Mark Evanier's Blog

Happy Anniversary of the day of his birth to Sergio Aragonés Domenech, otherwise known as Sergio Aragonés without the Domenech, otherwise known aa That Guy Who Draws Tiny Cartoons In The Margins Of MAD Magazine, otherwise known as the creator of Groo the Wanderer, otherwise known as My Best Friend (male division) for 50+ Years!

I was trying to think of a really fancy, expensive present to buy him but then I realized that Sergio is the kind of guy who would much prefer to just be mentioned on my blog.

We like just about everything about Audra McDonald…

The next few days, you’re not gonna see a ton o’ posts here as I deal with a couple o’ matters that wouldn’t interest any of you in the slightest. There’ll be some content but not much and as usual, I’ll make up for slacking off by slacking on. If "slacking on" isn’t an acceptable term, it should be.

For now, I’d like to thank all of you who’ve contributed to our little blogathon. We’re more than halfway to our goal, our goal being to see that I don’t lose money this year posting all this stuff for your websurfing pleasure. Your contributions are most appreciated.

The previous post here — my advice delivered a long, long time ago to a new writer in the comic book world having numerous deadline problems — brought this message from my pal Tom Galloway…

So what happened with him? Did he manage to overcome those first impressions of lateness or did he have to give up and do something else?

The update is, sad to say, not "He got his act together and now has a thriving career in comics." It's that he's now supporting himself with a second (or maybe third, fourth or even ninth) choice career. I think he's making an okay living but not primarily in comics.

In the interest of sheer honesty, that's probably not wholly because of his rep as a guy who couldn't meet deadlines. There were other factors, some beyond his control. Companies downsize or shut down…new talent can edge out someone who's been in the game a little longer…that editor who loves your work is no longer an editor…

There are many reasons why careers cool and some of them have very little to do with the quality of your work or your reliability. That's why I've never put all my proverbial eggs into that one proverbial basket.

In this case, the writer we're talking about is still in the game — but that's what it is for him now: A game. It's what he does for the occasional extra money, not to pay his monthly mortgage. Fortunately, he seems to be getting it paid.

I’ve rerun this before but it’s been ten years since the last time so it’s overdue. …

For a few months now, I've been in private correspondence with a gent who's fairly new to the art 'n' craft of writing comic books. He's sold a number of things and seen them published…and he'd hoped that by this time, his career would have picked up some momentum and he wouldn't still be scrounging for assignments like an absolute beginner. That has not happened. His old credits have not led to new ones and his dream — to give up his non-writing day job and become a full-time professional author — appears more remote than ever.

Many e-mails have been exchanged and we got to talk for a bit at San Diego. He suggested I quote here, so all could read them, some things I wrote to him in recent messages. I edited hunks of a few messages together and made a few changes so it makes more sense yanked out of the context of our back-and-forth…and here 'tis, for whatever it may be worth to someone. This is me writing advice to a friend who's having career trouble…

Your problem, pure and simple, is that you were late with your work. It is all well and good to rationalize, "Well, it's more important that I deliver a good script than that I deliver it according to some editor's schedule"…and yes, there are times when a deadline is utterly arbitrary and they tell you they need it in June when they aren't going to do a damn thing with it until August. But not all deadlines are like that and to let a real one go by unattended is a luxury that we rarely have in the writing game, especially when in a new relationship. There are times even then when they can give you an extra two weeks. There are also times when they can't…or when to give you that two weeks means taking it away from your collaborators; i.e., the artist is going to have to draw the comic in three weeks instead of the five he expected to have.

You may also have harmed his income. He expected to have that script next Tuesday. He planned his life and maybe turned down other work so he could start drawing your script then, plus he counted on being paid for it by the time his next mortgage payment is due. But because of you, he has nothing to draw next week and no way to make money on the days he cleared to draw your script…and he may have to turn down the assignment he was going to do after he finished your script because he's now not going to be done with it when he expected to be. Ask anyone who's worked in comics for a few years and they'll gladly unload a tirade of anecdotes about how someone else's lateness screwed up their lives and maybe even prevented them from doing their best work.

There is nothing noble about being late, nothing that suggests your work is better because you fussed longer with it and did that extra draft. Creative folks can meet deadlines and still be creative. Laurence Olivier somehow managed to be on stage when the curtain went up at 8 PM. He didn't tell them to have the audience come back at 9:30 because he needed more prep time to give the best possible performance. You can do good work and get it in when it's supposed to be in…or reasonably close to it. (When I write here of being late, I'm not talking about being a day or so late or even of skirting phantom deadlines. I'm talking about being late on a real deadline such that it causes problems.)

