Welcome to the limited series return of BETWEEN THE PAGES, running Mondays and Wednesdays now through mid-December 2020! Dubbed BETWEEN THE PAGES: FINDING MY VOICE, follow Shannon’s journey as she learned and grew to become more of a public speaker, and how she’s still learning today! Today is Installment 6, “First Time is the Big Time”.
When I heard back from Comic-Con International: San Diego, I was very surprised! Not only did they say I could help out, they asked me to moderate a panel with other people in the business. Fortunately, I knew most of them already, having been introduced by people I knew who knew them, and a couple actually worked on shows I’d worked on.
Still, I’d hardly been able to put together radio programs for myself on WOMEN OF JAZZ and not knowing the size of the audience. I’d been to Comic-Con International: San Diego four times at this point. I knew what size what room we’d been given, and I knew the caliber of who was on my panel. We’d fill the house for sure (remember, the big premieres of movies and TV weren’t happening yet). How would I deal with all those people?
That year, I moderated Con-sponsored panel “Breaking and Entering – Careers in Animation.” Panelists included writer/producers Craig Miller and Marv Wolfman, writer/Story Editors Bob Skir and Stan Berkowitz, and artist Bob Miller. It wasn’t quite the full house I expected, but fairly well attended. I won’t lie; the whole experience made me very nervous and only the fact the whole panel wasn’t complete and total strangers made it able for me to get through. It didn’t dissuade me from offering my services the next year as well, which will be in a future installment.
Before Comic-Con International: San-Diego in 2001, I would do another sent of convention appearances in the Summer of 2001. During this same time frame, in a desire to strengthen my knowledge of animation writing, I took a two semester class in Animation Writing with Greg Weisman (best known as creator of GARGOYLES, but also behind more recent shows like YOUNG JUSTICE) and Kevin Hopps through UCLA Extension. Through that connection, I learned about a yearly convention devoted to the Gargoyles fandom (no longer running) called GATHERING OF THE GARGOYLES and also decided to offer assistance to programming for them in the summer of 2001, as the convention would be in Universal City that year.
Watch out for the next installment where I discuss GATHERING OF THE GAROYLES 2001!