Podcast appearances and mentions of King Features Syndicate

On today's edition of the Newsroom Temperature Check, King Features Syndicate, Inc. which gave us the popular Popeye comics, announced they will be teaming up with Bubblegum Kids to make a spinach-flavored gum in August in honor of the 95th anniversary of the comic strip. Mattel announced WNBA great Sue Bird has been honored with a […]

Steven Chandler is one of my coaching mentors. Being his client over 10 years ago dramatically improved my success. The  “MindShift” he offers frees people from unnecessary pessimism and puts them back in touch with the source of their enthusiasm for work and life.   Although Steve Chandler graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in Creative Writing and Political Science, and spent four years in the military studying language and psychological warfare; he credits his own life experiences with failure as the most valuable tools for helping others. Steve's audiences are inspired by stories of his “low points” – it gives them hope, because they realize that they are not nearly as bad off as he was – they figure if Steve can transform his life, so can they!   Steve Chandler is now the author of 30 books that have been translated into over 25 languages. His personal success coaching, public speaking and business consulting have been used by CEOs, top professionals, major universities, and over 30 Fortune 500 companies. He has twice won the national Audio of the Year award from King Features Syndicate. A popular guest on TV and radio talk shows, Steve Chandler has recently been called "the most powerful public speaker in America today."     Steve is also a master coach that has helped train hundreds of coaches to transform many lives and businesses. He created the Coaching Prosperity School to assist coaches to build a strong practice and create great clients www.CoachingProsperitySchool.com   You can learn more at https://www.stevechandler.com/index.html

Popeye was adapted to radio in several series broadcast over three different networks by two sponsors from 1935 to 1938. Popeye and most of the major supporting characters were first featured in a thrice-weekly 15-minute radio program, Popeye the Sailor, which starred Detmar Poppen as Popeye, along with most of the major supporting characters—Olive Oyl (Olive Lamoy), Wimpy (Charles Lawrence), Bluto (Jackson Beck) and Swee'Pea (Mae Questel). In the first episode, Popeye adopted Sonny (Jimmy Donnelly), a character later known as Matey the Newsboy. This program was broadcast Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights at 7:15pm. September 10, 1935, through March 28, 1936, on the NBC Red Network (87 episodes), initially sponsored by Wheatena. a whole-wheat breakfast cereal, which routinely replaced the spinach references. Music was provided by Victor Irwin's Cartoonland Band. Announcer Kelvin Keech sang (to composer Lerner's "Popeye" theme) "Wheatena is his diet / He asks you to try it / With Popeye the sailor man." Wheatena paid King Features Syndicate $1,200 per week. The show was next broadcast Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 7:15 to 7:30pm on WABC and ran from August 31, 1936, to February 26, 1937 (78 episodes). Floyd Buckley played Popeye, and Miriam Wolfe portrayed both Olive Oyl and the Sea Hag. Once again, reference to spinach was conspicuously absent. Instead, Popeye sang, "Wheatena's me diet / I ax ya to try it / I'm Popeye the Sailor Man". The third series was sponsored by the maker of Popsicles three nights a week for 15 minutes at 6:15 pm on CBS from May 2, 1938, through July 29, 1938. Of the three series, only 20 of the 204 episodes are known to be preserved.

Our hosts discuss the soap opera newspaper comic strip Mary Worth and Annie proves the fact that Wilbur Weston is the worst man in comics.Annie recommends The Comics Curmudgeon and Mary Worth and Me. Mary Worth can be found online at King Features Syndicate's Comics Kingdom.Show notes (in PDF form) for this episode in particular can be found here for our $5+ patrons. Find bonus content and general shitposting on our Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"[Blackbeard] is presenting as a queer character, not just within our time, but within his own time" - Tea Fougner. "It's historical fiction about pirates if the executive producers were all tumbler users" - Cayden Mak. Pirate Tea and First Mate Cayden Mak have boarded the show to talk about Taika Waititi and David Jenkins' glorious new show on HBO, Our Flag Means Death. It's a queer pirate romcom with roots in history and a remarkable diverse cast.  The conversation is spoiler-free till about 13 minutes in. There's a special intro to this episode about a real life crisis that's happening-- and what you can do about it (one place to start - https://transequality.org  My guests: Tea Fougner (who is 30% pirate facts by volume) is the editorial director for Comics at King Features Syndicate and co-chair of Programming for Flame Con, the world's largest LGBTQ+ comic convention. Tea co-modded a 200-person pirate RPG for three years and has a 13-hour piratecore playlist on Spotify. Listen here  https://t.co/Abq5wIkips & follow https://twitter.com/teaberryblue Cayden Mak https://twitter.com/cayden has spent the past decade organizing people for racial justice leveraging many aspects of technology and pop culture fmrly of 19 Million Rising (an Asian American Pacific Islander civic organizing group I love. 

In our next CAPED CLASSIC, the fate of the world is left in the hands of the quarterback of the New York Jets. It goes better than you'd expect. That's right! We talked Flash Gordon! So you KNOW we had to gush about Queen, Brian Blessed, and Timothy Dalton. *Flash Gordon © 1980 Universal Studios. Flash Gordon® and its associated titles, logos, and characters are registered trademarks of King Features Syndicate, Inc. and Hearst Holdings, Inc. This production is not sponsored, endorsed by or affiliated with King Features Syndicate, Inc., Hearst Holdings, Inc. or any subsidiaries or affiliated companies and/or third party licensors thereof.

Alexis Hejna and Mark Radulich present their The Cuphead Show Season 1 Review! The Cuphead Show! is an animated television series developed by Dave Wasson for Netflix, based on the 2017 video game Cuphead by Studio MDHR. Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, the creators of Cuphead, serve as executive producers, along with Wasson and CJ Kettler from King Features Syndicate, and with Cosmo Segurson serving as co-executive producer. The series was released worldwide on February 18, 2022, and received generally mixed to positive reviews. Grammarly Ad: 40:22 Amazon Music Ad: 22:16 For a 30 Day Free Trial of Amazon Music Unlimited head to http://getamazonmusic.com/w2mnetwork. Amazon Music is free. Amazon Music Unlimited is not. And for the Grammarly special offer, go to http://getgrammarly.com/w2mnetwork. Check us out on the player of your choice https://linktr.ee/markkind76 Also check out the W2M Network Discord https://discord.gg/fCYpG5dcT9

Alexis Hejna and Mark Radulich present their The Cuphead Show Season 1 Review! The Cuphead Show! is an animated television series developed by Dave Wasson for Netflix, based on the 2017 video game Cuphead by Studio MDHR. Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, the creators of Cuphead, serve as executive producers, along with Wasson and CJ Kettler from King Features Syndicate, and with Cosmo Segurson serving as co-executive producer. The series was released worldwide on February 18, 2022, and received generally mixed to positive reviews. Grammarly Ad: 40:22 Amazon Music Ad: 22:16 For a 30 Day Free Trial of Amazon Music Unlimited head to http://getamazonmusic.com/w2mnetwork. Amazon Music is free. Amazon Music Unlimited is not. And for the Grammarly special offer, go to http://getgrammarly.com/w2mnetwork. Check us out on the player of your choice https://linktr.ee/markkind76 Also check out the W2M Network Discord https://discord.gg/fCYpG5dcT9

HEY MR. WILSONNNNN!!! This week in the Fortress of Poditude, we're talking about Dennis The Menace! So put on your grumpiest Walter Matthau face, try to avoid the dirtiest version of Christopher Lloyd ever, and try to... you know... not murder an obnoxious kid. *Dennis the Menace © 1993 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Dennis the Menace® and the associated titles, logos, and characters are registered trademarks of King Features Syndicate, Inc. This production is not sponsored, endorsed by or affiliated with King Features Syndicate, Inc. or any of its subsidiaries or affiliated companies and/or third party licensors.

Crossovers are all the rage within the comics universe with success with movies, so why not the Phantom? Stephen East, Dan Fraser and Jermayn Parker chat about The Phantom and the crossovers he has existed in and then we discuss why they are important and what we would like to see from comic publishers but also the owners King Features Syndicate.We also discuss if KFS have indeed put a ban on Frew crossovers and we raise why its important for the comic but also for the greater good of the Australian comic industry.We go over known crossovers like:Video  / Audio"Defenders of the Earth" tv show"The Man who Hated Laughter" short movie "Yellow Submarine" Beatles film clipNewspaper storiesPhantom and Mandrake crossovers (click here for a full list link)"The Twins' Futures" (D243) - with Mary WorthDick Tracy story - Featuring Mr Walker and Devil at an airport“Escaped Convicts” - Defenders of the Earth dream sequence crossover* Many of these cameo's are on our Phantom Preservation Project. To get access learn about becoming a patreon.Comics"Defenders of the Earth" comic book series"Scorpius" by Shane Foley"Death Dive" by Glenn Lumsden"The Raven" by Andrew Constant"Phantom/Captain Action" by Moonstone "Kings Watch / Quest / Cross" by Dynamite Entertainment "Legenderry" by Dynamite Entertainment "Zigomar vs the Phantom" "Masks of the Phantom" with Varg Veum by Lightning StrikesParodiesBrazil DotE parody comicMad Sunday parody Robot Chicken DotE* Many of these cameo's are on our Phantom Preservation Project. To get access learn about becoming a patreon.Promotions & phan art worth mentioningEarly KFS advertising KFS American Football line upKFS Christmas tableKing comics with Girl Phantom on the back coverVarious "Comics Revue" coversWe would love to hear from you on what you think of what we discussed in the podcast and we hope you have a great time listening to the podcast. If we have missed any crossovers, please let us know in the comments field via our social media profiles with your feedback at Facebook, Twitter and or Instagram or you can email us at chroniclechamber@gmail.com. Make sure you stay with us and do not forget to subscribe and leave a review on our podcast and or our YouTube Channel. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/chroniclechamber)

Matthew Bannister on Bernard Haitink, one of the greatest orchestral conductors of his generation, known for his interpretations of Mahler, Bruckner and Wagner. Victor Gregg, the British soldier who was caught up in the Dresden bombing raids, suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and later went undercover for MI6. Ruthie Tompson, one of Walt Disney's longest serving animators, she worked on classic films like 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' and 'Fantasia'. Paddy Moloney, the Irish pipe player who founded and led the influential band the Chieftains. Producer: Neil George Interviewed guest: Norman Lebretch Interviewed guest: Nick Kenyon Interviewed guest: Rick Stroud Interviewed guest: Brian Sibley Interviewed guest: Louise Mulcahy Interviewed guest: Aedín Moloney Archive clips used: BBC, Proms 2005/2008/2019; BBC Radio 3, Music Matters 20/11/2017; BBC Radio 2, Victor - Read by John Hurt 12/11/2011; MPTF YouTube channel, Spotlight on Ruthie Tompson 06/03/2012; King Features Syndicate, Popeye The Sailor Man ep52 1960; Walt Disney Productions, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937/Pinocchio 1940/Mary Poppins 1964; BBC, Omnibus 29/01/1976; BBC, Profile 15/11/1976; BBC FOUR, Legends - The Chieftains 15/03/2008; BBC, The Old Grey Whistle Test 06/04/1976.

Tom Hart is a cartoonist, and he's the founder and executive director of a comics school, The Sequential Artists Workshop. His 2016 memoir, Rosalie Lightning, debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Tom offers amazing, valuable insights about the path to creative career success—and that what “success” looks like must be self-defined, always. For Tom, that means freedom is number one. When he has creative autonomy, he's happy. Tom spoke about the invisible bargains we make to have a life lived in alignment with our ideals and creative goals. He asked: What are we willing to live with? How much fear? How much shame? How much financial precarity? We talked about why “shame” comes into it, and how to get over it. And we talked about why financial precarity isn't a prerequisite for creative autonomy and freedom. To get that message out, we all need to be talking more openly and clearly about what's happening behind closed doors, in creatives' lives. More from the episode… “Success is…can I make things that mean something to me and can I help people make things that mean something to them and that isn't just feeding a commercial engine?” – Why Tom believes success is more than just churning out work. How has the desire to be seen impacted Tom's creative process? We discuss Tom's memoir, Rosalie Lightning, and how his unique creative practice gave him the tools to process grief. For years, Tom believed he needed multiple sources of income. Why has he decided to focus his revenue stream? Tom reflects on an encounter that helped him let go of financial shame: “If a lawyer is saying the same thing I'm saying, then I just might as well stay an artist.” “Nobody was happy and everybody worked all the time…and that's the hole I'm always trying to plug.” – To what extend does scarcity fuel artistic ambition? Tom describes the awakening that inspired him to found the Sequential Artists Workshop: “Some people like my books, but they're not going to pay the bills. There are other creative things I can do that can pay the bills.” Sometimes, pursing your creative vision is a matter of bargaining: “I didn't realize that having a high-paying job in advertising doing work for Sony and McDonald's was making a living from your art.” Why is money a taboo conversation, even between friends, and what's the benefit of speaking up? Tom reminds us: “Nothing is scary about art.” More from Tom Hart: Tom Hart is a cartoonist and the Executive Director of The Sequential Artists Workshop, a school and arts organization in Gainesville, Florida. He was a core instructor at New York City's School of Visual Arts for 10 years, teaching cartooning to undergraduates, working adults and teens alike. His 2016 memoir, Rosalie Lightning debuted at #1 on the NY Times Bestseller List and has been featured on many end of year Best-Of lists. He is the creator of the Hutch Owen series of graphic novels and books, and has been nominated for all the major industry awards. He was an early recipient of a Xeric Grant for self-publishing cartoonists, and has been on many best-of lists in the Comics Journal and other comix publications. He has been called “One of the great underrated cartoonists of our time” by Eddie Campbell and “One of my favorite cartoonists of the decade” by Scott McCloud. His daily Hutch Owen comic strip ran for 2 years in newspapers in New York and Boston, and his strip “Ali's House”, co-created with Margo Dabaie was picked up by King Features Syndicate. Connect with Tom Hart Tom Hart on Twitter https://www.instagram.com/hutchowen/ https://www.facebook.com/hutchowen http://www.tomhart.net/ Additional Links The Sequential Artists Workshop on Twitter https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org/ https://www.instagram.com/comicsworkshop/ https://www.facebook.com/sequentialartistsworkshopThe Autonomous Creative is brought to you by Authentic Visibility: marketing for creatives who (think they) hate marketing. Learn more here!

