Category Archives: To Be Filed

I am informed that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (or as it may be called, The Late Show starring Stephen Colbert) will not be in any way affiliated with Dave Letterman's Worldwide Pants company. Furthermore, in a recent round of budget-cutting negotiations, Letterman's firm gave up half-ownership in The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson. CBS now owns the other half.

Also, someone read what I posted earlier and then posted on a forum, "Mark Evanier predicts Craig Ferguson will lose his 12:35 show!" No, Mark did not predict that. He suggested it's probably under discussion. Personally, I hope they leave the guy there. I think he's the best late night host currently on the air.

Hey, remember a few months ago when a lot of you pitched in to help out a good man named Bob Kahan? Bob, a former editor at DC Comics and elsewhere, has had a rough time of it in the current economy and needed your help so he and his cats would not get evicted from their apartment. A lot of you responded and Bob and the cats had a place to live.

Well, I'm afraid Bob still hasn't been able to find work. I know he's been trying like hell but, well, if you could spare a few bucks again, it would sure help. And let's get this guy a job, too. He's too good to not be employed.

Hey, today (Wednesday), Stu Shostak has another great guest…a guy who's had a helluva career in TV and it ain't over yet.  Pat Cardi was one of the most in-demand kid actors in the sixties and that's not an easy distinction to attain.  Do you know how many parents think they have talented kids who can make them wealthy?  But Pat did have talent and had more credits back then than you'll believe, including his job as a regular on the sitcom, It's About Time with Joe E. Ross and Imogene Coca.  I remember him from a movie called And Now, Miguel, which I somehow had to sit through twice in high school.  He was also on The Bill Dana Show and Ben Casey and Rawhide and Branded and The Fugitive and a few dozen other shows and he was in movies and he's still in TV doing interesting things behind the camera.  Listen in today and hear all about the guy.

Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there. Webcasts start at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern and other times in other climes. They run a minimum of two hours and sometimes go to three or beyond.  Shortly after a show ends, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a paltry 99 cents each and you can get four for the price of three.  You can't beat that deal with a stick.

Joe Musich writes to ask for my thoughts and speculation on "…the look of the CBS Colbert show? What will happen to Worldwide Pants the entity? Will Worldwide have a bearing on the CBS Colbert show? Will Dave switch roles and pick up a political talk show at Comedy Central? He might be good at that. And what will become of Paul, Felicia, and the band?"

Well, what happens with Dave's production company Worldwide Pants will depend on what Dave decides he wants to do with the rest of his life. No one around him seems to think he's interested in another TV show of any kind but who knows? The man will be 68 next year when he hands Late Show off to Stephen Colbert.

That's about the age Johnny Carson was when he stepped down from The Tonight Show and pretty much disappeared from television. But that was not Carson's intention at the time he retired from that program. From all reports, he had nothing particular in mind he wanted to do in the entertainment field but figured something would present itself…and nothing did. Johnny made a few deals to develop specials but never followed through on them. (I was peripherally involved in one project where he was considering — or at least said he was considering — a producer role on a proposed revival of his old game show, Who Do You Trust. He decided against that as he decided against just about everything else he was offered.)

Will Dave go that route? Beats me. At this point, it may beat Dave, as well. But if he does find something he wants to do, Worldwide Pants may be the production entity. And I would imagine he will keep the company alive to manage its various assets. Carson Productions still exists to sell material from all those Tonight Shows and Dave owns a couple of decades of Late Shows and some other programming W.P. produced. I doubt though it will be involved in the new Late Show unless Worldwide Pants owns that title, in which case it might be a silent profit participant.

The idea probably will be for Colbert to do a show that will neither look nor feel like Letterman's. He'll have a new set, a new band, a new theme, a new announcer, etc. They may or may not do it from The Ed Sullivan Theater. (We may get a hint about that when Colbert visits Dave's show next Tuesday.) One factor to consider is that CBS will probably want Dave to do his last broadcast on a Friday then have Stephen debut the following Monday. It may not be possible to bring in a whole new set and do all necessary renovations to that theater over a weekend. On the other hand, it is a great facility and CBS will want to put something in there…

So I would expect Paul and Felicia and Alan Kalter and others to just go elsewhere. I can sure see someone pouncing on Paul Shaffer to head up a new show somewhere…maybe a hip music program.