In San Diego, you went on and on about how [name of his editor on a recent project] had screwed you up by not answering questions or getting you certain reference materials you needed or…well, I'm sorry but my brain tuned-out after a certain amount of that. But let's say you're right. Let's say he is a bloody incompetent who couldn't handle his end of things. That does not give you special dispensation to be late. It's not like "He did these things wrong so I'm allowed to do some things wrong." If his actions made it impossible for you to meet the agreed-upon deadline then you should have told him that at the time and worked out a new, realistic deadline. (One thing I've learned to do: If someone hires me to write something that I can't start until they send me a piece of reference, I don't agree to deliver by a specific date. I agree to deliver X days after I receive the reference material. The clock starts ticking when I can start, not when they hire me to start. It minimizes the problem you had.)

If you don't renegotiate the deadline, you should still meet it. Why? Because it's professional and because it gives you standing. I'm going to tell you something I've learned in more than four decades of professional writing for a pretty wide array of media and editors and producers: On any project, you should never expect to win an argument about anything unless your work is more-or-less on-time. If you're late to the point of creating production problems, you lose some or all of your rights even if it's someone else's fault. If the work is on time, you have standing to complain about what others do to your script, you can debate changes that the boss wants to make, etc. If the work is late, you lose a large chunk of the moral authority to say, "This needs to be fixed."

Two other things about being on time. When you're late, it's the easiest thing in the world to have a good reason why it isn't your fault. I know writers who are often tardy and they always have a good reason. Always. There's a power failure or a sick mother or a dental emergency — and they aren't fibbing. I used to say of one writer I worked with, "His greatest skill is in having disasters occur when a deadline is looming."

Eventually, I thought of a clearer way to look at it. Disasters can and do happen to everyone — I've certainly had them interfere with my writing — but some folks make those situations more destructive to the schedule than necessary. I'm talking about the kind of person who, deep down, is always looking for reasons not to work. So if Mom gets sick or the computer's on the fritz, they immediately let that stop them. It doesn't always have to. There's a famous story they used to tell around the Marvel offices about the great New York blackout of 1965 when power was off everywhere for about twelve hours one evening. Most everyone showed up at the Marvel office the next morning without their homework, figuring they couldn't be expected to write or draw by candlelight. Stan Lee, however, came in with all his pages done, having labored by candlelight. And the point of the story was that Stan was amazed that everyone else hadn't done that. It had simply not occurred to him not to write even though he had a perfect excuse. Which is one of the reasons he's Stan Lee and you and I are not.

Disasters are also more likely to stop you if you're the kind of writer who puts things off 'til the last minute. If you have all of November to write a script and you don't start 'til the day after Thanksgiving, you're gambling. That guy I said was really good at having disasters occur when a deadline was looming…I think that was his problem. He wasn't to blame when that car hit him two days before the script was due. But he was to blame for not starting on the script until three days before it was due.

The other thing I need to say is this: Don't get mad at other people because you're late. Don't get mad at people who may have contributed to your being late and especially don't get mad at people who didn't. I did this a lot when I was starting out. Secretly, I was angry at myself for screwing up but I couldn't cope with that so I found ways to direct that anger at others — at my editor, at my collaborators, at innocent bystanders even. Far better to be mad at them than mad at me. But I learned…and while I still occasionally still make that mistake, I don't make it for very long. Ultimately, it's a much easier problem to correct if you're clear on who's responsible for it.

You made a bad mistake being late with your first few jobs. I tell beginning writers, "Never get a reputation for unreliability. You will never lose it," which is an exaggeration but only a slight one. What you need to do now is cultivate the opposite rep and maybe, just maybe, the new one will trump the old one. If not…well, you just may have to look for another career. I'd check into jobs at United Airlines. Based on my last few flights with them, I'd venture you can make a good living there if you're always late.

I think I’ve said here somewhere that Mary Tyler Moore was my first TV crush. On reflection, she wasn’t. An extraordinary lady named Shari Lewis was. I was heavy into puppets and ventriloquism in my youth and there on my TV was Shari — an adorable female who could do both. For a time, she had a very clever show for kids on the NBC Saturday morning schedule and I was heartbroken when it went off.