Programa especial en el que Ryan el Mariachi de las ondas (@Ryanmariachi), Carlos Playboy (@CarlosPlaybook) y Lord Azoth el demonio de los Hertzios (@Lord_Azoth) tiran de nostalgia de la buena, de aquella que despierta un material que además de apasionarnos, tiene una calidad intrínseca e innegable. Hoy hablamos de las tiras de prensa de los personajes clásicos (Flash Gordon, Príncipe Valiente, The Phantom, Mandrake, …) de la King Features Syndicate y que Dolmen Editorial publica en su línea “Sin Fronteras”. Y qué mejor para ello, que contar con la presencia de Vicente García, fundador de del fanzine Dolmen desde 1994 y de la editorial homónima en 2001. Un tipo encantador, gran profesional y sobre todo un aficionado, como nosotros. [00:01:06] Los monetes hablamos de Flash Gordon, Príncipe Valiente, The Phantom, Mandrake, etc. Comentamos brevemente su origen, contexto, desarrollo a lo largo del tiempo y sobre todo de como entraron en nuestra vida y por qué nos apasionan. [00:48:03] La chicha del programa, tertulia con Vicente García, editor de Dolmen editorial. Cometamos principalmente su línea “Sin Fronteras” que publica estos personajes, pero también hablamos de futuros proyectos, reediciones, lo humano y lo divino. No tiene desperdicio, un tipo encantador que disfruta tanto como nosotros de lo que publica, algo que en estos tiempos, es MUY de agradecer. Esperamos vuestros comentarios y opiniones, podéis encontrarnos en: Twitter: http://twitter.com/AnsiaVivaComics FACEBOOK: Página: https://www.facebook.com/AnsiaVivaComicsGroup Grupo: https://www.facebook.com/groups/152025455181805/ Blog: https://ansiavivacomics100290953.wordpress.com/ O por correo: ansiaviva00@gmail.com

What is the life of a digital nomad really like? How can you do it when you actually have children? There are so many logistics that have to be handled, but Chris Elliott has conquered them all. Adam and Naresh are joined by Chris, who is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers consumers to solve their problems and helps those who can't. He writes weekly columns for King Features Syndicate, USA Today, and the Washington Post and is the bestselling author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals and How to Be the World's Smartest Traveler (and Save Time, Money, and Hassle). They discuss the life of a digital nomad and how to be the most cost efficient traveler you can be. Website: www.Elliott.org www.ChrisElliots.com Featured Photo by Humphrey Muleba on Unsplash www.WorkFromHomeShow.com

After reading disappointing stories from various publishers and then asking King Features Syndicate about their Phantom bible in X-Band: The Phantom Podcast #191 the boys at Chronicle Chamber (Jermayn Parker, Dan Fraser, Stephen East & Mikael Lyck) have decided to take matters in their own hands and start the discussion.We talk about why its important to lift the standard of the poorer stories from some publishers who do not have a grasp of our hero. After that we each discuss our top 5 Phantom elements that need to be in any bible.There is a lot of crossover between the boys which can only be a good thing that even with a wide range of their Phantom backgrounds they can still agree on what elements need to be in every Phantom story.Each of the boys top 5 elements for the bible are listed below. We also go over some other elements that creators, phriends and some of our patreons also believe are important.Stephen East's top 4The Phantom Oath The Phantom Outfit & RingsYou Cannot see the Eyes of The PhantomThe Phantom is Highly Jungle trainedMikael Lyck's top 5The Phantom OathThe Phantom Outfit & RingsThe Phantom Is a Justice Hero The Humour elementThe Phantoms World ie: Skull Cave, Bandar, Deep WoodsDan Fraser's top 5The Phantom OathThe Phantom Outfit & RingsLegend of the PhantomThe Phantoms World ie: Skull Cave, Bandar, Deep WoodsOld Jungle SayingsJermayn Parker's top 4The Phantom OathLegend of the PhantomOld Jungle SayingsThe Phantom Outfit & RingsWe would love to hear from you on what you think of the Phantom bible idea, is it needed in your opinion? What would you include in it? Have we missed anything?. You can email us at chroniclechamebr@gmail.com or chat with us via our social media profiles with your ideas: Facebook, Twitter and or Instagram. Make sure you stay with us and do not forget to subscribe and leave a review on our podcast and or our YouTube Channel. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/chroniclechamber)

THE Julia Serano explains why Loki and Sylvie have no time for your gender essentialism, Tea Fougner delves into Loki's gender fluidity in comics and we all wish the queer showrunner would stick around another season.  Julia Serano is an Oakland, California-based writer, performer, biologist, and activist. She is best known for her nonfiction books Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity and Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive. Julia's first foray into fiction, entitled 99 Erics: a Kat Cataclysm faux novel, won the Publishing Triangle's 2021 Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, and was an Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) 2021 silver medalist in LGBT+ Fiction. Julia's Loki essay https://twitter.com/JuliaSerano/status/1413186947862859776 Tea Fougner is the Editorial Director for Comics at King Features Syndicate. When she's not reading comics for work, she's reading comics for fun, drawing comics, dressing up as comic book characters, or watching comic adaptations on television. https://twitter.com/teaberryblue 

Should we talk about Billy Zane? Let's talk about Billy Zane. This week in the Fortress of Poditude: The Phantom! The 90s were a weird time for superhero movies. So how do you get attention in a Batman-dominated world? Two words: Purple. Spandex. SLAM EVIL! *The Phantom © 1996 Paramount Pictures. The Phantom® and its associated titles, logos, and characters are registered trademarks of King Features Syndicate, Inc. This production is not sponsored, endorsed by or affiliated with King Features Syndicate, Inc. or any of its subsidiaries or affiliated companies and/or third party licensors.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherelliott/ (Christopher Elliott) is an award-winning consumer advocate, multimedia journalist, and customer service expert. He is known for his practical advice and creative solutions to customer-service problems. He’s the author ofhttps://www.amazon.com/Scammed-Better-Service-Schemes-Swindles/dp/1118108000 ( Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals) andhttps://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Smartest-Traveler-Money-Hassle/dp/1426212739 ( How to Be the World’s Smartest Traveler (and Save Time, Money, and Hassle)). Christopher is a nationally syndicated columnist through King Features Syndicate, which distributes his work to publications from the Seattle Times to the Miami Herald. He writes a weekly column for The Washington Post and USA Today and is the founder ofhttps://www.elliott.org/ ( Elliott Advocacy), a consumer advocacy organization.   “If you are not going to be in one place for more than five years, do not buy a house, just rent.” Christopher Elliott   Worst investment everChristopher bought his first house in 2001 after resisting the homeowner bug for so long. But he found a great place in the Florida Keys, and he loved being there. And at $175,000, the price was just right. This was before the big housing boom. A few weeks after moving into the new house, Christopher’s partner got pregnant as luck would have it. Now the two-bedroom home was not going to cut it for long. Selling in a booming marketBy the time Christopher’s son was a year and a half, they started getting very serious about selling. At the time, the housing market had exploded. He did a couple of renovations on the house and ended up selling it for $350,000. Buying another home when he really should have rentedChristopher took all the money he made from selling his house and moved to Central Florida. Here he paid $235,000 cash for his new home. The house needed a little tender loving care, but Christopher did not mind; he still had some money left. So he renovated the house. Being a nomad, he started getting restless and thought maybe they should sell the house and move into something a little bit bigger in a different area. And just as they were having that discussion, the bottom fell out of the housing market. They ended up staying in the house for about 12 years because they could not get a reasonable price for it. Finally selling the houseEventually, Christopher could no longer stay in the house, so he decided to sell it for the best price possible. Selling the home was a massive undertaking for Christopher. He got several buyers that came in and fell through. Others kept renegotiating the price down. They finally settled for $285,000. Once the real estate agent took her cut and adding the money he had put into the house for renovations, he ended up losing a significant amount of money on that house. Christopher made a resolve never to buy a home as an investment again. Lessons learnedDo not listen to conventional wisdom when buying a houseStop assuming that what everyone says about owning a home is the best investment you can make, to be true. It is never a guarantee that you won’t lose money from buying a home. The American dream of being a homeowner is overrated. Andrew’s takeawaysA house is not always an investmentIt is never a guarantee that you will always be able to buy low and sell high when dealing with real estate. Be careful when listening to marketing messagesMarketing messages are intended to hook you in. It is not always that you will gain from what is being sold. Remember that whoever is putting out that marketing message is looking to gain and not necessarily help you. You do not have to get into debt just because loans are availableSeriously contemplate your options before you get sucked into a mortgage just because there are facilities that can offer you the loan. Be sure that this is a debt that you can...

