WonderCon 2023 starts tomorrow. I'm not sure when I'm getting there or when I'm leaving but I'll certainly be around for the panels below and at other times. Where I'll be when I'm there and not paneling is a good question. Several folks have written to ask that because they have comics they want signed.

I continue to stand on my unalienable rights, among which are Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness, not watching Tucker Carlson and not having a table at a convention where I'm expected to sit all day. So I'll be roaming the hall, visiting with friends and perhaps sitting at their tables now and then…and avoiding cosplayers brandishing weaponry. Just think of it as a big, live Where's Waldo? game except that I won't be wearing a striped shirt.

This will be my umpteenth WonderCon because I always have a good time at them and, from what I can see, so do all the other attendees. I believe badges are still available. It's kinda like Comic-Con except that you can get in. If you're there, check out some or all of these events…

Friday, March 24 — 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM in Room 213AB
HOW TO WRITE FOR ANIMATION
Did you ever dream of writing cartoon shows? Well, here's your chance to find out how to do it from three guys who have written hundreds and hundreds of them. The secrets of animation writing will be divulged by WonderCon special guests Tom Ruegger (Pinky and the Brain, Disney's The 7D), Paul Rugg (Animaniacs, Freakazoid!), and moderator Mark Evanier (The Garfield Show, Dungeons & Dragons).

Saturday, March 25 — Noon to 1:00 PM in Room 207
THE ANNUAL JACK KIRBY TRIBUTE PANEL
Like we do at almost every convention, we remember the man some called The King of the Comics — the man who created or co-created many of the most popular characters ever in the medium. Discussing Jack Kirby are Marv Wolfman (writer/editor), John Morrow (publisher of The Jack Kirby Collector), Paul S. Levine (lawyers for the Kirby Trust), and moderator Mark Evanier (former assistant to Jack Kirby).

Saturday, March 25 — 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM in Room 207
CARTOON VOICES
It's another one of Evanier's popular panels where he gathers a bunch of top animation voice actors to demonstrate their craft, tell how they got into the business, and destroy the script for a beloved fairy tale. Appearing this time are Joe Ochman (current voice of Jiminy Cricket), Kaitlyn Robrock (current voice of Minnie Mouse), Neil Ross (Transformers, G.I. Joe), Cynthia McWilliams (What If?), and Brian Hull (Hotel Transylvania). Mark Evanier (of course) is your host.

As always, times, rooms, panelists and just about everything is subject to change so check your Program Guide and this site to make sure. And as always, I refuse to sit behind a table at a convention for very long so I'll be wandering the hall. If you see me, say howdy. The entire programming schedule can be found online here and remember to consult the COVID policy here.

One of the nicest men I've met in comics, Joe Giella, passed away peacefully yesterday at the age of 94. His career in comics started in or around 1945 and he worked for Hillman, Fawcett and Timely before settling in to a more-or-less steady stream of work for DC Comics in 1949. Readers knew him best for his work inking The Flash, Green Lantern and Batman in the sixties and he was the main artist on the Batman newspaper strip for years. His work was also seen on the newspaper strips of Flash Gordon, The Phantom and Mary Worth.

Joe was an all-around artist but editors more often gave him inking work…and he was not the kind of inker who'd trace the penciler's work slavishly. With his editors' permission (and sometimes without) he would interpret pencil art and add in or omit elements that the first artist drew. Some objected but his editors usually thought he'd improved the work so they always kept him busy. He was especially valuable in the sixties when DC wanted a more realistic look to art on Batman comics that Bob Kane allegedly drew. Sheldon Moldoff, who ghosted for Kane, couldn't give them the look they wanted when he penciled those stories. Joe supplied it in the inks.

He was a very reliable professional, so much so that he often helped other artists in deadline trouble. One can see Giella inking often in comics of the sixties that were officially inked by his buddy and neighbor, Frank Giacoia and others. And like I said, he was a very nice man. Condolences to his family. I was going to write "friends and family" but everyone who ever met Joe was his friend. What a fabulous career.

Jordan Klepper talks to the people who showed up in New York yesterday to protest Trump being indicted — all three of them…

MSNBC and a few other media outlets are urging us to watch them 24/7 for news of the Trump indictment. The premise seems to be that it would be awful if I didn't hear about it until, oh, maybe five whole minutes after it's announced. And I just heard Jim Jordan on some channel claiming that this whole paying-off-a-porn-star matter is just a "bookkeeping error."

Seems to me that if there's no evidence that it was intentional falsification, the charges would never have been brought. If all it turns out to be is that, Trump will go free to say, "See, I told you it was all a witch hunt and so are all the other times anyone says I did anything wrong."

So everyone, including Trump, expects Trump to be indicted and in some sense of the word, arrested. No one except maybe those in the District Attorney's office knows when this will happen though it'll probably be soon. No one except those in that office knows the exact charge or precisely what the supporting evidence may be.

And now that I've written that, I can put my mind on other things for the rest of the day.

