The fine folks who run Comic-Con International today announced…
Don Glut, Sheldon Mayer to Receive 2025 Bill Finger Award
Don Glut and Sheldon Mayer have been selected to receive the 2025 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. The selection, made by a blue-ribbon committee chaired by writer-historian Mark Evanier, was once again unanimous.
"As usual, the judges considered a long list of names, but these two jumped out at us," Evanier remarked. "They're two men who made important contributions to the comic book industry and artform and who haven’t received proper recognition and maybe not proper compensation."
Don Glut and Sheldon Mayer
Don Glut in his teens distinguished himself as an amateur filmmaker before embarking on a career that would include becoming a professional filmmaker, having co-produced, directed, and written eight feature-length films. He has also written TV shows and novels and, most important to this award, comic books. Much of that work was for Gold Key Comics, where he co-created and wrote three series that formed a little "Don Glut Universe" within the company’s line: Dagar the Invincible, The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor and Tragg and the Sky Gods. They attracted a loyal following then on the newsstands and more recently in fancy reprint collections. For Warren Publishing, Don authored tales for Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella, and for Marvel, his writing could be found in, among others, Captain America, The Invaders, Kull the Destroyer, Solomon Kane, Star Wars, and What If…? Don also has more than 80 books to his credit, including The Dinosaur Dictionary and the authorized novelization of the movie The Empire Strikes Back.
Sheldon Mayer (1917–1991) was a key contributor to some of the earliest comic books, with work traced back as far as the mid-1930s. After a brief stint at the Max Fleischer animation studio, he began writing and drawing for Dell Comics, producing some of the earliest original (i.e., not reprinted from newspaper strips) material featured in comic books. These included his semi-autobiographical strip Scribbly, about a boy cartoonist. In 1936 he began working with industry pioneer M. C. Gaines at the McClure Syndicate, and two years later he was the person who convinced Gaines to reconsider an oft-rejected submission. That submission — Superman by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster — wound up appearing in DC Comics and revolutionizing the field. When Gaines (and partner Jack Liebowitz) formed the All-American comic book company in 1939, Mayer was their first editor and presided over the creation of many popular properties, including The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. He also found time to write and draw humorous comics, including a revival of Scribbly. When All-American was acquired by DC Comics in 1944, Mayer came along as editor, but four years later he retired from editing to create, write, and draw new features for DC, most notably The Three Mouseketeers and his masterpiece, Sugar & Spike. Mayer later wrote for DC's ghost comics, co-created and wrote The Black Orchid for Adventure Comics, and even adapted The Bible into a special edition DC comic. He passed away in 1991, but his granddaughter Chelle will be on hand to accept his Finger Award at the ceremony.
The Bill Finger Award was created in 2005 at the instigation of the great comic book artist and cartoonist Jerry Robinson. It was his way of preserving the memory of his friend and colleague, William Finger (1914–1974), who was the first and, some say, most important writer of Batman. Many have called him the "unsung hero" of the character and have hailed his work not only on that iconic figure but on dozens of others, primarily for DC Comics. Evanier explains, "When Jerry first suggested this award, it was the worst-kept secret in comics that Finger had co-created Batman and much of the mythos and supporting cast of that character. Nowhere on the comics or movies or TV shows was Bill Finger credited. That has changed, but there are still plenty of important, undercredited writers for us to put into the spotlight. Which is what this award is all about."
In addition to Evanier, the selection committee consists of Charles Kochman (executive editor at Harry N. Abrams, book publisher), comic book writer Kurt Busiek, artist/historian Jim Amash, cartoonist Scott Shaw!, and writer/editor Marv Wolfman.
The major sponsor for the 2025 award is DC Comics; supporting sponsors are Heritage Auctions and Maggie Thompson.
The Finger Award falls under the auspices of Comic-Con International and is administered by Jackie Estrada. The awards will be presented during the Eisner Awards ceremony at this summer's Comic-Con International on Friday, July 25.
I couldn't resist posting and replying to this message from David Daskal regarding this earlier post here…
Hi, Mark. Remember when we spoke last year about cold calls? Yeah, we did not.
I am a devoted fan of the blog, and there is no argument that your cold call stories provide you with non-stop opportunities for engaging content, but…why do you answer these calls?
