MIKE RAMIREZ

The incomparable Michael Ramirez -- easily America's most skilled cartoonist. He was fired from the Los Angeles Times for his conservative viewpoint. One that obviously doesn't conform to the leftist ideology of that publication

THE SOAPS

Art Hansl finished his acting career on the Soap Opera, 'General Hospital'. He played a well-tailored detective lieutenant, pretty much the opposite of Colombo. This was a different form of the medium, being taped rather than filmed. Shot live and no retakes. Blow it and you go back and take it from the top. The alternative, of course, was to improvise because you didn't want to stop camera. Everybody did that, leading to some inventive dialogue.

After years on screen, he switched to writing suspense novels and an autobiography.
All are on display on his web site www.arthansl.com as well as film clips. www.arthansl.blogspot.com hosts his commentary on B films and the life he led making them back the sixties and seventies.

FLASHBACKS

Stills from my autobiography, FLASHBACKS, about the trials and tribulations of working in those B pictures of long ago. These are from Mission Apocalypse, an Italian James Bond rip-off  that did a lot of traveling around Europe, behind the Iron Curtain and on to Casablanca and Marrakech in Morocco.
In Switzerland we created an avalanche but blew the shot because our director signaled for the blast that took down the mountain too soon and there were no cameras rolling. In Zagreb, Yugoslavia, I was mobbed by a crowd that thought I was fleeing the police because the same idiot wanted realism (or didn't want to pay extras).
We saw slaves being brought to market on the road to Marrakech, where I got a couple of ribs cracked by a local "stuntman". But what the hell, I walked away from the turkey in one piece.
For more books, stills and film clips, visit my web site at www.arthansl.com.

FLASHBACKS

Excerpted from my memoir, FLASHBACKS.

Probably a second or so before getting a couple of ribs cracked by an inept stunt man in Marrakech, Morocco, while shooting MISSION APOCALYPSE. Stunt fighting isn't as dangerous as working with horses or taking long falls, but actors should know the fudamentals; stunt men should know a great deal more.

For books, stills, film clips and more check my web site, http://www.arthansl.com/.

STORM WARNING

Jon Storm, ex-LAPD detective exiled to Mexico, returns to California with a film crew substituting for the star’s double, whom he has injured in a brawl.

In California, he meets an old rival, Ned Davenport, now a United States Senator lusting to be president. Davenport’s past is his problem and Storm is part of it. When the senator’s financial backer is murdered, Storms affair with the victim’s wife, a scheming beauty, makes him an instant suspect. To clear himself, he reverts to his old skills, plunging into a maze of corruption and colliding ambitions in the intersecting worlds of California politics and Hollywood hi jinks.

Available through Amazon and now on e-readers Kindle, I-Pad, Sony, Nook, Kobo.. Visit arthansl.com for more books, film clips..

TO KILL FOR

Coming soon -- TO KILL FOR is a tense, suspense novel set amidst the glamour and grit of coastal California where two "brothers" mature into dangerous enemies as the talent, evil and jealousy of one corrupts the basic decency of the other. Manipulated by a wicked beauty, their enmity leads to plagiarism, blackmail, murder and, finally, to a twisted form of retribution. A dark tale in a sunny land.

For available books, film clips, check http://www.arthansl.com/