“IT’S KIND OF A NERD THING:

A LOOK BACK AT COMIC CON 2014

By Barry Dutter

“I can die now!”
These are the words that I overheard spoken by a teenage fan in a Supergirl costume as she excitedly set foot in the San Diego Comic Con for the very first time.
My first thought was, “My, how times have changed!” When I first started going to cons in the early 1980s, you rarely saw any girls at Comic Cons (or, for that matter, any girls reading comics, anywhere!)
And you certainly never heard a female fan enthuse so rapturously over her arrival at said con.
Think about her statement. “I can die now.” Basically she was saying that if her life ended right there, at that moment, she would be fine with that, because she knew that one of her biggest dreams in life had just come true.

Why can't Marvel & DC heroes just get along?

That’s right -- the greatest fantasy of this young girl was to put on a  costume and attend the largest gathering of pop culture enthusiasts ever assembled under one roof.
That’s how big Comic Con has become. It’s not just a back-issue marketplace any more. It’s a life-altering event. It’s every movie-TV show- comic book-video game-book-etc. coming together in the same place at the same time. It’s not just a place you go; it’s something you aspire to.
In fact, Comic Con is now so hard to get into, simply acquiring a ticket to is like a rite of passage for young people. The ticket-buying process for Comic Con is now so convoluted, I’m not even sure how to go about getting one.
Used to be you just ordered a ticket online or on the phone, and that was it. But now, the Con has gotten so big, traditional methods don’t seem to work any more.
I suppose that is part of the appeal of Comic Con -- the fact that it’s so hard to get into. For all the lucky  fans who get in, there are millions of people across the country who wish they could attend, but cannot.
Those left behind are filled with envy at what they are missing.
I’m fortunate that as a former Marvel Comics employee, I still have some connections in the industry. Last year, a writer friend of mine got me in for free. But my con experience was such disaster, I decided I would never go to Comic Con again.
Basically, everything went wrong for me in 2013. I live only two hours from San Diego, in North Hollywood. But I chose to drive the most popular highway into San Diego, and so my two-hour ride turned into 4 hours. Finding a parking spot took another hour. And I was there on Saturday, generally the busiest day of any con.

This gal nailed her ZATANNA costume!

The place was so crowded, I found myself getting pushed and shoved as I tried to move from one end of the convention hall to another.
The ride home, later that same night, took another 4 hours on the crazy-busy Interstate 5 highway. In short, it was the worst con experience I’ve ever had.
Needless to say, I decided that Comic Con 2013 would be my last. It was just too big and it simply wasn’t any fun.

A really big BATMAN!

And so I was done with the SDCC. Or so I thought!
Then, in late June of 2014, I received an email from a Facebook friend who offered me a free ticket to all 4 days of the next con.
As fate would have it, I had several days free around that time. But having a  four-day pass gave me the chance to do it differently this time. For one thing, I could go early and avoid Saturday altogether. I could book a hotel, stay for a  night, get a good night’s rest instead of making that crazy commute twice in one day.

This year it was all about the GUARDIANS!

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense to try Comic Con one more time -- and this time, I would do it right!  A coworker even recommended an alternate driving route, where I could avoid that crazy-busy highway.
So it was decided, then. I would attend Comic Con 2014. 

I woke up early Thursday morning and  drove that alternate route and made great time. I found a cheap parking lot about a  mile away from the con. (I didn’t mind walking to save $50.00 per day on parking!)

The first thing I saw when I arrived in San Diego!

And my first full day of the con, Thursday, was not very crowded at all. In fact, I found I could easily walk from one end of the exhibition hall to the other. Artists and booths were easy to find. And best of all, lines were fairly short.

The FROZEN gang performed a few songs!

It was completely they opposite of my experience the year before. If you ever have the chance to go to Comic Con on a Thursday, you should go for it. Many people have to work on Thursday and can’t make it to the con. This means the lucky ones who do show up get to enjoy short lines and wide open aisles. It’s a whole different con experience than going on an over-crowded Saturday.

Hands down, my favorite costume from SDCC 2014!

In my three days at the con this year, I encountered people from all walks of life. A young man with a severe stuttering problem. Another twenty-something fan with a skin condition so bad, it changed the color of his face to a purplish hue (and no, he was not a cosplayer.)
There were people in wheelchairs. Old people. Young people. Fat people. Skinny people. Blacks. Whites. Latinos. Asians. Straight people. Gay people.

That's' top model ADRIENNE CURRY in the Catwoman suit!

