Mark Evanier's Blog, page 163

ASK me: Ditko, Disney Legend

Recently, the Disney organization announced this year's roster of "Disney Legend" inductees. They are, in no particular order: Kelly Ripa, Angela Bassett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Miley Cyrus, Martha Blanding, James L. Brooks, James Cameron, Harrison Ford, Mark Henn, Frank Oz, Joe Rohde, John Williams…and Steve Ditko. More than a few folks have written to ask me…

A lot of people seem to feel it's inappropriate for Steve Ditko to be named a Disney Legend. How do you feel about it?

I kinda feel if it makes his family happy — and I'm hearing it does — fine with me. True, he doesn't seem to have ever worked for Disney but that does not seem to be part of the criteria to be designated as a Disney Legend. You just have to have played a major role in something that made the corporation a lot of money or will. If them's the rules, he's qualified.

Would the notoriously fan-shy artist have welcomed the honor? Probably not. He probably would not even have liked people printing and circulating the few photos of him that are around but his most devoted fans ignore that. (I saw one of them on Facebook say that the Disney honor is wrong because Ditko always shunned awards. I have a hunch the person who said this expressed no displeasure when Mr. Ditko was named to The Hall of Fame and would have been outraged if the artist had been snubbed.)

Yes, Ditko shunned awards and interviews and after he attended one of the first comic book conventions, comic book conventions. He also was upset to the point of actually speaking out — well, writing a few angry letters — when his role as co-creator of Spider-Man was denied or ignored. I'm not pretending to be able to speak for him but since the Disney organization will probably own and exploit the hell outta Spider-Man and Dr. Strange for all eternity, it might help keep Ditko's name attached that they've now formally recognized his contribution.

It's Finger Time Again!

Yes, it's that time of the year again — the time when I, on behalf of the blue ribbon committee that has no blue rubbons, solicit nominations for the annual Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. We will select someone who is alive for the honor and there will also be a posthumous award…and if it goes as it usually does, someone who doesn't know what the word means will suggest someone who is very much alive should receive the posthumous award.

(A Tip: If you have a good candidate for the posthumous award, try and suggest someone who would be an appropriate person to come pick it up — a relative, a co-worker, someone.)

All past nominations will be considered so if you nominated someone in the past, you need not submit them again. Basically, we're asking if any new names have occurred to you.

This is an award for a body of work as a comic book writer…someone who is or was unrecognized and/or unrewarded for that body of work. It is not for your favorite artist. It is not for someone who wrote a few stories. It is not for someone whose talents have been honored over and over and who got very, very rich and/or famous writing comics.

It is also not for anyone who has received this award in the past. The full list of such people can be read over on this page.

Here's the address for nominations. They will be accepted until April 15 at which time all reasonable suggestions will be placed before the committee and we'll make our decisions. They'll be announced before this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego and the awards will be presented then and there. That is all.

Saturday Evening

There's good news tonight: My friend and collaborator Will Meugniot is already up and walking after his cancer surgery yesterday. So says his wonderful wife Jo. You have no idea how happy this makes me.

This blog was down for about twenty minutes yesterday due to maintenance work by its hosting company. I think some folks are spoiled by websites like eBay and CNN which are almost never/ever down because I got something like forty e-mails, some time-stamped three minutes after we went offline. I'm sorry for the outage but due yourself a favor, folks. If a non-vital site is down — and this one is about as non-vital as you can get — give it a half-hour or so before you write to complain.

I'm a little confused. Trump's lawyers are saying there's no way he can come up with the dough he's supposed to pay by the Monday deadline. He's running around saying he's got the cash. I suppose we'll find out in about 36 hours. When I get up that morning, I'm going to check eBay and see if Mar-a-Lago is up there with a $1 opening bid. If I can get it for less than six grand, I might buy it. Looks like a great place to store documents.

Note to self: Never order a Fatburger again. They aren't anywhere near as good as they were when you occasionally had one last century.

For those who live in Southern California: There will be five performances of the very-adult improvised show from the Henson Company, "Puppet Up!" between April 26 and April 28. Tickets are on sale now but going fast. I'm skipping this time but you might not want to.

Lastly for now and because people keep writing to ask: No, neither Sergio Aragonés nor I will be present at WonderCon next weekend. But if you are, I'm sure you'll have a peachy time. Make sure to say howdy to my longtime friend, Tony Isabella. And I ain't kidding about longtime friend. We met in person close to 54 years ago following 2-3 years of intense pen-palling.

Today's Video Link

Let's watch a clip from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 5/5/92. His guest is Mel Brooks who reflects on being a guest on Johnny's first broadcast, then Mel tells The Cary Grant Story. Don't miss The Cary Grant Story…

ASK me: Sitcom Tapings/Filmings

From Daniel Klos…

Random question if you're ever looking for a quick blog post: When sitcoms are filmed before a live studio audience, do they play the theme song for the audience prior to filming in order to get them in the proper mood?

Quick answer: Occasionally. I haven't been to any sitcom tapings (or filmings) for a few decades but when I did go, they sometimes played the theme. They sometimes had a little video reel they'd show the audience featuring great moments from earlier episodes and it might include the theme song. They sometimes had live musicians playing music as part of the warm-up and they'd often play between scenes and somewhere in there, they'd perform the theme song — without the lyrics if the theme song had lyrics.

