From: [f--eh--d] at [panix.com] (Elayne Wechsler-Chaput)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Elayne's Mid-Ohio Con Report
Date: 27 Nov 1995 23:40:43 -0500

                  Elayne's Mid-Ohio Con Report, or
          "Is There a Word for Old Friends Who've Just Met?"

This report actually starts a couple days before the convention, as Leah
Adezio graciously invited Ed Douglas, Steve and I to Thanksgiving dinner
with her husband David and children Steven and Daniel, prior to taking off
for the long van drive from New Jersey to Ohio the following morning.  Ed 
met us at Port Authority for the 1-1/2 hour bus ride out to Newton, and 
Leah and I had a chance to food shop for Steve's and my Friday night 
party so we wouldn't need to go out once we arrived in Columbus.

The food was delicious, the kids were rambunctious, Leah's artwork (both
her framed collection hanging on her walls and her own stuff - her style
is very similar to Colleen Doran's) was beautiful, and we were graced with
the presence of Johanna Draper and Dave Eppley for dessert and the
watching of the last night of The Beatles Anthology.  Leah gave me a
couple gorgeous silk blouses and a dress that fit me better than they fit
her (we're about a size apart).  The five of us crashed in various spots
in the Adezios' apartment overnight Thursday, but I'm afraid I didn't get
too much sleep, as we were in kind of a public traffic area and I'm one of
those light sleepers who need rather complete sensory deprivation to
maintain unconsciousness.  Every time the Adezios' kitten Kako came to
snuggle with us, I'd be jolted awake by the bell on her collar.  After
awhile I pretty much gave up - sleeplessness is, after all, a comicon
tradition. :)

Dave and Leah took off at 7:30 Friday morning to secure the van from a 
rental place a few miles away, and didn't return for an hour and a half 
due to ill-preparedness on the part of the rental folks.  This would 
actually turn out in our favor, but at the time we were all pretty antsy 
to be on the road already, especially as a few folks wanted to attend the 
party at the Laughing Ogre bookstore Friday afternoon.  Steve and I were 
also concerned with arriving at the hotel in time to set up for the party 
and perhaps catch a few Z's before the festivities started.

We managed to load the van - we're still not sure how, as the trunk space
was near nil - and get on the road between 9:00 and 9:30am.  If anyone had
told me we'd make Newton, NJ to Columbus, OH in NINE HOURS FLAT with Leah
*driving the entire way* I would have thought they were nuts.  But we did,
and she did.  A remarkable feat, made eminently easier by the great
company and Dave's wonderful compilation tape (everything from the Muppets
to Irish folk songs to Warren Zevon to Bette Midler...  eclectic doesn't
*begin* to describe this tape).  Johanna and Ed caught up on some comics 
reading, and J and I got into some, er, spirited discussion about last 
week's FLASH and ASTRO CITY which definitely put us in a convention mood.

We unloaded and checked in around 6:15pm, where we greeted Ruth Morrison
and Joe Edkin, who would be running the Friends of Lulu booth with me, as
well as John Byrne, who agreed to be our first signer on Saturday (since
the information from surveys FoL has been taking all '95 is now in the
process of being compiled into a Retailers Handbook, our main booth
concentration at Mid-Ohio and the next few conventions will be getting the
word out, making a few bucks from selling our minicomics and signing up
more members - and pro signings by FoL members certainly draw the 
crowds!).  I figured to nail down more booth duty and signings at the 
evening's party - heaven forfend I should just relax and enjoy myself 
instead of organizing stuff all the time...

As we'd requested a king-size bed rather than two doubles, and our room
happened to be in the corner, it was a good deal smaller than we'd
anticipated in terms of party-giving (not to mention weirdly angled), but
we made do and set things up.  Naturally, in the crush to Get Everything
Done far from familiar surroundings, some things fell by the wayside. 
Fortunately, the general store in the hotel/convention center first floor
mall provided poster board and Sharpies for the booth, as well as paper
cups and plates for the party.  I think I got to stretch out on the bed 
for all of ten minutes before the first guests arrived.

