Despite rainy weather and traffic so bad that at least a few folks turned back and went home, WonderCon was packed today. Folks kept asking me, "Does this mean they won't go back to San Francisco?" I have no idea. The math on an event like this can be complicated and impossible to discern from the spectator seats. In all my years of attending conventions and working with the Comic-Con International folks, the one thing I've learned for sure is how much of it I don't know. I know it's not just a matter of cramming a lot of bodies into a convention hall. Folks have managed to do that without breaking even or turning a profit.
Folks seemed to enjoy my two panels today…and I know I did. I interviewed Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, who told all about writing and producing cartoon shows for television. They were film editors when they started writing the interstitial gag segments for Huckleberry Hound and before long, they were writers, producers and show runners of some of the most popular animated programming on television. They told about creating Scooby Doo and later starting their own studio…and the whole conversation could have gone on a lot longer than the hour we had. A few years ago, a major publisher was interested in me doing a big, fancy art book/bio of these guys and I'm not sure why that didn't happen. That was a book that should be written.
Later, I did a Cartoon Voice Panel with Laraine Newman, Gregg Berger, Bill Farmer, Alicyn Packard and Wally Wingert. Michael Bell was supposed to join us but he was one of those folks who braved the weather and the freeway snarl but had to turn back. These panels are always a lot of fun even though there's really nothing I can quote here that would amuse you. You kinda have to be there.
Same with Quick Draw!, which we did yesterday — our first Sergio-less one. As you've read here, my partner Sergio Aragonés has been recovering from back problems. He has returned to his drawing table but he's way behind so will not be conventioning for a time. We soldiered on with Scott Shaw!, Mike Kazaleh and Floyd Norman drawing up a storm along with guest cartoonists Batton Lash, Carol Lay and Thom Zahler. Oh — and we had Sergio there…by phone. I called him and he said hello to a packed house (which said hello back to him) and he gave our dueling cartoonists a nice drawing challenge. He'll be back for Quick Draw! at Comic-Con in July and to make up for his absence at this one, we're going to make him draw twice as fast there.
I'm getting summoned to an event so I'll wrap this up for now, post a video link and get outta here. More tomorrow. Or sometime.