Monthly Archives: June 2023

We are 33 days from the opening of this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego. Yes, I know you can't believe it because you just got back from last year's Comic-Con International in San Diego and haven't even unpacked yet but it's true. I have a calendar that proves it.

I will be hosting or appearing on 13 panels this year. None of them will have my partner Sergio Aragonés because he is not attending the convention this time around. He's in fine health. He just isn't attending the convention.

I cannot help you if you're searching desperately for lodging during the convention but perhaps this page can be of assistance.

I cannot help you if you're searching desperately for badges for the convention but if you're willing to shell out Big Bucks, there are these auctions on eBay. They are legit but they will be over soon so don't dawdle.

The San Diego Convention Center is located on Harbor Drive in that town. This year, as they have done with the last few cons, the city will be closing Harbor Drive between First Avenue and Park Boulevard during convention hours and for a few hours before and after each day. If you have purchased parking at the convention center — or I guess if you're driving an ambulance with the siren blaring and someone bleeding in the back — you can get in but otherwise, no cars, bikes, scooters, skateboards, etc.

I suppose this is a wise idea but last year, it made it very tough for my lady friend and myself to get from our hotel to the Bayfront Hilton where I was a presenter for the Eisner Awards. We took an Uber and even with the driver's GPS and me consulting Waze on my phone, we could not figure out a route from Point A to Point B. I even suggested he drive us to the airport on the assumption that once you were there, a GPS had to be able to find a path between the airport and a Hilton.

We didn't try that but we should have. As it was, the best our driver could do was drop us off almost (it felt) as far from the Bayfront Hilton as I am now, sitting in my home in Los Angeles. Ubering back was easy later since they reopened Harbor Drive after 10 PM. But getting there was such a long walk that I was considering turning back to our hotel and presenting the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing to one of the parking valets there. Don't laugh. It would have been cheaper than tipping.

I really like Jon Stewart's show, The Problem with Jon Stewart, which runs on Apple TV. I think it alone is worth the price of Apple TV. Here's a a video they threw together to try and snag an Emmy or two…

Back in the Fall of 1969 — back when there were three TV networks and they had actual seasons — 23 TV shows made their debut. Some lasted a while, some didn't. But here's a look at all 23 shows and I think there were some pretty interesting offerings that year…

Boy, that was fast.

Another busy day for Mark…maybe not a lot of posting. And I seem to be doing a very poor job of not paying attention to the man who was our 45th president and is looking like he'll be the first to do hard time.

I keep seeing articles wondering why, in spite of so many folks advising him to return the classified documents, he insisted on keeping them. I don't see this as hard to figure out. He felt they would represent in some way future power and/or money…and he didn't have to have a specific plan as to how either of those goals might happen. Why is that not the answer?

I was talking with my pal Shelly Goldstein the other day and I think I was the one who made this point: Back when it turned out that Bill Clinton had actually had the rumored affair and said what he said about it in a deposition, a lot of us who thought he was a good president were deeply disappointed in the man. We didn't say this to pollsters but to each other, we said things like, "Gee, I thought he was smarter than that." You can fault someone for their moral transgressions and also fault them for the poor judgement they showed by making those transgressions when (a) there was a strong possibility they'd be caught and (b) they'd be letting down an awful lot of people who supported them.

What Clinton did was way, way less of a crime than what Trump's being charged with but I've got to think that Donald's supporters — the ones who really, really, really want to see him back in office — are feeling the same way. They want to slap the guy and scream, "How could you let us down like that!!!?" They won't tell pollsters that either. Most of 'em will cling to the idea that he's being railroaded, witch-hunted, personally prosecuted by the evil mastermind/senile Joe Biden, etc. But deep down, no matter what else they feel about Their President, they've got to think he was really, really, really stupid to let it come to this.

I mentioned W.C. Fields here the other day.  Here's a nice little 11-minute overview of the man and his career.  I often found him to be very, very funny…

If you're not sick of reading different "takes" on Donald Trump — and at times, I sure am — you might think that Matthew Yglesias makes some good points in this article.

…so I didn't watch much of the news coverage of Trump's arraignment at the federal courthouse in Miami. I guess I figured I could miss this one because there'll be a couple more before long.

