Search Results for: comic pac

Open Registration for Comic-Con 2025 — where anyone can venture online and try to buy badges — took place on October 26…only it didn't. There were tech problems and the website didn't work right and, oh, we hear it was a mess. But they think they've got the problems solved so they're trying again on Saturday, November 23.

One tip: You may or may not get what you seek that day but I can pretty much guarantee that you'll fail in your mission if you don't learn in advance how this thing works, which you can do on this page. If you succeed, you can start counting the days until the event commences. As of right now, there are 258 of them. Better leave now if you're going to need a parking space.

Last night, I wrote this in my hotel room…

I'm writing this in a moment of conflicting feelings: Glad it's over/Sad it's over. It's like: "Ah, I don't have to get up tomorrow morning and go host four panels. But then again, I don't get to get up tomorrow morning and host four panels." On the whole, I enjoyed myself tremendously even though I never set foot (the injured one or the non-injured one) in the main exhibit hall. My observation of long-standing is that nothing in it ever changes in that hall from year to year except the prices and how many people are walking around dressed like Velma or Daphne from Scooby Doo.

Not venturing onto that floor of the convention was part of my advance planning to get through the weekend. So was allowing myself to be wheelchaired around, even though there were moments when I probably could have — awkwardly and slowly — walked between panels. They were all upstairs on the same floor in the same part of the convention center. I bounced around between Rooms 4, 5AB, 6A, 6BCF, 7AB, 8 (which was the Pro Lounge — a place to wait when I needed a place to wait), 9 and 10. All pretty close to one another.

During the convention, as I was having moments when the foot was worse than usual, I made two more decisions. One was to forget about trying to get to any of my favorite San Diego restaurants to dine. The other was to not make the effort to get to the hotel where I would have presented the Bill Finger Awards. I got my pal Charlie Kochman to handle that and other friends brought meals to my hotel room. I felt very

And then I suddenly needed to go to bed where I proceeded to sleep for nine hours. I usually average 5-6 a night. I'm up now, dressed and packed and I'll write as much here as I can before a Bellman or Bellwoman arrives to help me with my luggage. What I was about to say…

Will have to wait. Someone with a cart is at my door. To be continued.

I have some queries about how I'm getting around while still recovering from my broken ankle. Actually, it isn't the broken ankle I'm recovering from so much as the operation that inserted a metal rod into that part of my anatomy. My foot hurts intermittently and my sense of balance, which was so bad that I've never been able to ride a bicycle, is now much worse. The convention has been nice enough to supply a wheelchair, someone to push it, and someone to aid me with my rollator. In case you don't know what that is, this is what a rollator is. In fact, that's the model I purchased.

Here's a photo from today's Quick Draw! That's me (and a packed audience you can't see) watching cartoonists Lalo Alcaraz, Scott Shaw! and Floyd Norman drawing instant silly pictures. You can enlarge the pic by clicking on it…

So I'm getting around to — so far — ten panels with four more tomorrow. I'm having one of those Gee, I'm tired/Gee, I'm enjoying this experiences.

With a few updates/changes…

Thursday, July 25 — 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM in Room 9
MEET MICHAEL HIRSH
Business Chief magazine called Michael Hirsh "The Father of Canadian Animation." He co-founded Nelvana, the firm responsible for animating such famous cartoon franchises as, among so many others, The Care Bears, Babar, Barbie, Max and Ruby, The Magic School Bus, Beetlejuice, The Adventures of Tintin, Franklin, Cyberchase, and The Berenstain Bears, along with such larger-than-life personalities as Roseanne Barr, Mr. T., Deborah Harry, and Tim Burton. How did he do it? That's the question your moderator Mark Evanier will be asking in this rare one-on-one interview.

Thursday, July 25 — 11:00 AM to NOON in Room 4
SPOTLIGHT ON JACK C. HARRIS
Jack C. Harris began writing and editing DC Comics in 1977; among the many comics he wrote and/or edited were Kamandi, Wonder Woman, House of Mystery, Sgt. Rock, Isis, Green Lantern, The Superman Family, The Unexpected, Weird War Tales, and Detective Comics. His work appeared later in Marvel Comics and Heavy Metal, among other publications. In short, he's been active in comics for decades, has worked with a wide range of editors, writers, and artists, and is a Comic-Con special guest. Here's your chance to hear him tell his experiences as he's interviewed by Mark Evanier.

Thursday, July 25 — 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM in Room 4
SPOTLIGHT ON KEN STEACY
Ken Steacy's visual storytelling career spans a half-century, as a writer, artist, art director, editor, and publisher. He has chronicled the exploits of Astro Boy, Iron Man, Harry Potter, and the Star Wars gang; and, in addition to producing his own IP, he has collaborated with Margaret Atwood, Harlan Ellison, and Trina Robbins. The recipient of an Eisner Award and an Inkpot Award, in 2009 Ken was inducted into the Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Hall of Fame, a lifetime achievement award for contributions to the industry. He'll be talking about all this and more in this spotlight when he is ruthlessly interrogated by Mark Evanier.

Thursday, July 25 — 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM in Room 4
SPOTLIGHT ON JO DUFFY
Jo Duffy has written comics including Power Man and Iron Fist, Catwoman, Batman, Wolverine, Fallen Angels, Nestrobber, Glory, Crystar, Elvira, Defenders, Punisher, and Star Wars, as well as the English-language edition of Akira. She has written short stories, essays, the comic book biography of Saint Francis, and an adaptation of Kipling's Jungle Book, and is the co-writer of two Puppet Master movies. She was the managing editor of Epic magazine and an editor at Marvel Comics, handling such titles as Elektra, Daredevil, Dreadstar, Groo, Doctor Strange, Hulk, and ROM. Hear about all this and more when she is interviewed in this spotlight by Mark Evanier.

Friday, July 26 — 10:30 AM to 10:30 AM in Room 4
THAT 70'S PANEL
It was a time of major change in the comic book business; of new talent coming in and the industry being rebuilt to come with a changing world and marketplace. Hear all about it from people who were in the middle of it: Gerry Conway (Amazing Spider-Man, The Punisher), Jo Duffy (Power Man and Iron Fist, Catwoman), Marv Wolfman (Tomb of Dracula, The New Teen Titans), Al Milgrom (Captain Marvel, West Coast Avengers), and your moderator, Mark Evanier (Scooby Doo, Blackhawk).

Friday, July 26 — 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM in Room 10
THE GROO PANEL
Since 1982, fans have followed the bumbling, almost tragi-comic exploits of easily the stupidest, most destructive character in all of comics, Sergio Aragonés' Groo the Wanderer. So here's your opportunity to hear all about this unique, long-running comic book character from Carrie Strachan (colorist of Groo), Jo Duffy (one-time editor of Groo), and Mark Evanier (who has something to do with this comic and maybe he'll even tell everyone just what it is).

