End of an Era – CAPS RIP

Now that it’s public knowledge, I thought I'd share some memories and express appreciation for the Comic Art Professional Society (CAPS for short), which just announced it' shutting down just short of its 50th anniversary (it was founded in 1975).

I joined CAPS in 1995. I had started Rob Hanes Adventures a few years earlier and was invited to apply for membership by cartoonists Mike Vozburg and Stan Sakai. Many of the members were already well established professionals, who all made me feel welcome and were role models for new people like me. Regular attendees over the years included Sergio Aragones, Scott Shaw, Stan Sakai, Floyd Norman, and Bill Morrison; others I saw and got to know include Mike Vosburg, Benton Jew, Anson Jew, Tom Luth, Tim Burgard, Lonnie Millsap, Phil Yeh, Nat Gertler, Mark Fearing, David Folkman, and Chad Frye. (Apologies to the many I’m sure my poor memory has omitted!) Members were not exclusively from the comics field, but also included people from adjacent disciplines, like animation and illustration.

The group met monthly with meetings over the years held at various locations, always in Burbank, which I presume was centrally located for many. When I first joined, meetings were held in a meeting hall of a local realty association; later meetings were held at the Animation Guild.

Meetings were structured in that there was a scheduled “program” with a featured guest or some kind of panel or presentation. The doors opened at 7:30 p.m., with people socializing as attendees arrived and settled in. At 8 p.m., the meeting was called to order and the floor was opened to anyone wishing to bring forth business or make various announcements, usually about upcoming projects, recent news, or general industry news. This was usually followed by a brief break for snacks, refreshments and more schmoozing, and then the main program would commence. People usually mingled afterwards before heading home. Meetings were always fun, informal and energizing. For me personally, CAPS created a sense of continuity and being part of a wonderful profession.

I was happy to have also served as an officer multiple times (a new board of officers was elected annually), first as secretary and then treasurer several times! 

In addition to the meetings, CAPS did community work, hosted a summer and holiday party, and an annual art auction to raise money. The highlight of the year was a semi-formal annual banquet that honored a special guest. I believe I missed the banquet that honored Will Eisner by one year (d’OH!), but I attended banquets that honored Stan Lee (who also was once a special guest at one of our meetings), Ray Bradbury, Gene Colan, Jerry Robinson, Jonathan Winters (a comics fan), and Drew Struzan.

The group even produced a monthly newsletter for many years—I still have many of these as keepsakes.

Other memorable moments include a summer party held at voice actress June Foray’s home; a banquet held at the storied Friars Club; receiving a voicemail at home from tv announcer Gary Owens, who wished to discuss the logistics related an upcoming CAPS event he was MC’ing (Gary was a comics fan and a member for several years, and MC’d some of our banquets back in the day—I wished I had the foresight to keep that recording given his instantly recognizable voice!); and a meeting hosted by Neal Adams at his Crusty Bunkers comic book store (sadly recently closed), where he invited me to take a photo with him shaking hands; and actor Paul Dooley (another cartooning fan) showing up at a meeting.

I mentioned earlier that Stan Lee also was a guest at one of our meetings—due to a snafu, we discovered the meeting hall had been double booked that night (despite our standing monthly booking!), so in a last minute scramble, some members persuaded a restaurant across the street to allow us to use their space to meet. Moments after I had grabbed a seat, I felt a tap on my shoulder. When I turned, it was Stan the Man himself, asking, “Is this seat taken?” He introduced himself and someone took a photo of us together.

Anyway, it’s sad that CAPS ended—though there are a variety of reasons for the group’s decline, partly related to the changing nature of the industry, COVID certainly hastened it when in-person meetings stopped during the shutdown. Though meetings at some point resumed via Zoom, they drew nowhere near the same number of people, so the group never really recovered its mojo. Nevertheless, I’m glad to have been part of it, particularly for the friendships and memories.