And as I was writing that reply, I got this question from Jeff Madeira…

So what do you think will become of Craig Ferguson? Are his late night days numbered? Who might they get to replace him?

Given that CBS has not moved to quash rumors that Ferguson will be departing, I would imagine that replacing him is at least on the table over there. That would be a shame because I think he's enormously entertaining and clever…though I imagine he'd have little trouble finding other venues in which to be entertaining and clever. He does have a new game show soon to debut, which may have been a "tell" that he's known for some time he wasn't going to be busy with an 11:35 show and might not even have 12:35 much longer.

If they do keep him, that would be a partial answer to Joe's question above about Worldwide Pants. Worldwide Pants produces Ferguson's show now.

Who would replace Craig? Well, Chelsea Handler is out there actively campaigning for the job. She tweeted a photo of herself outside the CBS building and told all she was there for meetings. CBS issued a statement that said she was not there to discuss 12:35…so that suggests she will never be there to discuss 12:35. I doubt she is under consideration. My feeling is that if Ferguson is replaced — and it's still an IF, let's remember — it'll be by someone with some experience on TV but not that kind…like Craig Ferguson was. I also think CBS will be looking to counter the idea that they're only interested in white guys and they may also think it's time to experiment with something other than a show where one host sits behind a desk and interviews people with something to plug.

One thing to consider: Does Colbert's deal give him control and/or ownership of the show that follows him the way Letterman did? It's an interesting aspect to all this. Carson and Letterman had both — ownership for the obvious financial benefits of producing one's lead-out, control to make sure the show that followed didn't upstage them or compete for guests. Leno never wanted to own the show after his and from all reports, never interfered with what Conan and then Jimmy Fallon wanted to do as long as they didn't book the same guests right before he did. Colbert may at least have a heavy say in what follows him and may even own the time slot.

Lastly for now about this daypart, Lane Ingham writes…

I agree with you that the announcement of Colbert came so soon after Dave announced his retirement that it had to have been in the works for some time. But I wonder why CBS felt they had to announce it so quickly. Why not drag out the suspense for a few months?

This is just a guess but the battle for Dave's seat could have gotten ugly. When Mr. Carson announced his abdication, NBC already had a deal with Leno but that wasn't known at the time and they apparently talked about delaying the press release about Jay for a while.

The problem was that the instant Johnny set his departure date, a large part of show business exploded. Stars, including some pretty big people, were on the phone to their agents. A lot of top Hollywood deal-makers were determined to land the gig for their clients and the longer NBC let them think there was a shot at it, the more threats and pressures would be brought to the game. A gent who was involved in the midst of that from the NBC side told me it was difficult to make a deal with anyone about anything else while Johnny's job still seemed to be out there for the taking.

We think of the battle to replace Johnny as between Dave and Jay but there were a lot of other people who wanted to be Carson's successor and some of them had pretty strong, determined agents. I heard that one Very Big Movie Star called his agent about five minutes after Johnny announced his retirement and the V.B.M.S. said, "That job is mine! Lock it up for me or you're fired!" It was probably not in the network's interest to have that kind of thing go on for long. That's why I think Dave did not announce his decampment until Les Moonves was at least reasonably sure they could and would get Colbert…but they'll probably never admit that.

When composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein turned 70, there was a big concert to celebrate him and his life. For it, Lauren Bacall performed a special piece of material crafted for the occasion by Bernstein's collaborator on West Side Story…

Here are nine words or phrases that have been so misused that their precise meanings are fuzzy and contradictory. The worst one in there is "begging the question." I never know what someone means now when they use that term because everyone uses it with such a different definition.

