By Ryan Joe
Daily Bruin Contributor
[email protected]
It was a relaxed night frosted with rich conversation and
thickly filled with juicy expletives as comic book writer and film
writer-director Kevin Smith took to the stage to answer questions
and rail away on topics that ranged from sex, comics and films to
more sex.
And as an added cherry on top, Smith’s appearance at the
Writer’s Guild Theater last Friday for a three hour Q&A
session of almost pornographic frankness was held for a good cause:
proceeds from the $15 tickets went to ACTOR, a non-profit
organization founded to assist veteran comic book professionals in
financial need.
ACTOR, which stands for A Commitment To Our Roots, was founded
by industry leaders early this year.
To date, the committee is made up of comic book heavyweights
including legendary artists George Perez (“Wonder
Woman”), Joe Kubert (“Mighty Mouse”), and John
Romita Sr. (“Amazing Spider-Man”), as well as
executives from major companies related to the comic book field
including Marvel Entertainment, Wizard Entertainment and Dark Horse
Comics.
The idea for ACTOR came to founding member Jim McLauchlin when
he realized that most trade industries have similar charities.
“The Screen Actors Guild has a very famous one,”
said McLauchlin. “Even the plumbers have one.”
According to McLauchlin, who has a day job as a senior staff
writer for Wizard Magazine, ACTOR doles out anywhere from $1,100 to
$11,000 to cover everything from funeral expenses to groceries for
floundering ex-comic professionals out of work.
“Basically anyone who worked in the comic book industry
from 1935 to the present on a freelance basis for at least 10 years
is eligible,” McLauchlin said. “Talent within the
industry circulates every 20 years or so when a new generation of
readers with a new set of taste comes in. Comic book people are a
lot like athletes in that they have a very limited time to be
successful in the field.”
One such person is Bill Messner-Loebs who, during his peak in
the industry, was an immensely popular and skilled writer-artist,
juggling three to four ongoing series at a time. Loebs eventually
found his workload dwindling to the point where he wasn’t
working at all and, because he was born with only one arm, other
work was hard coming.
“There was a point when he and his wife ate a banana each
a day. That’s all they could afford,” McLauchlin said.
“ACTOR immediately approved $11,000 to be sent to them so
they could get some groceries and pay off some house payments so
they wouldn’t be foreclosed.”
Furthermore, ACTOR will pay travel and hotel expenses for Loebs
to attend the upcoming Wizard World Comic Convention this July in
Chicago in the hopes that Loebs will be able to network with
industry insiders and find work with comic books again.
Most funds raised by ACTOR have come from auctions in which
hundreds of artists sent in original artwork to be sold off.
Smith’s Q&A session came as a sort of watershed for the
charity.
“Kevin Smith is a really good guy,” McLauchlin said.
“He really believes in the cause.”
Smith, most famous for his filmwork including indie hits such as
“Clerks,” “Chasing Amy” and, most recently,
the wider-released “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” is
also an avid comic book fan, peppering his scripts with
not-so-subtle jokes at the expense of superheroic icons. It was
Smith’s filmography that eventually earned him gigs writing
comic books where he rejuvenated the faltering sales of titles such
as “Daredevil” for Marvel Comics and “Green
Arrow” for DC Comics, leading to his miniseries for Marvel,
“Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do.”
But the evening at the Writer’s Guild Theater was a
free-for-all of topics, not strictly limited to comics-related
topics.
“I want to give you your $15 worth,” Smith said as
he paused, taking a breath in the middle of describing a
smut-filled account regarding the first time with his girlfriend,
now his wife.
It was a brisk three hours in which Smith, dressed in a scruffy
gray sweatshirt with chopped sleeves, selected the raised hands of
audience members to answer their questions. Over the course of the
evening, Smith was crassly hilarious, humble and self-deprecating,
poking fun at his weight, his personal conflicts and his work in
comic books.
“My big flaw with “˜Daredevil’ was that I
didn’t leave a lot of space for the art. All the word
balloons ended up covering the eyes. Maybe that didn’t matter
because it’s “˜Daredevil,'” Smith said,
jokingly.
“I can get away with that joke with this audience. Is
there anyone in here who doesn’t read comics?” Smith
added.
Around 15 of the 500 hands peeked up. Smith chuckled.
In the end, McLauchlin deemed the evening a success.
“We pretty much sold out the show,” he said.
“We banked on selling around 500 tickets. Overall,
we’ve raised a couple thousand dollars.”
Next up, McLauchlin hopes to get director-producer Richard
Donnor for a one hour Q&A session following a screening of the
original “Superman” movie, a film that Donnor himself
directed.
At the close of Q&A, people began to file out of the
theater, some stopping to buy comic-related merchandise, proceeds
from which would also benefit ACTOR. Despite the late hour,
McLauchlin was an electric energy, buoyant about the prospects for
ACTOR, crackling with optimism. Shazam.
COMICS: For more information, visit www.actorcomicfund.org.