I'll leave it to others to fill in my blanks about the party - a host
never remembers all the details about these things.  I do recall the
following guests:  Joe Edkin, Ed Douglas, Sean McKeever (so Ed told me,
although I didn't get a chance to chat with Sean until Sunday), Don
Simpson, Sidne Ward, Chris Jackson, Dave Eppley, Johanna Draper, Steve
Lieber, Leah Adezio, Joanna Sandsmark, Paul Storrie, Roger and Carmella
Stern, and Bill Messner-Loebs stopped by briefly but couldn't stay (for a
long while I was convinced that suddenly going into Fangirl Mode when I
learned the last name of the "Bill" with whom I'd been conversing for five
minutes might have changed his mind about staying ;) ).  Leah had also
invited about five local folks from her Titans Talk apa, so as you can
imagine things got pretty crowded.  Steve and I opted not to videotape. 

The highlight of the party for me (besides listening to Paul's and 
Joanna's Dueling Scottish Accents) was the solidification of a bet Sidne
and I had made on this very newsgroup not long ago regarding the Trivia
Challenge at the 1996 San Diego comicon.  Sidne will be betting on the
Black Ink Irregulars (the rac* fan group) to win the Silver Age Challenge;
I'm betting on the Purple Pros (or whatever the rac* pro group decides to
call itself next year) to slaughter them mercilessly... er, so to speak. 
The conditions are that the BII's must consist of at least Tom Galloway
and a "player to be named later" (of Sidne's choosing), and the PP's must
consist of at least Mark Waid and Kurt Busiek.  If any of these parties
opts out of the challenge, the bet's off.  The stakes:  The loser must
refrain from reading specific comics for a month beginning the week after
the convention (pretty much the month of July).  If Sidne loses, no Legion
titles for her; if I lose, no Waid-written work for me (which means, on
the *very* slim off-chance that the BII's win this contest, don't expect
any Pen-Elayne reviews on however many titles he'll be writing at that
point until August; obviously I'm not terribly worried ;) ). We sealed the
bargain with a handshake, captured on film, and a signed chit witnessed by
Dave and Johanna and retained in Dave's possession. 

Alas, it wasn't terribly much of an eating and/or drinking crowd for the
amount of munchies etc. that we'd brought (well, except for the two
bottles of champagne which went rather quickly), so the consensus was to
adjourn for the second floor bar instead at around 10:30.  I'm not much of
a bar person (especially given my reaction to cigarette smoke), but I knew
this would be the one place I'd find Paul Jenkins.  Sure enough I was
right, and Paul and I chatted as he graciously bought me a pint of
Killian's Red (not bad, and this is coming from a non-beer drinker). 
Steve and I learned the current Definitive Pronunciation of John
Constantine's last name ;), as well as a few vague plans that Paul has for
the character.  Berni Wrightson and Joy Mosier were there as well, but
seemed a bit wrapped up in each other for me to be entirely comfortable
introducing myself to them.  Johanna, Steve Lieber, Sidne and Dave took
over the dance floor for awhile, and Steve (Chaput) and I even swayed
briefly during a slow tune.  Bob Ingersoll and Tony Isabella, having
arrived at our hotel room only to find the party adjourned, caught up with
us downstairs as well. 

Steve and I had a quiet breakfast in the hotel's self-serve second floor
cafe the next morning, where we were joined by Paul Storrie (hanging with
Paul was one of the great joys of the convention for me; he's quite witty
and fun to be with, and at least half his jokes sailed right over my
head).  I then met up at 10:00am with Ruth and Joe to set up the Friends
of Lulu booth (including our trademark Hershey's Kisses and Hugs).  Show
head honcho Roger Price had put us in a wonderful location, right opposite
the box office, between Artists Alley and the dealers' room and just
adjacent to the panel room, so we received a lot of traffic - even more so
when Roger was kind enough to announce (he has a dynamite radio-style
voice) our booth signings, which drew the expected crowds. 