Here's another look at what I'm doing this weekend.  I'll be hosting or appearing on panels at WonderCon down at the Anaheim Convention Center.  Saturday is sold out but badges are still available for Friday and Sunday.

The entire programming schedule is here but below is a list of the stuff I'm doing…and I want to call special attention to the panel on Hanna-Barbera history on Saturday.  I've been doing this kind of thing for a long time and I know this is one of those panels that folks in years to come will regret having missed.  That's if they miss it, of course, and you don't have to.  We also have a damn good Cartoon Voices panel immediately preceding it.

When I'm not doing these, I'll be either wandering the con or sharing a table with the infamous Scott Shaw!, who is currently featured as a character in the Dick Tracy newspaper strip.  Don't believe what I say?  Here.  Here's proof that Scott is in the strip, flat-top and all…

See?  That's Scott and he will be wearing the same shirt at the convention.  Our table, by the way, is not listed in the convention floor plan but it should be somewhere near Sergio's.  Just go to his table and look around until you see Scott's shirt.  If I'm there, say howdy.  If I'm not, say howdy but say it to Scott.  I will also be signing copies of the new Rocky & Bullwinkle comic book (second issue now on sale!) at the IDW Booth, wherever that is, on Saturday from 4 PM to 5 PM.  And here's where else I'll be…

Friday, April 18

THE SERGIO AND MARK SHOW
Sergio Aragonés, Mark Evanier, and maybe others who bring you the award-winning, ship-sinking Groo the Wanderer have actual news of actual, for-real upcoming Groo comics as well as other exciting projects. Come hear Sergio explain what's up and then hear Mark translate it into English!
12:30pm – 1:30pm / Room 213

THE MEN WHO MADE BATMAN
2014 marks the 100th birthday of Batman's uncredited co-creator Bill Finger, the 75th anniversary of Batman's first appearance, the 50th anniversary of the "New Look" Batman, and the 25th anniversary of the Tim Burton motion picture that proved the world would welcome a serious Dark Knight. Celebrate by looking back at how Bob Kane and Bill Finger created the character and how ghost creators Jerry Robinson and Gardner Fox helped them shape the Caped Crusader's first year in print. Dr. Travis Langley (Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight), Mark Evanier (Bill Finger Award), Alan Kistler (The Ultimate Batman Trivia Challenge), Robert O'Nale (The Cape Creator documentary), Jens Robinson (son of Jerry Robinson), and the rest of their super team of bat-experts unite to answer the question, "Who built the bat?"
2:00pm – 3:00pm / Room 210A

Saturday, April 19

THAT 70'S PANEL
What was it about comics in the seventies that made them so different from the ones that had gone before and the ones since? Witness a lively discussion on the topic among four folks who brought you comics then: Marty Pasko (Superman), Len Wein (Swamp Thing), Marv Wolfman (Tomb of Dracula), and your moderator, Mark Evanier (Scooby Doo).
10:30am – 11:30am / Room 203

CARTOON VOICES
It's one of the most popular panels at any convention! Five masters of speaking for animated superstars demonstrate their talents. The dais will consist of Greg Berg (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Gregg Berger (The Transformers), Candi Milo (Dexter's Laboratory), Wally Wingert (The Avengers), Debi Derryberry (Jimmy Neutron), and Fred Tatasciore (The Hulk). And it's all moderated by animation voice director Mark Evanier (The Garfield Show).
12:30pm – 1:30pm / Room 300DE

HANNA-BARBERA HISTORY
Learn the history of the world's most prolific cartoon studio and meet some of the men who brought you shows like The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Scooby Doo, and even the Wacky Races! Your host Mark Evanier (who worked there in the eighties) interrogates men who were there in the sixties and before: Tony Benedict, Jerry Eisenberg, Wally Burr, and maybe a few others.
1:30pm – 2:30pm / Room 300DE

