Julie Schwartz loved going to comic conventions, especially the annual Comic-Con International in San Diego. He loved being at the con, he loved seeing friends, he loved signing autographs. He especially loved answering questions about his work and every time I had him on a panel — I did at least four dozen with him over the years — he'd goad me: "Ask me something you don't know, something they [meaning the audience] don't know." I tried. Lord, how I tried…but it was tough sledding, especially in the later years when some anecdotes were rerun more often than "Chuckles Bites the Dust." Year before last, I had what I thought was a brilliant idea: Scott Shaw! assembled a slide show of a couple hundred of the odder covers that appeared on Schwartz-edited comics. Then we did a panel where Scott projected said slides and I sat with a microphone to interview Julie and extract whatever recollections were evoked by each cover. It was sound in theory but in practice, it went more or less like this…
ME: Here's the cover of Strange Adventures #144 where you have the Atomic Knights riding giant dalmatian dogs. How did you come up with an idea like that?
JULIE: Boy, I don't remember this cover at all.
Last year, we had a wonderful panel with Julie, Ray Bradbury and Forrest J Ackerman, three long-time friends from the Paleolithic era of science-fiction. Before it started, Julie told me to make sure and ask him to tell some of the secrets about Bradbury that only he, as Ray's one-time agent and long-time friend, knew. I said fine. When we got into the panel itself in front of 2000+ rapt audience members, it went roughly like this…
ME: Julie, you've known Ray here for close to seventy years. Tell us something about him that we don't know.
JULIE: (A long pause, then:) You'll have to come back to me on that one.
But I didn't care and most of the audience didn't, either. The man was in his late eighties and he'd given so much, he didn't have to give any more. What did drive me crazy was the occasional (like, every year) matter of his hotel room in San Diego.
For a long time, DC Comics paid to fly Julie out each year and they'd pick up his hotel costs and other expenses, as well. That was the case while he was actively editing for the company and also later, when he was semi-retired and serving as a kind of Good Will Ambassador for the company. Finally though, the company could no longer justify the expense and Julie had to either pay his own way or not go to the con. For a time, he paid his own way but money got tight so each year, he'd call some of us (always me, sometimes Harlan Ellison and others) and urge us to use whatever clout we had to suggest that the con at least cover his hotel bill. He got to be a terrible, self-admitted nag about this, calling over and over, to the point where Harlan and I were both ready to just pay for his room ourselves so we didn't have to endure endless calls from Schwartz. I don't think either of us ever did pay because every year, either the convention would find it in the budget or some other organization would sponsor his appearance.
Julie hounded the convention committee members with requests, as well. A year or so ago, they decided that in recognition of his magnificent contribution to the field, they would make him a "permanent" guest of honor, meaning they would fly him out to every San Diego Con and put him up in a hotel room at their cost. When they told me of the decision, I was thrilled…and not just for Julie. I was thrilled for myself because it meant I wouldn't have to put up endless badgering to please, please, please talk to the convention about getting him a free room. I was so happy I wanted to call him right up and tell him but I didn't. I waited until the next con and let the convention officials tell him how it would henceforth be. Right after they did, he came over to me…and I assumed he was about to tell me how pleased he was and perhaps thank me for whatever role I had played in making it happen. The entire exchange went like this…
JULIE: Have you heard? The convention's going to fly me out every year now and give me a hotel room.
ME: Well, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. You deserve that, Julie. You really do. And of course, now you don't have to ask me to talk to them for you.
JULIE: Well, that's just it. I was wondering if you could talk to them. You see, with my legs giving me trouble, I really need to be flown First Class…