ACE COMIC CON REPORT - Chicago Part 3

Revisiting some previous con reports…

Saturday is always the biggest day of a comic book convention and this one certainly was busy. We got back into the hall about 1015am after breakfast and it was in full swing. It should be noted that this wasn’t a typical comic book convention, the amount of comic book creators was small— and most of us D-listers were connected to the A List Celebrity guest list. Featured guests for the show were Brie Larson (who is an academy award winning actress who also plays Captain Marvel) Tom Holland who plays Spider-Man, Jake Gyllenhaal who was also in Spider-Man (I haven’t seen any of the Spider-Man movies so I don’t know who he was), Chris Hemsworth who is Thor and a bunch more actors all who are major players not to mention Kiernan Shipka who plays Sabrina Spellman on CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA and the primary reason we were invited.

All right so the show would attract a lot of folks who like celebrities, now I’m not trying to sound like an elitist but I probably will anyway— I don’t know any of these people— I’ve only seen one half an episode of the Sabrina show, but I’ve not seen any of the Marvel Movies in full other than Civil War which I thought was fun and Guardians of the Galaxy— but I’m also terrible with names and connecting people to things so we were not the audience for a show like this— the question would be were there any comic fans attending?
Well, as I mentioned last time the show did a special edition Sabrina Comic Book so that made our table especially popular.

Saturday night we had reservations at Gibsons again but Veronica had a headache and Gibsons can be loud (especially on a Saturday) so I cancelled them and we ended up at the Embassy Suites bar where they have complimentary cocktails for guests. An advil and a Gin and Tonic later and she was feeling better. I had a Vodka Tonic and a Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken for dinner— she had vegetables and the last 1/4 of my salad. With all this travel I’ve been eating at the hotel bar at least one night and I have to say each of these hotels has really upped their game— the salad was exceptional, and I really enjoyed. it.

Sunday was our biggest “commitment” day of the weekend, we were doing a panel on the main stage, which looks like this;

Basically its a stage with stools and then two massive TVs which project your image as you talk— no pressure or anything there— the 1000+ attendees are just another element to it.

We did the panel with two other artists, who are both amazing, Erin Lefler and Brianna Garcia— Erin works for LucasArts doing Star Wars art and Brianna works for Nikelodeon — the panel was fun and the moderator was on her game so she kept things light and moving along.

The interview production team setting up for our 15 minutes of fame at our table.

At 1:30 we did an interview with the ACE Camera and Video Team— I have to say all of the Ace folks were really exceptional, from Stephen Shamus who came over to welcome us and bring us a pile of the Sabrina comic they had printed up just for the event to Alex the guest co ordinator, Frank, Jeff and Phil from the Media branch right down to the handlers everyone did a great job. The interview was fun and light weight and it was shortly after that we had our last “commitment” which was a meet and greet and photo shoot with Kiernan Shipka who plays Sabrina on the Netflix Show.

Now people pay big bucks and wait in a ridiculous line— I’m talking 4-500 people in line— but they raced us around back and to the front of the line inside the curtained area (sorry to everyone we cut but PR is a priority) where we waited for a few minutes before Kiernan came in— she seemed genuinely excited that we draw the comic book version of her character and she was super nice to us.

By the time we were done with that it was nearly the end of the show— we went back to our table, signed a few more books and started to say our goodbyes, I snuck over to get a picture with the Batmobile and the owner was kind enough to take a bunch of pictures— I looked up and was happy to see Veronica decided to come along (she told me to go alone at first) so we got some pictures together with it.

With the show over we broke down our table and brought our stuff back to the hotel. Our flight home wasn’t until Monday so we had Sunday night to celebrate a successful show. We started the night at the hotel bar where we each had two cocktails, then back over to Gibsons for a nice meal where we also had cocktails and the manager floated our bar tab. Jared Brown is the Manager of Gibsons and he’s a helluva guy. He told me I was a class act, but man it’s not hard to be one when you’re with a guy like him.

From Gibsons we decided to do a bit of Rosemont so we went over to King’s Entertainment and shot some pool, then we wandered around a bit and decided to bar hop a few of the better hotels (actually all of the hotels in Rosemont are top notch). We started at ALOFT which is a modern European style hotel— then the Hyatt which is probably the five star hotel with a really nice bar— from there we went over to the Hilton— the night was getting chilly and they had a huge fireplace so it was nice to warm up and have a few more cocktails, our bartender Ricardo was excellent. From there we headed back to the Embassy Suites where we ended our night. Yes it was a lot of cocktails but we can both hold our liquor pretty well, you’d never know we were a bit tipsy.

Monday morning we had breakfast then jumped on the hotel shuttle to the airport where we had a short wait for our plane to board and we arrived back in Boston a few minutes early. Landing in Boston at 4pm we walked outside and virtually stepped onto the Logan Express back to Framingham. We went over to Zaftigs for dinner but it was closed because it was Columbus Day— Minado next door wouldn’t open for another hour so we decided to get a walk in, check out World Market and then hit Harry’s on our way back where I had an amazing Corned Beef on Rye.