Sunday, April 20

COVER STORY: THE ART OF THE COVER
What's a good cover on a comic book? How are the best ones created? Be there for this "shop talk" discussion with artists who've been responsible for some of the best: Paul Gulacy (Star Wars), Cliff Chiang (Wonder Woman), and Tony Daniel (Superman/Wonder Woman). Presiding will be moderator Mark Evanier and co-moderator Len Wein.
12:00pm – 1:00pm / Room 207

WRITING FOR ANIMATION
Mark Evanier has written hundreds of hours of cartoons for television, including Scooby Doo, Richie Rich, Dungeons & Dragons, Superman: The Animated Series, and many more. He is currently head writer and supervising producer of The Garfield Show, and now he's offering a reprise/sequel to this topic he spoke on last year and knows better than anyone!
1:30pm – 2:30pm / Room 300DE

IDW PUBLISHING: KIDS COMICS! PONIES, TURTLES AND MORE!
Editor Sarah Gaydos and a host of amazing creators discuss the growing slate of all-ages titles at IDW including My Little Pony, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles New Animated Adventures, Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls, Ben 10, Ghostbusters, Popeye, KISS Kids, and more! Plus, free comics!
2:30pm – 3:30pm / Room 213

As always, rooms and plans and my philosophy of life are all subject to change.  See you down there, I hope!

Fred Kaplan on what's going on with Vladimir Putin and Ukraine. The crisis in Ukraine, Fred says, may be close to resolution. And Putin, he says, may be close to doing some very stupid things.

Several people wrote to ask me why I like flying Southwest. Well, they seem to take off on time and land early. The employees are friendly and I've never come across one who didn't seem eager to help. If the plane isn't full, their "no assigned seating" policy can usually be worked in a way to give you an empty seat on one side of you or both. And every so often, you get a flight attendant like this lady…

Which airlines get the most complaints? According to this article, Spirit is way out in front, followed by Frontier, United and American. Southwest and Alaska get the fewest.

Here's a question I have: What percentage of people really have a lot of say in which airline they fly? I don't travel as much as some people but generally, when I go online to book a ticket, there's only one choice that leaves when I want to leave. It doesn't matter that I like Southwest and have had horrid experiences on United. United will turn out to be the only one flying where I want to go when I want to go. And of course, a lot of folks who fly have very little choice over which carrier because they don't book their own tickets.

My friend Joe Brancatelli will probably chime in with the answer. Joe knows everything there is to know about commercial aviation, including what the pilot on your flight is drinking. Here's a recent column of his that told me a lot of stuff that interested me.

Lastly on the subject of air travel, I wanted to recommend an app to anyone who flies. It's called Flightboard and it saved my life (metaphorically) last year…

You know that board in the airport that shows you the current status of every flight? Actually, it's two boards: Arrivals and Departures. Well, a lot of apps will give you that info but Flightboard lays it out in the neatest, most useful manner. You can set it for any airport and you can set it to show you Arrivals or Departures, depending on which concerns you at that moment.

Here's my story. When I flew out of Indianapolis last May, I checked in at ticket counter and they told me my 3:41 PM flight would be delayed until at least 6 PM. That would cause me to miss a connecting flight and mess up a carefully-planned weekend. Being a comic book person, I did a lot of cursing that included punctuation marks, then settled down with my laptop at a table in the food court to kill the extra hours. By the way, the dining choices there brought new meaning to the term, "contempt of court."

Around 3:35. I mused, "Gee, if not for that damned delay, I'd be on the plane now." I decided to see if the departure time had changed any so I hauled out the iPhone, called up Flightboard…and saw that the departure time for my flight was Now Boarding!

I leaped up, packed the laptop in record time, sprinted for the gate and was the last passenger to board the flight before the door closed. If not for Flightboard, I would have been back in the food court, blogging or writing Groo when the plane took off, sans me.

Flightboard for the iPhone sells for $3.99. I'd say it was worth it just for that one usage.

