Remembering Neal Adams

The many posts about the passing of the great Neal Adams is a tribute to his influence and impact on the field of comics. He was a bridge between the Golden and Silver Ages of comics to the modern age, bringing in a breath of fresh air into the field with a slick commercial art style that was new in comic books. Along the way, he drew tons of comics for the major publishers, and many small ones and, along with writer Denny O’Neil and others, helped Batman shed the “campy” image from the ‘60s TV show, building the modern foundation of the character as it stands today. (Even today, my own efforts at drawing the character is heavily influenced by Adams’ take on the character.)

Just as importantly, he was a significant activist and champion for social issues as well as artist’s rights: he helped bring “relevance” to comics (also often with O’Neil) and tried to create a union for comics professionals. He also successfully fought for the return of artist’s work (including that of Jack Kirby’s) and, along with cartoonist Jerry Robinson and others, on the eve of the release of the 1978 Superman film, persuaded (or, rather, shamed) DC Comics/Warner Brothers into providing Superman’s impoverished creators—Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster—a pension and modicum of financial security, as well as creator credit, by using the attention to the movie as leverage.

Adam’s did so much work that is fondly remembered and admired—my personal favorite is 1978’s Muhammad Ali vs. Superman (with O’Neil again). At first glance, it might seem like a cheesy idea, but Adams and O’Neil took the job seriously and produced what I often consider (as I know others do) the greatest single Superman story ever—an epic space opera of Superman cleverly teaming with Ali to save the world against invading aliens.

Adams also provided work and mentorship to many cartoonists, especially through his comics and illustration studio, Continuity Studios.

Though I’d often go by his table at comics conventions, I had the opportunity to meet him back in 2019 at an event organized by local cartoonists that he kindly hosted at his L.A. Continuity office. After his talk, he invited me to sit with him and was delighted to learn that I was Filipino (he asked)—he spoke about how much he admired the great Philippine-based cartoonists who broke into the industry in the 1970s.

I had intended to also bring my copy of Muhammad Ali vs. Superman for his autograph (pictured above), but told him that I had forgotten it. He laughed, slapped my back and said, “Next time!”

Being on the eve of the pandemic, I didn’t find the right time to follow up, but regardless it was a thrill to get these memorable few moments with him and this photo. He always seemed so hale and active, so the news was a bit of a surprise to me. My condolences to his wife and widow; the news of his passing is giving his legacy and influence the attention it deserves.

See the original post on Facebook (with additional photos).

Read my 2019 post about meeting Neal Adams.

Read my 2008 look back at Superman vs. Muhammad Ali.

L.A. Festival of Books

Purchased from the Hi De Ho Comics Booth
at the festival.

On Sunday, April 25, we visited the L.A. Festival of Books (sponsored by the Los Angeles Times), held on the campus of the University of Southern California (USC) near downtown L.A. My wife primarily wished to attend some signings and panels, so I tagged along.

In addition to books and authors, I was glad to see comics and graphic novels well represented among the vendors, including a booth from one of the local Westside comic book stores near me in Santa Monica, Hi De Ho Comics, which I visited regularly when I was in college. You’ll see some of my purchases in the photo gallery.

In addition, when checking the schedule the day before we went, I discovered there was a panel appearance of Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, the cartoonists behind the long-running Love and Rockets series. I snatched up tickets for what turned out to be a fun overview of their series and a fascinating conversation about their creative process. The panel was followed by a book signing.

It was also fun visiting USC (we actually took L.A.’s Metro rail there, which was only about a 20 minute ride). As I have occasionally mentioned, my wife and I both attended UCLA as undergrads. That said, I actually got my master’s degree at USC, while my wife spent several years there for her doctorate. (As a student, I went to several UCLA-USC football games, both at the Rose Bowl and the L.A. Coliseum.) But we remain Bruins through and through.

So with UCLA and USC being cross-town rivalries, naturally I made sure to wear a UCLA t-shirt (during the day, several people randomly called out “Go, Bruins!” when they saw me). At right is a selfie I took wearing a Bruin shirt in front of the Tommy Trojan mascot statue.

