Monthly Archives: July 2023

Sometime in the next few hours, it will be announced that SAG-AFTRA is calling a strike, probably immediately. There are a couple of bad reasons why they might say something like "The strike starts in 48 hours" but I don't think anyone expects that to happen. So for the first time since Ronald Reagan was the president of the Screen Actors Guild, both the actors and writers are on strike — and over approximately the same issues.

But not all the actors will be on strike. Animation voiceover is under another contract and that has not expired. Here's what Bob Bergen, one of the workingest voiceover actors in the business posted on Facebook…

• TV/Basic Cable Animation is NOT impacted by a TV/Theatrical strike as TV/Basic Cable Animation is a stand alone separate contract!
• New Media Animation made for TV is NOT impacted by a TV/Theatrical strike!!
• Nickelodeon Animation is NOT impacted by a TV/Theatrical strike as Nick is a stand alone separate contract!!!
• Animated Features ARE impacted by a TV/Theatrical strike and you may NOT work on an animated feature!

Here is a very simple piece of advice to anyone in the union who may be unsure as to the status of their employment: CALL THE UNION!  Do not believe posts on social media or word-of-mouth.  CALL THE UNION! There's a spectacular amount of erroneous information out there and as I mentioned in yesterday's post, you need to not believe what you hear from uninformed or unidentified sources.

Why is there a strike?  I have no idea why they happen in the wrought iron industry but in the show biz unions there is only one scenario and it works like this.  Let's take it step-by-step…

1. A contract between the AMPTP ("The Producers") and a union or guild expires as contracts eventually do.
2. At the AMPTP, they employ a squadron of lawyers and professional negotiators who specialize in this kind of bargaining.  They make an assessment of how little they can give to the labor organization in order to nail down a new contract.  Their job is to arrive at the contract that gives the fewest increases and achieves whatever rollbacks they can get…and that's really all they care about.  They don't care about damaging the industry or harming the quality of the product or alienating the talent or usually even what a prolonged strike will do to the studios.  That's their employers' concern. These negotiator folks are judged solely by the simple numbers in the final deal.
3. So they make this assessment of the union's strength and solidarity and resolve and they work with the Producers to formulate an offer.  The union wants ten dollars.  The negotiator people tell their bosses, "I'll bet I can get them for six.  So we'll offer five and scare the hell out of them to the point where they'll settle for six."
4. And sometimes, they're right.  It works just as they said.  But sometimes they're wrong and the union stands firm at ten or offers to come down no lower than to eight-point-five.  And if both sides refuse to budge, the union has no choice but to go on strike.
5. And for a while, the negotiator folks may say, "Don't worry….after a week or two, they'll be on their knees begging to take six.  I may even get them for five."
6. But the union doesn't fold the way the negotiators predicted and pretty soon, the member producers of the AMPTP are fighting among themselves because the shutdown isn't hurting them all equally.  Some want to go back and offer seven or eight but they have this rule of unanimity.  They all need to agree on an offer.  Also, some of them care about certain issues more than others.
7. In the '88 Writers Guild strike which lasted 153 days, the rumor was (and here I am spreading a rumor after urging you all not to believe them) that Paramount and Disney were fighting over certain issues relating to compensation from video cassettes.  You may remember video cassettes.  Disney was more militant about not giving an increase on them than Paramount — or maybe it was the other way around. Eventually, largely through backchannel communications, agreement was negotiated within the AMPTP and they made an offer that was acceptable (barely, of course) to the WGA. And the strike ended.
8. Now, you might ask, "Was it worth it to the writers? Did the increase they finally got make up for what they lost during those 153 days?" And an argument could be made that it didn't, at least in the short run. But that isn't the right question to ask. You have to also consider the big picture and the long run. Because if we'd taken the rotten deal first offered by The Producers, we'd have gotten a much rottener offer when that contract expired and the negotiator people told their bosses, "I'll bet I can get them for three this time!"
9. Strikes happen because the "experts" underestimate the will of the labor organization. They get settled and become less likely to happen the next time when the labor organization doesn't allow themselves to be viewed as weak.

It is unfortunate that it has to be done this way but the unions did not design this system…and I'm not saying unions are always in the right.  There are bad unions and badly-run unions out there.  But as with so many things in life, the rules of engagement are dictated by the people who write the paychecks.

It's especially unfortunate for the collateral damage.  When production shuts down in the TV and movie business, camera operators and makeup artists and the stagehands and the caterers and the people who clean the offices (etc.) get laid-off because of a battle from which they do not stand to directly benefit.  For some reason, a lot of them blame the union for not taking a bad deal and don't blame the folks who formulated that bad deal and tried to force it on the union.  We all wish there was a way that these people did not have to suffer but no one's come up with one yet.  And we aren't the ones deciding that since production has shut down, their services aren't needed.

This post has gone on way longer than I expected so I'll just close with this one thought: If you are on strike and you're scared and feeling desperate, posting on social media that you're scared and desperate will just prolong the strike.  The negotiator people and others in management who want to hold firm on their unacceptable offers will find three or four of those tweets or posts and print them out and show them to the folks in management who want to settle.  They'll say, "See?  Everyone in the union is scared and desperate!  We've got them right where we want them!"

