From: "Michael J. Vasiliou" <[v--il--u] at [ionline.net]> Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc Subject: Comicon: Misc. Comments from a first time con-goer, soon-to-be ex-lurker [LONG. Maybe VERY LONG] Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 07:49:24 -0700 Executive Summary: WOW! Now, that was FUN! More constructive comments ;-) First, an introduction. I've been reading comics now for almost 25 years . Like most people, I read quite a few as a kid, and stopped about the time I reached the age of 12 or so. During that time I was picking up comics from the corner store - we didn't have such a thing as Comic Specialty Shops back in those days. (What do I remember reading? Mostly DC - The Flash, All-Star Squadron, Legion of Super-Heroes, occasional Batman comics, The JLA-JSA crossovers (LOVED those), a few Marvels - Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Guardians of the Galaxy.) The last comics I can remember dropping when I decided that I was 'too old to be reading comics' were the Legion and the All-Stars. Hmmn, guess I've always been in the wrong time-period. Music too, but that's another story. ----- 5 YEAR GAP (No Black Dawn ;-) ------ I've now started attending University, and joined the local SF/Gaming club. The meeting room had a box of old comics, so I dipped into it. It was interesting, but not enough to bring me back. Then, one BC Holmes showed up, and pretty much threatened to stuff a comic down my throat if I didn't read this great new thing he had bought. Watchmen #1. Of course, I then had to go find a copy of my own. This lead to the discovery of Now & Then comics in Kitchener. And BACK ISSUE BINS. And Dark Knight Returns. And Allan Moore's Swamp Thing. And, and, and... 10 years later, I'm still hooked. My tastes are changing, I'll drop one book, start another. All in all, it's been a weird and wonderful trip, and after this past weekend, I discovered that there's a whole spectrum of possibilities still to be explored. {Hmmn, this is going to be much longer than anticipated, hold on while I put a [long] notice up in the subject line. Ok, back to our story.} What brought this post out of a long-time lurker? The Chicago Comicon, that's what. Currently doing contract work, so I'm not getting a real vacation this year - at least, not one of any duration. So, I decided to find something that would only take a weekend. Booked the Friday off work, made use of my parents VERY kind offer of free airmiles, and decided to head down to the Chicago Comicon. Luckily, I was travelling with a friend of mine (Hi Rod!), who had been last year, and knew his way around O'Hare, and the convention site. Made things MUCH easier for this newbie, let me tell you. Though, I think I surprised Rod, not to mention myself, by being perfectly willing to go up to people and start talking to them. There's a wonderful sense of freedom in approaching people with a common interest who have no idea who you are, nor are they likely to ever run into you again. (Yes, I admit it, I'm great in one-to-one situations, but I'm lousy at speaking in groups. Luckily, the artist's alley and the various booths were all set up as perfect one-to-one conversation sites :-) ) Anyway, I think the easiest way to get through this will be just to jot down my impressions of the con, now that it's 3 days later. This may not come out in any sort of chronological, or even any, order. (If you're still with me, by the way, I admire your stamina.) Sofitel (Our Hotel for the duration). Very nice, open air lobby, nice cafe style bar, comfortable chairs. Most enjoyable. Also seemed to be DC Central, with various other notables in attendance as well. Seen at various times during the stay: Will Eisner, Mark Waid, Jim Shooter, Walter Koenig, Alicia (sp?) Kwitney - reading a comic at breakfast :-), Jill Thompson, Sergia Aragones, Jeff Moy & WC Cariani (sp?) in the gift shop, etc.... Convention Centre: Big. Really big. First thought " What have I gotten myself into here?!?" type of big. (Previously, the largest con I had attended probably had about 1200-1500 people. The B5 PANELS were larger than that!) Publisher's Room: Wizard's of the Coast on the left of the entrance, DC on the right. Good job to the DC Promo Dept. on staking out prime real estate. Can't remember turning left when entering even once ;-) First Pro Encounter: Bob Greenberger at the DC booth. Looked at some of the previews of things to come. Chatted briefly with Bob about what he was doing these days (Some very long title, but boiled down to he was in charge of all people meeting all deadlines or he screams at them, for all books being published. Not sure how he had time to be at the con, actually. Thanked him for his work on the late, lamented Peter David Star Trek.) First Insane Pro Encounter: Ron Boyd, inker on Legion of Super-Heroes. Manning the DC Counter, and enthusiastically pushing all the other preview issues out of the way so LSH was left all on it's own. I'm sure if he had had a portable spotlight, it would have been shining down on it, too. Pointed out the last page of LSH 83 (just came out today) while maniacally shouting out the phrase "EEEEEEE-VIL!". I like this guy. Even better, found out later that he's a fellow Canadian, working out of Toronto. Explained a lot. Also, we now know who to push about getting some gratuitous Canadiana into the Legion ;-) First Net.Encounter: Found the Friends of Lulu booth. Completely blanked on the nice women who chatted with me about the organization, and their goals -- worthwhile stuff, by the way. (Who was manning the booth about 11:00-12:00 on Friday morning? Not Elayne, she was next to this person, and is the above mentioned Net.Encounter ;-) ) Met Elayne, introduced myself as a fan of her reviews. Nice