Like anyone who’s worked in TV, I’ve had a number of projects that came close to getting on the air but fell just short. One that I really regret didn’t make it was an idea that Shari Lewis had for a new CBS Saturday AM series. CBS optioned it and paired me with her to develop it and write the pilot. It should have gone. It was a good idea and working with her on it was a joy. She was a very smart lady and, once again in this silly life of mine, I found myself working with someone whose work I’d loved when I was a kid. There’s a new documentary coming out about her and I’m pissed that my pal Ken Levine got to be in it to tell the world about her and I didn’t…

Jay Leno, who lately is looking very weary and old in his recent appearances, made some statements lately about late night TV maybe being too political. Online folks are jumping all over him for these remarks, often suggesting they were his response to the cancelation of Stephen Colbert's show.  In fact, they were made before that axing which no one saw coming.  A lot of people who've never liked Jay for one reason or another seem to have jumped on the opportunity to attack him.

I kinda feel sorry for the guy who has recently been involved in three major accidents. He suffered major burns (the real kind, not the Larry Linville type) when he caught fire in his garage. He was in a motorcycle accident where he broke his collarbone, two ribs, and cracked both kneecaps. And he fell 60 feet down a hill causing a broken wrist and serious bruising of his face and body. To add to all that pain, he's caring for his wife of 45 years who has developed serious dementia.  I guess some people think this is a good time to dump on a person.

Having seen how good a comic this guy could be on a stage when viewed live, I'm still a fan of his comedy.  And having met him a few times and passed a few jokes onto him and knowing his rep among those who know him, I still think he's a very nice man with more integrity than a lot of comedians. I've never understood what bad thing some people think he did to Conan O'Brien other than to do a Tonight Show that more people liked.

The criticisms of his recent statements strike me as…well, odd. He's often accused of not maintaining the greatness of Johnny Carson by people who admit that Carson took the same position — never make it obvious how you vote. Sometimes, Leno's critics trot out ridiculous statistics like this study that says Leno went heavier on Democratic presidents than Republican presidents — for example, 4,607 jokes about Bill Clinton as opposed to 3239 about George W. Bush.

Here's why this kind of analysis is silly. First of all, as the survey itself notes, "Democrats occupied the White House in 13 of his 22 years as Tonight Show host." So wouldn't you kind of expect any comedian in that situation would tell more jokes about Democrats than Republicans?

Secondly, Clinton was involved in a sex scandal, "W" wasn't. If George W. Bush had been involved in a sex scandal — or if his pants had fallen down during a State of the Union address or he'd had more embarrassing incidents than he did — there would have been more jokes about him. Leno only told 1,011 jokes about Barack Obama because there really wasn't much to joke about there. You couldn't write about him being fat or horny or clumsy or anything of the sort.

Lastly, all jokes are not equal. A joke calling a politician a war criminal or a pathological liar is not the same as a joke making fun of his tie or his golf game.  But the joke counters don't differentiate.

I am all for Freedom of Speech, even when it's speech that says things I don't like.  If what we're seeing now is an attempt to silence Stephen Colbert and anyone in the same line of work, I think that's wrong.  I also don't think it will work.

But at the risk of sounding like what some people are accusing, I'm not horrified at the suggestion that maybe late night has gotten too political. As readers of this site know, I think Donald Trump is just about the worst thing that ever happened to this country and he oughta be outta office and behind bars, A.S.A.P. Horrible man. Still….

I watch most of my late night TV during daylight hours. I can understand how the kind of person who watches late night TV just before trying to get a good night's sleep might prefer to not hear about Trump and his latest outrages just before going beddy-bye. That doesn't mean they support the guy; just that having him on their minds doesn't make for the sweetest dreams.

A number of interesting things happened in the month of June, 1962. For instance, Marvel brought out Amazing Fantasy #15 (the first appearance of Spider-Man), Journey Into Mystery #83 (the first appearance of Thor) and Tales to Astonish #35 (first Ant-Man). At the time, I think I was more interested in what was happening with Dell Comics and a new company which mysteriously appeared. It was called Gold Key comics and I first saw one at a Von's Market in West L.A.

I was ten years old at the time and I still had great interest in Dell Comics like Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker and Beep Beep the Road Runner. I had no idea why some of my favorite Dell Comics were turning into Gold Key Comics. I also had no idea that ten years later, almost to the month, I would be writing Gold Key Comics like Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker and Beep Beep the Road Runner, many of them drawn by the same artists.

As I learned later — and explain in greater detail here — Dell Comics for decades had been printed by a company called Western Printing and Lithography. Not only that but it was editors who worked for Western and freelance writers and artists who freelanced for Western, who created the contents of those comics. And it was Western, not Dell, which held the rights to produce comic books of the Disney properties, the Warner Brothers properties, the Walter Lantz properties, the M.G.M. properties, etc.