You're right to be frightened.  No one knows how long this thing will last.  This is my fifth Writers Guild strike and if I've learned anything, it's that predictions are worthless and a lot of them are just made to try and demoralize the opposition.  But if you are frightened, find others in your union who can hold your hands and comfort you.  It's human to be worried but please, keep it the hell off social media because you won't be helping your union.  You'll be helping the people whose job description is to try and crush your union.

A strike by SAG-AFTRA, otherwise known as "The Actors," looks pretty close to inevitable at this point. The precise date may be moved by a day or three but all indications are that it's gonna happen and that the main issue will be Artificial Intelligence, otherwise known as "A.I." And it may be a long one. In the past, the AMPTP, otherwise known as "The Producers," has had some success with their divide/conquer strategy.

They give some faction within a Guild (writers' or actors') what they want and then that faction is ready, perhaps even eager to take the deal and go back to work. Like they give sitcom writers something they crave and the sitcom writers want to end the strike even though the folks who write features or variety shows or daytime dramas or something else still have unaddressed demands. This time though we have A.I. — an issue which seems to matter enormously to writers and actors in all genres, of all ages, of all genders, of all income levels, etc. It matters to Tom Cruise and it also matters to the supporting player who hasn't worked since Love American Style was canceled.

So brace yourself. And here is the best bit of advice I can give to anyone who is affected by the strikes: Don't believe rumors. In fact, that is so important that I will type it again, this time in all caps and boldface: DON'T BELIEVE RUMORS.

This is sometimes tough to do because rumors tend to fill voids of information. Negotiations and the inner works of labor disputes require a lot of closed doors and secrecy and neither side showing all its cards, even to the folks they represent or talking to the press at certain junctures. When you have situations where you don't know anything, it is too easy to fall for something that kinda looks like information even when you have no idea of its source. This leads me to another point that is so important it warrants not only all caps and boldface but even underlining: FALSE INFORMATION IS WORSE THAN NOT KNOWING ANYTHING!

This is so easy to forget. Let's say you are walking around lost and you run into me and you ask me how to get to the place you wish to be. Let us say that I have no idea, which is often the case when questions are put to me. The responsible thing for me to say is, "I'm sorry, I don't know." The irresponsible is if I say, "I think you go south for five blocks to Melrose, turn left and then drive six miles to Sepulveda, hang a right and it should be on your left in a quarter-mile or so!"

That happens. People do that, passing off as facts speculation or hunches or some story that someone heard from someone who heard it from someone who heard it from someone who heard it from someone who heard it from someone (etc.). This is dangerous. It's like if your doctor has no idea what's causing your stomach pains but he doesn't want to admit that so he takes out your gall bladder.

Recently, I had a debate — maybe you'd call it an argument — with someone on a comic book forum who was quoting past sales figures that I knew to be bogus…or at least, probably bogus. I e-mailed to tell him the numbers he was citing were almost certainly not real. He wrote back, "Maybe so but they're the only numbers we have."

In other words: False information is better than no information. Except, of course, we know it isn't. In a situation like a labor strike, it's tough enough to know what to do when you have absolutely accurate info. If you factor in false information, you are almost certain to reach false conclusions. Yeah, once in a while it turns out that removing your gall bladder does stop the stomach pains but that's not the way such decisions should be made.

And there are a few other points I should make. One of them I wrote about here before and I'm just gonna cut-'n'-paste from that. Back during the '88 Writers Guild strike — actually, during all the many Writers Guild strikes through which I've lived — I kept finding myself in this conversation with some writer who was sure he had the key to victory…

HIM: We have to be tough.

ME: Okay, fine. We'll be tough. What are you suggesting we do?

HIM: I just told you. Be tough. Let them know we won't give in. They're tough. We have to be tougher.

ME: I get that. How would you suggest we express this toughness? What should we do that we aren't doing yet?

HIM: Win. Get in there and fight and battle and be tough. They'll give in, trust me. All we have to do is be tough.

I could never get any of these tough-minded people to suggest an action on our part…or if they did, it was something we were already doing. I guess it made them feel vital and powerful to think they'd actually come up with a solution. There's a saying that "hope is not a plan." Well, neither is an attitude.

A close relative of that approach is something else I wrote about, in this case here. This is the kind of conversation I often heard during Writers Guild strikes. "HIM" is a complaining member of the Guild. "ME" is not really me but it might be someone on the Guild's Negotiating Committee…

HIM: Our committee should get in there and negotiate!

ME: The producers refuse to negotiate.

HIM: Then we should insist they negotiate.

ME: The producers refuse to negotiate.

HIM: Then we should get in there and be real tough and demand they negotiate.

ME: The only weapon we have against them is to strike.

HIM: Don't strike! Negotiate! Demand they negotiate! If I were on that committee, I could force them to negotiate!

