The Word From WonderCon – Sunday

And now I'm home, having enjoyed myself thoroughly at the convention. I'll write more about it in the coming days but now I feel I should tell you about the stupid thing I did. When I travel, I am fierce about packing everything I might need wherever I might roam. Still, even with my lists and checking and double-checking, I always manage to forget something. Sometimes, it's trivial…

But sometimes, it's pretty serious. This time, it was pretty serious. This time, it was my wallet. You know…that thing that contains money, credit cards and my picture I.D. I thought I had it but when I got to the hotel check-in, it turned out I didn't. And as the lady at the desk informed me, this hotel requires that picture I.D. to check in.

I tried pointing out that there was a picture of me in the convention program book. I was even wearing the same hat in that photo that I had on at check-in. She said no, that wouldn't do. The convention staffer who deals with the hotel ran over and assured the desk clerk that I was indeed Mark Evanier and she made me sound very important. That also would not do.

I thought for a moment I was going to have to make the 90 minute round-trip back to my home. Then the desk clerk talked to the manager and someone looked it up and saw that I'd stayed at that hotel several times before. They decided to make an exception.

Fortunately, I had my cell phone and my cell phone has Apple Pay on it so I could use it to leave the credit card deposit and later to pay for some meals. And it has Zelle and PayPal on it so some friends who were selling stuff at the con were willing to give me cash…and it wasn't a loan. They agreed that if I sent a certain amount of money to their bank accounts, they'd hand me the same amount in currency. That covered dinner at a restaurant that doesn't take Apple Pay and I also had cash for tipping purposes.

So it turned out okay but it was still a pretty stupid thing to do.

From the Floor at WonderCon

I needed a place to sit down for a while and Marv Wolfman was away from his table so I've been sitting here for a while signing his name on things. So far, I've signed it on 23 copies of Tomb of Dracula, 17 copies of Teen Titans, one Adventures of Superman, four promissory notes and a confession to kidnapping the Lindbergh Baby. When they haul him away for the last of these, his table will be mine.

The Word From WonderCon – Saturday

Yesterday at WonderCon was way more crowded than Friday but, at least in the parts of it that I traversed, it wasn't unpleasantly crowded. There were a lot more happy people there and that made for a happier room but not one that I had trouble getting around in. I didn't see all of it and probably won't…but what I did note was much less emphasis on current comics from DC and Marvel and a lot more exhibitors exhibiting products of which someone probably said, "You know, this might sell well to the kind of people who buy comic books." There also seemed to be a lot of Mystery Boxes for sale. I may write something here in the next few days about the mystique of Mystery Boxes.

Another observation: The longer you're at a convention these days, the more everyone starts looking like a Funko Pop figurine of themselves. Everyone's head just gets wider and wider.

Lots of great cosplayers to see. If someone makes one of those videos of most of the cosplayers modeling their "cos," I'll try to link to it. I saw costumes that their makers must have been working on since the last WonderCon or maybe the one before it. (And the one before it was 2019.)

I did my customary Jack Kirby Tribute Panel to a packed room and later in the day, was back in the same room (only now even more packed) for the also-customary Cartoon Voices Panel. I was almost late for the latter due to one of those security folks who thinks his assignment is to stop you from going through the most convenient door and instead take the least convenient route. I couldn't even understand the way he wanted me to go…some path that I think would have taken me through the Haunted Mansion ride — and not even the one at Disneyland, a mile away. It was either the one at Disney World in Florida or Disneyland Tokyo. It took every verbal skill I learned watching all those Sgt. Bilko episodes to get him to let me pass.

I'm heading out now for a breakfast meeting. I'll be back later to write more about yesterday and today. That is, unless that same security guard won't let me back into this hotel without re-routing me through Knotts Berry Farm. I'd prefer Disneyland because by then, I might be in the mood for a Dole Whip.

Today's Video Link

Hey, how about Jersey Boys in Japanese?

ASK me: Being a Guest at a Con

An anonymous person — anonymous to you, not to me — wrote to ask…

I see you're a Special Guest at WonderCon this weekend. Perhaps you can enlighten those of us who will never have that honor what it's like. And is there a difference between being a Special Guest and just a Guest?

