Comic Historian Arlen Schumer Reportedly BANNED from San Diego Comic Fest
Comic book historian and lecturer Arlen Schumer was reportedly banned from San Diego Comic Fest after he was scheduled to appear on six panels at the convention.
According to Bleeding Cool, Schumer was banned because he “managed to upset the showrunners, comic book pros, fan attendees and hotel staff.” They point to a video showing an interaction with Schumer and convention volunteer during his final lecture of the weekend, 50 Years of Neal Adams’ Batman: An Arlen Schumer VisuaLecture.
In the video above, Schumer is in the middle of his lecture when what appears to be a convention volunteer interrupts him and attempts to have him end his lecture. Schumer politely responds, “Okay, but can’t I go right up to 5 to 1. Listen folks, I gotta finish this. You gotta give me 5 to 1 and I’m sorry, okay.” You can hear the volunteer say, “12:55 at the latest.” Schumer then continues, “I have 12 minutes to 1, can I please go to 5 to 1.” The volunteer then chimes in again, “They need five minutes.” Schumer then raises his voice, “We are already wasting time dealing with this bullshit. Okay. I deserve a little bit more respect than you. Can you please excuse yourself so I can give these people a show. God damnit. Youth is wasted on the young. Sorry folks.” Schumer then continues his lecture on Neal Adams’ art.
In the background, you can hear a woman say, “He’s just a kid.” Another man says, “He said yes.”
However, shortly after he continued, it sounds Schumer is confronted by convention staff who sound like they are holding up a sign. Schumer states, “I don’t even know what that says.” A man says, “We’re out of time. Sorry.” Schumer responds, “F*** you. F*** you. F*** you.” The man who told him his time was up responds, “That’s pretty rude.” A woman also chimes in, “You don’t need to be so damned rude.” Schumer responds, “Whatever, anyway folks. Sorry to end on a bad note. But that’s what you get for lecturing five times in three days.” You can hear the woman say, “You don’t need to be vocal like that.”
According to San Diego Comic Fest’s online program the 50 Years of Neal Adams’ Batman: An Arlen Schumer VisuaLecture was scheduled to run from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM. It’s unclear why the volunteer would be trying to get him to finish his lecture almost a quarter of an hour before it was scheduled to finish.
Cartoonist and animator Scott Shaw, who is also the co-founder of San Diego Comic-Con, commented on Schumer’s lecture on Facebook saying, “The word is out on Arlen Schumer. Buh-bye, “VisuaLecturer.” Go scream at the mirror.”
We reached out to both San Diego Comic Fest as well as Arlen Schumer for comment, but did not hear back at the time of print.
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