Recording the commentaries for a half-dozen of the cartoons on the newly released "Tom & Jerry Golden Collection, Volume 1" was definitely a unique experience. I imagine it is like broadcasting a sports game over the radio: you sit in a booth and watch the action and comment on it, never permitting yourself dead air (my radio experience from thirty years ago definitely came in handy). But I was thrilled to be asked to participate in the production of this DVD, both in the commentaries and the documentary extras. The set features for the first time a host of vintage Tom & Jerry cartoons completely uncut, meaning the existence of the racial stereotypes that were prevalent in the 1940s and 50s are no longer being hidden or ignored. Some people will squirm at a few the gags (I did even while I was recording the commentary) but you cannot pretend they were never there. 
"It has come as no surprise to anyone who knew Michael Mallory as a child, particularly
anyone who tried to pryhim away from the TV screen while the likes of Huckleberry
Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, or Rocky the Flying Squirrel were cavorting there,
that Mike would grow up to become an internationally recognized expert on
the history of animation. In
fact, Mike’s earliest goal was to be a cartoonist himself. Among
the high points of Mike’s life and career has been the opportunity to know
and work with such giants of animation as Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera and Iwao
Takamoto, on various books. He helped Iwao Takamoto write his memoirs, which
were published as Iwao Takamoto: My Life With a Thousand Characters,
and worked directly with Bill and Joe on Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, which
was a People Magazine Holiday Pick for 1998. Mike’s related books include
Marvel: The Characters and Their Universe, which chronicles the creation
of the classic Marvel Comics characters and shows how they were adapted into
film, television and animation (did you know that the X-Men appeared in animation
as early as 1966?), and its follow up, X-Men: The Characters and Their
Universe, which applies the same approach to the X-Universe, and features
original interviews with such X-acting stars as Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman,
Rebecca Romijn and Sir Ian McKellen. Mike has also written more than 400 newspaper
and magazine articles, mostly on animation-related subjects, and has increasingly
been sought out for on-air or on-camera punditry for radio, television, and
DVD “extras.”
Meanwhile, Universal Studios Monsters: A Legacy of Horror has gone into its second printing, with a new, slightly altered cover, and I'm happy to say it is still doing well! And why not...who doesn't love monsters? It's the story of the creation and production of all those great Universal horror pictures of the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s, lavishly illustrated with over 300 photos. I've been a fan of those marvelous old films since I was a kid, having discovered most of them through the pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine, and I relished the chance to write this chronicle of their creation. A particular treat was being able to talk to actors Elena Verdugo ("Ilonka" in House of Frankenstein, among others), Julie Adams, and Ricou Browning—the latter two being the stars of Creature from the Black Lagoon, Julie as the leading lady, and Ricou as the swimming Gill Man, about their experiences on the sets. Hollywood's Stephen Sommers, the writer/director of the hit films The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, Van Helsing and G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra, wrote the story.
“A beautiful, totally impressive book! I can’t imagine any X-Men fan wanting to go through life without it!” – Stan Lee
