Comic World News

April 22, 2008:
CWN and the Grand Finale! -

February 4, 2008:
In Conclusion - David ends his CWN run with Tezuka's MW from Vertical

February 2, 2008:
Acting Like You Have Nothing to Prove -

February 2, 2008:
The Shoegazer Returns - A New Year Begins, And Our Narrator Makes A Pledge

January 30, 2008:
Tim's Reviews -

September 13, 2007:
Wizard World Chicago Loot, Part One - Stykman, Empty Chamber, the Ztarian Saga, and yes, Little Bunny Foo Foo

February 15, 2007:
I Come Not to Bury Nick Cage... - But to mourn the death of my punchline

November 20, 2006:
The End - Rich's last Chicks & Romance

November 8, 2006:
Joann Sfar's Klezmer - And a Front Racks Hiatus

October 4, 2006:
This Month's Guest: Dave Gibbons - From the pages of Elephantmen!

September 18, 2006:
Back in Berlin - or How I spent my summer

July 29, 2006:
KICKING UP A STORM - An interview with David Lloyd

June 19, 2006:
You Ain't Never Had A Friend Like Me. - Graeme looks at Spidey's "genies"

December 18, 2005:
Disappointed - Sad news for fans of Busiek's CONAN, Stephen King, and others

December 13, 2004:
JUSTICE UNPLUGGED 2 at last !!! - By Fabrice Sapolsky & Xavier Fournier

December 2, 2004:
THE TWELFTH AND FINAL STEP - Say it ain't so, Dan.

November 23, 2004:
The importance of editing -

September 29, 2004:
Mystery and Conundrum indeed! - Where in the world is Jason Pomerantz?

September 13, 2004:
Hello and Goodbye and Hello Again - Change is in the air at CWN and it smells sweet.

August 12, 2004:
The Rise of the Web Toon - New Business Model or Dumb Luck?

July 30, 2004:
The Name Says it All... - Spin Doctors revamp Boomerang.

July 27, 2004:
Bigger Isn't Always Better -

June 8, 2004:
Pre-emptive Strike: MoCCA Arts Festival - Looking forward to the con, rather than looking back at it

The Layer Method
Our top Secret time-saving technique for creating and merging balloons and tails in Illustrator.

Friday, September 3, 2010

The Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Review by Michael May

Written by Kim Deitch
Illustrated by Kim Deitch

Published by Pantheon Books
$21.00

When I reviewed The Stuff of Dreams a couple of years ago, I didn't get the joke at first. Click the link and read the review; you'll see what I mean. After learning that I'd been had though, I promised myself to eventually read Kim Deitch's previous work about Waldo the cartoon cat. And now I have.

Like The Stuff of Dreams, The Boulevard of Broken Dreams is presented as a believe-it-or-not tale about real people who are haunted by a cartoon cat. Deitch's relationship with Waldo changes between the two books though. In Stuff, Deitch and his wife try to hunt down a rare Waldo stuffed doll with a very strange story behind it, a story that includes a real Waldo who plagued the fellow trying to sell the doll. In Boulevard, Deitch's connection is through a mystical bong that acts as a bridge between our world and Waldo's.

Deitch as a young boy hears about the bong from the nephew of a famous animator. Deitch's father runs the animation studio that this animator used to work for and one day Dad takes Deitch to the animator's house to look for some old artwork. There they meet the animator's nephew who explains how he and his uncle used to use the bong to contact Waldo.

The rest of the story chronicles the ups and downs of this animator, Ted Mishkin, throughout his career and in the process allows Deitch to comment on the early history of the animation business. Waldo is a presence throughout the story and affects/represents Ted's state-of-mind throughout the story, but he's not the focus of the tale. The focus is animation in general.

Ted's idol in the business is a solo animator, Winsor McKay stand-in named Winsor Newton, but he gets his big break when his brother hires him on to work for the Fleischer-esque assembly-line Fontaine Studio. Ted brings Waldo to Fontaine with him and the cat becomes the star of Fontaine's Talking Fables. The mischievous Waldo proves to be more curse than blessing in Ted's life though.

Deitch uses the generational story to paint a bleak, but fascinating picture of the animation industry. As new innovations and tastes come along, the pioneers who came before are at best ignored and at worst laughed at. Winsor Newton is a lonely old man whom only Ted seems to appreciate. Fontaine Studios, a chief offender in belittling Newton's work, gets its comeuppance though when they're pressured by investors to make their cartoons cuter, like Disney. Deitch also has Walt Disney stealing the idea for a cartoon theme park from Fred Fontaine, who in turn stole it from Newton.

How much Deitch embellishes is impossible to know without doing a lot more research into actual history than I was willing to. But like Stuff of Dreams, the reality isn't as important as the sheer entertainment value. Whether the politics between McKay, Fleischer, and Disney actually existed or are figments of Deitch's imagination isn't as important as the fact that they're mesmerizing to read about. In addition to these business politics, Deitch includes big servings of sexual politics, nervous breakdowns, and murder scandals.

But through the darkness of all the back-biting and betrayal shines the brilliant light of poor Ted Mishkin's love of animation. It's a love that you can't help but feel Deitch shares, because it shows up on every single page. That much, I know Deitch isn't faking.