The Battalion
6
Monday, September 18,1989
Page 7
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omic books more than kids’stuff
AUSTIN (AP) — When Joyce
ope traveled to a Dallas convention
everal months ago looking to add
nore comic books to her burgeoning
ollection, she took along about $ 1 GO
and 50 loaves of fresh-baked ba-
lana bread.
She used the dough to buy some
X)oks and the bread to bribe the
aste buds of comic-book illustrators
ind authors at the convention. In re
urn for a loaf, she had them auto
graph copies of their books in her
ollection.
It works about 99 percent of the
ime,” said the 62-year-old Austin
voman, a retired University of
Texas systems analyst who has more
:han 28,000 comic books and uses a
:omputer to catalog them.
Comic books aren’t kid stuff any
more, says Larry Lankford. Adults
have been caught up in the funnies
:raze and that means the buying,
idling and trading of comics has be-
ome much more sophisticated.
“A lot of people still have miscon-
eived notions about comic books,”
aid Lankford, who owns a Dallas-
Dased company called Bulldog Pro
ductions that sponsors collectors’
fairs such as one held over the week
end in Austin.
“They think comic books are only
for children,” he said. “And they did
start that way. But an awful lot of
comic books out on the market today
are geared specifically toward
adults.”
Mrs. Cope was one of the 500 peo
ple last weekend who attended the
Austin Fanfair, which featured
comic books by the boxload, board
game tournaments and presenta
tions on animated science Fiction and
fantasy flicks from Japan.
As she thumbed through a stack
of comics, the grandmother of two
said she began collecting the colorful
cartoon magazines as a child but dis
continued the hobby after meeting
her husband and marrying.
“I didn’t look at another comic
book again until 1981,” she said.
“Then I saw ‘Superman IT and it all
of a sudden brought back all those
childhood memories and a flood of
nostalgia.
“My children thought it was funny
that 1 liked Superman and they
started bringing me things home
from stores, like Superman pens and
notebooks,” Mrs. Cope said. “I told
them they’d better stop or I’d be
come a collector.”
She cut her comic collecting teeth
at flea markets by purchasing books
that featured the ever-popular Su-
f ierman and Batman. Then she
ound herself scouring used book
stores. Now she’s known for travel
ing to collectors’ conventions all over
the state.
“It’s an obsession for most peo
ple,” said Mike Benton, a collector
and author of a soon-to-be released
book, ‘The Comic Book in America:
An Illustrated History.’
“It’s something that can keep you
entertained for the rest of your life
because in the comic books industry
there is a never-ending wealth of
material to collect, to study and to
delve into,” he said.
While Mrs. Cope concentrates
mainly on collecting any post-1980
editions and rarely pays more than a
few dollars an issue, Benton says
some collectors pay hundreds, even
thousands, of dollars for a single
copy.
For instance, Detective Comics
No. 27, the 1939 comic book in
which the character Batman first ap
peared, sold for 10 cents when it was
first published but today is worth
about $25,000, Benton said.
Interest in comic books — which
were the subject of a congressional
investigation in the 1950s because
some parents and teachers blamed
them for juvenile delinquency — has
been on the upswing since the early
1980s, he said.
Comic books have risen from the
“ghetto of second-rate literature to
become a viable literary alternative,”
Benton said. “They are very appeal
ing to a generation that grew up in a
visually oriented TV society where
people are used to getting pictures
and words together.”
The reasons Mrs. Cope collects
comics are more personal than phi-
losphical.
“They actually molded my life as a
child,” she said. “Comics, at least the
ones I used to read, were very patri
otic. They stood for truth, justice
and the American way.”
Gospel artist Staples sings Prince songs on new LP
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The combination of Mavis Staples, of the fam
ily gospel group the Staple Singers, and Prince
sounds like an unlikely one for collaboration.
But, it happened, and a Mavis Staples album,
Time Waits for No One,” is the result.
“Prince grew up on the Staple Singers,” Sta
ples says. “His favorite is Til Take You There.’”
