Archive | April, 2016

The Birth of a Comic about… Death

The Birth of a Comic about... Death

1. Lower your expectations. 2. Move back home to Ohio. 3. Realize your sister is now married to the Grim Reaper. 4. Lower your expectations MUCH MORE. That’s the fateful flowchart suffered by Elbridge Hanawalt, hero of Death in the Family—the latest Hennessey/McConnell comics joint now available for free on Tapastic and the Tapas app. […]

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Unobscured: “Miss Television” 1939

Unobscured: "Miss Television" 1939

Beauty contests may be as passé as the slide ruler or the horse and carriage. But a killer smile never goes out of fashion. And so I thank the late Caryl Arlene Smith-Givens — who was crowned “Miss Television” at the 1939 World’s Fair — for being the highest spike of the Charm-O-Meter in an […]

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Beer 1933: Back from the Dead

Beer 1933: Back from the Dead

Today—National Beer Day thanks to the crusading temperament and social media savvy of Richmond, Virginia’s Justin Smith—doesn’t mark the anniversary of Prohibition’s demise. But in 19 U.S. states it does mark the historic return of beer. Beer of 3.2% alcohol, anyway. But on April 7, 1933, suds of that potency had not been (legally) seen […]

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