Friday, July 26 — 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM in Room 10
WALT KELLY AND POGO
Walt Kelly's Pogo was one of the greatest newspaper comic strips of all time and is now being reprinted in an award-winning series of volumes from Fantagraphics Books. What made the world fall in love with Pogo Possum, Albert Alligator, Howland Owl, Churchy LaFemme, Ma'm'selle Hepzibah, and the other denizens of Mr. Kelly's corner of the Okefenokee Swamp? That's the topic under discussion by cartoonists Patrick McDonnell (Mutts) and Rick Parker (Beavis and Butthead), historian Maggie Thompson, Walt Kelly archivist Jane Plunkett, Cartoon Voice Actor Jim Meskimen and your moderator (and co-editor of the Complete Pogo), Mark Evanier.

Saturday, July 27 — 11:45 AM to 1:00 PM in Room 6BCF
QUICK DRAW!
It just might be the fastest, funniest panel at the entire Comic-Con! Three cartoonists (and a few guest cartoonists) whip up hilarious cartoons right before your eyes based on suggestions from the audience and your host, Mark Evanier. Competing this year, armed with nothing but their own wits and some Sharpies, are Scott Shaw! (The Flintstones, The Simpsons comic books), Lalo Alcaraz (award-winning political cartoonist and the man behind La Cucaracha), and Disney Legend Floyd Norman.

Saturday, July 27 — 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM in Room 6BCF
CARTOON VOICES I
Once again, moderator Mark Evanier convenes his popular panel of folks who speak for some of your favorite animated superstars and videogames. Demonstrating their craft this year on the Saturday panel are Neil Ross (Captain Planet, G.I. Joe), Piotr Michael (Young Jedi Adventures, Wizards: Tales of Arcadia), Secunda Wood (Gabby's Dollhouse, Fast & Furious Spy Racers), Julie Nathanson (Final Fantasy, Skylanders), Bob Bergen (Porky Pig, Tweety), and Isaac Robinson-Smith (X-Men '97, Voltron: Legendary Defender).

Saturday, July 27 — 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM in Room 7AB
THE HISTORY OF HANNA-BARBERA RECORDS
The legacy, voices, and music of Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera, and their collaborators are celebrated by host Mark Evanier and actor Tim Matheson (Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, Sinbad, Jr., Animal House, Virgin River), cartoon voice performer Katie Leigh, animator and animation historian and Comic-Con special guest Tom Sito, and author Greg Ehrbar (host of The Funtastic World of Hanna & Barbera podcast).

Sunday, July 28 — 10:00 AM to 11:15 AM in Room 5AB
THE ANNUAL JACK KIRBY TRIBUTE PANEL
Each year, we gather together folks who knew and/or were inspired by the man they call "The King of the Comics," Jack Kirby. If you're attending this convention, you have to know who he was and what he did. Talking Kirby this year will be cartoonists Patrick McDonnell (Mutts) and Rick Parker (Beavis and Butt-Head), Kirby family friend Dave Schwartz, Jack's granddaughter Tracy Kirby, a Surprise Guest Panelist and your moderator, former Kirby assistant Mark Evanier.

Sunday, July 28 — 11:45 AM to 1:15 PM in Room 6A
CARTOON VOICES II
If you think the Saturday Cartoon Voices Panel was wonderful, wait'll you hear the Sunday one! Your moderator Mark Evanier has rounded up six more of the best folks who put the words into the mouths of your animated favorites. Come hear Debi Derryberry (Jimmy Neutron, Draculaura on Monster High), Daniel Ross (Donald Duck, The Tom and Jerry Show), Jim Meskimen (Thundercats, Avengers Assemble!), David Errigo, Jr. (Phineas and Ferb, Tiny Toons Looniversity), Debra Wilson (Baby Shark's Big Show!, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League), and Fred Tatasciore (Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Tiny Toons Looniversity).

Sunday, July 23 — 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM in Room 7AB
COVER STORY
Industry people will tell you that the single most important page in any comic book is the cover, and often more effort goes into the cover than into the rest of the comic. What does it take to conceive, design, and execute a great cover? That's the question your moderator Mark Evanier will put to four artists who've done them over and over: J. Scott Campbell and Comic-Con special guests Joe Jusko, Ken Steacy, and Klaus Janson.

Sunday, July 28 — 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM in Room 7AB
THE BUSINESS OF CARTOON VOICES
What does it take to establish and maintain a career doing voicework for animated cartoons and video games? There are plenty of coaches out there who will charge you a fortune for the kind of advice you'll get absolutely free at this panel. Your moderator Mark Evanier has assembled a panel of one of the top voiceover agents, Sam Frishman (C.E.S.D.) and three voice actors who work all the time:  Gregg Berger, Debi Derryberry, and Debra Wilson. If you're interested in this profession, it's a must-attend!

Everything above — times, rooms, panelists, even how the moderator spells his name is subject to change. The entire programming schedule can be found and committed to memory on this page. During the con, I will not be one of those people sitting behind a table for any length of time signing stuff but come to one or more of the above panels and if there's time, I'll gladly autograph a few things for you if only to prove I know how to write my own name.

I'm still seeing online discussions about the possibility of Comic-Con leaving San Diego and relocating to Las Vegas. This is another one of those topics upon which I don't want to squander a lot of time. I still think it won't leave San Diego because I still think San Diego would be stupid-beyond-belief to let it go. I also think that if it did go elsewhere, Vegas would be among the least likely places and not just because of the weather.

What I will mention here is that just about every online discussion I've seen arguing for Vegas says that the annual Consumer Electronics Show there is way bigger than Comic-Con and that plenty of cheap hotel rooms are available in Vegas during the C.E.S. Hmm…let's fact-check that: The official attendance count for the C.E.S. held in January of this year was — and you can verify this here — 138,789 attendees. All the reports on last year's Comic-Con in S.D. say it had 150,000 attendees.

The city of Las Vegas was famously built on people not being able to do math…but I still believe 138,789 is not way more than 150,000.

And really those numbers don't mean much in any debate because no one knows how many people would attend Comic-Con if it wasn't limited by the capacity of the San Diego Convention Center. The folks arguing for the con to move to Las Vegas think it would be way, way bigger there but assume increased demands would not lead to increased room rates. But hotels in Vegas love to raise rates when the town gets crowded. They do it on certain holidays — New Year's Eve, especially. And during the first of what will be several Formula-1 races in Vegas, hotels were charging thousands of dollars per night for rooms that usually go for a few hundred.

And lastly, let's remember that Comic-Con attracts more visitors to San Diego than the official attendance. Lots of people travel there during Comic-Con because there are so many events that are accessible even if you can't get a badge for the con itself. Here's a list of some of what's available to those folks this year.

