Monthly Archives: July 2013

As Lloyd Grove notes, Jay Leno is getting monster ratings these days, beating Letterman and Kimmel by pretty wide margins. I don't think that's because America is saying goodbye the way everyone tuned into Johnny's final months. For one thing, Johnny seemed to be going away forever, whereas no one expects Jay Leno to disappear from the face of Show Business. Secondly, Johnny's farewell shows felt like farewell shows with all his superstar guests stopping by for a final appearance before the King. Jay's just doing the same programs he'd be doing anyway, with guests who may reappear several times before he leaves in February. I think viewers are just enjoying his show more than the alternatives.

I have heard two rumors, each from multiple sources who didn't necessarily believe them but were passing them on. I don't necessarily believe them and I think that if one is true, the other isn't.

One is that it will soon be announced that Jimmy Fallon's ascension to The Tonight Show will be delayed a few months and that Jay will continue on 'til then. The reason is, of course, that while NBC doesn't feel they can renege on the hand-off and leave Jay in place indefinitely, they feel they can prolong those great ratings of his a little longer. Moreover, Jay and many key members of his staff are under contract until September and will be paid 'til then whether they do the show or not…so why not have them do the show a bit longer? (There's a possible reason why not and I'll get to it in a moment…)

The other rumor — and again, let's remember these are rumors sourced to no one — is an 11 PM Jay Leno talk show on Fox. There are many reasons why that would not happen, starting with Leno's age and the number of years it might take Fox to clear that time slot for him. Not so long ago, I thought Fox was unlikely…but I also thought the kind of ratings and demographics Jay is now getting were unlikely.

Anyway, this rumor has several parts. One is that many of the key Fox affiliates have told the parent network that they want Jay. Most of them have invested heavily in things like Seinfeld reruns for that hour and were reluctant to move them when an 11 PM Conan show was under discussion. Conan, however, would have been going to Fox from a position of failure, whereas Jay would be arriving with many, many years of winning his time slot. So, the buzz goes, they're looking at Jay's current numbers and saying they're willing to clear space for the guy.

Another part of the rumor is that Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch of Fox want Leno there. Both are vitally interested in electing Republicans to office. Both believe that appearances on late night TV can help that happen. Both, it is said, feel Leno is the only late night host who gives Republican guests a fair shake. When Murdoch a few years ago expressed an interest in purchasing The Wall Street Journal, many of his advisors told him it was a bad investment. He reportedly replied, "I don't care. I want it." And he made an acquisition that wasn't logical from a business standpoint.

And there's one last part of the rumor: NBC no longer owns their old Burbank studio, the building where Johnny did his show and where the Tonight Show segued to the Leno era. But Jay likes the offices and the crew there…and this part of the rumor says that Fox is offering or will offer to rent out the space so Jay and his crew can do their new show from the same facilities.

So are these rumors true? I'd bet they both aren't. If there's a real possibility of Leno winding up with an 11 PM Fox show, I would think NBC would not extend him. They would want to keep him off the air for the rest of his contract so his momentum would peter out, his staff would scatter and he wouldn't be able to plug his new show on his old show. But it would not surprise me if at least one of these rumors is under discussion. And it also wouldn't surprise me if Leno left in February and that was that.

Here's a YouTube video of Saturday's Cartoon Voices Panel at Comic-Con. It features Grey DeLisle, Scott Menville, Michael Leon-Wooley, Dave Boat, Kari Wahlgren, Chris Cox and a surprise guest who I bring on around 1:09 into it.

If you don't have time to watch the whole thing, you might want to watch this: Michael Leon-Wooley told one of the funniest anecdotes I've heard on one of these panels. Here's a link to when he starts telling it. I asked each of the actors to tell us something obscure they worked on.

But don't just watch Michael. Watch the whole thing. These people are really good…

Heidi MacDonald, who I somehow missed seeing at Comic-Con, reports on some of the comic book news from that event.

Our pal James H. Burns reveals what may be the real reason for why Bazooka Bubblegum had declining sales (Topps' stated rationale for virtually eliminating "Bazooka Joe and His Gang"). Not being a fan of the product, I don't share the nostalgia some have for Bazooka Joe but I recognize he was the fave comic character for a lot of folks.

