Monthly Archives: July 2020

I only have one first-hand observation about Regis Philbin and it isn't much of one. I was at a Hollywood-type benefit maybe ten years ago. There were lots of folks around who looked like Someone and they may or may not have been. Regis was definitely Someone and he was meeting everyone who wanted to meet him, shaking hands with everyone who wanted to shake hands with him and posing for photos with anyone who wanted a photo with one of the most-seen people in the history of television.

What struck me was that he acted like someone doing a real, real good impression of Regis Philbin but maybe taking it a little too far over the top. If this had been a sketch with Dana Carvey playing him and you were directing, you'd tell him, "Dana, pull it back a little bit. You're exaggerating him a little too much." It was kind of like Regis doing Regis doing Regis.

I remembered him back when he was the announcer on the late night show Joey Bishop did challenging Johnny Carson for a time. Mr. Philbin then seemed bland and ill at ease. You wondered why, of all the people in show business who could announce Joey's show and get some laughs on the couch, they picked this guy. But over the years, he morphed into a great host and a great guest and someone that audiences genuinely loved.

I was introduced to him and he acted like it was a big deal for both of us to be meeting, which was the way he treated every single other person there. Because you have to say something friendly to a person you meet in this circumstance, I complimented him on a recent guest appearance on David Letterman's show and said, "It's easy to see Dave loves you."

He replied, sounding more and more like the Dana Carvey imitation, "That's because I'm always available! Someone cancels, it's 'Call Regis!' and I'm there like a trained cocker spaniel! But you know what they say…showing up is 90% of everything! I may not be the funniest guy on TV but I'm really good at showing up."

That he was. For a time there, it felt like anytime anyone on any channel turned on a TV camera, Regis showed up. He not only showed up, he had something interesting to say and he wasn't afraid if it made him the butt of some joke, just so long as it was interesting. Television already misses him.

Featuring Laraine Newman, Misty Lee, Dee Bradley Baker and Bill Farmer…

Featuring John Morrow and Alex Ross…

It never ceases to amaze me how things I did as a child or teen — things which back then might have seemed silly or frivolous or an enormous waste of time — later became a part of my career and livelihood. The first time Hanna-Barbera put cartoons out on home video, eons ago in the era of Beta, I was paid actual money to advise on which cartoons from their early shows (Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Yogi Bear, etc.) should be on the first release.

I did it from memory. The fee wasn't majestic but I actually did make money because I'd watched those cartoons at ages 7-10. I could and did call my parents and tell them I'd made sitting in front of our one TV as a kid pay off. Here's another example.

As we all know, none of us are at Comic-Con International at the moment because there ain't no Comic-Con International. If it were on, I'd be in San Diego right now. I'd have done two or three panels this morning to add to the nine I did yesterday and I'd now be over at the Abrams booth signing copies of this…

It'll be out next month and you can pre-order a copy of it here but they would have had copies available at Comic-Con. It's a boxed set reprinting the teensy-tiny Marvel Mini-Books of the sixties with an explanatory introduction by me, including the tale of what I had to go through to collect all six of them. It took a lot and it's another one of those things I did as a youth that somehow later turned into actual employment.

I talk about how hard ut was to collect all six of then on the Abrams ComicArt panel which goes "live" at 1 PM today on YouTube. It's not really live. We recorded it a few weeks ago so you can watch it at any time after 1 PM today on the Comic-Con website and once I can, I'll embed it below…

Okay, be honest. How many of you would have gotten this right?

In a normal year, I would have hosted three panels at Comic-Con by now.

This morning, I went searching for news that had nothing to do with The Pandemic. Amazingly, there is some…like the Washington Redskins are no longer the Washington Redskins. They're now the Washington Football Team and I'm not entirely certain they're that, either. A new name will be chosen shortly and I don't know who came up with it but someone online suggested the D.C. Comics. Not bad.

This does not seem to be Derek Chauvin's year…

In addition to murder charges relating to the killing of George Floyd, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is now facing felony tax charges. Chauvin and his estranged wife were each charged with nine counts of aiding and abetting false or fraudulent tax returns and failing to file returns.

I have zero sympathy for the guy but you have to wonder what's going on in the mind of someone who has caused, directly or indirectly, so much destruction. He managed to simultaneously enrage an amazing array of odd bedfellows: Black people for obvious reasons, white folks who side with them, other police officers because of the anger and policy changes he triggered, police supporters who found his actions so indefensible, etc.

He's probably sitting in his cell, wondering how things could get any worse for him (as they will) and trying to figure out how of all the police officers who've "accidentally" killed black people, he somehow got nailed for it and is being held accountable.

And now if you'll excuse me, I have to go not host a 1 PM panel.