Thursday, July 25 — 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM in Room 9
MEET MICHAEL HIRSH
Business Chief magazine called Michael Hirsh "The Father of Canadian Animation." He co-founded Nelvana, the firm responsible for animating such famous cartoon franchises as, among so many others, The Care Bears, Babar, Barbie, Max and Ruby, The Magic School Bus, Beetlejuice, The Adventures of Tintin, Franklin, Cyberchase, and The Berenstain Bears, along with such larger-than-life personalities as Roseanne Barr, Mr. T., Deborah Harry, and Tim Burton. How did he do it? That's the question your moderator Mark Evanier will be asking in this rare one-on-one interview.

Thursday, July 25 — 11:00 AM to NOON in Room 4
SPOTLIGHT ON JACK C. HARRIS
Jack C. Harris began writing and editing DC Comics in 1977; among the many comics he wrote and/or edited were Kamandi, Wonder Woman, House of Mystery, Sgt. Rock, Isis, Green Lantern, The Superman Family, The Unexpected, Weird War Tales, and Detective Comics. His work appeared later in Marvel Comics and Heavy Metal, among other publications. In short, he's been active in comics for decades, has worked with a wide range of editors, writers, and artists, and is a Comic-Con special guest. Here's your chance to hear him tell his experiences as he's interviewed by Mark Evanier.

Thursday, July 25 — 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM in Room 4
SPOTLIGHT ON KEN STEACY
Ken Steacy's visual storytelling career spans a half-century, as a writer, artist, art director, editor, and publisher. He has chronicled the exploits of Astro Boy, Iron Man, Harry Potter, and the Star Wars gang; and, in addition to producing his own IP, he has collaborated with Margaret Atwood, Harlan Ellison, and Trina Robbins. The recipient of an Eisner Award and an Inkpot Award, in 2009 Ken was inducted into the Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Hall of Fame, a lifetime achievement award for contributions to the industry. He'll be talking about all this and more in this spotlight when he is ruthlessly interrogated by Mark Evanier.

Thursday, July 25 — 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM in Room 4
SPOTLIGHT ON JO DUFFY
Jo Duffy has written comics including Power Man and Iron Fist, Catwoman, Batman, Wolverine, Fallen Angels, Nestrobber, Glory, Crystar, Elvira, Defenders, Punisher, and Star Wars, as well as the English-language edition of Akira. She has written short stories, essays, the comic book biography of Saint Francis, and an adaptation of Kipling's Jungle Book, and is the co-writer of two Puppet Master movies. She was the managing editor of Epic magazine and an editor at Marvel Comics, handling such titles as Elektra, Daredevil, Dreadstar, Groo, Doctor Strange, Hulk, and ROM. Hear about all this and more when she is interviewed in this spotlight by Mark Evanier.

Friday, July 26 — 10:30 AM to 10:30 AM in Room 10
THAT 70'S PANEL
It was a time of major change in the comic book business; of new talent coming in and the industry being rebuilt to come with a changing world and marketplace. Hear all about it from people who were in the middle of it: Gerry Conway (Amazing Spider-Man, The Punisher), Jo Duffy (Power Man and Iron Fist, Catwoman), Marv Wolfman (Tomb of Dracula, The New Teen Titans), Paul Levitz (The Legion of Super-Heroes, Stalker), and your moderator, Mark Evanier (Scooby Doo, Blackhawk).

Friday, July 26 — 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM in Room 10
THE GROO PANEL
Since 1982, fans have followed the bumbling, almost tragi-comic exploits of easily the stupidest, most destructive character in all of comics, Sergio Aragonés' Groo the Wanderer. So here's your opportunity to hear all about this unique, long-running comic book character from Carrie Strachan (colorist of Groo), Jo Duffy (one-time editor of Groo), and Mark Evanier (who has something to do with this comic and maybe he'll even tell everyone just what it is).

Friday, July 26 — 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM in Room 10
WALT KELLY AND POGO
Walt Kelly's Pogo was one of the greatest newspaper comic strips of all time and is now being reprinted in an award-winning series of volumes from Fantagraphics Books. What made the world fall in love with Pogo Possum, Albert Alligator, Howland Owl, Churchy LaFemme, Ma'm'selle Hepzibah, and the other denizens of Mr. Kelly's corner of the Okefenokee Swamp? That's the topic under discussion by cartoonists Patrick McDonnell (Mutts) and Rick Parker (Beavis and Butthead), historian Maggie Thompson, Walt Kelly archivist Jane Plunkett, and your moderator (and co-editor of the Complete Pogo), Mark Evanier.

Saturday, July 27 — 11:45 AM to 1:00 PM in Room 6BCF
QUICK DRAW!
It just might be the fastest, funniest panel at the entire Comic-Con! Three cartoonists (and a few guest cartoonists) whip up hilarious cartoons right before your eyes based on suggestions from the audience and your host, Mark Evanier. Competing this year, armed with nothing but their own wits and some Sharpies, are Scott Shaw! (The Flintstones, The Simpsons comic books), Lalo Alcaraz (award-winning political cartoonist and the man behind La Cucaracha), and Disney Legend Floyd Norman.

Saturday, July 27 — 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM in Room 6BCF
CARTOON VOICES I
Once again, moderator Mark Evanier convenes his popular panel of folks who speak for some of your favorite animated superstars and videogames. Demonstrating their craft this year on the Saturday panel are Neil Ross (Captain Planet, G.I. Joe), Piotr Michael (Young Jedi Adventures, Wizards: Tales of Arcadia), Secunda Wood (Gabby's Dollhouse, Fast & Furious Spy Racers), Julie Nathanson (Final Fantasy, Skylanders), Bob Bergen (Porky Pig, Tweety), and Isaac Robinson-Smith (X-Men '97, Voltron: Legendary Defender).

Saturday, July 27 — 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM in Room 7AB
THE HISTORY OF HANNA-BARBERA RECORDS
The legacy, voices, and music of Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera, and their collaborators are celebrated by host Mark Evanier and actor Tim Matheson (Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, Sinbad, Jr., Animal House, Virgin River), cartoon voice performer Katie Leigh, animator and animation historian and Comic-Con special guest Tom Sito, and author Greg Ehrbar (host of The Funtastic World of Hanna & Barbera podcast).

Sunday, July 28 — 10:00 AM to 11:15 AM in Room 5AB
THE ANNUAL JACK KIRBY TRIBUTE PANEL
Each year, we gather together folks who knew and/or were inspired by the man they call "The King of the Comics," Jack Kirby. If you're attending this convention, you have to know who he was and what he did. Talking Kirby this year will be cartoonists Patrick McDonnell (Mutts) and Rick Parker (Beavis and Butt-Head), Kirby family friend Dave Schwartz, former DC Comics president Paul Levitz, Jack's granddaughter Tracy Kirby, and your moderator, former Kirby assistant Mark Evanier.