Episode one hundred and eleven of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Heat Wave” by Martha and the Vandellas, and the beginnings of Holland-Dozier-Holland. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “My Boyfriend’s Back” by the Angels. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ —-more—-   Resources As usual, I’ve created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode.  For Motown-related information in this and other Motown episodes, I’ve used the following resources: Where Did Our Love Go? The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound by Nelson George is an excellent popular history of the various companies that became Motown.  To Be Loved by Berry Gordy is Gordy’s own, understandably one-sided, but relatively well-written, autobiography. Women of Motown: An Oral History by Susan Whitall is a collection of interviews with women involved in Motown, including Martha and the Vandellas. I Hear a Symphony: Motown and Crossover R&B by J. Andrew Flory is an academic look at Motown. The Motown Encyclopaedia by Graham Betts is an exhaustive look at the people and records involved in Motown’s thirty-year history. How Sweet It Is by Lamont Dozier and Scott B. Bomar is Dozier’s autobiography, while Come and Get These Memories by Brian and Eddie Holland and Dave Thompson is the Holland brothers’. And Motown Junkies is an infrequently-updated blog looking at (so far) the first 694 tracks released on Motown singles. Girl Groups by John Clemente contains potted biographies of many groups of the era, including Martha and the Vandellas. And Dancing in the Street: Confessions of a Motown Diva  by Martha Reeves and Mark Bego is Reeves’ autobiography. And this three-CD set contains all the Vandellas’ Motown singles, along with a bunch of rarities.   Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Today we’re going to take a look at the career of one of the great girl groups to come out of Motown, and at the early work of the songwriting team that went on to be arguably the most important people in the definition of the Motown Sound. We’re going to look at “Heatwave” by Martha and the Vandellas, and the beginning of the career of Holland, Dozier, and Holland: [Excerpt: Martha and the Vandellas, “Heatwave”] By the time she started recording for Motown, Martha Reeves had already spent several years in groups around Detroit, with little success. Her singing career had started in a group called The Fascinations, which she had formed with another singer, who is variously named in different sources as Shirley Lawson and Shirley Walker. She’d quickly left that group, but after she left them, the Fascinations went on to make a string of minor hit records with Curtis Mayfield: [Excerpt: The Fascinations, “Girls Are Out To Get You”] But it wasn’t just her professional experience, such as it was, that Reeves credited for her success — she had also been a soloist in her high school choir, and from her accounts her real training came from her High School music teacher, Abraham Silver. In her autobiography she talks about hanging around in the park singing with other people who had been taught by the same teacher — Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard, who would go on to form the Supremes, Bobby Rogers and Claudette Robinson, who were founder members of the Miracles, and Little Joe Harris, who would later become lead singer of the minor Motown act The Undisputed Truth. She’d eventually joined another group, the Del-Phis, with three other singers — Gloria Williams (or Williamson — sources vary as to what her actual surname was — it might be that Williamson was her birth name and Williams a stage name), Annette Beard, and Rosalind Ashford. The group found out early on that they didn’t particularly get on with each other as people — their personalities were all too different — but their voices blended well and they worked well on stage. Williams or Williamson was the leader and lead singer at this point, and the rest of the DelPhis acted as her backing group. They started performing at the amateur nights and talent contests that were such a big part of the way that Black talent got known at that time, and developed a rivalry with two other groups — The Primes, who would later go on to be the Temptations, and The Primettes, who had named themselves after the Primes, but later became the Supremes. Those three groups more or less took it in turns to win the talent contests, and before long the Del-Phis had been signed to Checkmate Records, one of several subsidiaries of Chess, where they released one single, with Gloria on lead: [Excerpt: The Del-Phis, “I’ll Let You Know”] The group also sang backing vocals on various other records at that time, like Mike Hanks’ “When True Love Comes to Be”: [Excerpt: Mike Hanks, “When True Love Comes to Be”] Depending on who you believe, Martha may not be on that record at all — the Del-Phis apparently had some lineup fluctuations, with members coming and going, though the story of who was in the group when seems to be told more on the basis of who wants credit for what at any particular time than on what the truth is. No matter who was in the group, though, they never had more than local success. While the Del-Phis were trying and failing to become big stars as a group, Martha also started performing solo, as Martha LaVelle. Only a couple of days after her first solo performance, Mickey Stevenson saw her perform and gave her his card, telling her to pop down to Hitsville for an audition as he thought she had talent. But when she did turn up, Stevenson was annoyed at her, over a misunderstanding that turned out to be his fault. She had just come straight to the studio, assuming she could audition any time, and Stevenson hadn’t explained to her that they had one day a month where they ran auditions — he’d expected her to call him on the number on the card, not just come down. Stevenson was busy that day, and left the office, telling Martha on his way out the door that he’d be back in a bit, and to answer the phone if it rang, leaving her alone in the office. She started answering the phone, calling herself the “A&R secretary”, taking messages, and sorting out problems. She was asked to come back the next day, and worked there three weeks for no pay before getting herself put on a salary as Stevenson’s secretary. Once her foot was in the door at Motown, she also started helping out on sessions, as almost all the staff there did, adding backing vocals, handclaps, or footstomps for a five-dollar-per-session bonus.  One of her jobs as Stevenson’s secretary was to phone and book session musicians and singers,  and for one session the Andantes, Motown’s normal female backing vocal group, were unavailable. Martha got the idea to call the rest of the DelPhis — who seem like they might even have been split up at this point, depending on which source you read — and see if they wanted to do the job instead. They had to audition for Berry Gordy, but Gordy was perfectly happy with them and signed them to Motown. Their role was mostly to be backing vocalists, but the plan was that they would also cut a few singles themselves as well.  But Gordy didn’t want to sign them as the Del-Phis — he didn’t know what the details of their contract with Checkmate were, and who actually owned the name. So they needed a new name. At first they went with the Dominettes, but that was soon changed, before they ever made a record What happened is a matter of some dispute, because this seems to be the moment that Martha Reeves took over the group — it may be that the fact that she was the one booking them for the sessions and so in charge of whether they got paid or not changed the power dynamics of the band — and so different people give different accounts depending on who they want to seem most important. But the generally accepted story is that Martha suggested a name based on the street she lived on, Van Dyke Street, and Della Reese, Martha’s favourite singer, who had hits like “Don’t You Know?”: [Excerpt: Della Reese, “Don’t You Know?”] The group became Martha and the Vandellas — although Rosalind Ashford, who says that the group name was not Martha’s work, also says that the group weren’t “Martha and the Vandellas” to start with, but just the Vandellas, and this might be the case, as at this point Gloria rather than Martha was still the lead singer. The newly-named Vandellas were quickly put to work, mostly working on records that Mickey Stevenson produced. The first record they sang on was not credited either to the Vandellas *or* to Martha and the Vandellas, being instead credited to Saundra Mallett and the Vandellas – Mallett was a minor Motown singer who they were backing for this one record. The song was one written by Berry Gordy, as an attempt at a “Loco-Motion” clone, and was called “Camel Walk”: [Excerpt: Saundra Mallett and the Vandellas, “Camel Walk”] More famously, there was the record that everyone talks about as being the first one to feature the Vandellas, even though it came out after “Camel Walk”, one we’ve already talked about before, Marvin Gaye’s “Stubborn Kind of Fellow”: [Excerpt: Marvin Gaye, “Stubborn Kind of Fellow”] That became Gaye’s breakout hit, and as well as singing in the studio for other artists and trying to make their own records, the Vandellas were now also Marvin Gaye’s backing vocalists, and at shows like the Motortown Revue shows, as well as performing their own sets, the Vandellas would sing with Gaye as well. While they were not yet themselves stars, they had a foot on the ladder, and through working with Marvin they got to perform with all sorts of other people — Martha was particularly impressed by the Beach Boys, who performed on the same bill as them in Detroit, and she developed a lifelong crush on Mike Love. But while the Vandellas were Motown’s go-to backing vocalists in 1962, they still wanted to make their own records. They did make one record with Gloria singing lead, “You’ll Never Cherish A Love So True (‘Til You Lose It)”: [Excerpt: The Vells, “You’ll Never Cherish A Love So True (‘Til You Lose It)”] But that was released not as by the Vandellas, but by the Vells, because by the time it was released, the Vandellas had more or less by accident become definitively MARTHA and the Vandellas. The session that changed everything came about because Martha was still working as Mickey Stevenson’s secretary. Stevenson was producing a record for Mary Wells, and he had a problem. Stevenson had recently instituted a new system for his recordings at Motown. Up to this point, they’d been making records with everyone in the studio at the same time — all the musicians, the lead singer, the backing vocalists, and so on. But that became increasingly difficult when the label’s stars were on tour all the time, and it also meant that if the singer flubbed a note a good bass take would also be wrecked, or vice versa. It just wasn’t efficient. So, taking advantage of the ability to multitrack, Stevenson had started doing things differently. Now backing tracks would be recorded by the Funk Brothers in the studio whenever a writer-producer had something for them to record, and then the singer would come in later and overdub their vocals when it was convenient to do that. That also had other advantages — if a singer turned out not to be right for the song, they could record another singer doing it instead, and they could reuse backing tracks, so if a song was a hit for, say, the Miracles, the Marvelettes could then use the same backing track for a cover version of it to fill out an album. But there was a problem with this system, and that problem was the Musicians’ Union. The union had a rule that if musicians were cutting a track that was intended to have a vocal, the vocalist *must* be present at the session — like a lot of historical union rules, this seems faintly ridiculous today, but no doubt there were good reasons for it at the time.  Motown, like most labels, were perfectly happy to break the union rules on occasion, but there was always the possibility of a surprise union inspection, and one turned up while Mickey Stevenson was cutting “I’ll Have to Let Him Go”. Mary Wells wasn’t there, and knowing that his secretary could sing, Stevenson grabbed her and got her to go into the studio and sing the song while the musicians played. Martha decided to give the song everything she had, and Stevenson was impressed enough that he decided to give the song to her, rather than Wells, and at the same session that the Vandellas recorded the songs with Gloria on lead, they recorded new vocals to the backing track that Stevenson had recorded that day: [Excerpt: Martha and the Vandellas, “I’ll Have to Let Him Go”] That was released under the Martha and the Vandellas name, and around this point Gloria left the group. Some have suggested that this was because she didn’t like Martha becoming the leader, while others have said that it’s just that she had a good job working for the city, and didn’t want to put that at risk by becoming a full-time singer. Either way, a week after the Vandellas record came out, Motown released “You’ll Never Cherish A Love So True (‘Til You Lose It)” under the name The Vells.  Neither single had any chart success, but that wouldn’t be true for the next one, which wouldn’t be released for another five months. But when it was finally released, it would be regarded as the beginning of the “Motown Sound”. Before that record, Motown had released many extraordinary records, and we’ve looked at some of them. But after it, it began a domination of the American charts that would last the rest of the decade; a domination caused in large part by the team of Holland, Dozier, and Holland. We’ve heard a little from the Holland brothers and Lamont Dozier, separately, in previous episodes looking at Motown, but this is the point at which they go from being minor players within the Motown organisation to being the single most important team for the label’s future commercial success, so we should take a proper look at them now. Eddie Holland started working with Berry Gordy years before the start of Motown — he was a singer who was known for having a similar sounding voice to that of Jackie Wilson, and Gordy had taken him on first as a soundalike demo singer, recording songs written for Wilson so Wilson could hear how they would sound in his voice, and later trying to mould him into a Wilson clone, starting with Holland’s first single, “You”: [Excerpt: Eddie Holland, “You”] Holland quickly found that he didn’t enjoy performing on stage — he loved singing, but he didn’t like the actual experience of being on stage. However, he continued doing it, in the belief that one should not just quit a job until a better opportunity comes along. Before becoming a professional singer, Holland had sung in street-corner doo-wop groups with his younger brother Brian. Brian, unlike Eddie, didn’t have a particularly great voice, but what he did have was a great musical mind — he could instantly figure out all the harmony parts for the whole group, and had a massive talent for arrangement. Eddie spent much of his early time working with Gordy trying to get Gordy to take his little brother seriously — at the time,  Brian Holland was still in his early teens, and Gordy refused to believe he could be as talented as Eddie said. Eventually, though, Gordy listened to Brian and took him under his wing, pairing him with Janie Bradford to add music to Bradford’s lyrics, and also teaching him to engineer. One of Brian Holland’s first engineering jobs was for a song recorded by Eddie, written as a jingle for a wine company but released as a single under the name “Briant Holland” — meaning it has often over the years been assumed to be Brian singing lead: [Excerpt: Briant Holland, “(Where’s the Joy) in Nature Boy?”] When Motown started up, Brian had become a staffer — indeed, he has later claimed that he was the very first person employed by Motown as a permanent staff member. While Eddie was out on the road performing, Brian was  writing, producing, and singing backing vocals on many, many records. We’ve already heard how he was the co-writer and producer on “Please Mr. Postman” by the Marvelettes: [Excerpt: The Marvelettes, “Please Mr. Postman”] That had obviously been a massive hit, and Motown’s first number one, but Brian was still definitely just one of the Motown team, and not as important a part of it as Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson, or Mickey Stevenson. Meanwhile, Eddie finally had a minor hit of his own, with “Jamie”, a song co-written by Barrett Strong and Mickey Stevenson, and originally recorded by Strong — when Strong left the label, they took the backing track intended for him and had Holland record new vocals over it. [Excerpt: Eddie