Before a taping of All in the Family, they'd roll out a little piano and Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton would perform the theme song, "Those Were the Days," live just for the live audience. I haven't heard of a show doing anything like that in years but it wouldn't surprise me if one did.

ASK me: Kirby's Return to Marvel

This came to me from John Parkinson…

I've tried to ask this question before but maybe it didn't get to you or you're not interested, but I'm dumb enough to keep trying.

When Jack Kirby returned to Marvel he didn't pick up books (with the exception of Captain America) he was once most identified with. He did do covers for those books though. So was he never offered say Fantastic Four or was he simply not interested in revising those characters?

If Jack had been allowed to do whatever he wanted then — this is when he came back in 1975 — he would have written, penciled and edited all-new books which did not crossover into other comics or and he would have avoided characters that were under the creative control of others. He basically wanted to be left alone. A lot of this had to do with his experiences doing Jimmy Olsen for DC. The editorial office there was constantly criticizing the way he handled the established characters…and even one he created (Morgan Edge) once that character began appearing in other books.

Jack understood the power of the "Marvel Universe" concept having been a key architect of it. He just felt that he could make his strongest contribution at that moment by going to new places with new players, plus he also felt a lack of respect from some of the people he had to deal with on the Marvel editorial crew at the time. The less he had to engage with them, the better off he felt he would be.

Mostly to be a good sport/team player, he agreed to take on Captain America and, later on, The Black Panther. Those were not his choices but that's where Marvel — mainly Stan in this case — wanted him. Also, Jack did not want to displace anyone from their regular assignments. At the time, Captain America had no regular creative team assigned and later when he took on Black Panther, it was because Stan wanted to launch a new series in a new direction. So Jack wasn't bumping anyone off a job there either. He would have had he taken on Fantastic Four or Thor…and as I said, he really wanted to be left alone to do new books.

Today's Video Link

Here's the Legal Eagle guy to explain what's going on with Trump down in Georgia. Seems to me Mr. Trump is in a lot of legal trouble — here, there and just about everywhere — and it ain't going away soon. He may be going away soon but his problems with the law won't…

Mad World Alert!

The Fine Arts Theater on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills is running my favorite movie, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World at 2 PM on Sunday, April 14. I mention this because folks keep writing me to let me know. I know, I know. I doubt I'll be attending. The Fine Arts is a lovely place to see most movies but I'm spoiled. I need my favorite movie on a bigger screen and will probably wait for the reopening of the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood even if, as it now appears, that ain't happening in '24.

I also don't think my ankle will be up to going by then. It's getting steadily better and I'd know that even if the surgeon who reassembled it hadn't said as much in a post-op visit last Wednesday. But it's still going to take a while…

Today's Video Link

This is the "Tiny Desk Concert" of the show Company — specifically, the genders-reversed production that played Broadway and out here a few years ago. Having not seen it — and after realizing I've always liked parts of the show but not the whole thing — I have no opinion on whether the sex changes made it worse or better. I am curious though about one line change in the song "You Could Drive a Person Crazy."

It used to go "When a person's personality is personable / He shouldn't oughta sit like a lump / It's harder than a matador coercin' a bull / To try to get you off of your rump." Now, it goes "When a person's personality is personable / She shouldn't oughta sit on her butt / It's harder than a matador coercin' a bull / To try to get you out of your rut." Did Mr. Sondheim change that and if so, why?

Here are four songs from the show including that one…

My Pal Will

To have a career in an entertainment-based industry — and I suppose in many others — they say you have to either be very talented, very reliable or very nice. And some further say you can get by with any two out of three…though I can think of a few folks I've known who've had decent careers with only one. We won't talk about them now because I want to talk about a great friend and a great collaborator who, lucky me, excelled in all three. His name is Will Meugniot and that's pronounced "Mineo." The comics we've done together might not have been the greatest comics ever done but no one else's had a creative team whose names were so often mispronounced.

I started working with Will back in 1976 — on Tarzan and Korak comics I was writing and editing for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate. They were for the overseas market and I recall that the foreign publishers were quite delighted with Will's work. I know I always was. We did a lot of different things but the one you're most likely to know of was a comic we created called The DNAgents with also led to a couple of spin-off books. Will was the perfect collaborator, meaning that we agreed on most things but not everything. He had ideas of his own and a lot of them were way better than mine.

We would have done the comic longer but it turned out Will was not only terrific at comics but also at all the creative skills necessary to work in TV animation. It was not long after he got his foot in that door that all the studios were throwing money at him to work on their shows and, eventually, produce them. For a couple of decades, a lot of the best action/adventure cartoon shows on TV were the best because Will made them that way.

This morning on Facebook, he went public with a secret that I've known about for just a little while and it depresses me, as it will depress you if you've ever known the man or even his work. He's battling two forms of cancer — prostate and pancreatic — and is soon to undergo some industrial-strength surgery. I could quote his statement here but instead, I'm giving you this link so you can go read it yourself.

And while you're over there, maybe you can take a moment and post something to Will. If you know him personally, tell him what a great guy he is because I'm sure you feel that way about him. If you never had the pleasure of knowing him but you know his output, write about that. The important thing is to let him know we're wishing him only the best of all possible outcomes and many more years with us and his incredible spouse and partner-in-life, Jo.

I have occasionally been accused of only seeing the good in people and maybe I am sometimes too oblivious or eager to not see the bad. But in this case, I see only the good because there just plain isn't anything else.