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Jackie Estrada on Some Notes About The Eisner Diary
posted July 19, 2005
 

For those who are curious after reading Tom's Eisner Awards diary:

*Tom had VIP seating but it wasn't at the Fantagraphics table, it was with newspaper strip people. Unfortunately, he didn't check in with the at-the-door greeters and thus missed out on the chips and salsa.

*Regarding the bathrooms: This is a convention center. The bathrooms are NEVER in a convenient spot!

*The "professional-looking video" that kicked off the ceremony was provided by Mark Askwith, of the Canadian version of the SciFi Channel.

*The reason Sergio's bottle of water didn't go up to the stage was that I had already provided Jerry with a glass of water at the podium by that time.

*Although Tom may have given the impression that it was rare for the actual winners to be on hand to accept their awards, all but four of the (living) winners were on hand. The other acceptors were: Eric Reynolds for Seth (Best Publication Design) and for Dan Clowes (Eightball 23--Best Single Issue), Steven Seagle for Teddy Kristiansen (writer of the graphic novel for which Teddy won the Best Painter award; Teddy was in Denmark), and Karen Berger for Frank Quitely (who was in England). Accepting for deceased people were Ann Ishii of Vertical Comics (publishers of Tezuka's Buddha, winner of Best U.S. Edition of a Foreign Title), and (for the Hall of Fame) Bob Fujtani for Lou Fine (they had worked together at the Eisner Studio), Adele Kurtzman for Johnny Craig, and Sergio Aragones for Goscinny/Uderzo and Hugo Pratt.

*I agree that it would be helpful for the acceptors to identify themselves or for them to be introduced. In some cases I knew who would be accepting but in other cases I didn't.

*"Am I the only person who thinks Jon Cooke looks like Ian Holm?" Yes.

* Christopher Reeve? He never appeared at Comic-Con. The "In Memoriam" section is devoted to people with some association to Comic-Con who died between the 2004 and 2005 Comic-Cons.

* Many besides Willingham were wearing suits. In fact, the first person to present, Denis Kitchen, was in a suit (I don't count Jerry Robinson, since the older folks always dress nicely for these events). Nevertheless, I agree with many of the winners were under-dressed.

* The person accepting the Clampett Award for George Perez was Jim McLaughlin, one of the organizers of A.C.T.O.R., one of Perez's major causes. I'm told that the models were friends of George's who help him with A.C.T.O.R. fund-raising.

*Regarding Johnny Craig: That was always the dichotomy--he was a sweet man who drew ghastly EC covers. He also wrote and drew terrific crime stories.

Thanks for giving me an opportunity to clarify a few things, Tom.

Jackie Estrada (aka "Jackie Valenti")