ME: How would you do that?

HIM: By being tougher than they are!

And lastly, I'll give you one more piece of take-this-for-what-it's-worth advice. Every actor or writer has an agent and/or a lawyer and/or someone they rely on to make deals. When there's a strike, almost every one of these counselors will tell their clients something like "The trouble is you have bad people representing you. They don't know what to do. Why, if I were representing your guild in this, I would long since have gotten you every single thing you guys want including having Jeff Bezos personally come to your homes and clean all the leaves out of your rain gutters!"

That's the easiest thing in the world to say and I dunno…maybe not the easiest thing to actually do. He or she might be right that the folks negotiating on your behalf are not good at it…or not as good as the folks negotiating on behalf of The Producers. They're almost certainly not as experienced at the game. Still, I have a lot of trust in the Writers Guild representatives.

I have no opinion of the SAG-AFTRA reps at the bargaining table but they should not be confused with Fran Drescher, who as SAG-AFTRA President, will be the spokesperson and "face" of the union during a war. She has not yet shown her members that she understands the responsibilities that come with the title and I sure hope she masters them in a hurry — like by later this evening.

A few years back, Rupert Holmes (left) wrote the book, Jerry Lewis (center) directed and Marvin Hamlisch (right) made the musical The Nutty Professor, based on the center guy's movie of the same name. The show had one not-in-New-York tryout engagement in Nashville in 2014 and then went nowhere for a while. The deaths of Mr. Lewis and Mr. Hamlisch probably had something to do with that. Last year, it had a one-month revival at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine.

Shows are supposed to live on despite their creators' mortalities, both stagings got encouraging reviews and Mssrs. Holmes and Hamlisch had pretty good track records. It was amusing that Jerry kept announcing firm but totally spurious dates when the show would play other cities and when it would open on Broadway but it's not impossible that it deserved to play those cities, New York especially.

Perhaps it will help keep it alive and get it finally on more stages that there is a studio-recorded album soon to be released. The press releases about it, of which I've received many copies, do not say when it will be out or who will be heard on it but it does seen to be pending. It would not surprise me if this show finally does make it to Broadway. And I'll bet whoever tries to get it there will at least try to get Martin Short to play the lead…if someone hasn't already.

"Uncle Jimmy" Weldon (as he liked to be called) died last Thursday at the age of 99. Folks around my age who grew up in Los Angeles remember him as the host of Cartooneroony — I don't guarantee that spelling — a Monday-Friday afternoon kid show on KCOP Channel 13 locally. It was also known as The Webster Webfoot Show, named for a little duck puppet with which Jimmy performed a ventriloquist act. Actually, Jimmy and Webster did local kids' shows in many cities, sometimes concurrently. Webster couldn't fly but Jimmy could — in a private plane via which he sometimes commuted, doing a morning show in, say, Fresno and an afternoon show in L.A.

His Channel 13 gig gave him exposure in 1959 when Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera were looking for a new voice for a baby duck character of theirs. The baby duck under various names had appeared now and then in Tom & Jerry cartoons they'd done for MGM and then when they started their own studio, the duck popped up as a supporting player usually called (though not onscreen) Iddy Biddy Buddy or Itty Bitty Buddy. A comedian named Red Coffey — often spelled "Red Coffee" — had always done the duck voice for Bill and Joe. In 1959 when they renamed the duck Yakky Doodle and planned to star him in cartoons on the new Yogi Bear Show, Mr. Coffey was too often outta town on tours.

So they needed a new duck voice and they found him on Channel 13. And interestingly, they found the guy to voice Yakky's bulldog friend Chopper concurrently on Channel 5 where Vance Colvig was starring daily as Bozo the Clown. So when The Yogi Bear Show debuted in Los Angeles, you had Mr. Weldon voicing Webster Webfoot on Channel 13 and opposite him on Channel 5 was Mr. Colvig playing Bozo while — and these were all on at the same hour — The Yogi Bear Show with both actors was on Channel 11. At the age of eight, I actually noticed this.

I also noticed Jimmy Weldon popping up all over Los Angeles with Webster making personal appearances, hosting on telethons, even apparently appearing at birthday parties for what I heard was a rather modest fee. Jimmy was a charming gent who loved to entertain and he often popped up on TV shows in guest roles. I remember him on a Rockford Files and on Dragnet and on The Waltons, among others. He usually played a flamboyant preacher or some kind of inspirational speaker.

In fact, the last decade or two of his life, that was his main line of work — inspirational speaking. In 1996 when the prolific character actor Peter Leeds (also an occasional Hanna-Barbera voice) passed away, I took Stan Freberg to the funeral and one of the speakers talked to us not so much about Peter but about coping with death and not sinking into depression over it. The speaker was Jimmy Weldon.

He addressed many groups, often with a speech he called "Go Get 'Em Tiger: Becoming the Person You Want to Be," which was also the title of his autobiography. It urged everyone to realize their full potential, never give up, grab onto that star, etc. He was also a super-patriot and very active in the American Legion. (During World War II, he served with General Patton and was involved in many heroic efforts including the liberation of the concentration camp in Buchenwald.)