Registration was so efficient that by 10:30 we were able to set up the
line for John Byrne's signing so that it didn't block any traffic flow. 
As intimidating as John can be in person (and he does have a Presence
about him, intentional or no, that can't be denied), he's also warm and
funny and very professional (and has a *terrific* singing voice), and it
was a pleasure sitting with him while he signed - even more so when Joanna
Sandsmark arrived and she and John met in person for the first time.  Darn my
missed photo op!  Naturally, I got John and Joanna to both sign my copy 
of the most recent issue of WONDER WOMAN, which introduces Cassie Sandsmark.

After arranging booth duty with some other FoL folks who stopped by,
including Kim Garvin and Peggy Goldwire, I made a quick trip around
Artists Alley to say hi to some other friends, then took in the food court
with Johanna, Paul, Dave, Steve, Sidne, some Titans and Legion fans, where
we were joined by Roger Stern.  I then hiked back upstairs to the booth,
relieved Leah and sat for awhile with Don Simpson before Kim spelled me
and we all went off to Joe Edkin's "Comic Book Squares" panel. 

This was the most fun panel at the con, and I was fortunate enough to 
tape almost all of it.  Johanna had asked Joe if she could assist with 
writing the X's and O's as the contestants played, and was in fine form.  
The Squares consisted of Mary Bierbaum, Beau Smith, George Perez, Mark 
Evanier and Joanna Sandsmark ("sharing" a square, as Mark arrived a 
little late), William Messner-Loebs, Leah Adezio, Tom Bierbaum, Berni 
Wrightson and Joy Mosier (also sharing a square), and "center square" 
Roger Stern.  Joe was a terrific host, and everyone had a fun time.  
Congratulations to Ed Douglas, who won the game, and assurances to all 
the other players, including JB and Mark R, that the fix *wasn't* in just 
because a few of us in the front row and on the panel kept cheering, "Ed, 
Ed, Ed, Ed..."

I went to make sure Paul Jenkins was set up okay for his FoL signing, 
which took a little while to get going whilst he went and had a smoke.  
Meanwhile, Steve taped a lot of the Jack Kirby tribute panel, featuring 
Joe Sinnott, Tony Isabella, Michael Davis, Dennis Cowan, George Perez and 
moderator Mark Evanier.  I joined this panel a little late but got some 
great footage of Mr. Sinnott which I'll treasure.

Mark stopped by the FoL booth afterwards, paid his membership fee and
discussed getting a video from us (since we also taped the CBG panel later
in the day and much of the Groo panel on Sunday, he'll be getting a full
2-hour tape from us).  We wound up talking for about a half hour, probably
the longest I've ever spoken with Mark in one sitting, about everything
from the Groo card set to Jay Leno's ratings to mutual friends in
Hollywood, and it was a real pleasure.

Roger Stern arrived promptly as usual for his 2-hour signing shift, which
provided perhaps the weirdest moment of the con for me.  As anyone who's
ever hung out with Roger for any appreciable amount of time can tell you,
he has a knack for making you feel instantly comfortable with his
graciousness and quick smile.  As I'd recently discovered, Roger is also a
Firesign Theatre fan, and I'd had the presence of mind to bring a few of
my newsletters with me so he'd gotten Four-Alarm FIRESIGNal #27 and I'd
gotten his address for the mailing list, etc. etc.  Well, there happened
to be a bit of a lull in the crowd about an hour into his signing, and I
suddenly looked up at someone who said, "Excuse me, Elayne?" 