There were fans and pros of every stripe. And they were all treated as equals. Nobody at Comic Con judges anyone else. It’s a place where people who are looked down on, people who are shunned or mocked in everyday life, can all come together and be united in their love of all things geeky.
And they all came for different reasons.
Some came to meet their favorite celebrities. Others came to catch panels on upcoming movies and TV shows. One Facebook friend of mine camped out for many hours outside the infamous Hall H to ensure that she would get a seat for a panel on an upcoming movie.
A few people actually come to buy comic books! After walking the exhibition hall of Comic Con this year, and seeing displays from all the major movie studios, TV studios and toy companies, I must say it actually came as a bit of a shock to find some old-fashioned comic dealers selling comic books. (Remember them?)

Girl Spy Vs. Girl Spy

It’s unfortunate that comics play such a marginal role at Comic Con these days, but the fact is, all the major publishers were there, with awesome displays, special edition comics, and chances to meet their most popular writers and artists. So if you want to focus all your time on just comic book stuff (as I tend to do) at the con, you can spend your days doing just that and still not have enough time to do it all.

Batman collage at the DC booth

In fact, one of my biggest frustrations about Comic Con is that so mnay of the comic pros there are not listed on the Web site or in the Artists Alley section in the Comic Con program book. (Examples: Walt Simonson, Tony Moore, Grant Morrison, etc.)
But I was thrilled with the all-star line-upo of talent that was there. It was like a Who’s Who of comic greats: Neal Adams. Steranko. Rob Liefeld. Adam Hughes. J. Scott Campbell. Kevin Eastman. Sergio Aragones (who I spent 3 days looking for and never did find). Stan Sakai. Brian Bendis. Amanda Conner. Jim Lee. Scott Snyder.  And so on.

Lego Rocket Raccoon & Lego Groot!

Stan Sakai sketches YOSAGI YOJIMBO!

When I go to Comic Con, I’m just there to get signatures and sketches from comic book writers and artists. I really don’t care about meeting the casts of movies or TV shows. I’m not willing to brave the crowds of Hall H. (Although I will admit, it was kind of neat when the support staff started blocking off a path because, “the cast of the Expendables is about to come through.”) That is just one of things you can only hear at Comic Con!
Some people came just to cosplay. Out of 130,000 attendees this year, I have no idea how many were in costume, but I’m sure it numbered in the hundreds, if not the thousands. And the costumes did not disappoint. Fans in Southern California are very skilled in the art of creating inspired costumes.

Batman movie costumes at the DC booth

I remember when I first started going to cons back in the early 1980s. The number of cosplayers was also quite small in those days. You might see a small handful of guys dressed as Batman or Spider-Man, but they were definitely in the minority.

Comic book superstar J. Scott Campbell

What a difference a few decades makes!
Many longtime comics fans and pros express bitterness at the amount of attention fawned on the cosplayers in place of actual comic book writers and artists.
But let’s face it, the cosplayers are more colorful that the average comic book creator and they are more fun to photograph. They do add a whole other layer to an event that would otherwise not be that different from any other type of fan gathering around the world.
Essentially, what the cosplayers do is give the mainstream press an easy hook to hang their story on. So as much as some comic fans might piss and moan about the cosplayers, the fact is, they do bring more attention to the cons from the outside world.

Magneto and his 2 daughters

Excuse me, do you know the way to Comic Con?

Overall my experience at Comic Con 2014 was a very positive one. I was there for the first three days of the con. (Yes, I did stay for Saturday, despite my best instincts!) It did get very crowded on Saturday, to the point where there were large areas where the flow of people stopped in both directions. It began to get more and more frustrating to try to navigate through the crowd. I really began to miss how easy and sparse things had been only two days before.
For me, the low point of the con came on Saturday, when I stopped to take a picture of a cosplayer and a passerby brushed past me so fast, they accidentally knocked my cell phone out of my hands and on to the floor (and they kept on moving).  At that moment, I knew that Saturdays were not for me.

The view from the DC hospitality suite

The high point came that same day when my old pal, Superman writer Scott Lobdell, got me into the DC Comics hospitality suite, where they had delicious sandwiches and snacks, and an awesome view of the convention floor. It was fun seeing the con from this unique perspective.
Later, as I was wandering through the crowd, I overheard a nerd talking on his cell phone to another nerd. He was discussing some nerdy movie or TV show and he said, “It’s kind of a nerdy thing.”

Hot girls + Hot car

Hmm. “Kind of a nerdy thing.” That could sum up just about any of the exhibits at Comic Con. They’re all nerdy things, but they’re our nerdy things. And for four days every year, we get together and immerse ourselves in all things nerdy.
For the past few years, people have been saying that the geeks have inherited the Earth, but I figured that was just a catch phrase for the mainstream media to latch onto.  As a guy who grew up with nerd culture and who has been part of it for over 40 years, I guess I didn’t realize how deeply immersed in nerd culture the world has become until I went to Comic Con 2014 and saw it with my own eyes.