What I guess I find fascinating about this story is how unsupported "his side" of the story is, yet he knows that a certain not-small number of his fans will not only gobble it down but donate money because of it. You have all these legal authorities saying The Indictment is a long, detailed, open-and-shut case. You have his former Attorney General saying "he's toast" and his former national security adviser saying of The Indictment, "This really is a rifle shot and I think it should be the end of Donald Trump's political career."

And after the arraignment, he goes and gives this speech about why he's innocent and how the Presidential Records Acts says he had every right to take the documents at issue…and it doesn't. Here's a fact check by CNN. Here's a fact check by Politifact. Here's a fact check by USA Today. Here's a fact check by The New York Times. Here's a fact check by Factcheck.Org.

There are others around and they all say pretty much the same thing.  You have to assume what he's saying now is something he believes will resound with his supporters and bring in more donations, and that when it comes time to go to court, he and his lawyers (whoever they are at that moment) will have something better.  I'm real curious as to what that could be.

One of the all-time great comic artists, John Romita, has died at the age of 93. The son of a banker, he grew up in Brooklyn and broke into the comic book field in 1949, working primarily for the company now known as Marvel. Heavily influenced by Milton Caniff and a half-dozen other artists, he drew westerns and war comics and romance comics and a brief revival of Captain America. In 1958 when the company underwent major cutbacks, Romita landed at DC Comics where he drew almost exclusively for their romance comics, often rendering the covers and lead stories.

A quarrel there with one of the editors there sent him back to Marvel in 1965. After all those years of love comics, "Jazzy Johnny" (as Stan Lee would eventually dub him) feared he could not capture the new dynamic style at the company best formed in the work of another of his idols, Jack Kirby. Romita asked to just ink other artists for a while until he caught on…and he did for one issue of The Avengers. But the resignation of Wally Wood had left Daredevil with no artist and Stan persuaded John to take a crack at drawing the comic.

At first, he needed layouts by Kirby but he quickly caught on…and the following year when Steve Ditko departed Spider-Man, Romita was the obvious (and really only) choice to succeed him. Even John himself was skeptical he could fill those shoes but he soon was doing it so well that many came to see him as the guy who drew Spider-Man "the best." Working in the Marvel office, as opposed to at home like most artists, Romita became a valuable staff member, designing covers, correcting the work of others and eventually becoming Art Director. His influence was all over the artwork in Marvel books in the late sixties and for several decades thereafter.

I loved the guy's work and he had just about as many fans as anyone drawing comics in those days. He was also a very nice man and a great encourager of new talent. Tonight, we send our condolences to his family — including artist John Romita, Junior who sure learned a lot from his father — to the man Jack Kirby called "The man who saved Spider-Man."

"Legal Eagle" Devin Stone goes through the Trump indictment for us. There are about eighty videos online where alleged legal authorities do this for us and at least as many articles. Still, I like the way Mr. Stone explains things and he does make a few points I hadn't heard in the two or three other explainers I read or heard.

But really all you need to know is that the indictment is very detailed and full of testimony from Trump, his aides and lawyers that builds a strong case against him. And you already know that but if you want to hear it from Counselor Stone, here he is. Or you can wait for the inevitable Randy Rainbow video which will say much the same thing but set to the melody of a great show tune…

Comic-Con is 36 days away. During those 36 days, please don't write or call to ask me if I can get you into the con, get a panel promoting your latest project on the convention schedule, tell you where to park, help you find a hotel room…anything of that nature. I hate disappointing anyone.

Many, many year ago I spent some lovely time with Carlotta Monti, an actress who proudly described herself as "the mistress of W.C. Fields." I wrote about that brief time here. In yet another of the many "Wish-I'd-Had-a-Tape-Recorder" moments of my life, she told me about living with that man at 2015 DeMille Drive, which is located sort of in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles.

Wanna see the place? You can in the video below. A couple years ago, you could have bought it for $10,500,000 before someone else did…

Very busy today…but I took some time out to watch and read a few things about Mr. Trump's legal troubles. He sure has a lot of them and I don't think "You can't prosecute me because you didn't prosecute Hillary" is going to make them go away. And I have the feeling that the folks arguing that it's wrong to bring charges against a political opponent were a lot of the same people shouting "Lock her up! Lock her up!" about Ms. Clinton.

I don't want a lot of this stuff in my head and in my day but it's like a moth. It's not easy to keep it out or to get rid of it once it gets in.

The fine folks who run Comic-Con International today announced…

Barbara Friedlander, Sam Glanzman to Receive 2023 Bill Finger Award

Barbara Friedlander and Sam Glanzman have been selected to receive the 2023 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. The selection, made by a blue-ribbon committee chaired by writer-historian Mark Evanier, was unanimous.