All kidding aside, we were impressed by the changes the campus has undergone (we’ve been aware of the changes, we just hadn’t seen them first hand). USC has gentrified much of the area around campus. In fact, a rather sketchy shopping center we remembered across the street from campus (which had a bar my wife recalled visiting occasionally with fellow grad students and professors) had been transformed into a mixed-use student residential dorm area with restaurants, bars, and even a Trader Joe’s and Target! We also quickly visited the building where our classes and programs were sited. We recalled that my wife’s office in the doctoral program overlooked USC's football practice field. This included a quick visit to the Annenberg School of Communication where I received my master’s, which I had not been to since my graduation there in ‘92!

Anyway, it was a fun day and a reminder that we’re overdue to visit the equally visit UCLA campus.

Below are additional photos...you can see the full photogallery here.

Remembering Robert Morse

Remembering Gilbert Gottfried

Celebrating the New Baseball Season

Go-Go's in Concert

We saw the Go-Go's at Crypto.com Arena on March 30th—with things opening up, it was a thrill to see a live concert, particularly a band that broke through when I was at UCLA, so they were part of my college soundtrack. (For Christmas, I received drummer Gina Schock’s coffee table memoir of memories and photos, Made In Hollywood: All Access with the Go-Go's, where I learned the band played and hung out at places I haunted back in the day.) While I’ve always enjoyed their song catalog, Talk Show has always been one of my favorite albums.

We actually had missed getting tickets for a Go-Go's concert in L.A. back in December, around the time the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, because I dragged my feet on getting tickets…but that show and others ended up being cancelled due to someone on the tour getting COVID. So when an ad popped up for this show, we were sure to grab a pair right away (I later learned it was part of a busy current tour they’re on!)

The band did not disappoint and leaned heavily into the fast-driving punk surfer sound of their early years. The only small disappointment was that Schock, my favorite Go-Go (on whom I always had a crush), apparently was recovering from some recent surgery—fortunately, she was well enough to attend and came out onstage a couple times to rev up the audience and introduce the band. Filling in for Schock was Blondie drummer Clem Burke, who ably kept the band tight.

When we walked into the venue, I was surprised at how intimate the space felt—and how close we were to the stage. We were only one section up from the main floor. Although most of the show was sold out (the upper nose bleed seats were not in use), for some reason nearly our entire row was empty, so we had it to ourselves!

I actually have never been inside Crypto before (formerly the Staples Center), home to the Lakers, Clippers and Kings. Located in downtown L.A., the surrounding area (and, indeed, all downtown) has been undergoing transformation (and, yes, gentrification) in recent years—back in the day, downtown was home to offices and businesses, but otherwise a ghost town at night and on weekends. Outside the arena, directly across the street and throughout downtown, high rise buildings were in various stages of construction—we arrived a few hours in advance to grab dinner a few blocks away prior to the show and, on the way, walked across tracks of the relatively new L.A. Metro rail that the city has been building out. (I’ve taken the Metro from our Westside home to downtown L.A. in the past, a fairly jaunty 35-minute ride.) The Crypto.com arena has statues of Lakers (and Kings) greats outside and anchors an entertainment complex called L.A. Live that houses retail stores, restaurants, a performing arts venue called Microsoft Theater, and the Grammy Museum.

My biggest fear when attending concerts is getting stuck in parking lot traffic on the way out…which fortunately turned out to be a non-issue. I pre-paid for parking, strategically choosing a lot on the near side of our drive so that we wouldn’t have to drive into or through downtown…in fact, we live close enough that we decided to take local streets into downtown L.A. to avoid evening rush hour freeway traffic, almost literally a straight shot from our place and then a left turn, much of it running parallel with the above-mentioned Metro rail (my wife works in downtown L.A. so she is particularly familiar with the area).

We left the arena at the same time as everyone else but when we got to our car, people were still straggling into the parking lot, so we simply hopped in the car and exited the structure without any traffic or hindrance! In the street, there was a backup of cars to get to the freeway, but we simply turned right out of the garage into the opposite direction and took local streets until we were far enough out of the area and concert traffic to then hop on the freeway and drive home the last five or so miles home (we’re about 11 miles from downtown). Anyway, it was a terrific and memorable show!

Report on the 2022 WonderCon – Masks Required!

WonderCon was held Friday, April 1 through Sunday, April 3, 2022 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Below is a full report—click here to go straight to the photo gallery.