Artist ADAM HUGHES sketches VAMPIRELLA

For me, the biggest change over the past 30 years is the fact that girls at cons are now embracing geek culture just as passionately as guys. These days, girls make up about half of the attendees at the average big con. I’ve even heard reports of some huge cons having more females than males, which really makes me wonder, “Where were all these female comics fans when I was in high school?”                                                             
Girls aren’t just dressing up in sexy costumes at Comic Con. They are proudly calling themselves comic book fans. They are showing up on opening weekend of all the new super-hero movies. I guess it was the Twilight franchise that really got women to start attending Comic Con a few years back, but the studios, networks and comic book companies have figured out a way to keep the ladies around, even after the sparkly vampires have gone.
Which is a good thing. Because having real girls at Comic Cons -- not just super girls drawn on paper-- makes it better for all of us. It takes a hobby that has traditionally been associated with lonely, awkward males, and makes it more socially acceptable.

Your beloved blogger meets his twin!

In some ways, I’m very different from the stereotypical Comic Con attendee. I don’t cosplay. I don’t wait in long lines for anything. I’ve never watched Game of Thrones or True Blood. I skipped the last 2 Hobbit movies. I don’t play video games (not since Ms. Pac-Man in 1983!) I never cared for Buffy the Vampire Slayer or The Dark Knight movies.
But in the end, it doesn’t matter. As noted above, everyone goes to Comic Con for different reasons. I go there to interact with comic book writers and artists and I get great enjoyment out of doing so.
The two biggest news stories to come out of Comic Con this year were 1) model Adrienne Curry in her Catwoman costume beating up a pervy fan who had just molested one of her friends, and 2) a bunch of cosplayers dressed as zombies attacking the car of a  deaf family after the driver panicked and accidentally ran over a ghoul during the annual "Zombie Walk."
A super-villain slugfest? An actual zombie attack on the streets of San Diego? Once, stories like this were the stuff of fantasy. Now they're happening for real. Truly there can be no doubt: the geeks have taken over the world!

San Diego --a beautiful setting for a Comic Con!

Should Marvel Reboot?

By Barry Dutter

There is a rumor that the Marvel Universe will be rebooting in May of 2015.
This leads me to ask: Should Marvel Reboot? As a guy whose been reading Marvel Comics for over 40 years, I say… yes.
Wait. Hear me out.

I started reading Marvel Comics in 1974, and I’ve always felt one of the greatest things about the Marvel Universe was that it had so much history to it. All the characters were tied together, and it was fun learning all their back stories.
But at the time I started reading comics, the Marvel Universe was only 13 years old. There were some errors in continuity, many of them due to the faulty memory of Stan Lee, who had written the bulk of the Marvel books for the first decade or so. But it was a pretty cohesive universe over all.
Flash-forward to all these years later. Now the Marvel Universe is a convoluted mess. It’s hard to sustain the continuity of one character over 50 years. Now try doing it with hundreds, even thousands of characters over the course of five decades. (How many different versions of Deathlok have there been? How many different versions of the Guardians of the Galaxy? And are they all part of the same universe?)