"Once again, we're excited to honor two folks who wrote great comic books that perhaps didn't receive the attention and recognition that their work deserved," Evanier noted. "Readers who only know from fictional superheroes should be aware of the excellent writing that has sometimes been found in comics about real-world romance and real-world war— two areas represented well by this year's recipients."

Barbara Friedlander (now Barbara Friedlander-Bloomfield) began working for DC Comics at the age of 18 in 1963. She started in a clerical position but quickly graduated to editorial work and writing, mainly for the company's line of romance comics, which included Young Love, Young Romance, Heart Throbs, Secret Hearts, Falling in Love, Girls' Love Stories and Girls' Romances. All of these titles featured her stories, and she created several ongoing serials including "Three Girls: Their Lives & Loves" and "Reach for Happiness." She was also responsible for teen comics such as her creation Swing with Scooter and for many of the text and advice pages that ran in all these comics. Her scripts showed an insight into male/female relationships that one might not have expected from a writer that young. She left DC in 1970, but we are proud that she will be a Special Guest at the 2023 Comic-Con.

Sam Glanzman (1924–2017) had work in some of the earliest comic books ever published in America, getting his start in 1939 at Funnies, Inc., a "shop" that produced comic book material for several publishers. His brothers David and Lew were also comic book writers and artists, so it ran in the family. Sam's first work in print seems to have been text stories he wrote for Amazing-Man Comics, published by Hillman. Soon though, he was writing and drawing for Harvey Comics but his burgeoning career was interrupted by World War II, much of which he spent stationed by the Navy on the U.S.S. Stevens. Discharged in 1946, he did not return immediately to comics, working instead in manual labor. After several unsuccessful attempts, he returned to steady comic book work in 1958, working for Charlton Comics and later for Dell, mainly as an artist. In 1970, he began selling work to DC Comics, primarily for their war titles, and it was there that he wrote and drew an outstanding series of personal and autobiographical stories. The "U.S.S. Stevens" tales recalled his days stationed aboard that destroyer in vivid and realistic detail. It is mainly for these and other such autobiographical works that we honor him and will be pleased to present his Finger Award to his son and grandson at the ceremony.

The Bill Finger Award was created in 2005 at the instigation of the great comic book artist and cartoonist Jerry Robinson. It was his way of preserving the memory of his friend and colleague, the late Bill Finger. Evanier explains, "At the time, Mr. Finger rarely received credit as co-creator of Batman and of the entire, voluminous mythos and supporting cast that surrounded the Caped Crusader. Gloriously, the name of Bill Finger now appears on Batman movies and comic books. That doesn't stop us from continuing to hand out awards bearing his name to other writers who, in the opinion of the committee, have not received sufficient reward or attention for what they have contributed to comics."

In addition to Evanier, the selection committee consists of Charles Kochman (executive editor at Harry N. Abrams, book publisher), comic book writer Kurt Busiek, artist/historian Jim Amash, cartoonist Scott Shaw!, and writer/editor Marv Wolfman.

The major sponsor for the 2023 awards is DC Comics; supporting sponsors are Heritage Auctions and Maggie Thompson.

The Finger Award falls under the auspices of Comic-Con International: San Diego and is administered by Jackie Estrada. The awards will be presented during the Eisner Awards ceremony at this summer's Comic-Con International on Friday, July 21.

Additional information on the Finger Award can be found on this page.

If you love reading about animation history (especially Disney history), you must know the name of Jim Korkis. My longtime buddy Jim has devoted most of his life to researching and writing about cartoons and comics and all the related stuff that you and I love…and with darn near no regard for money. He's been the kind of guy who, when someone wanted to pay him for his writing would say, "It's not necessary…just send me whatever you want whenever you can." His many books on these beloved topics have not brought him much in the way of dollars.

He could use some now as he is seriously not well. This GoFundMe page set up by one of his friends will tell you the sad details. I'm just going to tell you that Jim is a great guy who has given the world so much by recording and reporting history. If you can, send him whatever you want but don't wait until whenever you can. He can use it now. I do not post these often but I'm posting this because it's Jim.

The Tony Awards telecast is safely ensconced on my TiVo and I'll watch it when I have more time than I have tonight. In the meantime, here's the number they performed from the revival of Sweeney Todd…