Sunday, July 28 — 11:45 AM to 1:15 PM in Room 6A
CARTOON VOICES II
If you think the Saturday Cartoon Voices Panel was wonderful, wait'll you hear the Sunday one! Your moderator Mark Evanier has rounded up six more of the best folks who put the words into the mouths of your animated favorites. Come hear Debi Derryberry (Jimmy Neutron, Draculaura on Monster High), Daniel Ross (Donald Duck, The Tom and Jerry Show), Jim Meskimen (Thundercats, Avengers Assemble!), David Errigo, Jr. (Phineas and Ferb, Tiny Toons Looniversity), Debra Wilson (Baby Shark's Big Show!, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League), and Fred Tatasciore (Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Tiny Toons Looniversity).

Sunday, July 23 — 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM in Room 7AB
COVER STORY
Industry people will tell you that the single most important page in any comic book is the cover, and often more effort goes into the cover than into the rest of the comic. What does it take to conceive, design, and execute a great cover? That's the question your moderator Mark Evanier will put to four artists who've done them over and over: J. Scott Campbell and Comic-Con special guests Joe Jusko, Ken Steacy, and Klaus Janson.

Sunday, July 28 — 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM in Room 7AB
THE BUSINESS OF CARTOON VOICES
What does it take to establish and maintain a career doing voicework for animated cartoons and video games? There are plenty of coaches out there who will charge you a fortune for the kind of advice you'll get absolutely free at this panel. Your moderator Mark Evanier has assembled a panel of one of the top voiceover agents, Sam Frishman (C.E.S.D.) and three voice actors who work all the time:  Gregg Berger, Debi Derryberry, and Debra Wilson. If you're interested in this profession, it's a must-attend!

Everything above — times, rooms, panelists, even how the moderator spells his name is subject to change. The entire programming schedule can be found and committed to memory on this page. During the con, I will not be one of those people sitting behind a table for any length of time signing stuff but come to one or more of the above panels and if there's time, I'll gladly autograph a few things for you if only to prove I know how to write my own name.

Saturday, July 27 — 11:45 AM to 1:00 PM in Room 6BCF
QUICK DRAW!
It just might be the fastest, funniest panel at the entire Comic-Con! Three cartoonists (and a few guest cartoonists) whip up hilarious cartoons right before your eyes based on suggestions from the audience and your host, Mark Evanier. Competing this year, armed with nothing but their own wits and some Sharpies, are Scott Shaw! (The Flintstones, The Simpsons comic books), Lalo Alcaraz (award-winning political cartoonist and the man behind La Cucaracha), and Disney Legend Floyd Norman.

Saturday, July 27 — 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM in Room 6BCF
CARTOON VOICES I
Once again, moderator Mark Evanier convenes his popular panel of folks who speak for some of your favorite animated superstars and videogames. Demonstrating their craft this year on the Saturday panel are Neil Ross (Transformers, G.I. Joe), Piotr Michael (Young Jedi Adventures, Wizards: Tales of Arcadia), Secunda Wood (Gabby's Dollhouse, Fast & Furious Spy Racers), Julie Nathanson (Final Fantasy, Skylanders), Bob Bergen (Porky Pig, Tweety), and Isaac Robinson-Smith (X-Men '97, Voltron: Legendary Defender).

Saturday, July 27 — 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM in Room 7AB
THE HISTORY OF HANNA-BARBERA RECORDS
The legacy, voices, and music of Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera, and their collaborators are celebrated by host Mark Evanier and actor Tim Matheson (Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, Sinbad, Jr., Animal House, Virgin River), cartoon voice performer Katie Leigh, animator and animation historian and Comic-Con special guest Tom Sito, and author Greg Ehrbar (host of The Funtastic World of Hanna & Barbera podcast).

Everything above is subject to change including what I'll be wearing. The whole danged programming schedule will eventually be over on this page. You won't catch me anywhere signing things during the convention but if and when there's time, I will obligingly sign a few (a few!) things for anyone who attends any of my panels. Please try to at least pretend you like the contents and are just not looking to enhance the item's resale price.

Andy Krieg wrote to ask…

Since you have worked with a lot of licensed characters on your various comics, I am hoping you can explain some questions I have around what happens when that license moves from one company to another.

I have seen an awful lot of repackaged releases of licensed character material when said character moves between companies.  For example, when Conan moved from Marvel to Dark Horse, Dark Horse started to reprint Conan comics Marvel had produced.  And when the license moved back to Marvel, Marvel started to reprint Conan comics Dark Horse had produced.  You can see repackaged materials at various companies for licenses such as Star Trek, Star Wars, G.I. Joe, ROM the Spaceknight, Planet of the Apes, Red Sonja, etc.  Heck, the whole Disney line has moved from company to company, with Carl Barks reprints (among others) happening at all of them.

My questions lie around how this material is transferred from company to company.  Did Marvel keep a file cabinet full of all their Conan work that got wheeled out the door when Conan moved to Dark Horse?  Or as the comics are written, does the owner of the licensed character get all of the pages, scripts, etc. for the comic each month, and they keep a record of it?  Is this something covered in a standard contract between the licensee and licensor companies?

Are there companies out that whose purpose is to store and maintain these libraries of material for companies that own licensed characters? It seems like something most companies wouldn't have the expertise to do for themselves.  And where does the material go when the person or company licensing off some character no longer exists?  I'm guessing some estate might still hold rights to people like Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope and the Three Stooges. But Dell's Four Color run is full of odd and obscure licensed characters (e.g. Timmy, Johnny Mack Brown, The Little Scouts, etc.). Where would the materials for characters such as these reside?

First off, I've never known any comic book company to keep scripts or anything except the finished pages and covers. Secondly, I'll let you in on a dark secret of the comic book business: In the pre-digital era — before pages could scanned into computers and saved as digital media — the comic book companies were often real sloppy about retaining copies of their own material…pages they knew they would someday want to reprint or sell overseas. Never mind preserving the material done for a licensed property like Conan, there were times when Marvel wanted to reprint an issue of Spider-Man or Hulk and had to scramble to find something to print off of.

This may sound like corporate irresponsibility — and it was — but it was also often a matter of short-term frugality. Before digital, it cost money to shoot extra photostats and/or negatives of pages and it looked better on the budget sheets to not spend a lot of the company's dough to preserve material for the future. DC spent a lot more money on its "library" than Marvel but at times, even DC had no source material to use when they wanted to reprint something.

Back then, reprinting a comic book usually meant you had to have a sharp copy of the black-and-white line art. When they didn't have that, they sometimes had to photograph off old printed comics with filters to try and bleach out the color. There was a process that Joe Simon came up with — though someone else later grabbed credit for it — whereby, they'd take an actual printed copy of an old issue and bleach the colors out of the page with chemicals. Those pages, of course, then had to be retouched and cleaned-up. Sometimes, they'd just pay an artist to trace the pages out of a printed comic and create new black-and-white line art.

