Monthly Archives: April 2012

Marv Wolfman informs me I reversed the dates of when he and Len Wein made their first sales to the comic book industry. I have corrected the relevant sentence in the previous item.

Ah, I have a question here from Larry Morra, who I enjoyed meeting down at WonderCon…

I understand you've been to every Comic-Con in San Diego. A lot of people tell me it's changed greatly since the old days at the El Cortez. Do you miss the old convention? Would you rather it was like that again?

Yes and no. I went to the first San Diego comic convention in 1970. This was before it was called Comic-Con International. It was the San Diego Golden State Comic-Con and I've been to every one since.

But let me back off a tiny bit from that brag. The first con, which ran for three days, was preceded by a one-day event as kind of a warm-up/audition. I wasn't there for that. I have also missed a few days of the con over the years. I was only present for one day of the first one. Then in the eighties, there were a few years when professional commitments caused me to miss either the first day or the last. One year, f'rinstance, I missed Day One because a TV show I'd written was taping that afternoon. Then in '88, the big vote to end the Writers Guild strike of that year was held on Sunday in L.A. and I felt I had to be there so I drove home late on Saturday night.

And I recall either one or two years, also in the eighties, when I chose to miss the first day. I started to get a little bored with not only Comic-Con but any comic convention. I think my interest renewed when they began to ask me to do so many panels and — and this is key — when I got over a few mental hurdles relating to how the con was changing. I loved those old cons at the El Cortez and a few other venues. I think as the con evolved, I had the wrong attitude for a time, which was to reject the new wonders it had to offer and to resent that the old con was going away.

It's a mistake I believe I've made in many aspects of my life, not just San Diego Cons. The world changes and whether it's for good or ill, you have to at least be open to changing with it. If your favorite Italian restaurant suddenly converts to Chinese, there's no point in getting pissed-off that you can't get a decent Rigatoni Bolognese in that building anymore. The change might not be for the better but the Shrimp Chow Fun might also be darned good.

No, Comic-Con is not the same thing it used to be…and guess what! The comic book companies aren't what they were in 1977, either. Some who work at them would tell you they aren't even comic book companies anymore. They're multimedia content producers and one of the forms for which they produce content is comic books. When someone complains to me that there's minimal attention paid to comics at the convention, I tell them, "Hey, there's minimal attention paid to comics in the Marvel booth!" And actually, I think there's plenty at that con about comics. You just have to take five minutes to study the floor plan and the programming schedule. Oh — and you have to remember that the world is changing…

I used to host an annual event at Comic-Con called the Golden Age Panel. We don't do it anymore and at every con, someone comes up to me and says they wish we still had one…and sometimes they think it's because the con doesn't care about "those old guys" or I don't care about "those old guys." The sad truth that I have to explain to them is that we're running out of "those old guys." Many have died. Some are unable to attend due to physical reasons. Some just plain don't want to. At WonderCon, an attendee asked me why there was no Golden Age Panel. Easy answer: There were no Golden Age people. Can't have a Golden Age Panel without at least two of them.

Unless Stan Lee snuck in for a surprise appearance — and I didn't hear that he did — the three people at that convention who'd been in comics the longest were Marv Wolfman (he started in 1967), Len Wein (1968) and me (1970). We wouldn't even qualify as a Silver Age Panel, let alone a Golden Age Panel. The con invited a few veterans and didn't get any takers. Last year at San Diego, I only knew of three people attending the con — three out of 130,000 or so — who were in comics before Kennedy was shot: Stan Lee, Ramona Fradon and Jerry Robinson. It looks a little better for this year. We might even be able to scrape together a Golden Age Panel…but if we do, it will likely be the last.

I don't mention this to be maudlin or to act like we can do something about this. The point is we can't, just as we can't stop a lot of things around us from changing. I know too many people who seem to think there are two ways to turn back time. One is to orbit the Earth counter-clockwise at light speed. The other way is to sit around and moan about "the good old days" and how everything is going to hell. They're about equally effective. Far better to look at Today and see what it has to offer that might be, if not better, then almost as good.

Which is not to say there's no point in looking back to see what good stuff of the past can be prolonged or even re-created. There's an event coming up later this year that's going to try to do some of that regarding comics and conventions, and I'm optimistic it will succeed. I'll tell you all about it as soon as I get the time to write another long post here.

David Javerbaum with the Quantum Theory of Mitt Romney.

My own theory is a little simpler. It's that some time ago, Romney heard that the way to win votes is to tell the public what they want to hear. So he's on a relentless mission to make sure that at some point during the campaign, every single voter in America hears just what they want to hear from him…at least once.

I'm not on the website yet but I'll be a guest at the Big Wow! Comic Fest in San Jose, California. It takes place May 19-20 at the San Jose Convention Center and if this one's as good as the other ones, it'll be a great convention. (It's also the only other one I'm committed to except for the Comic-Con International in San Diego.)

And to answer a question I'm already getting in e-mail: At this time, it looks like Sergio Aragonés will be in attendance. His back is better and he's rushing to catch up on back work but he should be able to make his way to San Jose.

This coming Saturday evening, our pal Scott Shaw! will be debuting his new Oddball Comics show at a comedy club up in Hollywood. If you've never seen him do this at conventions, you don't know what you've missed. Scott collects unusual comic books — the kind you look at, scratch some body part and wonder, "What the hell where they thinking?" They're funny enough when Scott just projects them on a big screen but when you add in his commentary, you have something quite hilarious.

He'll be doing it for six Saturdays at 8 PM at the Oh My Ribs! comedy theater. At each performance, he'll have a special guest commenting on a few of the comics and this Saturday at his premiere, the special guest will be me. What a "get." In spite of this, you should see this…debut night, if possible. Here's the relevant info. Hope to see you there!

Fred Kaplan on Barack Obama's plan for dealing with missile defense.