Yes, when you're a Special Guest, you get the harem of dancing girls (or boys, if that's your preference) and they scatter rose petals ahead of you wherever you walk. That is, if you deign to walk because you can also order anyone on the premises to give you a piggyback ride anywhere you need to go. Mere Guests don't get any of that and no, actually I don't think there's any difference per se but these days, some convention guests are booked via agents…and agents may ask for certain billing or perks for their clients. So do some unagented folks.

I don't have an agent for this kind of thing and I've never paid any attention to what kind of Guest I am at any convention. I just looked at my WonderCon badge and it says I'm an "invited guest." The adjective seems meaningless unless they're taking the position that someone who pays admission is an "uninvited guest."

More seriously, being any kind of featured guest at a convention is not the big deal a lot of folks might think it is. We don't pay admission. We usually don't pay for meals, travel or accommodations though in some cases, we may. Beyond that, some guests demand and get appearance fees or guarantees that they'll do X amount of business but not all conventions will pay that.

WonderCon and Comic-Con don't. There are celebrities who are paid to be there but they're not paid by the con. They're paid by some company promoting a certain TV show, movie or product. I've recently been e-mailed by a couple of folks asking me which agent books me as moderator of all those panels I host. Like I said, I don't have (or want) an agent for conventions and I've never been paid a cent for hosting panels. There are perks but not checks.

I suspect anyone who's been a Convention Guest much can tell you behind-the-scenes horror stories of not being treated well. There have been a number of small, usually-new cons that were counting on a massive turnout of badge buyers to enable then to honor all their commitments to guests. Then when the turnout is way below expected numbers, they can't pay promised fees or meal or travel reimbursements or even, in one case I know of, a guest's return air fare. I have a few of those stories myself.

If you're a guest who is there to move products or "merch," including a fee for your autograph, you may go home with tons o' cash. You may also just break even on the Ubers you had to pay for to take you to and from the airport. Depends on who you are, what you're offering but also — and this seems to be key — if you're at the right convention. The right one is the one that attracts the kind of person who'd buy what you're selling.

A comic book writer friend of mine once found himself at an autograph show that turned out to be for sports memorabilia and didn't make a dime. How did he wind up there? One of the organizers was a comics fan who wanted to meet his favorite writer.

I haven't had that kind of problem at conventions since I don't sell anything at conventions. I have though had problems with inconveniently-booked reservations (they want me to fly when it's cheapest for them), bad hotel rooms, no-shows by folks who were supposed to pick me up at the airport, nowhere I could get an edible meal, etc. It's one of the reasons I don't go to many. Another is that there's not much for me to do at many of them. I know it may look glamorous to some but whatever glamour there was wore off a long time ago.

ASK me

Today's Video Links

The Two Ronnies — Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett — favor us with a visit with The Man Who Repeats Things. The Two Ronnies — Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett — favor us with a visit with The Man Who Repeats Things…

The Word From WonderCon – Friday

The hall today at the Anaheim Convention Center today was relatively unjammed — plenty of people but not elbow-to-elbow, clogging the aisles.  This is a statement I will almost certainly not be able to make tomorrow.  As is the custom with WonderCons, cosplayers were out in great force displaying some amazing costumes and even the folks who had come in street clothes were wearing some amazing smiles.  As I get older, one feature I appreciate more and more at these functions is just being around so many people having such a good time.

My knee problems did not allow me to make an exhaustive sweep of the room but it felt to me like everything one could possibly want in a comic-type convention was somewhere there with this possible exception: The recent passing of Joe Giella made a number of folks acutely aware that you now have to be fairly young to go to a con and meet the makers of comic books you grew up on. There simply aren't many left from a certain era and there's nothing we can do about it.

I floated about today, sitting at one friend's table for a while and then another friend's and another friend's. One gent with a pile of Groo comics he wanted to get signed looked like Inspector Javert finally tracking down Jean Valjean when he chanced upon me sitting with MAD cartoonist Tom Richmond. I apologized for not always being in one, easily findable spot but he said, after I wrote my name all over the comics, "That's okay. It was kind of fun in a way, like finding eggs on Easter." Whatever. If he says so.

