Like everyone else, I had a GREAT time this weekend. Terrific to see you all and I'm sorry I couldn't spend more time with you; this was the busiest con I've ever been to.
Working Vacation
The reason I was so busy was because I had not only agreed to teach a session on caricature for ComicCon's Kids' Day program on Sunday, but Jonah also had asked me to help with the CBR press coverage.
I should explain this, I guess. This actually dates back to last year's convention, when, in an effort to help me with my travel budget, Jim MacQuarrie had suggested that I hit Jonah up for a press pass. I had said, well, if I get a press pass, I don't know, it seems only fair to do a little press. Jonah was amenable to the idea but he'd already made his arrangements and then it turned out I qualified for pro credentials and could get in free anyway, so nothing ever came of it and I thought Jonah had forgotten all about it. So I was surprised and flattered when Jonah e-mailed me out of the blue a couple of weeks ago and asked me if I wanted to help out, and I was OVERJOYED when I found out the job actually PAID. Not, you know, vast sums or anything, but more than enough for meals and even a comic book or two.
I was really nervous about it by the time the con actually rolled around, though, and I hoped I didn't seem too terribly wired; if anyone thought I was jumpy and distant, especially on Thursday, that was why. Journalism is not my forte, really, and I was having an ongoing anxiety attack Thursday about horribly embarrassing myself somehow. But it turned out that I was worried over nothing -- Jonah uploaded everything exactly as I wrote it, and both he and Beau were nothing but complimentary, so I guess I did okay.
I was a little worried about teaching my class on Sunday, too, mostly about making sure I had the right room and that the necessary supplies would be on hand; but again, I was worrying over nothing. For such a huge undertaking, ComicCon International runs with the precision of a Swiss watch. Not only did they have the supplies covered, but when I checked in at the Programming room I was immediately issued a little sticker for the back of my badge that had the name of the panel, the room, the date and the time on it... much handier than a schedule flyer or any kind of paperwork, all I had to do was flip over my badge and it was all right there. Plus, my GAWD, do they roll out the red carpet for panelists. The Pro lounge was kept stocked with coffee, tea and lemonade at all times, and they also told me that if I stopped by Programming on my way to class on Sunday they'd provide a couple of volunteers to help me carry things. About the only thing missing were a couple of nubile young women to fan me with palm fronds, and I'm not entirely sure that I wouldn't have gotten THEM if I'd asked. Plus, I'd put Cei-U on my guest list, and they took care of all his registration stuff and everything without ever bothering me with any of the details, including routing his paperwork through Disabled Services to make sure he'd have everything he needed in terms of wheelchair accessibilty and so on. It's a guy named Gary Sassaman that makes it all happen, and if you enjoyed the panels this year you ought to e-mail comic-con.org and tell him so. He and his staff did a herculean job, did it smoothly and well, and made it look easy.
Arrivals and the CBR Dinner
I felt like an old hand this time, since this was my third time going, so the one thing I WASN'T nervous about was meeting people. I was just really looking forward to seeing everyone again, and jazzed to meet the folks I hadn't before; particularly T'Omm and Wolvie's Girlfriend, since we had corresponded somewhat outside the boards. As usual, it was like a family reunion, and I don't know WHAT T'Omm was wired about, since everyone loved him instantly. Me, I would have been thrilled just not to be the only smoker, but T'Omm is great company and exactly as he is on the boards, except he's even faster and funnier in person. If we put together another list of one-liners for this year, roughly half of them would have come from T'Omm. And Ramona looked a little overwhelmed by it all at first, but she acclimated quickly. (The initial mistake everyone seems to make is to wait to be invited to speak. For the record, the only way to get a WORD in with this bunch is to just jump in... we're all so delighted to see each other that there's this impulse to try to blurt out all the news in a rapid-fire rush of semi-hysteria. It settles down a bit after the first day, but it can be really intimidating for the newer folks. Trust me, we're just as delighted to meet you, and we WORRY when you're quiet. So speak up, dammit.)
Jim needed someone to ride with him back to Camp CBR to set up, and I figured since I'd already been to the convention before it was only fair to give the new arrivals first dibs.... and anyway, I always enjoy Jim's family. My only concern was getting back in time for this particular panel:
4:00 - New Art Techniques - An incisive discussion of how high-tech pencil erasers have changed the way in which comic books are drawn. With Murray Fassbinder (president and CEO of the Snorp Eraser Co.), Hal W. Carter (inventor of the CartEraser), William Franjipanowski (advocate of using lumps of cheese for erasing) and comic book artist Gene Colan. Moderated by Mark Evanier. Room 8.
No, it wasn't that I find the idea of cheese erasers fascinating. The truth is that it was a deliberate misprint in the program -- this was, in fact, a surprise 75th birthday party for Gene Colan. The entire convention staff was in on it, they and Mark Evanier had worked the whole thing out with Gene's wife Adrienne months in advance. Cei-U and fly and I had been plotting to be there for WEEKS, Colan was a big fave for all three of us and I believe he's Kurt's favorite artist EVER, so we didn't want to miss this. Plus, my students, when I mentioned it to them, had made a bunch of hand-drawn birthday cards for him (I've brought in Colan pieces to show in class, and of course they all know the movie BLADE. I'm sorry I can't reproduce the cards for you here, they were hysterical -- lots of vampires and bats and stuff, and several fairly good caricatures of Mr. Colan HIMSELF.)
Except, sadly, I DID miss it. Terri and the kids were late getting to the campground and we couldn't leave until they arrived, and as the afternoon went on and on with no MacQuarries in sight, Jim got so agitated over disappointing me I thought he would have fallen on his sword to expiate his dishonor if I'd asked him. I was disappointed, of course, but certainly I wasn't mad at Jim about it. I mean, I like to think that I can have grown-up priorities, and it wasn't the end of the world. I knew I'd have a chance to get Colan his cards sometime over the weekend, and anyway Kurt and fly would give me a full report, I was sure. Truthfully, I was more worried about Terri than anything. We couldn't raise her on the cell phone, and she was almost two hours late. But Clan MacQuarrie arrived at quarter to four, safe and sound, which was a relief. Apparently it was some difficulty about a missing trailer hitch or cotter pin or something for the luggage rack, and they'd had to go buy a new one, finally. So then Jim and I took off for the convention.
We found fly and Cei-U almost immediately, and I demanded to know how the surprise party had gone. Smashingly well, they said, Colan was completely surprised. Evanier had actually let the poor guy talk about his eraser techniques for a few minutes before they wheeled in the birthday cake.
"He was just going on and on," Tim said. "We were in the front row, and I'm nodding along, trying to keep a straight face, and THIS guy--" he nodded at Kurt -- "is laughing so hard I was sure he was going to give the whole thing away."
