The Comic-Con International in San Diego commences Thursday, July 24...but it actually starts for some of us with Preview Night, which is July 23. July 23 is fifty days from today.
Four-day memberships are sold out. One-day memberships are still available. They will almost certainly sell out before the convention. If you're thinking of going, it's time to make that happen. And you might want to take a look at an excellent con-going guide maintained by Tom Spurgeon and the less-impressive one put up by me.
I will, as usual, be hosting more than a dozen panels at the convention and there'll be a list of them up here in a few weeks. I will, however, tease one in particular.
Each year on Saturday afternoon, we do a thing called Quick Draw!, which is one of the most popular events of the con. It takes place in a very big room and very few (if any) seats are not filled. In Quick Draw!, three cartoonists compete to see who can do the fastest, funniest drawings based on challenges that I hurl at them with the help of the audience. It's quite the crowd-pleaser.
One of the cartoonists each year is Sergio Aragonés, who has been drawing for Mad since they were doing parodies of buggy whip merchants. Sergio is hailed by many as The World's Fastest Cartoonist. Another cartoonist is always Scott Shaw!, who is also brilliantly quick with pen and idea. The third slot rotates from year to year.
Several years ago, I asked Sergio if there was anyone we could ever get for that third seat who he thought could mop the floor with him and Scott. Sergio mentioned the name of one living cartoonist who he feared could do just that. And this year, that cartoonist will be in the third seat.
To save you the trouble of tracking it down, I'm embedding the two parts of Jon Stewart's interview of Scott McClellan on last night's Daily Show. I find a lot of Stewart's interviews fascinating because he's one of the few people who does this kind of thing who seems to actually talk to his guests and try to knock them off their prepared Talking Points. By contrast — and I'm not suggesting that he has the exact same job description as Stewart — Tim Russert's interview was all about Russert showing how tough he could be on his guest...and more or less challenging him to move from his prepared Talking Points to his prepared Talking Points defending his prepared Talking Points. (If that sentence doesn't make sense, read it a couple more times.)
Of the two, Stewart gives us the more revealing look at McClellan, who still seems to be the Presidential Press Secretary, only of himself. Same disingenuous slicing and dicing of language to skirt the bigger picture...same adherence to what he's "supposed" to say, despite questioning that points up a lack of logic and/or facts. People say this guy was bad as a spokesperson for George W. Bush. I think he mastered and still employs the exact set of skills that they're all expected to learn and use...and that includes the Press Secretaries who've served most recent presidents. This is what they're all supposed to do. McClellan was and is just worse than most at pretending he's being candid while denying the obvious.
Here's Part One of his conversation with Mr. Stewart...
And here's Part Two. Don't you love the fact that McClellan talks about his "personal affection" for George W. Bush? In Washington, it's okay to savage someone's career as long as you have "personal affection" for them. Just as it's okay to mislead and/or screw up as long as you were "sincere" in what you were saying.
So I wake up this morning and some news sites are saying...
Hillary Rodham Clinton will concede Tuesday night that Barack Obama has the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, campaign officials said, effectively ending her bid to be the nation's first female president.
And they tell about her laying off the staff as of June 15 and making other moves that concede it's over. But others are saying...
Senator Clinton will tonight acknowledge that Barack Obama has the necessary delegates to secure the Democratic presidential nomination but will not end her campaign. She will instead announce her intention to remain in the race in order to press Obama on certain key issues, including but not limited to health care.
And over at the CNN website, we have...
Hillary Clinton is "absolutely not" prepared to admit Barack Obama has beaten her in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, her campaign chairman told CNN today. Terry McAuliffe rejected as incorrect media reports that Clinton would concede Obama has the delegates to win.
One of the ways Hillary Clinton disappointed a lot of us has been through this "it's all about me" attitude. We can absolutely understand that she thinks she'd be the stronger candidate against John McCain and also a better president than Obama. Even if we don't agree, those are not irrational viewpoints, and the former is supported by some polling. Everyone who runs for high office and has even a teensy shot at winning (and even some who don't) thinks they can win and would do the best job.
I think she's doing her public image an awful lot of damage with this "I don't care if he does have enough delegates...I'm in it to win it" attitude. It's starting to remind me of Ross Perot, back when he wasn't close to winning one state in a single poll, including those conducted by his own campaign, telling Larry King he would get 100% of the electoral votes. The difference is that Perot seemed dismissive of any reality, whereas Clinton seems to have some scenario in mind where this will all work out well for her. I'm fascinated to know what it is.
Every Saturday this month, Turner Classic Movies is running a pair of the better Laurel and Hardy movies. These are not as available as they oughta be so you might want to set the ol' TiVo. This coming Saturday, it's Sons of the Desert, followed by Our Relations. The following week, it's Blockheads, then Swiss Miss. On the 21st, they're running Way Out West and A Chump at Oxford. And then on Saturday the 28th, we get The Flying Deuces and Saps at Sea. This coming Saturday's parlay is the best one but they're all worth watching.
Before I forget: Early the morning of June 11, TCM is running an awful film I've mentioned here before — Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title, starring Morey Amsterdam, Rose Marie and Richard Deacon, and featuring a whole lot of celeb cameos. I wrote about it here and explained why it might be of interest even though it's a largely unwatchable movie.
And then immediately following that, also on June 11, they're running Billie, starring Patty Duke. We previewed that one here...another odd film that I'm not suggesting you actually watch. Unless of course, you have an insatiable desire to see where I went to high school.
I know what you've been waiting for! You've been wondering when Evanier was going to link to video of a dog setting the world record for balloon-popping. Well, wait no longer...
June 4, 2008