Back in 1982 when I wrote a prime-time Yogi Bear special for Hanna-Barbera, Yakky Doodle had a cameo role with one or two lines. Jimmy had not worked for H-B for a while and when Yakky had recently appeared, they had Frank Welker do his voice and then Frank would also play other roles in the show. I asked them, pretty please, to bring Jimmy Weldon in to do the one or two lines plus some other roles. They did. I'm not sure I can explain why that mattered to me as much as it did but it did.

I met him briefly at the recording session and then, about eighteen years later, I was in a Hometown Buffet in Van Nuys and there, dining with some friends of his who I'm sure were army buddies, was Jimmy Weldon. I went up to him at the buffet table and told him I grew up watching him and Webster on Channel 13. Before I could even tell him about the cartoon special I wrote that he was in, he put down the plate he was filling with food, gave me a big hug and dragged me over to his friends' table to tell them, "This young man knows who I am!"

He had me repeat what I'd told him about growing up with him and Webster and he seemed so proud of that that. And his pals were responded good-naturedly, "Yeah, yeah, Jimmy. So what is this? The tenth time this week you've introduced us to someone who told you that?"

There's a new production of the musical 42nd Street current touring the U.K. Here's a peek at the cast rehearsing one of the big numbers…

I'm trying to not look at the news much but the whole Rudy Giuliani story is hard to ignore. Basically, the affronts for which he seems likely to face some disbarment have to do with filing a flood of "frivolous" lawsuits. And what was frivolous about them is that they charged massive voter fraud without offering any real evidence. It was kind of like "The official vote count for this state should be overturned and Trump should be declared the winner because some of us have suspicions!" Read this for more.

We are edging closer and closer to Comic-Con. Some people online seem very upset that there won't be a lot of movie stars there promoting their upcoming releases and some of them seem to blame the convention for that. I assume those folks will remain upset but I feel pretty confident that most attendees won't notice much difference.

And I continue to have no idea what will happen with the Writers Guild Strike or when it will or won't happen.

This article in The New York Times has aroused much arguing among professional magicians. Basically, it states that the magic community, which once treated faux-psychic Uri Geller as a charlatan, has now embraced the guy. According to the article, magicians still think he's a charlatan but now they kinda admire him for being such a good charlatan. The sheer reaction to the piece suggests that the embrace is not as widespread as the reporter claims. The professional magicians I know have always kind of regarded the guy as someone who got very rich and famous duping people with the kind of magic most of them could do when they were thirteen — and probably do it better.

Lastly for now: On this blog, we sometimes discuss annoying spam calls. Kevin Drum read this article in the L.A. Times about an operation that scammed both major candidates for the presidency in 2016. Drum notes that the scammers made more than 275 million robocalls and took in close to $4 million smackers. From this, Drum calculates that "a single robocall nets one-hundredth of a dollar" — otherwise known as a penny. That's still more than they deserve and it makes you wonder what the spam calls from live human beings are grossing.

The 2023 Comic-Con International in San Diego commences with Preview Night from 6 PM to 9 PM on Wednesday evening, July 19. This is basically your chance to walk around the main Exhibit Hall with slightly fewer folks clogging the aisles. The real action starts the next day and here's what I'll be up to…

Thursday, July 20 — 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM in Room 32AB
SPOTLIGHT ON BARBARA FRIEDLANDER
Fresh out of high school in the sixties, Barbara Friedlander got a job at DC Comics and quickly ascended to a job in the editorial division working with or alongside, among many others, Carmine Infantino, Jack Miller, Robert Kanigher, Mort Weisinger, Julius Schwartz, and Joe Orlando. What was it like to work in that office on DC's romance comics and on her creation, Swing With Scooter? Comic-Con Special Guest Mark Evanier will be quizzing her — and on Friday evening at the Eisner Awards, he'll be presenting Barbara with the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing.

Thursday, July 20 — 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM in Room 10
COMICS FOR UKRAINE
Comics for Ukraine is a new and important book that is raising funds to aid people whose lives have been devastated by the ongoing war in Ukraine. Some of the top names in comics have donated their time and artistry to this book, which is debuting at Comic-Con. Come join several of those folks as they talk about their stories and why this project is so important. Mark Evanier, John Layman, Stan Sakai and Billy Tucci will be on hand, as well as Richard Walden, the founder of Operation USA, the charity that is funneling funds to help the struggling people of Ukraine. Moderated by book organizer Scott Dunbier.

Thursday, July 20 — 2:00 PM to 2:45 PM at the Dark Horse Booth
I will be signing stuff, especially copies of Groo in the Wild #1 along with colorist Carrie Strachan at Booth 2416.