"I was NOT," Kurt said, indignantly.
"Marie Severin glared at you."
"She was snickering herself!" Kurt glared at Tim, then turned to me. "Anyway, it was great. The panelists were all people who'd worked with Gene at Marvel -- Marie Severin, Don McGregor, Marv Wolfman -- and they each talked about Gene and how great he was, and then Evanier went around the room and asked the audience what their favorite Colan comic-book story was."
"It was great," Tim said. "We all got cake."
"We almost cried," Kurt admitted. "If I went home right now it still would have been worth the trip just for that."
Argh. Nobody's fault, couldn't be helped, but... argh.
There wasn't that much time before the CBR dinner, and it dawned on us that none of us knew where Buffalo Joe's WAS. Despite Slick's tireless efforts to e-mail everyone with addresses and cell phone numbers and anything else we might need ("Our cruise director, Julie McCoy," T'Omm had quipped, to which Slick replied "Who's that?" Made ME feel a hundred years old. We were all grateful for Slick taking it on, of course, but it was just too much fun teasing him to stop) -- anyway, all that effort was for nothing if the recipient didn't have the wit to print out the information, and my printout was back in my luggage at Camp CBR. No one else had one either. Fly suggested a phone book, but I said, no let's go find SilverSpider's booth, they can give us directions. And anyway we could say hello. So we went looking for the Lodestone Publishing booth, found the Silvers in full-throttle Con mode, and after enthusiastic greetings got our directions.
Big kudos to Spider and Witch for finding Buffalo Joe's for us, by the way. It was a good restaurant and a good venue for us, since we didn't have to feel guilty about being noisy. It was great to see them again, and I was really touched by their concerned inquiries about the situation with my ex-wife, too. Of course SilverWitch had to razz us about the blood drive, and as usual when the subject of blood comes up it gets fly started on his rodent surgeries.... still, we all agreed to go and get bled sometime over the next couple of days. (GREAT goodie bags for the blood drive this year, by the way.)
As it happens, T'Omm wrote up his impressions of everyone that was at the CBR dinner and posted them on CBR, so I shamelessly swiped it and pasted it in here. First of all, it was easier, and secondly, because I largely agree with him on everyone, writing my own would be a ridiculous duplication of effort. Besides, he said nice things about me and I'll take any validation I can get.
So here's T'Omm:
Greg Hatcher: Exactly as I pictured him. I mean, I already knew what he looked like, but voice and body language fills in the blanks and Greg has that reserved, cool demeanor that I assumed he had, plus he has a more subversive, sarcastic sense of humor than sometimes appears on the boards. And he has a great laugh that you can't help joining in on.
MacQuarrie: What a bundle of energy this guy was! Jim is also pretty much exactly as I pictured him, but I was surprised at how funny he is. Not just funny, but constantly funny. The 4 days I spent with him was an unending stream of funny stories and bad puns. Jim has a constant smile on his face, except for those times when he's listening to you, then he has this intense, over-the-top-of-his-glasses, interested stare that's, well, kinda flattering if you're the one doing the talking. Jim's one of those guys who you never think is just being polite. He's really interested in what other people have to say.
Plan9: Brandon was a pleasant surprise. For whatever reason, I thought he was gonna be shy and quiet. He's not exactly a loudmouth, but you can count on him for some quick quips and funny observations. And when I say quick, I mean it. I think I said "What?" every time he opened his mouth. Like I said, he doesn't speak much, but when he does, he has this rapid-fire delivery that took me a couple times to get the hang of. Oh, and we're engaged. I'll let him explain that one.
Wolvie's Girlfriend: I was looking forward to meeting Ramona because I hadn't formed a cohesive picture of her from her posts. As I told her later, there's shy WG, bitchy WG, playful WG, and sultry WG. In a way, Ramona's all those things, but the overwhelming impression I got of her from spending time with her was just how sweet she really is. Doubly so, because not only did I screw up majorly by forgetting to meet up with her to find out if she was going to the Eisners, but we discovered her mutant power was to function perfectly after something like 3 consecutive days without sleep.
Slick: Jeff's just got "good guy" written all over him. He was all about taking charge and making sure everyone is taken care of. Plus, he shocked me when I first met him. You can't tell from last year's pictures, but Jeff has these brilliant blue eyes. The funny thing is (and we all made fun of him for this all weekend), he's not always the laid-back pleasant guy you see on the boards. I know it was because he felt pressured to make sure everyone was taken care of and having a good time (something I told him to stop worrying about), but he had a tendency to bark out orders that we all had great fun in skewering him about. Plus (like pretty much everybody I met), he's got a great sense of humor and he's really funny. Slick's the one I spent the most time with this weekend and there's a good reason for that. He's not just a good guy. By the time we said our goodbyes on Sunday, he was a good friend.
Quiggy was also a bit of a surprise. Much quieter than I had assumed, but when he did speak, he inevitably said something that made everyone laugh. Physically, Quiggy looks how I pictured him, except he's got black hair. For some reason, I thought he was blond. I kept thinking that Quiggy wasn't having a good time until I realized he's just a quiet guy who speaks when it strikes him, and like I said, he usually says something funny. His friend Rick was also a really nice guy, but I think he was initially kinda overwhelmed at meeting all these total strangers. They both look like they'd kick your ass as as soon as look at you, but that couldn't be further from the truth. At least, I think they won't.
Ponda is the spitting image of Jimmy Olsen. I mean, spitting image. We were all intrigued by Ponda and subjected him to Barbara Walters-style interrogations all weekend, since we didn't know much about him. Great guy. And I'm totally impressed by the fact that he's self-publishing at 19. I bought a copy of Survivors, but haven't had a chance to read it yet. I berated him for not having a link to his site in his sig. He said he's gonna take care of it, so once he gets back, you can all find out more about his efforts.
We also ran into Kamandi, who also came across as surprisingly shy. But that was only at first. Once Alex warmed up, he was a great conversationalist. He and I had a really great talk about Kavalier & Clay at the wienie roast and I enjoyed listening to his passionate and eloquent speeches about his love for silver-age comics, especially (unsurprisingly) his love for Kirby's D.C. work and (surprisingly) his encyclopediac knowledge of Hal Jordan. I'm sorry I didn't get to spend more time with him.
Is it me or is this post starting to sound like one of those annoyingly fawning society columns? "Saw the fabulous Lord and Lady Cottonbottom at the annual Hoedown for the Homeless. They were divine, as always!"
Anyway.