Holland, “Jamie”] That made the top thirty, which must have been galling at the time for Strong, who’d quit in part because he couldn’t get a hit. But the crucial thing that lifted the Holland brothers from being just parts of the Motown machine to being the most important creative forces in the company was when Brian Holland became friendly with Anne Dozier, who worked at Motown packing records, and whose husband Lamont was a singer. Lamont Dozier had been around musical people all his life — at Hutchins Junior High School, he was a couple of years below Marv Johnson, the first Motown star, he knew Freda Payne, and one of his classmates was Otis Williams, later of the Temptations. But it was another junior high classmate who, as he puts it, “lit a fire under me to take some steps to get my own music heard by the world”, when one of his friends asked him if he felt like coming along to church to hear another classmate sing. Dozier had no idea this classmate sang, but he went along, and as it happens, we have some recordings of that classmate singing and playing piano around that time: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, “There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood”] That’s fourteen-year-old Aretha Franklin, and as you can imagine, being classmates with someone who could perform like that caused Lamont Dozier to radically revise his ideas of what it was possible for him to do. He’d formed a doo-wop group called the Romeos, and they released their first single, with both sides written by Lamont, by the time he was sixteen: [Excerpt: The Romeos, “Gone Gone Get Away”] The Romeos’ third single, “Fine Fine Fine”, was picked up by Atlantic for distribution, and did well enough that Atlantic decided they wanted a follow-up, and wrote to them asking them to come into the studio. But Lamont Dozier, at sixteen, thought that he had some kind of negotiating power, and wrote back saying they weren’t interested in just doing a single, they wanted to do an album. Jerry Wexler wrote back saying “fair enough, you’re released from your contract”, and the Romeos’ brief career was over before it began. He joined the Voice Masters, the first group signed to Anna Records, and sang on records of theirs like “Hope and Pray”, the very first record ever put out by a Gordy family label: [Excerpt: The Voice Masters, “Hope and Pray”] And he’d continued to sing with them, as well as working for Anna Records doing odd jobs like cleaning the floors. His first solo record on Anna, released under the name Lamont Anthony, featured Robert White on guitar, James Jamerson on bass, Harvey Fuqua on piano, and Marvin Gaye on drums, and was based on the comic character “Popeye”: [Excerpt: Lamont Anthony, “Popeye the Sailor Man”] Unfortunately, just as that record was starting to take off, King Features Syndicate, the owners of Popeye, sent a cease and desist order. Dozier went back into the studio and recut the vocal, this time singing about Benny the Skinny Man, instead of Popeye the Sailor Man: [Excerpt: Lamont Anthony, “Benny the Skinny Man”] But without the hook of it being about Popeye, the song flopped. Dozier joined Motown when that became the dominant part of the Gordy family operation, and signed up as a songwriter and producer. Robert Batemen had just stopped working with Brian Holland as a production team, and when Anne Dozier suggested that Holland go and meet her husband who was just starting at Motown, Holland walked in to find Dozier working at the piano, writing a song but stuck for a middle section. Holland told him he had an idea, sat next to him at the piano, and came up with the bridge. The two instantly clicked musically — they discovered that they almost had a musical telepathy, and Holland got Freddie Gorman, his lyricist partner at the time, to finish up the lyrics for the song while he and Dozier came up with more ideas. That song became a Marvelettes album track, “Forever”, which a few years later would be put out as a B-side, and make the top thirty in its own right: [Excerpt: The Marvelettes, “Forever”] Holland and Dozier quickly became a strong musical team — Dozier had a great aptitude for coming up with riffs and hooks, both lyrical and musical, and rhythmic ideas, while Brian Holland could come up with great melodies and interesting chord changes, though both could do both. In the studio Brian would work with the drummers, while Lamont would work with the keyboard players and discuss the bass parts with James Jamerson. Their only shortfall was lyrically. They could both write lyrics — and Lamont would often come up with a good title or hook phrase — but they were slow at doing it. For the lyrics, they mostly worked with Freddie Gorman, and sometimes got Janie Bradford in. These teams came up with some great records, like “Contract on Love”, which sounds very like a Four Seasons pastiche but also points the way to Holland and Dozier’s later sound: [Excerpt: Little Stevie Wonder, “Contract on Love”] Both Little Stevie Wonder and the backing vocalists on that, the Temptations, would do better things later, but that’s still a solid record. Meanwhile, Eddie Holland had had a realisation that would change the course of Motown. “Jamie” had been a hit, but he received no royalties — he’d had a run of flop singles, so he hadn’t yet earned out the production costs on his records. His first royalty statement after his hit showed him still owing Motown money. He asked his brother, who got a royalty statement at the same time, if he was in the same boat, and Brian showed him the statement for several thousand dollars that he’d made from the songs he’d written. Eddie decided that he was in the wrong job. He didn’t like performing anyway, and his brother was making serious money while he was working away earning nothing. He took nine months off from doing anything other than the bare contractual minimum, — where before he would spend every moment at Hitsville, now he only turned up for his own sessions — and spent that time teaching himself songwriting. He studied Smokey Robinson’s writing, and he developed his own ideas about what needed to be in a lyric — he didn’t want any meaningless filler words, he wanted every word to matter. He also wanted to make sure that even if people misheard a line or two, they would be able to get the idea of the song from the other lines, so he came up with a technique he referred to as “repeat-fomation”, where he would give the same piece of information two or three times, paraphrasing it.  When the next Marvelettes album, The Marvellous Marvelettes, was being finished up by Mickey Stevenson, Motown got nervous about the album, thinking it didn’t have a strong enough single on it, and so Brian Holland and Dozier were asked to come up with a new Marvelettes single in a hurry. Freddie Gorman had more or less stopped songwriting by this point, as he was spending most of his time working as a postman, and so, in need of another writing partner, they called on Eddie, who had been writing with various people. The three of them wrote and produced “Locking Up My Heart”, the first single to be released with the writing credit “Holland-Dozier-Holland”: [Excerpt: The Marvelettes, “Locking Up My Heart”] That was a comparative flop for the Marvelettes, and the beginning of the downward slump we talked about for them in the episode on “Please Mr. Postman”, but the second Holland-Dozier-Holland single, recorded ten days later, was a very different matter. That one was for Martha and the Vandellas, and became widely regarded as the start of Motown’s true Golden Age — so much so that Brian and Eddie Holland’s autobiography is named after this, rather than after any of the bigger and more obvious hits they would later co-write. The introduction to “Come and Get These Memories” isn’t particularly auspicious — the Vandellas singing the chorus: [Excerpt: Martha and the Vandellas, “Come and Get These Memories”] Hearing all three of the Vandellas, all of whom have such strong, distinctive voices, sing together is if anything a bit much — the Vandellas aren’t a great harmony group in the way that some of the other Motown groups are, and they work best when everyone’s singing an individual line rather than block harmonies. But then we’re instantly into the sound that Holland, Dozier, and Holland — really Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier, who took charge of the musical side of things, with Eddie concentrating on the lyrics — would make their own. There’s a lightly swung rhythm, but with a strong backbeat with handclaps and tambourine emphasising the two and four– the same rhythmic combination that made so many of the very early rock and roll records we looked at in the first year of the podcast, but this time taken at a more sedate pace, a casual stroll rather than a sprint. There’s the simple, chorded piano and guitar parts, both instruments often playing in unison and again just emphasising the rhythm rather than doing anything more complex. And there’s James Jamerson’s wonderful, loping bass part, doing the exact opposite of what the piano and guitar are doing. [Excerpt: Martha and the Vandellas, “Come and Get These Memories”] In almost every record in the rock and roll, soul, and R&B genres up to this point — I say “almost every” because, as I’ve said many times before, there are always exceptions and there is never a first of anything — the bass does one of two things: it either plods along just playing the root notes, or it plays a simple, repeated, ostinato figure throughout, acting as a backbone while the other instruments do more interesting things. James Jamerson is the first bass player outside the jazz and classical fields to prominently, repeatedly, do something very different — he’s got the guitars and piano holding down the rhythm so steadily that he doesn’t need to. He plays melodies, largely improvised, that are jumping around and going somewhere different from where you’d expect.  “Come and Get These Memories” was largely written before Eddie’s involvement, and the bulk of the lyric was Lamont Dozier’s. He’s said that in this instance he was inspired by country singers like Loretta Lynn, and the song’s lyrical style, taking physical objects and using them as a metaphor for emotional states, certainly seems very country: [Excerpt: Martha and the Vandellas, “Come and Get These Memories”] “Come and Get These Memories” made number twenty-nine on the pop charts and number six on the R&B charts. Martha and the Vandellas were finally stars. As was the normal practice at Motown, when an artist had a hit, the writing and production team were given the chance to make the follow-up with them, and so the followup was another Holland/Dozier/Holland song, again from an idea by Lamont Dozier, as most of their collaborations with the Vandellas would be. “Heat Wave” is another leap forward, and is quite possibly the most exciting record that Motown had put out to this point. Where “Come and Get These Memories” established the Motown sound, this one establishes the Martha and the Vandellas sound, specifically, and the style that Holland, Dozier, and Holland would apply to many of their more uptempo productions for other artists. This is the subgenre of Motown that, when it was picked up by fans in the North of England, became known as Northern Soul — the branch of Motown music that led directly to Disco, to Hi-NRG, to electropop, to the Stock-Aitken-Waterman hit factory of the eighties, to huge chunks of gay culture, and to almost all music made for dancing in whatever genre after this point. Where “Come and Get These Memories” is mid-tempo, “Heat Wave” races along. Where “Come and Get These Memories” swings, “Heat Wave” stomps. “Come and Get These Memories” has the drums swinging and the percussion accenting the backbeat, here the drums are accenting the backbeat while the tambourine is hitting every beat dead on, four/four. It’s a rhythm which has something in common with some of the Four Seasons’ contemporary hits, but it’s less militaristic than those. While “Pistol” Allen’s drumming starts out absolutely hard on the beat, he swings it more and more as the record goes on, trusting to the listener once that hard rhythm has been established, allowing him to lay back behind the beat just a little. This is where my background as a white English man, who has never played music for dancing — when I tried to be a musician myself, it was jangly guitar pop I was playing — limits me. I have a vocabulary for chords and for melodies, but when it comes to rhythms, at a certain point my vocabulary goes away, and all I can do is say “just… *listen*” It’s music that makes you need to dance, and you can either hear that or you can’t — but of course, you can: [Excerpt: Martha and the Vandellas, “Heat Wave”] And Martha Reeves’ voice is perfect for the song. Most female Motown singers were pop singers first and foremost — some of them, many of them, *great* pop singers, but all with voices fundamentally suited to gentleness. Reeves was a belter. She has far more blues and gospel influence in her voice than many of the other Motown women, and she’s showing it here. “Heat Wave” made the top ten, as did the follow-up, a “Heat Wave” soundalike called “Quicksand”. But the two records after that, both still Holland/Dozier/Holland records, didn’t even make the top forty, and Annette left, being replaced by Betty Kelly. The new lineup of the group were passed over to Mickey Stevenson, for a record that would become the one for which they are best remembered to this day. It wasn’t as important a record in the development of the Motown sound as “Come and Get These Memories” or “Heat Wave”, but “Dancing in the Street” was a masterpiece. Written by Stevenson, Marvin Gaye, and Ivy Joe Hunter, it features Gaye on drums, but the most prominent percussive sound is Hunter, who, depending on which account you read was either thrashing a steel chain against something until his hands bled, or hitting a tire iron.  And Martha’s vocal is astonishing — and has an edge to it. Apparently this was the second take, and she sounds a little annoyed because she absolutely nailed the vocal on the first take only to find that there’d been a problem recording it. [Excerpt: Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, “Dancing in the Street”] That went to number two in the charts, and would be the group’s cultural and commercial high point. The song also gained some notoriety two years later when, in the wake of civil rights protests that were interpreted as rioting, the song was interpreted as being a call to riot — it was assumed that instead of being about dancing it was actually about rioting, something the Rolling Stones would pick up on later when they released “Street Fighting Man”, a song that owes more than a little to the Vandellas classic. The record after that, “Wild One”, was so much of a “Dancing in the Streets” soundalike that I’ve seen claims that the backing track is an alternate take of the earlier song. It isn’t, but it sounds like it could be. But the record after that saw them reunited with Holland/Dozier/Holland, who provided them with yet another great track, “Nowhere to Run”: [Excerpt: Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, “Nowhere to Run”] For the next few years the group would release a string of classic hits, like “Jimmy Mack” and “Honey Chile”, but the rise of the Supremes, who we’ll talk about in a month, meant that like the Marvelettes before them the Vandellas became less important to Motown. When Motown moved from Detroit to LA in the early seventies, Martha was one of those who decided not to make the move with the label, and the group split up, though the original lineup occasionally reunited for big events, and made some recordings for Ian Levine’s Motorcity label. Currently, there are two touring Vandellas groups. One, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, consists of Martha and two of her sisters — including Lois, who was a late-period member of the group before they split, replacing Betty in 1967. Meanwhile “The Original Vandellas” consist of Rosalind and Annette. Gloria died in 2000, but Martha and the Vandellas are one of the very few sixties hitmaking groups where all the members of their classic lineup are still alive and performing. Martha, Rosalind, Betty, Annette, and Lois were all also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, becoming only the second all-female group to be inducted.  The Vandellas were one of the greatest of the Motown acts, and one of the greatest of the girl groups, and their biggest hits stand up against anything that any of the other Motown acts were doing at the time. When you hear them now, even almost sixty years later, you’re still hearing the sound they were in at the birth of, the sound of young America.  