Friday, July 21 — 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM in Room 10
WALT KELLY AND POGO
The brilliant newspaper strip Pogo was created, written and drawn by one of the great geniuses of comic art, Walt Kelly. It's currently being reprinted in full in a series of books from Fantagraphics, one of which is up for an Eisner Award tonight. Meanwhile, fans of Mr. Kelly and his zany swamp denizens can gather to discuss him, his work, and what it was that made his cartooning so very special. Come hear from artist Steve Leialoha, scholar Maggie Thompson, Kelly archivist Jane Plunkett, and the co-editors of the current reprint series, Eric Reynolds and your moderator, Mark Evanier.

Friday, July 21 — 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM in Room 10
THE GROO PANEL
For 40+ years, the irrepressible (and ignorant) barbarian Groo the Wanderer has wandered the land and through comic book shops making good things bad, bad things worse, and all things hilarious. What's it like to work on this comic with master cartoonist Sergio Aragonés? Since Sergio isn't attending the con this year, these three people can speak freely about the experience: letterer (and creator of Usagi Yojimbo) Stan Sakai, colorist Carrie Strachan and a guy named Mark Evanier who does something on the comic but we don't know what. Also, they'll try to phone Sergio, which will be great fun if it works and probably funnier if it doesn't.

Saturday, July 22 — 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM in Room 6DE
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: AN ANIMATED ANNIVERSARY
Mark Evanier (show developer), Katie Leigh (voice of Sheila), David M. Booher (writer, IDW's Dungeons & Dragons: Saturday Morning Adventures), Frank Todaro (voice actor, Netflix's The Cuphead Show), and Luke Gygax (son of D&D creator Gary Gygax) discuss the legendary tabletop game's 40th anniversary as a Saturday morning cartoon from the perspective of the talent who worked on the show and today's creatives who grew up on it. The session will be moderated by TJ Shevlin (2023 Eisner Awards judge).

Saturday, July 22 — 11:45 AM to 1:00 PM in Room 6BCF
QUICK DRAW!
No matter when you're reading this — hopefully before the event — run and get a seat for Quick Draw!, the fastest and funniest presentation at Comic-Con. Your Quick Draw quizmaster Mark Evanier will be putting three of the swiftest cartoonists in the business to the test, inventing well-projected humor on the spot. Competing this year are cartoonist and Comic-Con co-founder Scott Shaw!, MAD magazine's Tom Richmond, and Disney legend Floyd Norman. As usual, there will be no wagering on the outcome.

Saturday, July 22 — 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM in Room 6BCF
CARTOON VOICES I
Once again, Mark Evanier has assembled a roster of some of the most-heard performers in the world of animation, and they're here to tell you what they do, how they do it and then demonstrate it. The dais includes Adam McArthur (Star vs. the Forces of Evil), Elle Newlands (Lego Marvel's Avengers), Keith Scott (Bullwinkle Moose), Bill Farmer (Goofy, Pluto), Dave Fennoy (Batman, Transformers) and Jessica DiCicco (The Emperor's New School, Muppet Babies). And as usual, the actors will mangle a classic fairy tale for your enjoyment.

Saturday, July 22 — 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM in Room 4
MAGGIE THOMPSON SPOTLIGHT: Wrangling History (How to Preserve the Past So We Can Read in the Future)
As we lose creators, memories fade, and collectibles are lost or damaged, what can be done to hang onto the creations and establish the facts? Maggie is joined by writer and producer Mark Evanier, Columbia University comics and cartoons curator Karen Green, and Abrams ComicArts editor-in-chief Charles Kochman.

Saturday, July 22 — 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM in Room 7AB
THE HISTORY OF CARTOON VOICES
Keith Scott is one of the top voice actors and impressionists in Australia, and he's also an expert on cartoon voices for theatrical cartoons in this country. He's making a rare visit to America this year and he'll be talking about Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, June Foray, Walt Disney, and many you've never heard of. Don't miss this rare chance to hear all about how cartoons learned to talk, with not only Keith but also historians Jerry Beck, Leonard Maltin and your moderator, Mark Evanier.

Sunday, July 23 — 10:00 AM to 11:15 AM in Room 5AB
THE ANNUAL JACK KIRBY TRIBUTE PANEL
It's a Comic-Con tradition to assemble on Sunday morning to remember the man some still call, and with good reason, The King of the Comics. His life and career will be discussed by folks who knew him or wish they did. They include writer Tom King, Jack's grandson Jeremy Kirby, Kirby experts Bruce Simon, Mark Badger and Jon Cooke, attorney Paul S. Levine and your moderator, former Kirby assistant Mark Evanier.

Sunday, July 23 — 11:45 AM to 1:00 PM in Room 6A
CARTOON VOICES II
Cartoon Voices I on Saturday will be so wonderful that we'll need another such panel on Sunday with other top actors in the animation-voicing profession. This time, moderator Mark Evanier will welcome Maurice LaMarche (Futurama, Pinky and the Brain), Anna Brisbin (Final Fantasy VII Remake), Fred Tatasciore (Team America, The Hulk), Frank Todaro (The Cuphead Show, Transformers), and Courtney Lin (Monster High, Rainbow High).