Here's a half-hour of reminiscences from Dick Cavett, a witty man who oughta be back on TV with a daily — or at least, a weekly series. He closes with a rope trick from his young magician days…

Jamie Masada runs The Laugh Factory, a very good comedy club up in Hollywood. The one time I met him, I liked him a lot…but I don't like this article of his complaining about the fact that another white guy (i.e., Colbert) is getting Letterman's job. I think Colbert's the most qualified guy out there. (If I had to pick the next two, it would be Ellen DeGeneres and Chris Rock — neither of whom is a white guy…or, apparently, available.)

No, I'm sorry. You can't expect CBS to entrust their 11:30 show to someone who's never hosted a TV program of any significance before. That applies to most of the names Masada mentions as deserving of the shot. Those folks deserve a show somewhere…cable, streaming or at best, 12:35 on a network. You should have complained when Seth Meyers got his show because that's the slot for newcomers.

I also question this statement…

The most important thing for any host at late night is they be a stand-up comic, because stand-up comics really know what can get a laugh day in and day out. Johnny Carson was a stand-up who encouraged the form by booking numerous comics on his show — two of them became late show hosts. Stand-up comics are the "ground troops" of the art form. They have been in clubs or bars or halls, and they have hundreds of nights behind them performing for a live audience. They know the audience and they know what they like. They have also learned the fine art of answering hecklers or being fast on their feet.

Let's see: Conan O'Brien had never really done stand-up before he got his talk show. His show worked pretty well. Jimmy Kimmel didn't have hundreds of nights behind him performing stand-up for a live audience. I don't think Jimmy Fallon did, either. Steve Allen hadn't done stand-up, Jack Paar had done very little, Dick Cavett had done it for a year or two. And he wasn't "late night" in every market but Merv Griffin, who never did stand-up in his life, lasted an awfully long time in the talk show business.

If I had more time, I could list stand-ups who didn't click as talk show hosts. Just as there are great piccolo players who can't do anything well besides playing the piccolo, there are stand-up comedians who can't do anything but their acts.

I'll agree this far: Stand-up training does pay off when you open a talk show with a monologue. I find most of those done by hosts who've never done stand-up pretty anemic…though there are times when Letterman also seems like a guy who's never done it before. But the thing is, that's the first 5-10 minutes of the program and after that, stand-up experience doesn't have a lot of value. You have to talk to other people, not directly to the audience. You have to listen. You have know when to shut up and let another person on stage get a laugh. You have to ad-lib, rather than as many stand-ups do, recite prepared and well-tested material. It's a whole different mindset than you employ in stand-up.

What it does resemble a lot is improv comedy where Colbert has a lot of training and tons of experience. I applaud Masada's loyalty to the folks who work his club but I think he's wrong about this.

Lynda Obst on how Netflix and other streaming services have changed Hollywood…not for the better, some think.

A few weeks ago, a lawyer friend of mine told me he'd just made a deal for a new project for one of his writer-producer clients. I asked if it was TV or movies. He said, "Neither…and both. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure how to describe what it is."

This is the final chapter of the story of my grandmother's funeral. If you want to refresh your memory or just plain didn't read earlier chapters, here are links to Part One, Part Two and Part Three.

Now then: Wednesday morning, I put on my best (and darn near my only) suit and a pair of dress shoes I never wore anywhere except to the Magic Castle and funerals.  Then I drove my mother to the church in Hartford for the funeral for her mother.

The day before, you may recall, we'd visited with the priest who'd be officiating…or whatever the proper word is for what a priest does at a funeral. Several of my grandmother's friends were bussed in from the Assisted Living Facility where she'd spent her last years, and there were people she'd known — not many but a few — from when she'd lived in East Hartford. One of them for some reason insisted on ticking off for me a list of my grandmother's close acquaintances who had died before she did. Since she'd made it to 97, it was a pretty long list.

The service was held in a church she had not attended in fifty-some-odd years and the priest was a man she had never met. I had given him a lot of information the day before about her, my mother and myself so he could insert names and facts into his speech. I have been to many funerals like this and it always feels to me like a macabre game of Mad-Libs. Once in the span of three weeks, I attended two services with the same rabbi presiding. He used the exact same eulogy —something about how the deceased "heard the music" in his life — and just filled-in the blanks with different nouns.

