On comic book message boards, I see a lot of what seems to me like misplaced, useless anger about comics done long ago. For example, in 1967, longtime Flash artist Carmine Infantino was promoted into a management position at DC Comics and no longer had time (or probably the interest) to draw the Flash comic. He had drawn all its previous issues since the hero was revived in 1956 so his style was very much a part of that comic.

As one of his first decisions in his new position, Infantino announced he'd selected Ross Andru to take over that strip. Ross was an experienced artist — a good one, I felt — but an odd choice. His style was quite different from Infantino's and clearly he was not selected to continue but to change the look and feel of that comic. If fans love something, they usually do not like having the look and feel of it changed on them. They often get mad…

…and in this case, at whom did they get mad? Why, at Ross Andru, of course, and some of the mad people couldn't have been madder if Ross had come to their homes and killed a beloved housepet or sibling. A few are still mad at him. A few weeks ago on Facebook, someone posted a message that read in part, "I'm furious at what Marvel is doing with the X-Men lately but it's still not as bad as when Ross Andru took over The Flash."

And just in case you missed the year mentioned above, let me remind you: Andru took over drawing The Flash 52 years ago. The man died in 1993. He was put on that comic by the guy he replaced and in the industry back then, freelancers didn't have a whole lotta say in their assignments. If the company wanted you inking Green Arrow, you inked Green Arrow. It seems to me that if you're angry that he didn't draw that comic like Carmine Infantino, your argument is with Carmine Infantino…who is also no longer with us.

Also: This was over a half-century ago. If Mr. Andru had robbed a liquor store or committed assault, the Statute of Limitations would long since have rendered his crime a distant memory. But getting assigned to the wrong comic? That's something you just don't forgive.

Richard Kelsey wrote to ask…

You have been to every Comic-Con and probably a lot of other comic conventions. Is shopping still a part of the convention experience for you? Is there still a comic or other type of collectible that you try to find when you go to a convention? Or is that no longer a factor for your trips to conventions?

If the latter, when was the last time that you shopped and found something at a convention and what was it?

Once upon a time, I bought lots of stuff at every comic convention I attended. Of course also, once upon a time, I had empty space in my home. For reasons of Nowhere To Put Stuff, I had to curtail my purchasing. Also, as I became more active in the business, I was placed on a lot of comp lists and as I wrote columns and blogged, I was on more lists to receive review copies. So some things I might once have purchased came to me free and some, I just decided I could live without.

I stopped filling in missing issues in my comic book collection. At some point, I reached the stage where anything I wanted but didn't have was going for a price I wouldn't pay. Many of you are nodding your heads in understanding. So I wasn't buying old stuff and the new stuff I wanted and didn't receive gratis could be easily ordered online. My purchasing at conventions went way, way down…some years, to Zero.

An awful lot of what I did buy at the Comic-Con in San Diego when I did buy, I bought from Bud Plant's wondrous display. For a long, long time, Bud Plant Books had the biggest/best spread of new books filled with comics or new books about comics. I also bought a lot of stuff from Bud via mail order…which I preferred because I didn't have to carry it around the con for hours, then back to my room, then down to my car (assuming I had a car there that year) and then into my house. A couple of years there, I walked around Bud's booth, took notes and then placed an order they would ship to me when they got back to their base of operations.

Bud finally stopped exhibiting at San Diego. 2017 was his last year there and with great luck, that was the year I decided to take along a certificate I had from him for credit. I'd found it some time earlier in a folder in my file cabinet and thought, "Hey, I ought to take this down to the con and use this up." And then I forgot and I forgot and I forgot until finally in '17, I remembered.

I have no idea why but I had around $250 worth of credit on it. I took the slip to his booth and asked one of Bud's salesfolks if there'd be any problem honoring it. It was dated 1993. The fellow's eyebrows hit the ceiling but he checked with Bud and Bud said sure, of course, fine. I then wound up buying about $600 worth of books and paying the difference so I think — I hope — Bud made a profit on my redemption. That was the last purchase of anything notable (anything except food and beverage) I recall making at a convention. It was also the first in quite some time.

I'm going to try limiting myself to one Trump-related post a day. Today, it's this article by William Saletan. One of my long-held peeves — and I'm sure I've mentioned this before, not in reference to our current White House occupant — is folks who talk tough. As I've learned, talking tough and being tough are often two separate things and in my experience, most who talk tough aren't tough. They're just trying to scare others from challenging them or crossing them or somehow putting them in a situation where they would need to actually be tough. Because they aren't and they're terrified of being exposed in that regard.

