Tonight's episode of Numb3rs dealt with the subject of comic books. Written by Cheryl Heuton and Nicolas Falacci, it was very comic-positive, with numerous protagonists revealed as fans and collectors.
Larry's favorite character is Galactus, and Charlie knows enough to argue with him ("He wants to eat the Earth.") Judd Hirsch liked undergrounds like The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and name-drops R. Crumb. FBI agent David Sinclair is a collector.
The plot revolves around the "most expensive comic book", an ashcan, and its theft and forgery. Wil Wheaton plays a Todd McFarlane-like comic and toy entrepreneur. Slabbing is referred to but not named. Christopher Lloyd plays a legendary artist, probably best referred to Jack Kirby.
There are chronology issues (the ashcan is from 1962, far too late to be that valuable), timing issues (when were the forgeries made, and from what source material, and how many days long is that convention), and functional issues (the forgeries are analyzed as if original art, but are on newsprint). At one point, one of the characters is asked what makes a comic valuable, and he answers age, rarity, and condition. That omits a significant factor, which is whether it's a key book, one that introduces a major character or plot point, or debuts an important creative team.
But those are minor issues, probably excusable, subjugated to the needs of the story. It's remarkable how much they got right.
Posted by Greg at November 24, 2007 12:29 AM
I haven't seen the ep as I don't generally watch "Numb3rs", but I'm getting awfully tired of shows that use Fan-Con plots as an excuse to dump on comic fans (or indeed fans of "nerd" entertainment in general); nice to hear this time around there was actually something positive in the mix.
I like to think that the writers are comic book geeks as well, at heart... after all, there were a lot who grew up during the boom time collecting era of the 80s, and I'm sure some of it stuck. And in a show like "Numb3rs", the geek demographic - math, science or comic... and there's usually some overlap - is probably also where they're aiming at.
I have to admit though, for me the best line in the episode was when Judd Hirsch tells Christopher Lloyd, "I have trouble seeing you as a hippie." Nice in-joke for the television geeks out there.
Numb3rs is a guilty pleasure of mine, because of the math, and the cavalcade of character actors whose work I enjoy, and the brothers-learning-to-be-friends theme, and because CBS offers it free on Comcast-on-Demand.
It seemed like there was less math in this episode; maybe to make room for the comic-book-geekery, or maybe because I was preoccupied by it.
Christopher Lloyd fit the cast perfectly well, and didn't chew any scenery. Despite representing Kirby, I wish he'd channeled Ditko and done the "Cutting Board" scene, apocryphal though it may be...
[Jake, if you meant to include links here, you left out the URL.--gpm]
Two more thoughts: Wil Wheaton's flickr set from the show is worth seeing...
And the nagging error, for me, was that the macguffin comic was called "Ultraworld," a name that doesn't sound like a 60's era title at all.