Relhok was next on the list. I really didn't know what to expect from Chris, but by the end of the weekend I thought he was totally cool. And I didn't get a chance to tell him this, but if he grew a full beard and put on 25 pounds, he'd be Will Riker. Just a really great, cool guy, who seemed to really enjoy our company and came with the requisite great sense of humor all geeks seem to share. Another one I wish I'd had more time to just sit down and shoot the sh*t with. Oh, and he's got a cool voice.
I also met Bouncing Boy that day and barely got any chance to talk to him all weekend, but he's also < deja vu > a really nice guy < /deja vu > with a great sense of humor who loves to talk comics. And he's got a great laugh.
After a couple hours at the con, we headed over to Buffalo Joe's for the CBR dinner, where I met everyone else. Let's see:
Cei-U!: Slick and I agreed that Kurt was a surprise. We both thought he was going to be a hardass, but he's so laid back and funny that it took me by surprise. Not just funny, but really funny. Like, dark, sick sense of humor funny. He's pretty much the uber-conversationalist. Kurt can talk. Lucky for him (and us), everything he says is interesting. One of the highlights of my weekend was sitting between him and Kamandi at the wienie roast and just talking comic books. Of course, sitting between those 2 and listening to them wax eloquent on the medium made me feel like a neophyte who only reads Spawn. These guys know their sh*t. Kurt could teach a course about the history of comics. In fact, I think he should.
Silver Spider and Silver Witch: So incredibly gracious and friendly, I didn't get much of a chance to talk to them at the dinner. I was glad I ran into them both at the con on Saturday and got a chance to chat a little more. Spider is a bundle of energy and you just know the San Diego con is like Christmas morning for a six-year-old to him. He was just really juiced. And Witch was very charming and gracious, totally focused on the Blood Drive and concerned that there was no word on Flamestar's delivery.
Big Jim: I didn't recognize Jim and he had to introduce himself to me. Like an @$$hole, I blurted out "You lost weight!" totally forgetting that he'd had health problems this year. Sorry about that Jim. The big shock for me was that his name isn't Jim. We didn't get to talk much over the weekend, but he seemed like a nice guy who was getting a real kick out of meeting all of us. I did manage to tell him that I loved his posts, something I never seem to do on the boards.
And then, the historic moment we'd all been waiting for. After years of fighting virtual injustice, the mighty fly on the wall came face-to-face with his sidekick and said the words I'd traveled 3000 miles and spent hundreds of dollars to hear:
"Y'know, T'Omm, you really are physically impressive."
Fly is exactly what you'd think. And when he opened his mouth to speak, I thought "Yep, that's exactly how I thought he sounded." Sorta like a young, manic Jimmy Stewart. The funny thing is (and he's gonna be so pissed at me for saying this and will probably deny it) but I think fly was a little nervous meeting me. Or maybe it wasn't just me; maybe it was everybody. I dunno. But his introduction and his goodbye to me were surprisingly formal. His sense of humor, as well as his delivery, is exactly as they appear on the boards. He couldn't wait to tell us about his latest disgusting experiments in work. I think fly only thinks he works for the government. But he's gotta be working for an evil scientist, 'cuz the sh*t they have him doing is just sick. And he reveled in telling us all the gory details as we ate. Fly's not a lab tech; he's an Igor. Suffice it to say, he's an absolute riot and the excitement he had for meeting and spending time with all of us was obvious. I don't know what he and Kurt were doing all that time they were apart from us, but I'm sure it was something suitably depraved.
Fenris showed up late for the dinner and I barely got to talk to him. However, I got to spend a lot of time with him on Friday and Saturday and he's another one who's pretty much exactly what you'd think. Intelligent, polite, sweet and capable of quietly dropping these astonishingly thought-provoking observations into the conversation. He's like a child prodigy in a grownup's body. He sat all through the Eisner Awards blissfully ignorant of the proceedings as he happily pored over the vintage Superboy comics he got for a dollar. Another great conversationalist (as well as listener), we found ourselves apart from the main group for quite a time during the weinie roast having a great getting-to-know-you conversation. It remains one of my best memories (among a lot of great memories) of the week.
Briefly met a very harried and pre-occupied, but nonetheless happy-to-meet-me Jonah at the Eisner awards on Friday night, and also briefly met Beau Yarbrough at the X-men panel, which, btw was such a perfect encapsulation of what makes up the annoying fanboy stereotype that Slick, WG and I vacated after about 45 minutes, despite my stated, um, affection for Paul Jenkins and Grant Morrison.
Also on Saturday morning we met up with Buried Alien. Slick and I were both really interested in having our curiosity satisfied about him because he remains such a behind-the-scenes figure at CBR. We met a gregarious and friendly guy who was clearly as pleased and excited to meet us as we were to meet him. Buried came to the weenie roast too, and before he left he stood before the campfire and regaled us with tales of Ye Olde CBR. Back when it was powered by the miracle of the steam engine.
And of course, I'd be totally remiss in not not mentioning the incredible Clan MacQuarrie. Jim's wife Terri has telepathic powers. She knew exactly what anyone needed at any given time without anyone having to ask for it. She took my freakin' sleeping bag to the laundromat and washed and dried it for me because it "Looked a little damp." How amazing is that? And as I confided to Slick, those kids aren't just smart; they're scary smart.
***
Greg again. As I said, Tom's summarized all of us pretty well.... so I'll skip that part and just say that dinner was great fun, even though I had to put up with the by-now-traditional obsession CBR seems to have with getting a photo of my stodgy middle-aged self with some scantily-dressed young thing -- this time it was the Coors Light Girl, who was a zaftig little blonde wearing some sort of silver vinyl minidress that looked as though it would explode right off her if she took a deep breath. Once again it was Slick who insisted on the photo. Sadly, things did not go well from there for Slick and the Coors Light Girl, but someone else can tell you about that. And T'Omm had copies of CARAVAN, the CampCBR zine that several of us contributed to -- I have to say, I was REALLY impressed with Kamandi and Relhok's work, they make a great team. And I was pleased to see my story in print exactly as I'd WANTED it, as opposed to its original magazine appearance in WITH, though I was disappointed that we hadn't been able to get illustrations for it; I'd rather hoped to persuade Cei-U to do a spot illo or two, but there just wasn't time.
In the past the younger posters generally have hit the San Diego nightlife after dinner to go bay at the moon for a few hours, but this year everyone was a bit jet-lagged, it seemed, and we decided to head out to CampCBR. Cei-U and fly came with us, since Kurt was anxious to get hold of his manuscripts (I'd run copies of his novel for him to shop around at the convention) and I was happy to accept their offer of a ride to the campground. T'Omm came with us, and though he and I were a little anxious about getting lost despite fly's blind optimism that we would eventually stumble across the place, thanks to Cruise Director Slick having printed out maps for all of us we made it with only one wrong turn. We stayed up for several more hours at the campground gossiping and laughing until we earned our first Quiet Time warning from the camp rangers -- there is something distinctly Orwellian about them -- but even so, it hardly slowed the party at all and we kept going for another good hour or so before finally going to bed.
