Mark Evanier's Blog, page 246

Attend the Tale Soon

The reviews are in for the just-opened Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd with Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford. For the most part, they're raves…so now I really have to get back there to see it.

P.S.

I just awoke from an 8.5 hour sleep which is around three hours longer than my norm. That's an indicator of how exhausted I was after WonderCon but it's not the best indicator. The best indicator is that last night, when I wrote up the story of having to get by without my wallet and the necessary items within, I forgot to include the punch line. Here's the rest of the tale…

So I decide it's time to get back home and because I'm not driving these days (knee problems), I call an Uber on my cell phone. Lacking a wallet and credit cards, the cell phone saved my life. I get into the Uber, the driver heads for the 5 freeway and a few minutes into the ride, the screen on the cell phone begins to go off and on, off and on, off and on. I know I'm low on power but not that low.

Fortunately, my computer case is in the Uber with me and in it, I have one of those portable iPhone battery chargers I touted here. It brings the screen back up long enough for me to take this screen shot —

— and then the whole thing goes dead for the rest of the ride home. It was like my phone said, "Okay, you don't need me anymore on this trip!" I think I need to go have a new battery installed.

Today's Video Link

Here's the musical Grease in Japanese. I don't think it loses much in the translation…

The Word From WonderCon – Sunday

And now I'm home, having enjoyed myself thoroughly at the convention. I'll write more about it in the coming days but now I feel I should tell you about the stupid thing I did. When I travel, I am fierce about packing everything I might need wherever I might roam. Still, even with my lists and checking and double-checking, I always manage to forget something. Sometimes, it's trivial…

But sometimes, it's pretty serious. This time, it was pretty serious. This time, it was my wallet. You know…that thing that contains money, credit cards and my picture I.D. I thought I had it but when I got to the hotel check-in, it turned out I didn't. And as the lady at the desk informed me, this hotel requires that picture I.D. to check in.

I tried pointing out that there was a picture of me in the convention program book. I was even wearing the same hat in that photo that I had on at check-in. She said no, that wouldn't do. The convention staffer who deals with the hotel ran over and assured the desk clerk that I was indeed Mark Evanier and she made me sound very important. That also would not do.

I thought for a moment I was going to have to make the 90 minute round-trip back to my home. Then the desk clerk talked to the manager and someone looked it up and saw that I'd stayed at that hotel several times before. They decided to make an exception.

Fortunately, I had my cell phone and my cell phone has Apple Pay on it so I could use it to leave the credit card deposit and later to pay for some meals. And it has Zelle and PayPal on it so some friends who were selling stuff at the con were willing to give me cash…and it wasn't a loan. They agreed that if I sent a certain amount of money to their bank accounts, they'd hand me the same amount in currency. That covered dinner at a restaurant that doesn't take Apple Pay and I also had cash for tipping purposes.

So it turned out okay but it was still a pretty stupid thing to do.

From the Floor at WonderCon

I needed a place to sit down for a while and Marv Wolfman was away from his table so I've been sitting here for a while signing his name on things. So far, I've signed it on 23 copies of Tomb of Dracula, 17 copies of Teen Titans, one Adventures of Superman, four promissory notes and a confession to kidnapping the Lindbergh Baby. When they haul him away for the last of these, his table will be mine.

The Word From WonderCon – Saturday

Yesterday at WonderCon was way more crowded than Friday but, at least in the parts of it that I traversed, it wasn't unpleasantly crowded. There were a lot more happy people there and that made for a happier room but not one that I had trouble getting around in. I didn't see all of it and probably won't…but what I did note was much less emphasis on current comics from DC and Marvel and a lot more exhibitors exhibiting products of which someone probably said, "You know, this might sell well to the kind of people who buy comic books." There also seemed to be a lot of Mystery Boxes for sale. I may write something here in the next few days about the mystique of Mystery Boxes.

Another observation: The longer you're at a convention these days, the more everyone starts looking like a Funko Pop figurine of themselves. Everyone's head just gets wider and wider.

Lots of great cosplayers to see. If someone makes one of those videos of most of the cosplayers modeling their "cos," I'll try to link to it. I saw costumes that their makers must have been working on since the last WonderCon or maybe the one before it. (And the one before it was 2019.)

I did my customary Jack Kirby Tribute Panel to a packed room and later in the day, was back in the same room (only now even more packed) for the also-customary Cartoon Voices Panel. I was almost late for the latter due to one of those security folks who thinks his assignment is to stop you from going through the most convenient door and instead take the least convenient route. I couldn't even understand the way he wanted me to go…some path that I think would have taken me through the Haunted Mansion ride — and not even the one at Disneyland, a mile away. It was either the one at Disney World in Florida or Disneyland Tokyo. It took every verbal skill I learned watching all those Sgt. Bilko episodes to get him to let me pass.