My wife and I had great fun visiting WonderCon at the Anaheim Convention Center on the third and last day of the show, Sunday, April 3! It was a nice change of pace to attend a comics convention as a regular attendee rather than be tied to a table as an exhibitor. I checked in with a bunch of friends and colleagues, including Christie Shinn, Rafael Navarro, Lonnie Millsap, and Bobby Breed, and also enjoyed meeting and introducing myself for the first time to people like Don Nguyen (who I discovered is a fellow UCLA alum!), Craig Miller and others.

A little sister to the San Diego Comic-Con (and run by the same folks), WonderCon has a different vibe from SDCC. While the San Diego show is a big umbrella for all things pop culture and feels like a big 24/7 party—partly thanks to the presence of big entertainment heavy hitters and IPs ranging from Warner Brothers (and DC), Marvel Studios (and Marvel Comics), Star Wars, the Walking Dead and more—WonderCon is generally more low key with a more “arts and crafts” feel (for want of a better term), with artists and vendors selling a variety of wares from original art, to prints, t-shirts, toys, cosplay costumes, as well as, of course, comics. All these, of course, can also be easily found at SDCC, but are a bit more subsumed by the bigger guns and nearly manic energy that dominate that show.

But if you’re more into comics, there's still plenty to be found at WonderCon (and San Diego) if you‘re so inclined!

And I took advantage of that—I spent most of my time leisurely walking through Artist’s Alley and the Small Press area, which were placed on opposite sides of the convention hall. Back in the day, I used to methodically walk up and down each aisles starting from one end of the hall to the other—as SDCC became more crowded (and way bigger), this became less feasible, with crowd congestion generally dictating which way I went. At WonderCon, however, I was able to take this approach to my heart’s content, checking out most of the exhibitors. (My wife cannily suggested we go off on our own to pursue our own passions and interests, and we would periodically check in with each other and of course met up for lunch.)

Unlike SDCC, the Anaheim Convention Center is sectioned off into adjoining but discreet halls; in contrast, the San Diego Convention Center can tuck away and collapse its hall dividers to create the illusion of one immense exhibition hall that has the more open and welcoming feel of housing everyone under one roof. I gathered from some conversations, however, that this layout somewhat had an impact on foot traffic and the number of people and sales in certain areas of the venue.That said, the open plaza entrance to the Anaheim venue helps relieve some of the crowd congestion in the convention center by naturally encouraging cosplayers and people to pose and offer photo ops outside—that still happens on the inside as well, but the outside area is a good place to eventually see all the cosplayers gathered in a central location.

Like I suspect many comics professionals, it’s often a challenge to read and keep up with comics these days while spending time producing them, so it was an enjoyable experience to stop and look at new stuff and particularly to talk shop with other creators and publishers. I actually even brought along old back issues of mine to hand out as freebies and use as “calling cards” as needed, and ended up giving them all away!

Of course, this also was the first WonderCon since 2019 due to the pandemic. I didn’t check the the health safety requirements for the show in advance, but we fortunately arrived prepared—as you may have seen in an earlier post which featured a selfie of my wife and me, masks were required and, of course, we always carry proof of vaccination on our mobile devices, which were duly checked when entering the convention center grounds. (I’d say about 90 percent of folks followed the mask policy.)

Since I was only there on the third day of the show, I can’t report whether there was a feeling of great release after several years of no comics conventions, but regardless everyone was happy to be there. (As I reported after the San Diego Comic-Con comeback “special edition” over last year’s Thanksgiving holiday, that show was noticeably less muted and low key, but it was a welcome way to ease back into the convention circuit following the COVID-19 lockdowns).

Below are additional photos from the show...click here to see the full gallery.

Capsule Reviews in the Time of Coronavirus (13): West Side Story and the Jack Benny Show

West Side Story

I initially planned to see West Side Story in the theater, but never got my act together (my son arguably was even more excited to see it since he did so separately with friends and greatly enjoyed it). So this past weekend, when it dropped on DisneyPlus, my wife and I watched it and greatly enjoyed it.

I generally don't automatically dismiss “remakes” as some people do, since the original production will always be around to be enjoyed and appreciated. Additionally, in live theater, many musicals and plays are regularly revived and re-staged—and re-imagined—for modern audiences. (In 2021, my wife and I saw the Lincoln Center touring production of “My Fair Lady” on stage when it came to town; and, in 2017, my family and I saw a touring production of “West Side Story,” which offered another point of comparison for me.)

