Since Wednesdays are Comic Book Related I thought a Con Report would fit in here:
TERRIFICON is a Comic Book Convention held annually at Mohegan Sun Casino in CT at the end of July. I decided to check it out and see if I couldn’t find some old comic books I was looking for and help out at SUPERWORLD COMICS run by my friend Ted, managed by my son Joe and son Adam handles all of their 21st Century Marketing and design work as well as being a full timer. Ted also had some other guys who were either helping out or hanging around (hard to tell sometimes). This was my first time at this particular convention.
A quick note to anyone coming to the show with a wife, girlfriend or a SO who isn't into comics-- there is a TON to do here. There is a connected Mall and a boat load of restaurants with bars and TVs, so even if they don't have any interest in gambling you can find ways to entertain yourself for several hours without much effort. I'd been here 2-3 times before since it opened, it's about an hour from home for us, and I've done some blackjack and poker in the past but it's not something I really enjoy all that much even though I usually do pretty well.
The Hall itself is very large and the thing that really struck me was the counter balance this show had to SDCC-- there you'd find the Hollywood section absolutely jammed and the comics section relatively quiet, here it was the other way around. Artists Alley and the Celebrity section were fairly quiet. There were lines for a few people but overall you had a lot of space to wander around in that area.
Some of the books I picked up at the show.
Comics-wise there were many dealers there; my favorites and the ones I bought something from were SUPERWORLD (of course), MOVING PICTURES, HIGH GRADE COMICS (Bob!), and 3 KEYS along with couple of dealers whose names I didn't catch. Primarily a Golden Age collector I managed to find some gems including BLACK CAT WESTERN and AMERICA'S GREATEST HEROES as well as WHIZ COMICS. There was a small amount of pre-code horror kicking around but nothing I either didn't already have or it was not quite in the condition or price range I wanted to play in.
I went back and forth on a BATMAN #7 from 1941 (it’s 82 years old!) which had minor restoration. Restoration is when someone tries to fix the flaws that the book picks up over the years. The worst of restoration is color touch— and collectors hate it. If you were to send it in to a grading company where they encase it in plastic you would end up with a purple label, which is affectionately referred to as “The Purple Label of Death” by said collectors. It was a nice copy but purple label of death thing and all. I didn't want to pay market non-resto value for it because let's be honest you have to downgrade it at least a full number grade. Still....
It’s a BATMAN #7— a very early issue— way back when I first collected pre-Robin Detective Comics (Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 and Robin was introduced a year later in Detective Comics #38) and set a goal to collect BATMAN COMICS #2-20 (skipping #13 and #17 because I didn’t like the covers— I had some strange quirks) #7 was one of the few issues I couldn’t find, or I couldn’t find it in good enough shape at a price I wanted to pay. The cover has a lot of white to it, and after 40-50 years of kids handling it the comic can get dirty— white also invites kids to write their name on it, or doodle, or some such thing.
Thanks to #2 son Joe and Superworld’s Ted Van Liew they were able to negotiate a good deal on it for me so a nice win.
The great WWII era cover of AMERICA’S GREATEST COMICS #6
I didn't notice a large amount of nonsense crafty type sellers so common to Comic book conventions today but there were some sculptors selling work, and a woman selling stick on masks one of which looked like it'd work if you wanted to do your Denny Colt SPIRIT costume next year.
I only saw a few tables of original art, Spencer Beck's THE ARTIST CHOICE was setup and it's been a number of years since I've seen him. I managed to find a John Romita Jr page which I really liked-- I've got a history with JJ going back to the 90s when I was working as Paul Ryan's assistant-- and I'd hoped to reconnect with him at the show but every time I swung by he was off doing something. Not only is he my favorite modern comics artist-- his work channels Kirby to me-- plus he (and his Dad) is/are one of the nicest guys on the planet.
JRJR’s bold blocky style looks a lot like Jack Kirby’s later work to me— it has power and energy and his storytelling is excellent. This is the page I bought now framed over my drawing table.
I chatted with writer Paul Kupperberg, current DICK TRACY artist Joe Staton and former SPIDER-MAN artist Alex Savuik who contininued our conversation from the green room at CHICAGO COMIC CON at the beginning of this month. I had a quick meet with CB Celuski who currently edits Marvel Comics and said hello to Dan Didio whose tenure as DC Editor wasn't my favorite but you can't argue he wasn't enthusiastic in his role and didn't deserved the exit he got when he got fired.
