Before he passed, comic creator Jerry Robinson inaugurated the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing — an honor presented each year at the Comic-Con International in San Diego. The award recognizes a writer of comics who produced a splendid body of work but who did not receive proper recognition and/or financial reward. At the time Jerry proposed this award, that was all too true of Bill Finger.

These days, Finger is acknowledged for his contributions to his most important work…but since others are not, the award lives on. This is the annual announcement that as its Administrator, I am now open to receive nominations and suggestions for the 2017 presentation. We give out two of them. One is a posthumous award. The other is for someone who is happily alive and who can (we hope) be there to receive it in person. Here's what else you need to know…

1. This is an award for a body of work as a comic book writer. Every year, a couple of folks nominate their favorite artist. Sometimes, they don't get that "writer" part and sometimes, they argue that their nominee qualifies because their favorite artist has done so many comics, he must have written one or two of them so we can give him this trophy. Wrong. It's for a body of work as a comic book writer. Got that? Also, "a body of work" is not one or two comics you liked written by someone relatively new to the field.
2. This award is for a writer who has received insufficient reward for his or her splendid body of work. It can be insufficient in terms of recognition or insufficient in terms of legal tender or it can, of course, be both. But this is not just an award for writing good comic books.
3. And it's for writing comic books, not comic strips or pulps or anything else. We stretch that definition far enough to include MAD but that's about as far as we'll stretch it.
4. To date, this award has gone to Arnold Drake, Alvin Schwartz, George Gladir, Larry Lieber, Frank Jacobs, Gary Friedrich, Del Connell, Steve Skeates, Don Rosa, Jerry Siegel, Harvey Kurtzman, Gardner Fox, Archie Goodwin, John Broome, Otto Binder, Bob Haney, Frank Doyle, Steve Gerber, Robert Kanigher, Bill Mantlo, Jack Mendelsohn, John Stanley, Don McGregor, Richard E. Hughes and Elliott S! Maggin. Those folks, having already won, cannot win again.
5. If you have already nominated someone in years past, you need not nominate them again. They will be considered for this year's awards.
6. If you nominate someone for the posthumous award, it would help if you also suggested an appropriate person to accept on that person's behalf. Ideally, it would be a relative, preferably a spouse, child or grandchild. It could also be a person who worked with the nominee or — last resort — a friend or historian who can speak about them and their work. And if it's not a relative, we would also welcome suggestions as to an appropriate place for the plaque to reside — say, a museum or with someone who was close to the honoree.

Would you like to nominate someone? If so, here's the new address for nominations. Nominations will be accepted until April 24 when all reasonable suggestions will be placed before our Blue Ribbon Judging Committee. Their selections will be announced some time in May and the presentations will be made at the Eisner Awards ceremony, which is Friday evening at Comic-Con.

Just want to assure you all that I am fine (if a bit sleep-deprived) and that normal posting on this blog will resume shortly. I had a great, if fatiguing, time at WonderCon this past weekend and I'll be telling you about that when I resume telling you about everything.

And it's about time we had one. This is just in case you're the only person on the planet who hasn't seen this…

I continue to be fine but not quite ready to resume a normal pace o' posting. Thanks (again) to those of you who've written in concern but apart from a touch of sleep deprivation, I'm okay and I will be in Anaheim this weekend at least some of the time to host panels and walk aimlessly around WonderCon. Here is a link to the list of panels I'll be hosting there.

Can't write much about Trump because I haven't been keeping up on what he's doing…and by the way, that's a great way to get a restful night of sleep and/or digest your food without a Pepto Bismol milk shake — you know, the kind with multi-colored Omeprazole sprinkled on top. I'm probably on safe ground though if I say that his big plans are fizzling out, his outright lies are being exposed everywhere, and the downward descent of his favorable rating just passed typhoid and will soon be lower than passing a kidney stone the size and shape of a Rubik's Cube.

I did though enjoy this piece by Matt Taibbi. Favorite paragraph…

One of the brilliant innovations of the Trump phenomenon has been the turning of expertise into a class issue. Formerly, scientists were political liabilities only insofar as their work clashed with the teachings of TV Bible-thumpers. Now, any person who in any way disputes popular misconceptions — that balancing a budget is just like balancing a checkbook, that two snowfalls in a week prove global warming isn't real, that handguns would have saved Jews from the Holocaust or little kids from the Sandy Hook massacre — is part of an elitist conspiracy to deny the selfhood of the Google-educated American. The Republicans understand this axiom: No politician in the Trump era is going to dive in a foxhole to save scientific research. Scientists, like reporters, Muslims and the French, are out.

It used to be that everyone was entitled to their opinion. Now, it's like everyone is entitled to their own Laws of Physics.

I will be back full-strength when I can be. Soon, I promise.

I just read the smartest piece I've read on the whole Health Care mess. It's by Ezra Klein and it was written back when Trump was still demanding the Friday vote which wound up not happening. Here's a key excerpt…

Trump is not a guy who makes particularly good deals so much as a guy who makes a lot of deals — many of which lash his name and reputation to garbage products.