Episode one hundred and eleven of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "Heat Wave" by Martha and the Vandellas, and the beginnings of Holland-Dozier-Holland. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "My Boyfriend's Back" by the Angels. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ ----more----   Resources As usual, I've created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode.  For Motown-related information in this and other Motown episodes, I've used the following resources: Where Did Our Love Go? The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound by Nelson George is an excellent popular history of the various companies that became Motown.  To Be Loved by Berry Gordy is Gordy's own, understandably one-sided, but relatively well-written, autobiography. Women of Motown: An Oral History by Susan Whitall is a collection of interviews with women involved in Motown, including Martha and the Vandellas. I Hear a Symphony: Motown and Crossover R&B by J. Andrew Flory is an academic look at Motown. The Motown Encyclopaedia by Graham Betts is an exhaustive look at the people and records involved in Motown's thirty-year history. How Sweet It Is by Lamont Dozier and Scott B. Bomar is Dozier's autobiography, while Come and Get These Memories by Brian and Eddie Holland and Dave Thompson is the Holland brothers'. And Motown Junkies is an infrequently-updated blog looking at (so far) the first 694 tracks released on Motown singles. Girl Groups by John Clemente contains potted biographies of many groups of the era, including Martha and the Vandellas. And Dancing in the Street: Confessions of a Motown Diva  by Martha Reeves and Mark Bego is Reeves' autobiography. And this three-CD set contains all the Vandellas' Motown singles, along with a bunch of rarities.   Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Today we're going to take a look at the career of one of the great girl groups to come out of Motown, and at the early work of the songwriting team that went on to be arguably the most important people in the definition of the Motown Sound. We're going to look at "Heatwave" by Martha and the Vandellas, and the beginning of the career of Holland, Dozier, and Holland: [Excerpt: Martha and the Vandellas, "Heatwave"] By the time she started recording for Motown, Martha Reeves had already spent several years in groups around Detroit, with little success. Her singing career had started in a group called The Fascinations, which she had formed with another singer, who is variously named in different sources as Shirley Lawson and Shirley Walker. She'd quickly left that group, but after she left them, the Fascinations went on to make a string of minor hit records with Curtis Mayfield: [Excerpt: The Fascinations, "Girls Are Out To Get You"] But it wasn't just her professional experience, such as it was, that Reeves credited for her success -- she had also been a soloist in her high school choir, and from her accounts her real training came from her High School music teacher, Abraham Silver. In her autobiography she talks about hanging around in the park singing with other people who had been taught by the same teacher -- Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard, who would go on to form the Supremes, Bobby Rogers and Claudette Robinson, who were founder members of the Miracles, and Little Joe Harris, who would later become lead singer of the minor Motown act The Undisputed Truth. She'd eventually joined another group, the Del-Phis, with three other singers -- Gloria Williams (or Williamson -- sources vary as to what her actual surname was -- it might be that Williamson was her birth name and Williams a stage name), Annette Beard, and Rosalind Ashford. The group found out early on that they didn't particularly get on with each other as people -- their personalities were all too different -- but their voices blended well and they worked well on stage. Williams or Williamson was the leader and lead singer at this point, and the rest of the DelPhis acted as her backing group. They started performing at the amateur nights and talent contests that were such a big part of the way that Black talent got known at that time, and developed a rivalry with two other groups -- The Primes, who would later go on to be the Temptations, and The Primettes, who had named themselves after the Primes, but later became the Supremes. Those three groups more or less took it in turns to win the talent contests, and before long the Del-Phis had been signed to Checkmate Records, one of several subsidiaries of Chess, where they released one single, with Gloria on lead: [Excerpt: The Del-Phis, "I'll Let You Know"] The group also sang backing vocals on various other records at that time, like Mike Hanks' "When True Love Comes to Be": [Excerpt: Mike Hanks, "When True Love Comes to Be"] Depending on who you believe, Martha may not be on that record at all -- the Del-Phis apparently had some lineup fluctuations, with members coming and going, though the story of who was in the group when seems to be told more on the basis of who wants credit for what at any particular time than on what the truth is. No matter who was in the group, though, they never had more than local success. While the Del-Phis were trying and failing to become big stars as a group, Martha also started performing solo, as Martha LaVelle. Only a couple of days after her first solo performance, Mickey Stevenson saw her perform and gave her his card, telling her to pop down to Hitsville for an audition as he thought she had talent. But when she did turn up, Stevenson was annoyed at her, over a misunderstanding that turned out to be his fault. She had just come straight to the studio, assuming she could audition any time, and Stevenson hadn't explained to her that they had one day a month where they ran auditions -- he'd expected her to call him on the number on the card, not just come down. Stevenson was busy that day, and left the office, telling Martha on his way out the door that he'd be back in a bit, and to answer the phone if it rang, leaving her alone in the office. She started answering the phone, calling herself the "A&R secretary", taking messages, and sorting out problems. She was asked to come back the next day, and worked there three weeks for no pay before getting herself put on a salary as Stevenson's secretary. Once her foot was in the door at Motown, she also started helping out on sessions, as almost all the staff there did, adding backing vocals, handclaps, or footstomps for a five-dollar-per-session bonus.  One of her jobs as Stevenson's secretary was to phone and book session musicians and singers,  and for one session the Andantes, Motown's normal female backing vocal group, were unavailable. Martha got the idea to call the rest of the DelPhis -- who seem like they might even have been split up at this point, depending on which source you read -- and see if they wanted to do the job instead. They had to audition for Berry Gordy, but Gordy was perfectly happy with them and signed them to Motown. Their role was mostly to be backing vocalists, but the plan was that they would also cut a few singles themselves as well.  But Gordy didn't want to sign them as the Del-Phis -- he didn't know what the details of their contract with Checkmate were, and who actually owned the name. So they needed a new name. At first they went with the Dominettes, but that was soon changed, before they ever made a record What happened is a matter of some dispute, because this seems to be the moment that Martha Reeves took over the group -- it may be that the fact that she was the one booking them for the sessions and so in charge of whether they got paid or not changed the power dynamics of the band -- and so different people give different accounts depending on who they want to seem most important. But the generally accepted story is that Martha suggested a name based on the street she lived on, Van Dyke Street, and Della Reese, Martha's favourite singer, who had hits like "Don't You Know?": [Excerpt: Della Reese, "Don't You Know?"] The group became Martha and the Vandellas -- although Rosalind Ashford, who says that the group name was not Martha's work, also says that the group weren't "Martha and the Vandellas" to start with, but just the Vandellas, and this might be the case, as at this point Gloria rather than Martha was still the lead singer. The newly-named Vandellas were quickly put to work, mostly working on records that Mickey Stevenson produced. The first record they sang on was not credited either to the Vandellas *or* to Martha and the Vandellas, being instead credited to Saundra Mallett and the Vandellas – Mallett was a minor Motown singer who they were backing for this one record. The song was one written by Berry Gordy, as an attempt at a "Loco-Motion" clone, and was called "Camel Walk": [Excerpt: Saundra Mallett and the Vandellas, "Camel Walk"] More famously, there was the record that everyone talks about as being the first one to feature the Vandellas, even though it came out after "Camel Walk", one we've already talked about before, Marvin Gaye's "Stubborn Kind of Fellow": [Excerpt: Marvin Gaye, "Stubborn Kind of Fellow"] That became Gaye's breakout hit, and as well as singing in the studio for other artists and trying to make their own records, the Vandellas were now also Marvin Gaye's backing vocalists, and at shows like the Motortown Revue shows, as well as performing their own sets, the Vandellas would sing with Gaye as well. While they were not yet themselves stars, they had a foot on the ladder, and through working with Marvin they got to perform with all sorts of other people -- Martha was particularly impressed by the Beach Boys, who performed on the same bill as them in Detroit, and she developed a lifelong crush on Mike Love. But while the Vandellas were Motown's go-to backing vocalists in 1962, they still wanted to make their own records. They did make one record with Gloria singing lead, "You’ll Never Cherish A Love So True (‘Til You Lose It)": [Excerpt: The Vells, "You’ll Never Cherish A Love So True (‘Til You Lose It)"] But that was released not as by the Vandellas, but by the Vells, because by the time it was released, the Vandellas had more or less by accident become definitively MARTHA and the Vandellas. The session that changed everything came about because Martha was still working as Mickey Stevenson's secretary. Stevenson was producing a record for Mary Wells, and he had a problem. Stevenson had recently instituted a new system for his recordings at Motown. Up to this point, they'd been making records with everyone in the studio at the same time -- all the musicians, the lead singer, the backing vocalists, and so on. But that became increasingly difficult when the label's stars were on tour all the time, and it also meant that if the singer flubbed a note a good bass take would also be wrecked, or vice versa. It just wasn't efficient. So, taking advantage of the ability to multitrack, Stevenson had started doing things differently. Now backing tracks would be recorded by the Funk Brothers in the studio whenever a writer-producer had something for them to record, and then the singer would come in later and overdub their vocals when it was convenient to do that. That also had other advantages -- if a singer turned out not to be right for the song, they could record another singer doing it instead, and they could reuse backing tracks, so if a song was a hit for, say, the Miracles, the Marvelettes could then use the same backing track for a cover version of it to fill out an album. But there was a problem with this system, and that problem was the Musicians' Union. The union had a rule that if musicians were cutting a track that was intended to have a vocal, the vocalist *must* be present at the session -- like a lot of historical union rules, this seems faintly ridiculous today, but no doubt there were good reasons for it at the time.  Motown, like most labels, were perfectly happy to break the union rules on occasion, but there was always the possibility of a surprise union inspection, and one turned up while Mickey Stevenson was cutting "I'll Have to Let Him Go". Mary Wells wasn't there, and knowing that his secretary could sing, Stevenson grabbed her and got her to go into the studio and sing the song while the musicians played. Martha decided to give the song everything she had, and Stevenson was impressed enough that he decided to give the song to her, rather than Wells, and at the same session that the Vandellas recorded the songs with Gloria on lead, they recorded new vocals to the backing track that Stevenson had recorded that day: [Excerpt: Martha and the Vandellas, "I'll Have to Let Him Go"] That was released under the Martha and the Vandellas name, and around this point Gloria left the group. Some have suggested that this was because she didn't like Martha becoming the leader, while others have said that it's just that she had a good job working for the city, and didn't want to put that at risk by becoming a full-time singer. Either way, a week after the Vandellas record came out, Motown released "You’ll Never Cherish A Love So True (‘Til You Lose It)" under the name The Vells.  Neither single had any chart success, but that wouldn't be true for the next one, which wouldn't be released for another five months. But when it was finally released, it would be regarded as the beginning of the "Motown Sound". Before that record, Motown had released many extraordinary records, and we've looked at some of them. But after it, it began a domination of the American charts that would last the rest of the decade; a domination caused in large part by the team of Holland, Dozier, and Holland. We've heard a little from the Holland brothers and Lamont Dozier, separately, in previous episodes looking at Motown, but this is the point at which they go from being minor players within the Motown organisation to being the single most important team for the label's future commercial success, so we should take a proper look at them now. Eddie Holland started working with Berry Gordy years before the start of Motown -- he was a singer who was known for having a similar sounding voice to that of Jackie Wilson, and Gordy had taken him on first as a soundalike demo singer, recording songs written for Wilson so Wilson could hear how they would sound in his voice, and later trying to mould him into a Wilson clone, starting with Holland's first single, "You": [Excerpt: Eddie Holland, "You"] Holland quickly found that he didn't enjoy performing on stage -- he loved singing, but he didn't like the actual experience of being on stage. However, he continued doing it, in the belief that one should not just quit a job until a better opportunity comes along. Before becoming a professional singer, Holland had sung in street-corner doo-wop groups with his younger brother Brian. Brian, unlike Eddie, didn't have a particularly great voice, but what he did have was a great musical mind -- he could instantly figure out all the harmony parts for the whole group, and had a massive talent for arrangement. Eddie spent much of his early time working with Gordy trying to get Gordy to take his little brother seriously -- at the time,  Brian Holland was still in his early teens, and Gordy refused to believe he could be as talented as Eddie said. Eventually, though, Gordy listened to Brian and took him under his wing, pairing him with Janie Bradford to add music to Bradford's lyrics, and also teaching him to engineer. One of Brian Holland's first engineering jobs was for a song recorded by Eddie, written as a jingle for a wine company but released as a single under the name "Briant Holland" -- meaning it has often over the years been assumed to be Brian singing lead: [Excerpt: Briant Holland, "(Where's the Joy) in Nature Boy?"] When Motown started up, Brian had become a staffer -- indeed, he has later claimed that he was the very first person employed by Motown as a permanent staff member. While Eddie was out on the road performing, Brian was  writing, producing, and singing backing vocals on many, many records. We've already heard how he was the co-writer and producer on "Please Mr. Postman" by the Marvelettes: [Excerpt: The Marvelettes, "Please Mr. Postman"] That had obviously been a massive hit, and Motown's first number one, but Brian was still definitely just one of the Motown team, and not as important a part of it as Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson, or Mickey Stevenson. Meanwhile, Eddie finally had a minor hit of his own, with "Jamie", a song co-written by Barrett Strong and Mickey Stevenson, and originally recorded by Strong -- when Strong left the label, they took the backing track intended for him and had Holland record new