From: [d--nc--r] at [aurora.cis.upenn.edu] (Johanna Draper)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Draper's Capers: NY Con Report
Date: 18 Sep 1995 12:44:53 GMT

Ok, it's late, and everyone's told the good stories already, so here's
the rest of my impressions. (Don't worry, you're not missing a heck of
a lot -- all the good stuff happened around the con, not because of it.
If I'd just happened to be in New York for some other reason, I would
have had just as much fun.)

First, New York makes me crazy. I'm not a natural-born city girl, so as
soon as I get to the Big Apple, I start worrying about the crime and
the dirt and the noise and the confusion and the pace. Bearing all
that in mind, I have to admit it was *way* *cool* to be walking around
the city Thursday night and suddenly run into the MTV Video Awards
broadcast from Times Square. Yes, I saw Dennis Miller and Bon Jovi
live. Well, actually, I saw the crowds who saw them, but it was still
nifty.

The high point of my trip (well, actually, the 2nd high point, but
you're not going to hear about the first :) ) was Martha Thomases
showing Elayne and I the new DC offices. Thank you again, Martha, for
taking the time to introduce us around.  We saw the DC library, and the
archivist in me died and stayed in that heaven. As previously
mentioned, Michael Leib previewed the AOL Who's Who setup for us as
well as showing us Jeff Moy's "super-deformed" LSH characters. I can't
attempt to list everyone who let us interrupt their work to talk to
them, but thank you to all of them and my apologies to Bob Greenberger
for never making it back to his office to meet Liz. Elayne has already
mentioned the Byrne/Kupperberg performance and the Kingdom Come
preview, but I don't think she mentioned the chats we had with Dan
Thorsland about female comic readers or KC Carlson about ... well, all
I remember was the Xerox machine, actually, but I was experiencing low
blood sugar about then. :) Overall, the people at DC are incredibly
friendly and considerate, and it makes me feel even better about liking
their comics. And the lobbies are incredibly film-worthy!

Back at the show, I had a sketchbook with me for the first time (thanks
to Steve Lieber for the idea and the incredible first sketch!). Marc
Hempel did one for me of his new character, Tug of Tug & Buster, which
he was previewing at the show, and Sarah Dyer was kind enough to sketch
an Action Girl for me. Rick Buckler was somewhat confused by my telling
him that he *couldn't* do an overendowed female, and Mike Harris gave
me a Punisher with a rose (trust me, it works). While working the
Friends of Lulu booth (where I spent most of my time), Elim Mak
sketched a lovely Rocket, and Marie Severin drew a great baby
Wolverine. Oh, and I almost forgot Eric Shanower's Oz characters,
gorgeously done. My favorite, though, has to be a Jose Luis
Garcia-Lopez Dart, since she's my favorite character and he's one of my
absolute favorite artists. I later found out that my getting the
drawing was something of a fluke, since he was turning down a number
of requests that day.

Saturday I mostly remember meals. The CompuServe crowd (Allan & Jacob
Lappin, Milton Teruel, Ed Douglas, Darren Hudak, Elayne & Steve Chaput,
Leah Adezio, and John Sardegna -- and it was great meeting all of y'all
I didn't previously know) did lunch, followed by the LSH-L group
(Yeechang Lee, Mike Morris, Andrew Woodard, and John Serota -- and
ditto to you guys) in a fruitless search for Tom McCraw. I finally
hooked up with Dave Eppley (and I apologize, Dave, for telling you you
should come to this con :) ) and we shopped for a while before heading
off to dinner with Jack (C., not F.) Harris and Steve.

By Sunday, I wasn't feeling so hot -- trying to do much in one weekend
-- so the rest is a blur. I know I remember train trips, and lots of
cool Silver Age Lois Lanes, and Jack's kisses (both kinds!), and art
lessons at midnight in an all-night deli, and autographing a Lynda
Carter Wonder Woman picture and a Lulu minicomic, and meeting Will
Chong, and a pet snake named Eek, and breaking the news to a fan that
Krypto never existed, and roses, and watching Jim Balent and Fauve
dressed as Catwoman look through back issues (the only time I wished I
had my camera), and discovering that Elayne and I are fraternity
brothers, and great conversations with Heidi MacDonald and Cheryl
Harris, and watching the staff say to Scott Lobdell "who?", and way
too much sushi. Consider this the fadeout montage.

Johanna