The Panels
Friday morning it was time to punch in. I had three panels I was covering for CBR; the first was the Dan DeCarlo one at eleven. I had volunteered for this because I'd met the DeCarlos in Seattle and knew them, but even so I was surprised and overwhelmed with pleasure when I walked into the room and Josie DeCarlo came bounding over to me, gave me a big hug, and said, almost all in one breath, "Oh, I am so glad to see you, I have misplaced your address and Dan was going to send you a drawing. You must give me your address. How are you? How are your students? It is so wonderful that you are here! Are you going to be here all four days?"
I assured her I was, and then, in a flash of inspiration, I pulled out an extra copy of CARAVAN that I had and scrawled my address on the bio page. Josie was tickled to have a copy. "You did this? You are in this?" I said yes, I was, it was just a project that some friends and I had done for the convention, but I hoped she would enjoy it. I had my camera out by then, and another fan asked if I'd take his picture with Josie. He asked who I was -- between Josie's reaction and my pro badge I'm sure he mistook me for someone famous -- and I had one of my nicest convention moments ever when Josie immediately started gushing to this total stranger about my students' get-well cards they'd done for Dan when he'd had to cancel an appearance in Seattle earlier that year because of pneumonia, and the books we'd given the DeCarlos in Seattle. That was, for me, better than actually being famous.
I don't mention Dan during all this because he was already up front, and quite honestly, though he is a gentle, sweet-natured man, he's a taciturn fellow; not really a talker but more of a grunter. But he smiled and waved at me from the stage.
The actual panel report I wrote for Jonah follows:
SAN DIEGO, DAY 2: JOSIE CREATOR DAN DECARLO ANNOUNCES NEW CREATOR OWNED PROJECT
by Greg Hatcher, Contributing Writer
Posted: July 20, 2001
It's a combination most people in comics never thought they'd see -- a collaboration between Dan DeCarlo, creator of JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS and SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH, and Dan Fogel, the writer and publisher of the adult parody of DeCarlo's work, CHERRY POPTART.
But that's exactly what DeCarlo and Fogel announced today at San Diego's Comic-Con, as they premiered the first model sheets and preliminary sketches for DeCarlo's first creator-owned project, LOWER EAST SIDE.
"We're all here because we love Dan DeCarlo," Fogel began. "We are so thrilled to have this chance to work with him." He then gave a brief recap of DeCarlo's fifty-year career in comics, alluding briefly to DeCarlo's work for Archie and the recent lawsuit over the rights to JOSIE. "The things no one likes to talk about," Fogel added, grinning.
Fogel added that though many fans are under the impression that DeCarlo hasn't worked since he left Archie, he has actually been extremely busy. DeCarlo said that most recently he has completed an ELVIRA story for Claypool Comics, a BATMAN BLACK AND WHITE backup story for DC (featuring Batgirl) as well as several stories for DC's Cartoon Network books and an issue of RADIOACTIVE MAN for Bongo Comics.
But it's LOWER EAST SIDE that has DeCarlo really excited. It's a bookshelf format graphic novel that Fogel said should be shipping in time for Christmas of 2001. DeCarlo says he got the inspiration for the story from his granddaughter, Christy. "She keeps me in touch," he says. "Talented, talented girl. Great writer. I get her to go over my stuff and straighten it out, make it up-to-date. I just wish she would write more."
LOWER EAST SIDE tells the story of three young single girls living and working in New York-- Jessica, who has a gift for working with animals and was raised in Africa; Gabby, a passionate young Hispanic artist; and Vicky, an aspiring model who works as a part-time bartender. "It's got more realistic characters and situations," Fogel said. "It's not horrifically graphic or porno or anything, but it's got kind of a PG or an R feel to it. Basically, it's DeCarlo without any restraints."
Fogel and Pitts were positively gushing with admiration for DeCarlo himself. "Dan gave us entry-level comics with Archie," Fogel said. "The personality, the physical comedy -- I think a lot of our glamorization of high school came from Archie. We all knew a Betty or a Veronica -- and I think a lot of us have been a Jughead," he added, which got a rueful laugh from the audience.
DeCarlo himself, when asked whom he admired among the newer cartoonists, immediately said, "Jaime Hernandez. I really like his work... there's not many of us left, working in that style, you know, most guys are doing super-heroes."
Fogel put in that he'd been leaning on Hernandez to contribute something to LOWER EAST SIDE as well, to which DeCarlo responded, "He just got married. I don't think he'll have time!"
***
Not much to add, though I will say that the LOWER EAST SIDE model sheets look great, DeCarlo's only getting better. All of us who attended got free pinup prints of a gorgeous girl in a negligee on the phone, captioned "Hot Number," and Dan signed them for people afterwards. I had to run off to my next panel, but I had to assure Josie I would stop by the Hippy Comix booth and say hello again some time over the weekend and I'd get mine signed then. They are the nicest people in comics and I hope the new book makes them a zillion dollars. Not only do they deserve it but it sure would be a nice black eye for Archie Comics, as well as one for Joe Quesada and all his hot air about "Darwinism" in comics driving out the older talent.
The "Fantastic Four At 40" panel was a good time, though there really wasn't a lot going on there. I don't have a lot to add to what I wrote about it on the news page, though it was a lot of fun to watch the panelists kidding each other, especially the Marvel old-timers who obviously have a great deal of affection for one another.
Here's that article:
SAN DIEGO, DAY 2: FORTY YEARS OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR
by Greg Hatcher, Contributing Writer
Posted: July 21, 2001
ComicCon International celebrated the 40-year anniversary of the FANTASTIC FOUR with an all-star panel featuring past FF contributors Len Wein, Paul Ryan, John Buscema, Marv Wolfman, and FF co-creator Stan Lee, as well as current FF writer Jeph Loeb and newly-appointed FF editor Tom Brevoort.
What was meant to be a fond reminiscence was occasionally derailed, though, by the aging memories of some of the creators, as well as the intimidation many of them felt at following the legendary Lee-Kirby team. Asked how he felt about giving the art chores to John Romita after Kirby's departure, Lee blurted, "Well, it was probably just because he was available," though he was quick to add, "Though Johnny's the best. He can do anything, he's SO versatile."
Romita disagreed. "I only did four issues and those were the longest four months of my life," he admitted. "Following Kirby was... well, all I can say was thank God for John Buscema, who came on after me and probably saved me from a nervous breakdown."
Asked about his time on the book, Buscema himself first responded blankly, "What'd I do?"
