Mark Evanier's Blog, page 49

Fandom Freedom

I've been collecting and reading comic books as long as I can remember — and I can remember back for most of my 73 years. It was not something I ever hid the way you might hide a shameful bad habit or something that made people question your I.Q.

Every so often over the years, some fellow reader/collector has asked about if I've ever been mocked or criticized for love of that reading material and they're amazed when I tell them the answer is "Almost never." And you could lose the "almost" if I'd never ventured near local science-fiction fandom of the late-sixties and early-seventies.

I was also a reader of science-fiction…some of it, anyway. I favored the kind that was anchored on the planet on which I resided in time periods not too far into the past or future. Before we had comic book conventions in Southern California and for a few years after the first on in 1970, I sometimes mingled with the local s-f crowd and attended a few such conventions but I didn't fit in with that crowd. The cons all seemed to be there largely for the consumption of alcohol with one's friends. I didn't have many friends at these gatherings and I didn't and still don't imbibe — ergo, the not fitting-in.

I never faulted anyone for what they read or drank but at these particular s-f events, the air was often thick with condescension towards those who read comic books. You'd think people who themselves were mocked or called "nerds" for their tastes in fiction would be more tolerant of someone else's…but no, not there and then.

One older female fan used to lecture me that Comic Book Fandom was an unfortunate outgrowth of Science-Fiction Fandom and oughta stay that way…or better still, disappear entirely. What they read was for sophisticated adults and what "we" read (drawing a firm, uncrossable line with that "we" there) was for the kiddos. Her suggestion was that there was something wrong with us for not outgrowing it.

The last such lecture I got — this would have been around '73 — was from a guy wearing Spock ears and brandishing a plastic phaser that fired little multi-colored discs. One of these…

Understand please that I'm talking about certain s-f fans I encountered; not all and certainly not any these days. I haven't been to any pure s-f conventions for close to a half-a-century. At the kind of cons I attend, everyone's interests seem pretty welcome and it's often hard to tell where one category leaves off and another begins. At WonderCon this year, I was showing my friend Gabriella around and explaining to her that a gathering like that is a convergence or loosely-associated interests: Fantasy on TV or movie screens, videogames, comic books, animation, anime, cosplaying, Lego, Funko Pop, model kits, toys, artwork, prose novels, collectible items, newspaper strips…and on and on.

And the worst thing that anyone has to say about someone's interest is "I'm not interested in that."

I feel very "at home" in such surroundings. I feel I'm among friends even though I might never have met 98% of them. I didn't feel that way at the early science-fiction conventions I attended. Too many people there were too damned defensive about being faulted for what they liked.

FACT CHECK: Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia

Lots of people have lots of things to say about Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, that gentleman who due to an "administrative error" was shipped off to El Salvador. Politifact corrects a number of things that are being said and which are not true.

Recommended Viewing

Debuting this Wednesday on the CW Network — and other channels in other countries later this year — is a new TV series created by my friend Brendan Foley. If you were a fan of his work on Cold Courage or The Man Who Died — which you were if you saw them — you owe it to yourself to tune in for Sherlock & Daughter. It stars David Thewlis, who you might know best from the Harry Potter series, as the master of all detectives and Blu Hunt, who you might know from The New Mutants as Amelia Rojas, who might or might not be the daughter of the eminent Mr. Holmes. Early reviews describe it as "a high-quality, well-made adventure and mystery series" and we could always use one of those.

Here's a little preview…

The Showrunner is the Emmy-nominated James Duff (The Closer, Major Crimes, Star Trek: Picard) and the writing crew also includes Micah War Dog Wright and my good buddy Shelly Goldstein. With talent like that involved, I've got my DVR set to record it and you should set yours. In my time zone, it's on at 9 PM.

Today's Bonus Video Link

Randy…

Today's Video Link

I'm keeping odd hours but at some point, I'll be awake when everyone else is awake. For now, here's a look at the impact that The Fantastic Four made on some of us in the sixties, courtesy of my pal, Gary Sassaman…

Another Note From me

Thanks to all who sent the latest waves of Good Health Wishes. I'm taking a little vacation from anything stressful or which interferes with sleep. Not answering the phone. Not responding to most e-mails. I just need a little peace 'n' quiet and I'll be fine, thanks.

FACT CHECK: More on R.F.K.

Steve Benen itemizes just some of the spectacularly-wrong assertions we've recently heard from our Secretary of Health and Human Services. Putting this man in charge of our nation's disease prevention is like putting the Reverend Jim Ignatowski in charge of…well, anything.

A Note From me

Thanks to all of you who wrote to wish me improved health. I'm sure I'm going to be fine but I am going to take it easy — in terms of activity that includes blogging — in the coming week. I just watched some video of the Celebration of Life I hosted last Sunday and I was amazed. I was exhausted but I thought I did a much better job of not showing it. In the video, I look the kind of person who's about twenty-four hours from being rushed to the Emergency Room on a gurney…which I was. When it's posted here in a day or three, you'll see what I mean.

I keep forgetting I'm 73 years old and while I don't think a number like that should prompt you to act like an old person, it doesn't hurt to keep in mind that maybe you can't do everything you did fifty years go. I can write faster now than I could then but that might be the only thing. Anyway, thanks for the concern from those of you who were concerned.

Today's Video Links

We are tentative fans — "tentative" meaning we haven't seen it but are hopeful we'll love it — of Boop the Musical, which opened recently to mixed reviews at the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway. I probably won't get back there until later this year and I hope it's still running. The folks I know who've see it — cartoon fans, all — have been unanimous in their praise. The critics who I've seen panning it seem to be saying "Why the hell is there a musical on Broadway about an old cartoon that no one cares about?" So there are two views for you.

One of the many things that interests me about it that they did one of those "video diaries" covering the making of the show. Four installments have been released so far. Here's Part One…

…and here's Part Two, Part Three and Part Four. I wish more shows did this. I really liked the ones for Something Rotten and Catch Me If You Can.

FACT CHECK: Sanctuary Cities and Measles

Trump insists that sanctuary cities are "death traps." Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post says there's zero evidence that's true.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — who's about as qualified to be the Health and Human Services secretary as I am to be lead ballerina in The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky — claims that the measles outbreak in Texas is subsiding. The folks at FactCheck.org have looked at the actual numbers, as apparently R.F.K. hasn't, and they say that's not true. It feels like Trump tells his people, "No matter what we do, say it's an overwhelming success. Enough of our followers will believe it!"