Fear and Loathing in San Diego Saturday Elmo says that perhaps "San Diego is just Peach-crazy and Texas isn't. Gee, Elmo, thanks. You may be right. I still haven't seen Desert Peach 11. The only people with Peaches is Mu Press, and they're out. They're running out of the pins, too. I'd better not pass that up this year. Donna Barr is now the proud owner of a Suicide Squid Nightgown. Why a nightgown? It's ice green and extra large, and she won't be seen in public wearing that color. Comic book history is being made. Donna Barr is, at this very moment, working on a sketch of The Desert Pooh. The tape of the musical is sold out, and gone, gone, gone. They won't be making any new ones until they finish the new version. I'll have to 'borrow' the Reverend Mom's copy. Love that dual tape recorder. If you know anyone who wants to produce a Desert Peach play, have them write to Donna Barr. The next issue of the Desert Peach is not ready. It's "at the printers." Waiting, waiting. Cartoon History of Everything Waiting? All the best comics take forever. Rip-Off Comix does not have issue 10 of the Cartoon History of the Universe, but they're waiting. Larry Gonick is branching out, however. And he's actually updating his work! Taking into account modern science? The Cartoon Guide to Genetics now has a 1991 updated edition. Now I can be an expert in genetics as well as history. Amaze your friends! Doonesbury Sellout! Has Trudeau truly sold out? An ashtray that says "Thanks for Smoking!" on one side, and "Go Ahead, You're Immortal!" on the other? This is economic terrorism, folks. Better call out Cartoonists Against Crime. Star*Reach Saw Barb Rausch at the Star*Reach booth. In the comics field, she's currently working solely on the Barbi comic, but she's also doing work for Cut-Out Doll magazines. She was handing out samples of the dolls; my roommate's niece will love 'em, I'm sure. I wouldn't play with dolls. Star*Reach seems to be reaching out. They had three handouts, just like BMI does. Star*Reach Submission Guidelines If you would like to submit a manuscript, please do the following: * All story ideas, scripts, or proposals have to be typed. * On the cover page, include name, address, and phone number. * On a separate page, list any comic book credits you have. * The format of the submission should include: * A "high concept" (2-3 sentence them) of your project. * A detailed plot synopses (2-3 pages). * Character descriptions and motivations (major and minor characters). * Short sample of scriptwriting (2-3 pp), if your work hasn't been published before in comics, or an existing comic if published. Note: If the package consists of more than 10 pages, it will not be considered. There you are. Star*Reach is popularizing the concept of "fun bucks." Please! I just wanna be loved! The producers of The Simpsons are coming out with another animated comedy, The Critic, Jay Sherman. "The overriding theme of the show is Jay's constant struggle to balance his contempt for popular tastes with his need to be loved." They gave out nice buttons, too. Freebies! Speaking of freebies, the most innovative was from Tundra, who are giving out free cheapo balsa wood airplanes to popularize something called Madman, by Michael Dalton Allred. You'll believe a tree can fly! Understanding Feazel If you thought Understanding Comics was important to the industry, you've just got to see Matt Feazel's Understanding Minicomics, The Art and Science of Stick Figures. "I can't draw, so I'm going to be a writer." Only fifty cents. What a deal! Bongo Comics Group The Simpsons and Itchy & Scratchy in November, and Bartman and Radioactive Man in December. "Each first issue contains a jumbo pull-out poster! Collect all four and assemble your own ultra-jumbo bongo universe mural! Tributes The Convention Booklet, as usual, is full of wonderful art and articles. Highlights this time include Donna Barr's characters griping about troubles with the Desert Peach Musical, a Barbara Rausch piece of Barbie and Dracula, a tribute to Harvey Kurtzmann drawn by Will Eisner, and a tribute to Joe Shuster written by Jerry Siegel. Museums? Yes, the Chester Gould-Dick Tracy Museum opened on June 20, 1991. Membership is $10 for individuals. Here's one item that doesn't need Cartoonists Against Crime. Attracting Women Readers It's not quite 1776, the Musical, but I now have the Rocky Horror Picture Show Comic Book. Should I be proud? Is my house now targeted by the NSA? Time will tell. Trina Robbins believes women aren't as into muscle-bound hunks as men are into scantily-clad 44D's, yetä she waited in line in a mall to get a hunk calendar signed by a cute thang with its pectorals hanging out. Part of what's needed is more female leads. Janet Tait started reading comics in high school. A comic book store across from her high school was hard to miss, and she started picking up Wonder Woman, Red Sonja, and Spiderwoman in the seventies. This sounds suspiciously like an urban legend. Replace 'comic book store' with 'drug dealer' to see what I mean. Trina Robbins, meanwhile, has been drawing comics before most of us were born. This must mean that she started drawing at age two, which would make her debut younger than Jim Shooter's. "Opinions, you want opinions? How long can I talk?" Women's comics, she says, need to be separated from the muscle-bound brainlessness. Later, she mentions that, really, all that's needed is that the intelligent comics be separated from the muscle-bound brainlessness. Dark Shadows is a book that's doing it right, according to David Campiti. It has "at least 60%" female readership. Part of the problem is finding places to sell "women's comics". If you build it, says Janet, they will come. The