I should devote a few of these ASKmes to discussing other ways this was done…but you asked about licensed books changing companies…

There have never been any standard contracts as far as I know but usually, the owner of the property receives copies of every issue in a form that would allow them to duplicate the material and sell it to others. When I wrote Disney comics for Gold Key, Gold Key would send photostats of every page they published to a department at Disney which would store them. When they could sell the rights to reprint that material to some publisher (foreign then, anywhere now) they could duplicate those pages for the new publisher. I would imagine all that material has long since been digitized and that since digital became industry standard, there are no more stats.

So when Dark Horse reprinted a comic done originally by Marvel, they probably had access to whatever the copyright holder had. If the copyright holder didn't properly preserve that source material, that was a problem but not a huge one because digital technology today makes it much, much easier to print off a printed comic. A lot of the reprinted material you buy today is made possible by digital reconstruction. Sometimes, they just scan a comic, tweak the scan and reprint the page with its original coloring.

This is fortunate because a lot of copyright holders didn't preserve whatever they once had. There are to my knowledge no companies that preserve this material for the copyright holders. In most cases, whatever the original publisher had was not preserved unless the copyright holder did…and in most cases, they didn't.

Bob Hope — there's a name drop — once told me (and others I know) that he owned the publication rights to those Bob Hope comic books DC put out from 1950 through 1968 and he had a few complete sets of the published issues. I would imagine that if someone today wanted to reprint them, they'd first have to make a deal with his estate. Then they'd have to figure out if anyone anywhere kept the old black-and-white film or stats and if so, was that material in good enough condition? The answer would probably be no so they'd have to resort to digital reconstruction, either using Bob's copies or someone else's.

They might also find someone had some of the old original art. There have been reprints of some comics that have been made possible because some collector had pages but that doesn't happen very often.

The Comics Code Authority came into existence in 1954 because many comic book publishers feared that government regulation of their product was a' comin'. Most of the major publishers formed an organization called the Comics Magazine Association of America, drew up rules as to what could and could not appear in a Code-approved comic and hired someone to whom each comic had to be submitted for approval before publication.

It was technically a voluntary measure but a lot of smaller publishers quickly found out that it was tough to get distribution and/or advertising if they didn't join. One example: At about the time The Code was instituted, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby were attempting to start a new comic book publishing firm called Mainline. According to both men, their distributor, Leader News, told them that if they didn't comply with the C.M.A.A., their books would never get on newsstands.

They went along with it and Mainline's books still didn't get decent distribution, at least in part because Leader News had also distributed Bill Gaines' E.C. line of crime and horror comics like Tales From the Crypt. Those books were largely killed by The Code but both Joe and Jack felt that the major publishers still had it in for Gaines and his distributor. Several other small publishers also folded despite displaying Code approval. Both Joe and Jack felt that was one of the reasons the major publishers banded together: To drive out smaller publishers.

But there were at least two companies then publishing that thrived despite refusing to sign onto The Code. Those two were Gilberton (which put out Classics Illustrated and other somewhat educational comics) and Dell (which put out Disney and a lot of TV and movie-based comics). Both those firms felt that the content of their books protected them and that they should let the wholesomeness of their lines be used to help the companies that had, as one editor who'd worked for Dell back then put it, "damn near destroyed our entire industry."

Later, when Dell Comics split into two lines — Dell and Western Publishing's Gold Key Comics (explained here) — neither outfit subscribed to The Code. Several times in interviews, whoever was the spokesperson for The Code at the moment would be asked about those two holdouts and they'd say something like, "Those companies choose not to participate but they've assured us they unofficially follow our guidelines," whereupon someone from Dell and/or Western would fire off a letter to the C.M.A.A. which said something like, "That's a lie and if you say it again, we'll sue your sorry asses!"

The Comics Code seal of approval/compliance was designed by the great designer of logos for DC Comics, Ira Schnapp. It appeared on the other publishers' wares until Marvel dropped it and stopped submitting their books in 2001 and the other companies withdrew over the next decade. And that was the end of the Comics Code.

A reader of this site, C.K. Bloch, wrote to ask me a whole bunch of questions about the Comics Code and I answered most of them in the above paragraphs. But he also wanted to know…

Do you know of a lot of cases where good stories or art were ruined by the Comics Code demanding changes?

Nothing in my career but I started in 1970. At the inception of The Code, that seems to have happened a lot. The C.M.A.A. had to prove that its rules had teeth and so they demanded way more changes than they did later. Arnold Drake, who started writing for DC around 1956, said that the editors there sometimes put in dialogue or images that were specifically intended to give The Code something to cut. There was also this problem: At the moment The Code was instituted, every publisher had a lot of material in the pipeline that was written and maybe drawn when those rules did not exist. Much of that material had to be laundered to pass The Code.

At Marvel, the guy stuck with making a lot of the alterations on as-yet-unpublished material was the Production Artist, Sol Brodsky. He not only relettered and redrew a lot of stories then in the works, he was told make "before" and "after" stats that the C.M.A.A. could put in press releases to show how the new standards were cleaning up the business.

In the mid-seventies, I had a long talk with Sol about how The Code had affected the business and I came to the conclusion — this is my view but he agreed with it — that the main impact The Code had was that editors, writers and artists more-or-less censored themselves. And they may at times have erred too much on the side of timidity.

Comic books have always been a business where things are being sent to press at the last moment and there were penalty fees if your book got to the engraver or to press late. So people tended to also err on the side of caution. Most did not try things that they were afraid might cause the Code Administrators to demand changes. Changes took time that they often did not have.

I experienced something similar when I worked in animation for Hanna-Barbera or Ruby-Spears or other companies making Saturday morning cartoons. Most shows operated on tight deadlines. If production on a show had to be halted to make changes demanded by the Standards and Practices divisions at the networks, a few days might be lost…and those few days might cost the show a lot of money. It might even jeopardize an episode making its air date.

At least a half-dozen times when I worked for H-B, the network folks (especially at ABC then) would ask for changes and I would talk them out of them…and even if it was only took a day or two to get them to say, "Okay, leave it in," Bill Hanna would already have made the alterations in a rush to get the show off to Korea or Taiwan or wherever it was being animated.

In that conversation with Sol, he admitted to me that Stan Lee or someone else in the office would decide to rewrite something or have something redrawn…and perhaps it was a creative decision or perhaps they were afraid something might not get past The Code and the book was running late. But the change would be made and if anyone asked or the writer or artist objected, the excuse was "The Comics Code made us change it!"

Over the years, I asked several folks who edited comics in the sixties and seventies, the following question: "Did you ever make a change in story or art and when the writer or artist complained, you fibbed and said the Comics Code had demanded it?" Offhand, I recall asking that of Julius Schwartz, George Kashdan, Joe Kubert, Len Wein, Archie Goodwin and maybe one or two others. All of them said yes. And of course, I asked Stan Lee and of course, his answer was, "I don't remember but probably." You got that answer a lot when you asked Stan a question about almost anything. He once said it when I asked him if he'd gone to lunch yet.

