Monthly Archives: July 2018

The weather forecast for Comic-Con International in San Diego calls for partly cloudy skies, high temperatures around 80° and low temperatures around 70°. Matter of fact, that's roughly the forecast for around the next month in San Diego and when you come back to that town for next year's Comic-Con, you will have partly cloudy skies, high temperatures around 80° and low temperatures around 70°. It doesn't change much there.

The other day, I phoned a restaurant near the convention to try and make a lunch reservation during the con. I like talking business with publishers over lunch because they pay for the meal and then when the project falls through or they don't hire me, I can think, "Well, at least I got a free lunch out of it."

A man at the restaurant said, "I'm sorry but we don't take reservations during the convention." I guessed the reason but I asked why anyway. He said, "Because during Comic-Con, we don't have to. We never have an empty table for longer than it takes to clean it for the next party."

Right there's a lot of the reason I don't think Comic-Con will ever move unless the parties who negotiate on behalf of the city are really, really stupid. What we bring to the local economy there would not have anywhere near the same impact on Los Angeles, Anaheim or Las Vegas, which are the only real alternatives.

By the way: It'll be 110° next week in Las Vegas. If they moved Comic-Con there, the cosplayers dressed like Iron Man would melt away like the witch in The Wizard of Oz.

Getting ready for my panels. The third seat onstage for Quick Draw! will be filled by the brilliant cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz. If you're familiar with his work, you're as excited about that as I am. And we have some surprise folks joining us for our Cartoon Voices panels. More tomorrow.

Showtime tonight is debuting a new series starring famed punkster/prankster Sacha Baron Cohen.  In it, he goes about in a variety of guises interviewing people — some of them very famous — and getting them to say embarrassing things. I will not be watching and not just because I don't subscribe to Showtime.

I don't like pranks. I don't like them so much that I don't even like them when they expose and exploit people I think are very bad human beings. Some folks, I know, find Mr. Baron hilarious but I sat through Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan and laughed less than I do during root canals. Here's some of what I wrote back then…

I laughed a few times…but only a few and not with much vigor. Why? Hard to say. It wasn't because of the frequent lapses into low comedy. I usually love low comedy. What I don't usually love is the kind of Candid Camera humor where we're expected to laugh at the humiliation of people who are being ambushed and filmed for our alleged amusement. It always feels like a rigged game to me…like the situations that are arranged make it impossible for the victims not to look at least a little foolish. And if by some miracle they don't, that footage gets tossed.

This may sound like a leap in topics but it's not: There's a trend in magic on TV that I don't much like. It's Street Magic where the magician goes out to some public place with a video crew and they stop people who look like decent sports and the performer does tricks for them. It's really great for the magician because if he fails, they can just throw that video away. I could go out, give someone a totally free choice to pick a card and then — employing no magic techniques whatsoever, say "It's the nine of spades!" And if we do this enough times, we'll get footage of me being right which we can broadcast and make me look like I did an impossible feat.

I'm not going to watch Mr. Cohen's new show because to begin with, I think most pranking is dickish, even without putting a camera on it. I also think being able to control the editing gives the producers the opportunity to be even more dickish…and on a "prank" show, they figure the more dickish, the better. And I really, really don't want to sit there and feel someone has been grossly unfair to Dick Cheney or Sarah Palin.

Like the banner above says, I stand with the Animation Performers who are currently authorizing a strike vote.  The issue is the compensation for voice work on animated programs made for subscription-based streaming platforms such as Amazon, Netflix and Hulu.  You can read all about this here.

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 Authorization Vote is 95% than if it's 80%.

If you are a voice actor who isn't among those who work a lot (or at all), you might think, "Oh boy!  If the in-demand guys all go out on strike, it'll clear the way for me to get a lot of work."  It never seems to play out that way.  Yeah, you might get a job or two for the rotten money that is now paid but you'll be typing yourself as a breed apart from the kind of performer you want to be.  And at the same time, you'll be undermining the drive to establish the kind of pay scales you want to earn.  If you want to be one of the top voice performers, you have to act like one.

Here is a partial list of Animation Performers (as well as producers and directors and other folks like me) who support the current effort.  I'm proud my name is on there.  I always like seeing it surrounded by the names of people with talent and integrity.  It fools people into thinking I have some of either.

• I wonder how many people who rushed to vote for Donald Trump would have had second thoughts if they'd known then how much Russia wanted him to win.

As I prep for my 49th Comic-Con International — even though they weren't called that until 1995 — I'm being asked, "Why do you go to these things?" Good question and here's a really good answer: I have a great time at them.

