Yes, and Jerry Lewis, too.
Stupifyin' Jones