I like to buy things as cheap as I can. Whenever I do I say I am keeping my inner Jack Benny happy. Of course anyone much younger than I am gives me a look that either says "Who the heck is Jack Benny?" or "I'll humor the old man and laugh." In case you don't know Jack Benny was a comedian who was a huge radio star and also had a television show. He had a reputation for being cheap. Probably his greatest gag came on radio when he was confronted by an armed robber. The robber said "Your money or your life." Silent pause. "I said Your money or your life." Benny the replied "I'm thinking it over." Right now my inner Jack Benny is ecstatic.
If you have read this blog long enough you know that I am a fan of Mad Magazine. I am behind on my reviews of it. I have three issues that I will get to soon. One of my favorite artists from Mad was Don Martin. Martin died in 2000. He left Mad over a disagreement he had with Mad publisher William Gaines. He felt he had been cheated out of royalties from all of the paperback books that Mad published which reprinted material from the magazine. A lot has changed since then and publishing companies are now paying the creators for their work. In 2007 a book was published that reprinted every page that Martin had done for Mad. This covered the years 1956-1988. As you can imagine it was a huge undertaking and it was printed in two volumes. The cost of the book was $150. I liked Martin, but not that much. A couple of weeks before Christmas one of the blogs I read daily, News From Me by Mark Evanier, mentioned that Barnes And Noble had the book for under $25. I went their website to buy it, but unfortunately it was sold out. On December 31 he mentioned they had some more copies. I immediately went to the website and bought the book. On Tuesday I recieved an email stating the book had shipped. Amazingly enough it arrived yesterday. I have looked through it and will start reading it today. That was a fantastic bargain and my inner Jack Benny is partying.
To make an even better value Barnes And Noble offers free shipping on orders over $25. Since the Don Martin books cost was $22.84 I needed to buy something else. I never have a hard time finding another book. My choice was
Over a year ago I did a post I called Good Things From a Bad Relationship. One thing I mentioned was I had become a fan of Akira Toriyama, who created Dragonball and Dragonball Z. The first story he ever wrote was called Dr Slump. I have never read it and don't know a lot about it, but I have been looking for Volume 1 for awhile to give it a try. I will review it next week.
3 comments:
I know who Jack benny was. And Don Martin, too, for that matter, although my favorites were Dave Berg and Sergio Aragones' little doodle-toons
I love it when I catch myself doing the thing where he would put one hand on his waist and the other hand against his cheek - do you know what I mean? I do that sometimes and then always laugh when I realize it.
Ha! Love Jack Benny.
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