The fine folks at Comic-Con International announced the following this morning…

SAN DIEGO – Steve Gerber and Don Rosa have been selected to receive the 2013 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. The selection, made by a blue-ribbon committee chaired by writer-historian Mark Evanier, was unanimous.

The Bill Finger Award was instituted in 2005 at the instigation of comic book legend Jerry Robinson. Each year, the awards committee selects two recipients, one living and one deceased.

"The premise of this award is to recognize writers for a body of work that has not received its rightful reward and/or recognition," Evanier explains. "That was what Jerry Robinson intended as his way of remembering his friend, Bill Finger. Bill is still kind of the industry poster boy for writers not receiving proper reward or recognition." Evanier also notes the appropriateness of this year's selections: "Steve Gerber was one of the most influential writers of his day, and his work has stood the rest of time. Don Rosa is now retired from producing his acclaimed work with Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge. He also drew the comics, but we honor him for the excellence of his stories, which will forever be reprinted around the world. Also, we liked the idea of having an 'all-duck' Finger ceremony."

Steve Gerber got his start in fanzines, worked in advertising, and then found his way to comics in 1972 when he was hired by Roy Thomas for a staff job at Marvel. Gerber wasn't suited for staff work, but by the time Marvel realized that, they'd discovered the value of his quirky imagination as a writer. Before long, he was distinguishing himself with scripts for, among others, Daredevil, The Defenders, Sub-Mariner, and Man-Thing. It was in the Man-Thing feature that he developed his most popular, lasting character, Howard the Duck. Somewhat autobiographical and wildly popular when written by Gerber, Howard was a unique presence in the Marvel Universe that is fondly remembered by many fans of the era. They also hailed Omega the Unknown, which Gerber co-wrote and co-created with Mary Skrenes. He parted ways with Marvel over a contract dispute in 1978, though he would return later. Thereafter, he worked for DC and Eclipse and in TV animation, story-editing and writing shows including Thundarr the Barbarian, G.I. Joe, and The Transformers. Gerber died in 2008 from pulmonary fibrosis.

Don Rosa also got his start in fanzines, with "The Pertwillaby Papers," a comic strip for his college newspaper in Kentucky. An avid collector of comics, he chose for a time to write and draw as a hobby and to make his livelihood in his family's tile business. In 1986, though, he had the opportunity to write and draw stories of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge, his favorite characters when in the hands of the legendary Carl Barks. His meticulous, carefully researched work caught on big, at first in America and then overseas, where he was hailed for expanding on the foundation laid by Barks. Particularly popular was a 12-part series he began in 1991, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, which filled in many details of the character's past. That series, along with Rosa's other tales, has been reprinted around the world as much as any comic book of the last quarter-century. Rosa has now retired from creating new stories, due to failing eyesight and disputes with his publisher over compensation.

The Bill Finger Award honors the memory of William Finger (1914-1974), who was the first and, some say, most important writer of Batman. Many have called him the "unsung hero" of the character and have hailed his work not only on that iconic figure but on dozens of others, primarily for DC Comics.

In addition to Evanier, the selection committee consists of Charles Kochman (executive editor at Harry N. Abrams, book publisher), comic book writer Kurt Busiek, artist/historian Jim Amash, and writer/editor Marv Wolfman.

The 2013 awards are being underwritten by DC Comics (the major sponsor), along with supporting sponsors Heritage Auctions and Maggie Thompson.

The Finger Award falls under the auspices of Comic-Con International: San Diego and is administered by Jackie Estrada. The awards will be presented during the Eisner Awards ceremony at this summer's Comic-Con on July 19.

Additional information on the Finger Award can be found on this page.

Nothing much I can add to this except to say that once again, I'm really happy with the selections that were made this year. And since many of you made one or both suggestions a few months ago when I asked for nominations, I would imagine a lot of you are, too.