Not only are mistakes going to occur, but there is another factor at work here. There were over 700 issues of the original Amazing Spider-Man series. There have been about 200 issues of Marvel Team-Up, most of which featured Spidey. Web-head also appeared in 264 issues of SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, 131 issues of WEB OF SPIDER-MAN, 98 issues of the adjective-less SPIDER-MAN book, plus a few other titles that didn’t last that long.In addition, Spidey has apperaed in hundreds of other comics, including annuals, specials, graphic novels, a  lengthy stint with the Avengers.
This means Spidey has had well over 2,000 adventures. Fought over 2,000 battles (and won just about all of them!) Encountered hundreds of different super-villains -- some of them on multiple occasions.
It definitely reaches a point where it stretches the bounds of credibility to the breaking point. I mean, Spidey has battled Doc Ock like 30 or 40 times. He’s fought the Green Goblin 40 or 50 times. And so on.
 It starts to push the willing suspension of disbelief of even the most die-hard Marvelite. How could one hero have so many adventures in one lifetime -- and not even have a scar to show for it?
The Marvel Universe is the greatest fictional universe ever created. It essentially started in 1961 with the publication of Fantastic Four #1. Yes, I know the company started in 1939 as Timely Comics, but let’s face it, most of the stories before 1961 are dated and silly and really do not fit the post-1961 continuity.
So let’s go with 1961 as our starting point. That’s 53 years of continuity, and, as any longtime Marvelite can tell you, there are gaping inconsistencies. Such as? Well, for starters, there are the powers of Thor’s hammer. Does the hammer really have the power to suck the magnetic field out of Magneto? Why would it have that power? Does the Sub-Mariner really have the power to turn himself into a blowfish and shoot electricity like an electric eel? Does Nightcrawler really have the power to become invisible when he is in the shadows? If that’s true, why is half of his face shown in shadows all the time -- but still clearly visible? How many different versions are there of the story of how Nick Fury lost his eye, or how Prof. X lost the use of his legs?
These are just a few random examples. There are hundreds, probably thousands more.
The DC Universe, which started in 1938 with the publication of ACTION COMICS #1, has rebooted many times. The first time, most famously, was in 1956, with the publication of SHOWCASE #4 which launched the Silver Age of Comics.
Things were fairly stagnant at DC for the next 3 decades, with the next major reboot coming in 1985 at the conclusion of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. That was when John Byrne famously relaunched SUPERMAN with #1, and George Perez did the same with WONDER WOMAN. Inexplicably, BATMAN did not get a new #1, even though the company published Frank Miller’s acclaimed  BATMAN YEAR ONE series at the time.
The reboots started coming fast and furious after that. Just 8 years later, DC published an epic mini-series called ZERO HOUR: CRISIS IN TIME, which reset everything back to square one.
And then, in 2011, DC famously scrapped just about everything and started their universe all over again with the New 52.
Meanwhile, over at Marvel, the company just kept chugging along with one consistent universe.
If any Marvel hero sat down and told you his life’s story, it would be the most depressing thing you ever heard. (It’s no wonder so many huge chunks of Marvel continuity are never referred to in the comics.)
Take a look at a hero like Iron Man and all he has been through over the past 50 years: first he had to wear an armored chest plate just to keep his heart beating. Then he battled alcoholism. Then he got a perm. Then he was shot by a crazed ex-lover and paralyzed. Then he was exposed as a villainous servant of Kang, died in battle, and was replaced by a teenage version of himself. (The less said about that storyline, the better!)
The point is, how many adventures can one hero have on one lifetime?  How much tragedy can one hero bear? How many of his ex-lovers can Daredevil watch die? How many times can Peter Parker see his friends and loved ones killed off one by one by his enemies? How can Peter face the fact that if he had never become Spider-Man, just about all of his friends and lovers would still be alive? How many times can Professor X die, come back, be crippled, regain his ability to walk?

THIS IS FOR REAL! Ehhh...maybe not so much!

To paraphrase Bruce Willis in the movie DIE HARD 2: “How could the same sh*t happen to the same guy so many times?”

Now, some of you will say, “But didn’t Marvel already try to relaunch their whole line with the Ultimate Universe, and wasn’t it basically a failure?”
To that I would say, yes and no. The biggest problem with the Ultimate line is that it was designed to coexist alongside the OMU (Original Marvel Universe.)
I was not a big fan of the Ultimate Line, but what if it had been our only option? What if Marvel had completely replaced the OMU with the Ultimate Line? Fans of the Marvel heroes would have had no choice but to embrace the Ultimate books. If the Ultimate Line had been the only option, perhaps it would have been much more effective.
But as an adjunct to the OMU, fans never really warmed up to it. Why follow these cheap imitations of the Marvel heroes when you could still get the real thing?
No, it would seem the Ultimate line was doomed from the start.
If you’re going to reboot your universe, you have to go all in. And that’s what I feel needs to be done today.
Aside from the obvious benefits, (great publicity and an initial sales boost), it would give hundreds of thousands of new fans a chance to witness the birth of the Marvel Universe from the beginning. And all of the new books could be made to resemble their cinematic counterparts even more, which seems to be the direction that Marvel wants to go in. 
So yes, I’m proposing a fresh start for the Marvel Universe. A clean break. A chance to do it all over again, from the beginning. And maybe correct some of the mistakes that were made over the years. For starters, Spider-Man will never have to endure the Clone Saga. Gwen Stacy will never have babies with the Green Goblin. Peter Parker will never make a deal with Mephisto to save the life of Aunt May. And maybe, just maybe, if we're lucky, Tony Stark will never have to get a perm!

The movie X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST won over fans and critics alike when it ended with a  reboot of the franchise that fixed all the mistakes that had been made in previous movies. Now it's time to bring the same treatment to the entire Marvel Universe.
I’m not naive enough to think that a restart means they will get everything right this time. They may not make the same mistakes, but I’m sure they will find plenty of new ones to make.
But it would be fun to go along for the ride. It would be an amazing opportunity to say goodbye to the Marvel heroes we’ve known and loved all our lives, and say hello to them all over again.
A Marvel Reboot?
I say, why not?

Namor has electric eel powers? Really?