Sunday, July 23 — 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM in Room 7AB
COVER STORY
There have been comic book publishers who believed that what they put inside the comic didn't matter much — that readers decide to buy or not to buy because of the cover. It's arguable, but a great cover never hurt a book. On this panel, your host Mark Evanier welcomes four artists who have drawn great covers: Todd McFarlane (Spawn, Spider-Man), Becky Cloonan (Batman, Gotham Academy; this year's Comic-Con Souvenir Book cover), Joe Quesada (Daredevil, Spider-Man), and J. Scott Campbell (Danger Girl, Amazing Spider-Man).

Sunday, July 23 — 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM in Room 7AB
THE BUSINESS OF CARTOON VOICES
Are you interested in a career in the highly competitive world of voiceover? There are plenty of folks who will take your money to advise you, but you can get a ton of information for free with no strings attached at this panel. Two very busy voice actors (Vanessa Marshall and Gregg Berger), a top agent (Cathey Lizzio of C.E.S.D.), and a voice director (your moderator, Mark Evanier) will tell you how one goes about learning the craft, breaking into the business, staying in the business, and maybe even making a living in the business. This panel is not for entertainment. It's for enlightenment.

Each and every item above is subject to change for reasons that even I may not be able to explain. The entire programming schedule can be found and studied on this page.

Last year in this space, I wrote — and this is a quote, you can go check it — that "as usual, I will be exercising my constitutional right (until the current Supreme Court strips me of it) to not sit behind a table in the exhibit hall very much." Clearly, they're well on their way to doing that but they haven't yet…so this year I will only be writing my name on things at the Dark Horse booth from 2 PM until 2:45 on Thursday. Other than that, you may be able to catch me before or after panels. Please don't try it before or after Quick Draw!

We haven't had many lately but there used to be frequent rumors or predictions — it was sometimes hard to tell which — that Comic-Con would leave San Diego and relocate in some other city, usually Los Angeles, Anaheim or Las Vegas. I have spent a decade or two predicting that it would stay right where it is — and indeed, ten days from now it will convene…in San Diego. Where I believe it will remain for a long, long time.

There is at least one lady in this world who is certain the con is secretly planning to move soon to Las Vegas. I believe she also thinks that Trump is still president, John F. Kennedy Jr. is still alive and that COVID was the result of a Penn & Teller trick that went horribly wrong. I still see her posts online once in a while about Vegas and she occasionally drops me an e-mail to tell me that I am about to owe her a huge apology.

There are dozen of reasons why it's unlikely Comic-Con will ever move to Las Vegas but around this time o' year, I sometimes like to post this one: The National Weather Service says that next week when Comic-Con commences in San Diego, the projected average high temperature for the city will be 75° — and down by the water where the San Diego Convention Center is located, it's usually around five degrees cooler than the rest of the city. So call it 70°.

The projected average high temperature for Las Vegas for the same dates is 115°. No one wants to have the con there then unless you enjoy watching cosplayers melt. No matter what they were to dress as, they'd all wind up like this…

Sorry for not posting today.  I'm battling a deadline and I just couldn't think of anything to write here today.  I'll make up for it tomorrow or as soon after that as I can.  In the meantime, here's another video you may enjoy…

I don't watch a lot of baseball but every so often, I notice some superhuman feat that even a non-fan can appreciate. Here's Elly De La Cruz doing — well, you'll see what he does…

The MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas is the largest free-standing hotel in the United States and each day, its 6,852 rooms and all its restaurants and other facilities produce a lot of dirty laundry. It works out to about 24 million pounds of washing per year and it's all done by one cleaning lady who drives it, a ton at a time, to a laundromat on Tropicana Boulevard and takes along a crapload of quarters.

No, that's not true. It's actually a slightly bigger chore than that. This video will tell you how it's done. It runs seven minutes and is way more interesting than you might think…

Among the many mysteries I find in this world is this: How could a man like Rudy Giuliani — who was once the most respected heroic figure in this country — wind up being recommended for disbarment as an attorney? I mean, I understand that greed and a love of money seems to have had something to do with it but aren't there ways to cash in on people thinking you're a man of honor and courage? And did it ever look like there was a lot of wealth to be gained fighting for Donald Trump?

Here's a link to the bar report. And notice these lines…

Respondent's frivolous lawsuit attempted unjustifiably and without precedent to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania voters, and ultimately sought to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election. He claimed massive election fraud but had no evidence of it. By prosecuting that destructive case Mr. Giuliani, a sworn officer of the Court, forfeited his right to practice law. He should be disbarred.

"Had no evidence of it." How does an attorney go around spreading claims but when it comes time to prove his case in court, he has no evidence? I'm not sure that was hair dye leaking on Giuliani's skull. It may have been brain matter.

Livio Sellone wrote me (several times) with this question…

In Garfield and Friends, why do some animals actually talk? I always thought that Garfield and other animals could never talk in the comic strips, but in Garfield and Friends, for some reason, Mark Evanier added actual talking animals. I'm talking about those awful Buddy Bears. They are shown to speak and able to communicate with both animals and humans. Can they talk, or it depends on the episode?