A somber organ played for quite some time in the chapel and finally the priest made his entrance. My mother, seated next to me, took one look at him and burst into laughter.

I don't know how to describe what he was wearing but it made the Pope's gaudiest outfit look like a beige tweed suit. There were robes upon robes. There was embroidery upon embroidery. There was brocade upon brocade. He couldn't have been more ostentatious if they'd lit up neon piping on his vestments and had a disco mirror ball pop up from his hat.

When my mother managed to contain her laughter, I whispered to her, "Gee, I thought he was going to be getting dressed up for this" and set her off again. Other mourners looked at us like…well, just watch "Chuckles Bites the Dust" again and you'll have a good picture. But this man of the gilded cloth was not fine with or even encouraging of laughter at a funeral. Instead, he gave a stern glare in our direction, then launched into a deeply-religious and very long oration about life and love and death and the Catholic Church and all that it does for the world. Occasionally, he even interrupted the infomercial for a moment or so in order to give a brief shout-out to Grandma.

I do not remember his name so let's call him Father Liberace…though come to think of it, Liberace was entertaining and didn't take himself seriously. This man droned on with a self-importance that could have shattered cold steel. On and on he went, finally getting to the part where he acknowledged the presence in the hall of the dearly departed's daughter and grandson. He made some detached remark about how I was not married, not Catholic and when he mentioned I was a television writer, it was with a tone of "The things some people will do to make a living."

Ah, but then he had to introduce me. My mother had asked that I say a few words.  Just so there'd be someone speaking who'd known the deceased.

He stepped to one side as I got up to the lectern and said, "Thank you, Father Liberace. And I'm glad I checked with you this morning so I didn't wear the same outfit." I got a big laugh from the assemblage, a bigger laugh from my mother and a cold "Harumph!" from my opening act.

I went on. "Thank you for laughing at that. My grandmother loved to laugh. Now, that may seem like a silly thing to say because, you know, how many people do you meet who say, "Laughter? Can't stand it. No, I don't enjoy that one bit"? But there was something especially wonderful about my grandmother's laugh. It was pure. It was real. It was the laugh of someone who never had a selfish or mean thought in her entire life —"

— and I don't really recall where I went from there. I think I said a few more things about how nice and loving she was, and I know I got a few more laughs…not difficult when you have an audience that is being flattened by oppressive seriousness and is desperate for anyone to come along and lighten things up.

When I returned to my seat, Father Liberace reclaimed his pulpit and muttered something about, "Never follow a comedy writer" and he got a laugh. He looked like he rather enjoyed it.

The next thing I recall of the ceremony is that we were across the street in the burial location. It was cold and windy and though it wasn't snowing, the ground was frozen over with ice. My main concern was that my mother not topple on the icy turf and my secondary one was that I, in my slick dress shoes, did not slip 'n' slide all over the place. Father Liberace read some graveside words as about ten people and the cemetery crew shivered. Several men who looked too elderly to be making their livings with shovels were standing-by with them and I started wondering why the grave had not already been opened and prepared. Surely we weren't going to stand out there in the chilly air while three men, all of them about the same age as the dirt they were there to dig, dug.

When Father Liberace concluded his encore performance, an official of the church stepped forward and explained that because the ground was frozen and certain machinery was malfunctioning, the cemetery had been unable to dig my grandmother's grave. "With the family's permission, we will begin the excavation in a ceremonial manner and then the actual interment will be done later when the ground thaws or additional machinery arrives." He looked to my mother for approval and she looked to me.

I thought of saying, "We ain't leavin' 'til Grandma's pushin' up daisies" but instead, I said that would be fine. He signaled the men with the spades to do a little groundbreaking and they tried. Lord, how they tried. But the land was like Lucite and the diggers were probably older than most of those they buried. They couldn't begin to make a dent in the frozen earth.