vocals over it. [Excerpt: Eddie Holland, "Jamie"] That made the top thirty, which must have been galling at the time for Strong, who'd quit in part because he couldn't get a hit. But the crucial thing that lifted the Holland brothers from being just parts of the Motown machine to being the most important creative forces in the company was when Brian Holland became friendly with Anne Dozier, who worked at Motown packing records, and whose husband Lamont was a singer. Lamont Dozier had been around musical people all his life -- at Hutchins Junior High School, he was a couple of years below Marv Johnson, the first Motown star, he knew Freda Payne, and one of his classmates was Otis Williams, later of the Temptations. But it was another junior high classmate who, as he puts it, "lit a fire under me to take some steps to get my own music heard by the world", when one of his friends asked him if he felt like coming along to church to hear another classmate sing. Dozier had no idea this classmate sang, but he went along, and as it happens, we have some recordings of that classmate singing and playing piano around that time: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood"] That's fourteen-year-old Aretha Franklin, and as you can imagine, being classmates with someone who could perform like that caused Lamont Dozier to radically revise his ideas of what it was possible for him to do. He'd formed a doo-wop group called the Romeos, and they released their first single, with both sides written by Lamont, by the time he was sixteen: [Excerpt: The Romeos, "Gone Gone Get Away"] The Romeos' third single, "Fine Fine Fine", was picked up by Atlantic for distribution, and did well enough that Atlantic decided they wanted a follow-up, and wrote to them asking them to come into the studio. But Lamont Dozier, at sixteen, thought that he had some kind of negotiating power, and wrote back saying they weren't interested in just doing a single, they wanted to do an album. Jerry Wexler wrote back saying "fair enough, you're released from your contract", and the Romeos' brief career was over before it began. He joined the Voice Masters, the first group signed to Anna Records, and sang on records of theirs like "Hope and Pray", the very first record ever put out by a Gordy family label: [Excerpt: The Voice Masters, "Hope and Pray"] And he'd continued to sing with them, as well as working for Anna Records doing odd jobs like cleaning the floors. His first solo record on Anna, released under the name Lamont Anthony, featured Robert White on guitar, James Jamerson on bass, Harvey Fuqua on piano, and Marvin Gaye on drums, and was based on the comic character "Popeye": [Excerpt: Lamont Anthony, "Popeye the Sailor Man"] Unfortunately, just as that record was starting to take off, King Features Syndicate, the owners of Popeye, sent a cease and desist order. Dozier went back into the studio and recut the vocal, this time singing about Benny the Skinny Man, instead of Popeye the Sailor Man: [Excerpt: Lamont Anthony, "Benny the Skinny Man"] But without the hook of it being about Popeye, the song flopped. Dozier joined Motown when that became the dominant part of the Gordy family operation, and signed up as a songwriter and producer. Robert Batemen had just stopped working with Brian Holland as a production team, and when Anne Dozier suggested that Holland go and meet her husband who was just starting at Motown, Holland walked in to find Dozier working at the piano, writing a song but stuck for a middle section. Holland told him he had an idea, sat next to him at the piano, and came up with the bridge. The two instantly clicked musically -- they discovered that they almost had a musical telepathy, and Holland got Freddie Gorman, his lyricist partner at the time, to finish up the lyrics for the song while he and Dozier came up with more ideas. That song became a Marvelettes album track, "Forever", which a few years later would be put out as a B-side, and make the top thirty in its own right: [Excerpt: The Marvelettes, "Forever"] Holland and Dozier quickly became a strong musical team -- Dozier had a great aptitude for coming up with riffs and hooks, both lyrical and musical, and rhythmic ideas, while Brian Holland could come up with great melodies and interesting chord changes, though both could do both. In the studio Brian would work with the drummers, while Lamont would work with the keyboard players and discuss the bass parts with James Jamerson. Their only shortfall was lyrically. They could both write lyrics -- and Lamont would often come up with a good title or hook phrase -- but they were slow at doing it. For the lyrics, they mostly worked with Freddie Gorman, and sometimes got Janie Bradford in. These teams came up with some great records, like "Contract on Love", which sounds very like a Four Seasons pastiche but also points the way to Holland and Dozier's later sound: [Excerpt: Little Stevie Wonder, "Contract on Love"] Both Little Stevie Wonder and the backing vocalists on that, the Temptations, would do better things later, but that's still a solid record. Meanwhile, Eddie Holland had had a realisation that would change the course of Motown. "Jamie" had been a hit, but he received no royalties -- he'd had a run of flop singles, so he hadn't yet earned out the production costs on his records. His first royalty statement after his hit showed him still owing Motown money. He asked his brother, who got a royalty statement at the same time, if he was in the same boat, and Brian showed him the statement for several thousand dollars that he'd made from the songs he'd written. Eddie decided that he was in the wrong job. He didn't like performing anyway, and his brother was making serious money while he was working away earning nothing. He took nine months off from doing anything other than the bare contractual minimum, -- where before he would spend every moment at Hitsville, now he only turned up for his own sessions -- and spent that time teaching himself songwriting. He studied Smokey Robinson's writing, and he developed his own ideas about what needed to be in a lyric -- he didn't want any meaningless filler words, he wanted every word to matter. He also wanted to make sure that even if people misheard a line or two, they would be able to get the idea of the song from the other lines, so he came up with a technique he referred to as "repeat-fomation", where he would give the same piece of information two or three times, paraphrasing it.  When the next Marvelettes album, The Marvellous Marvelettes, was being finished up by Mickey Stevenson, Motown got nervous about the album, thinking it didn't have a strong enough single on it, and so Brian Holland and Dozier were asked to come up with a new Marvelettes single in a hurry. Freddie Gorman had more or less stopped songwriting by this point, as he was spending most of his time working as a postman, and so, in need of another writing partner, they called on Eddie, who had been writing with various people. The three of them wrote and produced "Locking Up My Heart", the first single to be released with the writing credit "Holland-Dozier-Holland": [Excerpt: The Marvelettes, "Locking Up My Heart"] That was a comparative flop for the Marvelettes, and the beginning of the downward slump we talked about for them in the episode on "Please Mr. Postman", but the second Holland-Dozier-Holland single, recorded ten days later, was a very different matter. That one was for Martha and the Vandellas, and became widely regarded as the start of Motown's true Golden Age -- so much so that Brian and Eddie Holland's autobiography is named after this, rather than after any of the bigger and more obvious hits they would later co-write. The introduction to "Come and Get These Memories" isn't particularly auspicious -- the Vandellas singing the chorus: [Excerpt: Martha and the Vandellas, "Come and Get These Memories"] Hearing all three of the Vandellas, all of whom have such strong, distinctive voices, sing together is if anything a bit much -- the Vandellas aren't a great harmony group in the way that some of the other Motown groups are, and they work best when everyone's singing an individual line rather than block harmonies. But then we're instantly into the sound that Holland, Dozier, and Holland -- really Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier, who took charge of the musical side of things, with Eddie concentrating on the lyrics -- would make their own. There's a lightly swung rhythm, but with a strong backbeat with handclaps and tambourine emphasising the two and four-- the same rhythmic combination that made so many of the very early rock and roll records we looked at in the first year of the podcast, but this time taken at a more sedate pace, a casual stroll rather than a sprint. There's the simple, chorded piano and guitar parts, both instruments often playing in unison and again just emphasising the rhythm rather than doing anything more complex. And there's James Jamerson's wonderful, loping bass part, doing the exact opposite of what the piano and guitar are doing. [Excerpt: Martha and the Vandellas, “Come and Get These Memories”] In almost every record in the rock and roll, soul, and R&B genres up to this point -- I say "almost every" because, as I've said many times before, there are always exceptions and there is never a first of anything -- the bass does one of two things: it either plods along just playing the root notes, or it plays a simple, repeated, ostinato figure throughout, acting as a backbone while the other instruments do more interesting things. James Jamerson is the first bass player outside the jazz and classical fields to prominently, repeatedly, do something very different -- he's got the guitars and piano holding down the rhythm so steadily that he doesn't need to. He plays melodies, largely improvised, that are jumping around and going somewhere different from where you'd expect.  "Come and Get These Memories" was largely written before Eddie's involvement, and the bulk of the lyric was Lamont Dozier's. He's said that in this instance he was inspired by country singers like Loretta Lynn, and the song's lyrical style, taking physical objects and using them as a metaphor for emotional states, certainly seems very country: [Excerpt: Martha and the Vandellas, "Come and Get These Memories"] "Come and Get These Memories" made number twenty-nine on the pop charts and number six on the R&B charts. Martha and the Vandellas were finally stars. As was the normal practice at Motown, when an artist had a hit, the writing and production team were given the chance to make the follow-up with them, and so the followup was another Holland/Dozier/Holland song, again from an idea by Lamont Dozier, as most of their collaborations with the Vandellas would be. "Heat Wave" is another leap forward, and is quite possibly the most exciting record that Motown had put out to this point. Where "Come and Get These Memories" established the Motown sound, this one establishes the Martha and the Vandellas sound, specifically, and the style that Holland, Dozier, and Holland would apply to many of their more uptempo productions for other artists. This is the subgenre of Motown that, when it was picked up by fans in the North of England, became known as Northern Soul -- the branch of Motown music that led directly to Disco, to Hi-NRG, to electropop, to the Stock-Aitken-Waterman hit factory of the eighties, to huge chunks of gay culture, and to almost all music made for dancing in whatever genre after this point. Where "Come and Get These Memories" is mid-tempo, "Heat Wave" races along. Where "Come and Get These Memories" swings, "Heat Wave" stomps. "Come and Get These Memories" has the drums swinging and the percussion accenting the backbeat, here the drums are accenting the backbeat while the tambourine is hitting every beat dead on, four/four. It's a rhythm which has something in common with some of the Four Seasons' contemporary hits, but it's less militaristic than those. While "Pistol" Allen's drumming starts out absolutely hard on the beat, he swings it more and more as the record goes on, trusting to the listener once that hard rhythm has been established, allowing him to lay back behind the beat just a little. This is where my background as a white English man, who has never played music for dancing -- when I tried to be a musician myself, it was jangly guitar pop I was playing -- limits me. I have a vocabulary for chords and for melodies, but when it comes to rhythms, at a certain point my vocabulary goes away, and all I can do is say "just... *listen*" It's music that makes you need to dance, and you can either hear that or you can't -- but of course, you can: [Excerpt: Martha and the Vandellas, "Heat Wave"] And Martha Reeves' voice is perfect for the song. Most female Motown singers were pop singers first and foremost -- some of them, many of them, *great* pop singers, but all with voices fundamentally suited to gentleness. Reeves was a belter. She has far more blues and gospel influence in her voice than many of the other Motown women, and she's showing it here. "Heat Wave" made the top ten, as did the follow-up, a "Heat Wave" soundalike called "Quicksand". But the two records after that, both still Holland/Dozier/Holland records, didn't even make the top forty, and Annette left, being replaced by Betty Kelly. The new lineup of the group were passed over to Mickey Stevenson, for a record that would become the one for which they are best remembered to this day. It wasn't as important a record in the development of the Motown sound as "Come and Get These Memories" or "Heat Wave", but "Dancing in the Street" was a masterpiece. Written by Stevenson, Marvin Gaye, and Ivy Joe Hunter, it features Gaye on drums, but the most prominent percussive sound is Hunter, who, depending on which account you read was either thrashing a steel chain against something until his hands bled, or hitting a tire iron.  And Martha's vocal is astonishing -- and has an edge to it. Apparently this was the second take, and she sounds a little annoyed because she absolutely nailed the vocal on the first take only to find that there'd been a problem recording it. [Excerpt: Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, "Dancing in the Street"] That went to number two in the charts, and would be the group's cultural and commercial high point. The song also gained some notoriety two years later when, in the wake of civil rights protests that were interpreted as rioting, the song was interpreted as being a call to riot -- it was assumed that instead of being about dancing it was actually about rioting, something the Rolling Stones would pick up on later when they released "Street Fighting Man", a song that owes more than a little to the Vandellas classic. The record after that, "Wild One", was so much of a "Dancing in the Streets" soundalike that I've seen claims that the backing track is an alternate take of the earlier song. It isn't, but it sounds like it could be. But the record after that saw them reunited with Holland/Dozier/Holland, who provided them with yet another great track, "Nowhere to Run": [Excerpt: Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, "Nowhere to Run"] For the next few years the group would release a string of classic hits, like "Jimmy Mack" and "Honey Chile", but the rise of the Supremes, who we'll talk about in a month, meant that like the Marvelettes before them the Vandellas became less important to Motown. When Motown moved from Detroit to LA in the early seventies, Martha was one of those who decided not to make the move with the label, and the group split up, though the original lineup occasionally reunited for big events, and made some recordings for Ian Levine's Motorcity label. Currently, there are two touring Vandellas groups. One, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, consists of Martha and two of her sisters -- including Lois, who was a late-period member of the group before they split, replacing Betty in 1967. Meanwhile "The Original Vandellas" consist of Rosalind and Annette. Gloria died in 2000, but Martha and the Vandellas are one of the very few sixties hitmaking groups where all the members of their classic lineup are still alive and performing. Martha, Rosalind, Betty, Annette, and Lois were all also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, becoming only the second all-female group to be inducted.  The Vandellas were one of the greatest of the Motown acts, and one of the greatest of the girl groups, and their biggest hits stand up against anything that any of the other Motown acts were doing at the time. When you hear them now, even almost sixty years later, you're still hearing the sound they were in at the birth of, the sound of young America.  