Lee shot back, "Hey, I don't know. I didn't even know Romita was uncomfortable doing it. --The most frustrating panelists ever," he added, to much audience laughter.
Asked about future plans for the book, editor Tom Brevoort said, "I don't feel a weight, but I do feel a responsibility. The history of this book is so rich, it's easy to produce good solid stories. The challenge is to better that."
Asked about how the FF fit into the modern comics milieu alongside books like THE AUTHORITY or SIN CITY, Loeb was definite. "I think our job is to tell a good story. Our job is not to get fans of THE AUTHORITY to like us by telling AUTHORITY-type stories featuring the FF. I don't think readers necessarily respond just because you show a naked girl or somebody's head being blown off. People respond to good stories. If we do good stories the audience will be there."
Brevoort added, "We don't want to jump on the bandwagon and just try to do what's hot this week. The Fantastic Four has stood the test of time, and our job is to put out the best Fantastic Four book we can."
***
Once I was out of there, I had to figure out what to do about my notes. Larry Young's AIT/PLANET LAR booth was the central meeting place/command post for the CBR news coverage, and Jonah had told me that he would leave his laptop there for me to use. I hurried down there and introduced myself to Larry and his wife Mimi, both really nice people, and Larry was all set to hand me the laptop; but Mimi and I both blurted "NO! JONAH SAID THE LAPTOP STAYS IN THE BOOTH!" at the same time. The thing that made it problematic was that Steven Grant had HIS laptop out in the only available table space, writing away, and there was NO WAY I was going to ask him to move. (He glared at me anyway, which embarrassed me. I was getting off to a great start.)
Mimi bailed me out by whipping out her cell phone and calling Jonah, who was there in seconds. He immediately gave Mimi and Larry permission to give me the laptop to take with me when I asked, and then he and I went up to the mezzanine where I wrote up my two panels while Jonah ate his lunch and chatted with me about the convention, asking how I was doing and how Cei-U was enjoying himself; he was REALLY impressed with fly's willingness to act as Kurt's caregiver for the duration of the con. (As were we all -- fly really did a HEROIC job.)
I asked Jonah what kind of format he wanted the notes in, and he said, "Just go ahead and file a report and I'll give you a byline." So I took a deep breath, reconsidered what I already had, and started writing real articles instead, crossing my fingers that they would be suitable. (If I sound like a worrywart, well, I am.)
After chatting for a few more minutes Jonah wolfed the rest of his lunch and left me with his laptop, telling me just to save the file in the News folder and leave the computer back at the AIT booth. I wrote for about forty more minutes, when suddenly the damnable machine flashed a low-battery message at me. I swore, hit "Ctrl-S" a dozen times or so, and then shut it down and toted it upstairs to the Pro lounge, where a kindly volunteer pointed me to a wall outlet. Ten more minutes of typing -- I was vastly relieved, when the computer rebooted, to see I hadn't lost all that work -- and I was done. I hit "Ctrl-S" a couple more times just to be safe, and then shut the machine down again and unplugged it from the wall. Five minutes after that and the laptop was safely back at the AIT booth and I was on my own, at least until the DETECTIVES, INC. showing at 4:30; that was my last CBR obligation for the day.
In the meantime, I had about an hour to kill. I headed straight for Artist's Alley; it's my favorite part of the convention, and anyway I had errands. For one thing, I had about twenty homemade birthday cards to deliver to Gene Colan, and for another, I had a pet project of my own I wanted to pursue while I had the time.
Every year I've come to the convention I've always tried to load up on free promos and junk that I can take home to my students as souvenirs. However, the difficulty with this is that not very many of them are kid-friendly. So I have to vet everything to make sure there are no severed limbs or topless women or anything else that's going to get me in trouble with my kids' parents. Another problem is that I can't really in good conscience load up on twenty or thirty of each item, so arguments tend to erupt in class when I'm passing out the goods over who gets what or which is better, the BUFFY bookmarks or the Bat-signal buttons. Etc. And apart from all that it's a pain to have to lug all that stuff everywhere.
However, I'd noticed that others had good luck getting artists to do sketches, and I hit on the idea of a "Helpful Hints" scrapbook. I'd made up a little tablet of white cards at the printshop, and my hope was that I could persuade the folks in Artist's Alley to each scribble an encouraging note to my group of aspiring cartoonists that I could bring to class when I got home. That way there'd be no quarrels, and I was betting that it was a project I could get cooperation on... after all, it wasn't the sort of thing you turn around and auction off on eBay.
I started with GOTHAM KNIGHTS artist Roger Robinson, since I'd found him to be really friendly and accomodating in past years, and also because I was already using a layout article of his from WIZARD in my classes, so the kids would know who he was. He was tickled to see my students' final-project anthology comic (I'd made up a bunch of copies to give away and presented him with one) and pleased and flattered to hear that I had gotten so much mileage out of his article. "I was just trying to think of all the things I wished someone had told me when I was starting out," he said. I pitched him the advice-book idea and he frowned in thought for a moment, then quickly drew a grim-looking Batman saying, simply, Keep drawing.
"That's really the best advice I've got," he said.
James Pascoe leaned over from the table next to Robinson's to look at the sketch, and burst out laughing. "Kinda scary," he said.
Robinson grinned. "I was thinking of that line from ROBOCOP, you know, where he tells the kids, 'Stay out of trouble.' "
As for me, I was delighted. I had hoped for a sketch but I wasn't going to ask. "They'll love it, thank you."
Moving on, I looked around and wondered who I should bother next. Then I saw a tabletop sign that read GENE COLAN and remembered the cards. Colan wasn't there, but his wife was. "He'll be back at five," Adrienne Colan assured me.
Argh. I had the DETECTIVES INC. thing at four-thirty and then the Eisners. Well, I decided, the way my luck was running I better not take a chance. I would never be able to face my students again if I didn't get these delivered. So I pulled the cards out of my bag and gave them to Mrs. Colan. She lit up. "But these are wonderful! You have to give them to Gene yourself, he'll love them."
"But I won't be here at five," I said, helplessly.
"Oh, he's still here, he's just doing a signinng at the AACC booth, the collectors thing. Over there." She pointed. "I think it's 1700 something."
I checked my watch and decided I had just enough time. So I hustled over to the AACC booth and found only two or three people ahead of me.
To say that Gene Colan was floored was an understatement. He was delighted, and obviously deeply moved; he actually looked like he might have been welling up there for a moment.
"Now THAT makes it worthwhile," observed the AACC guy from the back of the booth, grinning. I decided this more than made up for missing the birthday party yesterday.
Gene posed for a picture holding up the cards so my kids could see that, by golly, I had indeed hand-delivered them, and he contributed this note to the scrapbook:
Do what you love -- do it every day. Put all that you have into it -- and all good and great things will follow. I love you all, Gene Colan.
