Actually, I was voted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame at the San Diego comic con this year, and that’s even more exciting than an Eisner — and Eisners are the Oscar of the comic world. All too often the Hall of Fame awards go to a bunch of dead guys, so it’s nice to still be alive and get one. There I am accepting my award. Photo by the brilliant Batton Lash.
What was exciting this year at the Eisner Awards: more women than ever before up on that stage, getting Eisners for their graphic novels, even self-published graphic novels. And these ladies are great! I am really glad that I stopped drawing, because I could never compete with such talent. (Fact: many of the early women cartoonists from Wimmen’s Comix were pretty awful. We were all beginners, just learning our craft. Some of us improved, some didn’t.) Here are the women with their Eisners, ten of us sitting in the front row, legs crossed like a row of geeky Rockettes. Thanks to Jamie Coville for the photo.
More from the awards night: Maggie Thompson, former editor of the Comics Buyers Guide, yours truly, Neil Gaiman, and Jackie Estrada, administrator of the Eisner awards. Do I look happy?
What else happened at comic con: The Women’s History Museum of California (http://womensmuseumca.org/) has a great exhibit called Wonder Women, on Paper and Off, featuring original art by contemporary women cartoonists along with a large chunk of my collection of early 20th centrury women cartoonists. On Thursday night Mary Fleener, Ramona Fradon and I had a panel discussion at the museum, which was pure fun, and here’s Ramona, standing in the midst of the Wonder Woman display, photographed by Carrick Esquival.
I’m so glad I found this museum; it’s really amazing (Loved the fabulous vintage dresses from the turn of the last century!), but it also is in the middle of nowhere, far from the convention center, and I feared that nobody would show up for the panel. Boy, was I wrong! Every seat was filled, and people were standing. The show runs through September, so there’s still time to see it. Trina sez two thumbs up!
Endless Con: No sooner did we get home than the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum (http://cartoonart.org/) had an opening party for their Superman 75th anniversary show. Would the con never end? The joint was filled with luminaries of the comics biz, and I had a great conversation with Nicky Wheeler Nicholson, whose grandfather,Malcolm Wheeler Nicholson, founded National Periodical Publications, which became DC comics. And here’s her blog:
(http://malcolmwheelernicholson.com/2013/07/30/super-women-and-men/#comment-2484) Nicky’s working on a book about her illustrious grandfather, and here we are.
Ah, but the biggest star was Alexandria, the 3 year old daughter of Joyce Chin and Art Adams,who happens to be the cutest 3 year old girl in the Solar System, so I hung out with her.
Department of Silly Photos: In June, Steve and I attended an opening night party at the San Francisco Jewish museum. Along with all the very serious art on exhibit (Art
is serious stuff, right?) there was a group called SnapFiesta, documenting the event by taking very serious photos, and here we are, looking very serious at the serious Jewish Museum.
More silly photos from comic con: Here I am as the undead, from the Dracula exhibit,
and here I am with my pal Superman, from guess what exhibit.
Up next: Arizona. (That’s right, I never sleep!) Steve and I will be guests at Coppercon in Mesa, Arizona from August 8 – 11. (http://casfs.org/cucon/) Another guest will be Liz Berube, who in the early 1970s was the only woman drawing for DC comics’ romance line. She supplied lovely art nouveau/art deco pages of fashion and horoscopes and I’ve put Liz in all my histories of women cartoonists, but I finally got to meet her last May at Springcon in St. Paul. This time, I’ll be interviewing her and showing Powerpoint slides of her work. Don’t miss it!
After that: England in October! The Lakes Festival! But first, enough sleep…