ME AND DAVE: A LOOK BACK AT MY 30 YEARS WATCHING DAVID LETTERMAN

By Barry Dutter

When I was in high school, I was obsessed with David Letterman. Well, I was obsessed with TV in general, but Letterman was special. His show was on late at night, way past my bedtime, but those early years of LATE NIGHT were so funny, so innovative, so unforgettable, that they got me to stay up later than I ever had before. (I mean, I’d never made it past the first half the TONIGHT SHOW before!)
Oh, and one other thing -- they changed talk shows forever.
 As a teenager, my friends and I used to take the bus to New York City to attend tapings of LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN. Tickets were fairly easy to come by in those days. I would send in a  request to the ticket department at NBC, and a  few weeks later, a pair of tickets would arrive in the mail.
Sometimes I would write multiple letters, in the hopes of getting two pair of tickets for the same day, so I could bring three friends. 
We were seniors in high school, just the right age to welcome a new breed of comedy to late night television. When Dave announced his retirement recently, my friends and I started reminiscing about some of our favorite Letterman moments. All of the moments  were from the first few years of LATE NIGHT, when Dave was at his bitter best.
Among the highlights we recalled: the Late Night After School Special, “They Took My Show Away.“ Any appearance by Chris Elliott, but especially his stints as “The Panicky Guy,” “The Guy Under the Seats,” and “The Terminator Guy.” Any appearance by Larry “Bud” Melman. The time when Dave covered himself in suit of Alka -Selter and lowered himself into a giant tank of water. The time Andy Kaufman came on and got in a fake fight with a  wrestler. All the times when Dave dropped stuff off the roof. Viewer Mail.
Staying up to watch Letterman “live” meant struggling to get up for school the next morning, but it was a sacrifice I gladly made. (Sure, I could’ve set the VCR and taped it for viewing after school the next day, but then I wouldn’t be able to talk about the show in homeroom the next morning!)
I first became aware of Dave when he was a young stand-up comic. I know he was on a short-lived Mary Tyler Moore Comedy Variety Hour in the late 1970s, but I can’t think of a worse fit for him as a performer.
And when it was announced in 1980 that Letterman would be getting his own morning show, just around the time my summer vacation was starting, I made sure to check it out., At 90 minutes, the show was too long, and honestly, not that funny. I remember there were far too many cooking segments. Morning was not a good fit for Dave.
It’s a testament to NBC that they still believed in Dave, despite the failure of his morning show.  They knew that a Letterman show could be successful. They just had to find the right time slot.
It only took 2 years for NBC to announce that Dave would be getting a new show, airing at 12:30 am, after THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JOHNNY CARSON.  Dave’s new show would be called LATE NIGHT, and I can honestly say it changed my life.
Dave was not your typical friendly talk show host., He was cranky and irritable. When he was in a bad mood, he made sure everyone knew it. And if he did not like or respect or agree with a guest, he made sure everyone knew that, too.
I’ve tried my hand at stand up many times, and I’ve often found that with my nervous energy, I tend to talk too fast. Whenever I think of a role model who knows how to slow down and deliver a joke, and really let it breathe, I think of Dave.

Actual letters mailed to me by NBC!

