Panel Discussions
Who Wants To See Some Comic Con Pics?
I went to the San Diego Comic Con a couple of weeks ago. How was it? Pretty great. Here’s some stuff that happened:
Okay, so this first thing requires a bit of set-up. Recently I wrote a children’s book titled The Fantastic Four Little Golden Book, which came out on July 1st from Penguin Random House. And at the Marvel booth this year, there were all of these props and costumes (and replicas thereof) from the movie Fantastic Four: First Steps. So on Wednesday July 23rd, Marvel staffers Jim Velasco and Neil Middleton were kind enough to let me do a photo shoot where I held up a copy of The Fantastic Four LGB with FF: FS movie props and costumes (and replicas thereof) in the background. It wasn’t really planned out beforehand, but it sure seems like it was, because I happened to be wearing all blue, just like the Fantastic Four themselves. Even the frames of my glasses are blue! Check out the pics:
Thanks to Neil Middleton and Lawrence Brenner for taking these FF/Marvel booth photos!
And on Thursday July 24th, I attended a mixer for animation writers which was held at Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop, just a few blocks away from the convention center. Everyone who came to the mixer got this super-cool button. It shows a typewriter (something associated with writers) and a mixer (the kitchen appliance). Get it?
Here’s a photo of me and my friend and fellow animation writer Charlotte Fullerton. This pic was taken by Charlotte at the mixer:
On Friday July 25th, I went to another mixer. This one was for animation folk in general, and it was sponsored by The Animation Guild (or TAG, as it’s sometimes known). I had a great time at the TAG mixer. It was SO much fun! But do I have any pics from it? No, I do not. (If there’s anything I realized after SDCC ended this year, it’s that I should take more pictures during SDCC!)
On Saturday July 26th, I appeared on a SDCC panel called “Writing Nonfiction About Fiction: Coffee Table Book Writers Roundtable.” The panel was moderated by Andrew Farago, and the panelists were yours truly and Jerry Beck. I don’t have any photos from that panel, which is just because I forgot to ask someone to take pictures beforehand. Oh, well. I mean, I have the sign-thingie that they put in front of my microphone before the panel started, and I took a picture of that. Does the photo of the sign-thingie count? (No. No it doesn’t.)
But on the good side, the panel was great fun, and I had a fantastic time. (From what I could tell, the crowd did, too!) I think it helped that Andrew, Jerry, and I were all really big fans of each others’ work. Lots of mutual respect there. During the panel, I talked about some of the nonfiction books I’ve written, like From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books and The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions. I also talked about some of the children’s books I’ve written – like The Bad Guys Joke Book – and some of the work I’ve done as a screenwriter for television and video games.
You can find out more about the panel HERE.
That night, I went to the Ignition Press party. Did I take photos while I was at the party? No. Because that’s something a cool person would do, and as anyone can tell you, I am not cool. But here’s an exterior shot of the Ignition Press San Diego Comic Con off-site popup!
And here’s one of the Ignition Press pins they gave you when you entered the party for the first time. If having lots of pins and buttons makes you cool, then I am indeed very cool. (But as anyone would tell you, I am NOT cool. Come on, we’ve been over this already!)
The very next day, on Sunday, July 27th, I attended the ceremony for the Dwayne McDuffie Awards for Diversity in Comics. It was hosted by actor and comedian Phil LaMarr, and the keynote speech for the event was given by Brandon Easton. Here are some pictures from the event:
There were a few other things I did at SDCC 2025, but I’ve got to go work on a deadline right now. So maybe I’ll do a second SDCC post at a later date, where I talk about those vague-sounding “other things” I just referenced.
And before I go, I’ll leave you with this photo of regular Deadpool and “Where’s Waldo” Deadpool. Because…well, just because. That’s why. I mean, do you even NEED a reason for “Where’s Waldo” Deadpool?
PS – if you want to read a similar “SDCC wrap-up” blog post I wrote last year, you can check it out HERE.
I’m Going To Be on a Panel at JewCE Tomorrow!
I am NOT a morning person!
Nevertheless, at 10:00am tomorrow, Sunday November 12th, 2023, I’m going to be a panelist on a panel discussion called “Jewish Roots of the Comic Industry” at the Center for Jewish History at 15 West 16th Street in Manhattan.
The panel is part of JewCE, a Jewish-themed comics and pop culture event. My fellow panelists will be Roy Schwartz and Simcha Weinstein, and the moderator will be Danny Fingeroth. Hey, I know all of those people!
And aside from the “Jewish Roots of the Comic Industry” panel, there are a bunch of other wonderful panels happening on November 12th. You can find out more about them at the JewCE website.
Here’s the official description of the “Jewish Roots” panel, from the JewCE site:
Superman and Batman were created by the children of eastern European Jewish immigrants! So were the Avengers and the X-Men! And the genre of non-superhero graphic novels like Maus was also largely jumpstarted by creators of similar backgrounds. Today, Hebraic historians discuss the Jewish roots of comics, maybe, along the way, dispelling some of the creation myths that have been passed down through time. Join Arie Kaplan (From Krakow to Krypton), Roy Schwartz (Is Superman Circumcised?), Simcha Weinstein (Up, Up and Oy Vey!) and moderator Danny Fingeroth (Disguised as Clark Kent) as they dig deep into comics’ Genesis.
