Animation Writing
So How Was Comic Con, Arie?
I went to the San Diego Comic Con last week. How was it? Pretty good. Here are a few things that happened:
On Thursday July 25th, I went to a mixer for animation writers organized by Charlotte Fullerton. It took place at Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop just a few blocks away from the convention center. I hadn’t seen Charlotte since the last time I was at SDCC, back in 2019. So it was great catching up with her, and with various other folks. Saw some old friends, made some new ones, had a ton of ice cream.
The following day, on Friday July 26th, I had lunch with fellow author Stacia Deutsch. Stacia and I both belong to an organization called the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, or IAMTW for short. After lunch, we went to the IAMTW’s Comic Con panel, which started at 2pm. Stacia was one of the panelists, and the panel doubled as the ceremony for the Scribe Awards, which are given out each year by the IAMTW. The Scribe Awards acknowledge and celebrate excellence in licensed tie-in works based on TV shows, movies, and games (video games, computer games, RPGs). It was a great panel, and even though I wasn’t one of the panelists, the panelists pulled me up on stage with them after the event to take a couple of pictures, because I am a member of the IAMTW.
In this first photo, you can see (from left to right) Scott Sigler, Chris Ryall, Jonathan Maberry, David Avallone, Stacia Deutsch, Deborah Daughetee, Jennifer Brody, and me.
In the second photo, you can see (clockwise from left to right): Me, Jesse J Holland, Stacia Deutsch, and Scott Sigler.
Although Jesse is also a member of the IAMTW, he was not on the Scribes panel. But he WAS on the panel I moderated at 7pm that very same day. This was the “Epic Myths and Legends” panel, which I put together to help promote my upcoming nonfiction book The Encyclopedia of Epic Myths and Legends. Aside from Jesse, the panelists were Mark Hoffmeier and Jonita Davis. During the hour-long panel, the four of us discussed the connection between ancient mythology and modern pop culture, a subject which is examined at length in my forthcoming book.
The panel went really well! There was a good-sized crowd, and the panelists were amazing. It was – wait, what do optimistic people say when they talk about how they enjoy something? Oh yes, that’s right: “Fun.” It was fun. The panel was fun.
Now, two days after the “Epic Myths” panel, I was also supposed to be a panelist on another panel discussion called “Neurotic Superheroes Across the Multiverses.” But my immune system had other plans, because early in the morning on Saturday July 27th, I tested positive for COVID. At this point, you’re no doubt saying to yourself “Oh, no!” To which I counter: “Oh, yes!” Because of my new – um – status quo, I had to skip the last two days of Comic Con, which obviously also entailed bowing out of the “Neurotic Superheroes” panel.
So now I’m at home in NYC, recuperating. And honestly, even though I was only there for the first 60% of the Con, I had a really nice time. That probably has something to do with the fact that I tried to pace myself this time around and not get too overcommitted with too many meetings and too many parties and too much hectic stuff in general. It probably also has to do with the fact that I tried to spend as much time as possible with my wife Nadine and daughter Aviya. But – you know – don’t tell them I said that. It would go against my hard-won reputation as a god-tier buzzkill. And I fear that my loved ones would reject the newer, sunnier, me.
Drawing the Line: The History of Jews in Animation!
Ever since I was a small child, I’ve been obsessed with animation. Every aspect of it. Who made the greatest animated cartoons in cinematic history, how many Fleischer brothers there were (and what each one did), how to spell and pronounce “Ub Iwerks.” All that stuff. And aside from my work as a writer of various other things, I’m also an animation writer. (In fact, you can see some of my animation writing credits HERE and HERE.)
So I know quite a bit about animation, and I also know a lot about animation history. Pay attention to that last bit, because it’ll be important later.
In addition to all of the above, I’m a public speaker. In fact, for a couple of decades before the pandemic, I used to go all over the world (well, all over the US, as well as a few places in Canada and a couple of countries in Europe) and give lectures at various venues including universities, literary festivals, synagogues, libraries, museums, etc. For the past three years, I’ve been giving lectures virtually, because of the aforementioned pandemic (perhaps you’ve heard of it). Hopefully, now that everything’s opening up again, I’ll start lecturing in person once more. Which would be nice, because I really miss those speaking gigs where I’m actually in the same room as my audience. (What a concept!)
No matter whether I lecture virtually or in person, I usually talk about various pop culture-related topics, often from a Jewish perspective. That’s largely because my lecture career started out with me speaking on subjects like the history of Jews in the film industry and the history of Jews in the animation industry. And that kinda became my thing, for reasons too convoluted to go into here. * Then after my book From Krakow to Krypton: Jews in Comic Books was released in 2008, that was the topic I spoke about the most. I mean, I had written a successful nonfiction book on the history of Jews in the comic book industry. Why wouldn’t that be my most frequently requested lecture topic?
I’ve also done some work for the Union for Reform Judaism (aka “URJ”) over the past couple of decades. For instance, I’ve written several articles for them (both print and online), most of which are about various aspects of pop culture history as well.
At the tail end of 2021, the folks at the URJ hired me to make a video about the history of Jews in the animation industry for their “RJ on the Go” platform. It was called “Drawing the Line: The History of Jews in Animation,” and it was up on their site for about a month, from late December of 2021 to late January of 2022. It’s not up there anymore, but they gave me the link so that it can live permanently on my website. With that in mind, you can check it out here:
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* I should clarify that I don’t exclusively talk about these subjects as seen through a Jewish lens, so to speak. Sometimes, in my lectures, I simply talk about film history (in general), or the history of television comedy (in general), or the history of the comic book industry (in general). Other times, I talk about my writing career and how it’s evolved over the years. I’ve even given lectures about specific areas of my writing career, like my career in the video game industry or what it was like working on those three LEGO Star Wars books I wrote for Scholastic. But, at least in certain circles, I am definitely known best for my lectures on the contribution of Jewish folks to various areas of popular culture.
Sequential Crush Podcast Interview!
Recently, I was a guest on the Sequential Crush podcast, hosted by author and comics historian Jacque Nodell. We talked about my writing career, my creative influences, and more. I had a fantastic time talking to Jacque, and I hope you enjoy listening to the episode!
Here’s Jacque’s description of the episode, from the Sequential Crush site:
“Join me for the first Sequential Crush podcast interview with writer Arie Kaplan. Arie has written for it all — TV, comics, magazines, and books, and he doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Arie shares how he broke into pop culture writing, how he made a move from intern to professional, and he divulges his inspirations, faves, and dream projects.”
You can check out the interview HERE.