Leonard Maltin describes his Comic-Con experiences. He leaves out the part about how so many people were thrilled to meet him and how he was friendly and charming to all.

Nate Silver has been just about spot-on at predicting elections and he has an impressive track record in sports…but as Daniel D'Addario notes, Silver's unlikely to ever be able to do that with the Academy Awards. I think there's a simpler explanation than what Mr. D'Addario presents. Silver's successful projections all evolve from taking polls and past data (voting records for elections, raw scoring for sports events) and crunching and analyzing it. But when he turns to the Oscars, there are no polls and the data is largely devoid of details. He can look at what won Best Picture every year but he doesn't know who voted for a film or by what margin it won. I don't think he even knows how many people voted in total. We know that Daniel Day-Lewis won for Best Actor this year but we don't know if he got 40% of the vote or 99%. Maybe he only beat out the second-place finisher by one vote, which would make his victory statistically insignificant when compared to the loss of that runner-up…and of course, we don't know who that runner-up was.

I"ll pay rapt attention to what Silver has to say about who'll win political offices. But his guess at the Oscars next year will be no better than anyone else's.

Here's a rather serious interview with Jonathan Winters…

Woody Allen is thinking about a return to stand-up comedy? Where do I buy a ticket to that?

What the heck's going on with Syria? Fred Kaplan says that just when things over there seem like they can't get any worse, they get worse.

We are sad to hear that the iconic statue of Rocky and Bullwinkle up on the Sunset Strip has been wrested from that location. It was in front of a building that used to house the Jay Ward studio and when that building was sold, the new owner allowed Moose and Squirrel to remain on the premises. But the statue is in need of serious repair so it's just been moved to an undisclosed location where the Dreamworks folks — who are now involved in producing films of the Ward characters — can have it fixed.

Where will it go then? There's talk of the TV Academy complex out in North Hollywood and that would certainly be appropriate…but I dunno. I'd like to see it go to a sillier and more visible location. I'd like to see it somewhere where people would pass it every day…like one of those buildings along Highland where it leads up to the Hollywood Bowl and Hollywood Freeway. Or along Hollywood Boulevard. Isn't there a place for it over in front of the Hollywood/Highland complex? Or near Sunset and Vine? How about that little park at the intersection where Wilshire Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard cross in Beverly Hills?

I won't complain if it's the TV Academy…but it just seems to me like the ideal place for a huge statue of Rocky and Bullwinkle is exactly where it shouldn't be. If you know what I mean…

When I wrote the previous message here, I was sitting in my hotel room in San Diego. Now, I'm back in my comfy computer chair at home, feeling a new exhaustion from 4.5 days of Comic-Con. I wasn't this tired last night…and the closer to home I got, the more fatigued I became. Maybe that con's more work than it felt like at the time.

Sergio drove back and we stopped off in San Clemente at one of my favorite Italian restaurants. When the wind's blowing north, I can lean out my back window and smell the garlic from Sonny's, a mere 72.7 miles to the south. (On the way down, we stopped in San Juan Capistrano and watched some swallows return.) Sergio, by the way, drives like he draws: Fast and in the margins.

I still think I had a great time but I think I'm going to go into the bedroom and nap 'til WonderCon. To those of you who follow this blog and wonder, "When does he sleep?", you have your answer: Now. Good night.

So yesterday, I'm speed-limping to my first panel of the day, the annual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel, which is at 10 AM. A combination of my healing-slowly knee, pedestrian gridlock and a tardy shuttle bus has made me worried I will not be there to moderate on time. This, of course, is when I have my also-annual confrontation with a convention security person who can't think any farther than a literal, impractical interpretation of his or her orders. One of these once inspired a story in Groo the Wanderer where Groo, who has the I.Q. of a sea urchin, is told to guard a bridge and he guards it so half-mindedly that he will not let anyone ever cross it again, including the folks who hired him.

I'm verging on late. There's a huge line waiting to get into the convention center near where I need to get into the convention center. If I get in that line, I will miss this year's annual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel and maybe the 2014 one, as well. I decide it is not unfair of me to bypass that line since all those folks are filing into Hall H and I'll be going somewhere else.

