One of my favorite shows…
CONTINUING OUR TACOMA ADVENTURE…
After dinner we took a short walk around town, Tacoma is very much like Worcester only bigger with larger buildings and a lot more hills. The Crime used to be out of hand, and we were warned not to go near the overpasses which were very dark but the view of Mt Rainier was breathtaking from all of downtown so we did what we could to get some good photos.
Back at the hotel we worked a bit more on pages and then turned in for the final day of the show. Sunday’s breakfast was just as good as the day before— and I ran into former Batman artist Rick Hoberg in the hotel elevator on my way to Starbucks. The convention was held on the fifth floor of the convention center and Veronica opted for the stairs again— no thanks. I took the elevator and like an episode of Twilight Zone once again Buck Rogers himself, Gil Gerard, rode with me. Mr. Gerard is easily one of the nicest celebrities I’ve ever met.
The show itself was pretty busy for a Sunday but like most shows commission sketches were minimum on the final day. I spent a few minutes talking to Rick Hoberg, Batman’s last artist in my mind, and he was extremely nice. We talked about careers and watching out for yourself since publishers don’t. He signed his first Batman comic book for me and told me some great stories about working with some really difficult editors and writers.
The promoter swung by and gave us Uber Fare for the airport the following day and thanked us for coming out. We returned the well wishes and headed out. Originally we were going to dine with Jay and the crew again, but since they had a whole booth to break down and would be about two hours we decided to go our separate ways.
Veronica and I walked downtown and checked out a few of the really cool stores. One was a reclaim store that took old stuff and reused it. I picked up a pile of John Buscema Tarzan comic books.
Mt Rainier over Tacoma
We decided to check out Happy Hour at Pacific Grill which was a beautiful restaurant where we sat at the huge oak bar and talked a bit with our bartender Helen and the busboy Jon. We ordered a gin and tonic (her) and a vodka tonic (me) as well as a flat bread and some street tacos with Osso Buco. Really stunning. We followed this up with some Impossible Meatballs which were also very good and contained no meat whatsoever (impossible!). For dessert we had another Gin and Tonic and another Vodka Tonic.
After dinner we took another walk and ended up back at the room at 8pm although it felt like it was 11— and it was with the time difference. Jay texted us to see if we’d eaten yet- and they were going to Pacific Grill too! We gave them food recommendations and turned in early.
Continued next week