market is there for romance, westerns, and mysteries. Trina describes marketing Choices, her pro-choice benefit comic. The majors wouldn't touch it-it was impossible, they said, to sell the wanted 12,000 copies. So they printed up 12,000 copies on their own, and put them into political bookstores, independent bookstores, comic stores, and have so far sold 11,000 copies. Women fell out of the market, says Trina, as direct sales picked up. The last Love Comic was sold in 1973; the last Millie the Model in '73 or '74, and the last Patti Walker in '73 or '74. As direct sales picked up, superheroes picked up, edging out anything for women. "Maybe we need to expand comics not just for women, but for men too." David Campiti pointed out that the Beauty and the Beast comic sells 20,000 copies. The television show was canceled because it had "only" 13,000,000 viewers. Publishers and store owners just don't know how to get the right customers into their stores, and are unable to get the product into the right stores. Bookstores don't like comics, and what few comics they get are filed under either 'comedy' or just stuffed into the comics ghetto. you won't find Anne Rice comics next to Anne Rice novels. Of course, comic book store owners are guilty of the same thing. "It's All Ego-Boo" Daryl Mallett's seminar on "What to do after you finish writing" focused mostly on novel writing. Daryl is an editor and a writer. Credits include Star Trek and Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death. He has appeared in four shows of The Next Generation, after auditioning for Wesley's part. Who should you write for? "Anyone who pays you. When I started out, I wanted to be a science fiction writer. Now, I'm a writer, period." Computers are a wonderful invention. "I used to be able to write a novel in a year," he says, "now that I've got a computer, it takes three years." "Don't criticize yourself," he says in contradiction to yesterday's panel. "Write it and have faith in what you're doing. You are going to be your own worst critic." Of course, yesterday, that was a good thing. "Don't ever ask, 'where do you get your ideas?' If you have to ask, you need to leave right now." For critiques, you "show it to another writer." But then, "you send it to an editor. Writers won't buy your material." As an editor, Daryl promoted himself by writing promos, announcing appearances at conventions for himself. Established writers would say to him "Daryl Mallet! I know your name. What have you written?" "Oh, press releases, about myself." "Know your market." Louis L'Amour used to go to bookstores, unannounced, as he traveled, surprising and pleasing the bookstore owners. On format, he recommends J. Michael Straczynski's Complete Guide to Scriptwriting. It covers television, film, and plays. "Format major important," he tersely states. You want it on white bond paper. "Amateurism is unacceptable. Learning is." And, "don't be original! You want your manuscript to look like anyone else's. If I have Ray Bradbury's book in there and your book, you don't want me to tell the difference." Presumably, of course, this assumes you're not Ray Bradbury. "Writers have to have cats. You can't write in a vacuum, but 90% of the time that's what it is." You have to have a place set aside just for you. "Shakespeare didn't have a nine to five. That's why he wrote such great shit." When submitting, he says he submits to people he knows first, people who helped him. Then he does it in order of higher paying markets. Finally, "I have Asimov's disease. I want my name on everything." Writing in an Art-Oriented Business The panelists were Len Wein, Mark Evanier, Mike Barr, Peter David, Steve Gerber, and Marv Wolfman. I would've gone to any panel they were on, even if the discussion was genetically breeding turnips. Len: "I don't promise to answer honestly, but I will answer." Mark: "Is there anyone in this room who did not create Cable?" Peter David did a vamping dance to buy time for Marv Wolfman, who was so dedicated that he risked a heart attack running to this panel. He was out of breath for five minutes, though Peter didn't dance that long. Marv: "For a long time, people bought comics because they liked the characters, the stories. They got involved with the lives of the people, with what was going to happen next month. It seems to have become 'who's drawing the book' instead of 'what's in the book.'" Marv: "Let's start from the other end. Mike Barr, is there anyone to your right?" Mike: (looking right) "Not in this room." Mark: "There's Rush Limbaugh." Peter: "My name is Peter David, and I created Cable." I think X-Factor was based on these guys. Let's hope they survive the cross-over. The panel count has fallen in recent years. Steve says that the amount of content has been cut: even during his last days at Marvel, "a page was a scene." Now, a scene covers 4 to 5 pages. Films and television also tell less story. Movies often don't have any stories anymore; they're just a chase scene or a big fight. Where have we heard this before? Mike believes that this evolved out of the Marvel style of writing, going from plot to character. Mark pointed out that Carl Barks frequently spent a couple of pages doing very simple things, such as "getting Scrooge's foot out of a jar." In DC at the time, stories weren't necessarily plot- driven; some were trick driven. "The story wasn't about Jimmy Olsen. It was about the Trick." And the story was a vehicle to get to the trick. Comic book stories had to have an ending eventually, said Len. We're not telling stories anymore; we're doing soap operas. If there's a choice between advancing the story and advancing a character, we'll choose to advance the