Monthly Archives: July 2018

Over in a comment thread on the 13th Dimension site, a fellow named Scott Rogers posted the following and a lot of folks have sent it to me to ask about it.  By "SDCC," he means San Diego Comic-Con, which is now known as Comic-Con International.  The events he'd recalling took place back when it was at the old San Diego Convention Center…

When I was about 7 years old, I was attending SDCC. The show was so small that it pretty much fit into one large ballroom. I remember seeing a man sprinting across the room holding something under his arm. Suddenly Harlan (I didn't know it was him at the time) stood up, and shouted. "The son of a bitch just stole Jack Kirby's Inkpot Award! GET HIM!" The entire room turned as one. That thief never had a chance!

Mr. Rogers, being around seven at the time, can certainly be forgiven for not recalling or knowing quite what happened.  What happened was that Jack had been given an award…and it was not an Inkpot.  He got his Inkpot years before the first con Harlan attended.  I believe it was a plaque indicating that Jack had been initiated into the Hall of Fame, which is now known as the Eisner Hall of Fame. He received it during an afternoon ceremony.

A bit later, Jack, his wife Roz and a daughter or two were roaming the exhibit hall and Jack was occasionally being stopped for an autograph.  A kid of about fourteen asked for one and Jack was happy to oblige.

I never knew this young man's name but we'll call him Tom here.  He had a stack of comics and purchases with him.  Jack had an armload of books he was carrying around with him and the plaque was somewhere in that armload.  Both Jack and Tom put down their piles, Jack signed whatever it was that Tom wanted signed and thanked him.  Jack always thanked you if you asked him for an autograph.  He thanked you for almost everything.

Jack and Tom then picked up their respective piles and somehow, Jack's plaque transferred from his armload to Tom's stack of goodies.  Neither noticed.

Five or ten minutes later, Jack ran into Harlan and they had a nice conversation full of mutual respect and compliments.  In the middle of it, Jack noticed that his plaque was missing.  He rummaged through the armload and there was no sign of it.  Harlan immediately sprinted for the entrance to the room and grabbed up a microphone which the staff used to make announcements to all present.  I cannot quote to you exactly what he said but it went roughly like this…

This is Harlan!  Some son-of-a-bitch scumbag just stole Jack Kirby's award and he's not getting away with it!  I am going to stand in the doorway and nobody's leaving this room until we find Jack Kirby's award and when I get my hands on the depraved degenerate who would do something like that, I'm going to make that pissant sorry he was ever born!

That's not the precise wordage but it is, I assure you, the precise rhetoric.

No one in the hall knew quite what to make of it and you could hear many pairs of eyes rolling.  Following it, Harlan indeed stood in the doorway and everyone else went about their business.

About five minutes later as I walked through the hall, a young man came up to me.  I didn't know him but he said, "Excuse me.  Aren't you Jack Kirby's assistant?"  I told him I had been that and he asked me to follow him behind a nearby dealer's display to a spot where we could not be seen.  There was a kid standing back there, trembling and sobbing.  It was the lad I'm calling Tom and he was holding Jack's award.  "I didn't steal it," he told me.  "I swear to God, I didn't!  I guess I accidentally picked it up or something!  Can you help me, please?"

I took the award and assured Tom he would not be arrested or forced by Harlan Ellison to regret being born.  He was even more worried about Jack Kirby being mad at him and I promised him that would not be the case, either.  Then I returned the plaque to Jack, who (of course) thanked me and never for a second imagined anyone had stolen it.  It was just missing, that's all.  Then I went over and told Harlan it had been found and he could stop standing in the doorway almost threatening to strip-search anyone who tried to leave. He seemed…disappointed.

A bit later, Tom had it together and I took him over to Jack, who couldn't have been sweeter or nicer.  Tom apologized.  Jack told him no apology was necessary and since he could see the kid was shaken and honestly upset, he offered to do Tom a little sketch of his favorite character.  When Tom then chose The Hulk, Jack didn't flinch even though at that point in his life, he had left that character behind at his former employer.  (I could see a couple of folks who witnessed the whole exchange start trying to figure out how they could steal Jack's award and then return it for the free sketch.)

