A disappointingly small number of convention attendees thanked me yesterday for saving their lives and not driving that little scooter around the convention floor. If you're here today or tomorrow and uninjured, you may owe that to my selfless decision. I could easily have mowed down whole squadrons of guys dressed like Star Wars troopers and I'm quite certain you would have heard a loud bowling alley sound effect.
I saw two different families yesterday which had painted their baby green. Notice to them and anyone else who has this idea: Painting your baby green does not make your baby look like The Incredible Hulk. It makes your baby look like he's not ripe yet.
I had a great panel yesterday interviewing my longtime pal — a special guest this year! — Tony Isabella. Tony and I go back to the days when the industry was wiser and no one would pay either of us to write a comic book. People sometimes say to me, "Oh, you do such a great job hosting these panels" as if it takes unparalleled skill and expertise. Really, all it takes to do these is to get them to ask you to moderate a panel with one or more interesting people on it and to then not ask that one or more any really stupid questions. I asked Tony how he got his start in comics and — poof! — ten minutes (approximately one-fifth) of the panel time was filled with interesting talk…from him, not me. Ask five of those and you're outta there and people think you're a great moderator.
Same deal later with a panel to honor the late Walt Kelly in this, the year he would have turned 100. His daughter Carolyn (aka My Best Friend) was unable to make it to the convention…though, lord, she wanted to be there for this and a reason I'll get to in a moment. But we assembled a dais of Kelly admirers and scholars to discuss the man and his work, primarily on what I think is the best newspaper comic strip ever…Pogo. We had historians R.C. Harvey and Maggie Thompson. We had cartoonist Jeff Smith and writer Paul Dini. And we had some great audience participation, including wise words of praise for Mr. Kelly from David Silverman, who is high on the list of why The Simpsons is so loved and lasting. I see no reason why we can't do another one of these the year Walt would have been 101 and David's agreed to join the panel, plus we should have Carolyn there for it.
Then, moving on into the evening hours…
There was a time I never thought I'd blog the following admission: I had a good time at the Eisner Award Ceremony. Long ago and far away, it was — shall we say? — a bit long. It was kind of like the portions of the old Jerry Lewis Telethon without Jerry. But it's morphed into a sleek, fast-moving show with both funny and serious moments. Most of the latter last night came via tributes to the late Kim Thompson. An awful lot of winners last night thanked him and lamented our loss of the guy…and not just winners who won for books published by his company, Fantagraphics. Kim's influence on the industry was such that people who won for work done for other firms had to acknowledge their debt to him.
I took stage three times, which meant six opportunities to pratfall while climbing or descending the stairs with my ailing knee. I made it all six. First, I presented the Bill Finger Award. In fact, I presented two of them. One was to the late Steve Gerber and it was accepted touchingly by his daughter, Samantha.
The other one went to Don Rosa, who is happily alive and present. The Finger goes to a writer who has not received due reward, either in terms of recognition or bucks. Gerber probably qualified in both areas. Rosa is a different story. Don Rosa's stories of Donald Duck and/or Uncle Scrooge made him one of the best-known cartoonists in many other countries with the U.S., as some refuse to admit it does in some areas, lagging behind other nations. Where Don qualifies is in lack of financial recognition as explained here. The audience seemed delighted with the selection of Don, who came up and thanked the late Bruce Hamilton…the publisher of Disney Comics who started a much-needed trend. Before Bruce, it was policy for those who wrote and drew Disney comic book material to remain anonymous…you know, the way Bill Finger was on such much of his work. Bruce bent, then broke that policy.
Then since my friend Carolyn couldn't be there, I accepted the Eisner for Best Archival Collection/Project — Strips, which went to this worthy book…
…and like so many at that podium, I acknowledged the tragic loss of its co-editor, Kim Thompson. Carolyn is continuing on, co-editing now with Eric Reynolds. In fact, she's hard at work on Volume Three, which I expect will win this award next year if it isn't beaten out by Volume Four. There are a lot of excellent comic strip reprint projects out there but, I'm sorry…it's tough to beat a whole book of Walt Kelly in his prime. (Full Disclosure: I work on these books but I don't make a dime off them and Carolyn does the heavy lifting, including the superb design work. So I don't hesitate to praise them or even to include an Amazon link so you can get in on the fun.)
Later, I went up for a third time to accept a Hall of Fame Award for Joe Sinnott and to wonder aloud why it took this long to give one to the best inker comic books have ever seen…and maybe the nicest person. Congrats, Joe. Couldn't have gone to a more deserving guy.
All in all, it was quite the crowd-pleasing ceremony and I was delighted to (a) not have to follow Jonathan Ross and Neil Gaiman and (b) be allowed to accept two of the only awards that did not go to Chris Ware. Then I went back to my room and put ice on my knee.
Can Saturday at the con top Friday at the con? Hmm…maybe I'll get over there and see. Check in with you later.