My friends and I used to imitate Dave all the time. He was the king of the catch phrases, and he used to repeat the same ones over and over again. Many of them were derived from his humble Midwestern upbringing: “My, oh my, we’re having some fun here tonight.” “The is more fun than human beings should be allowed to have.” “This is just an exhibition, not a competition. Please -- no wagering!” “And as if that wasn’t enough -- and, by gosh -- don’t ya think it oughtta be?”
I remember how hard it was staying up past midnight to watch Letterman’s show. Some of the earliest uses of my family’s VCR were to record LATE NIGHT.
But it was so much better to watch it the night it was on -- so you could talk about it at school the next day, and be part of the water cooler buzz.
I thought it would be fun to attend a taping of an episode, so I wrote in for tickets. When that first pair of tickets arrived in the mail, I was hoping we would get to see some big stars. Instead, the guests that day were Regis Philbin and some recurring whack job named Brother Theodore.
But the guests were almost irrelevant. For me, the biggest thrill was getting to see Dave live and in person, doing his thing. Letterman was famous for being the only TV host to do his own “warm-up” This meant that he came out before the show and chatted with the audience for a few minutes. TV shows traditionally hire a relatively unknown comic or announcer to do that.
Before the taping of each show, Dave would ask if anyone in the audience had any questions. This gave me the chance to do something I could never do with Johnny Carson or Jay Leno or any other talk show host: I had the chance to actually talk to Dave. He would always start out by asking what my name was and where I was from.
I would always try to prepare a good question or a funny comment beforehand.
One time I told a funny joke to Dave that got a good reaction from the crowd. A few minutes later, the show started. Dave came out and did his monologue, and repeated my joke from earlier. Then he explained to the folks at home that the joke had been given to him by “a nice young man from Scotch Plains, NJ.”
I loved having that shout-out on national television. In a sense, I had just written a joke for my favorite late night host. I didn’t get paid for it and they didn’t mention me by name, but I knew that the joke was mine, and I made sure all my friends and family knew it, too.
From 1982 to 1985, I must have attended the tapings of  25 or 30 Letterman shows in New York with my friends. I sent in dozens of requests for tickets, maybe even hundreds. I didn’t want NBC to think that it was one guy writing in all those requests, so I started using fake names with my home address.
I got very creative with the names. I wanted to see if there was any name that the NBC ticket department wouldn’t send tickets to. Over the years, I received envelope addressed to Pablo Pequeno (AKA Paul Small), Lady LaVentanilla (AKA Lady The Ticket Window); Guy Manlike; Guido “The Killer” Scarpelli, and my personal favorite, John “yeah” Bravo. (it was supposed to be Johnny Bravo, but NBC really messed up the spelling on that one!)
As time went on, and the show became more popular, the Late Show became harder and harder to get tickets to. What had once been a  twice-weekly thing became once a month or less. The waiting time started getting longer and longer.
( In comparison, the waiting time for tickets to Saturday Night Live, another NBC show that taped in the same building, could be a year or more. In three years of trying, the best I could manage to get was tickets to one SNL dress rehearsal.)
Eventually, the novelty kind of wore off and we stopped going to see Letterman live. Truth is, watching the show live is really not that different from seeing it on TV. And after Late Night had been on for a  few years, it no longer seemed as fresh and funny as it had in the beginning.
His humor, which had relied completely on Dave’s  clever wit and odd turn of a phrase,  slowly degenerated into him making faces and shamelessly mugging for the camera. He still got laughs, but it seemed to me he was now going for easy laughs. He was no longer working as hard to earn them.
In 1993, Letterman left NBC and the hallowed halls of 30 Rock for a new gig, hosting the Late Show over at CBS. I was curious about what the new set-up as like, but by this time, writing in for tickets was no longer a priority.
In 1996, I moved to South Florida, which you would think would mark the end of me seeing Letterman live.
Except for one completely random publicity stunt that brought me face to face with Dave one last time  -- though I almost wish it hadn’t! In 1997, the Late Show announced plans to fly in audiences from different cities to attend tapings of the show. One of the cities they announced as part of this grand experiment: Miami!

Sitting in the audience at THE LATE SHOW!

As fate would have it, I was living near Miami at the time, so I figured I had nothing to lose by writing in for tickets.
A few weeks later, I found out that I had won a  pair of tickets. But who to bring with me? I ended up inviting Jessie, a cute bartender girl I had just met a  few weeks before. Jessie was a lot younger than me. She was only 22 to my 36, and she had never seen David Letterman on TV before.

As a die-hard Letterman fan for over two decades, it blew my mind to think that there might be someone who had never seen Dave on TV before. I figured it was a generational thing. I guess the next generation just doesn’t have that same fixation on late night talk show hosts that my generation did.

Flying, Miami-style!

So it came to pass a short time later that Jessie and I found ourselves on a  plane with about 100 other South Floridian Letterman fans flying to New York to attend a special taping of the Late Show with David Letterman.
Jessie had never been to New York before, so it was fun seeing the big city through the eyes of a newbie. The first day, we were free to do whatever we wanted. Jessie had a short bucket list of things to do in New York, which included riding a  subway, eating a  hot dog, and seeing Central Park.
In one afternoon, we checked off everything on her list.
The next day, we got down to the main event: attending a live taping of THE LATE SHOW. The premise of the episode was that Dave would pretend that he had moved the show to Miami for one day. The set had been redecorated to make it look like we were in South Florida, and everyone in the audience was from the Miami area. (Apparently it was cheaper to fly 100 people up from Miami than it was to move an entire TV production down south for one day.)
It was around 3PM that Jessie and I, along with the other 98 or so Miamians, were led into the studio and directed to our seats. Of courser, I was jazzed about the chance to talk to Dave before the show. I even had a good question for him. I planned on saying, “Hi Dave. This is my friend, Jessie. It’s her first time in New York City. Do you have any advice for her?”
This is what’s known in the comedy world as, “Feeding the comic a straight line.” I figured the quick-thinking Dave would have some fun with that one, and maybe even get some material he could use on the show.
At least, that was the question I planned to ask. Shortly after we arrived, Dave came out and chatted up the audience. He asked if anyone had any questions. This was my big moment. My hand shot up -- and I guess I must have been a little nervous or distracted, because instead of asking the question I had intended to ask, it came out very differently.
“Hi Dave. This is my friend, Jessie,” I began. “She’s never seen your show before, and I was wondering if you have any advice for her.”

I used to own this shirt! 