As if to reward us for making it through 2020, listener Michael Carlstrom reminded us that Flash Gordon is currently celebrating its 40th Anniversary. So we managed to squeak in this colorful and campy 80s sci-fi romp through space (with a Queen soundtrack!) right before the end of this nightmare year. And it's exactly what we needed. *Flash Gordon © 1980 Universal Studios. Flash Gordon® and its associated titles, logos, and characters are registered trademarks of King Features Syndicate, Inc. and Hearst Holdings, Inc. This production is not sponsored, endorsed by or affiliated with King Features Syndicate, Inc., Hearst Holdings, Inc. or any subsidiaries or affiliated companies and/or third party licensors thereof.

And now the conclusion to this rambling and too brief history of King Features Syndicate, one of the great comic strip syndicates of the medium.

And now the first part of this rambling and too brief history of King Features Syndicate, one of the most important comic strip syndicates in the medium.

Peabody-winning writer, producer, director, and educator Bridget Terry is in the Lair to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the feature film Popeye and her incredible chronicle of the film’s production – The Popeye Story!Photos courtesy Bridget TerryBook image TM & copyright © King Features Syndicate, Paramount/CBSPopeye Official SiteOrder Popeye 40th anniversary Blu-rayOrder Popeye deluxe soundtrack […]

Peabody-winning writer, producer, director, and educator Bridget Terry is in the Lair to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the feature film Popeye and her incredible chronicle of the film’s production – The Popeye Story!Photos courtesy Bridget TerryBook image TM & copyright © King Features Syndicate, Paramount/CBSPopeye Official SiteOrder Popeye 40th anniversary Blu-rayOrder Popeye deluxe soundtrack […]

Star of stage and screen, Roberta Maxwell, joins me to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the feature film Popeye! Roberta talks about bringing Nana Oyl to life in the film, and working with Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, and director Robert Altman!Photo courtesy Roberta MaxwellImages TM & copyright © King Features Syndicate, Paramount/CBSPopeye Official Site Stuff […]

Star of stage and screen, Roberta Maxwell, joins me to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the feature film Popeye! Roberta talks about bringing Nana Oyl to life in the film, and working with Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, and director Robert Altman!Photo courtesy Roberta MaxwellImages TM & copyright © King Features Syndicate, Paramount/CBSPopeye Official Site Stuff […]

If you want to see a bunch of powerful comic book superheroes team up to fend off extraterrestrial threats to our home planet, there's no better place to look than Marvel's Avengers Defenders of the Earth! This 1986 animated series from King Features, with development by Marvel and production from a trio of overseas studios including Toei Animation, united the bigger-than-life heroes of King Features Syndicate. Flash Gordon, Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, and Lothar joined forces to defend Earth (hence the name) from the villainous intents of Ming the Merciless. Helping to fight back for the fate of their planet were the second generation of heroes, including Rick Gordon, Jedda Walker, the adopted son Kshin and his space-alien pet Zuffy, and Lothar "L.J." Junior. While these characters might not be the first that come to mind when thinking about comic book superheroes, they're definitely classics for a reason. We're coming up on their 100th anniversary -- a pretty monumental task for any character, really -- so what better way to celebrate than by watching Defenders of the Earth? Unfortunately, some of the backwards tropes -- racist, misogynist, every other -ist -- is part of the package here. Is it bad enough to dip, or just enough to force us into tough conversations? Tune in to find out! (And big thanks to @MrJake for the listener recommendation!) - Support the Show through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/saturdaymourningcartoons - Want to find our cohosts online? Dave Trumbore collider.com/author/dave-trumbore Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrClawMD Buy the book 'The Science of Breaking Bad' - https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/science-breaking-bad Sean Paul Ellis IG and twitter @seanpaulellis Performer at Washington Improv Theater where you can find tickets and times. The Bureau podcast: https://tunein.com/podcasts/Comedy-Podcasts/The-Bureau-p1290704/ If you are digging our show and want to help you out, then you can do so in the following ways: 1. Recommend a cartoon to us: Call us and leave a message at 202-681-4406. If you call then we will 100% review you recommendations if we haven't watched the cartoon yet. 2. Leave a review on iTunes with the following message titled "This TEA is great for ME!“ with the review, “But what about THEM?!" 3. Like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SaturdayMourningCartoons/ 4. Follow us on twitter @MourningToons 5. Check us out on Instagram @SaturdayMourningCartoons

In Episode 35 of Idea Diary - Today, I talk about a comic artist collaboration, a fun youtube channel called MAKEOVERGUY, time slowing down inside recording a podcast, and my goal of peaceful excitement. Check out this YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMakeoverGuy Six Chix is a collaborative comic strip distributed by King Features Syndicate since it debuted in January 2000. The series is drawn by six female cartoonists who rotate the drawing duties through the week based on a fixed schedule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Chix Thank you so much for listening today! "Idea Diary" is a business lifestyle podcast about creative entrepreneurship. "Idea Diary" focuses on building creative businesses, and chronicles how Valerie Aiello uses multiple skills to create products, illustrations, film, music, and businesses. — Valerie Aiello is a multi-hyphenate brand expert from Austin, Texas. — Podcast: Idea Diary - On Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2nVoYHJF5K6wGvnTkAmHAn?si=JWZP-2m9Tz6WN4iI6B4v6Q LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valerieaiello/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/valerieaiello Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValerieLovesBusiness/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/valerieaiello/ Website: https://www.valerieaiello.com — Subscribe to follow my business journey! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valerieaiello/support

The comic strips you grew up with, and your great-grandma grew up with, are probably from King Features Syndicate: a comics syndicate over 100 years old! Tea Fougner is the Editorial Director for Comics at King Features Syndicate and joins us to talk about comics strips past and present. As Tea says, “Comics is a format, not a genre." Find out: Which vintage adventure strips will modern readers enjoy?Popeye: OriginsThe kweerness of Krazy KatThe 1970s splenders of Apartment 3GThe Lockhorns are someone’s hip memePopeye on socialism and economic policy“Mandrake the Magician was Doctor Strange before Doctor Strange”How to read King Features comics. Literally.Popeye is compassionate Tea tweets as https://twitter.com/teaberryblue.

Our guest today is author and illustrator Jerry Craft (@JerryCraft). He shares NEW KID, his new middle grade graphic novel about seventh grader Jordan Banks who loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in the prestigious Riverdale Academy Day School, where he is now one of the few kids of color in his entire grade. As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worldsand not really fitting into either. Can he learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself?During our conversation Jerry also shares his love of comics, art and how he co-founded the Schomburg Center's Annual Black Comic Book Festival. To learn more about NEW KID and its author and illustrator go to www.jerrycraft.net.Social MediaTwitter, Instagram and Facebook: @jerrycraftBio:JERRY CRAFT is an author and illustrator who has worked on numerous picture books, graphic novels, and middle grade novels. His newest book, New Kid, is a middle grade graphic novel that has earned four starred reviews, including one from Booklist Magazine that called it "Possibly one of the most important graphic novels of the year." Kirkus Reviews called it "An engrossing, humorous, and vitally important graphic novel that should be required reading in every middle school in America."Jerry's books have been Junior Library Guild selections, and he has won five African American Literary Awards. He is the creator of Mama's Boyz, an award-winning comic strip that was distributed by King Features Syndicate from 1995 - 2013. He is a co-founder and co-producer of the Schomburg's Annual Black Comic Book Festival which has drawn close to 50,000 fans since its inception in 2013. Jerry was born in Harlem and grew up in nearby Washington Heights. He is a graduate of The Fieldston School and received his B.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts.

Our guest today is author and illustrator Jerry Craft (@JerryCraft). He shares NEW KID, his new middle grade graphic novel about seventh grader Jordan Banks who loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in the prestigious Riverdale Academy Day School, where he is now one of the few kids of color in his entire grade. As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds—and not really fitting into either. Can he learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself? During our conversation Jerry also shares his love of comics, art and how he co-founded the Schomburg Center's Annual Black Comic Book Festival. To learn more about NEW KID and its author and illustrator go to www.jerrycraft.net. Social Media Twitter, Instagram and Facebook: @jerrycraft Bio: JERRY CRAFT is an author and illustrator who has worked on numerous picture books, graphic novels, and middle grade novels. His newest book, New Kid, is a middle grade graphic novel that has earned four starred reviews, including one from Booklist Magazine that called it "Possibly one of the most important graphic novels of the year." Kirkus Reviews called it "An engrossing, humorous, and vitally important graphic novel that should be required reading in every middle school in America." Jerry's books have been Junior Library Guild selections, and he has won five African American Literary Awards. He is the creator of Mama's Boyz, an award-winning comic strip that was distributed by King Features Syndicate from 1995 - 2013. He is a co-founder and co-producer of the Schomburg's Annual Black Comic Book Festival which has drawn close to 50,000 fans since its inception in 2013. Jerry was born in Harlem and grew up in nearby Washington Heights. He is a graduate of The Fieldston School and received his B.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts.

Brandon Wilson is an L.A. based filmmaker and educator. He has made two microbudget features, the most recent one -SEPULVEDA which he co-directed with his wife Jena English- is streaming on Vimeo. A former LAUSD teacher, he currently teaches graduate and undergraduate film courses at UCLA, Columbia College Hollywood. He's been reading comic books off and on for almost 40 years. Tea Fougner is the Editorial Director for Comics at King Features Syndicate. When she's not reading comics for work, she's reading comics for fun, drawing comics, dressing up as comic book characters, or watching comic adaptations on television. (Tea is one of my favorite Captain America experts.) “I want families to be reunited and a sense of normalcy to be restored to the world.”Our Infinity War episode was staggeringly prescientFDR hands it off to the AfrofuturistsThe gayest thing was Carol's hair“ I would very much like to hear your panelists discuss the concept of "America's ass" as it relates to the super-soldier serum, bodily autonomy, and conceptions of identification versus ownership.”Read CK Stewart on fatphobia

Jay Edidin is half of the podcast Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men (“because it’s about time someone did”). He writes comics, short fiction, and narrative nonfiction; and edits comics, transmedia, and genre fiction. Jay was named comicbook.com's 2017 Comics Person of the Year for his investigative coverage of harassment issues at D.C. Comics and his work to foster diversity and inclusion in comics culture. Tea Fougner is the Editorial Director for Comics at King Features Syndicate. When she's not reading comics for work, she's reading comics for fun, drawing comics, dressing up as comic book characters, or watching comic adaptations on television. Graphic Policy (& guests) loved Netflix Punisher S1. Now here's our take on Season 2... We X-Plain: Joker and Harley Quinn, Netflix styleWhich Wolverine sidekick is Amy?The Skull Vs The MaskWhen You Name Your Episode After Batman: The Killing JokeHow Punisher shops for hot dog rollsComparisons to Mrs. Dalloway and Assault on Precinct 13“Curtis deserves better than the universe he’s stuck in, or any of the people he interacts with.”Punisher comics recommendations and warnings

Captain Marvel merits a conversation that can celebrate it’s feminism and anti-Imperialist themes while criticizing its Air Force propaganda packaging. Queer subtext? 90s throwbacks? We’ve got you covered: Chelsea Manning is Captain Marvel!How we're shapeshifters (Elana's essay about feeling like a Skrull for Wired.com )Monica is the hero“Top Gun is why I almost enlisted, Don't Ask Don't Tell is why I didn’t”The meaning of Nick Fury’s EyeCarol and Maria holding the “gayz” Felicia Perez is the Innovation Director at the Center for Story-based Strategy. She previously worked at the United Workers Congress, ACLU of Southern California & was a high school social studies for twelve years in the Los Angeles Unified School District where she was also an active union leader and chapter chair for United Teachers of Los Angeles. Tea Fougner is the Editorial Director for Comics at King Features Syndicate. When she's not reading comics for work, she's reading comics for fun, drawing comics, dressing up as comic book characters, or watching comic adaptations on television. Tea is at @TeaberryBlue on everything.

