First, a photo from yesterday: That's me with the wonderful Jo Duffy, right after she received the first of two awards she's taking home from this convention. That's the Inkpot Award which Comic-Con bestows on people for their contributions to the comic arts. Later this evening, Jo received one of two Bill Finger Awards for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. It is usually my honor to present these but I was having some foot problems so I called upon my pal Charlie Kochman, who's on the committee that chooses the recipients, to do the honors. Here's the photo from yesterday…
Now then: I hosted three panels today so I've now done seven — half of the fourteen on my schedule. Several of those seven panels were about COMIC BOOKS. I put that in caps because I'm sick of hearing people complain that the convention programming is all about movies and TV and how there's nothing there about comics. Perhaps they haven't taken the time to actually look at the schedule — which, I'll admit, is not easy to do since the con redesigned its website.
Or perhaps what they mean is "There's nothing about the particular comics I like," which I'll admit is possible. There are and have been a lot of different kinds of comics. Programming about the current ones usually occurs when the publisher and/or the creators decide to spend the dough to come to San Diego and do something of a promotional nature. Programming about older comics usually happens when someone like me decides to organize a panel and can find qualified panelists.
That ain't always easy and I think some people believe that a panel on the Marvel Comics of the Sixties can magically appear with Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Gene Colan, John Romita, Wally Wood and Marie Severin on the dais. Even when those folks were all alive, some of them didn't come to San Diego often or at all and some would not have appeared on a panel of that sort. During Stan Lee's last decade or two, he refused to appear on any panel that wasn't about — and this was the term he used — "current product."
I hosted a panel today on comics of the seventies with Mike Friedrich, Marv Wolfman, Gerry Conway, Jo Duffy and Al Milgrom, and most of those folks are also appearing on other panels this weekend talking about their work. Based on past experience, I'm pretty sure that over the next few days, someone will either approach me or e-mail me to ask, "Why are there all those panels at Comic-Con about new movies and nothing about comics in the seventies?"
Gotta get some sleep and put my foot up…or down…or anywhere except where it usually resides, which is in my mouth. See you tomorrow.