Celebrity Vest
Motor City Comic Con brings
pop culture icons to Novi.
SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News
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our pop culture icons with
Jewish roots will be signing
autographs at Motor City
Comic Con, an annual
event that brings dozens of celebrities
to the public and offers collectibles,
games and contests.
Comic Con, in its 16th year and
running May 16-18 at the Novi Expo
Center, will feature former Mad maga-
zine editor Al Feldstein, Detroit-bred
entertainer Soupy Sales, TV's Love Boat
co-star Bernie Kopell and Tetro screen
actress Ellen Sandweiss among the 100
notables appearing at the event.
While the men have branched out
with new ventures in their entertainment
careers, Sandweiss, for the most part, has
become a manufacturer's rep focused on
family. Regardless of what they are doing
now, all four say they are glad to meet
one-on-one with their loyal fans..
Besides having the opportunity to
get autographs, running between $10
and $25 each, Comic Con visitors can
buy and sell comic books, posters,
non-sports trading cards, films, theme
toys and animation media.
In other activities, Comic Con
attendees can participate in any of 75
gaming events that range from charac-
ter-card to role-play sessions. Costume
contests also are scheduled.
There will be special get-togethers
with groups of fans — Feldstein's at
3:15 p.m. Friday, Soupy's at 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, Kopell's at 4 p.m. Saturday
and Sandweiss' at 12:15 p.m. Sunday.
Fun With Feldstein
Al Feldstein, who spent many years
addressing controversial issues through
the satire of Mad hasn't given up on
controversy. What's different now is
that controversy is his hobby and seri-
ous paintings are his vocaticn.
Feldstein, relocated from New York to
Montana, follows issues on the Internet
and expresses his opinion through Web
sites. His main interest is serious paint-
ing of outdoor scenes in a studio set up
on his property, which also offers a
lodge rented out to fishermen.
When he takes part in Comic Con,
Feldstein will bring numbered images to
sell as reminders of Mag which put him
at the helm for almost three decades. He
also will be prepared to autograph vin-
tage copies of the publication and
answer questions about how he
approached the topics that were covered.
'Although I haven't been a very reli-
gious Jew, almost all of my writers were
Jewish, and a lot of the vernacular was
Jewish-based," says Feldstein, nearing
80 and showing his work at
wvvw.alfeldstein.com . "Many socially
conscious writers were Jewish because
they grew up with morality guidelines."
Feldstein explains that the first pri-
ority of Mad was entertainment with
issues at the core. Following an overall
plan to motivate young people to
question what they were told by peo-
ple in political power, Feldstein want-
ed to bring attention to matters he
believed deserved public action.
One important Mad subject was
smoking and its ill effects. If he were
running the magazine now, Feldstein
would question the war in Iraq and
degradation of the environment.
"I feel Mad magazine did its best,
but I don't know what happened to all
our followers who were young at the
time I was there," says Feldstein, also
a former writer and illustrator for EC
Comics and its Tales From the Crypt.
"Maybe they've just become Yuppies
struggling to make a living."
Shu in' With Soupy
Soupy Sales has retired from TV and
clubs, but he keeps spouting humor
through books and occasional person-
al appearances.
His latest book, Stop Me If You've
Heard It!• Soupy Sales' Greatest Jokes (M.
Evans and Company Inc.; $14.95) will
be in stores one month after he meets
with fans at Comic Con. "If your wife
wants to learn to drive --- don't stand
in her way!" joins 999 other laugh lines
in Soupy's latest collection.
"The seven years I spent in Detroit
were the greatest of my life," says
Soupy, whose pie-throwing career took
shape in the Motor City
' in the 1950s
and has reached 19,000 pitches —
often at celebrities — of imitation con-
fections lavished with shaving cream.
Soupy, though not observant, says
he has always considered himself