I do not go to make money. A lot of my friends do and there's not a thing wrong with that but I just choose not to even try. I do meet with publishers and producers, and writing work sometimes results but that's like a nice, unintended bonus. It's definitely not the reason I go. I also do not run around buying things to add to my collection.

Someone asked me the other day, "Do you go to be a celebrity?" and my reaction was, "If I do, I'm not doing a very good job of it." I suppose that when I first started attending conventions, I got a certain sense of faux importance out of being asked to sign something but I outgrew that long ago. As you get older, you realize that once you divest yourself of certain childish motives, you simply make healthier life choices.

No, I just go because from the moment I arrive to the moment I leave, I enjoy what I'm doing. I enjoy hosting the panels. I enjoy seeing friends. I enjoy talking endlessly about comics and related topics. I even enjoy the sheer energy in the building and yes, that includes how crowded it is. A friend of mine who spent a large part of his life visiting Disneyland would say, "I have a great time being among so many people who are having a great time." That's a lot of why I go to Comic-Con. Your mileage, as we used to say back when people cared about the cost of operating a motor vehicle, may vary.

I'm not sure if I told this story here before but about ten years ago — maybe a bit more — my lovely friend Carolyn invited two longtime friends of hers to "do" Comic-Con with us. These were friends who had only the most microscopic interest in comic books, comic strips, cosplayers, anime, etc. She said, "I want them to experience this" and my reaction was, "Okay but why?" She assured me they'd love it and she was right.

The last day of their trip, I asked them why and her friend Sue said, "It was so exciting to be among so many people who'd made something."

That comment made me look at Comic-Con in a slightly different way…and when I looked, what I saw was creativity everywhere. No matter where you turned, someone had drawn a picture, written a book, designed a costume, made a display, painted a painting. Carolyn and her friends had sat through a panel which consisted of my pal Steve Rude doing a painting and explaining as he did, how he approached his work and why he was doing each little thing he was doing on his canvas. I don't think Carolyn or her pals were about to race out and try to do what Steve does but they were mesmerized to be invited to be so up close and personal with his creative process.

I'm sure there are those reading this who have no idea what the hell I'm talking about and have their own reasons for attending Comic-Con, some as simple as "I want to complete my run of Deadpool" or "I want to see all the women dressed as Red Sonja." Nothing wrong with any of that. If at a given moment there are 100,000 people in the building, there might be 100,000 different reasons for being there…which is why we all have to seek out our own conventions, tailored specifically for us, within that big one staged for everyone.

Four days from now, I'm going to go there and start having the con I want to have. If you're there, I hope you have the one you want to have…and I love the fact that it won't be anything like mine.

John Cleese has recently gone to war with his native land over the "Brexit" matter and he's also escalated his ongoing war with the tabloid press over there. Here's 44 minutes of him discussing the latter with particular emphasis on the part of the press commanded by Mr. Rupert Murdoch…

About once a year, I peek at my Wikipedia page to see what it says I did that I didn't do. I don't care that it doesn't mention many things I've done but I'm always curious where the totally bogus credits come from. Here's one paragraph that's there now which could use some fixing…

After the cancellation of Kotter in 1979, on which he was one of the story editors, Evanier and Palumbo amicably ended their partnership. He subsequently wrote for the Hanna-Barbera comic book division and a number of variety shows and specials, and he began writing for animated cartoon shows, including Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, Thundarr the Barbarian, The ABC Weekend Special, Yogi Bear's All Star Comedy Christmas Caper, The Berenstain Bears Show, Richie Rich, The Wuzzles, and Dungeons & Dragons. But in 1992 he did screen-played Tom and Jerry: The Movie along with Francis Moss.

I left Welcome Back, Kotter in 1977 well before the series was canceled. I not only wrote for but eventually ran the Hanna-Barbera comic book division. I never wrote for (nor saw) The Berenstain Bears Show. And not only did I not "did screen-play" Tom and Jerry: The Movie, I've never worked with (though I do know) Francis Moss, and I think the screen credit on that film went to Dennis Marks.

Could someone who knows how to edit Wikipedia please fix these things? I used to know but I've forgotten…and when I did do it, I got into arguments with people who insisted they knew my career better than I do.

And hey, if they're going to give me someone else's credits, why can't they give me William Goldman's?

One of the things I don't think some people "get" about Comic-Con is that it's not all for them. It's not all for anyone. I keep urging all to take the few minutes — well, it might be more than a few — to look over the entire programming schedule — or at least the list of my panels — and to take note of the events they'd like to attend. I get the feeling some folks do that, notice all the things there that don't interest them and then think, "This convention is not for me."

