The guys here have been very nice about reporting on my induction to the Will Eisner Hall of Fame this past week. This was my first San Diego Comic-Con since I was a guest for the 50th anniversary in 2019. We last exhibited there in 2018 after 48 consecutive years.

 

As guests of the Con, the SDCC people treated us like royalty. Our flight there, the hotel stay at the Marriott for the week, even a per diem for meals, all covered. Plus, we were assigned a personal assistant to help shepherd us to the events on time!

 

We rolled in on Wednesday morning and the Con Guest Services help desk was literally in the lobby of the Marriott. Becky there recognized Anne and me (I was surprised) and had badges ready to lead Anne over to be checked in VIP style. Meanwhile, I spotted my old and dear friend Maggie Thompson (Newfangles, Comic Art fanzine, the “Beautiful Balloons” column for Alan Light’s Comics Buyer’s Guide, and finally editor with Don of the CBG for many years). So we swapped stories and phone numbers while Anne got us checked in.

 

My buddy John Stephenson of Worlds of Wonder Comics borrowed an Exhibitor badge from a friend so I could get into the hall before the official opening time. I began my scouting for vintage comics—which I still avidly collect—with Steve Ritter of World Wide Comics. He has the best selection in my area, bar none. For the next two hours I went through the books he’d shortly be putting up on the “wall,” and then I started in on his general Golden Age boxes. I took a short break to visit with Ricky Evans of Houston’s Bedrock City, another favorite dealer and old friend. Unfortunately the Pep #34 (with Fuji’s Hangman) priced at $30K, was out of my range, but I still was able to put aside a few other things. Then it was over to Dale Roberts, who had a wonderful run of 1950s Atlas Westerns, Horror and War issues. I love Atlas Westerns, have nearly all of them, but I always want to upgrade them to around Fine condition, so I made a stack there, too.

 

Later, I ran into Bill Schanes and former Diamond Purchasing Manager, Steve Leaf, who is now with Hermes Press. 

 

After the room opened, I retreated to Ritter’s to stay clear of the crowded aisles and made more progress stacking up various back issues. I ran out of steam about an hour before the show closed at 8pm and went back to the hotel (conveniently located a half block from the show) to meet Anne there. 

 

Thursday morning was my “Spotlight” panel at 11am. The night before, Anne suggested we add Bill Schanes to the panel, which was scheduled to include myself and moderator Alex Grand. It was certainly a “eureka” moment. The previous panel had featured Paul Levitz, yet another old friend from years past. Paul of course is a well-known writer, editor, and former DC Publisher, and when we were both youngsters, publisher of The Comics Reader which I carried in the 1970s. I got to catch up with him for a few minutes before my own panel began.

 

Bill Schanes rolled in with one minute to go before the panel, and we both recounted the early days (mine beginning in 1968, Bill’s around 1972) of our first comic book stores. Bill’s were in San Diego, mine (along with many partners) in San Jose, then Berkeley, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Sacramento etc. The panel went well considering I’m never an eager public speaker. But at the end I wished we had another hour! We did get to talk about Bill’s recent purchase of the business, the transition to Marty Grosser doing most of my work, and LaDonna Padgett’s importance in helping rejuvenate the business after we nearly closed in 2012. Alex Grand at comicbookhistorians.com has a full recording of the panel on YouTube, and the SDCC people may have their own on their website.

 

After the ceremony, we caught up with several more old friends, including Walter Wang and Robert Weiner, and then I ran off to spend more time with the comics dealers. I soon regretted not eating anything that morning, after stressing out about what to discuss at the panel. So, by mid-afternoon, I bailed out from the show floor again and went to the hotel room for an early nap. But soon after we met John & Heather Stevenson and Buddy Saunders’ west coast rep, Phil, after the room closed and they packed out of their booths. We enjoyed a delightful dinner at our favorite San Diego restaurant, Filippi’s. (See Photo)

 

Friday morning was the actual induction ceremony, bringing more stress as I waited for my award and the short acceptance speech I had to give. Luckily I got to sit next to Maggie Thompson, and I ended up getting some inspiration from Denys Cowan’s take on his life’s work: comics storytelling. After noting that everyone else getting awards were creators, and I was not, I stole from Denys with the fact that my place has been to get all the wonderful work everyone has done (and I’ve literally handled material by every creator being inducted, or even in the audience) from the publisher to fans. In the early days when there were few or no comic shops around, Phil Seuling and I were often the only source for many books and fanzines. In addition to selling at comic shows and through the mail, we both advertised widely and issued catalogs.

 

I got off the hot seat with no flubs and enjoyed hearing everyone else’s speeches. They also inducted Dave Sim (who could not attend), Gerry Conway (his wife accepted with a heartfelt speech, as he has passed), Go Nagai (also not there), Chris Ware, and Rick Veitch, who sent in a video acceptance speech. Deceased Creators inducted: Don Heck, Abe Kanegson (The letterer on Will Eisner’s The Spirit Sundays), Paul S. Newman (Dell Comics writer), Edwina Dumm, Ollie Harrington, Héctor Germán Oesterheld, Tom Palmer, Sr., and Jimmy Swinnerton.