I, and most other folks with Caller I.D., never answer calls from sources we can't identify. The State Lottery is not calling to tell me they found a missing million dollar ticket with my name on it. Hollywood is not calling to tell me they want to buy the rights to my life story (granted, in your case that may be a limited possibility). Even if similar circumstances were to occur, there is such a thing as Voicemail.
Meaning no disrespect, but certainly you never open e-mails from unfamiliar sources? (Speaking here about your personal email account) How is opening Spam e-mail any different than answering "mystery" phone calls? Do you secretly enjoy these telephone encounters?
Sometimes I think I might have missed meeting my ideal wife by not answering a Spam phone call (The male fantasy of redeeming a lost soul in a Strip Club may have been replaced by rescuing a desperate young woman from a Call Center). But then, I will readily admit I am delusional.
I will admit that once in a while, I enjoy sparring with Spam-Callers…but the real reason I answer calls of unknown origin is that in the past, I tried not answering them. And in so doing, I sometimes missed important calls that were, when the phone rang, indistinguishable from the calls trying to sell me a ten-year supply of War Surplus Mayonnaise or something. And when I say "important," I'm flashing back to the years when my mother was constantly in and out of the hospital…or later years when my lady friend Carolyn was in one.
I received a lot of calls from doctors or other medical personnel and when the phone rang, I dared not not answer. They were occasionally urgent and if I did let them go to Voicemail, it was sometimes a long and difficult process to get that person back on the line. My doctor and the folks in his office currently phone me from various numbers I can't know are or aren't legit without answering them.
And then the other day, a call came in — no Caller I.D. and I didn't recognize the number — and I took a gamble. I answered and it was someone I was glad I could speak to. I'm having a dispute over a bill I received. They think I owe them one amount. I think I owe them another with one less digit. It's impossible to reach anyone over there when I call them and it had been on my mind a lot. Talking to them then and there, we cleared it all up in my favor. If I hadn't answered what could have been a Spam call, I'd still be thinking about it a lot and they'd still be tacking on interest penalties. Now it's all settled and off my List of Things I Have To Deal With.
I do not like Spam calls. I find them annoying and intrusive and often insulting. I've sometimes even said to such callers, "I'm sorry but I'm not quite stupid enough to fall for your offer." But I've sometimes inconvenienced myself more by not answering a call I wasn't sure about.
My friend Tom Galloway (who knows everything about everything) sent me this note about the video link just before this post…
FYI, the intersection they start off in, and return to a time or two, is Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, considered the busiest pedestrian intersection/crossing in the world. To the point where it's actually a tourist attraction (although being in a major shopping area doesn't hurt). At peak times, there can be literally thousands of people crossing in it. I'm curious how much work/time it took for them to get filming permits for their video there. Possibly worth looking at a YouTube video or two that just shows it in normal everyday use.
I am sometimes amazed (and at times, annoyed) at how much most cities in the U.S. are willing to discomfort and inconvenience their citizens if some movie or TV company wants to stop traffic or block off streets to film a scene for just about anything. I guess it's the same in Japan.
I don't know why I've become such a champion for Boop! The Musical, a show I haven't seen. I guess it's just that I've heard good things about it from friends who've seen it, I like the online clips I've seen and I'd like the show to still be up and running if/when I get back to New York later this year. (By the way, the cast recording will be released before this week is out.)
This morning when I woke up, the first thing I checked online was to see if the folks who program The Tony Awards had found a place for the show to present a number on their telecast this Sunday. No word yet even though the online petition has over 5,000 signatures. That's almost half the people who watch the Tony Awards each year.
Our floundering president is claiming that if the monstrosity he calls his "Big, Beautiful Bill" doesn't pass, the people of this country will suffer a tax increase of 68%. FactCheck.org explains the mathematical gymnastics required to arrive at that number.
And he's trying to sell that bill with a whole lot o' lying as The New York Times points out. Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post also points out the untruths that Trump's minions are spreading about the Congressional Budget Office's scoring of the bill
Also, Steve Benen points out the efforts of G.O.P. leaders to prevent the C.B.O. from doing its job of analyzing bills like the supposed "Big, Beautiful" one. It's even working on some of their own…like Marjorie Taylor Greene who's now saying she voted for the bill without knowing everything that is in it.