I wish I had a great anecdote from today to share with you but I didn't observe any; just a lot of happy people having a happy time. That was for me the takeaway from Friday at WonderCon. I suspect there will be such people tomorrow and Sunday. They'll just be more tightly packed together. There are still badges available if you're nearby and want to be one of those people.

Tales of My Grandfather #1

I never knew my grandparents on my father's side since both of them died before I was born. I did though know my grandparents on my mother's side. As I think I've mentioned on the blog, this grandmother made it to the age of 97. That's impressive and so was the fact that she was married for 49 years to her third husband. That's right: I said third husband.

Grandma and that third husband of hers lived in Hartford, Connecticut and came out to Los Angeles for two or three trips over the years. We had a two bedroom house — one bedroom for my parents, one bedroom for me and my comic books. Mine, of necessity, had to be larger. When Grandma and Grandpa visited, they'd sleep in my bed and I'd sleep on a rollaway bed in the living room. I was about a third serious when I cautioned them to keep their grandparently hands off my comic books.

I was around sixteen when Grandma and Grandpa made their last trip out before the latter passed away. Each visit, Grandpa liked to go out and work in our backyard, trimming hedges, cutting back out-of-control vegetation and picking fruit off our three fruit trees. Remind me one of these days to tell you about those three fruit frees. Grandpa was a tough old guy who liked the sheer feeling of accomplishment and perspiration. It made me feel odd that he could do a lot more yardwork than I could even when he was more than five times my age.

From the visit in this story.

One day when he was out back, a small family meeting was called in the house without his knowledge. Grandma had a problem she wanted to talk over with my mother, my father and me. Put simply, she thought her loving husband had become too old to drive. He'd had a few minor accidents recently — no one hurt, nothing seriously damaged — but they concerned her, as did some close calls when she went somewhere with him.

The discussion was not about whether or not he should stop driving. It was obvious he should stop driving. The discussion topic was who was going to tell him…and how. None of us wanted to hurt this dear man and that would obviously hurt him.

Various ideas were tossed about but the talk kept coming back to one answer: I should tell him. He was real fond of me and thought I was very smart, not just for my age but for any age. I didn't particularly covet this assignment but I was outvoted three to one with me being the one. The three assured me it would be the least painful coming from me. It didn't have to be done immediately…but it had to be done.

I took him a lemonade made from the fruit of one of those trees he was trimming. Then I sat us down in lawn chairs and said, "The people here who love you, myself included, have made a decision. This is only because we love you. It is only for your own good." And then I told him. I made it clear we were not asking him to consider it and it was not open for discussion. We were saying he was going to stop. No arguments.

He stared at me like I'd just announced I was pregnant or something. And as he stared, I could see tears beginning to seep from his eyes. His lower lip trembled a bit and I thought he was about to have some sort of breakdown or tantrum…or something.

Then he wiped his nose and agreed. I leaned over and hugged him and he hugged me back. We both knew he was never going to drive again.

A couple hours later, we headed out to a restaurant for dinner — my father at the wheel, my mother in the seat to his right and my grandparents and me in the back. Only before my father got behind that wheel, Grandpa hopped into that position and announced, "I'll drive!" He got a big laugh and then he moved to the back seat. When they got back to Hartford, he put his car up for sale.

It was the first time I realized that sometimes, the solution to a problem is to be very honest and very direct. It doesn't always work but when it does, it really solves the problem.

Today's Video Link

You know what I'd like to see? I'd like to see a production of Guys & Dolls in Japanese.

Oh, look! Here's the sizzle reel for one…

Thursday Morning

Looks like Donald Trump's not getting indicted or arrested today so we'll put another hundred dollars in the jackpot and roll over the whole amount until tomorrow.

I see a lot of Republican officials arguing that the prosecution is political, that it's no big deal, that it's not brought in good faith, etc. So far, I haven't heard them say anything they probably wouldn't be saying if Trump had made good on his brag about being able to murder someone in the street and get away with it. Some of these folks used to chant "Lock him [or her] up!" about every Democratic official, even when they couldn't name any alleged crime the person had committed. There are people in this world who think that if they don't like someone, that's reason enough to throw them behind bars and throw away the key.