 

I wasn’t kidding, I’ve handled work by all these folks over the past 55 years, both living and deceased creators.

 

Saturday I did something I could never do in all those years of doing the show as a dealer: I took the day off. I just chilled in my deluxe hotel room, and then later that day, Anne—who’s from San Diego and had been visiting with old friends—and I met for a lovely seafood dinner in nearby Seaport Village, just the two of us. While we were there, Bob Chapman of Graphitti Designs (another old friend!) came over and congratulated me.

 

Another interesting encounter—Matt Nelson of CGC and Steve Ritter have been working on a book (or possibly two books now) on the history of the pedigree comics collections. We talked for nearly two hours on Friday—I didn’t think I’d be a lot of help, but they did get some perspective from my experiences. I was vaguely knowledgable about the “Cosmic Aeroplane” collection, perhaps the earliest pedigree. Gary Carter from Comic Book Marketplace is far more well-versed—he was there in Salt Lake City where the collection originally turned up. But I did my best, adding what I know from my friend Ken Sanders (I bought a couple of Silver Age issues from Ken long, long ago). In my opinion, the pedigree is misnamed because Ken’s store, The Cosmic Aeroplane, only acquired some of the books later from a middleman; this shows that the naming isn’t always perfect or accurate.

 

The same could be said about the “Tom Reilly/San Francisco” collection, which was the second pedigree I was involved with. Reily never even lived in San Francisco, but it got the name since this was the nearest “big” city to Oakland and Berkeley, when the collection turned up at the 1973 Berkeley Comics Convention. The stores I co-owed sponsored the show and I was one of the “staff” there! The last collection is the one I know the least about: “Okajima.” I did buy a book or two from it, via my Comics & Comix store in Sacramento. It was apparently discovered in three parts. One of those parts apparently came into C&C. Matt Nelson taped our long talk. I really look forward to their long-awaited book. Prelims I saw several years ago were both informative and really well designed and illustrated.

 

 

Next up I ran into Steve Morger, the publisher and show organizer of Big Wow, who proselytized about the very special Lake Como show in Italy that Dan Brereton also thinks I need to put on my bucket list—it’s been going since 2018, just for top end U.S. and European artsits to sell their work and meet fans. He is also doing another art show like it in Hawaii this January. Steve was hanging out in one of Stuart Ng’s booths, the occupants having left early. We did some good catching up. George Beahm stopped by to give me a sample of his new Tim Kirk/Harlan Ellison book. Steve showed me his already printed Pierangelo Boog graphic novel, Polynesia: Island of Myth Beyone Time (pictured here), that I am super-enamored with. Bud’s should have copies before too long and it will probably have very limited distribution, so catch one while you can.

 

I ran into Richard Pini just before he and Wendy were doing a signing, so we had a couple minutes to catch up before they were busy. Wendy’s upcoming book Masque of the Red Death sure looks interesting, and its a major graphic novel of 300-plus pages! I hope Bud’s can carry signed copies, or at least do a bookplate with Wendy. Its another title from Flesk Publications.

 

I went back to one of the dealers and talked myself out of buying a copy of Timely’s All Winners #5 from 1942, which I was quite taken with… but I resisted temptation! I don’t run across affordable Timelys very often, and this one had the Sub-Mariner by Bill Everett, who’s work I have loved for his entire career. The Reece Brothers were recommended to me, so I finished out the day going through two boxes of their Golden Age offerings, and found several cool books and got a “we know you” end-of-the-show discount while they were packing up, just before closing time at 5pm. I bumped into Dave Armstrong again, who had no dinner plans, so we exited before they threw us out and as shown in a picture here, we returned for a second time to our favorite Italian place, Filippi’s.

 

We stayed over a couple extra days in San Diego with one of Anne’s friends, and spent Monday and Tuesday visiting a favorite antiquarian bookseller, unboxing stock and going over, book by book, a big warehouse of top-quality material. I found a “rare” (so says Overstreet) copy of Mr. Twee-Deedle by Johnny Gruelle, who is better known for his later work on Raggedy Ann and Andy. But this was a wonderful Sunday page, in the tradition of Little Nemo—Fantagraphics reprinted it in Sunday page size in 2012 and we handled it. But I’d never before seen the original Cupples and Leon edition, a Platinum Age 11×16 edition that I would agree with Overstreet—it is indeed rare. Of course, I found much more, including a Harrison Cady original page with his classic anthropomorphic beatles. Always something new to discover!

 

My thanks to Jackie Estrada for sheparding me through the Eisner induction process, to the wonderful judges who voted me the honor, Becky who too good care of us, and the other wonderful volunteers with Comic-Con.

 

It was great to be back after an absence of seven years!