James Owen told you he would be at Comic-Con, but since he’s been too busy selling books to be able to blog, I figured it was up to me to prove that he’s actually here.

After three hours straight walking the exhibit hall this morning, I finally stumbled across his booth, as the photo below proves. We talked of our love for the artwork of Al Feldstein, why Stephen King should never have made that American Express commercial, how much fun it is to lose awards to our betters, and more.

I only just managed to grab lunch, and now I’ve stopped briefly in my hotel room to put my feet up, add more photos to flickr, and recharge the mental batteries before diving once more into the maelstrom.

As with my Thursday Comic-Con wanderings, my moment-to-moment doings Friday were so mundane and “taking care of business” that they’re surely of interest only to me and to my boss. After miles of hiking the floor, though, I did have to sit eventually before my feet burst into flame, and I chose to do it at a bit of programming in the late afternoon titled “That ’70s Panel.”

Whether you’re interested in Comic-Con or not, a few comments made there from the stage should be of interest to creators of any kind. The panel featured moderator Mark Evanier interrogating Jim Starlin, Joe Staton, Mike Grell, Mike Barr (who was given an Inkpot Award mid-panel), Bernie Wrightson, and Len Wein.

I have some history with the first and last of those men, in that I had the misfortune of following Jim Starlin as writer on Captain Marvel after his tremendously popular run on that book, and Len Wein was the Marvel Comics editor-in-chief who gave me a shot at writing the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins Page (save for Stan’s Soapbox, of course), among other things. (more…)

I’m much too tired from walking across miles of concrete in the exhibit hall Friday, plus dining with the staff of SCI FI and the stars of many of its shows, failing to crash the Maxim party (which I’m not too upset about, considering the fact that a woman nearby us who had actually been in the magazine several times also failed to crash), and attending the DC Comics party to fill you in on any of the nitty gritty details of the day.

So for now, I’ll just share a glimpse of one of the things Comic-Con is most famous for—the many attendees who show up in costume.

Here’s a Supergirl and a Wonder Woman, with a Green Arrow, an Aquaman, and a Superman behind. Hidden by the two women is a second Supergirl. The two Kryptonians seemed to get along.

To check out further photos of the many heroes and villains in attendance—including those unidentifiable as either—click through to my flickr stream.

A more detailed report on Friday will have to wait until tomorrow, when sleep will hopefully restore coherency.

If I were to share with you exactly how I spent my Thursday at Comic-Con, you’d likely be bored out of your gourd, because I’m here on behalf of the SCI FI Channel, and so I’m spending almost all of my time working, which means that I’m wandering the exhibit hall researching upcoming movies, games, DVDs, books, toys, and so on, as well as strengthening my relationships with the PR reps and creators who work at those companies. But I did manage to have a few encounters which might be of interest to the friends who drop by here.

I had a chance to chat with legendary EC writer and artist Al Feldstein (there we are below), whom I last met in 1972 (gulp!) at the EC Comics Convention at Manhattan’s McAlpin Hotel. But this time I wasn’t just an annoying kid asking irritating questions. (Who knows? It might be that my only progress since that time is that I’ve now become an annoying adult asking irritating questions.) Since I have a story being published in the upcoming issue of Postscripts magazine for which he drew the cover, we were able to connect better than we did 36 (yikes!) years ago.

Another moment worthy of note Thursday is that in the midst of mining the exhibit hall for information on upcoming releases, I did take a break to sneak off to the panel on Golden and Silver Age comics, a photo of which you can see if you click through here. Not to be too maudlin about it, but considering the collective ages of Al Jaffee (87), Russ Heath (81), Larry Lieber (76), Jerry Robinson (86), and Al Feldstein (82), the time we’re likely to get to hear these guys spiel about the old days in the comics business is growing short, and I didn’t feel I could pass it up without regretting it.

Al Jaffee explained that he’d originally wanted to draw Superman and Batman, but “I could not figure out where the muscles were located.” Larry Lieber explained that his choice of drawing hand was based on forcing himself to follow his big brother Stan Lee’s example, and so, “I used my left hand and regretted it ever since.” Al Feldstein shared that Bill Gaines never wanted to go into the family business, that he hated it because he hated his father, and that, “He didn’t want to be a publisher, he wanted to be a chemistry teacher.” Interesting guys all, and you’d better track them down to chat while you still have a chance.

After the panel, I made these old guys feel even older by telling Al Jaffee about the time I got him to draw me a sketch in the midst of the 1974 Reuben Awards banquet, and Jerry Robinson about the sketch he drew for me during the famous 1972 Stan Lee at Carnegie Hall event.

At the Random House party later that night, I caught up with the gracious editors who’d invited me, as well as their authors Greg Bear, Connie Willis, David Williams, C. E. Murphy, and others. My last stop of the night was the IGN party at a restaurant in the Hard Rock Hotel, where I remained until my body suddenly remembered the three-hour time difference, and told me to head back to my room.

If you’d like to see photos of any of this, all of yesterday’s Comic-Con pics are now online, captioned as well as I’m likely to get them before I return home Sunday night.

After waking up at 4:15 a.m. East Coast time, driving 100 miles to Dulles Airport, flying to San Diego, wandering the never-ending exhibit hall of Comic-Con International for hours, and then hitting the Random House and IGN parties in the evening, I’m wiped out, much too exhausted to fully caption the many photos I took today.