Now, this was a true statement, but it was absolutely not what I had intended to say. You have  to understand that the whole premise of the episode was that CBS was flying fans of the Letterman show to New York and putting them up in a hotel for the night. The key words there being, “Fans of the show.”
Dave was stunned. Here it was, minutes before showtime, and some jerk (me) was bragging about he and his girlfriend had conned CBS out of a free trip to New York without ever having seen his show before!
Now, let me clarify a few things here. 1) I never said Jessie was my girlfriend, and 2) I never said that I hadn’t seen Dave’s show before. Of course, I’d been a fan for over 15 years. But at that moment I felt like a first-class heel.
Dave was flabbergasted. He started poking fun at us in the few minutes left of his warm-up. We figured it would stop by the time the show began. But we couldn’t have been more wrong.
When the show started, Dave came after is with guns a-blazing. He started the show by telling the home audience how some idiot in the audience had bragged about never seeing his show before. Dave did his impression of me, basically doing his “dumb guy” voice, saying, “Hey man,. I’ve never seen your show before, but we got you suckers to fly us to New York, man!”

Jessie tries her first NY hot dog!

Funny, just a few years earlier he had referred to me as “a nice young man from Scotch Plains, NJ.” But now I was apparently a dumb jock from Miami!
An exasperated Dave wouldn’t let up. He turned to his producer off-camera and explained the while idea of flying in an audience from another city. “They’re supposed to have seen the show before!” he fumed.
I was afraid Dave might kick us out of the theater, but he knew it was better to keep us trapped there for the whole show. The audience laughed at all of Dave’s jokes. I dare say, it was a funnier show because of Dave’s constant attacks on us. At one point, when guest George Hamilton referred to an unruly customer at his restaurant in Miami, Dave nodded toward me and said, “I think that guy is here tonight!”
A couple of times when Dave referred to Jessie and I, they would turn up the house lights and cut to a shot of us. We got way more attention than anyone else in the audience, though I swear that was never my intention.
Jessie took the whole thing in good stride, but she confided to me in private, “If they show us on TV one more time, I’m going to cry!”
Dave is at his best when he is angry, and he was on fire that night. He wouldn’t let up. He referred back to us every chance he got. The most unforgettable line of the night was when Dave looked at me and said, “I don’t see Jay Leno flying your ass anywhere!”
Finally the hour ended (it seemed much longer for Jessie and I) and afterward, the other audience-members came over and gave us either high-fives, or their sympathy, or a  combination of both.
It might be argued that my little faux pas with Dave before the show made for a  better episode of THE LATE SHOW. It could be said that the episode was much funnier because I inadvertently pissed Dave off.
That was the last time I ever saw Letterman live. I haven’t really watched his show much since then, not because of anything Dave did that night, but more because I’d just grown tired of conventional talk shows over the years.
And yes, since he moved to the 11:30 slot on CBS, Letterman’s show had become much more conventional than it was during the unpredictable NBC years.
These days, if I’m going to watch any late night show, I will go for John Stewart, who sometimes mugs as shamelessly as Dave does, but somehow with Stewart, it just seems fresher and funnier.
Even though I kind of bailed on Dave Letterman during the final years of his late night career, I was there for the early, essential years, and I will never forget the influence he had on me. Those early years of LATE NIGHT defined Dave as the quintessential talk show host of his generation. (There is a reason why Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmell and Seth Myers and Cona O’Brien list Dave as their biggest influence.)
There was a period from the 80s to the 890s when Letterman was the most unique voice in late night. To borrow one of Dave’s famous phrases, you knew him, you loved, you couldn’t live without him.
But now you will have to. Good night, Dave, and thanks for letting us have more fun than human beings should be allowed to have.

