I headed over to Silver Spring, Maryland, this morning to catch the documentary Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist. Had it not been the D.C.-area premiere, with director Andrew D. Cooke scheduled to be present for a Q&A, I might have instead waited for the DVD. But since it had the feel of an event, I thought it might be fun, and worth the drive. (After all, I’m about an hour and 45 minutes away.) Also, I was intrigued to see whether serendipity would throw me together with any other members of the comics and/or science-fiction tribe.

I’d never been to the AFI Silver Theatre before, so I made sure to get there early and scope the place out. While waiting in line wondering whether I’d see any familiar faces, who should appear but local fan Kyle Scott McAbee, someone I’d often seen at Capclave, Balticon, and even a few Worldcons. While we waited to be let in, we chatted about Walter Karig, the novel Zotz!, and the Stratemeyer Syndicate. I’d have liked to have kept talking, but unfortunately, we parted once we were let in, since he wanted to sit in the back row and I preferred to sit closer to the front. (Sorry, Kyle!)

The audience was an interesting mix of people who had no idea who Will Eisner was and were just there because this was one of many films being shown as part of the 20th Washington Jewish Film Festival and people know knew exactly who Will Eisner was and were there to see him celebrated. Each group came to the film with different expectations. The first just wanted to be entertained for an afternoon, the second wanted to see whether someone make a documentary about a comic-book god … and not get it wrong.

I’m happy to say that director Andrew D. Cooke (seen to my right below) did not get it wrong.

Eisner had already told his story in the autobiographical graphic novel The Dreamer, and Cooke merged that together with video interviews with Eisner and his peers, plus audio interviews Eisner had done with his peers himself in the ’80s in what he called his Shop Talk tapes, managing to pull all of this raw material together into a coherent picture of a life. Cooke made good use of what his research had uncovered. One of the images that made me smile was a home movie of Eisner’s proud Dad reading one of the early Spirit newspaper inserts while his Mom and sister watched.

Those who came knowing nothing enjoyed it, but what I think it more important is that those who came knowing everything were pleased. You know how it is when a subculture gets put under the microscope. Something is usually wrong, some egregious error which makes insiders wince. There was nary a wince here. Cooke told Eisner’s story and told it true.

I should add that I looked at this doc quite differently than most people. For me, this was about my family. When I watched Gil Kane being interviewed, I remembered him hanging out in the Marvel Bullpen with me, and handing in his pencils for the cover to my first Scarecrow story. When I saw pictures of Phil Seuling, I remembered all of the times as a kid when I sat in the front row at conventions looking up at him. When Stan Lee was on the screen, I remembered the years I channeled his voice while writing Bullpen Bulletins. When Jerry Robinson spoke, I remember the drawing he did for me, long before I started working in comics, that showed his creation Robin, the Boy Wonder, telling me he hoped I’d work in comics someday. And so on.

So you can see that I approached this documentary very personally, and if Cooke had made a wrong move, I’d have pounced on any misstep. There weren’t any. I plan to purchase a copy of the film on DVD as soon as it’s out in March, as should you. And even if the doc itself doesn’t interest you, a complete set of Eisner’s Shop Talk tapes will be included as a DVD extra, featuring interviews with Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, and many more influential artists. So keep checking the official site for more info.

Afte the screening, Cooke took questions from the audience. You can download the 23-minute Q&A (it’s 10.67MB) that took place after the screening here. A few of the Q’s are faint, but all of the A’s are strong and clear. (Unfortunately, the mike on my digital recorder is so sensitive that from time to time you can also hear the guy next to me who couldn’t stop chewing on his ice!)

After the official Q&A, Cooke hung around chatting with us diehards for another hour, and in the process I bumped into another one of those who, like me, had attended early July 4th Phil Seuling conventions, only this guy—Mitch Berger—had arrived on the scene even earlier them me. My first con was in 1970, but his was in 1968, if I’m remembering correctly. And so after Cooke left, Berger and I kept talking about the old days, including Vaughn Bode’s slideshows, Phil Seuling’s creation of the direct market, and more.

It was a very satisfying family reunion. I’m sure that many of you know exactly what I mean. And that’s satisfying, too.

You can find more photos of my day here.