A great convention, great company and a great trip!

ACE COMIC CON REPORT - Chicago Part 2

We’ll be revisiting some of these con reports over the next few weeks.

After checking in and getting ourselves situated after the short but still tough flight from Boston to Chicago we took a walk around the Convention area. The show is actually in Rosemont, which is a couple of miles outside the city and right next to the airport. I’m familiar with the town because I come here every year for Wizard World— but this was the first time with Veronica.

Now if you’re a regular reader here you’ve heard me go on about GIBSONS Steakhouse. It’s easily my favorite restaurant in the world. The Spaghetti Place in Nagoya Japan is a close second, but there’s just something about GIBSONS. It feels solid. It’s wood and leather and heavy on the guy-ness and they make the best steaks anywhere. The secret is an 1800 degree oven that gives the Medium Rare steak (please don’t ever order a steak any other way) a nice warm center and a crisp outside. You can cut their filet with a fork— it’s that tender.

All right so I go on about Gibsons here on the blog, imagine how I go on about it at home. It’s gotten to the point that Veronica rolls her eyes when I start talking about it— so planning our Anniversary dinner there added a great deal of pressure, it had to live up to my buildup— so I did the only thing any sensible husband could do— I reached out to the manager of the place and told him the stakes.

He did not let us down.

Our dinner was five star and he comped us dessert which was so huge we shared it with the front desk at our hotel. Veronica really liked the place and she could understand why I speak so highly of it.

After dinner we walked over to the King’s Entertainment Complex— it’s a sort of grown up Chuckee Cheese area situated behind the main street— I think you have to know its there to find it and it’s a lot of fun. There is a mexican restaurant, a german restaurant, an Irish Pub and KIng’s which which has a full restaurant with pretty good food. Nearby is Murray Bros— Bill Murray’s restaurant which is equally good (and surprising because it certainly could just get by on the gimmick of being owned by Bill Murray).

We got in a good walk before heading back to the hotel to prep for day one of the show. Here’s the thing about traveling with Veronica. Yes, she’s my wife and she’s gorgeous. She’s also a very sweet person and one of the most genuinely fun and funny people I’ve ever met. I could have fun sitting with her in a car stuck in a garage during a snowstorm (and I have). So traveling with her is always perfect.

The next day the show didn’t start until 4pm so we had some time to kill. The hotel has a full breakfast— and I don’t mean a chintzy pile of cheese danish and stale coffee- it’s a full on breakfast complete with an Omelet bar— always go with the hotel Omelet bar if they have one. We ate breakfast and then got all of our things situated for the show before heading over a couple of hours early for setup.

Our table was right in front— virtually the first artists you see after you’ve come through the experience area. You could get your picture taken with the Batmobile, or with Star Wars props, or as a life size Pop Figure— etc, and then there was us. We were set up next to Dexter Soy who is one of the finest artists working in comics today— I’m a big fan of his work and he’s a wonderful guy— so is his little brother who helps him out.

Dexter Soy

That’s one of the things I like best about doing these shows, meeting people. Not just amazing artists like Dexter, or spending time with equally amazing artists like Art Baltazar, or even the people who are our fans (although they are really cool) but I like meeting the people at the front desk, the people who clean up the convention center, the waiters and the waitresses or even people like Dean who I got to know in the elevator of our hotel and roughly a ¼ mile walk together to a nearby restaurant to pick up dinner for his family.

Dean is from Chicago’s suburbs but he and his wife came into Rosemont to take their two year old daughter to SESAME STREET LIVE— where she was mesmerized by the $20 bubble wand he bought her. We laughed at how kids are. I told him two was a great age for kids but it’s even better when they’re 22.

Anyway, back to Friday— this show promoter is the former head of Wizard Con, so I’ve known him for many years. He was particularly gracious, the show had produced a special SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH Comic with Kiernan Shipka on the cover and our art on the insides, he asked how many Archie had given us and when I told him zero he had someone swing by with BOXES of them and told us to feel free to sell them for the same price the show was ($15/ea). That might seem high for a comic book but since Kiernan was a guest at the show it was a sort of quasi program/memento too. We ended up blowing through ALL of them pretty quickly. Usually Friday’s are dead at conventions—people have to work right? Well this one was straight outl the moment it opened to the moment it closed at 9pm. We walked back to our hotel and I can’t for the life of me remember what we had for dinner. Breakfast couldn’t have possibly held us over. That might have been the day I got a pretty great (and huge) Turkey sandwich from the convention center restaurant.

We got in a good walk and had some fun and then turned in by midnight with the following day’s show starting at 10am.

Continued Next Week.

ACE COMIC CON REPORT- Chicago 2019 PART 1

I’ll be running some updated and revised convention reports— I find them fun to revisit and I’m told some of you do too.

Unlike our trip two weeks earlier to Portland Oregon which left Boston at 7am—meaning we had to be up and out of the house at 5am— our flight to Chicago was at 1pm so we thought this would be an easy trip out— never assume my friends.