*
It was going to be hard to top that, but I decided I had time for one more before heading upstairs, so I wandered back over to Artist's Alley. I saw Kerry Gammill and remembered that he had written a HOW TO DRAW SUPERHEROES book that I occasionally cribbed from, so I approached him. His contribution was:
Kids--
Always have fun when you draw. Draw what you like, but try new things too. Learn from others but find your own style and way of doing things. Best of luck! -- Kerry Gammill.
And he added a little drawing of a vampire in the corner that looked really good too -- I had always thought of him as a superhero artist, but maybe HE was trying something new. There was a prominent sign on the table that said SKETCHES $10, and I guiltily reached for my wallet, but Gammill waved me off. "For the kids," he said, grinning.
Well, it WAS for the kids, but I admit I was having the time of my life, too.
*
The Panel I Didn't Write About
I've mentioned already that I was assigned to cover the premiere of Don McGregor's film of DETECTIVES, INC. for CBR, but if you've looked at the site you won't find that article. I ended up not writing anything.
I had good intentions. In fact, I had volunteered to cover this one, when the subject had come up, which freed CBR's film correspondent Rob Worley to hit another panel instead. I had mixed feelings about Don McGregor's work in general -- his writing had impressed me a lot when I was fourteen, but it hadn't aged well -- but his DETECTIVES, INC. comics I had liked a lot, especially the second miniseries that was based on this very screenplay. (Illustrated by Gene Colan, as it happens, beautifully rendered in soft pencil.) The movie itself had been sitting around half-finished since 1987 or so, originally meant as a small independent release directed by McGregor himself, but the shoestring budget they were on had run out before final post-production could be done.
But somehow, in the intervening decade and a half, he'd found the money to finish it, and it was at last done and premiering here at this very convention. McGregor had written a couple of articles about the making of the movie that made it sound interesting, and I had seen stills, so I was curious and mildly jazzed. A lot of what didn't work in the comics version, I thought -- particularly McGregor's tendency to use massively overwritten, pretentious-sounding captions -- would naturally go overboard in a movie, and the basic story was sound.
Don McGregor himself is not what one would expect from reading his work. He writes like a soft-spoken, romantic dreamer, but in person he is short and squat and full of New York hustle. He was waiting outside the door to Room 4, where they were going to show the movie, and greeting people by name as they entered, thanking us for coming and checking out his dream project. I told him I'd been a big fan of the original story, DETECTIVES INC: A TERROR OF DYING DREAMS, as published in comics, and he beamed with pleasure. "You know that's being reissued, we shot new plates and everything, it looks great. I hated the production on the original. Threw the first issue across the room when I saw it."
I had that very issue in my bag, having brought it with me from Seattle with the thought of getting it autographed, but I decided not to proffer it after all when I heard that last. Instead I went in and found a seat.
I hadn't expected a crowd -- we were scheduled opposite a spotlight panel featuring legendary AVENGERS and JUSTICE LEAGUE artist George Perez, as well as a "How To Write Comics" seminar with Superman writer Joe Casey, among dozens of other distractions -- but I certainly expected more than thirty people, at least half of whom were there as friends to support McGregor. Well, I thought, if it's as good as I'm hoping maybe he'll get some juice out of the write-up I give it on CBR.
Understand, I wasn't there as a critic or a reviewer. My idea of the story's hook was basically, Writer Struggles For Fifteen Years, Finally Achieves Dream.
Except the movie was AWFUL.
Part of it was the projection system. McGregor and some ponytailed convention staffer fiddled with it for half an hour, trying to get it to look halfway decent, but nothing came of it. So we watched the introductory two minutes maybe five or six times while they tried over and over to get a decent picture, but no matter what they tried it stayed blurred and garish. Finally they gave up and McGregor bounded to the front of the room, thanked us all again for coming, and then they started the film.
...and it was awful.
Part of it, as I said before, was the projection system. The sound was hard to hear and the picture was so dark that it was difficult to tell what was going on. But quite a lot of it was the movie itself -- it was, well, just BAD. It looked like a cheesy college-student film. Amateurish setups, bad acting (easily the worst offender was the leading lady, Mrs. Marsha McGregor as it happened), strange and pointless cuts... if I hadn't reread the story on the plane coming down I'd have been hopelessly lost in the first ten minutes, even if the sound system had been up to snuff. It was just a mess. And these were all things that had to be laid squarely on the shoulders of the movie's director and scripter, Mr. Don McGregor. The worst part was that it wasn't just bad, it was the kind of bad that made you wince. It was painful.
I was aching for Don McGregor as the thing dragged interminably on, and one by one people got up and walked out. He was sitting a few rows in front of me, and I watched his shoulders slump in his seat a little more with each time someone slunk out of the darkened room. My heart sank. I couldn't write a story about Writer Sees Dream Turn To Ashes As Audience Deserts In Droves.
I was prepared to go the whole distance -- I didn't want to contribute to McGregor's humilation by being yet another walkout -- but it was getting late and I had to get back to the campsite to change my clothes for the Eisner Awards. Finally I decided that I wasn't going to write about this for Jonah anyway, and there was no point in suffering through it to the point of martyrdom.
I was the tenth person to sneak out. I didn't see McGregor for the rest of the convention, for which I was guiltily grateful... and I'd never had a chance to tell him I was writing it up for CBR, for which I was guiltily relieved. I've been doing a film column for WITH for years, and I've written about some stinkers... but I just couldn't bring myself to write about this one.
So that's why it wasn't part of the CBR coverage, if you were wondering what happened to the Don McGregor article. It's not there because I chickened out.
The Eisners
Jonah had invited Jim MacQuarrie and I to join him and the rest of the CBR crew at the CBR table at the front of the awards ceremony. For Jim it was partial payment for designing the CBR house ads and flyers that were all over the convention, and for me it was a perk of being part of the news crew. The catch was, we had to dress nice. Since I hadn't wanted to get all hot and sticky in a dress shirt and tie at the convention, I'd figured to catch a lift with Jim back to camp when he went back and changed clothes. But I'd been delayed too long at the McGregor debacle, and Jim was long gone by the time I hit the main floor again. It was almost six-thirty, and I had to be back for the awards ceremony by eight.
I found Kurt and Tim on the main floor, and we compared notes about our day. Seeing them having so much fun cheered me up quite a bit; the DETECTIVES, INC. disaster had depressed me. Tim offered me a lift back to the campground, which was very generous of him and I told him so, but he shrugged and said they were thinking of blowing off the Eisner awards anyway. So we headed down to the garage.