On to matters that are happier to think about…

Tonight at 7 PM PDT, I'll be chatting online with Max Maven, a superb magician. There are some magicians who just dazzle you with their sheer skill. There are some who make you laugh. There are some whose performances make you think, often for long periods after you see them do what they do. Max checks all three boxes with what he does on stage. You can watch our conversation right here while it happens or come back later and watch replays-on-demand.

I'm lining up future guests. Just got a commitment from someone I really, really wanted but he can't do it until October. I've also had requests for more interviews of me and I'll schedule another one of those before long.

A lot of questions are coming in about the platform I use for these webcasts. When I started, many pandemic months ago, I looked at several options and selected Streamyard, which is one that a lot of webcasters are using. I use that for webcasting and Zoom for business-like private conferences. Since I decided on Streamyard, many new options have entered the marketplace and all the ones that were already there have done considerable upgrading…so I have no idea what I'd pick if I went shopping today. But I'm very happy with Streamyard.

I have a Zoom conference at 11:45 and I need to shave 'n' shower and pick out something nice to wear from the waist up so I'll be back here later with something to say. Assuming I think of anything…not that that usually stops me.

New York Times obit for Joe. It's a shame there probably won't be a big public memorial for him. A lot of people loved Joe and I would have liked to hear more stories about the man. He was a very important guy in his field.

I've tried unsubscribing to these things but I continue to get them. Maybe I continue to get them because I've tried unsubscribing to them…

Mark, you've been identified as one of President Trump's BEST supporters, and we wanted to reach out to let you know about your EXCLUSIVE offer.

President Trump originally authorized a 600%-MATCH on all contributions, but we're SO CLOSE to CRUSHING our $30,000,000 End-of-Month Goal that he's decided to up the stakes. FOR ONE HOUR: all contributions will be 700%-MATCHED!

That's right, Mark. When you make your next contribution, it will make 700% MORE of an impact.

This offer is only available for the NEXT HOUR, so you need to act fast.

Please contribute ANY AMOUNT RIGHT NOW to help us CRUSH our End-of-Month Goal and your gift will be 700%-MATCHED.

The President will be reviewing the updated list of Deadline Donors later tonight. Will he see your name on it?

I don't quite get how this works. Trump says to his guys, "Tell them that for every $100 they give, we'll get $700 instead of $600." Who from? It makes it sound like Trump is donating the money to himself but only on the condition that I send some money first. If I don't send him the $100, he won't give himself the other $600.

And this e-mail arrived in my e-mailbox around 4:00 in the morning so by the time I saw it, the one hour was long over. So I guess now if I were to give him the $100, he wouldn't give himself the extra money so what's the point? Oh, if only he'd made his generous offer to himself good for six hours.

But I do believe Trump's personally going to look over the list of donors tonight and notice that my name is not on there. And he's going to turn to some aide and say, "What's with Evanier? He used to be one of my BEST supporters." And maybe someone will gently break the crushing news to him that I've never given him a nickel and I've always thought he was a horrible, destructive human being.

Is there anyone more appropriate to introduce a great plate-spinner than an Ed Sullivan impersonator?

I started to write a piece about Trump and about a third of the way into it, I suddenly got sick of thinking about the guy and stopped. Sometimes, it's so on my mind that I have to write about it just to get it out of my head. Sometimes, I can stop by just stopping.

I've been out of the house a bit lately to some stores, two "to-go" restaurant pick-ups and even one car wash. I don't think I saw one person not wearing a mask even though a few of them don't seem to understand that it's supposed to cover at least the bottom half of your nose. I even saw a couple of homeless people with them on.

Got a message from a guy writing to ask how come I haven't written anything condemning the violence we're seeing in the streets a lot these days. Has it come to that, America? That if someone doesn't explicitly state that they're against looting and vandalism and shooting people in the back, they just might be in favor of them? Hey, in case I forget to mention it, I'm against the torturing of puppies. And all those other things.

For those of you who asked: I thank everyone who wrote in with suggestions about my broken DVD player. A lot of the suggestions — like just throwing it in the trash — had occurred to me. But one person — Mike Frank — recommended a repair service that ain't that far from me and the folks there say that if I bring it in, there's a good chance they can get it working. We'll see. Either way: Thanks, Mike!

