I have lots 'n' lots of things to do before I'll be able to clear some blogging time so expect light posting here for the next day or three. Do me a favor and don't send me messages with your theories about the shooting yesterday. I'm thinking we'll know exactly what happened and why around the same time we're all in agreement on who shot J.F.K.

Oh, before I go into seclusion: The National Weather Service is projecting a high of 75° for the dates when Comic-Con will be Comic-Conning in that town. By the water where the convention center is it's usually a few degrees cooler so 72° is probably more like what we'll experience. For those of you yearning to move the whole soirée to Las Vegas, it'll be 110° on those dates — but you know, it's a dry heat…

This one's from Sheffield Theatres which bills itself as "The biggest theatre complex outside of London." This was a Christmas offering in 2019. I've decided to not try identifying the singers on this clip but this fine performer's name is in the credits at the end…

I didn't see the shooting today or any of what I gather are the ongoing, incessant replays. I do see a lot of people on the right immediately trying to blame it on the left and a lot of people on the left saying (or at least wondering aloud if) it was a staged stunt. Such is the mood of America these days.

Was it legit? This is another one of my incessant "I dunno" posts. I do know that if Biden was the target, the Alex Joneses of the world would never be convinced it wasn't a planned stunt. If the tide going out would in any way benefit the left, they'd all be insisting it was a False Flag operation and any fish left on the beach were Crisis Actors. Or Crisis Mackerels or something. I suppose we'll be hearing theories of the shooting in some form or other forever no matter what the forensics show.

I've been saying for some time — here and in conversations with friends — that where things stand in the polls now doesn't matter that much because a lot of things are going to happen which may seriously alter the dynamics of this race. Biden's bad debate performance was one of them. This is another. There will be more. Hopefully, none will be lethal.

For about a year in the early eighties, I had…I guess you'd call it a nodding acquaintance with Richard Simmons. He was at the peak of his early fame, starring in The Richard Simmons Show — a show I don't believe I ever watched but its offices were right down the hall from the offices of a show I was writing. You always knew when Richard was in the building because you'd hear him singing or hear him yelling and we'd occasionally chat about nothing important.

He seemed to have a way of going instantly from being The Happiest Person in the World to The Maddest Person in the World and then on to The Saddest Person in the world without a lot of segue between them. One afternoon when all three put in an appearance was when he got word from a Daytime Emmys ceremony in New York that his show had won one. That made him The Happiest Person in the World.

Then someone told him that because he was not listed as a Producer on that show, he would not be getting an Emmy statuette to put on his mantle or in his trophy room or wherever he would display such a thing. That was when The Maddest Person in the World put in an appearance and even down the hall with my door shut, I could hear him.

(This, by the way, is why you'll often see stars of a TV show get a Producer credit even though they aren't doing any of the duties commonly associated with that title. Sometimes, it's because they wanted more money and it didn't cost anything to give them that credit instead. But sometimes, it's because they just want to be sure that if the show wins an Emmy, they get one.)

That day, Mr. Simmons became The Happiest Person in the World again when he heard that the official producer was giving the physical statuette to him. Then he became The Saddest Person in the World when he realized how he'd screamed at so many people and he began apologizing. He even apologized to the folks in our office for the ruckus he made.

I saw enough of him that year to like him when he was in Happy Person mode and to see that he was the real deal…genuinely passionate about helping people lose weight, genuinely moved to tears when someone thanked him for helping them save their own lives. He received a lot of fame and fortune along the way that but the impression I got was that he lived for those moments when someone would say to him, "Because of you, I'm alive today."

Furthermore, it was my sense that he put up with a lot of ridicule and not-always-good-natured abuse from TV and radio personalities because he felt it came with the job; that the good he was doing made it all worth it. So I liked the guy and I don't know what the hell happened to him the last decade or two when he fell off the face of the planet. I hope whatever it was, he was comforted by those "you saved my life" moments because I saw a few of them. The man deserves to be remembered for that more than for the clown act he sometimes performed to get his message out there.