For example, in some episodes, Garfield can talk to humans, such as "The Legend of The Lake," but he usually can't speak to humans. Another animal character, such as Ichabod Cricket is shown to be understood by humans (in "Half Baked Alaska"), in fact, when he yells in Jon's ear, Jon can hear him. I've always wondered why they decided to add "talking animals" in the show, since Garfield's animals were never able to communicate with humans, and they rarely were understood by humans (In both comic strips and the show, sometimes Jon can hear Garfield, but it's usually, just a gag).

The answer, Livio, is that when you have to do 121 half-hour episodes, you find yourself breaking your own rules. The original working premise of the Scooby Doo cartoons was that all ghosts and unearthly creatures were hoaxes…and also, dogs could only mutter occasional words as long as Don Messick added an "R" sound at the beginning of each word. Then later, after umpteen episodes, they were looking for ways to "freshen" the show and not do the same unmasking-the-fake-ghost story line for the eighty zillionth time. So they added some relatives of Scooby, including Scrappy Doo, and allowed them to talk and they added in real ghosts and werewolves and such.

If the show had been canceled after Season Three or Season Four, they would have adhered to the original premises. Since the show goes on and on and on, the premises need to widen. It even works that way sometimes in live-action shows. My favorite TV sitcom is The Dick Van Dyke Show. When it started, the plan was that the audience would never see the star of the show Dick's character worked on. We'd never see Alan Brady.

Then the storyline in one episode seemed to need us to hear his voice so we heard his voice (provided by producer-creator Carl Reiner) but we didn't see him. Then there were stories that seemed to demand his presence in scenes so Alan Brady (Mr. Reiner, again) was seen but you only saw the back of his head. Then they came up with ideas for good episodes that needed us to see him for real so Reiner was seen on-camera in the role. What some people feel was the best episode ever of that series — "Coast-to-Coast Big Mouth" — wouldn't have worked if we'd only heard his voice or seen the back of his head.

In the case of Garfield, the original convention was that the cat didn't speak aloud. What we, as readers of the newspaper strip, read were his thoughts. His words were in thought balloons. And Odie the dog was so dumb that he didn't "think" at all so we never knew his thoughts. Furthermore, Garfield and his owner Jon were so close, Jon could sometimes intuit what Garfield was thinking.

That was fine for newspaper strip gags that were short enough to be done in three panels. When Garfield turned into a TV star in animated specials, they had to decide what to do about this "thoughts." For Peanuts, Charles Schulz and the producer decided that Snoopy would make sounds but would not have a voice. In some episodes, we heard Charlie Brown telling us what Snoopy was thinking, which worked pretty well. But Snoopy was not carrying the plots of those stories and, of course, they were much longer than your average daily (or even Sunday) newspaper strip.

For Garfield, Jim Davis and the producer (the same producer as the Peanuts specials, Lee Mendelson) decided that viewers needed to hear what Garfield was thinking. Garfield carried the storylines and the commentaries in his thoughts were a major feature of the strip. That was why Garfield's mouth didn't move. We were hearing his thoughts because he didn't talk but, again, Jon sometimes kind of guessed what Garfield was thinking.

Also, animals could hear each others' thoughts. Garfield could hear Arlene's thoughts and vice-versa. Garfield could even hear Odie's thoughts even though they weren't articulate enough to be translated into words we could understand. As more and more of the prime-time Garfield specials were done, more and more animals turned up and each could "hear" the others' thoughts.

In 1987 when I was hired to write a weekly Garfield show for CBS Saturday mornings, we discussed all this. Jim Davis came out to Hollywood. I flew back to his studio in Muncie, Indiana. CBS asked that Jim consider having Garfield talk on this show. They didn't demand it; just ask that he consider it.

We talked a lot and finally decided to continue the policy that Garfield would not talk, per se, but we'd hear his thoughts. His lips would not move…which gave me the idea of having him say something different at the end of the opening titles of each episode. No lip movements meant it was very easy to change what he said there.

We also agreed I'd be adding a lot more animal characters here and there because, well, we had a lot more storylines to invent. The new animal characters could exchange thoughts like dialogue.

But there was another thing: The year before, Jim had started a second newspaper strip — U.S. Acres, which was also called Orson's Farm in some other countries. It was about a bunch of barnyard animals who definitely talked to one another with moving mouths. It was going to share the half-hour with Garfield…which is why the new series was Garfield and Friends. When it went on, it was such a hit that the next season, they were sharing an hour.

From the start, everyone wanted Garfield to occasionally pop up in a U.S. Acres cartoon to unite the two properties…so Garfield (who didn't talk) was intersecting with animals who did. It seemed to work fine. If anyone noticed, they didn't write in.

When I decided to add in the Buddy Bears, I decided to have their mouths move. There were three of them and if their mouths didn't move, you wouldn't have known which one was speaking. Also, the idea was that they were singing their song on TV shows and…well, I just decided it made them more effective as characters to talk. Yeah, it was kind of breaking our own rule but that's the great thing about making your own rules: If you make them, you can decide when to break them. We broke the rules a few other times as you note.