One of these days, Comedy Central (or someone) is going to find the right spot where Jordan Klepper can be just as funny as Jordan Klepper can be…

For the first time since 1970 when it started, I am not attending the big comic book convention in San Diego, at least in person.  I'm participating like hundreds of thousands of others (I would guess) are…online.  It's not the same but what is, these days?

I can be seen in four pre-recorded panels — two that I moderated, two that I was asked to appear on. The times given are when the video will debut online and can be watched at your leisure by clicking on the link.

Friday, July 24 at 1:00 PM
Make Mine Marvel: Bringing Back Marvel Classics For Today's Readers
Mark Evanier (comic book writer and historian), Lauren Bisom (Marvel entertainment editor), Russell Busse (Abrams senior editor, licensing and entertainment) gather for a discussion moderated by Charles Kochman (Abrams ComicArts editorial director) about the legacy of classic Marvel Comics, and how new books for readers of all ages are bringing classic comic art, characters, and storylines to a new generation.

Friday, July 24 at 3:00 PM
The Annual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel
Every year, former Kirby assistant Mark Evanier hosts a gathering of fans of the man some call "The King of the Comics" and his vast, persistent impact on not only comic books but related fields, as well. This year, Mark and John Morrow (publisher of The Jack Kirby Collector) discuss all this with master artist Alex Ross who discusses the influence Kirby had on his work.

Saturday, July 25 at 4:00 PM
Cartoon Voices
Mark Evanier (The Garfield Show) hosts a celebration of those who speak for animated characters, featuring four of the most-heard voices around: Laraine Newman (Bob's Burgers), Bill Farmer (Goofy), Misty Lee (Squirrel Girl) and Dee Bradley Baker (Daffy Duck). They discuss their craft and demonstrate what they do with a very odd reading of Little Red Riding Hood.

Sunday, July 26 at 11:00 AM
Jack Kirby 101: An Introduction
Comic-Con legend Mark Evanier (onetime Jack Kirby assistant, and author of Jack Kirby: King of Comics) and The Jack Kirby Collector's John Morrow (TwoMorrows Publishing) join The Jack Kirby Museum's Tom Kraft and Rand Hoppe for a discussion that will provide an introduction to Jack Kirby, the man, his work, and his influence on comics, comic conventions, and the culture at large.

In case you can't guess, the second and third panels are the ones I organized. A dead giveaway is that I would never describe myself or really anyone of my generation in comics with the "L" word. It's become hokey, meaningless and kind of embarrassing. But that Kirby panel came out pretty good as I recall.

They actually all did. If you're a fan of the online Cartoon Voices Panels I'm doing, don't miss this one. The next live one will be August 8. And the two panels about Jack Kirby this weekend are about Jack Kirby. What more do you need to know? See you online.

The Disney fan sites are erupting with the news that voice actress Kaitlyn Robrock has been designated to henceforth speak and sing for Minnie Mouse. She assumes this task/honor from the lovely Russi Taylor, who passed away a year ago this week.

Some of you may recall Kaitlyn from Cartoon Voices Panel 2, which we did online not long ago.  She was quite delightful on it, displaying the versatility and talent that landed her this role.  It's kind of a big deal because the Disney organization, unlike other companies that own immortal characters, tends to pick one person to voice a character for a long, long time.  Once in a while, they seem to have two gents taking turns as Mickey or Donald but, for example, Bill Farmer has been the voice of Goofy and Pluto since 1987.  (Bill is on Cartoon Voices Panel 5, which is part of ComicCon at Home and debuts online at this link on Saturday at 4 PM San Diego time.)

By contrast, Warner Animation likes to shake it up.  The guy supplying the voice of Bugs Bunny this week is just the guy supplying the voice of Bugs Bunny this week.  More than a dozen actors have tag-teamed in the job since Mel Blanc passed away.  While our friend Bob Bergen has done the overwhelming majority of Porky Pig jobs since then, most of the actors are temps.  This means that none of them "owns" a role to the extent that they can do as Mel did and command a lot of money for any given job.

My friends Greg Burson and Joe Alaskey used to do a lot of Blanc replication.  Both have joined Mel in that big recording studio in the sky.  Both used to complain mightily about being asked to audition each time some Warner exec or director wanted to personally select who'd be the wabbit or the tweety bird in his or her upcoming project.  Greg would say, "It does me no good to point out that they have hours of tapes of me doing Bugs and that I've done him in twenty cartoons.  I still have to go in and read for some director who thinks he's the only one in the place qualified to say what Bugs should sound like."  (I am not suggesting that a few of them weren't.)