Except the car stalled out, the gearshift lever got stuck somehow and we were stranded in the middle of the lot. Tim struggled and swore and cursed the rental agency, while Kurt and I wondered what to do. Finally they decided they'd have to call the rental people and demand a new car, and though I was worried and would have stayed, they shooed me on my way, telling me I couldn't miss the Eisners. (Tim later told me that the car had started shortly after I left, so all our panic was over nothing.)
I tried Jim's cell phone and got nothing, and was tottering on the edge of panic when I ran into Jeff, Richard, and Tom. Jeff immediately volunteered his car, bless him, and off we went. So I was able to get presentable enough for the big kids' table after all.
The Eisners were covered pretty exhaustively on CBR -- Jonah had his laptop at our table and was doing live updates as each award was announced -- so I won't go into great detail. But I will say that it was a surreal experience for me, sitting up front surrounded by so many of my childhood heroes, and all I could think was that if I'd tried to tell my eleven-year-old self back in 1972 that I'd actually be sitting at a banquet table in the same room as Stan Lee and John Romita and Ramona Fradon and Gene Colan and all the rest of them, at the comic-book equivalent of Oscar night, that kid would never have believed it.
The awards ceremony itself, at least for me, is always a lot of fun. Writing and drawing are such solitary endeavors; I think it's because of that solitude that there's something giddy and euphoric about getting so many artists in the same room to celebrate the best of their number. Hundreds of creative people getting validated, all at once. The Eisners, unlike larger awards shows in better-known fields, aren't particularly politicized or commercial -- the San Diego gathering is non-profit, unlike the Creation Conventions or WizardWorld. They have stayed largely pure of heart in their original notion of honoring the best in cartooning and comics, so there is rarely any real disagreement about the winners being deserving or not.
Here is the article Beau did on the Eisners:
SAN DIEGO, DAY 2: MOORE, WARE WIN BIG AT EISNERS
THOMPSON, RUSSELL, MILLIONAIRE TAKE HOME MULTIPLE AWARDS
by Beau Yarbrough, News Editor
Posted: July 21, 2001
It was a night of usual suspects and surprise winners at the 2001 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Friday night at Comic-Con International in San Diego.
Alan Moore and Chris Ware maintained their stranglehold on the Eisners, with each winning three awards. Moore won for Best Single Issue for "Promethea" #10, Best Continuing Series for "Top 10" and Best Writer for the ABC line, while Ware won for Best Graphic Album -- Reprint for "Jimmy Corrigan," Best Coloring for "Acme Novelty Library" #14 and Best Publication Design for "Jimmy Corrigan."
But this year, a few faces less commonly seen on the stage got to accept awards. Jill Thompson took home two awards (Best Title for a Younger Audience and Best Painter/Multimedia Artist), and she thanked a perennial winner for his absence.
"Wow, I guess I'm not going to win any more again," she said, upon accepting the award for Best Painter. "And I want to thank Alex Ross for not being nominated."
In what was almost certainly the best year ever in the history of comics based on operas, P. Craig Russell took home two awards for his "Ring of the Nibelung," Best Limited Series and Best Penciller/Inker.
And last year's winner of the Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition, Tony Millionaire, won awards for the Best Humor Publication ("Sock Monkey," volume three) and Best Writer/Artist -- Humor.
Sergio Aragones seems to think Millionaire has a shot at being a regular up on stage: "I just hope Mr. Millionaire will not write short stories from now on," Aragones said, as he accepted the award for Best Short Story for "The Gorilla Suit."
This year, the Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition award went to Alex Robinson, creator of "Box Office Poison."
"Comics can be better if we keep trying," Robinson said when accepting the award. "So I promise to keep trying if you keep trying, so let's keep rocking and rolling."
Will Eisner took home an award with his name on it -- twice -- for Best Archival Collection/Project for "The Spirit Archives," volumes one and two.
"You don't know what I did to get this award," Eisner said. "I had to get the whole damn thing named after me to get the award."
Some went to less extreme measures:
"If I thought we were gonna win, I would have worn pants," a shorts-wearing Brian Michael Bendis said, accepting the award for Best New Series for "Powers."
*
Beau got most of the funny quotes, but he missed my favorite. When Max Allan Collins got up to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award for the late Chester Gould (who gave us DICK TRACY) Collins said, "Chester Gould gave comics something they'd never had before - violent death." He went on to point out that TRACY also gave the mystery genre a uniform: the detective's traditional trenchcoat and fedora, years before it became identified with Bogart.
There was also two more serious moments I'll never forget; one was when Eric Shanower got up to accept his award, he delivered a speech that was so hoarse and cracking with emotion that it almost brought us to tears.
The other was when Will Eisner, the man that first dared to say back in the 40's that comic strips could aspire to Art and has been proving it for fifty-plus years since, took the stage -- and the room spontaneously erupted in a standing ovation. It was partly in honor of the man's substantial body of work, of course, but I think it was also simply: Thank you. Thank you for believing in us all, in what we can do.
*
The fact that Brian Bendis was wearing shorts and a T-shirt was hardly unique. Jim and I were going to razz Jonah about enforcing a dress code for CBR when most of the actual nominees looked as though they'd come straight from the beach, but Jonah was too distracted by his ongoing computer uploads throughout the ceremony. Jim had, in a gesture of rebellion, worn bright red sneakers along with his suit and tie, but I don't think Jonah even noticed.
I did get to meet Rob Worley, finally, and CBR's review columnist Augie DeBlieck was at our table as well. I asked Rob if he'd heard anything about DETECTIVES, INC. and he said no, how was it? So I told him the ugly truth about it, and asked Jonah if it was okay if I skipped writing up that one. Jonah said sure, no problem, and I asked him about the other articles.
"The DeCarlo one's already up, it looked great," Jonah said. "Did you have a battery problem or something? The FF one didn't seem finished."
Urk. I KNEW it had gone too smoothly. "I did have a battery problem, yes. It should have been all right though."
"No problem," Jonah said. "Here, I'll just bring it up." So he did and then turned the laptop to face me. I was relieved to see only the last two sentences were missing. I hurriedly retyped them, and then Jonah uploaded the article to CBR right then and there. On-the-spot coverage indeed.
Beau I hadn't met yet either, but he showed up at our table about halfway through the ceremony, looking harried. We shook hands silently and then, after the awards were over, he burst out with, "Listen, can you cover the Image panel tomorrow? At one?"
"Sure," I said. "I owe you a panel writeup anyway, the McGregor thing didn't pan out."
"Great!" And then he was off again.
So I guess I was doing something right.
*
After the Eisner ceremony was over there was a sort of after-party/reception happening outside the ballroom, but that was wall-to-wall people, we didn't want to stay for that. So Jim and I excused ourselves from Jonah and the others and went to rendezvous with the rest of the Camp CBR crew.
