I've still experimenting with Zoom conferencing software. The other day, we did a 90-minute (or so) confab with invited readers of this site logging in to ask me questions. I'm doing another one this Friday Evening, April 17 at 6 PM Pacific Time.
This time, we'll narrow the topics down to the comic book business — and I expect we'll be talking way more about content and history than about business. My longtime friend Marv Wolfman will be joining in so you can hurl questions at either of us or both. You're also invited to log in and just watch and listen. The way this will work is that everyone will be automatically muted except Marv and me.
This is not to silence anyone. As I've learned with this software, if more than about four people talk at the same time, no one can hear anything. If you want to ask or say something, you "raise your hand" (click a little icon that indicates you want to be recognized) and I as host will call on you when it's your turn and unmute you. That seems to be the only way this works.
You'll need to have Zoom software on your computer and a free account with them. You'll also need a webcam that will show your face and a microphone that will transmit your voice and you'll have to know how to make this stuff work. Zoom is pretty easy to operate as a participant in an online meeting and you may not need a tutorial but if you do, there are about ninety of them on YouTube, all of which will tell you a lot more than you need to know.
You'll also need the meeting number and the password. If you got an invite to the first one of these, I'm already sending it to you. If you didn't and would like to be added to the list, drop me a note at this address (and only that address) and tell me. If you don't hear back from me, don't take it personally. It probably just means we're already over our limit.
If you've been invited, just go into Zoom on your computer or cellphone or tablet when it's 6 PM on the West Coast, click "Join" and enter the meeting number and the password. And I intend for this to be about comic books, not politics…though I admit it's getting harder and harder to tell them apart.