You're not supposed to feel like the entire con is being staged with folks like you in mind any more than you should be able to scan the TV listings and see only shows you'd want to watch. You're supposed to find six or seven things that you might enjoy — which even if you're there Thursday through Sunday ought to be plenty. This will be my 49th of these in San Diego and even at the first one, where the schedule was like a dozen programs, only two or three were of interest to me.

Lots of things there aren't. Our friends over at The San Diego-Comic Con Unofficial Blog are listing hundreds of "exclusive" items that will be for sale only at the con. Great, fine, terrific, I don't want any of them. But I think it's great that so many people are so excited about the offerings. There are panels there about TV shows I don't watch, about movies I will never see, about videogames I will never play, etc. I have been reading comics since I could read anything and I don't even know half the comic book characters who'll be paraded and promoted around the hall.

This is what media is today. There's so much of it that no one can follow it all. What we all do — and there's no other way to approach it than this — is to pick and choose. Think of it as a big buffet and don't feel excluded because there's stuff there you don't want to eat.

I have a vast number of food allergies. Take me to a buffet and what goes through my mind as I scan the offerings is: Can't eat that, can't eat that, can't eat that, can't eat that, can't eat that, can't eat that, can't eat that, can't eat that, can't eat that, can't eat that, can't eat that, can't eat that, can't eat that, can't eat that, can't eat that, can't eat that, can't eat that…ah, roast turkey! Great! I'm happy! Comic-Con International works like that for me.

Yeah, I help it along a bit by creating some of the programming but even if I didn't, I see plenty of things on that schedule I'd love to see. And of course, unavoidably, some of them I can't attend because they're opposite panels I'm on.

Despite what some people think, I am not part of the convention staff and I certainly am not their Complaint Department. Every year though, I hear bitches 'n' moans, often from people who attend the con with expectations untethered to reality. No one offered them a great job there or no dealer was selling mint condition copies of Fantastic Four #1 for twenty bucks so it was a rotten convention. That kind of thing. I also hear from people who can't quite grasp the concept that if you attend something that everyone wants to go to, it just might be a wee bit crowded.

Comic-Con is what it is and what it always will be. If it bothers you, there's only one solution to that: Don't go. A couple hundred thousand people would love to have your badge. And if they can get over the fact that it's not designed to cater exclusively to their needs and interests, they'll have a very good time.

The attorney Alan Dershowitz has long since joined the not-as-exclusive-as-I-wish-it-were club of public figures I once admired but no longer respect.  As with most of them, I wonder to what extent he changed and to what extent I was duped.  Usually, I decide it's at least a little of each.

Once upon a very long time ago, he seemed to stand for principles.  Since a year or so before he signed onto Team O.J., those principles seem to be that it's very wrong for any matter of law to be trending without Alan Dershowitz getting on TV and Alan Dershowitz selling books.  He is now making the rounds hawking a book that says it's wrong for people to be talking about impeaching Donald Trump even though, as Matt Yglesias points out, no one who could perhaps make that happen is trying.

As Yglesias further notes, Dershowitz has been complaining about being "shunned" at Martha's Vineyard because of his advocacy.  So, um, what exactly is wrong with people avoiding someone with whom they do not wish to associate?  I'm avoiding a number of people these days for an array of reasons.  You probably have your own list.  Mine is mostly people who don't talk to me but at me, like I've been put on this planet to do naught but marvel at their infallibility.

I doubt I'll ever find myself in the same room as Alan Dershowitz but if I do, he'll probably join another one of my little lists.

Before The Cocoanuts was a movie starring The Marx Brothers, it was a Broadway show starring The Marx Brothers…and the stage musical still gets revived from time to time.  Next Thursday, a production of it opens at the Culbreth Theater, which is on the grounds of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA.  It's directed by my buddy Frank Ferrante and he's also in it playing the role originally played by Groucho Marx.  It's only there for eleven performances and if so many of them didn't coincide with Comic-Con, I might just hop on a plane and go catch one or more of them.  If you want to be there, here's the page where you can get a ticket or two.  I wish he'd do it closer to me at a time when I can go.

This might matter to your life if (a) you're attending Comic-Con in San Diego next week, (b) you're attending Preview Night on Wednesday and (c) you'll be driving down from the North on the 5 Freeway that day. If all three of those apply to you, read The Next Paragraph. If all three do not apply to you, skip The Next Paragraph and The One After.