Hey, remember back in this post when we attempted to identify all the people in a photo from one of the trips that the staff of MAD magazine took way back when? There were a few unidentified folks and there's now some evidence that one of them was probably E.L. Doctorow, who you know best as the author of many acclaimed, big-selling novels including Ragtime, Billy Bathgate and The March.

Anders Moe, who describes himself as longtime reader of this blog who lives in Oslo, points out to me that in a MAD collection, MAD About the Sixties, it said "E. L. Doctorow edited MAD's first four paperback anthologies (published by Ian Ballantine) and therefore found himself trekking Virgin Islands beaches with Gaines and his motley crew." Sergio says he met Mr. Doctorow at several MAD functions and that Doctorow was a close friend of MAD's art director John Putnam.

So E.L. Doctorow is probably one of the people we couldn't identify in that photo. Which one might be him is anyone's guess.

The tech remodeling job on this website is almost complete. A few things here and there are still formatted incorrectly but they should all be put right within the week. Thank you for your patience. And thanks to those of you who donated money to pay for it.

The skill set of Johnny Carson included sometimes (usually) being able to wring a good conversation out of guests who weren't talkative in the way you're expected to be talkative on a talk show.  Here we have an interview with Marty Feldman on The Tonight Show for 7/15/1977.  I'm going to guess Mr. Feldman wasn't particularly thrilled to be doing this but he had this movie coming out that he'd written, starred in and directed — The Last Remake of Beau Geste — and he knew he had to do things like this to enhance its box office take.

A month or two before this, I attended a seminar where Feldman spoke and answered questions. He was delightful and funny and very honest. About his upcoming movie, he said — and I think this is verbatim — "I have a four-picture deal with Universal unless this one bombs, in which case I have a one-picture deal." As things turned out, the film was a modest hit but Feldman wound up in a huge battle with the studio because they recut the film and made many changes of which he did not approve. Perhaps that had something to do with his less-than-excited demeanor on Johnny's show.

Eventually, he went on to make In God We Trust (or Gimme That Prime Time Religion) a few years later for the same studio, then was unable to get the next film on his deal going before he died in 1982. It was a great loss because he really was a funny, creative man.

The interview, as you'll see, gets off to a slow start. Feldman was speaking in a low voice and you may be able to see the boom mike over him being lowered, sometimes into the shot, to try and pick up what he was saying better. Nowadays, guests are usually radio-miked so a boom is not necessary and it's easier to crank up someone's volume.

Johnny throws a lot of questions at his guest and I think he was hoping Feldman would mention his eyes so that he could be asked about them as a follow-up question instead of having the host raise the topic. Finally, Johnny had to bring them up and the interview picked up a lot. I don't believe Feldman ever appeared with him again…

No, I am not expecting to see Donald Trump arrested today. If it happens, it happens. It's interesting that you don't have to do a lot of Googling or Binging or however you search the 'net to find a few "legal experts" telling you the case against him is rock solid while other "legal experts" tell you it's iffy and he might escape serious consequences. The other looming prosecutions seem more serious and more dangerous for the man.

It's been raining a lot in California and starting yesterday, I began to get e-mails asking if I was safe. Answer: As safe as I ever am. One has to remember that this is a big state and you can see news stories about massive flooding in California that only apply to 5% of all of California. I live in a flat, urban area away from rivers and mountains and forests. But I appreciate the concern.

I'm prepping for WonderCon, working on my taxes, doing whatever it is I do on Groo and watching as a bevy of skilled construction workers repair the damage done to my home in December when a major water pipe suddenly gave out and destroyed about a third of my kitchen. Nothing was damaged that is not replaceable but it's still cost me a lot of time and attention and dealing with insurance folks. Things should settle down in the coming weeks so posting here should become more consistent.

I'm always on the lookout for food I can prepare in a hurry and my current go-to is a huge bag of frozen Trident Fish Sticks.  The box in the photo above is 15 ounces but from Costco, I got a sack of 64 ounces for just under twenty bucks.  Other makers of frozen fish sticks do not recommend microwaving their product and I'm sure that if I took the time to fry — or even air-fry — these, they'd be crispy.

But the Trident folks say you can pop three in the microwave for 90 to 180 seconds and what I get is darn good, darn cheap and darn fast. It's Alaska Pollock with a minimum of breading…not the healthiest, best meal I could have but when things get hectic here, I'm glad to have 'em in my freezer. They're in there between the Meatballs & Mozzarella Hot Pockets and the Just Bare Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Original Fillets.

Devin Stone — the "Legal Eagle" of YouTube — looks at some cartoons about lawyers and reacts…

When Richard Nixon was in free-fall during Watergate, I was an avid watcher and reader of the news. Even if you didn't hate Nixon — and I'd like to think I didn't; that I just thought he was a bad man — it was a fascinating story. Alas, I missed seeing in real-time what may have been the most interesting moment of that sordid story. I was off at a convention during the infamous Saturday Night Massacre.

I am now facing the possibility that I will be at WonderCon when Donald Trump is arrested and/or indicted for the first — but probably not last — time. That timing is a slim possibility but I might have to tear myself away from coverage on TV and my laptop to go moderate panels and do interviews and meetings. It could be a most entertaining week if it happens in the next few days, what with Al Franken hosting The Daily Show this week.