The collaboration began when Prince’s man
ager called and said that Prince wanted to write
and produce Staple’s album on his Paisley Park
label. Staples says: “I asked, ‘What would Prince
be writing for me?’ I’d heard the Appolonia and
Vanity music. I told him I need substance and
can’t sing the baby stuff. He let me know he’d be
writing adult songs with a contemporary back
ground. I said, ‘We can work. Let’s get started.’
“A lot of people thought I wouldn’t sing secu
lar songs. He called just when I’m ready to share
my love life with the world. I’ve been heartbro
ken and I have a story to tell on that side, too.
“I went along in my childhood with the fact I
couldn’t sing anything but gospel. As I grew
older, I came to the conclusion people can be
helped in many types of songs.”
Staples says that people asked her about dirty
lyrics. “They seem to have gotten past me,” she
says. “Prince slurs his words a lot; you have to
read his lyrics to know what he’s saying. I heard
songs on the radio I liked, like ‘Red Corvette.’
‘Purple Rain’ sounds like a Sunday school song.
My mother’s favorite is ‘When Doves Cry.’ She
put Michael Jackson down for Prince when she
heard that.
“I have found Prince to be a very spiritual per
son. A lot of his songs are uplifting. Fie has a seg
ment in his show where it’s almost gospel.”
“I
I have found Prince to be a very
spiritual person. A lot of his songs are
uplifting. He has a segment in his
show where it’s almost gospel.”
Mavis Staples,
Gospel singer
About the album, she says, “I call this M and M
sound — Minnesota to Memphis.”
Prince was too busy to go into the studio with
her and suggested that A1 Bell produce. Prince
wrote songs, and sent lyrics and a tape of himself
singing to rhythm. She sang in Memphis, some
times surrounded by musicians, the way the Sta
ple Singers did after 1968, when they went to
Stax Records. Other times, she sang and sent the
tape to Prince, and he played all the instruments
around her voice.
She didn’t turn any songs down, but says she
would have if they hadn't suited her.
The two songs on the album not written by
Prince are “The Old Songs” and “20th Century
Express,” by Homer Banks and Lester Snell. Sta
ples says, ‘“20th Century Express’ is our message
song, about crack houses, babies having babies
and the world moving too fast.” It’s the first sin-
gle.
Six months after Prince’s manager phoned,
Prince attended a Staple Singers concert in Los
Angeles and visited her dressing room.
“He blushed and smiled; I couldn’t get him to
talk,” she says. “He gave me one- and two-word
answers. After that, I started writing him letters
and letting him into my life, hopefully to make it
easier for him to talk to me.”
In July 1988, Prince invited her to Paris for the
start of his Lovesexy tour. After five days, he in
vited her to go with the tour to London, where
she sang five times in nine days. “That’s when he
really started talking to me. I couldn’t stop him
from talking. He’d phone every night.”
One day, they recorded a gospel song Prince
had written for his next album. Staples says he
explained its strong language, “It’ll make people
listen.” She agrees.
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the
Roseanne’ husband enjoys sitcom success
LOS ANGELES (AP) — John
Goodman only shrugs when asked
about his character on “Roseanne”
and the huge success of the sitcom.
“1 never analyze it,” he says. “If it
ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” -
He also keeps himself aloof from
the controversy that surrounds his
co-star, Roseanne Barr, both profes
sionally and personally.
“It’s none of my business,” he
says. “I don’t get involved.”
Barr has been involved in various
creative disputes on the show that
caused the departures of Matt Wil
liams, the executive producer, cre
ator and head writer, and Ellen Fal
con, the director.
Barr also recently was accused of
offering a man $50 man to beat up a
lotographer she said annoyed her.
In its first year, “Roseanne” was
second in the ratings behind NBC’s
“The Cosby Show.” During the sum
mer reruns it’s been in a race with
NBC’s “Cheers” for the top spot.
Barr plays a blue-collar mom who
works in a plastics factory by day and
comes home at night to three ram
bunctious kids and a husband who’s
usually out of work. It was the first
acting experience for Barr, a stand-
up comic.
