Rant-Man's Notebook

By Jim "Rant-Man" MacQuarrie

Geek Bonding

The really cool thing about pop culture is that everybody can have their own corner of it. You may be a huge fan of some obscure show that nobody remembers ("It's About Time," anyone?), and somebody else may love some hugely successful cartoon that's been popular for generations, but you have something in common. All us geeks speak the same language, regardless of whether or not our specific interests overlap.

I thought of this last Saturday night as I surveyed the astonishing collection of Flintsones memorabilia filling the display cases at Scott Shaw!'s house. You may not know the name, but if you've seen any commercials for Cocoa Pebbles or Fruity Pebbles, looked at the Rhino Records catalog, or read the Simpsons comic books, you certainly know his work.

Scott Shaw! (yes, the exclamation point is part of his name) has been drawing, writing, directing and producing cartoons and comics for about 30 years now, and he's also one of the founders of the San Diego Comic-Con, about which I have previously prattled on at length. It was because of the Con that I was invited to his home/toy museum/art gallery.

It's all because of my son. He happens to be the friendliest person on earth. Where he gets that from, I couldn't tell you; he's not at all the surly curmudgeon that I am. Chris is one of those people who thinks that strangers are just friends you haven't met yet. He'll happily walk up to anybody and strike up a conversation, especially other kids around his own age. It so happens that Scott has a son around Chris' age. This year at the Con, Scott's son Kirby (named for the great Jack Kirby) and Chris met and talked about Yu-Gi-Oh, Playstation, and various other touchstones of vital importance to boys of that age.

It happens that I had crossed paths with Scott a few times before; we both are involved with Comic Book Resources, the comic book website I've mentioned a bunch of times. Scott writes a column there called Oddball Comics. If you haven't seen it, you should take a look; it's funny, bizarre, odd stuff. Hence the name. He also provided the illustration for a piece Gail Simone wrote for her column, You'll All Be Sorry! featuring a crossover encounter between Aliens and Captain Carrot. (Tangent: Captain Carrot is a character Scott created with Roy Thomas; he's the leader of a team of funny-animal superheroes called the Zoo Crew.) I got to apply the color to that illustration, working from Scott's color rendering. There were a few other conversations over the last few years, enough so that he knew my name. But it was our sons who provided the jump from name recognition to socializing together.

Kirby and Chris hit it off pretty well, so we decided to let them get together for an afternoon to play Yu-Gi-Oh or whatever while the grownups chatted. Well, let me tell you, we had a wonderful time. I could have spent many happy hours just wandering around the living room looking at the original art hanging on every wall (major geek alert: if you don't recognize some of these names, click on the links), including a bunch of Carl Barks drawings, drawings by Walt Kelly, Dr. Suess, Rick Kirkman & Jerry Scott, and animation cels from Bob Clampett and Hanna-Barbera. There are also dinosaurs, gorillas, penguins, stuffed animals, action figures, busts and sculptures, and toys. The place is a geek paradise, but it's really dominated by the Flintstones stuff. Now, I've never been a huge Flintstones fan. I've probably seen every episode multiple times, but it was never that important to me; it was always just there. It might have something to do with the fact that the Flintstones premiered in 1960, when I was two years old. it's always been there, as far back as I can remember. Scott was nine when the Flintstones debuted, and it was a revelation to him, one that became a defining part of his life, helping to shape him into the cartoonist he is today. But as I was saying, the specific cartoon we like doesn't matter; the fact of liking a cartoon is enough.

I could have spent hours looking at Scott's collection, except that we were having too good a time just sitting around eating pizza and talking while our boys were busy blasting each other on the video game thing. By the way, if you should ever happen to be at the Comic-Con and you pass by Scott's booth, forget about all those cartoonists around you; go talk to Judith. She's a wonderfully warm, charming and funny lady.

Despite the fact that they're on a first-name basis with people I consider to be demigods (Stan Freberg, for example), Scott and Judith made our family feel comfortable and welcome. This was a nice thing for me, since I've been skittering around the edges of the comics and animation business for a couple of decades like a kid with his face pressed to the window of the candy store. I've managed to do a little bit of stuff here and there, enough to score a Pro badge at the Con, but not really enough to consider myself a cartoonist. The bulk of my work is graphic design and production, with occasional forays into illustration. For a few hours on Saturday, I felt like I'd gained temporary entry into the fraternity of cartoonists. It was very encouraging; I might even start taking The Fourth Wall seriously.

In case you hadn't guessed by now, this whole thing you just read is really a thank you note to Scott, Judy and Kirby. Since today is Thanksgiving, I thought it might be nice to actually thank somebody.

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Yanks. You Canadians had yours last month, and the rest of you are welcome to stand around scratching your heads at those silly Americans and their oddball traditions.

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