I am not saying the Code did not at times insist on changes…and often stupid changes. I am saying that I think it got blamed for a lot of changes it did not demand, especially in later years. And I think its main damage was that its mere presence — the fact that someone was going to look over the work and look for things that were in questionable taste — inhibited a lot of writers and artists and editors.

Ever since that conversation with Sol, I've been skeptical when I hear, "Oh, the Comics Code made us change that" or the assumption by readers that when something was changed that it was the restrictive, puritanical Comics Code at work. Here's an example. At left below, you see the cover of Captain America #101 as it first appeared, drawn by Jack Kirby and inked by Syd Shores. At right, we see the cover of an issue that reprinted the same material years later. You will notice that the head of the villain, The Red Skull, is different…

Comic book scholars noticed the difference and the theory/assumption or whatever you wanted to call it, went like this: Jack forgot and drew the old, uglier version of the Red Skull from the forties. When the artwork was submitted to the Comics Code, they thought the villain looked too scary and demanded that it be redrawn…which it was, not by Kirby or Shores. Years later, when the material was reprinted, Marvel used a stat of the cover as it stood before submission to The Code and whoever was at The Code then saw the material differently and let it pass.

That is all entirely possible but I have an alternate theory. When Syd Shores was inking Kirby on Captain America, he often made changes in Jack's work which Stan didn't like. Mr. Shores had been told that any issue now, he would stop being just the inker on the comic and it would take over the penciling of the book so that Kirby could be rotated to another project. That transfer of power never happened but when it was the plan, Shores took some liberties with Jack's art from time to time. And more than a few times, Stan had the work retouched back closer to the way Jack did it.

I don't think we know which artist — Kirby or Shores — made the Red Skull look like he did in the forties when both men drew him. If I had to, I'd bet on Shores but I think this was retouched before the folks at the C.M.A.A. offices saw it. Stan Lee often (very often) would look at a cover that was being ready for publication and ask to have the character's face redone by a staff artist, usually John Romita Sr. If you can't spot a lot of touch-ups on Marvel covers of that era, you aren't paying attention. Romita redraws abound and when they aren't by him, they're by Marie Severin or Herb Trimpe or someone else. Some editors just love to tamper.

Later when the reprint was sent to press, a pre-retouch stat was used but Stan wasn't in charge of covers by then…and if he did see it, by then he didn't care. And the Comics Code never cared.

There was plenty wrong with the Comics Code and we can talk more about that at another time. I just think that arguably-necessary-at-one-time institution didn't make all the obvious changes that comic fans think. And again, a lot of changes were made (or work softened) because someone was afraid of what The Code would say…which is not the same thing as The Code demanding something be changed. That's what I think.

From Derek Teague comes a message with a few questions…

Were you working for Welcome Back, Kotter when DC Comics issued its comic book adaptation during  the summer of 1976? What might have the reaction to it from the cast and crew? Did DC send free comic books to be used as on-air props?

Yes, I was a story editor on the TV show when DC put out the comic and I wrote two issues of it. I posted a bit about that experience back here.

As far as I know, DC never sent them anything and the cast members probably never saw most of the t-shirts, games, coloring books and other Kotter merchandise unless they went looking for that stuff in stores. We did hear occasional grumbling from some about how their likenesses were being exploited without them receiving any compensation.

Actually, if what I heard was correct, the "kids" on the show weren't paid all that much. One of the producers told me I was getting more dough per show than John Travolta and I wasn't taking home a very large paycheck.

If I was getting more than on that show than John, me was more than making up for it with outside gigs. While we were shooting the last few episodes of the only season I worked on, he was commuting to New York on the weekends for prep on Saturday Night Fever.

But that's what happens when you're low on or devoid of credits and you get hired in show business: You kinda have to accept the lowest-possible offer or something close to it. Once you're part of a success, you can demand and get way more. The first time I ran into him post-Kotter, Travolta told me about the airplane he'd just bought.

So I don't recall the cast — The Sweathogs, at least — having any awareness of the comic with one exception. Bobby Hegyes, who played Juan Epstein on the show, once saw some black-and-white Xeroxes of the first of the two issues I wrote of the comic book. I don't recall why I had them in my office or how he happened to see them but he flipped through the packet and said, "A little light on Epstein," which was the same thing he said about every single script we taped that season.

Back to Derek's message…

At the time, I was entering high school and the bloom seemed to be off the rose. My fellow ninth graders didn't think WBK was cool anymore – especially since ABC mistakenly shifted the program to lead off its Thursday night line-up.

I'm curious why you think that was a mistake since I believe the show won its time slot every single week that season.

I've noticed that, in the second season of Kotter that the writers were painstakingly shoving a new catchphrase down the viewers' throats, particularly "I'm so confused," which Vinnie Barbarino would utter when he was flustered. It seemed to have been used in a handful of consecutive episodes until it was abruptly and ultimately dropped.

What's it like when a second-generation catchphrase (or any catchphrase for that matter) just fizzles out just doesn't catch on?

For the most part, the writers on the show only wrote any of those lines once…the first time each line appeared in a script. Thereafter, they reappeared for a simple reason: They'd gotten huge laughs. The actor insisted on saying it and if it got a laugh during the dress rehearsal, it stayed in. It was kind of like, "Well, if he's going to say his catchphrase, I'm gonna say my catchphrase." I think we did put Horshack's "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!" into scripts few times because he was going to say it, no matter what and we could pick a more appropriate spot for it. Our live audience wasn't going to leave until they heard it.

The main problem for me with the catchphrases is that Kotter was a half-hour show and while I don't recall the exact numbers, I think after you subtracted time for the opening teaser and credits, the closing credits and all those dangled commercials, we had something like 21 minutes. Each catchphrase got laughter and applause totaling about 30 seconds so if Barbarino, Horshack, Epstein and Washington each uttered two catchphrases in an episode, that was another four minutes we lost.

It's kinda rough to do a story featuring 6-7 people in 17 minutes and when we ran long, as we usually did, the decree from our Exec Producer was, "Cut story, not laughs." A frequently-heard phrase from his office was "Funny is money, funny is money."

With occasional exceptions — a show like M*A*S*H for instance — comedy on TV is best done in front of a properly-warmed-up live audience. But there's an easy trap there to fall into: Live audiences love the familiar. Imagine if Tony Bennett hosted a nightly program like The Tonight Show. If every single night he sang "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," the live audiences would always have been thrilled. And the same kind of folks sitting at home would have grabbed for their remotes and said, "Let's see what else is on!"