I haven't told this story for a long time and I think the last time I told it, it was in a discussion with someone about how in life, if you meet someone you admire and respect, you naturally try to take a little something from them, looking at what they do well and hoping you can emulate even a smidgen of it.  I learned many things from Jack and from Harlan but I've tried to learn more from Jack.

Which is not to say I did not admire many, many things about Harlan.  Start with his writing and his constant demands for dignity (including proper payment) for his/our profession.

Toss in his childlike, unrestrained glee when things went super-right or even just right.  I wrote about that in the previous piece about him.

And then let's not forget how sensitive and benevolent he could be to some people. At times, I was one of those people and others have posted many stories about his compassion and desire to make things better.  If you never experienced that side of him, you would not have an accurate sense of him as a human being.

But I came to be really, really uncomfortable at his tendency to turn minor differences (or in the case of the above story, a simple misunderstanding that righted itself within minutes) into all-out war, threatening to chew on someone's eyeballs.  That he usually did it with colorful, clever language only mitigated it a tad or, I dunno, maybe it made it worse.  When I'd hear him rage and speak of violence by fists or lawyers, I'd think a guy that smart and that clever ought to be able to come up with a different ending to most stories besides staging a big fight scene.

I don't enjoy screaming matches, don't like loud confrontations, don't have rosters of people I yearn to punch out or otherwise get revenge upon…and yes, I know some people are entertained by that kind of thing or even enjoy participating. I don't…and as I get older, I see less and less reason to overlook or forgive it. Most of our mutual friends would tell you — some with a certain odd pride — of that time Harlan was an unbelievable asshole to them. Then they might or might not add something like, "Hey, if you want to be Harlan's friend, you have to put up with a certain amount of this."

At some point in our friendship of nearly fifty years — I can't tell you precisely when — I decided that I didn't want to put up with a certain amount — I can't tell you how much — of that. I decided it would prolong that friendship if I didn't see him too often. That may have been my loss because he was a brilliant man and — as I said and I don't want this overlooked — he could be the sweetest, most considerate person on the planet. But I decided I just couldn't take the times when he was that other guy.

Danny Gans was a baseball player until an injury ended that career and sent him into another: Impressionist. He was one of the best and at one point, he was the highest paid entertainer in Las Vegas — an amazing feat for a guy who wasn't known from TV or movies. He was getting over $100 a seat for his show at The Mirage at a time when no one else performing in Vegas — including some of the much-more-famous people he impersonated in his act — was charging anywhere near that. He died in 2009 from an unfortunate drug reaction.

Here's a little sampler of some of what he did. As you'll hear, he was really good…

Los Angeles is having another heat spell. My power was out much of yesterday…which apart from feeling like I was living inside a grilled cheese sandwich, wasn't all that awful. As I mentioned here long ago, I sleep with a CPAP machine. If you don't know what that is, it's explained here. Until recently, the unavailability of electricity would have meant I couldn't sleep.

But a year or two ago, I bought one of these. In fact, I bought it from the very page to which I just linked. It's a lightweight, small portable CPAP unit (APAP, actually) which I use as my travel machine and at-home backup machine. For some extra bucks, you can purchase — as I have — a battery pack that will run it at times when you're powerless. So even as I was getting behind on writing assignments, I was catching up on snoozing. It's a very handy thing to own.

I shall catch up on blog posts soon. That's assuming the power stays on.

Here's the late comic Guy Marks again, this time on The Dean Martin Show in 1967. You could do this routine in 1967 but you probably couldn't do it today. For that matter, I don't think you could do Dean's act, playing drunk all the time, today. If he were still alive, society would probably "grandfather" him in and laugh at him acting tipsy but I don't think most people find it as funny as they once did and I don't think it's a matter of so-called "political correctness." Some comedy just does not age well.