Flashing back again to a time in my childhood when "home video" meant buying short 8mm movies, usually silent ones. A friend and I were buying whatever Laurel & Hardy films we could afford and my friend ordered a four-minute film advertised as Stan Laurel doing a crazy dance. But it wasn't Stan Laurel, though you could kinda see why the seller made that mistake. It was a different Brit — a man sometimes billed as The Greatest Eccentric Dancer. I can't dance at all but if I could, I'd like to dance like Jack Stanford…
Playbill has an article about the campaign to allow Boop! The Musical to present a number on this Sunday's Tony Awards celebration. Of note is that the show's director Jerry Mitchell says they have a presentation all ready to go. I don't know if it's even possible, this close to the telecast date to squeeze another show in. Even if it is, I'm not sure if a petition would matter, no matter how many people signed on to it.
What might: My friend Shelly Goldstein informs me that a lot of the Broadway pundits she's seen have predicted that the Best Actress in a Musical Tony Award will go, not to Audra, Megan or Nicole but to Jasmine Amy Rogers, star of Boop! The folks programming the award show have no knowledge of who'll win — or at least, they're not supposed to have any knowledge of who will win — but they sure hear from the Broadway community and it sure would make for Better Television if Ms. Rogers performed, then won.
Moreover: An umpteenth Tony to Audra will not make a bit of difference to her career and maybe not a lot to the box office at Gypsy, a show that is probably already well into profit. But Boop! seems to be struggling a bit to keep the footlights on. A Tony in that category might be life-saving. Lin-Manuel Miranda has been quoted as saying that when he did his show In the Heights, he prayed to win a Tony or two because that show needed to sell more tickets to survive. When he was later up for Hamilton, he didn't care as much because the show was already sold out for months and months.
I suspect a lot of those folks in the Broadway world think that way. If enough of them do, we may see an upset this Sunday. And that's always nice, especially when you're not the favorite.
An online petition campaign has been launched to get the Tony Awards people to squeeze in a performance slot this Sunday for Boop! The Musical. I suspect it's too late but, hey, it won't hurt to sign the petition.
I know nothing about how the folks behind the telecast decide what gets on and what doesn't. They try to include a number from every nominated musical and once in a while, they slip in one or two that didn't make that cut. I would guess that this year, they had so many that there was no time for all of those that didn't. They picked two by whatever criteria they used…but Jasmine Amy Rogers, who's pretty much the whole show, was nominated for Best Actress in a Musical and I would think that would carry some weight. But again, I don't know how this gets decided…
The Tony Awards are this Sunday and as in years past, they're so big that one channel can't contain them. There will be two parts to the presentation.
It starts with The Tony Awards: Act One which will be hosted by Darren Criss and Renée Elise Goldsberry. This will be viewable on the Pluto TV streaming service beginning at 6:40 PM on the East Coast and therefore 3:40 PM on the West Coast. This segment will run for an hour and twenty minutes — until the time the second part of this commences.
To view it, go to Pluto TV, click on the "live music" channel that's within the Entertainment category. At least, that's what they say to do. Don't blame me if you wind up watching a rerun of The Price is Right from back when they were playing a game where you could win a car by guessing all four numbers in its price. That's all I seem to be able to find on Pluto TV. Maybe you'll have better luck.
This will be followed by The 78th Annual Tony Awards broadcast live on CBS from Radio City Music Hall and hosted by Cynthia Erivo. This part starts at 8:00 PM on the East Coast and therefore 5:00 PM on the West Coast and I'll bet you already figured that out. This part is expected to run three hours and at least on the West Coast, it will be followed by a complete replay. Remember the days when the Tonys had to run two hours and not a second longer?
The CBS telecast will include musical numbers from all the shows this season nominated for Best Musical. Those would be Buena Vista Social Club, Dead Outlaw, Death Becomes Her, Maybe Happy Ending and Operation Mincemeat. There will also be presentations from the shows up for Best Revival of a Musical — Floyd Collins, Gypsy, Pirates! The Penzance Musical and Sunset Boulevard.
But that's not all! There will also be a performance by the original cast of Hamilton and numbers from two new musicals that were not nominated — Just In Time and Real Women Have Curves. I'm not seeing anything about a number from Boop! The Musical at least on the CBS part of the show. There's also no word if they're going to set up a dunk tank with Patti LuPone in it and let everyone on Broadway lob softballs at the target.