Trump, a lifelong teetotaler, didn't scour the globe to find the very best vodka. No — someone offered him an opportunity to make a quick buck by putting his name on a product [Trump Vodka] he wouldn't ever touch and he took it. Trump University was a far darker scam. Trump Steaks were, and are, a joke.

This is Trump's pattern: He licenses his brand and lets others worry about the details of the products. Trump's partners often end up going out of business and his customers often end up disappointed, but Trump makes some money, and he gets his name out there, and it's all good.

This was Trump's approach to the health care bill, too. He let someone else worry about the product and he simply licensed his name, marketing support, and political capital. Trump didn't know what was in the American Health Care Act, and he didn't much care. It broke his promises to ensure health care for everyone, to protect Medicaid from cuts, to lower deductibles, and to guarantee choices of doctors and plans — but he didn't pay attention to any of that. In private, Trump was apparently bored by the subject and eager to move onto tax reform.

And now Paul Ryan is in the position of all those partners in Trump hotels who lost their entire investment when the project failed. But of course.

WonderCon commences next Friday at the newly-refurbished and enlarged Anaheim Convention Center. I hear they've made it nicer and bigger and that it has way more parking spaces. If they'd moved it far enough away from Disneyland to not share the same off-ramps, it might be the best place ever to hold a convention. The entire programming schedule is online here and the list of panels I'm doing is below…

Friday, March 31 – 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM, Room 208
THE MARK, SERGIO, STAN AND MAYBE TOM SHOW
The folks who bring you Groo the Wanderer tell you how (and maybe why) they bring you Groo the Wanderer and maybe other things, as well. They are Mark Evanier, Sergio Aragonés, Stan Sakai, and maybe the hardest-working man in comics, Tom Luth. Learn what it is that compels these men to, month after month and year after year, tell their tales of the stupidest character ever in comics. [NOTE: Looks like Stan Sakai will not be present at the con. Dunno yet about Tom.]

Friday, March 31 – 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM, Room 213
WRITING FOR ANIMATION
Ever think you might want to write cartoons? Well, Mark Evanier has written more than 500 half-hours of animated programming, including such programs as The Garfield Show, Garfield and Friends, Dungeons & Dragons, Scooby-Doo, Richie Rich, ABC Weekend Special, Superman Adventures, Thundarr the Barbarian, CBS Storybreak, and many more. He doesn't claim to know everything but thinks he can fill the hour telling you what he does know.

Saturday, April 1 – 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM, Room 300DE
QUICK DRAW!
It's another cartooning battle royale, a duel with sketch pads and Sharpies as three super swift scribblers attempt to make the Flash look lethargic. Competing will be (of course) Sergio Aragonés of MAD and Groo the Wanderer; The Simpsons and The Flintstones artist Scott Shaw! and the new kid on the dais, popular Internet cartoonist Lonnie Millsap. Putting them through their paces will be Mark Evanier, aided by suggestions from the audience. As always, no wagering, and may the best cartoonist win!

Saturday, April 1 – 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM, Room 300DE
CARTOON VOICES
Once more, your host Mark Evanier assembles a dais of talented folks who speak for characters in animated cartoons and video games, and they demonstrate their artistry for you! This time, Mark has Dan Gilvezan (Spider-Man, Dennis the Menace), Elle Newlands (Skylanders, Star Trek into Darkness), Bill Farmer (Goofy, The 7D), Katie Leigh (Muppet Babies, Dungeons & Dragons), Daniel Ross (Donald Duck, Transformers) and maybe a few surprises!

Sunday, April 2 – 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM, Room 207
COVER STORY
Some say the most important part of any comic book is the cover. If that's so, we need to talk more about cover designs-and talk we will with these acclaimed cover creators: Michael Cho (Civil War II, DC reprint series), Sanford Greene (Power Man and Iron Fist, Runaways), Phil Jimenez (Wonder Woman, The Invisibles), Bob Layton (Iron Man, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter), and Lissa Treiman (Slam!, Lumberjanes). Your moderator as usual is Mark Evanier.

Sunday, April 2 – 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM, Room 211
JACK KIRBY TRIBUTE
2017 marks an entire century since the birth of the man many call the most important creative talent ever in comics. This year more than ever, comic fans celebrate the legacy of Jack Kirby. On hand will be former Kirby assistant Steve Sherman, Scott Dunbier from IDW Publishing, Rand Hoppe from the Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center, and Paul S. Levine, attorney for the Rosalind Kirby Trust. Your moderator is another former Kirby assistant, Mark Evanier.

Anything and everything can change, including times, room numbers, panelists and the bushiness of Sergio's mustache. If you see me around, say howdy.

I am fine. I am back for a couple of postings just to let you know and to stop the e-mails asking me if I'm still alive. I'm dealing with something far more important than blogging and will be back in full force when I can. I still plan to be at WonderCon next weekend and will follow this message with my schedule there.