Turned out it was Richard Fish, the person who does the news column for
FAlaFal - he'd driven, as he said he might, the three hours from
Bloomington, IN to see me, drop off some stuff, do a little Christmas
shopping in the dealers' room (even though he wasn't that big a comics
fan, he had a lot of friends who were) and have dinner.  It was still a
surprise to see him, as our plans hadn't been definite.  But for him to
arrive at that precise moment, when I happened to be on booth duty,
sitting with Roger, who happened to be a Firesign fan... and *then* it
turns out Roger and Richard had gone to the same college (about a year
apart) and knew the same people, so it became a little like old home week
all of a sudden!  And like I said, Richard didn't really know that much
from comic books; he was there to rendezvous with me.  As Richard later
observed, "This sort of thing seems to happen all the time within the
World of Firesign..."  And within the world of fandom as well...
Concentric circles, growing ever smaller and tighter.  It never fails to
amaze me. 

I caught the tail end of the CBG panel, featuring Bob Ingersoll, Tony
Isabella, Mark Evanier and Michael Davis, finished up booth duty at the
tail end of Roger's shift, and a number of us met to discuss dinner plans
as Joe and Ruth and I dismantled the booth and stowed our gear for the
night at Chris Jackson's Atlas Comics booth in the dealers' room.  
(Thanks Chris!)  We decided, since a number of people wanted to catch the 
charity auction, to meet in the hotel lobby at 6:45 and take off for 
Otani, a relatively nearby sushi place.

As I ironed one of Leah's silk blouses up in our room, the phone rang.  It
was Dave Van Domelen, justifiably upset that I had forgotten to call him
the previous evening to confirm our party.  In the frenzy to get
everything organized, I'd simply screwed up, but my lapse was inexcusable. 
Not being able to meet my favorite rac* reviewer (who had opted not to go
to the convention proper) was the biggest disappointment of the con for
me, and I hope Dave can someday find it in his heart to forgive me. 

A lot of folks had turned up their noses at the thought of Raw Fish and
Stuff Like That There, but we wound up with ten hardy souls for the trek
across I-71 (once we found the entrance) and I-161 to the Otani Japanese
restaurant.  In attendance (in a room all to ourselves!) were Johanna
Draper, Dave Eppley, Richard Fish, Mark Rodgers (the also-ran from the
Comic Book Squares game), Paul Storrie, Ed Douglas, Sidne Ward, Chris
Jackson, me and Steve.  While the food was terrific, the service was...
well, overwhelmingly disappointing.  I don't know about the rest of the
table, but they botched up Steve's and my order at least twice, and little
things like pouring a water pitcher right behind me and then wandering off
forgetting to actually *serve* anyone more water (I finally reached behind
me and poured it myself) made for a much longer dinner than many of us
were hoping for (especially considering some folks wanted to attend the
Motown party back at the hotel). 

While Steve, Richard and I discussed old-time radio and Jean Shepherd, some
lively conversation regarding censorship started up at the other end of
the table.  Still, we were grateful when the check finally arrived a
couple hours later.  As Johanna took our picture, the waitress volunteered
to take a couple more to get her in the shot.  "Oh sure," some of us
thought, "*now* we're suddenly getting attention, when it's time to pay
the check."  (Which I had to hunt them down to get them to give us!)  I 
felt a little skeevy paying only 10% tip, and the waitress gave Steve a 
real icy look when he returned to retrieve something I'd left at the 
table (sorry honey), but the service really was abominable.  And it 
wasn't a language barrier - Steve and I order our sushi in Japanese, and 
everyone else pointed very explicitly to what they wanted while the 
waitress peered over their shoulders.  It was definitely a *service* 
barrier.  When we returned to the hotel, we compared notes with Mark 
Evanier and Joanna Sandsmark, each of whom had dined in other places with 
service at least as disappointing.  Must be something in the water...

While a few folks went off to the Motown party (which got less than rave
reviews from Mark), Steve and I opted for a quiet evening in the hotel
room watching MAD-TV, reading (I'm about halfway through Gregory Maguire's
new book WICKED: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST - a
bit contrived but highly recommended and full of those delicious big words
I so love, like "tessellation" and "amanuensis") and actually catching
some Z's. 

