"I want you to Photoshop my head on an iconic image," said Friend Otto. "How about that Superman painting by Ward?"

That's pretty much an exact quote from a telephone call I had earlier this week with my old art school chum Christopher Lange (who I still call Otto). And it seemed pretty on point for Wriphe.com Superman Month.

However, I'm not sure that the H.J. Ward Superman painting that Otto is thinking of is quite as iconic as Otto thinks it is. I mean, yeah, we Superman nerds know it as the very first painting of Superman, but does the General Public know that?

If you want to see the end result of Otto's request, here it is:

If you're a member of the General Public and you want to know more about the painting I shamelessly re-faced for Otto's self-promotion, I encourage you to visit the blog of longtime DC Comics letterer and historian Todd Klein at kleinletters.com. Klein will tell you more than you probably would want to know about the painting and the artists behind it.

And if you want to know if Friend Otto deserves to be recognized as The People's Artist, check out this oil painting:

Yeah, he was good in art school twenty-five years ago, but he's even better now. You can see much more of Chris's work on Instagram @chrislangepaintings.

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Probably by the time you read this, you'll have already missed your opportunity to play Superman Jeopardy today at the 2026 Metropolis Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Illinois. It's scheduled for 9:30 AM CDT, which is way too early for trivia brain work good, if you ask me. The good news is that they'll run it again tomorrow and again on Sunday. The bad news is that those are scheduled for 9 AM and 10 AM, respectively, and I just don't think anyone should have to answer questions about what Superman's favorite food is* at that time of the morning.

Maybe they're holding the trivia contest that early to make space for autograph signings. An actual Superman will be in attendance this year: Tim Daly, who gave voice to Superman on Wings Superman: The Animated Series from 1996 to 2000 and several direct-to-video animated movies. Mr. Daly is charging $50 for a selfie or an autograph on an 8x10 (or $80 for the combo of an autographed selfie, however that works these days), which seems incredibly reasonable given his resume. I have to wonder how many kids might end up discouraged that he's not signing "Superman" on animation stills of Superman, but given that his cartoon has been off the air for two decades, it seems just as likely that all the autograph seekers will all be middle-aged Gen Xers. So long as everyone goes home happy, I guess.

What should I even care about the activities of a superhero convention happening several states away? I won't go to conventions less than an hour up the road from my house when William Shatner comes to town! But it warms my hardened Kryptonite heart to know that so many people enjoy Superman enough that for 48 years (give or take a global pandemic) they get together every year to celebrate a fictional character by giving their cash to aging actors. Huzzah!

*Superman would say his favorite food is beef bourguignon with ketchup, which I'm sure he likes, but it's his "favorite" because that's his code phrase with Lois Lane to tell her he's alright (as established in numerous comic books over the years). The origin of this is often credited to the first time Lois fed Clark Kent beef bourguignon in Superman #297 (1976) the first night they, um, spent together, if you know what I mean, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Clark's propensity for drowning steak in ketchup was first indicated on an earlier date with Lois in Superman #276 (1974). Both stories were written by Elliot S! Maggin, so we should probably ask him.

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Watching UGA baseball's run through the Regionals and Super Regionals on their way to the College World Series for the first time since 2008, I noticed the PA and crowd seemed to really love one particular song. I commented as such to Mom. She said "What song?"

This song, Mom:

The Stroke

Mom listened to it politely for about 20 seconds before declaring it was "awful" and leaving the room. (Mom was never a big fan of 96 Rock. She's more of a Jackson Browne/Carole King kind of girl.)

Technically, this isn't a one-word wonder, as Billy Squier gave his masterpiece a two word title, but I'm just going to do what all good librarians do and ignore the The to stick it in my "one word wonders" keyword. (They're my rules; I get to break them whenever I want!)

Go Dawgs!

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48/2618. Miss Pacific Fleet (1935)
There's not a lot of substance to this frivolous film comedy, but its leads are Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell, and that's good enough for me.

49/2619. Whiplash (2014)
There are only two characters of note in Damien Chazelle's star-making study of an abusive relationship. I've thought a lot about it, and I'm still not sure if I enjoyed it. Music's good, though.

50/2620. Honeymoon Hotel (1964)
Following a wedding-day disaster, womanizer Robert Goulet tricks his friend (the jilted groom) into following through on his honeymoon plans to visit a Hawaiian resort strictly for couples so the two men can meet more women. Screwball hijinks ensue. Goulet is good as the cad, but I really watched the whole thing for Jill St. John, who, as usual, is given too little to do.

51/2621. 711 Ocean Drive (1950)
This noir tells the story of the rise of an ambitious telephone technician through a life of crime. The house at 711 Ocean Avenue is one of many locations, from underworld bars to warehouses to penthouses to swimming pools and horse tracks, all of which pale in comparison to the backdrop for the climactic gunfight in the guts of "Boulder Dam." That would have been a better title.

Now that is a well-framed Coke bottle.

53/2623. Lord Love a Duck (1966)
It's a very rare thing in life when I encounter something more cynical than I am. This dark, dark comedy chock full of WTF moments passes that bar easily. It's clearly a takedown of the shallowness of commercially-driven pop culture and the pervasive attitudes of the Swingin' Sixties era, but there's a unique condescending anger at its heart that borders on hatred. I liked it quite a bit. For a taste of its poisoned madness, check out the sweater scene on YouTube.

More to come.

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I just awoke from a dream in which I was having a conversation with Stephen Colbert in his traditional home theater, by which I mean a large white room with stage. I encouraged Colbert, who is currently between jobs, to go into puppetry "to make puppets cool again." He responded: "The Muppets already did that."

That Dream Stephen is a smart guy.

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