The Next Paragraph: You might (might!) encounter a helluva traffic jam when you hit the Del Mar area. It's the opening day of the season at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, aka Del Mar Race Track. In years past, that has sometimes resulted in immense slowdowns and even full stops for long stretches of time on the 5…but sometimes, it does not. One year when it was backed up all the way to Oceanside, I took the 78 east there to the 15 south to the 163 south which took me right into downtown San Diego in a lot less time than staying on the 5, where I might still be.

The One After: But this might not be necessary and even if it is, Waze might be able to find you an even better route. Waze could probably find me a faster route from my office to the bathroom in my office and it would show me all the places in-between where I could stop and get a Subway® sandwich.

And in case you're curious, the San Diego Padres will not be at Petco Park next to the convention center while we're in town. They'll be in Philadelphia getting massacred by the Phillies. If they were in town, we could send over a band of cosplayers dressed as Muppet Babies to beat them.

Not much else to say about the con today. I have been warned that some streets in San Diego that are usually not closed during the con will be closed during the con but I don't know which ones. I just assume there will be no possible way to get into or out of the hotel where I'm staying. Even Waze may not save me there.

In the past here, I've raved about a show that the Jim Henson Company (the part of it not sold to Disney) puts on every once in a while in Los Angeles. It's called Puppet Up! and I wrote about it here. Basically, it's an improvised puppet show for adults that is very, very funny and usually very, very dirty. They do it whenever they feel like it from the fabled Chaplin Stage in Hollywood and they feel like doing it July 28 and 29 — three shows that are certain to sell out soon. If you want to be at one of them, buy some tickets soon. I'm taking friends to the 7 PM show on Saturday.

The IMDB folks put together a brief tribute to Steve Ditko. It's pretty accurate though I do not believe the oft-recounted story about Jack Kirby's version of Spider-Man being displaced by Ditko's because Jack's was "too heroic." I'm still trying to find the time to write something substantial here about Mr. Ditko and his amazing work.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy is a non-profit, non-partisan "think tank" that works on tax issues and identifies what this or that tax cut or hike means for the economy. They tend to get cited a lot by both Democrats and Republicans when either party can use the group's findings to support what they want to do.

As Kevin Drum notes, they recently analyzed the numbers on all the G.O.P. tax cuts since the year 2000 and concluded that most of the benefits went to the rich. Well, duh. Is there anyone reading this who couldn't have told them that without crunching any digits? But what's interesting is that as Drum notes…

ITEP figures that total taxes paid in 2018 are about $600 billion less than they would be if we had just left the tax code alone. That's nearly the entire federal deficit projected for this year.

Just to make sure you get that: Republican tax cuts since 2000 are responsible for nearly the entire federal deficit. Repeal them all and the budget would be almost balanced.

I would imagine that if you went to any Republican leader and said, "You've always said deficits are bad and we should have a balanced budget so what about this?", the answer would be something about how, yes, "Maybe the numbers do break down that way but these cuts will stimulate the economy and eventually, we'll have not only that balanced budget but a surplus!" And then that will never happen. Because no one ever cares about deficits when they're the ones running them up. My deficits are fine. It's your deficits that will destroy America.

Comic-Con International convenes a week from today in San Diego. Preview Night used to be a not-as-crowded, more leisurely stroll about the convention hall but now there's nothing particularly leisurely between the time you cross the San Diego City Limits and the time you pass out of them. I find I don't mind the crazed, something-every-second pace as long as I expect it going in and I remember I can leave.

I'm getting a little weary of the complaint, "It isn't about comics anymore." Yeah, people make more fuss about the Avengers movies than they do about the Avengers comic books. That's the way it is, people. Everywhere, including the executive suites at Marvel Entertainment, there's more interest in the movies than the comic books, That doesn't mean there isn't plenty around about the comic books…and if you can't find it, that doesn't mean it ain't there.

Check out the programming schedule and count the number of events that are about comics. Just try to visit every dealer in that hall who's selling comic books.

Take a look at the list of people the convention chooses to invite as Special Guests. Huge movie and TV stars will be at the convention but that's because exhibitors brought them there. The con invites mainly people who work in comic books, comic strips, animation and print fantasy. And in fact, they're revising their rules as to who qualifies for a free professional badge to give more weight to folks who work in comics and animation.

Yeah, it's about a lot of stuff that only tenuously connects to comic books…but you don't have to go to the Indigo Ballroom on Saturday afternoon for the TV Guide panel with the hottest stars on the hottest shows on television. Come over to Room 5AB and watch as Trina Robbins and I interview the lady who ghostwrote Wonder Woman in the forties. Could there be an event more about comic books than that?