Happy Leap Day!
Approximately 1.7 seconds after I published my last newsletter, an idea for what could have led it off came to me: sketch out future projects that have been swirling in my head for awhile.
So, here are a few future projects proposals. Let me know which I should pursue, and even if you think some of them might be worth paying for. These are presented in no particular order.
1) A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Partworks Style
Windsor Star, February 27, 1970.
Growing up, the shelf behind my father’s chair in the basement with loaded with several series of “partworks.” Primarily produced by British publishers like Marshall Cavendish and Purnell, these series presented a particular topic over the stretch of 96 to 128 weekly installments. We had several of these series, all of them incomplete, covering the First and Second World Wars, the history of the 20th Century, and so on. The most complete of the bunch was A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, which was published between 1968 and 1970. It used a serialization of Winston Churchill’s four-volume series as the springboard to explore topics in the histories of the British Isles, North America, and the British Empire between the Roman era and the Boer War. Over time, I’ve filled in the blanks with the exception of one issue covering part of the American Civil War.
This series would cover each issue, mixing childhood memories, critical opinion, and anything else related to the topics covered. This would be a long, ongoing project requiring a fair degree of discipline on my end.
An alternative version would be to cover The History of the 20th Century partwork series, of which I own the 96 original issues, and most of an extended version covering general topics that was published a few years later.
2) Programming the 1960s
Another project inspired by my father, this one dives into a shoebox my mom gave me a few years ago which contains programs for various artistic events - mostly classical concerts - that he attended in Toronto and Ottawa during the 1960s. This project would include the original programs and any newspaper reviews I can dig up.
3) Capitalism is Good
Recently, I’ve scanned a series of pamphlets I picked up in Detroit several years ago that were originally “published for GM men and women” during the 1950s and 1960s as part of the automaker’s Information Rack Service. Running 8 to 16 pages in length, these pamphlets appear to have been designed to ensure GM employees had complete faith in the capitalist system through a mix of original content and reprinted material. Topics include:
Let’s Stop Kidding Ourselves About Inflation
Profits Are a Man’s Best Friend
What We Must Know About Communism
Why Are Profits Unpopular?
And several more covering subjects that you can probably imagine.
4) “Ain’t He Unglamour-rays?” The Early Years of the Incredible Hulk
Bill Everett’s gloriously cartoony version of the Hulk. Script by Stan Lee, layouts by Jack Kirby, Tales to Astonish #78, April 1966.
I feel like doing some sort of comic book-related project, given the joy I get out of listening to podcasts about the genre. Trying to think of a blog topic, I’ve settled upon the early years of the Hulk, where Stan Lee and a parade of artists threw everything at the wall to see what would stick. The series would focus primarily on Hulk stories published between his 1962 debut and either 1967 (when Marie Severin become the first artist outside of Jack Kirby providing layouts to last at least a year on the feature) or 1968 (when Herb Trimpe’s long art run begins). It’s fascinating to see how the character evolved and what did, or often didn’t, work. I’ll also touch on the 1966 cartoon, which has some Toronto, or at least CBC, links.
5) Just Write A D**n Book
There is always this option, which I’ve had a few ideas over the years and gone as far as roughly plot one out with a friend at my kitchen table. Those of you who know me have often heard at least one project come up time after time, involving Toronto newspapers. Is this the time to finally hunker down and try to knock a tome out, or should I put this on the backburner a little while longer?
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Please leave comments on what you think of any of these ideas or send me a private message. Thanks!
Write the book on Toronto newspapers! We will promote it on our ROMWalk: King St. E. : Newspapers and Newspapers for the next 2 years while the walk is still on the roster. (Walk dates for this summer will soon be listed on the ROM website.) I've really appreciated your articles on newspapers over the years, they've been very helpful for my own research for this walk and other projects. And I think the history of its newspapers is a great lens to tell the history of a city. So many of the issues persist now, just in other media: how to make enough money to stay journalistically independent, political interference, being taken over . . . and the big personalities! On our walk we talk about George Brown, James Beaty, William Lyon Mackenzie, Mary Ann Shadd Carey, Sophia Dalton, Conrad Black, John Sheridan Hogan, Red Ryan . . . people don't know these stories, and they are so good!