That said, on the face of it, this was a faithful adaptation of the original stage production that also clearly paid homage and respected the original film. While some changes were made (as was done in the original film), the filmmakers reportedly worked to emulate and imitate many of the lighting and color cues of the first film. The end credits even paid homage to the opening credits of the first film. (The music and orchestration also felt very faithful and it was a thrill to hear updated for modern sound systems.)

That said, they still found ways to deepen the characters and heighten the story’s authenticity and emotional impact, mostly through some slight tweaks in the script but especially through Spielberg’s staging and his virtuosity as a filmmaker.

Though the original film “opened up” the story to take advantage of the streets and the gritty urban environment of New York, Spielberg and company take it further, staging “America” outdoors in the streets, “I Feel Pretty” in a Gimbels department store (a store I recalled going to as a young child with my mom!) and “Cool” on an abandoned pier.

The film also strengthens and tweaks Tony and Maria’s relationship—a sequence of them spending the day together in the city both makes them closer but also foreshadows potential pitfalls. Later in the scene, their joining together in a church to promise themselves to each other—a sort of faux wedding—also was reminiscent of the original source material, Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” a connection that my wife felt was more overt in this adaptation. The cast is great, with special kudos to Arian DeBose, whose work I first encountered and made a great impression on me in the AppleTV musical comedy series, Schmigadoon.

Spielberg is at the top of his game (though, let’s face it, he has been for many years now), but he really brings all these skills to bear in the film’s staging, production design and camera work. It’s a shame that this film has underperformed—it’s truly among the best and most heartfelt movies of 2021.

The Jack Benny Show

Years ago—even before the days of CD—shortly after college, I owned an audiocassette of random Jack Benny Radio Show episodes. Back in the day, I listened to it to death (audioshows are particularly great while drawing!). I found them genuinely funny and they were a revelation—sure, I was aware of him when I was growing up, occasionally showing up as a “special guest” on tv, but I was too young to have heard his radio show or watched his tv series first hand (which overlapped for several years). Between those recordings and discovering the transplendent To Be or Not To Be around college, I became a big admirer of Benny.

A few weeks ago, I went on a Benny kick and got to re-affirm my admiration for the comedian. Something triggered my memory of that audiotape (probably hidden away in some box somewhere at home), so I decided to see what I could find online…and, of course, there was plenty on YouTube, even though these were audio radio shows.

One was 11 hours(!) of consecutive radio shows) that I listened to over a couple days, followed by a 5-hour collection on another YouTube channel (strangely, with the musical numbers edited out). I also ended up watching a couple episodes of Benny’s tv show, partly because of the guest stars: one featured Jimmy Stewart and his real-life wife (I read that the Stewarts became Benny’s next-door neighbor comic foils on the series, in the same way actor Ronald Colman was a put-upon Benny neighbor on the radio show.) Another episode guest-starred Humphrey Bogart in what reportedly was his only tv appearance in his career— both appearances were not simple cameo walk-ons, but full episode performances.

If you’ve never listened to the radio show, I highly recommend them—not as nostalgic comedy pieces but because they are genuinely funny. They are also surprisingly meta, obviously pre-dating shows like the Garry Shandling Show that similarly took you behind the scenes of the show within the show.

One of Benny’s great strengths, of course, was surrounding himself with a great cast—I was recently listening to an interview with Barry Sonenfeld on the terrific Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Terrific Podcast (which I also recommend, especially if you love old Hollywood), who noted that the greatest comedians recognize that the greatest laughs are found not in the punch line per se, but in the reaction to the funny line—and Benny was the master of that, milking laughs with his reactions and pauses perfectly.

Anyway, the cast included his real-life wife Mary Livingstone, who eventually retired due to incredible stage fright she developed later in life, which is a shame since she’s truly terrific and has a great voice and delivery; his announcer Don Wilson, who in the shows I recently listened to, transparently tried to work in the name of the show’s sponsor, Jello, wherever he could shoehorn it in; his fizzy and hepcat orchestra leader Phil Harris; Dennis Day, the innocent naive tenor singer who replaced singer Kenny Baker, who reportedly left the show because he was unhappy playing someone so guileless; and, of course, Rochester, his valet.