Long time, no see. So much for my plans to bang out these TerrifiCon 2019 posts at a rapid clip. Part Two was several weeks ago. I'll spare you the details as to why this happened, because we've got a lot of catching up to do!
Before I begin, I just want to mention to anyone who's been directed here from Facebook that most of my regular blog readers are not comic fans, so if I write anything that makes you react by thinking “Everybody knows that,” keep in mind that the readers of these posts might actually not know “that,” whatever “that” may be.
2019 marks the thirty-year anniversary of 1989's Batman, the film starring Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, and Kim Basinger. Therefore, I'm going to make Part Three of my TerrifiCon 2019 series Batman-related... pretty much.
One of the TerrifiCon panels I attended on August 9th and 10th -- I didn't go on Sunday the 11th -- was called "Batman 89: Looking Back at the Bat with Robert Wuhl." Actor/comedian/writer Robert Wuhl played reporter Alexander Knox in the Batman movie, and his panel consisted of reminiscences about that and a few other aspects of his career (such as Bull Durham, Arli$$, and Good Morning, Vietnam).
By the late 1980s, fandom's tastes had changed during the twenty-odd years since the light-hearted, campy Batman TV show had been a mega-success. The comic fans of that later era wanted a Batman who was much more serious in tone. Wuhl spoke briefly about the controversy concerning whether or not Michael Keaton could handle a serious role. Most movie-going comic fans, who knew Keaton mainly from roles in films like Beetlejuice and Mr. Mom, didn't think he was a good choice.
Wuhl, however, had seen Michael Keaton in a 1988 movie called Clean and Sober, a film which I had seen as well before Batman was completed and released. So when Robert Wuhl asked if anyone in the audience was familiar with Clean and Sober, my hand shot up and he spotted me. A minute or two later, he mentioned the film once more, and pointed to me and said "He knows."
There's still enough fanboy in me to love stuff like that.
I've been a fan of writer/artist Howard Chaykin since I first started noticing his name in the mid-1970s. The very first artwork I saw of his that really made an impression on me was in a title called The Scorpion, which he created for a company called Atlas/Seaboard. The Scorpion was later reworked for Marvel Comics into probably my favorite Chaykin creation, Dominic Fortune.
Chaykin, by the way, has drawn Batman on a few occasions (notably in a one-shot called Batman: Dark Allegiances), enough times to justify his inclusion in today's post, although I won't actually be discussing any of his Batman-related projects.
Chaykin has a reputation for being outspoken and controversial, but (in my opinion) usually not in a way that's actually offensive. He'd been the sole guest at a panel called “Howard Chaykin Still Has Something to Say,” a Friday evening event which I'd unfortunately missed because I was resting up for... well... something I'll tell you about in Part Five! I was wondering how Chaykin would behave – or misbehave – when I actually met him in person.
I've previously described how I often try to bring something other than the same old thing for an artist or writer to sign, hoping he or she will react with a bit of surprise. Sometimes it works, as when I brought the Terry and the Pirates Sunday pages to have Greg Hildebrandt sign (described in this post). Sometimes it doesn't work, like when I brought my copy of Star*Reach #1 to have Jim Starlin autograph last year (as described in this post).
I brought that same issue of Star*Reach to Howard Chaykin, since his artwork graced the back cover, but he didn't really react at all to my choice, either, which was fine, of course. He signed it, which is all that counts.
The other book I brought to him was a well-worn trade paperback that reprinted The Shadow: Blood & Judgment, his controversial – There's that word again! – 1986 updating of the multi-media crime-fighting sensation from the mid-20th century! (More on that character in Part Five!)
And just for the record, Mr. Chaykin was quite pleasant to talk with. I only wish we'd had time for a longer conversation, especially after he related a teaser of sorts to a story of how he and a friend had hitchhiked cross country as teens. These two kids were picked up at one point by a trio of rodeo clowns that belonged to the KKK! Evidently, his young friend was quite worried that the three men would discover that he and Chaykin were both Jewish, but Howard assured that they would never suspect anything, because the two teens didn't have horns!
