If you were a dog soldier in World War II, there were probably days when the only thing you had to look forward to was the latest issue of Stars & Stripes and the single-panel cartoons of Bill Mauldin.

Mauldin’s adventures of "Willie & Joe" became legendary for the laughs they brought to America’s soldiers – and the contempt they generated in high ranking officers.

Mauldin was the first artist to make a reputation for himself in the military, always signing his name to his work. Soldiers pledged allegiance to the American flag, baseball, apple pie – and the cartoons of Bill Mauldin.

Todd DePastino brings us a triple-dose of Mauldin to the artists’ legion of fans this year, first with his biography, Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front from W.W. Norton, and second with Willie & Joe: The WWII Years, a collection of the beloved artist’s cartoons, published in a two-volume deluxe set by Fantagraphics.

You can LISTEN to this Mr. Media interview with TODD DePASTINO by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!

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Copyright 2008 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!

What if you could sleep with someone who wasn’t your spouse or significant other – and not only get away with it, but arrange things so that your husband, wife, boyfriend or girlfriend not only improved but endorsed such behavior?

I know, I know -- it’s not going to happen in my life any time soon, either.

But it’s an arrangement that worked so well for wife and mother Jenny Block that she has written a book describing and celebrating it. In Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage, the former English professor and current blogger for The Huffington Post takes readers on a wild ride through the world she created for herself. It’s not “Swingtown,” but it’s close enough for daydreamers.

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Copyright 2008 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!

Lots of people talk about the impending End of Days, but how many actually tell you how to prepare for what may come after the end?

Oh, really? That many?

Hmmm.

Okay, how many make you laugh in the telling?

Gotcha there, didn’t I?

In his new book, Apocalypse How, Rob Kutner dishes out handy tips on everything from foraging for food to fooling around with mutants in a post-now world.

I’m not yet sure how Kutner comes by his encyclopedic, post-apocalyptic knowledge but the humor, he comes by honestly: he’s a four-time Emmy-award winning staff writer for Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and a contributor to Stewart’s book, America (The Book).

He also is a former writer for "Dennis Miller Live" on HBO. And his wife, Sheryl Zohn, writes for "Penn & Teller: Bullshit!" on Showtime.

You can LISTEN to the Mr. Media interview with ROB KUTNER by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!

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Copyright 2008 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!

It is so easy to hate terrestrial radio these days. No matter how many stations you scan, AM or FM, it’s difficult to find one on which you can land without moments later wanting to take a sledgehammer to the radio.

The politics are angry and irrational -- left and right. The music hasn’t changed in 30 years and it seems to repeat every hour. Local news and talk is virtually non-existent. Ditto for humor.

The smartest radio guy of the last 20 years, Howard Stern, escaped more than two years ago and is better than ever in the unshackled environs of Sirius Satellite Radio.

Who screwed up radio?

Will today’s generation of young people even care in a few years, what with the glut of alternatives before them, from satellite and Internet radio to iPods and cell phone broadcasting?

I suspect these are just of the few issues I’ll be discussing today with my guest, Alec Foege, author of Right of the Dial: The Rise of Clear Channel and The Fall of Commercial Radio.

You can LISTEN to this Mr. Media interview with ALEC FOEGE by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!

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Copyright 2008 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!

Guys, here’s an offer you can’t refuse: a lesbian woman is going to give you tips on picking up a hottie.

I know, I know – the whole idea made me laugh, too. But then I read Robbie Lee’s book, The Straight Man’s Pocket Guide to Picking Up a Hottie: Written By a Woman Who Loves Woman, and I thought, “Why not?”

I’m not in the market for love, but I know an awful lot of guys who are and just don’t understand why some guys succeed and others fail.

Maybe you’ve just been going to the wrong source for answers.

You can LISTEN to this Mr. Media interview with ROBBIE LEE by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!

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Copyright 2008 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!

The only thing tougher than being a black man trying to hail a cab in Manhattan might be being a black man trying to sell a comic strip into a daily newspaper that already has a strip created by an African-American cartoonist.

Charlos Gary knows how tough it is – he’s the man behind two daily strips, the single panel “Working It Out” and the multi-panel “Café Con Leche.”