We found Tom, Jeff, Richard, Chris, George, and Rick out on the balcony, but no Ramona. "I feel really bad," Tom confessed. "I was supposed to hook up with her earlier this evening and I just forgot."
"But she's got everybody's cell numbers, right? She would have called." That was Jeff, on top of it as always.
We all agreed that she had everyone's cell number. Jim pulled out his phone and checked the list of calls and found one 'missed call,' but I said that had to have been me, panicking earlier about getting to the campsite to retrieve my shirt and tie.
Tom and Jeff both said that Ramona had mentioned meeting some other friends that lived in San Diego, and we finally decided she must have found them. So, with the consensus that Ramona must have been all right, we decided that we would go get dinner somewhere. (Richard, who has been the subject of several searches in past years, allowed as how he was just grateful not to be the one that had gone missing for once.)
So now we just had to figure out what to do about dinner. This led to another lengthy discussion. Get the cars or not? What kind of restaurant? Etc. Camp CBR will never be known for its decisiveness. If it wasn't for Jeff saying firmly, "I know a place," and leading us away, we'd probably still be standing on the Hyatt balcony trying to figure it out.
The place was Dick's Last Resort in the Gaslamp District, which probably looked like a safe bet earlier in the day, but at night its Mr. Hyde personality came out. There was a group of roaring-drunk frat boys a few feet away from us (they really WERE roaring, by the way) and we also had the meanest waitress in Southern California. She wasn't physically imposing, exactly; just a slender little brunette in horn-rimmed butterfly glasses who bore a slight resemblance to Lisa Loeb. But she was nevertheless one of the most frightening people we saw on our trip. She recited a list of specials, snarled, "If you missed any get your neighbor to tell you 'cause I'm not saying them again," then THREW the silverware at us and stalked off.
This actually worked out rather well, as horrible as it sounds, because we found it all endlessly entertaining. We spent as lot of time speculating about the waitress and how much of her I-hate-you routine was an act. It wasn't just our table, she was mean to everyone. Watching this Dark Princess of the food service industry exact her various vengeances on the surrounding drunks was actually a lot of fun, though we couldn't help cringing whenever it was our turn. For some reason she seemed to single out Jeff as her particular target (Tom speculated that she was attracted to him and fighting it.) I think my favorite example of this was after dinner and she inquired if we wanted the check or what, were we done?
Jeff said, "We're SO done."
She sneered, " 'We're SO done'? That's SO southern California, Texas boy," and flounced off. It was at least twenty more minutes before we got our check.
Finally we got out of there and headed back to the campground, feeling lucky to have escaped with our lives. We stayed up a while after that, gossiping and wondering about Ramona and just generally chattering on, until we earned yet another Quiet Time warning, and finally packed it in.
***
APOLOGETIC EPILOGUE: July 2003
I wrote this during the first week of September, in 2001, posting it on the CBR boards in bits and pieces as I completed them. I was still working on it when the events of September 11th distracted me (along with the rest of the world) so completely that I forgot all about it for the next two months. By then the events were no longer fresh in my memory and no one at CBR was asking for the rest of it, so I just let it go. When I was updating the files on my computer a few weeks ago I stumbled across it again and decided that, even truncated and unfinished as it is, it was still worth hanging on to.
I'm not going to try to finish it now, but I will add a few notes.
* The great Dan DeCarlo passed away in December of 2001, tragically, before LOWER EAST SIDE was ever completed. My understanding is that Dan Fogel is negotiating with Dan's granddaughter Christy to complete the project with another artist. My students were devastated at the news of Dan's passing and many sent Josie hand-drawn condolence cards. Josie still remains on our mailing list and I see her at conventions from time to time. She says she misses Dan terribly but it takes the edge off her grief to talk to fans and see how many of us were inspired by his work and the stand he took for creator's rights. Josie is working with a writer named Suzanne Loebl on a biography of Dan, and I felt a certain bittersweet pride when Josie told me that she is hoping to use some of the students' drawings to illustrate the last chapter. Dan did do us a wonderful drawing that sat in the Madison Middle School mailroom all that summer, unbeknownst to me, until school opened again in the fall. It was a self-portrait of Dan at his desk, thanking all the kids who'd sent get-well cards BY NAME, INDIVIDUALLY, and exhorting them to keep it up. He was a class act and comics are diminished without him. I hope Josie and Christy know that right up to the end of his life, Dan's work was still reaching kids and inspiring them.
* The panel that Beau asked me to cover, the Image Comics 10th Anniversary panel, was mostly to announce a special Image 10th Anniversary commemorative hardcover from all the Image founders. It's now 2003 and that book isn't out yet either... but as far as I know, in this case it's not due to anyone's untimely passing.
* The class that I was so worried about teaching was a huge hit and I've done it as part of the convention's Kid's Day ever since. CBR folks often sit in -- the first year the MacQuarries showed up en masse, and last year and this year DarkBlade has been my lovely assistant. I need the help... the first year we had about thirty kids in the room and last year there had to have been over forty, not counting the parents. Fortunately the convention crew, still led by the able Gary Sassaman, gives us a big room and plenty of supplies. If you happen to be around this year feel free to drop in, but for heaven's sake, let the KIDS answer when I ask a question. For some reason the parents that stay always want to blurt out answers before their children can get a word in.
* The helpful-hints scrapbook is getting quite stuffed and I think it's probably my single favorite thing that's ever come out of my teaching efforts. It's helped us to forge freindships and pen-pal relationships with several cartoonists in the industry, many of whom have been extraordinarily giving and generous towards my students, which is always the way to my heart.
* I'm still doing press coverage for Jonah, and thankfully he gave us each PDAs with portable keyboards, so we're no longer having to chase around playing who's got the laptop? Jonah indulges me by letting me write up the Silver Age and historical interest panels as well as covering stuff Rob and Beau can't get to, so chances are that if you see something in CBR's convention coverage about a panel of old-timers, it's got my byline. Jonah swears he's not humoring me, he genuinely likes having that stuff up. Me, I'm just delighted I get to do it. My grandmother once defined success as being paid to do something you would likely do anyway, and for me this certainly qualifies.
* Camp CBR and the CBR dinner continue to be traditional for many of us. Next week will be my fifth one and I really don't intend to ever miss one in the future. Each year we manage a slightly bigger gathering and this coming one looks to be the largest one yet. Last year we had CBR's Scottish contingent joining us, which I believe is the record so far for longest distance traveled to the convention; hopefully some day we can figure out a way to get the CBR Aussies to join us, as well. For those who can't make it, I hope these reminiscences will give some notion of what it's like... and perhaps one of these years, you'll be able to join us.