Saturday, July 27 — 11:45 AM to 1:00 PM in Room 6BCF
QUICK DRAW!
It just might be the fastest, funniest panel at the entire Comic-Con! Three cartoonists (and a few guest cartoonists) whip up hilarious cartoons right before your eyes based on suggestions from the audience and your host, Mark Evanier. Competing this year, armed with nothing but their own wits and some Sharpies, are Scott Shaw! (The Flintstones, The Simpsons comic books), Lalo Alcaraz (award-winning political cartoonist and the man behind La Cucaracha), and Disney Legend Floyd Norman.

Saturday, July 27 — 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM in Room 6BCF
CARTOON VOICES I
Once again, moderator Mark Evanier convenes his popular panel of folks who speak for some of your favorite animated superstars and videogames. Demonstrating their craft this year on the Saturday panel are Neil Ross (Transformers, G.I. Joe), Piotr Michael (Young Jedi Adventures, Wizards: Tales of Arcadia), Secunda Wood (Gabby's Dollhouse, Fast & Furious Spy Racers), Julie Nathanson (Final Fantasy, Skylanders), Bob Bergen (Porky Pig, Tweety), and Isaac Robinson-Smith (X-Men '97, Voltron: Legendary Defender).

Saturday, July 27 — 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM in Room 7AB
THE HISTORY OF HANNA-BARBERA RECORDS
The legacy, voices, and music of Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera, and their collaborators are celebrated by host Mark Evanier and actor Tim Matheson (Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, Sinbad, Jr., Animal House, Virgin River), cartoon voice performer Katie Leigh, animator and animation historian and Comic-Con special guest Tom Sito, and author Greg Ehrbar (host of The Funtastic World of Hanna & Barbera podcast).

Everything above is subject to change including what I'll be wearing. The whole danged programming schedule will eventually be over on this page. You won't catch me anywhere signing things during the convention but if and when there's time, I will obligingly sign a few (a few!) things for anyone who attends any of my panels. Please try to at least pretend you like the contents and are just not looking to enhance the item's resale price.

I am in no way qualified to write an obit or any remembrance of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who died yesterday at the age of 96. Ah, but my friend Paul Harris is and has. Go read what he has to say about the lady.

The other day here, we had an item that said Comic-Con International's current contract to convene in San Diego — which runs through next year's con — might be the last one for that city. That is, unless something changes about the sky-high costs of lodging at some local hotels. Today, we have the news that that contract has been extended an additional year…which I gather means the bartering and bickering about the con's long-term residence in S.D. may continue for a while.

I continue to think that wiser heads in San Diego will prevail and that a satisfactory multi-year contract will keep Comic-Con in its home for a long time…like forever. It would be foolish indeed to let that con go anywhere else.

(And I see people keep mentioning Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Las Vegas. There are about eighty reasons why that would be a disaster but I'll just allude to one. Anyone who thinks Vegas would be a great place for a convention in July oughta be forced to go there this week and cosplay in the streets in an Iron Man suit. Eighty reasons, by the way, is only two less than there are for not moving to the Los Angeles Convention Center.)

Meanwhile, another Con-related disaster has been averted…

The threat of a strike during Comic-Con was averted Friday when the union representing workers at the San Diego Convention Center secured a lucrative deal that will give them a pay raise of 55 percent or more over four years. Just two days ago, food and beverage workers at the convention center voted overwhelmingly to walk off their jobs in the event their wage and benefit demands could not be met.

I am very pro-labor so I'll end this post here. I'm trying to resist the temptation to remark about the quality of the food and beverages at the convention center. That isn't the fault of the folks who prepare and serve it.

This one is from the 2017 revival at the Stratford Festival — a theatre fest which runs from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. I hope those of you who stop in at this blog daily are enjoying these because we've got a lot of them coming up here…

Here's a late-breaking news item…

A judge dismissed a case against Alec Baldwin, ruling that prosecutors had made crucial missteps amid their prosecution of the actor for involuntary manslaughter after a 2021 accident left cinematographer Halyna Hutchins dead.

A couple folks wrote to ask what I thought about this and I think what I think about this is that I don't need to think about this. I'm often reminded of a lady who was on the staff of a TV show I worked in back in the eighties. She was one of those people who seemed to feel that every single thing on this planet was put here so she could offer her opinion of it. If you worked with her, she would — clear outta-the-blue — assault you with her critique of whatever you were wearing that day and of your haircut and any accessories in view.