One of America's greatest stand-up comedians, even when he's sitting down — Shelley Berman…

I made the mistake of reading Peggy Noonan's column today on The Great Scandals. Or maybe it wasn't a mistake because the emptiness of her accusations convinces me further that this is all just the president's enemies saying, "Gosh darn it. We want a flurry of scandals and we're not going to let the facts stop us from having it!" Barring the revelation of a lot more wrongdoing than we've heard to date, all three of the Big Three Outrages are already becoming scandals that'll bring down the Obama presidency the way Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate, the Trooper Scandal, the murder of Vince Foster, et al, were all scandals that were certain to bring down the Clinton presidency and destroy Hillary once and for all.

Anyway, I was going to write something here about smoke and mirrors and then I read Andrew Sullivan who said it much better.

Even if all the scandals were valid — and right now, it doesn't look like any of them are in terms of White House involvement — it would take about fifty of each of the three to collectively equal Watergate, let alone the impeachment and incarceration we should have had over Iraq. And I still don't get how anyone can look at these two sentences…

1. "But our current best assessment, based on the information that we have at present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was a spontaneous — not a premeditated — response to what had transpired in Cairo."
2. "We do know that the Iraqi regime has chemical and biological weapons. His regime has amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons — including VX, sarin, cyclosarin and mustard gas. His regime has amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of biological weapons — including anthrax and botulism toxin, and possibly smallpox."

…and say #1 is an outrage for which officials, up to and including the President of the United States should be fired or punished…and then say #2, which led us into a war, is just the kind of innocent slip-up that sometimes happens in government…

So another new study shows that the overwhelming consensus of scientists who've studied global warming and climate change believe that yes, it's happening and yes, human action is causing it. These surveys always come back with percentages over 95%. This one says 97.2%. If there was a 97.2% chance of a hurricane hitting your area, you'd evacuate. In fact, you'd evacuate if there was a 50% chance.

And still, a certain percentage of Americans will look at that 97.2% number, read that some high school chemistry teacher in Dubuque disagrees and say, "Scientists are split on this issue. Half of them say one thing, half of them say another."

Ignore all the superimposed words on this. It's an excerpt from The Merv Griffin Show from 1984 — Merv interviewing Jim Henson, Frank Oz and their various alter-egos…

So what's with this I.R.S. scandal? If you want what seems like some sane perspective on it, go over to the website of The New Yorker and read Jeffrey Toobin and then John Cassidy. Neither seems to think there's much to the charges. Not that this will stop those to whom every gun, even the kind that squirts water, is a smoking gun to be used against Obama. Boy, can you imagine what the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee could have done with the memos about Weapons of Mass Destruction if there'd been a Democratic Darrell Issa in charge?

Hey, didja watch that commercial I put up earlier today for Kellogg's Cocoa Hoots? Well, it turns out I know the guy who did it…and I was also right about the voices. Here's my old pal, Mark Kausler…

I directed and animated it at Murakami-Wolf, don't remember the date, probably in the late 1970s. We did two spots with Newton the Owl, this was the first one. I'll never forget the art director from the agency's attitude, he was very hands-on, but I discouraged him. I put him to work doing inbetweens! He was so bad at it, that he didn't bother us again for the rest of the production. My first choice for Newton's voice was Junius Matthews, who did Archimedes the Owl in The Sword and the Stone. However, he was a little slow on the up-tick and Pat Buttram was very high in the energy department, so he got the job. Paul Winchell was a favorite of Fred Wolf's, so he did the little side-kick owl. I don't know who the little girl in the live portion of the spot was. The cereal did not test-market well, and my "big chance" to create a new Kellogg's character never jelled. And that's the name of that 'toon.

Nice job, Mark…but I think you did it before the late seventies. The copyright notice on the online Cocoa Hoots ad is 1972. It's amazing how much good animation there is in old cereal commercials.

I keep seeing ads online for old breakfast cereals I never heard of before. This is a spot for Kellogg's Cocoa Hoots which was apparently marketed somewhere around 1972. Even with all the cartoons I watched back then, I never saw a commercial for it and I always cruise the cereal aisle at the market and never saw it in Los Angeles. I'm assuming it was test-marketed somewhere and people didn't give (or buy) a hoot.