I think a lot of shows, especially those on every night like David Letterman's or Conan O'Brien's, lost audience share by catering too much to the few hundred people in the studio instead of the few million at home. And I think Welcome Back, Kotter was among a whole lotta shows that hastened their own demises by giving their live audiences the catchphrases and other elements they'd come to see and hear in person…and my, this was a long reply. Thanks for setting me off on this topic, Derek.

The way registration for Comic-Con works is that some portion of the available badges is put up for purchase as "Returning Registration," meaning that if you attended the last con, you can purchase badges for this one. This sale is then followed by "Open Registration" on another date and on that date, anyone can try to purchase badges. Later on, there may be additional (but limited) opportunities but those two dates are when most of the badges that are going to be sold are sold.

Returning Registration was last Saturday and the anecdotal reports I've heard said that it went smoothly. That is not to say that everyone who wanted badges got them but the ones who got them seem to have gotten them with a minimum of stress and frustration. There will always be those who are unable to score badges because of simply math. The convention center can hold X number of people and the number of people who want to attend is more like ten times X. Or more.

Open Registration takes place Saturday, November 18, 2023 commencing at 9:00 AM Pacific Standard Time. The Virtual Waiting Room opens an hour before that. You can find out more on this page and on this page. Our friends over at The San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog have written up their own unofficial guide that may also be helpful and you can read it here.

I would recommend digesting all this information well before the day, especially the part about having a Member I.D. in advance. I would also recommend keeping in mind that this is basically a lottery and not everyone can win. Until such time as the convention becomes a lot less popular — like, say, when I achieve my Master Plan to someday host all the panels and making sure every one of them is about Groo — there will always be way more people who want to attend than the con can accommodate. Just remember: It's not Real Life. It's Comic-Con, Jake.

And you probably will be able to get into WonderCon — run by the same people but it's smaller. That's at the Anaheim Convention Center from March 29 to March 31 next year. Badges for that will be on-sale soon.

I have a suitcase that I took with me to Comic-Con in San Diego last July and have not unpacked. Nonetheless, it is time for those who will need to procure badges to attend next year's Comic-Con International to start thinking about this. The convention next year will be July 25-28, 2024 at — where else? — the San Diego Convention Center. Preview Night will be July 24 and all of the parking spaces for the convention are already sold out.

No, I'm kidding about the parking spaces. Or maybe I'm just about 280 days early. Either way, I'm not kidding when I tell you that Returning Registration will take place on Saturday, November 4. Returning Registration is for those who purchased a badge for this past Comic-Con and didn't request a refund. At a later date, there will be a sale called Open Registration in which anyone, returnee or not, can compete to purchase badges.

Details of all this can be found on this page where they'll first tell you that you have to a valid Comic-Con Member ID. By the way, there is no truth to the rumor that my Comic-Con Member ID number is #1.

If any of what's over there seems confusing, you might get straightened out by visiting our friends at The San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog. They are, as they boast, unofficial but they sure know a lot about how Comic-Con works. Keep an eye on their site and the official site for the latest news. Don't count on me to bring it to you.

This is Part 7 and it follows Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6. There will be no Part 8, at least for now.

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One of the most-asked questions of my life — in person and via e-mail — is why at Comic-Con each year, I host or appear on so many panels. This past con, the number was 14 and no, that's not my record. In 2008, I did 17. Some folks think that's nuts and, of course, they're right. It is absolutely nuts. But the way I see it is that if you can't be nuts at Comic-Con, where can you be nuts?

The thing is: I like being at Comic-Con and I don't know what else I'd do with myself there if I didn't have some double-digit number of panels. In the previous part of this series, I listed a number of things that I was doing at Comic-Con that I was slowly deciding I didn't really enjoy doing.

I sorta/kinda/more or less appeared on my first Comic-Con panel at the first Comic-Con in 1970. It was not on whatever schedule they had. There was a fellow named Mark Hanerfeld who sorta/kinda/more or less worked for DC Comics in New York. I'd met him in their offices a month earlier. He was sorta/kinda/more or less an intern there and was paid occasionally for writing a text page or letter column.

Mark loved comics, wanted to be a part of that world and had some income sources that made it possible for him to, in effect, work for free for DC. He later became a paid assistant editor there…and a comic book character. The host of the House of Secrets comic, a bearded gent named Abel.

That first Comic-Con in San Diego coincided with a trip Mark made to visit relatives in Los Angeles so he stopped in. Someone — I'm fairly sure it was Shel Dorf — quickly announced a panel in which Mark, as some sort of official representative of DC Comics, would talk about what the company had planned for the future. Mark had me join him on this impromptu panel before, as I recall, about twenty people.

In case I haven't made it clear, DC had not sent Mark to this con. He'd just decided to go and he paid his own way there. But when he got back to New York, he began telling everyone about the terrific convention he'd attended in San Diego. He had much to do with the fact that over the next few years, people in the New York industry began making the trek, often at their own expense, to what we now know as Comic-Con International.

I don't recall any panels at the second San Diego Con in 1971 but I have a fuzzy memory of another impromptu panel at the '72, which was the first of many held at the El Cortez Hotel in downtown San Diego. If I'm right, it wasn't even listed on the programming schedule but was thrown together at the last minute with a number of convention guests who didn't really have much in common with each other.

That was the problem with a lot of panels at the first comic conventions I attended — in San Diego or elsewhere. Someone thought that any random grouping of professionals could constitute an interesting panel. Well no, not if they worked in very different capacities and, as was occasionally the case, they'd never even heard of each other.

I am certain though that at the 1973 con, which was held at a Sheraton on Harbor Island, there was a Writers' Panel consisting of just my friend Mike Friedrich and me. For many years after, I was always on a Writers' Panel not just at San Diego conventions but at every con I attended. They were all pretty much the same panel in terms of what was said and I think Mike was on several of them with me.

For a long time, I was on two or three panels per year at what didn't become known as Comic-Con International until 1995. Sometimes, I was the moderator, sometimes not. Sometimes, they were fun, sometimes they were not. They were more fun later when I had more say in who was on those panels and what they'd be about. The number of panels with which I was involved slowly grew from year to year.

At one point, someone from the convention called and asked if I'd host the almost-annual spotlight panel on Ray Bradbury…and how could anyone turn that down? For several years, I got to ask questions of one of the greatest writers alive for 60 (once, I think, 90) minutes…and I also got to sit down. As I mentioned in the last part, I liked having a place to sit down at the con somewhere I didn't feel isolated from the rest of the convention or expected to sell things or sign books.

At the 1997 Comic-Con, Al Williamson approached me. Al, as I suspect you know, was one of the best artists who ever worked in comics but you may not know what a terrific guy he was. We'd met before but that year as I recall, he had seen me interviewing another great artist and guy, George Tuska, on a panel. Mr. Tuska was quite hard of hearing but I sat as close as possible to him and talked slowly and managed to get some good answers out of him.