character. First, stories were paramount; then, with Marvel, characters were. Now, nothing is. Marv had trouble with his return to Dracula. The artist changed everything, to the point where there was no longer any plot there. Marv would find it impossible to make sense out of it, and would clip his original dialogue and script to the panel and send it back. Only one page was ever redrawn, however: and this was because Marv was somehow sent the original. So he erased the last page except for the first panel, in hopes of getting an actual ending. Do artists have a better time of it? Do writers need artists, while artists don't need writers? Writers can function without artists, points out Peter: it's called novels. Commenting about the success of Groo, Len joked about Mark and Sergio recycling their plots, "But geez, that's only one story." Mark popped back, "that's a lot more than most comics." Marv outlined a scripting technique he used once to give the artist more freedom, while hopefully retaining the writer's plot: He wrote the plot at the top of the script page, and the dialogue at the bottom, and simply asked that the dialogue be able to be fitted to the penciling. Peter advised that you should cater to what the artist is going to like. Todd McFarlane liked machinery. So, Peter called for machinery when Todd was on the Hulk. Dale McKeown liked drawing hot babes. So, Marlo came back when Dale came onto the book. And the current artist hates drawing buildings. This was part of the impetus for sending the Hulk into space. This, Peter and Mark pointed out, gets better art out of the artist. Peter did let slip the true origin of the Hulk stories: "Bobby Chase hasn't quit, she enjoys writing the book." Preregistering For 1994 I have no idea if you can do it, although it wouldn't hurt to try. During the 1993 convention, preregistration for the 1994 convention is a mere $25. Those Annoying Amber Brothers Phage Press is coming out with Bugtown Role-Playing. "There is no law. There are no rules." The Inkpot Awards Everyone who is anyone was at the Inkpot Awards Banquet. I hadn't planned on reporting about the awards, but when a con worker tried to make Julius Schwartz and Jack & Ross Kirby get to the back of the line, my notebook just popped right out of my pocket. Barb Rausch and Donna Barr did go to the back of the line, but they didn't make any fuss about it. One of the young women I was sitting with had a denim jacket signed by the folks at Image. She'd painted a wonderful rendition of one of their covers on the back of the jacket, they loved it (she said), and they all signed it. She figures they won't bother suing her, because she's not 'mass marketing' it. More likely because it's a better job. I'm surprised they didn't offer her a position on the spot. They are, however, retiring Rob from public appearances for a year. We can only hope that it's not to help him meet his deadlines. Nancy Collins was there as well, as a guest of honor, stunning in a black dress and black tennis shoes. The dress was her wedding dress. She didn't say anything about the shoes. She does recommend the Cramps as an extreme version of Mojo Nixon. And Screamin' Jay Hawkins as an extreme version of Little Richard. She's into extremes. This was the 24th annual Inkpot Awards, at the 24th annual convention, and Scott Shaw! emceed this "giant reunion" as normal. The special guests were Murphy Anderson, Sergio Aragones, Jerry Bingham, Nancy Collins, Paul Dini, Ferd Johnson, Rick Kurtman, Jerry Scott, Don Martin, Mark Schultz, Marc Silvestri, Dave Sim, Vincent Sullivan, Charles Vess, Michael Whalen, Robert Williams, Roger Zelazny, Jack & Ross Kirby, and Judy & Dorothy Shaw! The Russ Manning Award went to Jeff Smith, for Bone. HISS! STAY BACK, WORM! The Inkpot Awards are multiplying like tribbles. This year they gave out more awards then there were new professionals. If it continues at this pace, there won't be anyone left to award within 22.5 years. Vincent Sullivan accepted his award graciously, declaiming that "this beautiful industry existed before me, and after I left it." Paul Norris, who created Aquaman and others with Whitney Ellsworth, and was instrumental in the early Sandman. Ferd Johnson, born in 1905, who worked on Moon Mullins from just after it was created to his retiring a few months ago, and decried modern strips with "the new ones are done in shorthand. I love Calvin & Hobbes. And For Better or For Worse." Mark Schultz, who rated 9.75 on the Comics Industry Sainthood Scale, where 10 is Carl Barks and 0 is Gary Groth. Paul Bower, the "best person in comics under 5 foot." He was instrumental in getting the comics professionals onto the Bob award show. Jim Aparo, who's worked on more Batman and other silvers than anyone can count. Phil Foglio, who had a very affectionate woman on his hands. "Gee, it's my fifteen minutes of fame and I didn't get dressed." Gary Carter. P. Craig Russell, who brought "opera to comics, and comics to opera." Robert Goodwin, the Disabled Services Coordinator for the Comic Con. Michael Whalen. Michael is a fantasy artist, and there's a special room displaying his work at the Con. Roger Zelazny, writer of a book about "a couple of brothers and sisters who have a different definition of family values than Dan Quayle." (George R. R. Martin) He said, "the last time someone threw an inkpot at me, it was Martin Luthor." Huh? Don Martin. Clydine Nee, Con person and head of a new coloring company called "In Color." The Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, presented by Sodi Clampett, went to Jack Kirby. And some con guy received what looked like a crystal rescued from the first Superman movie. No revelations from God this time.