Just had a lovely phone call with my ol' neighbor Betty Lynn, who sounded great on the phone. I couldn't get through to her yesterday because she got so many Happy Birthday calls…and couldn't go out to celebrate because — well, you know. But I told her than when all this COVID stuff is over, I'll get back to North Carolina to see her again. This is the most optimistic thing I've written in months.

No further Cartoon Voices Panels are scheduled. There will be more…I just don't know when. But I'll be doing my Tuesday Night Conversations for a while and this Tuesday, I'll be talking with a great magician and a very wise gent named Max Maven. Magic is one of my interests and if I had fewer interests, I'd probably be a lot better at all of them than I am…but magic especially.

One of the topics I want to explore with Max is the difference between the magician lying when he says "I just put the three of clubs in my pocket" and lying when he says "The person I selected from the audience to aid in this illusion is a complete stranger and we have never met or planned anything." I have on a couple of occasions been an Audience Plant and I still feel guilty about it. I also want to discuss the many parallels I, at least, have observed between performing magic and performing stand-up comedy…and many other topics. Join us if you can.

• You ever get the feeling that somewhere, the Republican Party we've known for so many years is bound and gagged and being held as prisoners while Trump and his minions impersonate them? The guy playing Lindsey Graham sure ain't convincing in the role.

Where oh where are the great plate-spinning acts of today?

This article by Roger Friedman has a major error in it. It's right that Marvel CEO has been a major financial supporter of Donald Trump and other Trump-affiliated Republican candidates. It's dead wrong that Stan Lee sold Marvel. You can't sell what you never owned.

Today is the mumble-mumble birthday of the lovely Betty Lynn, who had a grand career in movies and television and who is best remembered as Thelma Lou, the romantic interest of Deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show. But to me, she'll always be that wonderful lady who lived next door to the house in West L.A. in which I grew up. She was not a relative but she always felt like one and it was a joy last year to travel to Mt. Airy, North Carolina (where she now lives) to see and hug her once again. I wrote about that trip here.

Betty was a wonderful neighbor and there are still people who think that the coolest thing about me is that I lived next door to Thelma Lou. Sadly, they may be right. I just tried to call her to wish her a happy day and got her voicemail. I figure she's out, celebrating painting Mt. Airy red or at least a decadent shade of pink. I'll try again later but at least I can wish her one now, here on the Internet. And I can say that I hope she has many, many more.

The comedian Jim Gaffigan has been tweeting some fierce (and sometimes very funny) lines about Donald Trump lately. That causes pushback, of course, from Trump supporters and there ain't nothing wrong with that. Free Speech is only Free Speech when it's a two-way street.

But can we all agree that "Celebrities should shut up about politics and just entertain us" is a pretty lame argument unless — note the italics for emphasis — you also condemn celebrities who say things with which you agree? I wouldn't endorse that principle but at least it's a principle and not a hypocritical way of trying to get the other side to just shut up. Have any of the folks telling Jim Gaffigan he has no right to be heard said that about James Woods?

I actually can understand that some people think like this: [Name of Celebrity] didn't get famous because of his political punditry. He got there because he told great, funny jokes about eating at McDonald's or he starred in some movies or whatever. How come that buys him a soapbox that I, a guy who drives a truck for a living, doesn't have? Sports figures became famous because they can run or shoot free throws or hit a ball. What entitles them to be heard so loudly about who to vote for?

And I get that but it's simply the way fame works and always has. What entitles them to get paid megabucks to endorse products? Answer: The public responds to it. Tom Selleck — an actor I like and one who probably wasn't starving — must be getting paid a fortune to sell those stupid, evil Reverse Mortgages. Why are they paying him so much? Because he gets more results than an anonymous, unknown spokesguy would. So why can't Jim Gaffigan — who is not being paid to do so — sell us Joe Biden?

After all, Scott Baio was at the Republican National Infomercial selling us Trump. I'm guessing he'd rather be selling the Reverse Mortgages. It pays better and either way, the result is the same: Lots of people losing their homes.

Remember last week when Mei Xiang, the female giant panda housed at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. gave birth to a cub? Well, here's what the newborn panda is looking and sounding like these days. It's pretty much how you looked and sounded when you were one week old…

I am under no delusion that this blog — or perhaps any blog — can change the minds of those who want four more years of what we now have in this country. But I sometimes feel better when I post things like this observation from Ezra Klein…

So this is the core of Trump's reelection message: You should give him credit for the economic recovery he inherited from Obama. And you should blame someone else for the disastrous response to the coronavirus.

I think that's absolutely right. Mr. Klein explains at greater length here.