Proving that some convention organizers never learn, I will again be a Special Guest (or maybe it's just a Guest) at this year's WonderCon in San Francisco, April 1-3. For those of you who can't wait 'til or get tickets for Comic-Con...and those who are scared at the prospect of being in a hall with that many people dressed as Princess Leia...WonderCon provides a great alternative. Operated by the same folks who bring you that rogue nation down in San Diego every year, WonderCon is large enough to have something for everyone but small enough that maybe you could see all of it in a day.
It is also not sold-out and if you need a hotel room, they're not that difficult to book. (Another plus: WonderCon is downtown at the Moscone Center and there are a lot of great restaurants and museums and fun Frisco-type things to do around.) I always have a great time at these. Click on the link in the previous paragraph to find out how you can have an equally great time.
I will be moderating six panels at this fine event, including one on Writing for Animation, one on the history of WonderCon, one on what it was like to break into comics in the seventies and one in which Sergio Aragonés and I will exchange pointless banter and vow that a new Groo mini-series will be out soon. Not only will you not want to miss any of these panels but I won't want to miss any of them.
And while I've got you here: The Monday after the convention, I will be again teaching a course in How to Do Cartoon Voices at a fine studio/school up there called Voice One. Details on how to sign up may be found here. That's April 4th and it's always a lot of fun and — dare I say? — informative.
Robert J. Elisberg is trying to figure out why Donald Rumsfeld is going to receive an upcoming award. Hey, if Henry Kissinger can get a Nobel Peace Prize, there's no award that's too inappropriate.
I'm looking forward to Mr. Rumsfeld's appearance tomorrow night with Jon Stewart. I'm guessing Rumsfeld's figuring he can outsnow Stewart, sell his "spin" on the Iraq War and sell a lot of books. And I'm further guessing he's wrong.
We are shocked and saddened to hear of the death of comics and animation writer Dwayne McDuffie last night. He was reportedly undergoing a "surgical procedure" and suffered fatal complications. None of the sites reporting this seem to know how old he was but he was a young man in good shape with speaking engagements and personal appearances scheduled.
I didn't know Dwayne that well...certainly not as well as I would have liked. He had a sterling reputation as both a writer and as a human being. Or at least if anyone ever didn't like him or his work, I sure never heard about it. Such a loss.
From 1967 or thereabouts: The men of the then-popular rock group The Turtles appear in a commercial for Pepsi-Cola. A lady down the block from where I was then living used to refer to performers like these (and I think them in particular) as "Filthy hippies" who oughta go take baths and get their hair cut...and you can see that's so, so true. Why, this is from the era when rock musicians were so anti-establishment that only some of them would wear a suit and tie to a recording session...
My Conservative friends (and I have many) won't agree with this piece because it's by Paul Begala but it does raise an interesting issue. If five bucks is taken from a wealthy person in taxes and it indirectly goes to the betterment of a poor person somewhere, some scream, "Redistribution of wealth" and label it Socialism with a capital "S." But when vast amounts of cash are taken from wealthy states and spent over in poorer states...well, no one complains about that, least of all the recipients. And an awful lot of those recipients are folks who decry the first example as Marxism.
Two different friends in the Broadway community have told me we are about to get yet another announcement that Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has postponed its opening. This is a rumor but it sure sounds likely to me.
The old date was March 15. I have no word on what a new date might be but I'll bet it's before April 28. That's the cut-off date on eligibility for this year's Tony Awards, which are being presented June 12. If you have a new show in New York, you want to be eligible this year and not wait 'til next time when you might not be around and when it may be too late for the heat from any Tony wins to help your box office.
Does the show stand a chance of winning some Tonys? Sure. A lot of folks have praised the art direction and lighting and elements of that sort.
Okay but those kinds of wins don't generally impact the box office. The producers of Spider-Man probably figure they have a good shot at some of the major ones, especially since the new, non-revival musicals that have opened so far this season on Broadway do not present highly formidable competition. They include Elf, Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles on Broadway, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Scottsboro Boys, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and probably one or two others I'm forgetting. It might be quite possible to snag some nominations against that field.
However, still to open before 4/28 we have Baby It's You, The Book of Mormon, Wonderland, Sister Act, Catch Me If You Can, The People in the Picture and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert...and again, I may have missed a couple. There's gotta be a couple of serious contenders in that list. (Personally, without seeing any of these, I'm rooting for Sister Act since a couple of my friends wrote it.) My guess is that the Broadway community will rise up against Spider-Man and deny it any big trophies. They did that with Young Frankenstein, which struck many as oversold and arrogant. Surely some see the Spider-Man show as even more of that.
We shall see what we shall see. The Tony Awards this year, by the way, will be coming our way from the Beacon Theater, which is on on Broadway but way, way up at 74th Street. Radio City Music Hall is unavailable due to its being filled with a new Cirque du Soleil production for a while. There's probably something symbolic there that relates to all the comments about Spider-Man being more like a Cirque show than a Broadway one but I'm too tired tonight to try and figure that one out.
February 21, 2011