Guy Marks did this routine thousands of times on nightclub stages, in casino showrooms, at resorts, etc. Another thing which does not work as well these days is for a comic to develop a couple of hunks of material and then to do them over and over and over for the rest of his career. Audiences nowadays expect something relatively fresh. A "classic" bit now and then is fine. When I saw Robert Klein in October of 2016, I was glad to see him do some of his better routines from the past but also pleased that he had topical stuff which I had not heard.

This is not Guy Marks in the perfect setting. The Dean Martin Show was taped at a furious pace and then assembled like a video jigsaw in the editing room. Not only was Dean probably not on the premises when Marks was recorded doing this monologue but it's very possible that very little audience was in the room. Some or all the laughter you hear (and there's way too much of it) was obviously added in post-production. I suspect the pauses Mr. Marks takes for the laughs are the pauses he knew to take because he'd done this act 52,000 times in front of a full complement of actual human beings.

Most canned audience response in those days was added by someone who was deathly afraid of two seconds of silence so they often laid it over the comedian speaking. But Guy Marks was a pro so it works — though surely not as well as if they'd had an actual full audience there. He would have timed the act more towards them…

Slept seven hours…which for me is like a coma. 5.5 is about my norm and any more than that and my back spends the day hating me.

Those of you who didn't make it to Comic-Con don't need me telling you what a great time I had. I will say it didn't feel as crowded as it has in the past, possibly because they got rid of all them counterfeit badges, maybe because there are so many off-site events to draw people away from the main hall. Then again, I spent most of Saturday and all day Sunday upstairs doing panels so maybe it was shoulder-to-shoulder in the big room those days.

As usual for cons these days, I had a couple of awkward encounters with cosplayers who believe that if someone wants to take your photo, you stop immediately wherever you are and pose without caring if you block aisles or if portions of your outfit hit other people. I love 98% of the cosplayers there and greatly admit a lot of the ingenuity and skill displayed. But about 2% of them are public health hazards and one of these days, one of them is going to injure someone and we'll have new regulations which the 98% won't like.

I enjoyed meeting so many people. I didn't enjoy not encountering so many people I know and though I knew they were on the premises, our paths never crossed. Has anyone considered designing a Comic-Con Meet-Up App where you and your friends can all check-in and connect easier? There might not be any money in it but it might make the con more fun.

Here's a great article about Joye Murchison Kelly, the lady who ghostwrote Wonder Woman in the forties and who was honored at the convention. Most of my favorite Comic-Con moments this year involved Joye and her terrific hubby Jack.

I'll return when I'm more awake and my back decides to resume colluding with the rest of me.

No matter how great a time I have at Comic-Con — or anywhere else I may travel — it always feels good to be back in my trusty computer chair.

I'll write more about the con tomorrow or whenever I wake up.

I've been sleeping in an odd pattern this con: Sleep for an hour or two, wake up and write for an hour, sleep for an hour or two, wake up and write for an hour, etc. I think I'm getting the proper number of cumulative hours. Then again, I did briefly nod off for a minute or so during a panel the other day. Fortunately, I was not its moderator but still.

My hotel room has a great view of the convention center and throughout this weekend, I've looked out at it at all hours of the night. Even at 3-friggin'-A.M., there are small groups of people walking by, reminding one that it isn't all about the dealing and the paneling. It's also about the partying and the socializing. A lot of folks have a very good time at this convention simply because they're all in one place.

Yesterday was amazing. I had to be up, cleansed and clothed for a 9 AM breakfast and I had one business-type meeting before sprinting upstairs to host the annual Quick Draw! competition. I'll tell you about it and some other things with the visual aid of my pal Bruce…

Those were the cartoonists. Left to right, we have Lalo Alcaraz, Sergio Aragonés and Scott Shaw! Their Sharpies were sharp and so were their minds as the audience and I threw challenges at them and they swatted 'em back with very funny drawings. Voice actors Fred Tatasciore and John Mariano played our Secret Words game and I introduced Joye Murchison Kelly to the crowd. Joye was the uncredited writer of many of the best Wonder Woman stories of the forties and as such, was the recipient of a Bill Finger Award on Friday night. A couple thousand Quick Draw! attendees gave her a long, living standing "o" and she certainly deserved it.