Hope to see you there!
And here’s some info on JewCE in general:
JewCE stands for the JEWISH COMICS EXPERIENCE. It’s the ultimate comics and pop culture event brought to you by the Center for Jewish History in New York City. JewCE is designed to be an inclusive convention, celebrating an industry largely created by Members of the Tribe, and promoting diverse Jewish narratives in comics & graphic novels. JewCE welcomes creators and pop culture fans from all walks of life.
I should’ve written this blog post thirteen days ago!
Hopefully, if you’re reading this, you know who Al Jaffee is. Just in case you don’t, Al’s a legendary cartoonist, who’s probably most famous for his work at MAD Magazine, where he created several long-running features, most notably the “MAD Fold-Ins,” and “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions.” He’s also sometimes known as the “MAD Inventor,” because in some of the humor pieces he’s written and illustrated for MAD, he’s devised fictional inventions, often showing the reader cutaway views of the inner workings of those fictional inventions, which are so well thought out that they look like they could function in real life. Al’s one of those cartoonists who’s well known not only in the comic book world, but also in the comedy world, because his work is so genuinely hilarious. Over the past few decades, he’s even amassed a few celebrity fans, like Stephen Colbert, Whoopi Goldberg, and Neil Patrick Harris.
Thirteen days ago, on Monday March 13th, 2023, I called up Al to wish him a happy birthday. He had just turned 102 years old.
I’ve known Al for a very long time. We met way back when I was an intern at MAD Magazine, during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year at NYU. Some time later, after I began writing humor pieces for MAD Magazine, I’d see Al at MAD events like the annual holiday party at the Society of Illustrators. Or I’d see him around the MAD offices when I was there for a pitch meeting, and he was dropping off some artwork.
I got to know Al well enough that when I began working on a three-part series of magazine articles on the history of Jews in the comic book industry – the articles which directly led to my award-winning nonfiction book From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books – I asked Al if I could interview him. Once he answered in the affirmative, I was able to tell other people that he said yes. So when I approached Will Eisner about being interviewed for the series, Will said, “Who else you got?” I told him I interviewed Al Jaffee, and that was enough to convince Will to let me interview him. And once I had a Q and A with Will locked and loaded, that was all the street cred I needed to get an interview with Stan Lee for the series. And once I had Stan Lee on tape, that convinced another legendary comic book creator (I think it was Jerry Robinson) to let me interview him. And so it went. In other words, Al Jaffee was that first domino that made all the other dominoes fall. The fact that I had interviewed him gave me a sort of legitimacy I wouldn’t have otherwise had. Then when I was actually working on From Krakow to Krypton in earnest, I was able to contact all of those same people and re-interview them, just because I’d interviewed them for the magazine articles. Which I was only able to do because of Al. I mean, look. I would’ve written those articles even if Al had said no to an interview. I even would’ve written From Krakow to Krypton if he’d said no. But I don’t know if that book would’ve been as good as it was without Al’s involvement. So I owe him quite a bit.
In 2010, Danny Fingeroth and I curated an exhibit on Al Jaffee at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, otherwise known as MoCCA. This was back when MoCCA was an actual bricks and mortar museum. The exhibit was called “Is This The Al Jaffee Art Exhibit?” (Which is a stupid question, deserving of a snappy answer.) Here’s a picture of Al, Sam Viviano, and myself, from a 2012 MoCCA panel discussion about Al’s career. (The other two panelists, not visible in the photo, were Arnold Roth, and moderator Danny Fingeroth.*)
Back in 2020, Al announced his retirement. He was 99 years old at the time, and he’d been a professional cartoonist since 1942.** It must be surreal to view things from his perspective. He’s seen the comic book business evolve from a tiny industry considered unworthy of even the faintest glimmer of artistic appreciation to a respected storytelling medium which has also had an enormous influence on television, movies, prose fiction, and video games. And Al started out when the medium was less than a decade old.
As of right now, Al is one of the last living cartoonists from the so-called Golden Age of the comic book industry. In fact, according to Guinness World Records, Al has had a longer career than any other artist in comic book history.
And he’s earned the right to take it easy for a while. When I called him this year on his birthday, he waxed philosophical. “We have a fear of growing old…because [we’re afraid that] it’ll take away opportunities from us,” he noted. But Al said that for him, the reverse has been true; in recent years, he’s seen a whole new set of opportunities open up. I don’t think he meant professional opportunities – I think that Al’s happy being retired. He meant opportunities to simply be mindful of the present moment and enjoy life.
Which, honestly, is a great way to spend one’s golden years.
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* Yes, I know, technically, a moderator is not a panelist. Please give it a rest. Your fondness for nitpicking is giving me a migraine.
** According to some sources – like Lambiek – Al began his career in the comic book industry in 1941. And according to other sources, like Guinness World Records and The Comics Journal, he started in 1942. But I’ve done some research on this and haven’t come to a conclusive answer as to when exactly Al started working in the industry. I don’t think Al even remembers the exact year. I was just going through the transcripts from my interviews with him, and he doesn’t mention an exact year. So I’m just going to err on the side of caution and say that at the time of his retirement, Al had been working in the comic book business since at least 1942.