1st Ever Cast Reunion in New Braunfels, Texas!
HILL COUNTRY COMIC CON March 16-17
Memorable 2018 SDCC
SDCC 2018 was a great X-MEN:TAS experience! First, Julia and I were accompanied by six “Team X-Men” volunteers (some family members), all decked out in “Previously on X-Men” shirts and hats. Amazing fun had by all.
We had two panels. The one celebrating producer/director LARRY HOUSTON’s career was topped off with the SDCC’s highest award for lifetime achievement, the INKWELL. At the other panel, which celebrated 25 years of X-MEN: TAS, we received a standing ovation (our first) from the standing-room-only crowd.
At a massive panel hosted by our friends at SCREEN JUNKIES, there was a “Battle,” a five-minute debate whose theme was: “What is the greatest animated series ever — X-MEN or Batman?” It was close, but the thousand-plus crowd voted for X-MEN!
And finally, we and X-MEN:TAS writer Len Uhley were able to grab some table space beside guest-of-the-Con Larry Houston and sell some copies of “Previously on X-Men.” Five days of fans, fun, and exhaustion that were truly memorable for us.
X-MEN at SAN DIEGO!
We are pleased to announce that we will be at the San Diego Comic Con next week. We will be at two panels. First is SPOTLIGHT ON LARRY HOUSTON on Thursday morning at 11:00am in room 5AB. I will be moderating this tribute to the animation artist who directed 65 of the X-MEN:TAS episodes and has art credits on 79 animated series! After the panel Larry will be signing autographs at the Featured Guest area for an hour. Then from 1:15 to 2:45 Thursday Julia and I will join him at his table (HH16) where we will have personally-signed books (PREVIOUSLY ON X-MEN), script pages, and Larry’s X-MEN model sheets. Then on Sunday, at 3:00pm in room 7AB, we three will share the stage with writer LEN UHLEY in X-MEN:TAS CELEBRATES 25 YEARS. After the panel we will join Larry at his table for an hour (4:00 – 5:00 at HH16) and, if there are any left, have books, script pages, and model sheets for signing. Finally, please join us to celebrate the life of X-MEN legend and friend Len Wein, Thursday evening at 8:30 at room 4.
(From top left, clockwise: LARRY HOUSTON, US, LEN WEIN, OUR BOOK, LEN UHLEY)
Comic Fest – A Human-sized Con
We are scheduled to participate in three panels at Comic Fest this weekend with X-MEN:TAS director-producer Larry Houston. It will be our third appearance there, and we wanted to give you a sense of why we continue to go back. While WonderCon last month was exciting in its size and scope (70,000 people, 1700 at our X-MEN:TAS panel), Comic Fest is low-key. It’s like visiting a favorite small town instead of a big city. While the biggest Cons have expanded into every corner of popular culture, Comic Fest remains comics-focused. The people are very comics-knowledgeable. We meet friends from way back. (Scott Shaw, who designed the Fest poster below was my office-mate at Hanna-Barbera in 1986.) The location is like a vacation spot, not a trade show. And the founders go back to the beginning of the Con movement, so they choose guests wisely. So join us if you can — we’ll have a signing table and stacks of books. See you there.
TV Animation Veterans at Wonder Con
What a collection of TV Animation memories in one photo! Our Imdb pages (not perfect, but close) claim that we five writer/artist/producers have 2,224 produced credits among us (with some overlap). When I started at Hanna-Barbera in 1985, Alan Burnett had the office next door. In 1987, Tad Stones hired me at Disney TV Animation, then hired Julia in 1988, to write for Rescue Rangers. When I got a season of Beetlejuice to run for Fox (1990), just before X-Men:TAS, I hired Marty for his first TV writing job. These people have left their mark. Alan, who once ran mega-hit Smurfs for H-B, has been THE man at Warner Brothers animation for an incredible 25 years, writing for many of the animated TV series and animated DVD movies (Batman, etc.) produced there while overseeing every one of them. Those of us in the know understand that stars like Paul Dini and Bruce Timm worked, gratefully, for the house that Alan built and has only recently retired from. Similarly, Tad Stones was THE creative force during the long period known as The Disney Afternoon (mid ’80s – mid ’90s). Julia and I know, since we were there for three years learning from him. Marty has run more recent major series like Transformers and Guardians of the Galaxy, keeping action-adventure cartoons thriving during the last decade. And to top it off, we all get to hang out and reminisce, meeting at this Con at our Previously on X-Men signing desk. It just goes to show that it pays to work, over a long career, with nice, talented people.
Marty Isenberg, Alan Burnett, Julia Lewald, Eric Lewald, and (kneeling) Tad Stones
Wonderful WonderCon
We’re back! It’s been a while. We’ve been getting the word out about the book. WonderCon in Anaheim was nice enough to ask Julia and me to set up an X-MEN:TAS panel this past weekend. They didn’t happen to mention that the hall would seat 1700 people! Well, we found out that there is great love for the show: our panel was standing-room-only. Producer-Director LARRY HOUSTON and writers LEN UHLEY and BOB SKIR joined us. Afterward, there was three straight hours of book-signing at our table. We’re not sure what other cons we can manage to attend (a load of 100 books weighs 210 lbs, so flying places may be tough). But we’ll try. We’re set at MomoCon in Atlanta in late May. Writing can be solitary work, so meeting people who appreciate your efforts can be gratifying.
Left to right: niece Rev Wiederspahn, Julia, X-MEN:TAS writer Len Uhley, and me.
Hugo 2018 Consideration
Julia here – Eric is the one who usually writes these posts (I’m the one handling our Twitter feed) .
The Hugo Awards, presented later this year for science fiction/fantasy writing, has a category for Best Related Work, which includes books about the making of a film or TV series. Eric’s book, a serious labor of love, has received multiple rave reviews, excerpted here:
Reviews for “Previously on X-Men”
A free sample chapter is available through Amazon for your kindle device here:
Free Sample of “Previously on X-men”
To all members of the WorldCon 76 (San Jose) — Please consider submitting “Previously on X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series” for a Hugo nomination in the Best Related Work category.
Many thanks!