lady, very enthusiastic. Had an incredible whirlwind introduction to Johanna Draper - at least, I think it was her, those blurred after images are hard to keep track of. If we could find a way to harness that amount of nervous energy, there wouldn't be a need to research new energy sources. Nicest Creator Award: Colleen Doran. Met Colleen the first time on the Friday when I asked her to sign my copy of End of an Era, issue 5. [Digression - mangaed to get the last two issues signed by Colleen, Mark Waid, Ron Boyd, KC Carlson, Kurt Busiek, Stuart Immonen, Tom McCraw. Pride of MY collection, yup.] While there, I took a look at some of the work she had, and fell head over heels for her "Holy Grail" print. When she mentioned she had done it as a character sketch for A Distant Soil, I decided I would have to take a look at ADS at some point. (Note: I wasn't buying anything on Friday, as I was too busy wandering around, and wasn't sure what my limited cash supply would need to be used for.) Addendum: Went back on the Sunday, picked up the first three issues of ADS, and the "Holy Grail" print. Also was sent on a quest to find Babylon 5 shirts by Colleen/Elayne at the Lulu booth. [Rod was the one in the B5 shirt with the silverish hair - Rod, not the shirt. I was the taller one with the beard. Unfortunately, quest was unsuccessful - found the shirts, but they only had X-Large and XX-large left, and I don't think Colleen was looking for a tent ;-) ] NOTE: Got home, read ADS #1-3. MUST HAVE MORE! Local comic shop only had issue 12 in stock. MUST HAVE MORE! EVERYBODY MUST READ THIS COMIC! Try the first few issues, if you're not hooked by then, well, I'm sure Marvel must have something to appeal to you. I really didn't know what to expect, but this is incredibly good storytelling. Science Fiction, with Fantasy trappings, yet firmly grounded in reality as well. First goal of the Comicon achieved - I've found a new, non-mainstream book, to seek and push upon unsuspecting readers. A Distant Soil - You DO want this book. Best Dinner: The Will Eisner Banquet. Harlan Ellison in fine form as the master of ceremonies, and Will even managed to get in a few shots at Harlan in his rebuttal. This man is sharp, people. Goal two of the con - acquaint myself with the work of Eisner directly, as opposed to through people I admire who admire him. (Scott McLeod, for instance. Sigh, couldn't find the Zot! I'm missing. Maybe next year.) Highly enjoyable, good speeches. Great dinner too, come to think of it ;-) Best Reception: The Babylon 5 Reception on the Saturday night. Didn't talk to Joe, or Walter, OR Harlan, but had a blast anyway :-) Wore my Jumpgate Pin, and ended up having a pleasant conversation with the only other Pin wearer in attendance. Think we sent some orders over to Elana. Best Surprise Reception: Walking home about 11:00 after the B5 reception and checking out the Late-Night panel and finding about 30 or so people sitting around the corner of the Lobby discussing the Legion. Well, couldn't resist joining THIS group. (Hope nobody minded, wasn't sure if this was a private thing or not.) Some great insight from Paul Levitz, who also seemed a little more candid here than at the official Legion panel. More along the lines that here he was speaking as Paul Levitz, former legion writer, and not so much as Paul Levitz, Exec. VP & Publisher of DC Comics. Cemented my impression that the Legion Creators are having WAY to much fun doing these books, and that Legion fans ARE the best fans in comics. (The Ultra Bears were cute, but the best was from the person who asked about a new Legion book: LEGION-BEARS! ) Also another appearance of the incredibly organized Johanna acting as moderator. And moderating that pack of nuts could not have been easy! Harlon Ellison: Wow. This man is incredible. I've heard the reputation, I've heard the stories, but from what I've seen of the man, and watching how he dealt with people at his signings, I can only say that he is charming, witty, intelligent, and the most amazing natural born storyteller I've ever had the pleasure to encounter. I can only imagine that listening to Ellison spin a tale must have been similar to listening to Wil Rogers, or Mark Twain. If you ever have the chance to hear this man speak, drop everything and DO so. Again, wow. People I got to meet: Jeff Moy, WC 'Cory' Cariani, Ron Boyd, Sergia Aragones, Matt Feazel - not Cynical at all, but he does sport the Fedora, Phil Foglio and his wife... can't remember her name... argh --- another very charming person, and incredibly easy to talk to, Jill Thompson, Peter Gross, Elayne, Janet Hetherington (letter column regular and writer), Colleen Doran (READ A DISTANT SOIL. Now. Go on. We'll wait. Hmmn, do you think I've pushed this enought yet? ), Allan Gross (Who has a VERY weird comic coming out. Jonny Quest was just the cover story, Dr. Cyber will reveal the truth), Marc Hempel, Richie Prosch - stopped by a Lyle Doll, and now I have 8 issues of Emma Davenport ;-), and no doubt numerous others. Ok. I promise to be shorter next time ;-) I promise to take an active, and hopefully intelligent, part in net discussions in the future. I hereby renounce lurker status in the RAC hierarchy! I promise to get my newsserver to carry the lsh newsgroup so I can get involved over there, too ;-) Thanks for bearing with me for this incredibly long ramble. And we didn't even go into Joe Strazynski's escalation of the Bear Wars. TTFN, Michael J. Vasiliou Ex-Lurker PS: A Distant Soil. Go, buy it. Buy more. Give it to your friends. Have them buy it. The more of you who buy it, the better my chance of seeing new issues ;-) PPS: Apologies to all whose names I have mangled, forgotten, or otherwise ruined beyond all recognition. Next time, I'll take notes beforehand.