There is no one using the adjoining exit door but there is a youngish gent who has been ordered to not let anyone pass in through it. I go up to him and ask rather politely, for I am nothing if not polite, "Could you let me in here? I'll be late for a panel I'm moderating."

"I'm sorry," he says. "But this is an exit only." Which might make sense if anyone is trying to exit but no one is.

I flash my badge and say, "I'm a guest of honor." It actually just says GUEST on my badge but I toss in the "of honor" part to ramp up the seriousness of denying me entrance.

He says, "No, sorry. Exit only."

So I resort to sympathy. "Come on," I say. "I had knee surgery three weeks ago. I can't walk to the next door and I can't wait in that line." He says no again. I glance at the time. It's 9:49 and I have a good ten minutes of hobbling to reach Room 5AB. I say, "Look, there's a whole room of Jack Kirby fans waiting for a panel I'm moderating…"

He says, "Jack Kirby? Come on in."

True story…and the reason I got to the panel on time. I started the proceedings with that tale, then introduced panelists Tony Isabella, Neil Gaiman and Kirby family attorney Paul S. Levine. It went quite well as you'll see when the transcript turns up in The Jack Kirby Collector.

Then it was over to 6A and our second Cartoon Voices Panel with the folks named in the above caption. As usual, the voice actors were brilliant, I did nothing and got a lot of credit. That's the way to do it. I later moderated Art of the Cover (with Jerry Ordway, Chris Samnee, Gary Frank and Dan Jurgens) and The Business of Cartoon Voices (with voice actors Candi Milo and Gregg Berger, and voice agents Pat Brady and Heather Vergo.) I'll write more about many of my panels in the coming days.

I didn't get into the main hall at all yesterday but folks told me it was a little less jammed. Someone said, "I like Sunday because it's not elbow-to-elbow but people are a little less friendly. I guess it's due to lack of sleep and maybe sadness that the convention is ending." I always do feel a little sense of loss as Brigadoon begins to disappear for another year and the pace winds down.

I hope you were there and had anywhere near as good a time as I did. So many great friends to see and new people to meet. So many new things to see. Even a knee that felt at times like The Lord of the Dance was doing a Flamenco number on it didn't kill my enjoyment of the event. I just had to look about and see what a good time everyone seemed to be having and it took most of the pain away. Well, that and a megadose of Ibuprofen.

Apart from occasional knee agony, I had a great time at Comic-Con yesterday. My day commenced with a panel, Remembering Joe Kubert. The rememberers included Sergio Aragonés, Russ Heath, Paul Levitz, Marv Wolfman, Jon B. Cooke and Tom Yeates. Those were the folks on the panel. Audience members, including Anthony Tollin and Arlen Schumer, added their thoughts and appreciation of one of comics' most beloved creators. All spoke of his unending passion for his work, his love of teaching and the fact that he did some of his best work in his last years. That is not always humanly possible but Joe did a lot of things that were not humanly possible. We spent a nice hour missing the guy a lot.

Quick Draw! and my first Cartoon Voices panel followed in that order. The competitors this year for Quick Draw! were Sergio, Scott Shaw! and Neal Adams. Those who do not think of Neal as a speedy artist were quite surprised and impressed, especially when I made him draw a mash-up of one of his signature characters, Deadman, and Miss Piggy. Peter David, looking like he was never sick a day in his life, played our Secret Words game and later, we played it with the only person I know who's a superstar of British television, Jonathan Ross. My good pal Leonard Maltin played a new game I devised — Secret Movies, in which the cartoonists drew movie titles and he had to guess what they were. If we'd given Leonard the name of the director or the cast list, he'd have gotten every one in two seconds but he was a little stumped by Sergio's drawing of Ordinary People.

I thought the Cartoon Voices panel, which followed immediately in the same room, was one of our best. We had up there Grey DeLisle, Scott Menville, Kari Wahlgren, Chris Cox, Dave Boat and Michael Leon-Wooley. Michael told the funniest story anyone's ever told on one of these but I can't do it justice. You'll have to wait for the YouTube version, coming soon I'm sure to a computer screen near you. The cast did a spectacular reading of my hoary Snow White script and were joined for the finale by that superstar of kids' TV, Chuck McCann. More on this when there's video to show you.