But Disney does it right, as Disney so often does…and Kait may have landed not one job but decades of them.  I met her way before she was a professional and was trying to break into the field.  She attended every one of the Cartoon Voices panels I've hosted at Comic-Con, studying and listening and absorbing…and one day, she was successful enough in her goal that she was on the panel.  Everyone who knows her and knows of her is very happy at the news.

It's nice to be missed…

Just watch what he's come up with this week…

One of the most powerful political ads I've ever seen…

95 days ago when the cancellation of this year's Comic-Con International was announced, an acquaintance of mine wrote me to ask me to use my "formidable clout" — that's in quotes because I have so little — to get them to reverse what he called a boneheaded decision. "This virus thing" — that's in quotes because he phrased it that way, not me — was an overblown panic. COVID-19 was no worse than the common flu and it would probably be gone in a month or so, maybe sooner.

Cutting-and-pasting from his e-mail: "By the first day of Spring, everyone will be laughing at the idiots who thought this was a real thing." Boy, I wish we were. It still says on my calendar that tomorrow morning, I drive down to San Diego, check into the hotel and then attend Preview Night.

In case you want to see what the exhibit hall at the convention center looks like at the moment, it probably looks a lot like the photo on this article. I don't see any cosplayers there unless they're dressing up as homeless folks with nowhere else to go.

I continue to stick to my stock answer when anyone asks me when I think this will all be over: "I don't know." And I often add, "And anyone who says they do doesn't." It isn't just that we don't know when Medical Science will have a solid, trustworthy vaccine for the coronavirus. We don't know how long it will take to make it available to everyone who wants it and we don't know how many people will refuse to take it the same way they refuse to vaccinate their kids for measles. If you think some people are hysterical that they aren't allowed into Costco without a mask, wait'll the day they can't get in without Proof of Vaccination. YouTube will be overwhelmed.

I am glad the folks at Comic-Con shut it down when they did. It was never going to happen and they accepted that reality way before my above-quoted correspondent. I'm not even sure he sees it that way now. A line from this blog that gets quoted a lot is my description of someone — I forget who was the first — as believing that never admitting you're wrong is the same thing as always being right. We seem to have an epidemic of that, too.

Were it not for this f'ing virus, many of us would be prepping to head to San Diego this weekend for the gala 2020 Comic-Con International. Instead, Comic-Con is coming to us…and, for a change, all of us. Everyone can attend. Everyone can get a badge. Everyone can attend every panel they want to see. And best of all, none of them will be standing ahead of you in line to use the restroom.

Start by downloading a PDF of the convention souvenir book from this link. They are not printing this thing up on paper — I wish they would — but it's a great book anyway and not just because I wrote a big article on Jack Kirby's Fourth World series and a whole bunch of obituaries which I wish I hadn't had to write because I wish those people hadn't died.

Then study the schedule of online panels and pick out the ones you wish to "attend." I believe these were all prerecorded so you can't ask questions but with some panels, that could be a blessing. I'll post the list later or tomorrow of the ones I'm on but you should find plenty that will delight you with no trace of me on them.

You don't have to fight crowds. You don't have to pay to get in. You don't have to pay for a crummy hotel room unless you happen to live in a crummy hotel room. You can even cosplay. I intend to attend ComicCon at Home dressed the same way I attend regular, in-person Comic-Con: As a panel host with no fashion sense. Your Harley Quinn costume may be flashier but mine is way more convincing.

I'm almost back. Thanks to all of you who left me alone for a few days and understood that I was not ill, just overwhelmed with Things To Do. Normal posting — to the extent my postings are ever "normal" — will resume in the next few days.

I had the pleasure/honor/delight (it was all of those) to meet Congressman John Lewis at Comic-Con one year. He was just sitting there in the Green Room at the Eisner Awards, waiting to go on and present a couple of 'em and he couldn't have been nicer. I went up to him and said something like, "Hello. I would like to be able to brag for the rest of my life that I got to meet you." Many others did that at the con but I seem to be the only one who was dumb enough to not get a photo with that great man.

I'm not following political matters too closely at the moment but I did take the time to read the New York Times account of how the Trump Administration botched the pandemic response — and "botched" seems like too mild a world to describe something that has caused and is still causing so much death, pain and economic ruination.

For dinner tonight, I used DoorDash to order Zankou Chicken — which if it isn't the best rotisserie chicken in town, it's darn close. I got a whole chicken and a container of Basmati Rice and I ate about a third so I have two more meals left.

From the moment I ordered until the time it was on my doorstep for a "contactless delivery" was a bit under 30 minutes and since I joined "DoorDash Plus" where you don't pay delivery fees each time, the total price was $20.47 including their suggested tip. Can't do much better than that.