FAREWELL TO THE WALKING DEAD

By Barry Dutter

I’ve read every issue of THE WALKING DEAD comic. But now, after 127 issues, I feel it’s time for me to say goodbye to a comic that has given me so many hours of enjoyment over the years.
“Why?” you may ask. Why does anyone stop reading any comic after a prolonged period? Because it no longer entertains me as it once did. Actually, this goodbye has been coming for a while now. It’s been slowly building over the last few years.
I wasn't aware of the THE WALKING DEAD when the first issue came out in 2003. Like most TWD fans, I came aboard a few years later, catching up with the trades and then eagerly devouring each new issue of the comic as it came out.
Although I've been a regular reader for a while now, I really haven’t fully enjoyed THE WALKING DEAD since the end of the Governor storyline, and that was a long time ago. (2008, to be exact.)
So why has it taken me so long to drop a book I stopped liking six years ago? Simply put, I enjoyed the Governor storyline -- a lot. I thought it was far and away the best storyline THE WALKING DEAD ever had.
It introduced one of the all-time greatest villains in the history of comics, in a story that pushed the main characters to the edge and back.
It was a tough act to follow. But the secret of the success of THE WALKING DEAD -- both the TV show and the comic -- has been the fans’ insatiable desire to know What Happens Next.
Even when the comic (and the TV show) are bad, or boring, you still hang in there, because you feel like you have to know what happens next.
The Governor story felt like writer/creator Robert Kirkman was taking you on a journey where he knew exactly where it was going, but he kept you guessing every step of the way.
The stories in the comics since then just have not had that same appeal. Issues #50 to #100 are kind of a blur for me. After the demise of the Governor in #48, the next truly memorable moment for was the introduction of Negan in #100.
That issue featured one of the most shocking deaths in the history of the series, as one of the most beloved characters, Glenn, met his end at the business end of Negan’s baseball bat.
This was a powerful introduction to Negan, a villain who seemed to have some Governor-type overtones to him, only on a larger scale. (The Governor only controlled one city. Negan controlled a much larger territory.) As the story wore on, the similarities  between the Governor and Negan seemed to grow and grow, despite Kirkman's vehement denials that any such similarities existed. At this point, I wonder if Kirkman is capable of creating another human villain who is not a  copy of the Governor.
By the time #100 came out, I had gradually become disenchanted with the comic, and I made a decision that I would stick around only till the end of the Negan storyline, and then I would move on.
The Negan story dragged on for about a year when it seemed like it would come to an abrupt end in issue #112, when Rick appeared to shoot Negan in a dramatic two-page spread. Turns out those 2 pages were just a big tease, as Negan survived Rick’s attack. (One definitely got the sense that Kirkman was just treading water, eager to keep this particular story going for as long as he could.)
The story meandered on for another year or so, finally culminating in a 12-part saga called “All-Out War.” The “All-Out War” arc turned out to be just a continuation of the same saga that had been ongoing for a while.
 Finally, after 27 issues, the Negan saga ended with a whimper. Fans were denied the satisfaction of seeing Negan killed. Instead, Rick slashed Negan's throat  with a knife, and then instantly ordered his medical people to patch him up. Rick decided that killing Negan was not the right thing to do; he felt the more humane thing to do would be locking him up  for the rest of his life.
For fans who had been following the Negan saga for 2 years, it seemed a rather anticlimactic finish. (Honestly, I would swear the story went on for 50 issues, not 27.)
By this point, I had tired of the series. The next issue promised “A New Beginning.” “Fine, “ I decided. “I’ll give Kirkman one last chance to keep me hooked.”
“The New Beginning” turned out to be more of the same. It was a quiet issue where some new survivors are introduced and the gang takes them in. Blah blah blah, same old, same old. Kirkman seems to have painted himself into a corner where he is destined to repeat the same types of stories over and over. Basically it’s Rick and the gang, perennially trying to find a safe place they can call home, while dodging zombies and meeting new human villains.
I realize that is the premise of the book, but it’s one that I feel has run its course. It would be great if Kirkman could shake it up a bit -- have a zombie who acquires intelligence and takes over leadership of all the other walkers… or have one of the human heroes become a zombie who sticks with the good guys and fights other zombies…
Maybe even introduce other supernatural elements besides zombies, such as werewolves or vampires.
Any one of these ideas would intrigue me enough to keep buying the comic. But as it is, I feel each issue is just bringing more of the same.
As for the TV show -- I’ve stuck with it since episode one, but it has been rough going, at times. Season two was a slog that almost drove me away for good.  I've thought about walking away from this show more times than any other show I've ever watched. 
But then season 3 got real strong, and the first half of season 4 kept me at the edge of my seat.
But now that season four has ended and the TV Governor is no more, we’re stuck at the same point the comic was at in 2008. The big question: will the TV show be able to tell compelling stories beyond the Governor?
Season four ended with a cliffhanger, with the gang trapped by the apparent cannibals of Terminus. So, of course, I have to stick around to see how it all turns out. But I can’t promise I will stay beyond that. We will see.
Even though I’m saying goodbye to THE WALKING DEAD comic at this time, it doesn’t have to be forever. If they get a new artist, I might check it out. If they do something radically different from what has gone before, I might pick it up. If they kill a major character, well, I'll probably flip through the issue in the store, even if I don't purchase it.
Over the past few years, THE WALKING DEAD has been the only comic I have followed on a regular basis, and I’ve enjoyed having a reason to go to the comics shop once  month (or sometimes twice a month) to pick up the new issue. Now that I’m dropping my last monthly book, I do feel a tinge of sadness that my 40-year weekly comic-buying ritual is coming to an end.
I’m glad to have had THE WALKING DEAD as part of my life for the past few years. It’s been a fun ride, but I really stayed a few years longer than I should have. For me, reading THE WALKING DEAD has been like being in a bad relationship that you know is going nowhere, but you just can’t bring yourself to let go.
Now it’s time. So goodbye, WALKING DEAD, and thanks for all the brains.