My day continued with That 70's Panel on which we discussed comics of that era with Tony Isabella, Val Mayerik, George Perez, Marty Pasko and Elliott Maggin. Then I interviewed Leonard Maltin for an hour and presented him, on behalf of the convention, with the con's prestigious Inkpot Award. Then two parties. Then dinner with Peter and Kathleen David, and Maggie Thompson…and boy, was I tired.

I'd write more but I have a 10 AM panel on Jack Kirby, followed by three others today. I also have a knee that sometimes makes it rough to get over to the convention center so I'd better allow extra time. More later. If you're here, I hope you're having anywhere near as good a time as I am…

A disappointingly small number of convention attendees thanked me yesterday for saving their lives and not driving that little scooter around the convention floor. If you're here today or tomorrow and uninjured, you may owe that to my selfless decision. I could easily have mowed down whole squadrons of guys dressed like Star Wars troopers and I'm quite certain you would have heard a loud bowling alley sound effect.

I saw two different families yesterday which had painted their baby green. Notice to them and anyone else who has this idea: Painting your baby green does not make your baby look like The Incredible Hulk. It makes your baby look like he's not ripe yet.

I had a great panel yesterday interviewing my longtime pal — a special guest this year! — Tony Isabella. Tony and I go back to the days when the industry was wiser and no one would pay either of us to write a comic book. People sometimes say to me, "Oh, you do such a great job hosting these panels" as if it takes unparalleled skill and expertise. Really, all it takes to do these is to get them to ask you to moderate a panel with one or more interesting people on it and to then not ask that one or more any really stupid questions. I asked Tony how he got his start in comics and — poof! — ten minutes (approximately one-fifth) of the panel time was filled with interesting talk…from him, not me. Ask five of those and you're outta there and people think you're a great moderator.

Same deal later with a panel to honor the late Walt Kelly in this, the year he would have turned 100. His daughter Carolyn (aka My Best Friend) was unable to make it to the convention…though, lord, she wanted to be there for this and a reason I'll get to in a moment. But we assembled a dais of Kelly admirers and scholars to discuss the man and his work, primarily on what I think is the best newspaper comic strip ever…Pogo. We had historians R.C. Harvey and Maggie Thompson. We had cartoonist Jeff Smith and writer Paul Dini. And we had some great audience participation, including wise words of praise for Mr. Kelly from David Silverman, who is high on the list of why The Simpsons is so loved and lasting. I see no reason why we can't do another one of these the year Walt would have been 101 and David's agreed to join the panel, plus we should have Carolyn there for it.

Then, moving on into the evening hours…

There was a time I never thought I'd blog the following admission: I had a good time at the Eisner Award Ceremony. Long ago and far away, it was — shall we say? — a bit long. It was kind of like the portions of the old Jerry Lewis Telethon without Jerry. But it's morphed into a sleek, fast-moving show with both funny and serious moments. Most of the latter last night came via tributes to the late Kim Thompson. An awful lot of winners last night thanked him and lamented our loss of the guy…and not just winners who won for books published by his company, Fantagraphics. Kim's influence on the industry was such that people who won for work done for other firms had to acknowledge their debt to him.

I took stage three times, which meant six opportunities to pratfall while climbing or descending the stairs with my ailing knee. I made it all six. First, I presented the Bill Finger Award. In fact, I presented two of them. One was to the late Steve Gerber and it was accepted touchingly by his daughter, Samantha.

The other one went to Don Rosa, who is happily alive and present. The Finger goes to a writer who has not received due reward, either in terms of recognition or bucks. Gerber probably qualified in both areas. Rosa is a different story. Don Rosa's stories of Donald Duck and/or Uncle Scrooge made him one of the best-known cartoonists in many other countries with the U.S., as some refuse to admit it does in some areas, lagging behind other nations. Where Don qualifies is in lack of financial recognition as explained here. The audience seemed delighted with the selection of Don, who came up and thanked the late Bruce Hamilton…the publisher of Disney Comics who started a much-needed trend. Before Bruce, it was policy for those who wrote and drew Disney comic book material to remain anonymous…you know, the way Bill Finger was on such much of his work. Bruce bent, then broke that policy.