Steve and I caught up with Tony Isabella again on Sunday morning, where 
we actually had a chance to catch up on personal and professional stuff 
for a few minutes.  I didn't want to take up too much of Tony's time, 
seeing how much he and Bob help Roger run the whole shebang, but we did 
manage to squeeze in a hug every time we passed each other throughout the 
weekend.  I mean, hey, as Steve says, "It's THE Tony Isabella!"

We then met Paul Storrie, Dave Eppley, Johanna Draper and Steve Lieber for
breakfast in the food court, after which I had to scurry off to set up the
booth.  As Joe, Ruth and I laid everything out again, some Mid-Ohio
staffers came up to me and asked if it would still be possible to set up a
Wonder Woman panel - an idea that Johanna had broached previously with
Roger Price but had been told there would be no time to put on the
schedule - since the Broadway Comics presentation had been cancelled at
the last minute.  It was a little late to get things moving for 10:30am,
but I sent them in search of Johanna, still at the food court, to arrange
things with Bill Loebs, John Byrne and George Perez for 3:30 that
afternoon (unfortunately, I believe Jill Thompson was doing portfolio
reviews at that time). 

After Johanna returned to sit with Steve Lieber for his FoL booth signing,
(my) Steve and I went back to Artists Alley.  I got to meet Scott Roberts,
creator of PATTY CAKE, and joined the Patty Cake fan club.  I also spoke
at length with Mark Crilley, creator of AKIKO ON THE PLANET SMOO, a comic
I guarantee you'll be hearing about in a major way next year.  After
glancing through Crilley's portfolio, I'm all but convinced he's that
much-overused phrase, "the next Jeff Smith."  And speaking of Jeff Smith,
Steve was gracious enough to stand on line to get my official Mid-Ohio Con
BONE t-shirt autographed while I went off to the Groo panel. 

I didn't get to tape the whole panel, having discovered that Steve had 
mistakenly brought our 60-minute 8mm tapes instead of the 120-minute 
ones, and I had to scramble to change both tape and battery during the 
festivitites.  But it's always cool to see Mark, Sergio Aragones and Stan 
Sakai chat about whatever it is they do (we were all sorry Tom Luth, 
GROO's colorist, couldn't be there as well).  And of course, no Groo 
panel would be a complete without the 5-minute page (Sergio drawing the 
panels in under 2 minutes and Mark completing off-the-cuff balloons in 
under 3).  I'm going to miss this book.

I said a brief hello to Billy Tucci, signing for a hell of a large line 
at the booth (turns out he'd told people who'd approached his booth 
earlier to come by the FoL booth if they wanted anything signed - what a 
sweetheart), and then took off with Johanna Draper, Joanna Sandsmark and 
Sidne Ward for a Gals' Lunch Out.  Johanna had the tuna.  You'd think 
that four relatively intelligent, professional women interested in the 
comics industry would wind up discussing something other than Getting 
Married and Having Babies.  Yep, definitely something in the water...

I returned to relieve Leah at the booth, where Bill Loebs had been signing
and popping peeled Hershey's Hugs for about half an hour.  I continued to
keep him stocked in candy as I once more lapsed into a bit of Fangirl
Mode.  Bill Loebs is probably one of the first writers whose work I
remember reading and seeking out just because it was *him*.  He has a
wonderful ear for dialogue, has written very strong female characters, and
I still adore his runs on FLASH and especially DR. FATE.  This con was the
first opportunity I'd ever had to meet him.  Of course, he's so down to
earth that I couldn't keep up the Fangirl schtick for very long, and found
myself shamelessly flirting with him instead.  Things got even sillier
when the flirting became two-way.  Hey, it was that kind of afternoon.  I
shall spare you all the details.  Do be grateful. :)

At 3:30, as Joe and some guys from Central City relieved me, I went into
the panel room for the impromptu Wonder Woman panel.  As he had with all
the FoL booth signings, Roger Price gave this panel lots of nice P.A.
system publicity, and the room was pretty full.  Johanna moderated the
panel consisting of Loebs, Perez and Byrne.  Alas, I was only able to 
tape the first half of it before I ran out of room on my cassettes, but J 
did a wonderful job, asked some terrific, cogent questions, and everyone 
seemed to have a fine time at a very informative chat.  Congrats, J!

