Monthly Archives: August 2012

This is bound to confuse some people…

The folks who operate the Comic-Con International in San Diego each year are also responsible for the WonderCon, which has usually been in San Francisco some time between February and April, and the Alternative Press Expo, which happens in San Francisco in Autumn. (This year's APE is October 13-14)

The WonderCons in S.F. are held at the Moscone Center which is a fine facility in a great location. The biggest problem with it is that it's run a little different from other convention centers. Other convention centers love to lock in a successful con to multiple years and will commit way in advance to dates. The Moscone sometimes turns down big conventions in favor of ones that might have special cultural or civic value and they do not commit to dates far in advance. Usually, when a WonderCon ends there, it will be months before its operators can secure dates for the next one.

And sometimes, they can't. Last year because the Moscone was undergoing renovations, fewer conventions could be held there and WonderCon didn't make the cut. The Comic-Con folks wound up staging WonderCon in Anaheim instead.

WonderCon was a big hit in Anaheim so they've now arranged to stage another convention there next year. It will be Easter Weekend, March 29-31, 2013. It may be called WonderCon but then again, it may not.

They're still dickering with San Francisco for dates next year. Some sites are reporting that they may only be able to secure dates at the Moscone in Fall. I'm hearing that earlier dates in 2013 are not completely out of the question. So here's the situation…

Within about two months, we should know if these folks will be staging a convention at the Moscone at any point during 2013. If they do, it will be called WonderCon and the March 29-31 con in Anaheim will be called something else. So they'll do three conventions plus APE.

If they can't secure satisfactory dates at the Moscone, they'll just do the two cons plus APE, and the Anaheim one will be called WonderCon. Either way, the March 29-31 convention will happen at the Anaheim Convention Center.

It'll be a shame if WonderCons in San Francisco do not happen again. It's a great place for a great event like that. I hope they can make this work in the future.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report do not usually do new shows on Friday but they're making an exception this week due to the Republican Convention. New shows tonight. I just set my TiVo and you might want to set yours…or whatever it is you set to record TV programs.

From 1990, here's the monologue from the first time Billy Crystal hosted the Oscars…

Fred Kaplan on the speech Condoleezza Rice gave at the Republican Convention. To hear Fred tell it, for Ms. Rice to lecture Barack Obama on foreign affairs is like getting career advice from Charlie Sheen.

Michael Kinsley writes about Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Todd Akin, and their attempts to distance themselves from each other and even from themselves.

A fellow named Jeff Altman — no relation to the fine comedian of the same name — has been transferring his grandfather's old 16mm Kodachrome home movies to Internet videos. They're quite wonderful…like this 1962 trip to Las Vegas.

I love the marquees that show who's playing there. You'll see one that billboards a comedian named Hank Henry. He was an old burlesque comic who spent the last decade or two of his life in Vegas playing in burlesque-type revues and he was a big fave of Mr. Francis Albert Sinatra, who stuck him in most of his movies. Back when Johnny Carson played Vegas, he was known to run from his own show to go see Hank Henry or another burley-Q veteran, Tommy Moe Raft. Those guys are all gone and so are most of the hotels they played.

You'll also see that Judy Garland and Ray Bolger were both playing the Sahara but not in the same shows. See what else you can spot in there…

For some reason, I seem to be on a list that contractors (painters, builders, etc.) purchase of "leads" — folks who might be needing home repairs or remodeling. I don't and if I did, I have such people I've used before and would use again.

I guess it's a sign of the economy being what it is that about once a day, I get a call that goes pretty much like this except for the caller's name, the name of his or her company and the way they pronounce "Evanier"…

THEM: Good afternoon, Mr. Evainieer, I'm Chuck Chuckworthy of Flotsam Construction. We're working in your area and we heard you might be in need of a good contractor.

ME: Sorry. Yours is about the fortieth one of these calls I've had this month. I don't need any work done and if I did, I would have picked one of the folks who got to me before you did.

THEM: Okay, sorry to have wasted your time. Bye. Click.

There are variations but that's pretty much how they go. Today, I got one that went just like that around 10:15 AM. Two minutes later, I got one that went like this…

THEM: Good afternoon, Mr. Evinaar, I'm Bob Bobworthy of Jetsam Construction. We're working in your area and we heard you might be in need of a good contractor.

ME: Sorry. Yours is about the fortieth one of these calls I've had this month. I don't need any work done and if I did, I would have picked one of the folks who got to me before you did.

THEM: Hey, I don't need any of this negativity bullshit. I'm just trying to make money. Click.

Makes you almost want to call the man back and hire him, doesn't it?

There's a photo of Jack Kirby in his natural state of Creating Something. Jack would have been 95 years old today…and if you "live" only by being mentioned, he'll be around as long as many of the characters he launched. I still find myself thinking about him, quoting him, being asked about him and starting sentences with "Y'know, Kirby once said…" on a daily basis.

Y'know, Kirby once said that you always have to look at the Big Picture. He was a Big Picture kind of guy. As is obvious to all who know his work, he drew in Big Pictures, no matter their actual dimensions on a page. He thought in Big Pictures, too. With Jack, it was all about where we were, how we got here and — most important — where we were going. His mind wandered too much for him to be able to drive a car but he often seemed to be driving us anyway…all around the neighborhood and into the future.

I have written extensively — some say too much, though others say not enough — about his creative brilliance and also about what a decent, wonderful human being he was. As is not unusual with those who are praised so, a certain backlash is inevitable. I occasionally spot it on Internet message boards where people without real names argue that he wasn't that clever and/or that nice; that he couldn't have been.

Not long ago, I was slammed on one for advancing these myths. The contrarian did not seem to get that the view of Kirby I give is not just mine. It's darn near unanimous among those who knew him and those who worked with him. Take me out of the pool and everyone whose opinions could matter still thinks he was a lot more than just a guy who moved the pencil on some memorable and successful comic books. He was still Jack Kirby.

And as A. Whitney Brown used to say on Saturday Night Live: That, my friends, is the Big Picture.

Just watch this. It's self-explanatory and fascinating…