Having seen exactly zero of these shows, I have no predictions and no rooting interest. When the nominations were first announced, everyone seemed to assume that Audra McDonald in Gypsy would glide to an easy victory for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical. Ah, but some Broadway pundits are now cautiously forecasting an upset in that category by Nicole Scherzinger in Sunset Boulevard and I saw one going out on a limb for Megan Hilty in Death Becomes Her. You still have time to get a bet down.
I continue to get an indecent number of Spam calls — strangers calling me, trying to get me to buy some product, hire them for some service or just give them cash for their "worthy" (and maybe it is) cause. I have a strict policy of saying no to all of them without exception but I'm on enough lists that the calls, they keep on comin'.
A few are almost pleasant, especially after I say — as I do to the more polite ones — "I'm going to do you a favor. There's no way I'm buying what you're selling. There's no need to go through the whole sales pitch." The ones that annoy me most are the ones who act like we have some pre-existing relationship and they've called me because of it. One such call might go like this…
"Mark, it's Harold Shmeckel with Shmeckel Construction. We spoke a couple months ago and you said that around the beginning of June, you'd be ready to do some upgrades of your property. My company's lead estimator will be in your area next Tuesday and I wanted to schedule him to drop by so you could discuss those improvements we talked about."
They only protest a little when I tell them we've never talked before and sometimes, I tell them, "Since you started this call by lying to me, I certainly can't trust you to do any construction work for me." Or sometimes, I play along and ask them something like, "Did we talk about refinishing my tennis court?" The caller will invariably reply that, yes, we talked about that and he assured me his company was highly experienced in refinishing tennis courts, whereupon…well, you can guess how that exchange ends.
Since I turned seventy, fewer of these calls come from contractors and more come from firms that want to arrange for my "final expenses," which means prepaying for my funeral and whatever the hell is going to be done with my body. I'm thinking of having it cryogenically frozen and then every July, they'll thaw me out for four days to host panels at Comic-Con.
The last time I got one of those "final expenses" calls, a day or three ago, I told the caller, "Sorry but there's every indication I'm going to be around a lot longer than your crummy fly-by-night company." The caller sadly muttered "Probably" and then hung up.
Lately, I get some of those "We spoke last year" calls that claim they spoke with Dorothea. Dorothea was my mother who died in 2012. For some reason, her name is still on a lot of the lists that are sold to cold-callers and my phone number is attached. I've had several solicitors call and tell me that she spoke to them that not long before, she asked them to call about cleaning out her gutters. My mother donated to a number of charities and most of them have called to remind her she hasn't made her usual donation lately.
Almost in the same category as strangers who pretend my mother and/or I spoke to them before are people who fit the following description: We spoke or met briefly way in the past…and then they call me, don't identify themselves and start a conversation based on the assumption that I will instantly recognize their voices. I had a guy do that the other day. We met ever-so-briefly at a Comic-Con years ago and I'm pretty sure we never spoke on the phone. He, like all those sales persons, wasn't showing me Caller I.D.
Still, he started right in with "How are things going?" and "What are you up to these days?" and there I was without the foggiest clue who I was talking to. He wasn't calling to try and sell me anything or to try and refinish that tennis court which I don't have…but he was still kind of annoying. I wish people wouldn't do any of this.
Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post catches House Speaker Mike Johnson misrepresenting a past budget projection by the Congressional Budget Office. As Kessler notes, "Lawmakers love to cite [a C.B.O. analysis] when it gives them a number they like (as Johnson did only a few days before this interview) and attack it when the number causes political problems."
The Associated Press says that Trump's claims about remedial math at Harvard University don't add up. When have any numbers cited by Donald Trump ever added up?
The New York Times says Trump and "his allies" are straight-out lying about what his "Big, Beautiful Bill" will do to healthcare in this country. Steve Benen of The Maddow Blog has more to say about this.
And lastly for now: This article at the Times notes how many bogus numbers were cited in Elon Musk's "send-off" as the guy doing whatever the hell he was doing. It's starting to look like this man cost this country a lot more money than he saved.
Lin-Manuel Miranda teaches us some of the slang terms used on Broadway. One he left out is "hot bodies," which refers to audience members who actually paid to get in…
I embed a lot of video links on this blog. If at any point, some video seems to be in the wrong window, that almost certainly is a problem on your end, not mine. It means the cache on your web browser has too much stuff in it and it's getting confused. What you need to do is to flush (i.e., clean out) your browser cache. If you don't know how to do this, this page should tell you.
