Friday, March 2, 2007

Nick and Gene

Let's see if I can crop and post a photo from my laptop. This was taken today at the WonderCon: Me surrounded by two of my favorite comic book artists. On the left is Nick Cardy, best known for his fine work on Aquaman, Bat Lash and Teen Titans. On the right is Gene Colan, best known for his fine work on Iron Man, Tomb of Dracula and Daredevil. I could list another two dozen credits for each of them but you get the idea. We took this photo during a rare moment today when they weren't besieged by fans wanting autographs, sketches or just to say, "I've always loved your stuff." I've never understood how "stuff" became a term of endearment for work that you love and respect, but that's how people talk to artists...and even how most artists talk to each other. Well, I like the "stuff" these men have produced for comics for many years and as usual, it's always nice to discover that your favorite artists are such nice people, as well. It almost always works out that way but it's still something to be happy about.

• Posted at 11:42 PM · LINK

Wondercon Report

First day of the con. Some members of the staff seemed a bit surprised by how many people were in attendance today at what was supposed to be the "non-busy" day. Does this bode ill for tomorrow, which is supposed to be the "busy" day? We shall see, we shall see.

I attempted — foolishly, I might add — to live-blog from the convention floor earlier but a wireless Internet connection I tapped into kept cutting out on me and I lost the post I'd composed. It was a list of folks I'd spent time talking to and it included Russ Heath, Gene Colan, Nick Cardy, Al Feldstein, Al Gordon, Trina Robbins, Steve Leialoha, Tom Yeates, Ernie Chan, Tony DeZuniga, Mike Royer, Paul Power and an awful lot of others whose names were in that list the first time I typed it.

I hosted three panels today and was pleasantly surprised at the turnout for all three. That goes double for the first one, which the con billed as "When Historians Clash," a discussion of comic book history between myself and Gerard Jones, author of this fine volume. We discussed a number of things but kept drifting back to a little-known facet of funnybook heritage which Gerry delved into when he wrote his book. It's how many of the early comic book publishers had previous (and sometimes, concurrent but concealed) careers publishing what then passed for pornography. That was part of, or in addition to, what enabled some of them to get their wares distributed...connections with what some might term "organized crime." Once upon a time, magazine distribution was a pretty dirty business and so, by extension, was comic book publishing.

Later, I did a panel with Sergio Aragonés about our work together and then a panel with Al Feldstein about his work on the classic EC comics like The Vault of Horror and Weird Fantasy. Tomorrow, I interview Nick Cardy on one panel, Gene Colan on another and we have a Mad panel with Al and Sergio. If you can make it for any of these, you'll probably enjoy yourself a lot.

No real news on the convention floor...or at least, none that reached my ears. Nice to meet so many of you who read this silly stop on the World Wide Web, and I hope to see more of you tomorrow.

• Posted at 11:04 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Time for another one of the great Superman cartoons produced by the Max Fleischer Studios. We're serving The Arctic Giant, which was the fourth one in the series. It was released February 27, 1942.

One of the credits you'll see on this cartoon is for animator Reuben Grossman. Mr. Grossman later went to work for DC Comics drawing, among other strips, Peter Porkchops and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

You'll also notice a writing credit there for Ted Pierce. Mr. Pierce was, before and after his stint at Fleischer's, a gagman and occasional voice for Warner Brothers cartoons. For example, he did the Bud Abbott imitation in the cartoon, A Tale of Two Kitties. Lured away to the opposite coast for a few years, he worked on the Fleischer Brothers' Gullivers Travels and a few other films. (He is sometimes given the credit/blame for Popeye getting those four nephews in his cartoons.) He also did voice work there. He's in this cartoon in a couple of roles, including (I think) Perry White. Superman and Lois are Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander.

Okay, it's cartoon time!

• Posted at 1:08 AM · LINK

P.S.

Almost forgot. While at LAX, I got a call from Jim Amash saying that Joe Sinnott is doing much better and earlier in the day, I got an e-mail from Ken Gale saying that Arnold Drake's condition is much improved. Happy news.

Okay, now I'll post a video link and go to bed. I think it'll be one of those Fleischer Superman cartoons.

• Posted at 1:05 AM · LINK

Frisco Blogging

So the first thing that happens is that at LAX, the lady who checks your I.D. against your ticket doesn't believe I'm me. She looks at my driver's license, then at my face, then at my license again, then at me, back and forth for quite a while before declaring, "This isn't you."

I said, "It's me. I've lost a hundred pounds since that photo was taken. Probably more than a hundred pounds."

She stares at me and tries to imagine what I'd look like with extra weight. I said, "Here, let me help you." And I puffed up my cheeks and scrunched my jaw downward to try and create some double chins for her. She laughed and said, "I'm sorry...I don't think this is you" and she called another lady over to give a second opinion. The other lady didn't think I was me, either. In fact, she seemed so sure that it raised grave doubts in my mind.

Then the first lady noticed that the date of birthday on the license was 03-02-52. I'm typing this on March 2 but it happened last night. That's when she said, "Oh, it's your birthday tomorrow. In that case, you can go on through."

A tip to any terrorists who read this site: If you want to get past security with a fake I.D., forget about the photo. Just fly the day before the date of birth on the fake I.D.

Then the flight was running late because it was coming in from Chicago, and the weather there is apparently like the inside of a snow globe. A woman ahead of me at the gate podium was asking why they let a storm in Chicago impact a flight between Los Angeles and San Francisco. This was not a stupid woman. She was trying to ask the gate attendant why the airlines do that...why they don't just have planes that go back and forth within the state so that a LAX/SFO flight is not at the mercy of lake effect snow in Illinois. The gentleman there didn't understand and kept explaining to her how the route is for the plane to come in from Chicago, stop in L.A. and then go on to San Francisco. I could have intervened and cleared up the confusion but I figured we had more than three hours to kill before our fight was taking off. Might as well let them duke it out.

The flight finally did take off. On the plane, I checked out the roster of America's Top Steak Houses in the in-flight magazine, which is really the only reason to ever get on an airplane. They had someplace called III Forks in Texas listed in the top slot, while Peter Luger's in Brooklyn was nowhere on the list. That makes me think the whole thing is as bogus as the 2000 presidential vote totals in Florida and that it was probably another one of those Scalia deals. By the way, I get that the alleged winner is actually named "Three Forks" but they type it in Roman numerals and I can't help thinking that it looks like the place is named "ILL FORKS." Would you eat at a restaurant named that? Of course not, and that's more proof that this list is a fraud. If they keep this up, people will suspect it's all just a group advertising deal and that these places pay to get their names on it.

The flight finally landed and here I am, ready to report on the Wondercon, which opens in about eleven hours. Maybe I'd better post a video link and turn in. Good night.

• Posted at 1:02 AM · LINK

March 3, 2007 • Current • March 1, 2007