I'm heading out now for a breakfast meeting. I'll be back later to write more about yesterday and today. That is, unless that same security guard won't let me back into this hotel without re-routing me through Knotts Berry Farm. I'd prefer Disneyland because by then, I might be in the mood for a Dole Whip.

Today's Video Link

Hey, how about Jersey Boys in Japanese?

ASK me: Being a Guest at a Con

An anonymous person — anonymous to you, not to me — wrote to ask…

I see you're a Special Guest at WonderCon this weekend. Perhaps you can enlighten those of us who will never have that honor what it's like. And is there a difference between being a Special Guest and just a Guest?

Yes, when you're a Special Guest, you get the harem of dancing girls (or boys, if that's your preference) and they scatter rose petals ahead of you wherever you walk. That is, if you deign to walk because you can also order anyone on the premises to give you a piggyback ride anywhere you need to go. Mere Guests don't get any of that and no, actually I don't think there's any difference per se but these days, some convention guests are booked via agents…and agents may ask for certain billing or perks for their clients. So do some unagented folks.

I don't have an agent for this kind of thing and I've never paid any attention to what kind of Guest I am at any convention. I just looked at my WonderCon badge and it says I'm an "invited guest." The adjective seems meaningless unless they're taking the position that someone who pays admission is an "uninvited guest."

More seriously, being any kind of featured guest at a convention is not the big deal a lot of folks might think it is. We don't pay admission. We usually don't pay for meals, travel or accommodations though in some cases, we may. Beyond that, some guests demand and get appearance fees or guarantees that they'll do X amount of business but not all conventions will pay that.

WonderCon and Comic-Con don't. There are celebrities who are paid to be there but they're not paid by the con. They're paid by some company promoting a certain TV show, movie or product. I've recently been e-mailed by a couple of folks asking me which agent books me as moderator of all those panels I host. Like I said, I don't have (or want) an agent for conventions and I've never been paid a cent for hosting panels. There are perks but not checks.

I suspect anyone who's been a Convention Guest much can tell you behind-the-scenes horror stories of not being treated well. There have been a number of small, usually-new cons that were counting on a massive turnout of badge buyers to enable then to honor all their commitments to guests. Then when the turnout is way below expected numbers, they can't pay promised fees or meal or travel reimbursements or even, in one case I know of, a guest's return air fare. I have a few of those stories myself.

If you're a guest who is there to move products or "merch," including a fee for your autograph, you may go home with tons o' cash. You may also just break even on the Ubers you had to pay for to take you to and from the airport. Depends on who you are, what you're offering but also — and this seems to be key — if you're at the right convention. The right one is the one that attracts the kind of person who'd buy what you're selling.

A comic book writer friend of mine once found himself at an autograph show that turned out to be for sports memorabilia and didn't make a dime. How did he wind up there? One of the organizers was a comics fan who wanted to meet his favorite writer.

I haven't had that kind of problem at conventions since I don't sell anything at conventions. I have though had problems with inconveniently-booked reservations (they want me to fly when it's cheapest for them), bad hotel rooms, no-shows by folks who were supposed to pick me up at the airport, nowhere I could get an edible meal, etc. It's one of the reasons I don't go to many. Another is that there's not much for me to do at many of them. I know it may look glamorous to some but whatever glamour there was wore off a long time ago.

Today's Video Links

The Two Ronnies — Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett — favor us with a visit with The Man Who Repeats Things. The Two Ronnies — Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett — favor us with a visit with The Man Who Repeats Things…

The Word From WonderCon – Friday

The hall today at the Anaheim Convention Center today was relatively unjammed — plenty of people but not elbow-to-elbow, clogging the aisles.  This is a statement I will almost certainly not be able to make tomorrow.  As is the custom with WonderCons, cosplayers were out in great force displaying some amazing costumes and even the folks who had come in street clothes were wearing some amazing smiles.  As I get older, one feature I appreciate more and more at these functions is just being around so many people having such a good time.

My knee problems did not allow me to make an exhaustive sweep of the room but it felt to me like everything one could possibly want in a comic-type convention was somewhere there with this possible exception: The recent passing of Joe Giella made a number of folks acutely aware that you now have to be fairly young to go to a con and meet the makers of comic books you grew up on. There simply aren't many left from a certain era and there's nothing we can do about it.

I floated about today, sitting at one friend's table for a while and then another friend's and another friend's. One gent with a pile of Groo comics he wanted to get signed looked like Inspector Javert finally tracking down Jean Valjean when he chanced upon me sitting with MAD cartoonist Tom Richmond. I apologized for not always being in one, easily findable spot but he said, after I wrote my name all over the comics, "That's okay. It was kind of fun in a way, like finding eggs on Easter." Whatever. If he says so.

I wish I had a great anecdote from today to share with you but I didn't observe any; just a lot of happy people having a happy time. That was for me the takeaway from Friday at WonderCon. I suspect there will be such people tomorrow and Sunday. They'll just be more tightly packed together. There are still badges available if you're nearby and want to be one of those people.