I do not have a good photo of that Von's Market back then but I have a not-great one taken a few years later and you can see that Von's in the background. I shall post below just the section which shows the Von's and if you click on it, you can see the entire photo…

The above photo was probably taken in the early eighties, not long before the Von's and every single building on that side of the street was turn down and replaced with a giant mall called The Westside Pavilion. With great insensitivity, they did not erect a little plaque to identify the spot on which I first purchased a Gold Key comic book.

When people who don't know from comic books ask me why they've always mattered to me so, I don't have a great explanation — at least not one that satisfies them. "They just did" ain't much of a reply. I'm thinking maybe I need to drag these people down my personal Memory Lane and point out the impact that comics had on who I was and who I became.

I can remember where I purchased certain comics 60+ years ago — a high percentage of the (approximately) 3,000 comics I owned by the age of twelve. I found my first Marvel Super-Hero comic, Fantastic Four #11, at Bart's Books, a second-hand bookstore in Santa Monica. I bought my first issue of MAD (#70) at Westward Ho, a market at the corner of Westwood Boulevard and Ohio Avenue in Westwood Village near UCLA. Memories like that. I wouldn't have those if comics didn't mean a lot to me.

A number of interesting things happened in the month of June, 1962. For instance, Marvel brought out Amazing Fantasy #15 (the first appearance of Spider-Man), Journey Into Mystery #83 (the first appearance of Thor) and Tales to Astonish #35 (first Ant-Man). At the time, I think I was more interested in what was happening with Dell Comics and a new company which mysteriously appeared. It was called Gold Key comics.

I was ten years old at the time and I still had great interest in Dell Comics like Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker and Beep Beep the Road Runner. I had no idea why some of my favorite Dell Comics were turning into Gold Key Comics. I also had no idea that ten years later, almost to the month, I would be writing Gold Key Comics like Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker and Beep Beep the Road Runner, many of them drawn by the same artists.

As I learned later — and explain in greater detail here — Dell Comics for decades had been printed by a company called Western Printing and Lithography. Not only that but it was editors who worked for Western and freelance writers and artists who freelanced for Western, who created the contents of those comics. And it was Western, not Dell, which held the rights to produce comic books of the Disney properties, the Warner Brothers properties, the Walter Lantz properties, the M.G.M. properties, etc.

I do not have a good photo of that Von's Market back then but I have a not-great one taken a few years later and you can see that Von's in the background. I shall post below just the section which shows the Von's and if you click on it, you can see the entire photo…

The above photo was probably taken in the early eighties, not long before the Von's and every single building on that side of the street was turn down and replaced with a giant mall called The Westside Pavilion. With great insensitivity, they did not erect a little plaque to identify the spot on which I first purchased a Gold Key comic book.

When people who don't know from comic books ask me why they've always mattered to me so, I don't have a great explanation — at least not one that satisfies them. "They just did" ain't much of a reply. I'm thinking maybe I need to drag these people down my personal Memory Lane and point out the impact that comics had on who I was and who I became.

I can remember where I purchased certain comics 60+ years ago — a high percentage of the (approximately) 3,000 comics I owned by the age of twelve. I found my first Marvel Super-Hero comic, Fantastic Four #11, at Bart's Books, a second-hand bookstore in Santa Monica. I bought my first issue of MAD (#70) at Westward Ho, a market at the corner of Westwood Boulevard and Ohio Avenue in Westwood Village near UCLA. Memories like that. I wouldn't have those if comics didn't mean a lot to me.

Here we have another episode of The Red Skelton Hour, this one from September 23, 1969. Red's main guest was Peter Graves who, in the years before he appeared in Airplane, was not someone you might have booked for a comedy show. Mr. Graves was then the star of Mission Impossible (also on CBS, of course) and to facilitate the cross-plugging, he brought along Leonard Nimoy and Greg Morris from that show's cast…

…and also on this episode was Walker Edmiston, who had a recurring role on Mission Impossible and was also a frequent sketch player on Skelton's program. Walker was a lovely, versatile talent and I had the pleasure of working with him and knowing him. He did a lot of voice work and puppetry and was another one of those actors who turned up on almost every TV show at one time or another. Skelton used him a lot. If you search this here blog, you'll find a great many mentions of him.

And we have to mention Red's musical guests: In their first network TV appearance, we have the rock group Iron Butterfly performing "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" — the perfect music for the kind of folks who'd tune in to watch The Red Skelton Hour.