As many of you race to secure rooms for the Comic-Con International in July, let us remember that there's another great California comic convention in February, and it's even operated by the same folks. This year's WonderCon occurs in San Francisco the weekend of 2/18 to 2/20 and as you can see at the convention website, I am among the guests.
I'll be taking it relatively easy and only moderating seven panels at WonderCon. One will be a tribute to the late, great Will Eisner. Another will be our festive "Quick Draw!" game, and there will be a Sergio/Mark panel and a Golden/Silver Age panel. The latter will feature Russ Heath, Creig Flessel and Arnold Drake.
One of the things that's getting me to San Francisco this year, apart from the fact that WonderCon is always a great convention, is that Arnold will be present. Long before I met him, he was one of my favorite writers. (Not that this is likely but if DC Comics ever launches a reprint series, where the idea is to present great stories regardless of the "commercial appeal" of the characters or creators, they could do no better than to tap the five Showcase issues of Tommy Tomorrow published in 1962-1963. They appeared, as did too many comics of those days, without writer credits so it was years before I knew they'd been written by the co-creator and/or writer of the Doom Patrol, Deadman, Stanley and His Monster and so many of my favorite DC Comics of the sixties. Later, I met Arnold and found him to be among the most articulate, interesting comic book creators I've ever known.
Arnold will sit for a one-on-one interview by me, and will also be on a panel on Kids' Comics I'm hosting with, we're hoping, Gail Simone, Amanda Conner, Scott Shaw! and Bill Morrison. There will also be a panel on the fine art of drawing comic book covers with, tentatively, Neal Adams, Alex Ross, William Stout, John Cassaday and Adam Hughes. I'll post a full schedule as we get closer to that weekend.