The Art of Adaptation Matter

As a lifelong comics fan. one of the most interesting parts of interviewing award-winning writer David Gallaher was hearing his insights on the process of adapting a radio show for the comics medium. Here's a brief excerpt.

The Brick By Brick Matter

Over the past few weeks, I interviewed radio historian Martin Grams, Jr. and David Gallaher, writer of the Johnny Dollar graphic novel "The Brief Candle Matter". Of course, the interviews are the easy part. Transcribing them to identify which pieces fit with those already shot to best tell the story is rather more painstaking, though, satisfying in other ways. In any case, I think both of them for sitting down with me.

Lost Voices

I continue to be grateful for the generosity of radio historian John Dunning and his wife Helen in getting me copies of the various interviews they've done with people associated with Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. As time passes, the number of primary sources for a documentary about the golden age of radio can only diminish, making Dunning's conversations with the likes of Jack Johnstone and Bob Bailey's daughter Roberta Goodwin all the more precious. Now, if I could find a similar source of high quality images of the various actors and production personnel who worked on the show, I'd be totally set.

The "What About Bob?" Matter

Last Friday would have been Bob Bailey's 101st birthday. In honor of that, here's a rough version of a segment about him.

D-Day in Mind

The 70th anniversary of the D-Day landing naturally brings radio to mind, as that's how so many Americans learned that their loved ones were in the thick of what (then-)General Eisenhower called "a great crusade". For me, the figure that stands out the most is Orson Welles. With all due respect to titans such as Norman Corwin, Jack Johnstone and Wyllis Cooper (to name a few), I firmly believe that Welles was the greatest talent in the history of radio drama. Welles was many things - showman, agitator, lades man (to put it politely) and, yes, genius. What tends to be overlooked is the degree to which he was a patriot in the finest American tradition, something this special broadcast he produced to mark the D-Day landing makes abundantly clear.

The Remembrance Matter

I get my middle name from a great uncle who served in World War Two as the tail-gunner in a B-17. He didn't make it back. Admittedly, I don't think of him - and the millions of other soldiers who've sacrificed so much for our country - as often as I should. Nonetheless, I am grateful - hopefully more grateful than I was as a child when I first learned about this part of my family history. The freedoms these legions have secured for us are themselves legion, including the freedom to work on a documentary about an old radio show of all things (even if I don't have as much free time to devote to it as I'd like).

The Second Best Matter

When a role is played by multiple actors, there's typically spirited debate among fans about who did it best. Whether the debate is about Sean Connery vs. Roger Moore (or, perhaps, Daniel Craig) or Tom Baker vs. David Tennant (personally, I prefer Christopher Eccleston), the only consensus is that each actor's partisans are confident that the others' are wrong. Johnny Dollar is different, because there is virtually no dissent that Bob Bailey played him best. Where things get interesting is the conversation about who was second best. As you can see from the clip below, three different interviewees each offered different opinions on the matter.