I saw some folks on CNN yesterday discussing whether, if/when he is arraigned, Trump will be asked to surrender his passport so he can't flee the country. I say let him keep it. If he flees the country, that might save us an awful lot of money on trials.

WonderFul WonderCon

WonderCon 2023 starts tomorrow. I'm not sure when I'm getting there or when I'm leaving but I'll certainly be around for the panels below and at other times. Where I'll be when I'm there and not paneling is a good question. Several folks have written to ask that because they have comics they want signed.

I continue to stand on my unalienable rights, among which are Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness, not watching Tucker Carlson and not having a table at a convention where I'm expected to sit all day. So I'll be roaming the hall, visiting with friends and perhaps sitting at their tables now and then…and avoiding cosplayers brandishing weaponry. Just think of it as a big, live Where's Waldo? game except that I won't be wearing a striped shirt.

This will be my umpteenth WonderCon because I always have a good time at them and, from what I can see, so do all the other attendees. I believe badges are still available. It's kinda like Comic-Con except that you can get in. If you're there, check out some or all of these events…

Friday, March 24 — 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM in Room 213AB
HOW TO WRITE FOR ANIMATION

Did you ever dream of writing cartoon shows? Well, here's your chance to find out how to do it from three guys who have written hundreds and hundreds of them. The secrets of animation writing will be divulged by WonderCon special guests Tom Ruegger (Pinky and the Brain, Disney's The 7D), Paul Rugg (Animaniacs, Freakazoid!), and moderator Mark Evanier (The Garfield Show, Dungeons & Dragons).

Saturday, March 25 — Noon to 1:00 PM in Room 207
THE ANNUAL JACK KIRBY TRIBUTE PANEL

Like we do at almost every convention, we remember the man some called The King of the Comics — the man who created or co-created many of the most popular characters ever in the medium. Discussing Jack Kirby are Marv Wolfman (writer/editor), John Morrow (publisher of The Jack Kirby Collector), Paul S. Levine (lawyers for the Kirby Trust), and moderator Mark Evanier (former assistant to Jack Kirby).

Saturday, March 25 — 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM in Room 207
CARTOON VOICES

It's another one of Evanier's popular panels where he gathers a bunch of top animation voice actors to demonstrate their craft, tell how they got into the business, and destroy the script for a beloved fairy tale. Appearing this time are Joe Ochman (current voice of Jiminy Cricket), Kaitlyn Robrock (current voice of Minnie Mouse), Neil Ross (Transformers, G.I. Joe), Cynthia McWilliams (What If?), and Brian Hull (Hotel Transylvania). Mark Evanier (of course) is your host.


As always, times, rooms, panelists and just about everything is subject to change so check your Program Guide and this site to make sure. And as always, I refuse to sit behind a table at a convention for very long so I'll be wandering the hall. If you see me, say howdy. The entire programming schedule can be found online here and remember to consult the COVID policy here.

Joe Giella, R.I.P.

Photo by Bruce Guthrie

One of the nicest men I've met in comics, Joe Giella, passed away peacefully yesterday at the age of 94. His career in comics started in or around 1945 and he worked for Hillman, Fawcett and Timely before settling in to a more-or-less steady stream of work for DC Comics in 1949. Readers knew him best for his work inking The Flash, Green Lantern and Batman in the sixties and he was the main artist on the Batman newspaper strip for years. His work was also seen on the newspaper strips of Flash Gordon, The Phantom and Mary Worth.

Joe was an all-around artist but editors more often gave him inking work…and he was not the kind of inker who'd trace the penciler's work slavishly. With his editors' permission (and sometimes without) he would interpret pencil art and add in or omit elements that the first artist drew. Some objected but his editors usually thought he'd improved the work so they always kept him busy. He was especially valuable in the sixties when DC wanted a more realistic look to art on Batman comics that Bob Kane allegedly drew. Sheldon Moldoff, who ghosted for Kane, couldn't give them the look they wanted when he penciled those stories. Joe supplied it in the inks.