And he’s found an unusual twist: "Café Con Leche" is about the lives of young African-American man and his Latina wife. Sometimes it’s political, sometimes it's as everyday as Blondie. But it’s never dull and it’s always good for a laugh.

You can LISTEN to this Mr. Media interview with CHARLOS GARY by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!

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Copyright 2008 Bob Andelman

"That scene was petrifying. Horrifying. I was buggin' out from the moment I knew I was going to have to do it, up to the second I had to drop the robe. I'm naturally critical when I have clothes on. When I have clothes off, it's like, no."

-- Josh Peck, star of Nickelodeon's popular 'tween sitcom "Drake & Josh," reflecting on his first on-screen nude scene in the summer druggie movie, The Wackness. He was interviewed for Radar magazine by Willa Paskin.




Copyright 2008 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!

-- From Marty Kaplan's June 20, 2008 blog on The Huffington Post. His post continues: "The least popular, most lawless president in American history took to the Rose Garden today to thank congressional Democrats for having unprotected political sex with him..."

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Anybody who tells you that one comic book looks just like the next doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

It doesn’t take much effort to tell Jack Kirby’s blocky drawings from Steve Ditko’s otherworldly stylings, for example, or, in more modern terms, the dark, detailed pencils of Frank Miller from the brighter, livelier sketches of Jim Lee.

And few of those guys produce anything like the work of “Gentleman” Gene Colan.

Colan’s contribution to the industry date back to the 1940s, but he was one of the artists who, in the 1960s and ‘70s, defined Marvel Comics and characters such as Daredevil, Dracula, Iron Man, and even Howard the Duck. His richly drawn images looked like they took a lot longer to do and required much more care and patience than those of many of his contemporaries.

Put another way, you could escape into a Gene Colan 32-page comic for a lot longer than you could someone else’s books.

It is an honor and a pleasure to welcome Gene Colan to Mr. Media today.

You can LISTEN to this Mr. Media interview with legendary Marvel Comics artist Gene Colan by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!

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-- The last line of a TV Guide "Cheer" (from Cheers & Jeers) for Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" interview with former Bush spokesman Scott McClellan. Apparently the just published June 23 edition of the magazine went to bed before "Meet The Press" host Tim Russert died suddenly on June 13.

My parents never sent me away to summer camp. I don’t blame them; as a kid, I was afraid of my own shadow, easily got car sick, and was not well adjusted, socially.

And after reading Roger Bennett’s new love letter to summer camps, Camp Camp, I’m pretty sure I would have hated sleepaway camp.

That said, I found reading about it to be great fun. And I think my own kid, now approaching the age where sleepaway camp is being discussed, would love it.

Speaking of kids, this is the first Mr. Media interview where I’ve ever been on high maternity alert; my guest's wife was due to give birth last week, but hasn’t yet. So if Roger Bennett has to leave suddenly, I’ll just read from his book to fill the time, okay?

You can LISTEN to this Mr. Media interview with Roger Bennett by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!

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© 2008 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.

If MTV edited a presidential campaign video, it would probably look and feel a bit like In Search of Kennedy, a new documentary film by Chuck Workman and Stephen J. Kern.

The movie applies a 21st century sheen to the most iconic of 20th century political figures, John F. Kennedy.

It is incredibly au currant, with the 2008 Democratic references narrowed down to Obama and Clinton.

The movie - which reminds us that, in 2000, even George W. Bush was sold to the American public as being Kennedy-like! - is crammed with familiar faces interviewed expressly for this project, including Norman Mailer, Tom Hayden, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Michael Moore, Garrison Keillor, Chris Matthews, Arianna Huffington and Senators Edward Kennedy, Joseph Biden and Chris Dodd. Alec Baldwin and Elisabeth Peña speak the words of prominent writers. Workman, who wrote and directed In Search of Kennedy over a three-year period, received his Oscar® for his live action short “Precious Images.”

Previously, Workman produced and directed two critically acclaimed theatrical documentaries, on two other ‘60s icons, Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (1990) and The Source, (1999) about the Beat Generation and Jack Kerouac.