She-ra is Netflix new cartoon is a diverse, queer feminist re-envisioning of a cartoon from the 80s. It’s by showrunner Noelle Stevenson of Nimoa comics fame and we LOVE it. Joining Elana to talk about it are: Mey Rude is a queer, fat, trans Latina, a writer, a tastemaker and a lover of nerds. She lives in LA and you can find her writing at Autostraddle, Remezcla, them.us and other places. On Twitter @meyrude. Tea Fougner is the Editorial Director for Comics at King Features Syndicate. When she's not reading comics for work, she's reading comics for fun, drawing comics, dressing up as comic book characters, or watching comic adaptations on television. Tea is at @TeaberryBlue on everything. Observed: What the old cartoon got right, what the new cartoon got even better She-ra is a Star Wars but everyone’s a girl The importance of LGBTQ cartoons for kids Trope busting characters such as; A socialist flying horse Entrapta and her robot Emily Scorpiana’s particular Mid-Western dyke energy “Seahawk is pansexual because he loves men, he loves women and he loves the sea”.- Tea

Podgodz 278 Recorded 20 February 2018 Lots of Barney Miller   Adds/Drops/Updates   Add: Do Tell Ray, TeeVee Westworld Rewatch Drop: -/- Updates:   Shows that pissed me off/weren’t good TV Guidance Counselor #280: Susannah Breslin   Top 10 shows of the Week   Up for contention but not making the list this week No Agenda #1006: Congressional Jignitty, #1008: Ghost Gun Defocused #182: It's Fun You Can Take to the Bank (22 Jump Street) Omnibus: Megafauna     LAX Top 10 10) Do By Friday: Problematic Clog 9)   Incomparable Game Show #80: The Answer's Always Michael George 8)   Skip To The End #89: I, Tonya 7)   Defocused #183: Resting Sad Face (Nightcrawler) 6)   Do By Friday: Hândjobberie 5)   The Villain Edit #40: Why is King Features Syndicate in my Read More →

Podgodz 278 Recorded 20 February 2018 Lots of Barney Miller   Adds/Drops/Updates   Add: Do Tell Ray, TeeVee Westworld Rewatch Drop: -/- Updates:   Shows that pissed me off/weren’t good TV Guidance Counselor #280: Susannah Breslin   Top 10 shows of the Week   Up for contention but not making the list this week No Agenda #1006: Congressional Jignitty, #1008: Ghost Gun Defocused #182: It’s Fun You Can Take to the Bank (22 Jump Street) Omnibus: Megafauna     LAX Top 10 10) Do By Friday: Problematic Clog 9)   Incomparable Game Show #80: The Answer’s Always Michael George 8)   Skip To The End #89: I, Tonya 7)   Defocused #183: Resting Sad Face (Nightcrawler) 6)   Do By Friday: Hândjobberie 5)   The Villain Edit #40: Why is King Features Syndicate in my Read More →

In a very special X-Band, recorded on the 82nd anniversary of the debut of the newspaper strip, the phellas are lucky enough to talk to current The Phantom Daily artist, Mike Manley.Mike has worked on the Phantom for almost two years, and on Judge Parker for eight years, so he has a wealth of experience when it comes to the schedules and deadlines that face a comic strip artist in 2018.Mike tells us about his history as a comic book artist, animator and teacher. We discuss his process in drawing the strip and the balance of digital vs pen and paper, as well as using assistants. Mike responds to some of the online criticism that every artist seems to receive, and also shares his thoughts about the future of the Phantom character and the strip in general.It's a fascinating chat with a fascinating man - we know you'll enjoy it!Happy Phantoming.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/chroniclechamber)

Dan and Jermayn go back to school in Episode 83, when we talk to one of the world's foremost academic experts on The Phantom, Kevin Patrick, author of the recently released The Phantom Unmasked: America's First Superhero. In a wide-ranging discussion, the phellas discuss the cultural phenomenon that is The Phantom, the spread of the character and comic strip around the world, and discuss reasons for his popularity (or otherwise) in Australia, India, Sweden and the USA. Kevin also provides some fascinating insights into the history of King Features Syndicate and the business that is The Phantom.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/chroniclechamber)

In a very special X-Band, the phellas are lucky enough to talk to new Sunday artist, Jeff Weigel. Jeff takes the opportunity to introduce himself to phans, filling us in on his history and background as an artist, as well as his history with the Ghost Who Walks. We find out a little about how Jeff has been re-acquainting himself with Phantom Country, and the support he's been receiving from outgoing author Tony DePaul. Jeff also tells us what he knows about the change of writer. There are also some fascinating insights into the process of creating art for a modern Phantom artist, as Jeff takes us through the pros and cons of digital versus traditional drawing.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/chroniclechamber)

In this episode Jermayn, Dan and Steve are joined by phan and renown Falkist Jon as they discuss a trend that seems to be occurring in both the Dailies and the Scandinavian comics... are we seeing the lead up for the death of the 21st Phantom? This episode enjoys healthy discussion from phans on both sides of the argument- does the 21st need to die? (See if you can pick who's on which side before you listen). We hope you enjoy it and if you feel strongly about the topic please feel free to contact us.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/chroniclechamber)

Nunca fomos tão fundo na nostalgia. Hoje resolvemos chamar o Alexandre, nosso consultor em quadrinhos, pra fazer um 3 em 1 com heróis pulp dos anos 30, vinculados a clássica King Features Syndicate: Flash Gordon, Mandrake e O Fantasma. Quem veio primeiro: Flash Gordon ou Buck Rogers? O Mandrake tinha ou não poderes? Qual a cor verdadeira do uniforme do Fantasma? Essas e outras respostas nesse episódio.

Nunca fomos tão fundo na nostalgia. Hoje resolvemos chamar o Alexandre, nosso consultor em quadrinhos, pra fazer um 3 em 1 com heróis pulp dos anos 30, vinculados a clássica King Features Syndicate: Flash Gordon, Mandrake e O Fantasma. Quem veio primeiro: Flash Gordon ou Buck Rogers? O Mandrake tinha ou não poderes? Qual a cor verdadeira do uniforme do Fantasma? Essas e outras respostas nesse episódio.

For the first Podcast of 2017, Steve, Dan and Jermayn take a look back at the year that was 2016. They share their thoughts on the best writers, best artists, best stories, best issues, best covers, best merch, best addition to our own Skull Caves, best moment of being part of the ChronicleChamber team, and what they thought of 2016 in relation to the Phantom and his 80th year in publication. Enjoy!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/chroniclechamber)

4 Different Time Zones 3 Awestruck Phans 2 Continents and Hemispheres Ladies and Gentleman... The one, Sy BarrySupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/chroniclechamber)

Today's Guest: Jonathan Mahood, daily cartoonist, "Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog"   Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog by Jonathan Mahood Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of the most famous AI in America, including Robot from Lost in Space, Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Blue from IBM and Al Gore from Current TV… in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida! What little boy in the last hundred years didn’t grow up wanting to own or even build his own robot? And a robot dog? Zoinks! What a great idea! Order The Comics by Brian Walker, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! Jonathan Mahood knows what I’m talking about. He may not have built his own 3-D robot, but he used his particular talents to accomplish the next best thing: he created “Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog,” a comic strip you can now find online and in daily newspapers worldwide. JONATHAN MAHOOD audio excerpt: "With newspaper comics, it's got to be easy for the reader to get on board. I got my first iPod and I was sitting outside with my dog. I was thinking about how these two things follow me around. I started working with Skip and a brother, but it didn't work out. Then it was a dog that looked like a battery."  Bleeker – along with his boy owner, Skip – is billed as the next step in the evolution of daily comics going back to Charlie Brown and Snoopy, and on through Calvin and Hobbes. In “Peanuts,” of course, the dog was the dreamer, fighting the Red Baron in aerial dogfights. In “Calvin,” the boy took us all with him on his outer space adventures as he restlessly daydreams in elementary school. But “Bleeker” is what technology has wrought: a fully realized, loyal and allergy-free pet with built-in iPod, cell phone, camera, printer and GPS. Oh, and he has a built-in jetpack, too. And an airbag. (Parents, don’t even ask.) Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog started life as an online strip and today is distributed to newspapers, websites and mobile applications by King Features Syndicate. It can be read daily on more than 100 newspaper sites, DailyINK.com and Bleekercomics.com. Jonathan Mahood Bleeker Website • Bleeker on Daily Ink Comics • Facebook • Twitter Order Will Eisner: A Spirited Life (2nd Edition) by Bob Andelman, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above!   The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="235"] Order Syncopated: An Anthology of Nonfiction Picto-Essays, edited by Brendan Burford, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book Today's Guest: cover above![/caption] Today's Guest: Brendan Burford, comics editor, King Features Syndicate If you read the comics in your daily newspaper, my guest today has probably touched your life. Spider-Man, Hagar the Horrible and Curtis all report to him at his day job as comics editor for King Features Syndicate. But by night—and weekends, no doubt—Brendan Burford is himself a cartoonist dedicated to the notion that comics are more than a 10-second entertainment. He believes in them as journalism, a different way of communicating the events of the day. Brendan Burford, creator of Syncopated, King Features Syndicate editor Burford recently published his fourth edition of Syncopated: An Anthology of Non-Fiction Picto-Essays. It is collection of illustrated stories that, at a few pages each, are longer than daily comics and shorter than a graphic novel. This latest edition of Syncopated includes work by Burford himself, as well as graphic artists including Nick Bertozzi, Josh Neufeld and many others. If you’re interested in expanding your comics horizon, you’ll enjoy reading Syncopated. B rendan Burford Syncopated Jottings blog • Facebook • King Features Daily Ink website • Order Syncopated from Amazon.com Order 'Will Eisner: A Spirited Life' (2nd Edition) by Bob Andelman, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above!   The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Jack Canfield is the originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. He has fostered the emergence of inspirational anthologies as a genre – and watched it grow to a billion dollar market. As the driving force behind the development and delivery of over 100 million books sold through the Chicken Soup for the Soul franchise, Jack Canfield is uniquely qualified to talk about success. Behind the empire Time Magazine called the “publishing phenomenon of the decade” is America’s leading expert in creating peak performance for entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, managers, sales professionals, corporate employees and educators. Canfield is a compelling, empowering and compassionate coach who for the past 30 years has helped hundreds of thousands of individuals achieve their dreams. Canfield is the CEO of Chicken Soup for the Soul Enterprises, a billion dollar empire that encompasses licensing, merchandising and publishing activities around the globe. Jack’s nationally syndicated newspaper column is read in 150 papers worldwide, and the Chicken Soup for the Soul radio shows are syndicated throughout North America. Jack is also syndicated columnist through King Features Syndicate and is a popular news subject featured not only in major trade publications, but in every major metro newspaper across America and in hundreds more around the globe.

May 22, 2015. King Features Syndicate celebrated 100 years of comic strip creation and history with a panel of some of today's greatest illustrators. For transcript, captions, and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6806

On this episode of the interview series, Andy and Derek are happy to have as their guest Dean Mullaney, the editor of IDW's the Library of American Comics and the EuroComics series. His most recent book, The King of the Comics: One Hundred Years of King Features Syndicate will be coming out next month, just in time for the world-famous syndicate's centennial. Dean talks with the Two Guys about the process of gathering strips, his experiences digging through library archives, the importance of working with collectors and enthusiasts, and the challenges of culling the most representative selections for each of his volumes. His new King Features project is no exception, and in fact, Dean describes it as one of his most ambitious, and satisfying, collections to date. Coming in at over 300 pages, the book covers the entire history of the syndicate, even touching upon the early days of William Randolph Hearst's newspapers. Derek and Andy also talk with Dean about a couple of his other recent works, Bravo for Adventure, Alex Toth's magnum opus that has been collected in book form for the first time, and the second release in EuroComics' definitive English-language editions of Hugo Pratt's landmark series, Corto Maltese: Beyond the Windy Isles. Both speak to Mullaney's passion for classic comics as well as his expertise as an editor/curator. Along the way, the guys also discuss Dean's award-winning Genius Alex Toth series, the edited Terry and the Pirates volumes, and his seminal work at Eclipse Comics. This is a must-listen episode for anyone interested in comics strips, comics history, and comics preservation.

For more than three decades, editorial cartoonist Steve Kelley has devoted his attention to public officials the way the radiator grille of a tractor-trailer might devote its attention to June bugs. He has delighted readers by consistently consigning office-holders to the single fate they fear most – that of not being taken seriously. Steve’s editorial cartoons have appeared in Time, Newsweek, US News & World Report, Forbes, Playboy, The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post among others.  His work is a regular feature on many news websites, including Townhall and National Public Radio.

 An honors graduate of Dartmouth College, Steve began his career in 1981 at The San Diego Union-Tribune.  Steve’s work has won many awards including six first-place honors from the California Newspaper Publishers Association. Along with fellow cartoonist Jeff Parker, Steve created and writes the popular daily comic strip Dustin, distributed to 330 newspaper clients by King Features Syndicate. Not one to sit still, Steve began writing and performing stand-up comedy in 1985. He’s appeared at Harrah’s, The Desert Inn and The Riviera in Las Vegas, Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, and Carnegie Hall in New York City.  And Steve is a veteran of seven appearances on The Tonight Show.

“Hoje – 07:50 hs Senhores, bom dia! Fiquei sabendo que vocês ousaram bastante na abordagem dos Defensores da Terra para o nosso cliente da King Features Syndicate & Dynamite Comics. […]

“Hoje – 07:53 hs Senhores, muito bom dia! Voltamos à nostalgia no nosso mais novo job: a King Features Syndicate, associada à Dynamite Comics, decidiram aproveitar o hype do lançamento […]