On the stage for our Cartoon Voices I panel were these folks, left to right: m.e., Julie Nathanson, Kari Wahlgren, John Mariano, Roger L. Jackson, Gregg Berger, Matthew Mercer and J.P. Karliak.  Leaving your loving moderator aside, you have here some of the workingest voice actors in the business today.  Don't believe me?  Check out their IMDB listings — and remember that doesn't include things like commercials and promos and dubbing and many videogames. Very funny panel…one of the best "readings" we've ever had.

I did a panel for one of my new employers, Blizzard Entertainment, where they gave away free copies of the first comic book I've written for them. With my customary ineptness at self-promotion, I don't believe I've mentioned this gig on this blog. I'll post about it soon along with a photo of this panel once I get one. (Forgive any typos, people. I'm typing as fast as I can to finish this before I have to vacate this room and dash for a Kirby panel…)

The highlight of the con for me — and I daresay for many people — was when the splendid cartoonist-historian Trina Robbins and I got to interview Joye Murchison Kelly. As you can see below, the room was packed with people who understand that Comic-Con is still a lot about comic books. Ms. Kelly delighted the crowd with stories of her days ghosting for Dr. William Marston — or "Doc," as she called him. I would tell you more about it but Sunday Programming awaits and those panels won't host themselves.

Thanks to all of you who's stopped me to say you enjoy this blog. Hope to see more of you today as I post this without proofreading and haul my luggage outta here.

• My Cartoon Voices panel today at Comic-Con starts at 11:45 AM in Room 6A. On yesterday's C.V. panel, I said it commenced at Noon. This is what we in the biz sometimes refer to as a "boneheaded mistake." It's like saying "would" when you really meant to say "Wouldn't."

Max Boot is a Conservative writer who penned a lot of columns saying President Obama was weak, misdirected, divisive and otherwise unfit for office. He now feels Obama was very fit for office and certainly more fit than the current guy. Read this if only because it's rare to see a pundit who was so firm in his views recant and even admit that some of them were just plain wrong.

Hello, hello, hello. If you saw my schedule, you'd be amazed that I have time to read the Internet, let alone add new content to it. I am having my usual great time at Comic-Con, rushing from event to event, eating occasionally, sometimes even finding time to sleep. I am not complaining for each year I do this not only willingly but eagerly. I could not live at this pace for long but it's stimulating in so many ways for so few days.

Actually, it's longer than we sometimes realize. Comic-Con stretches from Wednesday evening at 6 all the way to Sunday afternoon at 5 but that's ignoring the week or two of prep time and at least a week of recovery. Some aspects of the recovery have been known to last long enough to bleed into the prep time for the following year.

Above is a photo from a panel yesterday called "That 70's Panel" which I do every year, discussing comic books that came out in that decade. I think we're going to change its name next year because apparently a few people showed up for it thinking it was about the That 70's Show TV program. The folks you see in the pic are in the back row, left to right: Richard Pini, m.e., Steve Leialoha and Elliot S! Maggin; front row: Wendy Pini, Marv Wolfman and Rick Hoberg.

I post it here for the benefit of those who keep saying there's nothing about comic books at Comic-Con.  There's plenty, fella.  You just don't take the time to look.  I also want to address those who say there's too much hard-selling at Comic-Con.  You people, I agree with.

There's nothing wrong with telling folks about your current project or product…although on my panels, we do very little of that.  On Thursday though, I had the time to sit in on smidgens of a few others.  I loved my pal Leonard Maltin's, where he invited anyone and everyone to come up to the microphone and tell him why he'd underrated or overstarred a certain movie.  I was less impressed with a few others that reminded me of a presentation I once got roped into, hectoring me to invest in a Time Share on Maui.