Sorry I wasn't around to write about the whole Health Care debacle in Congress. I offer you this piece by Jonathan Chait who, it seems to me, got it exactly right. I didn't follow the whole matter as closely as I would have if I'd had more time but it did strike me that few of the combatants were interested in anything more than proving who's running this country for the next four years.

As with the effort to destroy health care for poor and sick people, I shall return.

To the surprise and interest of no one, I have been announced as a Special Guest at this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego.  They also announced that someone named Sergio Aragonés will be a Special Guest.

People keep asking me about Professional Registration for Comic-Con. I don't know anything about that except that it will occur on March 23 and you need to read this page.

WonderCon takes place at the Anaheim Convention Center from March 31 to April 2 and we'll both be there. WonderCon has posted its programming schedule and as you can see, I have a measly six panels to do: The annual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel, Quick Draw! (with Sergio, Scott Shaw! and rookie Quick Draw-er Lonnie Millsap), Cover Story, another Sergio-and-Mark Show (although now we call it the Mark, Sergio, Stan Sakai and sometimes Tom Luth Show), a great Cartoon Voices panel and a lecture-type thing where I tell whatever it is I think I know about How to Write for Animation. If none of that interests you, go check out the schedule and I'm sure you'll find something that does.

Once upon a time when the Gallup Poll briefly had President Barack Obama at a 39% approval rating, Donald Trump called it "pathetic" and a sign of failure. Trump himself has now hit 37% in that same poll and he did it in record time. At this many days into his first term, Obama was at 63%.

So Trump is pretty much getting down to the voters who think the worst Republican president is still better than the best Democrat…the ones who'd support the Republican even if he nuked Michigan and was found to have taken a bribe from North Korea for doing so. But some of those people might still turn on him if it seemed plausible than his unpopularity would lead to a Democratic landslide and takeover. I'm not sure they'd all tell pollsters they were unhappy with their guy but they'd be pretty pissed at him.

Here are some links…

• Among the many terrible things Trump has done is to put Mick Mulvaney in charge of our nation's budget. Jonathan Chait tells us about the latest bit of twisted logic as to why we just can't have health care for all.  I mean, it's not like any other country has ever made it work.
• And Donald Trump may be the only president who could propose slashing so many government programs and still do nothing to balance the budget.
• Margaret Hartmann reports that Trump has his aides checking to make sure that everyone in his cabinet is fiercely loyal to the president. Betcha every maniacal dictator in the history of the world has done something similar.
• As we all know, Trump claimed, and I guess still stands firmly behind his claims that Barack Obama conspired with British Intelligence to spy on Trump Tower during the election.  As Jennifer Williams notes, this has been about as debunked as any story could possibly be. I don't know why we aren't having investigations into those claims about Trump and the Russian hookers. That was reported a lot more on the Internet than the spying thing and there was just as much evidence for it.

Oh, also: The Gallup folks say that 57 percent of young Americans see Trump's presidency as illegitimate. No wonder Stephen Colbert and Saturday Night Live soar in the ratings whenever they bash him.

About two dozen of you have written me to say you guessed who the Pop! figure purported to be but the earliest time-stamp was from Eric L. Sofer so he wins…well, nothing. That's the kind of blog I run.

A lot of you said you thought it was Stephen Colbert and a few people said Steve Allen. A lot of you also said you got the right name because you'd just been thinking of him or watching him or he's the only person you watch who wears glasses. Okay, fine. I still don't see the slightest resemblance.

I wanted to note the passing of one of my favorite writers, Jimmy Breslin.  He was a master of first-person reporting, especially on two topics: New Yorkers and the power brokers in Washington.  I never met the man but I followed his work and I felt like I knew him.  Once when I said that to someone who knew him well, I was told, "You couldn't get to know him.  You don't drink."

Here's a nice remembrance of the man by Christopher Bonanos.

This is one of those Pop! figures that renders a famous character or personality in a unique style. This one is of a guy who has his own TV show and — no offense to its designer — I don't think it looks anything like who it's supposed to be.

Now, we'll do this on the honor system. Study it. Decide who you think it's supposed to be…and do try to actually figure it out. Don't just randomly name someone who has their own TV show and wears glasses.

Then click on this link to get the answer. If you're wrong, do nothing. If you're correct, write me and tell me that you recognized him. I will post the name of the first person who claims to have figured it out. I'm not saying I will believe you but I will post your name and whatever you write about how you took one look at it and the answer was obvious. I could have guessed for an hour.

Once more, those of you who live anywhere near Los Angeles have a chance to see the best damned improv comedy troupe I've ever seen. They don't do this very often but they're doing it next Saturday night. What is it they're doing? Why, an Instaplay, of course! That's their name for an entire musical comedy created on the spot, based on a suggestion from someone in the audience — maybe even you! The director is Bill Steinkellner. The cast is George McGrath, Deanna Oliver, Jonathan Stark, Cheri Steinkellner and some great guest performers.

It's this coming Saturday night at the Fanatic Salon Theater in Culver City and tickets are only $11.50. The theater is non-fancy, small and intimate but with a cast this good, who cares? Here's the link to grab up some tix. Try not to block my view of the stage.