Al loved Tuska as both an artist and a human being and he thanked me for the effort. Then he said, "The convention has me doing one of those 'spotlight panels' in an hour. I don't think they get that I'm an artist, not a talker. I wouldn't even know how to start such a thing but I really liked the way you interviewed George. Would you interview me like that for my spotlight?"

Of course I would. I got to talk with Al Williamson for an hour or so and get him talking about the things that were of interest to me. Al told other professionals to ask for me and then when the convention invited some older comic book writer or artist and that person was uneasy about speaking in front of an audience, they'd tell him, "We've got a guy here who can make it real easy for you."

I mention Al because I think he was the one who made me realize that I was being useful at the con and could be more so…by doing something I enjoyed. I think it was because of him that I went to whoever was then doing the programming for the con — Gary Sassaman, most likely — and said, "Assign me to as many panels as you want."

Understand please that I'm not saying I started doing panels at Comic-Con in 1997 because Al Williamson suggested it. I was doing panels before that. He was just the one who made me realize how much I enjoyed it and how I'd found the best way for me to "do" Comic-Con. This will probably cause some of you to scratch your collective heads and say something like…

Let me get this straight, Evanier. You just took seven whole posts on your blog to tell us that to "do" Comic-Con, we should figure out what we enjoy doing there and do more of it and also figure out what we don't enjoy there and to the extent possible, do less of it? Is that really what it took you seven parts to tell us?

Yes. Yes, it is. And call me stupid if you like but it took me more than twenty-five Comic-Cons to figure that out.

Part 1 can be read here. Part 2 can be read here. Part 3 can be read here. Which brings us to Part 4…

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Shortly after this year's Comic-Con, I read a post online — I'm not sure where — where someone accused Comic-Con of failing to "evolve." And at the same time, the same person was accusing the Con of changing and wishing it was more like it used to be. I didn't quite understand the post so I bookmarked it so I could go back and spend more time with it…and now I can't find it.

As someone who has now been to 52 of these, I am well aware that Comic-Con has changed over the years…and guess what? The comic book industry has changed, too. DC Comics and Marvel are now companies that are largely about the exploitation of their properties in films, on TV, in videogames and various additional forms other than printed-on-paper comic books. There are also dozens of new companies, some with very different business models and hundreds of small publishers or creators who self-publish.

Something else that has changed: The ways in both new comic books and old ones are sold. One reason there aren't more dealers selling old comics there is that many vendors now find it easier and/or more lucrative to sell via online sites like eBay or online auctions. Why lug around crates of old books when you can (often) get a better price without shlepping them great distances, carrying them into the convention center, setting up a booth, carrying the crates back out to a van, driving them home, taking them back inside wherever you store them, etc.?

Also, here are two basic rules of conventions: The greater the attendance, the more they charge for exhibitor space. And the more they charge for exhibitor space, the less likely dealers are to bring cheap comics. That's not just Comic-Con. That's all conventions. If you're looking for real inexpensive old comics, a big convention is not the place to find them.

Finally: A core part of Comic-Con has always been the comic book creators. Over the years at these events, I had the honor/privilege/duty (call it what you like) of interviewing people like Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, Will Eisner, Gil Kane, John Romita, Gene Colan, Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman, Joe Sinnott, Will Elder, Al Williamson, John Buscema, Dick Giordano, Joe Kubert, Murphy Anderson, Chuck Cuidera, Irwin Hasen, Sheldon Moldoff, Dick Sprang, Dan DeCarlo, John Broome, Gardner Fox, Julius Schwartz, Russ Heath, Joe Giella, Chase Craig, Roger Armstrong, Jim Mooney, George Gladir, Sid Jacobson, Irv Novick, Ric Estrada, Jack Davis, Frank Kelly Freas, Nick Cardy, Victor Gorelick, Kurt Schaffenberger, Stan Lee, Sam Glanzman, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Vince Sullivan, Dan Barry, Lee Ames, Fred Guardineer, Joe Simon, Jack Kamen, Arnold Drake, Bob Haney, Martin Nodell, Dick Ayers, Paul Norris, Bill Lignante, Denny O'Neil, Dan Spiegle, Frank Springer, Mel Keefer, Tom Gill, Herb Trimpe, Leonard Starr, Stan Goldberg and Allen Bellman.

That's 61 names and I could probably list 61 more.

Comic-Con no longer has people like that around. I can't put together a Golden Age Panel or a Silver Age Panel like we used to do and some critics seem to be blaming the convention for this instead of the passage of time. (In case you didn't realize it, the 61 people in the above list have all passed away. In some recent years like this one, I have been unable to even assemble a panel of folks who worked on comics in the seventies. There are many still with us but they either aren't at the con or don't want to leave their tables, where they're making money, for even an hour.)

There are panels about the newer writers and artists. Those of you who are interested in hearing creators talk about their work should try attending some of them. Some of them are very interesting but they're no longer about the birth of the industry…or when folks in my age bracket first discovered comic books and began collecting.

I just don't understand the "Comic-Con needs to evolve" criticism. It seems to me that it has evolved because the world and the industry have evolved. But then I also don't understand when some of the same complainers insist that "Comic-Con needs to get back to its roots" because that's a wish that it would devolve.

If you would like to influence the direction in which Comic-Con goes, I have two suggestions to make. There are two ways you can influence that. One is by showing up and supporting the kind of programming you would like to see more of. No convention programs for empty seats.

A pet peeve of mine back when I was doing all those panels with the above 61 is that there were attendees who would tell me there should be more such panels…and then when we did them, they didn't show up for them. I told this story here before a couple times about one such no-show…

[He] was upset that so much of the Comic-Con wasn't about comics and he felt, I guess, that I'd concur and would rush off to do something about it…maybe throw Robert Downey Jr out of the hall or something. Instead, I told him about that great panel we did on the Golden Age of Batman with Jerry Robinson, Sheldon Moldoff and Lew Schwartz. If you're interested in the history of comics, it doesn't get any more historical than that. I then said to this fellow who was complaining about the con not being about that kind of thing, "I didn't see you there."

And so help me, he replied, "I couldn't be there. I had to get in line to see the 24 panel with Kiefer Sutherland."

That kind of thing happened a lot more often than you might think. So what I suggest is that you support the kind of programming you want to see by actually attending it when it's offered…and this next point is so important, I'll put it in all caps: TALK IT UP ON SOCIAL MEDIA. That helps, people. It really helps and not just for Comic-Con. If you see a great presentation, write about it on Facebook or Instagram or Tik-Tok or whatever alias Twitter is going by this week. You have some power to influence the programming at conventions. Use it.

That's about all I have to say this time out. There will be at least one other part in this series soon but they all go to my main point, which is that you can't just show up at Comic-Con and have the best possible time. You need to understand the event you're attending and understand what you want to get out of it. Once you do both those things, you can indeed have the best possible time. In that next part, I'll tell you some of the many mistakes I made before I learned what the hell I was doing there.