I do not recall anyone ever asking about this before or giving any indication that they noticed. And those shows have been running pretty continuously on television for thirty-five years now. We have literally gotten more mail from viewers who felt that Garfield was eating too much lasagna or who wanted to know what the deal was with The Klopman Diamond.

So I hope this answers your question, Livio. We made a rule and we decided to break it now and then for the good of the show. I hope you won't hold it against us.

An agent I know who represents actors once told me that to be a movie star, it was no longer enough to be good in front of movie cameras. You also, he said, had to "give good panel," meaning you had to be able to go on a talk show and be witty and charming. According to this agent, you didn't even have to be that good at plugging your new movie. You just had to be entertaining…and if you were, people would then flock to see that film. Maybe.

Want an example of someone giving good panel? Here's Tom Hanks on the final episode of Late Night with David Letterman, which aired 6/25/93. He's everything a talk show host could want out of a guest…and take note of the skill of Mr. Letterman in his role.  Someone obviously told him that Hanks had a great anecdote to tell involving Cher.  Dave brings her up in a Carson-like manner, making it sound like conversation as opposed to a planned set-up…but Dave mistakenly thinks the story is about Hanks working with Cher. Not a problem in the least. Tom effortlessly redirects the dialogue to his days as a bellhop…which helps lead him into the story about Slappy White.

And then when he's aware that time for the segment is running out, Letterman slides into the plug for Tom's new movie, which is a lot less awkward than forcing Tom to bring it up.  And through it all, Dave lets Tom do his panel with little interruption and the host makes no attempt to top his guest or do what some might call a "Milton Berle."  That's when the other person on stage gets a big laugh and you try have to interject something to piggyback on that laugh and get a piece of it, even if it means stopping his flow.  A lot of talk show hosts think, "If the guest gets a laugh, I have to get a laugh."  The best ones know there are times when you have to be satisfied to be Bud Abbott.

And after Hanks, stay tuned for Dave's final words as an NBC on-air personality…

Two weeks until Preview Night at Comic-Con. They should start posting the Programming Schedules any day now on their website. I highly recommend that if you're attending, you spend the time to read over the schedule, make notes on what you want to attend…and make notes on what you'll attend as your second choice if you can't get in to your first choice. I will be posting my schedule here after the con posts their entire schedule over there. Other parts of their website may be of great value to you also, especially their COVID Policy.

It's kinda fun watching Chris Christie running for some job like Tucker Carlson's old one on Fox News. Pundits keep saying that he has no chance of getting the Republican nomination but really no one does if Trump stays in the race. If fact, if Trump has to drop out, it strikes me that Christie may have a better chance than the rest of that mob. All he might have to do is demonstrate that he can do as fine a job bashing Democrats as he's currently doing bashing Trump. If the Trump Fans have to look for another guy, they're not going to go with someone polite. They'll want an Attack Dog.

I had a call today from a lady who claimed to be with Medicare and almost immediately, she asked me to verify that I was a member by giving her my Social Security number. I told her, "If you were really with Medicare, you'd just be asking me for the last four digits because you'd already have the whole thing." She sighed, said "You're right…I'm not with Medicare" and hung up.

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When I wrote here the other day about the SAG-AFTRA negotiations for a new contract, I forgot to make an important point I was going to make…

Ordinarily when you have one of these negotiations or a threatened strike, there's a rift in the union that may be subtle or it may be somewhat overt. Imagine two kinds of members of the actors' union. One is the Tom Hanks/Scarlett Johansson type. The other is the guy or gal who's living from bit part to bit part, hoping to get a few lines in this movie or a decent role on that sitcom…and maybe having to supplement their acting income with other kinds of employment.

In the cause of unity, the union has to serve both kinds but their needs are very different. Tom and Scarlett aren't working for minimums and with their clout, they can probably get all or most of what they want when their agents negotiate their deals.

The difference has caused schisms in SAG and AFTRA negotiations in the past…but this time, a major part of the battle is over Artificial Intelligence. And that's an issue that both categories of actors care deeply about. Both kinds want some control over how their voices and likenesses will be used and how they'll be compensated for that usage.

So this may be the strongest the actors' union has been in many, many years. The topic has certainly united a lot of the richest writers with the poorer ones in my union.

I mentioned Dodger Stadium here yesterday and casually remarked that when it was built, people were probably sad to lose whatever it displaced. As several correspondents have reminded me, "sad" doesn't begin to describe what happened. "Furious" would be a better word as it was one of the most shameful episodes in the history of this city.

Naturally, I was too young to follow the story at the time but I remember some of the lingering outrage in the sixties. I knew a lot of people had been displaced from their homes in order to build Chavez Ravine but I didn't realize how many…or how poorly they'd been compensated for the seizing of their property.

It's one of those stories that should be remembered if only so we never do anything like that again. An e-mail from Chris Powe led me to this video which tells the sordid tale. Warning: If you have an ounce of humanity within you, it will make you angry…