Once Upon a Mattress at the Ahmanson

Falconry at the Getty

CAPS Farewell

Back in September, I mentioned that CAPS (the Comic Art Professional Society, founded in 1977) had announced that it was calling it a day. 

Earlier this week, as promised, the outgoing Board organized a farewell meeting and gathering at the Animation Guild in Burbank, CA, where the group had held its monthly meeting for many years. In truth, given the low participation of recent years, I wasn’t sure what the turnout would be like. Due to the pandemic, in-person meetings had disappeared and Zoom meetings gradually attracted less and less participants—I attended one Zoom CAPS meeting where it was literally just me and another member (though we had a great time!). I also volunteered in an effort to create an in-person component of the meeting where some members could gather together at a site to Zoom in on the meeting with others, but this also didn't gain any traction.

But happily, people turned out in fulil force. In fact, it reminded me of a CAPS meeting from the old days! It was the first time the group had gathered together in person since before the pandemic, with longtime and more recent members in attendance. I saw people I hadn’t seen in years and, in at least one case, more than a decade. Some new members told me that, having recently joined, this was the first time they had ever attended a meeting and seen so many other members!

The centerpiece of the evening’s program included the participation of two of the three founding members via Zoom—Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier (the third founding member, Don Rico, passed away in 1985). There was lots of reminiscing, expressions of appreciation and laughter. 

In its later years, a highlight of the group’s activities was an annual banquet that featured the presentation of the Sergio Award, named for founding member Sergio Aragones. Since there were several statues left, the award’s namesake was given the honor to present the remaining trophies to deserving members of the group—in this case, he made the awards to members who were there at or near CAP's founding and played key roles in raising the group's profiles, often serving as early presidents: Mark Evanier, Scott Shaw, Bill Stout and an honorary one to Stan Sakai. (Though I'd seen the award statuette at banquets in the past, I'd never held one. As show in the photo below, after the meeting, I took the opportunity to inspect it up close. I also picked it up and found that it was surprisingly heavy!)

While everyone expressed regret for the group’s demise, people were clear eyed and philosophical about its passing. Pandemic aside, the industry has changed greatly in recent years and the group's demands made it difficult for working professionals to commit the time and effort needed to sustain the group and its activities. And with so many opportunities like multiple comics conventions, shows and other activities that give people a chance to see each other, perhaps CAPS’ time had passed. 

The event also reminded me of another reason I found CAPS so beneficial—after socializing with other pros, talking shop and sharing work, I always left meetings feeling incredibly energized. That feeling was there when I drove home afterwards as well. It was the perfect send off for CAPS. 

(That said, no doubt due to the positive energy at the event, people raised the possibility of the group getting together again in the future in some form in more informal ways—so we’ll see!)

A Thanksgiving Day Tradition

New Scanner!

Mourning in America

I generally avoid politics on my social media accounts, but here are my thoughts about this recent presidential election.

Whenever a candidate becomes president elect, they usually reach out to the other side, providing reassurance that they will be president for all Americans. Of course you can never please everyone, and this isn't always how it plays out, but it is a great U.S. tradition that acknowledges our diversity and differences of opinion. Not that I listened to anything Drumpf (his real family name) has said since the election, but I assume it's just to promise retribution on his enemies and anyone who voted against him. It was the theme of his whole campaign. Aside from his very public convictions, bankruptcies, shafting of other businesses, etc., this is the core of his "character."

So I hope nothing but ill will for this cretin. And I say this noting that, as partisan as I am, I have never felt that any candidate running for this office has ever been as incompetent and ill-suited for this office as this POS. 

Get ready for the sh*t show world, it's gonna be a bumpy ride. Fortunately, I have family, friends and my comics work to distract me from dwelling too much on what’s going to happen in the coming years. But I don’t know what the hell has happened to this country.

Tintin Tribute – Rob Hanes Adventures #26

In the next issue of Rob Hanes Adventures (#26), Rob gets dragged into the billionaire space race when he’s sent on assignment to an orbiting space station under construction. More details to come!

However, while working on the story, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pay homage to the classic Hergé Tintin cover for Destination Moon! (The booster rocket’s checkerboard pattern is a nod to the same pattern design on Tintin’s Moon Rocket.)

Several other classic comic strips also went into space—not sure yet whether I’ll reference any of the others, though the Dick Tracy Bucket Air Car is high on my list! 

[Pictured below: Dick Tracy strip excerpt from July 30, 1965, by Chester Gould; splash pages from the Spirit on the moon Sunday insert sequences from August 3 and August 31, 1952, story and art by Will Eisner, Jules Feiffer and Wally Wood.