Since I was the youngest one present, I asked if I could take a crack at it. Skidding a bit in my shoes, I took one man's shovel and chipped away at enough ice to dislodge about a tablespoon of soil. "There," I announced. "The grave is started! Now, let's all go in and bathe in the hot chocolate." Everyone agreed and we filed back into the chapel building where coffee, tea, hot cocoa and little cookies were served. My mother thanked each person who had attended and then whispered to me, "Let's get out of here…please."

We got out of there…pleased, speeding back to the Holiday Inn. We both had a sense of relief that we'd done what had to be done. My mother seemed alternately happy that it was over and sad that…well, that it was over. She had told me several times in the past that when she died, she did not want a funeral of any kind, and she reiterated that request then and there. I said, "That's too bad because the priest offered to either fly out and give the same speech or loan me his wardrobe so I can deliver it."

Meanwhile, an idea had been forming in my head. I got her back to her room where she could nap and smoke (not necessarily in that order and not at the same time), then went to mine to change clothes and flesh out my sorta-wild notion. This involved calling Brenda the Travel Agent back in Los Angeles to ask a few questions that would help determine feasibility and cost.

An hour or two later when my mother called and told me she was awake, I went to her room and sat down opposite her. "I would like to propose a change of plans," I began.

"We can stick with the old plan if you would like," I continued. "Tomorrow morning, we can fly back to Los Angeles and you'll be home by nightfall. If that's what you want to do, I'm fine with that. Or we can do something else that occurred to me…

"You're not likely to be back on this coast again for a long time…maybe ever. How would you like to go to New York for two nights? You haven't been there since 1959. That's thirty-eight years ago and it's changed a tiny bit since then.

"Instead of flying to Los Angeles, we take the train to New York. I've checked and there are suites available at my favorite hotel, the Righa Royal, which is on 54th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues — and yes, we can get you a smoking one. They also have a wheelchair they can loan us if you're not up to walking much in Manhattan.

"You can rest up when we get there and then I would take you to dinner at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station, which I promise you will be your favorite restaurant until the following night. The best scallops you ever had. Then we'll go see a show on Broadway. I have someone I can call and get us great seats.

"Nathan Lane is in his last week in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. There's a new production of The King and I I think you'd like. Or remember that movie you liked so much, Victor/Victoria? There's a musical version of that playing with Julie Andrews in it and there's also Sunset Boulevard and Beauty and the Beast and if you absolutely insist on it, I'm even willing to take you to see Cats.

"The next day if you're up to it, we'll do some sightseeing and then I'll take you out to Brooklyn for dinner at Peter Luger's Steak House. The best steak you ever had, I guarantee you. Then we'll go see another show from the aforementioned list and the next morning, we fly back to Los Angeles. What do you think?"

She thought for all of three seconds, then proclaimed it as the most wonderful idea she'd ever heard except maybe for one thing. "Won't this be expensive?" she asked.

"Less expensive than flying home and coming back another time," I told her. I don't think that was true but, well, maybe. It didn't matter. I said, "I'll visit one of my publishers while we're there and see if that makes the whole trip deductible."

With a grin I'll remember all my life, she said, "Okay. Let's do it."

"Great," I said. "I have some calls to make."

I ran back to my room and when I got there, the phone was ringing. It was my mother calling from the room I had just left.

"Mark," she said. "It's a lovely idea…so lovely. But I'm just not up to it. I'm so drained from this whole experience, I just want to be home. Thank you…and maybe we can do it some other time."

I said, "Sure…whenever you want." But we both knew there would be no other time.

The next morning, we flew back to Los Angeles. On the plane, she was mostly quiet but at one point, she turned to me and said, "I wish I'd gone back to see her a few more times. But other than that, I have no regrets."

I agreed. Other than that, no regrets.

My mother lived another fifteen and a half years after that but never got back near that coast. I took her as far as Las Vegas a few times…but her legs and her stamina got worse and worse and as they did, her world got smaller and smaller. Before long, Vegas was out of the question.