The mascot, Newton the Owl, was voiced by Pat Buttram, who we later had as a semi-regular voice on Garfield and Friends. What a great, funny man he was. He'd saunter into the studio with a batch of either old new jokes or new old jokes and that alone was reason to hire him…but he was also very good on the show. He had, of course, one voice…so we did an episode with his character's whole family. Some of them were voiced by other cast members imitating him, including Louise DuArt doing a female version of Pat's voice to play his mother. Some of the family members were voiced by Pat and we sped him up a bit or slowed him down so he'd sound a wee bit different. After the recording, he went over, phoned his voiceover agent and with a note of pride said, "Guess what? I finally doubled!"

The other owl in there doesn't have enough lines to make a positive i.d. on his voice but if I was forced to guess, I'd say it's Paul Winchell. There's a bit of debate on the 'net between people who say the live-action little girl at the end is definitely Jodie Foster while others say it absolutely is not. Decide for yourself and don't send me your opinions…

I know, I know. I shouldn't even think about this guy but he makes it so darned hard. O.J. Simpson is getting a hearing in Las Vegas on his bid to reverse his 2008 conviction for armed robbery. He's claiming his lawyer in that case mishandled matters.

He may take the stand today. I think he should sit there and say, "Your honor, I was under the impression from past experience that if an attorney was competent, he could get you off even if you were guilty!"

Leonard Maltin says today's public is losing interest in 3-D movies…but that doesn't mean they'll be going away.

As I've mentioned here, I don't do well with 3-D. I can take it in small doses but any more than, say, twenty minutes of it puts me to sleep. Literally. I've dozed off in every 3-D movie I've seen in that range and it wasn't because I found them boring. There's no doubt a scientific explanation for this.

A gent who has worked the front desk at many hotels delivers 10 Hotel Secrets from Behind the Front Desk. Personally, slipping a twenty to the desk clerk has never resulted in a better room for me, not even in Vegas. Being funny and polite sometimes has.

About Number 6, "Never, ever pay for the minibar": Nothing in those ever interests me and I've heard that nothing in them ever really interests anyone who doesn't have an employer covering the hotel bill. A producer I knew once told me a funny story. He was doing a long city-to-city-to-city road trip with his wife and mother-in-law and one night, they stopped at a fancy hotel — he and his wife in one room, her mother in another. The next day, as they headed for the next town, they were driving along and he said, "Gee, I wish I had some chocolate."

From the back seat came the voice of Mom-in-Law: "Oh, I have some." And she dug around in one of her bags and came up with a bar of Toblerone chocolate.

As he munched on it, he said, "That was smart, bringing that along," and she said, "Oh, it was in the room." He said, "You took it from the mini-bar?" She said, "Of course. I took everything! Considering how much that room cost per night, I wasn't going to leave anything behind." She thought it was like the free shampoo. When he got his bill, there was an extra $1,100 on it.

I had something like that happen to me once at the Gaslamp Hilton in San Diego during Comic-Con. Carolyn and I were staying there and we'd been promised a refrigerator in the room, which was necessary because of some medicine she was taking. The hotel was all out of those little mini-refrigerators they bring up so they told us we could empty out the mini-bar and use that. We did — and it was apparently the kind where each item has a little sensor sticker on it so that when it's removed, a computer somewhere in the building knows this and adds the appropriate charge to your bill. When I checked out, I had something like $1,250 on mine, including a $100 charge for one particular mini-bottle of wine about the size of a cranberry.

The hotel realized the mistake even before I pointed it out to them and the clerk said, "Don't worry…we'll take it all off your bill." The big problem was that he had to do it by hand, an item at a time, so it took twenty minutes. I should've grabbed the jar of nuts in the first place. They'd never have known and I always wondered what $30 cashews tasted like.

I seem to not have received a number of e-mails the last few days that honest friends of mine say they sent me. If you sent something that should have been answered, please send it again. Thanks.