As with the Nixon matter, it's intriguing that it's all so unprecedented and therefore so unpredictable. I'm kinda curious, as well as a little scared, about the calls for protests. The insurrectionists on January 6 more or less had a stated goal: To stop the confirmation of Biden's victory so that some sort of legal miracle, including but not limited to Mike Pence exercising powers he didn't really have, could reinstall Trump. If I were a Trump supporter who was equally outraged now, I'm not sure where I would demonstrate or what I'm really asking for…to have a prosecution dropped because of mob rule?

But then I wouldn't pretend to understand what these people want beyond a vote that makes our 45th President also our 47th. I'm not even sure how many of them think Trump is a good man and good Chief Exec and all the charges are Fake News and we'd all be better off with him in the White House…

…and which ones think, "Even if he did everything they accuse him of, I still want him as My President." The few Trumpers I know well enough to engage in civil conversation have all abandoned him. They want right-wing policies in our government but they fear that running Trump in the next election will lead to a Democratic landslide. I have no idea how prevalent these various attitudes are or how the current prosecutions will affect them. I just think they'll affect them.

Here's a spot from CBS Sunday Morning on the new production of Sweeney Todd on Broadway. The title role is played by Josh Groban, who has the voice for it but I wonder if he has the crazy for it…

In 2017, I took my lovely friend Amber back to New York and we saw four shows. One was the "immersive" production of Sweeney Todd staged in a small Greenwich Village theater that had been converted into a pie shop. The production had eight actors, three musicians, no microphones and a stunning impact. I had seen many productions of the musical but this one may have been my favorite.

Amber had seen zero productions of Sweeney Todd and the next night, we went to see Prince of Broadway, an amalgam of scenes from shows produced and/or directed by Hal Prince. It included a number from Sweeney Todd and between the two shows, she fell in love with the work and I promised to one day take her to a fully-staged production.

So I hope this new production runs long enough for me to feel like getting on a plane again and taking her east. But I really don't so I hope it has a healthy run in New York and then comes out here on tour. That way, we can attend the tale and I can keep my promise.

Sorry for not posting. Very busy day around here. I'll put something up here by Midnight even if it's just a video link. Oh — and I've decided to take the "over" on Trump being arrested Tuesday.

From a long, long time ago on Sesame Street, here's one of those songs that burrowed its way into my brain and never left…

And here's an updated, modern version of it which I also kinda like, though not as much as the previous version…

Like I said, I think Donald Trump's going to be arrested and/or indicted but I don't think it will be this week. Here's a piece by Hannah Docter-Loeb that explains why

Donald Trump is telling his supporters that he will be arrested on Tuesday and that they should demonstrate on his behalf and send him money. I think he will be arrested at some point, or at least indicted, and it may be this Tuesday but I wouldn't assume that. I think Donald Trump loves nothing more in this world than for his fans to demonstrate on his behalf and to send him money and that he wouldn't miss an opportunity to get some of that going.

And if he isn't arrested on Tuesday, he can say, "They backed down because of the enormous wave of support shown for me by true Americans who want me back in the Oval Office!" The guy is real good at this kind of thing.

WonderCon 2023 starts one week from today…

Friday, March 24 — 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM in Room 213AB
HOW TO WRITE FOR ANIMATION
Did you ever dream of writing cartoon shows? Well, here's your chance to find out how to do it from three guys who have written hundreds and hundreds of them. The secrets of animation writing will be divulged by WonderCon special guests Tom Ruegger (Pinky and the Brain, Disney's The 7D), Paul Rugg (Animaniacs, Freakazoid!), and moderator Mark Evanier (The Garfield Show, Dungeons & Dragons).

Saturday, March 25 — Noon to 1:00 PM in Room 207
THE ANNUAL JACK KIRBY TRIBUTE PANEL
Like we do at almost every convention, we remember the man some called The King of the Comics — the man who created or co-created many of the most popular characters ever in the medium. Discussing Jack Kirby are Marv Wolfman (writer/editor), John Morrow (publisher of The Jack Kirby Collector), Paul S. Levine (lawyers for the Kirby Trust), and moderator Mark Evanier (former assistant to Jack Kirby).

Saturday, March 25 — 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM in Room 207
CARTOON VOICES
It's another one of Evanier's popular panels where he gathers a bunch of top animation voice actors to demonstrate their craft, tell how they got into the business, and destroy the script for a beloved fairy tale. Appearing this time are Joe Ochman (current voice of Jiminy Cricket), Kaitlyn Robrock (current voice of Minnie Mouse), Neil Ross (Transformers, G.I. Joe), Cynthia McWilliams (What If?), and Brian Hull (Hotel Transylvania). Mark Evanier (of course) is your host.

As always, times, rooms, panelists and just about everything is subject to change so check your Program Guide and this site to make sure. And as always, I refuse to sit behind a table at a convention for very long so I'll be wandering the hall. If you see me, say howdy. The entire programming schedule can be found online here and remember to consult the COVID policy here.