Nobody ever asked her for these opinions. You didn't have to. She'd offer them freely and generally without malice… though often with a soupçon of snark. She did not notice your "Who asked you?" expression nor did she hear your eyes roll. She just acted like it was her assignment to tell you that those shoes didn't go with that blouse or that you looked so much better with your hair that color. Finally one day, I told her, "You know, it's not required that you have an opinion on everything!"

And she responded with her opinion of me saying that. Of course.

I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to the whole Alec Baldwin matter. If I were a member of the jury or a reporter covering the trial, I'd have to. But I heard enough about it to feel that both sides had a point and that I didn't care enough to devote a lot of attention to the case. Yes, we all have an interest in seeing that the Justice System is fair and does its job well…but we leave it to courtrooms and juries all the time to do that. The fact that this case involves a movie star (about whom I also have no opinion) doesn't change that for me.

I hope the judge made the right call. But I don't know enough about what happened to say…and from what I could tell, neither did most of the people following the trial.

Friday, July 26 — 10:30 AM to 10:30 AM in Room 10
THAT 70'S PANEL
It was a time of major change in the comic book business; of new talent coming in and the industry being rebuilt to come with a changing world and marketplace. Hear all about it from people who were in the middle of it: Gerry Conway (Amazing Spider-Man, The Punisher), Jo Duffy (Power Man and Iron Fist, Catwoman), Marv Wolfman (Tomb of Dracula, The New Teen Titans), Paul Levitz (The Legion of Super-Heroes, Stalker), and your moderator, Mark Evanier (Scooby Doo, Blackhawk).

Friday, July 26 — 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM in Room 10
THE GROO PANEL
Since 1982, fans have followed the bumbling, almost tragi-comic exploits of easily the stupidest, most destructive character in all of comics, Sergio Aragonés' Groo the Wanderer. So here's your opportunity to hear all about this unique, long-running comic book character from Carrie Strachan (colorist of Groo), Jo Duffy (one-time editor of Groo), and Mark Evanier (who has something to do with this comic and maybe he'll even tell everyone just what it is).

Friday, July 26 — 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM in Room 10
WALT KELLY AND POGO
Walt Kelly's Pogo was one of the greatest newspaper comic strips of all time and is now being reprinted in an award-winning series of volumes from Fantagraphics Books. What made the world fall in love with Pogo Possum, Albert Alligator, Howland Owl, Churchy LaFemme, Ma'm'selle Hepzibah, and the other denizens of Mr. Kelly's corner of the Okefenokee Swamp? That's the topic under discussion by cartoonists Patrick McDonnell (Mutts) and Rick Parker (Beavis and Butthead), historian Maggie Thompson, Walt Kelly archivist Jane Plunkett, and your moderator (and co-editor of the Complete Pogo), Mark Evanier.

Everything on the schedule is subject to change as are most things in life including the Democratic nominee for President. The complete programming schedule is being unveiled on a day-to-day basis on this page with more to come. I choose not to sit behind a table and sign things on an official basis but if you sit through one or more of my panels, I'll happily sign a few things before or after one of them assuming I have the time and a Sharpie.

Here's a really good rendition of "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" from the 1992 Tony Awards. I saw this revival of Guys and Dolls back in New York…and I do know the guy playing Nicely-Nicely was Walter Bobbie and that there's a very young Nathan Lane in there (playing Nathan Detroit) and you can see a then-largely-unknown J.K. Simmons in there, too. A fine production…

Praveena Somasundaram — who may not even have been born when it happened — reminds us of that day when America was shocked by President Lyndon Johnson announcing he would not seek re-election.

I was sixteen that night and did not hear it live. He kind of buried the lede in a long speech about the Vietnam War. I was watching something else in my room when my mother came in and told me I might want to switch over to what the three major networks were carrying. It was just post-speech and I recall a couple of unprepared-for-this news anchors babbling on, gasping 'n' grasping for something to say about L.B.J.'s utterly-unexpected announcement. The phrase "It's a brand-new ball game" was heard a couple of times.

Gee, I wonder why The Washington Post ran an article about this now.