Everyone was asking me why I wasn't setup at the show and I told them we don't get invited to local shows for some reason and that it was nice to just be there as a fan for a change with no commissions or panels to contend with.
As I noted, the celebrity area was pretty quiet. Unlike most celeb heavy shows this one had actors I've actually heard of, although that's not normally a great thing as I just don't watch modern superhero movies or sci fi. No wrestlers either which I know even less of. They had Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy-- Superman and Batman from the respective Animated Series. Dave Foley from NEWSRADIO and KIDS IN THE HALL, Kirsty Swanson who was the original BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and a bunch more who certainly had their fans.
It was interesting to see Michael Gray and John Davey-- Billy Batson and Captain Marvel from that absolutely terrible 70s SHAZAM! show where Billy drove around in a Winnebago with Mentor saving the day and giving us a morality lesson. I always wondered why nobody asked Billy why he was driving around in such a thing with an old man or why they have a Captain Marvel decal on the front of the van but that’s superhero shows of the 70s for ya. The show was bad but I tuned in faithfully with my bowl of Cocoa Puffs every Saturday morning because back then we were desperate for anything comic related. Both of them look good for guys in their 70s and 80s but I have to admit to laughing that Michael Gray’s banner said “former teen idol”. I think I’m going to put that on my own banner.
EDIT: The show is currently airing on TUBI, a free streaming service- and while its bad it actually has some really good writing and hilarious special effects, well worth tuning in for.
Veronica arrived at 5pm - she wanted to say hello to Dave Foley and Kristy Swanson. She also really enjoyed talking to Alex Savuik in Chicago and wanted to catch up with him. I’d seen pretty much everything I’d wanted to see and I was done shopping the show so we decided to kill some time before dinner by finding a nice bar to have a drink in. We walked pretty deep into the Casino and found one— one thing I’d say about a Casino based convention vs a standard convention center hotel bar is the drinks are much cheaper. After having two drinks in Chicago and facing a $60 tab it was nice to have the bill handed over and it was only $15!
Indian Casino’s are interesting things to me— when Foxwoods first opened up I went expecting a Monte Carlo type of place with everyone in tuxes and dinner jackets— instead it was mostly grandmother’s on scooters chain smoking and people in gym shorts and sneakers playing blackjack.
Mohegan Sun appears to be smoke free— so that’s a big plus, but it’s still sad to see how trashy many people are and how many clearly have a problem. But the venue itself is beautiful.
We didn’t do any gambling but we enjoyed our drink and then headed over to the restaurant area to see if we could get a table for 10 (!?!?) on a Saturday night at 8pm— after the first four restaurants laughed at me I was able to arrange it at Landsdowne, an Irish Pub.
That look on my face is because Veronica almost dropped my phone while taking this pic and I had visions of having to buy a new one after spending so much on comics. John Romita Jr is a legend.
Veronica had never met John Romita Jr before but she had heard my ridiculous stories of one of our adventures together and as we walked back from finding our dinner options we ran into him and he CONFIRMED the event to her-- she'll never doubt me again. I asked him how his dad was doing (more on John in one of the GREAT COMIC ARTISTS Posts running on Friday) because he’s ALSO a legendary comic book creator and caught up with him before exchanging our info and saying goodbye.
also not my photo, but the shopping area at Mohegan Sun is impressive.
We still had about a half hour to kill before everyone would be meeting us for dinner so we walked won to the shopping area and Veronica found some bargains while I wandered for a minute through TOMMY BAHAMA. I then occupied myself helping take photos of people who were trying to get good angles in front of the many attractions and I was happy to see so many dogs around. It’s hard for me to pass by a dog without saying hello but I always check with the owner first. There was a great mini Irish Setter who was so excited to say hello he tried to sit on my lap while I was standing up.
After a short while the group got together and the restaurant brought us inside— we weren’t able to get two tables together but we made do with a split of 6 and 4.
We had a nice conversation and the food was really good. Veronica and I said our goodbye’s and walked back towards the parking area but not before stopping for some amazing Fudge at a place called CHOCO something.
The ride home was great— very easy ride— we’ll be back for Terrificon ‘24!