One of the things that may surprise people is that this isn’t just a recitation of JFK’s greatest hits. It is a warts-and-all presentation of Jack and all the Kennedys, from the Bay of Pigs and Marilyn Monroe to Chappaquidick and William Kennedy Smith.

Whether you’re a Kennedy fan or just a political junkie, you’ll no doubt find In Search of Kennedy provocative and entertaining.

You can LISTEN to this Mr. Media interview with Chuck Workman and Stephen J. Kern by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!

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© 2008 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.

I recently was invited to start posting the Mr. Media podcasts at DigitalJournal.com, a wonderful site that encourages readers to become citizen reporters. That was nice in and of itself, but then the site's editor, David Silverberg, had this to say about Mr. Media on DJ's "Top Finds" page:

"It's always impressive when a writer goes the extra mile by adding multimedia to articles. The interviewer extraordinaire who accomplished this feat, while also winning the Top New Citizen Journalist Award, is Bob Andelman, aka Mr. Media. His articles aren't what DigitalJournal.com readers are used to: Bob's entertainment interviews are audio posts, giving readers, um, listeners the unfiltered Q&A. There were chats with political blog editors, documentary filmmakers, sitcom creators, and Hollywood producers. Every post was Citizen Journalism at its finest -- original and under-recognized interviews, polished with a unique voice and salted with humourous introductions. Keep up the great work, Bob!"

Thanks, DigitalJournal.com!

In his new book, I Have Fun Everywhere I Go, Mike Edison does for sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll what Hulk Hogan did for wrestling!

No, scratch that. Edison hates Hogan. Saying that will just piss him off.

How about:

Mike Edison does for sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll what Lennon & McCartney did for elevator music!

Damn, that won’t work either. Edison hates the Beatles, too.

Here’s a thought:

Let me just read the subtitle of Edison’s book. It’s so long, people will think it’s an introduction and not notice that I left out all the stuff about him being a former editor of High Times, Cheri, and Main Event, a contributor to Screw and Hustler magazines, and drummer in bands such as Raunch Hands, Pleasure F*ckers, and Rocket Train Delta Science Arkestra.

Please welcome my guest today, Mike Edison, author of I Have Fun Everywhere I Go: Savage Tales of Pot, Porn, Punk Rock, Pro Wrestling, Talking Apes, Evil Bosses, Dirty Blues, American Heroes, and the Most Notorious Magazines in the World.

You can LISTEN to this interview by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!

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© 2008 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.

Kids, if you want to grow up to be a successful executive producer of movies like Michael Uslan ("YOU-slin") did, the key is education – and patience. Lots and lots of patience.

Uslan secured the rights to make Batman movies years before Tim Burton, Michael Keaton, and Jack Nicholson dreamed of working together.

And he couldn’t give away the rights to Will Eisner’s The Spirit.

But his patience and determination paid off. This year, the sixth Batman movie – The Dark Knight – and first Spirit movie will come to a multiplex near you, joining previous Uslan productions such as Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman and Robin, Batman Begins, Catwoman, Constantine, National Treasure, Swamp Thing – well, you get the idea.

And he’s not one to rest on his laurels, either. Uslan’s current projects in development include Shazam!, The Shadow, and Constantine 2.

If you love comic books, and especially movies made from comic books, please welcome Michael Uslan to Mr. Media.

You can LISTEN to this interview by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!

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© 2008 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.

There’s a certain risk – some might call it insanity – to producing true indie films. They’re costly, especially relative to the return on investment, time, and aggravation.

But still they get made.

Scott Miles made his. It’s called Little Chicago, and its about a young man who returns home after college hoping his dad will stake him the money to get into the bar and restaurant business. Of course, if his dad were to do that, this would be a short, not a full-length motion picture.

Miles wrote, produced, and starred in Little Chicago.

But if you haven’t seen Little Chicago, maybe you know him from some of his other film roles, including Remember the Titans, The Patriot, or October Sky. On television, he was in episodes of “NCIS” and “Star Trek Voyager.”

You can LISTEN to this interview by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!

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© 2008 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.