But I figure I should make some noise to prove that I was actually at the con today. So here’s a photo of me with Larry Lieber, co-winner of this year’s Bill Finger Award (which he shares this year with the late Archie Goodwin, a former boss of mine). He was the first scripter of stories about Iron Man and Thor, and wrote many of Marvel’s beloved pre-superhero monster tales, such as “Fing Fang Foom.”

And, oh, by the way, he also happens to be the younger brother of Stan Lee, yet another former boss of mine.

One of my fondest memories of Larry is being in attendance with him at a party at Tony Isabella’s penthouse apartment on top of the Hotel Edison in (I think) 1975), at which he and Tony and I ran back and forth across the rooftop bellowing “New York, New York,” from the musical On the Town. I call it bellowing because I dare not call it singing.

Anyone who wishes more con reportage right now can click on the link above, but you’ll have to forgive me for the lack of captioning … I blame the fact that body time, it is now past 2:00 a.m. Friday. If it’s coherency you want, you’d better check back tomorrow.

For those of you still looking ahead to the 1970 New York Comic Art Convention rather than the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con International, here’s a sample spread from that earlier con’s 8-page progress report to help you with your travel plans.

Better make that … time-travel plans.

Check out the upcoming panels, as well as some of the pros who attended the 1969 incarnation of the con. That’s Gil Kane and Phil Seuling in the photo at the upper right, and Frank Frazetta and Neal Adams below.

And now I really must finish packing for tomorrow morning’s flight! (To San Diego, that is.)

I’ll be heading off early tomorrow morning (far too early) for this year’s San Diego Comic-Con International, which will run through Sunday. I’ve heard that there will be anywhere from 150,000 to 175,000 people in attendance, a far cry from my first few conventions, at which the membership never even hit four figures.

As far as I know, no pictures exist of me from my first convention, which was the 1970 installment of Phil Seuling’s famed July 4th New York Comic Art Convention, back when I was only 15. But since I was tall even then, and always sat front-row center so as not to miss a single word at any panel, multiple shots of me at Phil’s 1971 convention ended up being published.

Click here to see the one I already shared with you, which ended up getting published in the con’s 1972 program book. But above is a second image from that same weekend, possibly from the con’s opening ceremonies, which was originally published in the February 1972 issue of Fantastic Fanzine Special #2, an early Gary Groth magazine. If you compare this image with that first one I shared, you’ll see that I was probably in the same seat for both pictures. I doubt I got up from that chair the entire day. Once you nab the best seat in the house at a con, you don’t give it up! (more…)

While digging out the drawing by Garry Trudeau that I scanned and uploaded for yesterday’s entry, I came across this caricature of me done by Joe Papin, famed courtroom sketch artist for the New York Daily News. And since I’ve mentioned in the past that I’d share other caricatures of me, in addition to the Jack Davis image which I sometimes use as my icon, it seems like the right time to post this.

I was visiting Bill Kresse at the paper’s 42nd Street offices just before heading off to begin as a freshman at SUNY Buffalo in January of 1973. (That odd starting date is due to my graduating high school early, in January instead of June.) I had become friendly with Bill thanks to a school tour several years earlier.

A number of Daily News cartoonists drew me going-away cards, including George Ward, whose artwork I’ve already shared with you. At the time, I wanted to be a newspaper columnist in the Pete Hamill/Jimmy Breslin mode, walking the streets and writing about whatever I happened to find there.

Joe’s scribbled comment at the bottom of his caricature advises me to stay strong:

Always remember: You are entering a field in which the working ethic has sadly become, “Better a living dog, than a dead lion!” With hard work, perseverance, and a great deal of luck, you can help change this! Excelsior!!

I guess I never fulfilled whatever journalistic promise Joe saw in me, but at least I got a neat portrait out of it. Sorry about that, Joe, wherever you are!

Garry Trudeau, creator of Doonesbury, turned 60 today.

Do you think he remembers having drawn the sketch below at a Reuben Awards banquet in 1973 when he was but 25 and I was just a snotty kid with a sketchbook and a pleading voice?

Nah.

I, on the other hand, remember it very well. (There should be a word for that, the encounter which one party regards as meaningful and the other finds either meaningless or completely unmemorable.)

In any case, as I type these words, it suddenly leaps out at me—he was only freakin’ 25? And already helping to topple a president, with a Pulitzer only two years away? It makes me feel as if I haven’t done enough to justify my existence today.

Happy birthday, Garry!

Even though Sunday was one of the shorter days at Readercon, it was actually the busiest day for my personal programing.

Once I checked out of the hotel and parked my bag, I went to my 10:00 a.m. panel, “I’m Not Terse, I’m Just Edited That Way,” which in addition to me featured Barry Malzberg, Lucy Corin, Richard Chwedyk, and Ron Drummond. Kathryn Morrow acted as moderator, and I made it difficult for her to maintain order. Our mandate was to discuss the controversial relationship between writer Raymond Carver and editor Gordon Lish, the man who made his career. The panel description also tossed out the name of Robert Heinlein, who many feel became uneditable as he became more successful.

I was seated next to our moderator, and I’m afraid that when I got a chance to speak, the first panelist to do so, I began with something of a rant. I am very passionate about Carver, and so I’m afraid that it couldn’t be helped.

A decade or so ago, when the New York Times published in its Sunday magazine section its shocking article revealing the true nature of the Lish/Carver relationship, my understanding of the arc of Carver’s life changed completely. I’d always thought that the reason he’d eventually began publishing richer, deeper stories was because the love of a good woman had rescued him from his alcoholism. Instead, it seemed that the real reason his writing improved was because he’d finally developed the strength to throw off the shackles of his editor. (more…)