For those of you in Southern California: July 29, the Aero Theater in Santa Monica will host a screening of a new documentary, The Legends Behind the Comic Books, directed by Chip Cronkite. As the press release states, "This documentary film captures for posterity the living artists and writers from The Golden Age of Comic Books (1938-1951) and The Silver Age of Comic Books (1956-1973). Insightful comments are provided by the creative geniuses who were there at the beginning, including Stan Lee (Spider-Man, The Hulk, The X-Men, The Silver Surfer, Daredevil and The Fantastic Four), Jerry Robinson (The Joker and Robin the Boy Wonder), Joe Simon (Captain America, Sandman, Manhunter) Joe Kubert (Hawkman, Sgt. Rock, Tarzan), Murphy Anderson (Buck Rogers, The Spectre, Dr. Fate, Hourman, Starman and Black Canary) and many more."
After it, they'll be screening the animated feature, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm but in-between, there'll be a panel discussion on stage at the Aero with producer Michael Uslan and novelist-historian Michael Mallory, the author of Marvel: The Expanding Universe Wall Chart and X-Men: The Characters and Their Universe. Oh, yeah…and me. I'll be up there talking about whatever we'll be talking about. I may start by arguing the above dates for the Golden and Silver Ages.
The documentary screens at 7:30. Before that, commencing at 6 PM, the panelists (plus artist Glen Orbik) will be across the street, signing books at Every Picture Tells a Story, a lovely bookstore/gallery that is well worth your patronage.
The Aero Theater is located at 1328 Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. Tickets for the screening and panel discussion can be purchased at this link. Hope to see you there.