Then since my friend Carolyn couldn't be there, I accepted the Eisner for Best Archival Collection/Project — Strips, which went to this worthy book…

…and like so many at that podium, I acknowledged the tragic loss of its co-editor, Kim Thompson. Carolyn is continuing on, co-editing now with Eric Reynolds. In fact, she's hard at work on Volume Three, which I expect will win this award next year if it isn't beaten out by Volume Four. There are a lot of excellent comic strip reprint projects out there but, I'm sorry…it's tough to beat a whole book of Walt Kelly in his prime. (Full Disclosure: I work on these books but I don't make a dime off them and Carolyn does the heavy lifting, including the superb design work. So I don't hesitate to praise them or even to include an Amazon link so you can get in on the fun.)

Later, I went up for a third time to accept a Hall of Fame Award for Joe Sinnott and to wonder aloud why it took this long to give one to the best inker comic books have ever seen…and maybe the nicest person. Congrats, Joe. Couldn't have gone to a more deserving guy.

All in all, it was quite the crowd-pleasing ceremony and I was delighted to (a) not have to follow Jonathan Ross and Neil Gaiman and (b) be allowed to accept two of the only awards that did not go to Chris Ware. Then I went back to my room and put ice on my knee.

Can Saturday at the con top Friday at the con? Hmm…maybe I'll get over there and see. Check in with you later.

Yesterday, I saved the lives of many attendees of the Comic-Con. I turned back the scooter I was given.

My knee was giving me grief and I decided to accept the convention's offer of a little electric vehicle in which I might toodle around the hall. I toodled up half an aisle, hung a right and took it right back to where I got it and turned it in. That's how little time it took to convince me that the way folks walk around the convention, looking everywhere except where they're going, I would wind up hitting someone.

Others, I am well aware, manage these little go-carts very well. Maybe the new, deluxe one I was given just had too much pep or maybe driving one is simply a skill I lack. I'm a pretty good driver in a real car but after about three minutes of fevered braking every time someone blindly walked into my path this morning, I decided I was bound to hit someone…and I'd rather limp. So limp I did, all around the convention center. It didn't feel great but it felt better than injuring another human being or even an editor.

We had a good panel with Elliott Maggin, Gerry Conway, Paul Levitz, Marv Wolfman and Marty Pasko on the days when Superman was edited by Julius Schwartz. A lot of folks video'ed it so I would imagine it'll be up on YouTube before long and will direct you there when it is. For all of the writers, myself included, those assignments were a double dose o' pride. There was pride in working on Superman and pride in working for Julie Schwartz.

Later in the day, we had The Sergio and Mark Show with our special guest, Stan Sakai. We reported on the status of the long-delayed Groo Vs. Conan mini-series (should be scheduled any day now) and told what else we'd been up to lately. One news site is reporting that Sergio and I announced we're collaborating on a history of MAD magazine but we're not and no such thing was said on the panel.

For those of you scoring at home: That's two panels down, eleven to go.

The hall didn't seem oppressively crowded today except one time when I made the mistake of limping my way down an aisle lined with gaming companies. Many of these exhibitors deliberately and successfully plot how to keep a huge crowd clustered around their booth…which means "in the aisles." Mostly, this is accomplished with offers: If you stick around a bit, you'll see something really cool and you might get something for free. Do your best to avoid those areas.  If you can, it ain't bad in there.

I met with my new editor for a new comic I've agreed to write starring characters you know and love. It was supposed to be announced at the con but there's a bit of a delay so it won't be…though a lot of people seem to already know about it. I'll tell you all about it when I can.

Before I go, I'll leave you with something I've learned as a comic book writer of forty years: If someone comes up to you and says "You are one of my two favorite comic book writers," the other guy they mention will always be the person you consider the worst writer in the business.

Good night from Comic-Con Nation. Round Two starts in eight hours.