Thursday, July 25 — 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM in Room 9
MEET MICHAEL HIRSH
Business Chief magazine called Michael Hirsh "The Father of Canadian Animation." He co-founded Nelvana, the firm responsible for animating such famous cartoon franchises as, among so many others, The Care Bears, Babar, Barbie, Max and Ruby, The Magic School Bus, Beetlejuice, The Adventures of Tintin, Franklin, Cyberchase, and The Berenstain Bears, along with such larger-than-life personalities as Roseanne Barr, Mr. T., Deborah Harry, and Tim Burton. How did he do it? That's the question your moderator Mark Evanier will be asking in this rare one-on-one interview.

Thursday, July 25 — 11:00 AM to NOON in Room 4
SPOTLIGHT ON JACK C. HARRIS
Jack C. Harris began writing and editing DC Comics in 1977; among the many comics he wrote and/or edited were Kamandi, Wonder Woman, House of Mystery, Sgt. Rock, Isis, Green Lantern, The Superman Family, The Unexpected, Weird War Tales, and Detective Comics. His work appeared later in Marvel Comics and Heavy Metal, among other publications. In short, he's been active in comics for decades, has worked with a wide range of editors, writers, and artists, and is a Comic-Con special guest. Here's your chance to hear him tell his experiences as he's interviewed by Mark Evanier.

Thursday, July 25 — 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM in Room 4
SPOTLIGHT ON KEN STEACY
Ken Steacy's visual storytelling career spans a half-century, as a writer, artist, art director, editor, and publisher. He has chronicled the exploits of Astro Boy, Iron Man, Harry Potter, and the Star Wars gang; and, in addition to producing his own IP, he has collaborated with Margaret Atwood, Harlan Ellison, and Trina Robbins. The recipient of an Eisner Award and an Inkpot Award, in 2009 Ken was inducted into the Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Hall of Fame, a lifetime achievement award for contributions to the industry. He'll be talking about all this and more in this spotlight when he is ruthlessly interrogated by Mark Evanier.

Thursday, July 25 — 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM in Room 4
SPOTLIGHT ON JO DUFFY
Jo Duffy has written comics including Power Man and Iron Fist, Catwoman, Batman, Wolverine, Fallen Angels, Nestrobber, Glory, Crystar, Elvira, Defenders, Punisher, and Star Wars, as well as the English-language edition of Akira. She has written short stories, essays, the comic book biography of Saint Francis, and an adaptation of Kipling's Jungle Book, and is the co-writer of two Puppet Master movies. She was the managing editor of Epic magazine and an editor at Marvel Comics, handling such titles as Elektra, Daredevil, Dreadstar, Groo, Doctor Strange, Hulk, and ROM. Hear about all this and more when she is interviewed in this spotlight by Mark Evanier.

Everything above is subject to change. The entire programming schedule will eventually be online and you can commit it to memory on this page. I will not be sitting anywhere signing stuff during the convention but will gladly write my name on a few things for anyone who attends any of the above panels, time permitting.

Kevin Drum — a blogger I've lunched with and trust a lot, especially on statistics — says that inflation hit zero in June. It seems to be part of the pro-Trump messaging that it's wildly outta control and killing us but…well, look at Kevin's chart and tell me why he's wrong. Because I don't think he is.

Kevin also notes that Trump is now lying about the price of bacon…

Why would anyone make up lies as frivolous as this? Because Trump lives in a fantasy world where everything has to be the worst ever in history unless he was personally involved with it. His brain is so badly beyond repair that I suspect he literally can't help himself, and he's surrounded by sycophants who will never confront him with the truth. This is not a man fit to be president of the United States.

So at the moment, we have a choice of two guys. One gets some things (mostly trivial) wrong because he's old. One gets everything wrong because he lies. I don't think either one oughta be President of the United States next year but one of them has a support team to correct him.

In the previous post, I attempted to identify two of the performers in this post. This morning, I have a slew of e-mails on this, some telling me I'm right, some telling me I'm wrong…and the ones telling me I'm wrong do not agree on who those performers really are. So I hereby retract (and have deleted) my identifications. If you think you know for sure, please tell me why I should trust your identifications or how I can verify them online. Thank you.