I'd met Jerry Ordway two years earlier at TerrifiCon 2017, as told here. One comic I was hoping to have him sign this year was a brand new one-shot title, Captain America & the Invaders: Bahamas Triangle, an Invaders story written by legendary writer/editor Roy Thomas which prominently featured – duh -- Captain America. I hadn't been able to find a copy before the convention, and was hoping that Jerry would have one for sale. Luckily for me, he did have one. In fact, if I recall correctly, he had only one left by the time I approached him. He was rather apologetic that he was charging me for his signature and for the comic itself, which I thought was admirably humble.
As I mentioned above, 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the Batman movie. Well, it was none other than Jerry Ordway who'd illustrated the comic book adaptation of the movie, a project which showcased Ordway's uncanny knack for drawing recognizable celebrity likenesses.
The very best part of having Jerry sign my copy of the Batman movie adaptation was that I finally got to ask a question that's been on my mind for literally thirty years!
There's a flashback scene in the film which shows the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents when Bruce was a boy. The killer was a young hoodlum named Jack Napier, who later becomes the Joker. In the movie itself, they had actor Hugo Blick play Jack Napier as a young man, but instead of drawing Blick, Ordway simply drew a young Jack Nicholson.
I thought it was a brilliant move when I first saw it thirty years ago, and I finally got to ask Jerry if the scripter (Dennis O'Neil) had suggested this switch, or if it had been Ordway's idea. I got my answer. It was Jerry Ordway's decision.
Another artist whom I've been a fan of for roughly forty years is Mike Grell. Mike's been associated with the character of Green Arrow several times during his long career -- he's also drawn Batman, in keeping with this post's theme -- and I had him sign this book:
I should point out here that although Mike drew the origin of Green Arrow inside this issue, he did not draw the cover. The cover -- including the image of Green Arrow, of course -- was by Joe Staton. (More on him in a minute or two!)
I was the first one in the line at Mike Grell's table that day. He hadn't even arrived yet. And when he did show up, he apologized repeatedly for keeping me waiting while he distributed two different commissioned sketches of DC's Black Canary to the people who'd already paid for them the day before. So I got to see both sketches.
For obvious reasons, I don't have scans of the one-of-a-kind Black Canary sketches that the two fans walked away with, but here's another sketch of that character, just to give those of you who are unfamiliar with Grell's work an idea of what he can do!
All I can add to that is that the first sketch he handed out that day was better than the above drawing, and the second one was much, much better!
Anyway, if you're wondering why I had Grell autograph the comic shown above anyway, it's quite simple. Joe Staton, the cover artist of DC Super-Stars #17, was also at this year's TerrifiCon!
Joe's yet another artist I've been a fan of since the 1970s. I told him so, naming a few of his 1970s credits. When I listed The Avengers, a title he began drawing in 1974, he commented that I've obviously been reading comics for a long time. I tugged on a lock of my white hair and said "Yeah... well..."
While we talked about several different series he'd worked on, he pointed out a recent comic which he was giving away, a crossover between Dick Tracy and the Will Eisner character, The Spirit! I'm a big fan of both. Joe offered to sign the freebie for me at no charge.
The DC Super-Stars #17 shown during the Mike Grell section of this post features the never-before-told origin of DC's heroic Huntress character, introduced in late 1977. It ties with All-Star Comics #69 as her first appearance. The Huntress was Helena Wayne, daughter of the Golden Age Batman, the Batman that was a member of the Justice Society of America starting in the 1940s.
As it happens, Joe Staton has yet another connection to the Golden Age Batman. In a 1979 two-part story that appeared in Adventure Comics #461 and #462, writer Paul Levitz actually killed Batman... and Joe Staton was the artist.
I have the entire run of JSA stories from that period, and had Joe sign this gem for me!
Okay, we have finally reached the end of this post, and to make it up to those of you who have waited so very long for my TerrifiCon 2019 series, I will be posting Part Four and Five before the weekend, so you can read 'em all at your convenience!
And if you read this, please comment? Especially if you came here from Facebook. Thank you.
And, as always, thanks for your time.
