Today's Video Link

Those of you who are interested in the history of comic books will be thrilled by this. The rest of you, just skip to the next post…

Between 1993 and 2005, an annual fixture at the Comic-Con International in San Diego was the Golden Age Panel featuring folks who'd worked in the industry in the 1940s. Gary Carter was the moderator of the first one, Joe Desris hosted the second, Ron Goulart hosted the third and I hosted the rest of 'em…but the prime mover behind these panels was a gent named David Siegel. Dave rounded up the panelists and was often responsible for them being at the convention at all. For many of them, that was a life-changing experience…being at a comic convention, being honored for their careers and meeting their fans.

The last few of these events were actually called the Golden and Silver Age panels because, sadly, we ran out of folks who'd worked in the field in the forties. The name change allowed us to sneak in some writers and artists from the fifties. Alas, even with the name change, we soon couldn't people a dais so the panels ended and now I do one each year — when there is a con — that focuses on the seventies.

I loved all these panels while they lasted and so did a lot of attendees. At each of the last few cons after we stopped them, someone would complain to me that there was no Golden Age Panel and I'd reply, "You find me four or more people at this con who'd qualify for such a panel and I'll host it."

Stan Lee would have qualified while he was attending the con but he repeatedly declined. He'd say to me, "Mark, I'll be on any panel you want me on as long as it's about what I"m doing currently."

Our video here is a not-quite-complete record of the first Golden Age Panel in '93. Here were the panelists along with the year each first worked in comics: Sheldon Moldoff (1938), Vince Sullivan (1938), Murphy Anderson (1944), Julius Schwartz (1944), Gil Kane (1941), Russ Heath (1942), Dan Barry (1941), Paul Norris (1940), Martin Nodell (1940) and Dick Sprang (1940). If you start watching the video, that's the order they're seated on the stage, left to right, though Kane doesn't join the panel until partway into it.

There's also a cameo appearance by Harlan Ellison and in the crowd shots before and after, you'll see me, Dave Siegel, Mike Catron and many other folks I recognize, including the late Don Thompson.

The person who uploaded this to YouTube cut it into thirteen separate videos and I've taken a guess at what I think is the right order. There are some jumps in there where material is missing and you may need to crank up your volume to catch all the history…and there is history there.

Dick Sprang and Shelly Moldoff were two of the main ghosts for Bob Kane on Batman….and Shelly drew the original Hawkman and many landmark covers. Vince Sullivan was the editor of the first Superman and Batman comics and Julius Schwartz was a later editor of both. Paul Norris was co-creator of Aquaman, Marty Nodell co-created Green Lantern, Dan Barry set a lot of the house art style at DC, and Gil, Russ and Murphy were three of the most prolific and important artists of their day. I miss all these men and I miss panels like this one…

And that's just the first part. If you enjoyed that and want to see them all, go over to this page and skip the first one because you just watched it here.