Then one Sunday, Carolyn and I took her up to Ojai to a party at the home of my partner, Sergio Aragonés, who made an exquisite paella for all. She loved the scenery. She loved Sergio's home. She loved the paella. The only thing she didn't love was being a two-hour drive from her own bed. After that at her request, we instituted a half-hour time limit on travel. She didn't want to go anywhere, no matter what it was, that was so far I couldn't have her home within thirty minutes.

I offered to take her to local plays and concerts and to see touring companies of Cirque du Soleil, which she'd seen in Vegas and loved…but the thirty-minute rule prevented all those. "If you get tired and want to go to bed," I told her, "we'll just leave."

"Nonsense," she'd respond. "I'm not going to turn to you halfway through Act One of a play you're enjoying and you paid good money for and say, 'Take me home.'" No matter how many times I told her I wouldn't mind, she stood by that position. She finally asked me to stop suggesting outings of that kind. Which I did until I came up with one she couldn't refuse…

Two years ago, I decided to have a 60th birthday party ostensibly for myself…but really, it was a way of dragging my mother out of her house and giving many of my friends a chance to meet her. There were some fabulous, fun venues available but I picked and bought out a small Chinese restaurant relatively close to where she lived. "It's at Fu's Palace," I told her.  "You love Fu's Palace and it's a ten minute drive from here. Fifteen with egg roll."

She said, "But if I'm feeling too tired, I can't ask you to leave your own birthday party and drive me home."

I said, "It's all arranged. I have five different friends who've volunteered to chauffeur you home and tuck you in the instant you say you want to go." With that as a guarantee, she agreed to attend…and she was, of course, the hit of the party. She held court at the front table and there was actually a line to sit and talk with her. I overheard her tell Stan Freberg how she used to watch Time for Beany when she was pregnant with me. (There is no truth to the rumor that as I was born, I yelled out, "I'm comin', Beany Boy!")

She not only had a great evening, she wound up staying until we were the last to leave and I could drive her home myself. It was the last time she left her house to go anywhere that wasn't Kaiser Hospital.

She died seven months after that party.

When you lose a parent, you can't help but ask yourself what, if anything, you should have done that you didn't. When my father passed, I couldn't think of a thing. When my mother passed, I couldn't think of a thing, either. Every now and then though, I wonder if maybe I should have talked her into that detour to New York. She would have had such a great time. Such a great time.

In many of the essays I've written about comic book collecting, I've talked about an increasingly-legendary group we had in the mid-to-late sixties called the Los Angeles Comic Book Club. Others started it but I was president for all of the several years of its existence. It convened every Saturday afternoon at a public park near where the Santa Monica Freeway and the San Diego Freeway cross…and each week, a few dozen devout comic fans would converge on that park for trading, selling and a lot of discussion.

A lot of great friendships were made (and one or two ended) at the L.A.C.B.C. This evening, I had dinner with a group of folks, two of whom I've known since they came to the club about '68. One is Bruce Simon, who drew for a number of underground comics at the time and who now owns and operates a company selling classic television programs on video. The other is Steve Sherman…and the reason for the whole gathering was to celebrate Steve's 65th birthday.

Some folks reading this will remember that when I worked for Jack Kirby in the early seventies, I had a partner. That was Steve. When I went off to write comics and TV shows, Steve became a very successful maker and operator of puppets, often for TV and movies. By sheer coincidence, I wound up writing a few shows which featured the skilled puppetry of my former partner and his current partner, Greg Williams. Greg was also there this evening along with many of Steve's friends and family members, most notably Steve's terrific wife, Diana.

I do not recall that Steve and I ever had an argument in the four-or-so years of our partnership or in the other 42 years I've known him. Disagreements — and there were some — were always resolved in a civilized, congenial manner. This was because he was and is a civilized, congenial fellow and someone I've always liked an awful lot. I like Bruce, too. It was great to see both of them again…and given some recent medical problems, especially great to see Steve up and around and looking well.