Monthly Archives: August 2011

Voice actress Cia Court writes about the Cartoon Voices panel we had on Saturday at Comic-Con.

Ten buildings shaped like what they sell. Don't you wish all architecture was this fun?

So they're now saying Jerry Lewis will not appear at all on the MDA Telethon on September 4. The plan was for him to appear at the end and sing his signature "You'll Never Walk Alone" and now that's off. It would not surprise me if it came back. It would also not surprise me if Jerry went on other shows and denounced the telethon he helmed for so many years. After a lifetime of following Jerry Lewis on and off stage, just about nothing would surprise me.

Hello. I'm back…and while I appreciate all the e-mails asking if I'm all right and if my mother's all right, the brief hiatus here was just because I was overwhelmed with deadlines. I'm okay. My mother's about as okay as she's going to get at her age. (I did have to take her to the hospital yesterday but they didn't keep her; just sent her home with medication. The most interesting thing that happened while we were there, by the way, was that I got to meet Rabbi Shlomo Cunin, the charismatic/energetic director of Chabad of California who hosts their annual telethon. We had a nice, brief conversation and I refrained from asking him to dance with me in the hospital corridors. I am not joking when I say that I'm sure he would have if I'd asked.)

I don't have much to say about the big debt ceiling compromise. If you scan the web, you can find every possible interpretation: Obama surrendered. Obama triumphed. Obama outfoxed them. They outfoxed him. We'll see how shrewd he was in six months. We'll see how foolish he was in six months. He wins any time Republicans wind up taking less than 100% of what they demand. I dunno. I just know that no one in this whole debate impressed me with their maturity and few even looked like they were pushing for what would be best for most Americans.

I'm still winding down from Comic-Con 2011 and digesting what a good time I had there. I'll write more about it but I hardly know where to start. I enjoyed all my panels and not because they were my panels. I enjoyed seeing people I've known for years and meeting folks I didn't know but who knew me from this blog.

I enjoyed the pace. I couldn't live that way all the time but four days a year, it's enormously invigorating to have so much happening so fast. When folks complain to me that there's so much going on in that building, my reaction is like they went to Sea World and didn't like that the place was full of fish.

And when they moan that there isn't enough at the Comic-Con that's about comics, I have three responses, all of which I think are valid…

1. Yes, there was. But it's like anything else at that convention: You have to look for it. It won't come to you.
2. Depends on your definition of comics. If you just mean those cheap little pamphlets on mediocre paper stock, maybe not. But a Green Lantern movie is comics. An animated Batman direct-to-DVD is comics. An X-Men PlayStation game is comics. A twenty-foot-high replica of Stan Lee in Lego blocks, when they get around to building one and they will, will be comics. Comics are those pamphlets but they were always other things like animation and pulps and old radio, and now they've become movies and videogames and downloads, as well.
3. And if you want to cling to a definition of comics as print media….hey, did you see the DC and Marvel booths? They weren't about comics, either. In fact, I wonder how many people at either firm would even say these days that they work for a comic book publisher.

I want to write more about the con when I have time. I want to write about a couple of lives that I think I saw changed for the better by folks' attendance of that convention. I want to write about how I ran into Sid Krofft in a hallway, recognized him from the back…and then noticed that he was standing next to H.R. Pufnstuf. I want to write about how funny Robert Ben Garant and Tom Lennon were in the portion of the Eisner Awards they hosted, which was the only part I got to see. I want to write about the wit and charm of Jonathan Ross on our Jack Kirby panel…actually, about the wit and charm of all the folks who appeared on all my panels. I want to write about the convention's amazing crew and skill at crowd control.

There's lots of stuff I want to write about. I'll try to cover most of it before memberships and hotel rooms sell out for next year's con. That oughta give me at least three weeks.