I have a prejudice about Hard Sells: The more you tell me how good your product is, the crappier I assume it is.  This applies to used cars, investment opportunities, the junk you're trying to unload at your garage sale and many other commodities.  It applies doubly to creative enterprises like telling me how much I'll love your comic book, cartoon, TV show, etc.  When you pass a certain level of humility to tell me how great your novel is, I invariably think, "You wouldn't need to say that if there were others who had read it and come to that conclusion.   They'd be saying that."

This assumption may seem unfair…and I'm sure it is in some cases, just as it's wrong to assume you'll love something because the guy selling it says you will.  But I took in a little of two panels Thursday that sounded way too much like those Maui Time Share pushes and I wish Comic-Con had less of that.  And I'd like the folks who do them to consider — just consider — that they may be unselling their wares by overselling their wares.

Saturday at Comic-Con awaits. Tomorrow is even more loaded so you may not hear much from me 'til I'm home. And by the way, another thing I'm enjoying here is meeting readers of this blog. No matter how busy I may seem, I'm never too busy for that. Except just before Quick Draw!

The Fox News coverage of Trump with Putin has not been wholly supportive of their all-time favorite president but some of it is spinning madly to sell Donald as strong and in control. Jimmy Kimmel's crew comes up with old footage that puts it all in context for us…

Been too busy to mention this. Members of SAG-AFTRA have resoundingly approved a strike authorization for work in TV animation relating to streaming services. Back in this post, I wrote this…

The strike vote will pass, probably by a wide margin. I see just about all the important voice actors endorsing this stance and that's a solid indicator. These are the people the producers most want to hire, after all. As a general rule, the higher the vote to strike, the greater the chance there will not be a strike or it will be a brief one. The negotiators, who thus far have resisted making a satisfactory offer, will be more inclined to make one if the Strike Vote is 95% than if it's 80%.

The final vote was 98.27%, which is probably way more than anyone predicted. In any union situation, there are always some members whose hearts are with Management, possibly because their primary income flows from working there. You also invariably have some members who are fundamentally terrified of walking out on any possible work, no matter how little it pays. I remember at a WGA Strike Meeting in '85, one petrified member — a friend of mine, in fact — got up and said, "A vote to strike is a vote to take a torch and burn your home to the ground!" He actually believed that.

98.27% is amazing. I have no idea what the producers will do but they won't say, "We'll let 'em strike for a few weeks and then they'll come crawling to us to accept our terms." Which means there might be the kind of decent offer which will make a strike unnecessary.

I've only been in three different hotels around Comic-Con but in all three, someone thought a great way to promote their new movie or TV show was to wallpaper the doors and interiors of every elevator with really ugly, creepy imagery. I don't think these campaigns will make one person eager to watch the film or program being promoted but they might make a few people less eager to ride on elevators.

• Contrary to what some are saying, I don't think Donald Trump hates America. I just don't think he loves anyone or anything except Donald Trump.

Yes, it's crowded at this convention — though less so than before they went to the RFID badges which have little chips embedded in them and so are impossible to counterfeit. I don't think anyone in years past realized how many of those filling the hall were in on bogus badges but to me, the difference is notable.

When I mentioned this once before on this very blog, I got a nasty e-mail from someone who liked hiding behind a phony name as much as he liked getting in with a phony badge. He told me to dine on excrement and pass away because Comic-Con was overpriced and he wanted to get in and so he had to procure a fake badge because how else? Not getting what he wanted as certainly not an option, right? And of course, since I get in free each year, I have no right to criticize others who get in free a different way.

In a related story: In my one political-type discussion of the con so far, A Trump-backer told me Trump doesn't cheat or lie but even if he does, good for him. Because cheating to win is infinitely better than playing by the rules and losing.

I know this is a popular viewpoint these days. I just was a little surprised to hear it from a guy wearing a Captain America t-shirt.