We left at 7:30 AM to drive into Manhattan for Julie Schwartz’s 9:30 memorial service. It’s a drive that I can make in as little as an hour, so I allowed two. Naturally it took three (thanks to accidents snarling traffic on literally every possible way into the city because so few people seem to comprehend travelling at the proper speed for conditions), so we missed a good portion of it, which frustrates the hëll out of me.
It was certainly well attended: I’d guesstimate between 100 to 150 people there. Speakers that we saw included Neil Gaiman reading a eulogy from Alan Moore (which Neil will likely be putting up on his blog), Irwin Hasen, Maggie Thompson, Tony Tollin, and Bob Greenberger reading on behalf of Len Wein. Paul Levitz, visibly choked up, made some concluding comments, followed by some final thoughts from one of Julie’s granddaughters. Copies of Julie’s autobiography were available on a table upstairs for anyone who wanted one, and most of them had disappeared by the time we left. I didn’t take one because I already had a copy, signed to me by Julie. It’s that much more valuable now.
PAD
(UPDATE: Alan’s note, which was not so much read by Neil as channeled, is now up here. -GH)
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As somebody who first ever heard of Julius Schwartz in an interview with Brian Bolland about fifteen years ago, and hardly ever in the meantime, I have to say how much the likes of yourself, and Alan Moore, and Harlan Ellison, and Mark Evanier have done in recent weeks to convince me that not just you, but all of us have lost someone very special.
The world sounds like it must have been a better place with him in it.
For what its worth, I nominated Julie for favorite editor on this year’s CBG Awards. Don’t know if he will win, but it was the only way I had to show my final respects for him.
Since I wasn’t keeping track of time, I’m not sure which eulogizer you walked in during, Peter, but the event started with the playing of a Louis Armstrong tune that Julie himself had chosen. Before playing that track, Paul Levitz commented that Julie, being the consummate editor, had edited his own memorial service.
The first speaker was Brian Thomsen, who read Harlan’s eulogy, interpolated with some comments of his own. After that, I believe Denny O’Neil was the first to pop up. I can’t recall the order after that.
It was a event made the stranger for me for having basically been out of comics for 20 years. Irene and I can up from Maryland because we both owed Julie so much, but as I looked around, I realized that the only ones with whom I had a connection were those with grey in their hair. If someone was young, my gaze skipped over them, but when I’d see someone older, I’d stare, try to subtract two decades, and then go, “Oh, my god, Paul Kupperberg!” Or Roger Stern, or Danny Fingeroth, or Mike Friedrich, or Tony Tollin, etc. And then catch up on the years in between. (Paul Kupperberg, Paul Levitz and I shared a room at the 1974 Worldcon, and somewhere I have the blackmail photos to prove it.)
Anyway, I’m very glad that I made the effort to head out the door at 4:15 a.m. to make it there. I needed to be part of that farewell.
I just read the Moore/Gaiman eulogy, and I think it’s about the sweetest, funniest, saddest, most touching thing anybody could’ve written about the man. I only hope the speculation about the alternate-earth Julie comes true…
IIRC, Bolland was the artist for DC’s first maxi-series, as they described it then, Camelot 3000. And like Schwartz, he too is a big favorite of mine.
I can honestly say that I took the death of Julie Schwartz very hard. I grew up reading the Superman stories that he edited. Maybe this sounds silly or downright insane to some people, but the characters in the comic books are more than just fictional characters to me. They are like old friends to me, and many of those responsable for their creation and evolution are like members of my family. When Julie died, I felt like the greatest uncle of that family had passed away. I said before, and I’ll say it again…
We’ll miss you Uncle Julie.
JHL
I had the opportunity to meet Julie at HeroesCon (Charlotte, NC) a few years ago. I got a copy of MAN OF TWO WORLDS, which he signed–it still stuns me how deeply he was involved with some of my favorite authors in their early careers.
I asked him to sign something else for me: the BID article you wrote about him in the trade paperback. He cracked up as he read over it. Made for a cool moment all around.
Thanks.