Goodman plays Dan Connor,
Roseanne’s husband, a contractor
who declares himself “the king of
dry wall,” but whose most endearing
quality
dreamt
is that he’s a romantic and a
Goodman says going back for the
second season ol “Roseanne” was
like going back to the second year of
high school.
“It wasn’t as dreadful as all the
images I’d conjured up during the
summer,” he says. “I did two movies
during the summer, so going back to
‘Roseanne’ was like going back to
something you do every day. Like
going back to your real job.”
Goodman says the show got off to
a rocky start when they began a year
ago.
“I’d never done a sitcom before,”
he says. “I was extremely insecure
and nervous. But as we went along
we found our sea legs. Roseanne was
more nervous than she should have
been about her acting. I always
thought she worried too much about
it.
“We have good chemistry to
gether. She’s so much fun to work
with. We’re like naughty school kids.
We’re always messing around. It
keeps the day short, and it helps con
nect us.”
Goodman, who prefers living in
New York and hanging out in New
Orleans, is buying a house in Los
Angeles now that “Roseanne” is a
solid hit.
He had been living in a small
apartment, but now he needs more
room.
“I’m getting married in the fall
and now will be a good time to buy a
house,” he says. “I’m marrying a girl
from Bogalusa, La., named Anna
Hartzog. I met her in New Orleans
when I was doing ‘Everybody’s All-
American.’ Then I went down for
Mardi Gras and we started dating
pretty seriously.
Goodman has lived here off and
on while working in such movies as
“Punchline,” “Raising Arizona” and
“Burglar.” He still keeps an apart
ment in New York, where he got his
start as an actor on the stage.
Goodman was working in a Los
Angeles stage production of “An
tony and Cleopatra” when he was
asked if he was interested in doing a
television series.
“I said it’d be nice to settle down
for a while,” he says. “I didn’t hear
from them for a while. I’d never
seen Roseanne’s comedy act, but I
had seen her on commercials and
stuff. I knew who she was.”
He grew up in St. Louis and be
gan acting at Southwest Missouri
State University when failure to take
a SAT test made him ineligible for
football.
After graduation, he settled in
New York with a $1,000 loan from
his brother and soon began to land
stage roles.
“I was working mostly on the
road,” he says. “It wasn’t until I
started doing commercials that I
could afford to stay in New York. I
lived there for 13 years. I sure miss
it, but it makes me crazy sometimes
when I’m there. I only left because
the work’s out here.”
He had been doing television, but
he’d never been a regular in a series.
His first film work was a movie for
Home Box Office, “Mystery of Moro
Castle.” He was a guest on such
shows as “The Equalizer,” “Moon
lighting” and “The Paper Chase”
and had roles in the miniseries
“Chiefs” and “Murder Ordained,”
along with several TV movies.
This past summer he co-starred
with Bette Midler in “Stella” and
Richard Dreyfuss in “Always.” He
also did one day’s work on “Sea of
Love,” starring A1 Pacino.
“I’m in my ‘best friend’ phase
right now,” says Goodman. “I was
Dennis Quaid’s best friend in ‘Every
body’s All-American.’ A1 Pacino’s
best friend and police partner in ‘Sea
of Love.’ Richard Dreyfuss’ best
friend in ‘Always.’ I’m doing Alan
Hale and Ward Bond. Dreyfuss is
doing the Spencer Tracy role from
‘A Guy Named Joe.’”
You Know You Want a job.
Learn more about how to find it.
"Job Search Strategies"
Tuesday, Sept. 19
4:30-6:45 pm 410 Rudder
featuring representatives from
Dun & Bradstreet
“Mock Interviews”
Wednesday, Sept 20
5-8 p.m. 226 MSC
with representatives from
Data General and Dun & Bradstreet
presented by the TAMCJ Placement Center
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(either a one sandwich or 8 nugget meal which includes regular waffle fries and
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•2 Tickets for the Schulman Theatres
(Southwest Parkway Plaza, Manor East Mall, or Schulman 6 in Bryan.) (reg 5.00
each)
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