He was a very reliable professional, so much so that he often helped other artists in deadline trouble. One can see Giella inking often in comics of the sixties that were officially inked by his buddy and neighbor, Frank Giacoia and others. And like I said, he was a very nice man. Condolences to his family. I was going to write "friends and family" but everyone who ever met Joe was his friend. What a fabulous career.

Today's Video Link

Jordan Klepper talks to the people who showed up in New York yesterday to protest Trump being indicted — all three of them…

Wednesday Morn

MSNBC and a few other media outlets are urging us to watch them 24/7 for news of the Trump indictment. The premise seems to be that it would be awful if I didn't hear about it until, oh, maybe five whole minutes after it's announced. And I just heard Jim Jordan on some channel claiming that this whole paying-off-a-porn-star matter is just a "bookkeeping error."

Seems to me that if there's no evidence that it was intentional falsification, the charges would never have been brought. If all it turns out to be is that, Trump will go free to say, "See, I told you it was all a witch hunt and so are all the other times anyone says I did anything wrong."

So everyone, including Trump, expects Trump to be indicted and in some sense of the word, arrested. No one except maybe those in the District Attorney's office knows when this will happen though it'll probably be soon. No one except those in that office knows the exact charge or precisely what the supporting evidence may be.

And now that I've written that, I can put my mind on other things for the rest of the day.


Hey, remember back in this post when we attempted to identify all the people in a photo from one of the trips that the staff of MAD magazine took way back when? There were a few unidentified folks and there's now some evidence that one of them was probably E.L. Doctorow, who you know best as the author of many acclaimed, big-selling novels including Ragtime, Billy Bathgate and The March.

Anders Moe, who describes himself as longtime reader of this blog who lives in Oslo, points out to me that in a MAD collection, MAD About the Sixties, it said "E. L. Doctorow edited MAD's first four paperback anthologies (published by Ian Ballantine) and therefore found himself trekking Virgin Islands beaches with Gaines and his motley crew." Sergio says he met Mr. Doctorow at several MAD functions and that Doctorow was a close friend of MAD's art director John Putnam.

So E.L. Doctorow is probably one of the people we couldn't identify in that photo. Which one might be him is anyone's guess.


The tech remodeling job on this website is almost complete. A few things here and there are still formatted incorrectly but they should all be put right within the week. Thank you for your patience. And thanks to those of you who donated money to pay for it.

Today's Video Link

The skill set of Johnny Carson included sometimes (usually) being able to wring a good conversation out of guests who weren't talkative in the way you're expected to be talkative on a talk show.  Here we have an interview with Marty Feldman on The Tonight Show for 7/15/1977.  I'm going to guess Mr. Feldman wasn't particularly thrilled to be doing this but he had this movie coming out that he'd written, starred in and directed — The Last Remake of Beau Geste — and he knew he had to do things like this to enhance its box office take.

A month or two before this, I attended a seminar where Feldman spoke and answered questions. He was delightful and funny and very honest. About his upcoming movie, he said — and I think this is verbatim — "I have a four-picture deal with Universal unless this one bombs, in which case I have a one-picture deal." As things turned out, the film was a modest hit but Feldman wound up in a huge battle with the studio because they recut the film and made many changes of which he did not approve. Perhaps that had something to do with his less-than-excited demeanor on Johnny's show.

Eventually, he went on to make In God We Trust (or Gimme That Prime Time Religion) a few years later for the same studio, then was unable to get the next film on his deal going before he died in 1982. It was a great loss because he really was a funny, creative man.

The interview, as you'll see, gets off to a slow start. Feldman was speaking in a low voice and you may be able to see the boom mike over him being lowered, sometimes into the shot, to try and pick up what he was saying better. Nowadays, guests are usually radio-miked so a boom is not necessary and it's easier to crank up someone's volume.

Johnny throws a lot of questions at his guest and I think he was hoping Feldman would mention his eyes so that he could be asked about them as a follow-up question instead of having the host raise the topic. Finally, Johnny had to bring them up and the interview picked up a lot. I don't believe Feldman ever appeared with him again…