I went back with Bill Loebs to his booth, having forgotten to ask him for
his autograph during the time he was signing at the FoL table.  Bill did
me a lovely Batman caricature, we kissed goodbye and I went off to wipe 
the steam from my glasses. :)

The FoL staff wrapped things up for the day at 5:00pm as Ruth and I
counted the weekend take - about six new Friends of Lulu members,
including Mark Evanier and Roger Stern (Bill Loebs and John Byrne will be
sending their membership money later), and almost $70 in donations raised
from the sale of the minicomics!  A very successful weekend, and I'm sure
Joe and Ruth would also want to thank Peggy, Kim, Joanna, Johanna, Leah
and the Central City guys for staffing the booth, as well as all the pros
who did signings there.  We'll definitely do it all again in Philadelphia
next January! 

A bunch of us were helping Chris Jackson and Sidne Ward dismantle the 
Atlas Comics booth (okay, some people were standing around just watching 
the stuff - okay, that was *me*) when it suddenly occurred to me that not 
*once* during the con had I had the chance to actually go through the 
dealers' room!  I'm not that big a shopper, and goodness knows we'd 
packed heavy enough that I couldn't have fit a lot of comics in our 
suitcase, but I hadn't even *been* in the room until they were taking 
everything apart!  My other big regret - I do love to comics shop, and 
was hoping to be able to go around with Johanna and Joanna (both of whom 
got Lots of Cool Stuff).  Oh well, guess this means I have to keep going 
to more comic conventions. :)

The booth was dismantled in record time, and while Chris took Sidne to 
the airport those of us who were left hung out in the lobby and made 
dinner plans.  Steve Lieber called Damon's, across the street, to reserve 
for about ten people... which suddenly became 12, then 14, then 15... 
well, I can't even remember who was there when all was said and done, but 
the food was great and the company wonderful and the service, for once, 
was top-notch.  A nice way to end the con.

We went back up to Paul Storrie's room, where we'd stowed our luggage 
after checking out that morning (Paul was staying another night), and 
gathered things for the trip back.  We had to leave at night in order for 
Leah to make it home in time for her husband to leave for work (and for 
Ed, Steve and I to catch the bus back to NYC).  Lordy, this was not a 
Good Idea for me.  I don't Do Night.  My night vision's bad enough, 
and my glasses need a new prescription.  Foolishly, I didn't speak up to 
do the first shift, when I was still pretty awake, and wound up pushing 
myself for a half hour at around 3:00am, letting the van occupants down 
with how little I contributed to the drive back.  Sorry guys.

We arrived, bleary-eyed, back in Newton at about 7:30 this morning,
whereupon Leah and Dave went to return the van.  They hadn't checked off
the beginning mileage, so we wound up paying a *lot* less than we'd all
thought - sometimes there *is* something to be said for sloppy rental 
procedures!  As Dave and Johanna took off in his car for points south, 
the rest of us watched our videotape of Comic Book Squares before heading 
out to catch the NYC-bound bus.  I think I finally got a bit of sleep on 
the ride back into Port Authority (whereupon my suitcase strap promptly 
broke, as if on cue), and we bade goodbye to Ed and trudged off to the 
subway for the 45-minute ride home.  Got here at 2, caught up on E-mail, 
slept a little more, finally finished this report.  I'm going to sleep 
now, and will tackle the newsgroups and do some belated Pen-Elaynes in 
the morning (as I'm on vacation this week, thank the gods).

Thanks again to everyone who made the weekend such a wonderful experience,
and thanks especially to Roger Price and the Mid-Ohio Con staff for their
graciousness and professionalism!  If all goes well, we hope to do it again 
next year (November 30 and December 1, so I can celebrate my pending 39th 
birthday in style then)!

- Elayne

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