We’d planned on leaving the house at 10am sharp— and we did, only thing was as we were racing along I-290 heading towards Framingham and the Logan Express I realized I’d left my wallet at home. Now you need all kinds of ID at airports nowadays but I had my passport with me (I find it easier to keep that in my breast pocket than to dig my license out of my wallet) but that would mean I’d be in Chicago with no money and no credit cards— for about three seconds I weighed the option of just going ahead but I jumped off the next exit and headed back. Yes, Veronica had money, she had credit cards, but I like being able to pay for things and this was not only a business trip to Chicago but we’d also be celebrating our Wedding Anniversary while we were there and I had plans for a nice dinner.

After recovering my wallet and being back on the road WAZE had us arriving at Logan Express at 11:04am— that meant we’d be on the 11:30am bus to Logan Airport which meant we’d be pulling up to the United Terminal at 12:15pm at the latest, still 45 minutes before our flight, no need to worry right?

Wrong. We got to Logan Express and there were big red signs up saying “Lot full— come inside for details about parking at the overflow lot”.

Ugh.

As it turned out it was pretty easy to do, you prepay your parking and you park at a lot across the street from the AMC theater and then you wait for the bus to come. It was actually easier to park there than the garage since the garage is always full and you have to park on the roof and then get back down to the lobby, but the overflow lot has no signage at all so you have little idea where to wait for your bus.

It was cold and rainy so we huddled together in the zombie apocalypse like shelter in the middle of the parking lot. A pilot got off a “Dropoff only” bus and was saying goodbye to some of his companions so I decided to ask him if I was waiting in the right place. He was great, he assured me I’d see the bus and it should be only another 10 minutes or so. He even drove over as he was leaving and offered to drive us back to the main station but we opted to just stay and wait out of fear of missing the bus to Logan if he drove us over.

“What time is your flight?” He asked.

“One pm.”

He made that face like- yikes — as he looked at his watch.

“We’re TSA Pre Checked.” I added.

“Oh,” he smiled, “then you should be fine.”

TSA Precheck was our secret weapon. Different line. You don’t have to take off your shoes, you don’t have to take off your belt, no laptops out of your bag, etc— you speed through security. Secret weapon.

The bus arrived and we got on and were soon on our way. We should be fine, TSA Precheck right?

Only looking at our boarding passes I noticed that it didn’t say TSA Precheck on it. You see when you order your tickets you have to put in your TT info number which then creates a little Check Mark Logo on the top of your boarding pass. In this case, the show booked our tickets and we couldn’t remember if they’ asked for the number.

No worries, we opened our smart phones and were able to add our TT Pre Check numbers into our flight info— now all we’d need to do is print out a new boarding pass at the airport— we’d need to stop anyway because we’d have to check our luggage.

We got through TSA and to our gate and the flight was boarding early— the flight left early and we arrived early— all was good in the world. We set down in Chicago O’Hare and then headed to one of four thousand baggage kiosks to find our luggage. Chicago’s airport is massive, much bigger than Boston’s Logan. From there we walked a good mile to the hotel shuttle area and pretty soon we were dropped at the Embassy Suites directly across the street from the Donald Stephens Convention Center and next door to Gibson’s Steakhouse— my hands down favorite restaurant in the world where we’d be having our anniversary dinner that evening. We checked in and cleaned up before heading out to explore the area.

More next week.

Comic Cons Behind the Scenes

With the popularity of TV Shows like THE BIG BANG THEORY and the Blockbuster hits of Marvel Studios comic con fandom has grown by leaps and bounds and more and more people attend these shows, even though a good chunk of them don’t actually read comics, there are still many die hard fans of the medium or of collecting comics in general and they can be fun.

I’ve written many Convention Reports over the years and have some folks asking for more details of what it’s like to be a guest at one of these shows. So here is an attempt to open the curtain a bit more;

Everyone attends a comic con for their own reasons, but it’s not a fair and even playing field by any means. Fans buy tickets to attend the show, some opt to pay more for VIP passes which allow them to get into the show earlier than other fans (usually a half hour to an hour before the show opens) but the uber serious comic collectors manage to get exhibitor badges which allow them to get into the show SEVERAL hours before it opens and even the day before when everyone is just setting up. Exhibitors are, for the most part, vendors selling wares be they old comic books, collectibles, etc. When they buy a space at a show they are given X number of badges for their helpers and often times one of those super collectors will help the exhibitor set up in exchange for one of these highly valued badges.

Artists have it slightly different; you are either setting up in Artists Alley where you’ve likely paid a small amount for your table OR you’re an invited guest of the convention and you don’t pay for your table and in most cases you are also comped hotel and travel to and from the show, many cons offer a meal stipend during the event and some even pay the artist to attend the event. The show we did in Minneapolis at the end of August flew us out, put us up in the convention hotel, covered all our meal and bar tabs and then paid us a fee as well as provided our travel to and from the airport. That particular show was an Anime Show, which is trying to incorporate more comic guests, and that was quite an experience which I will eventually write about here, stay tuned.

Rose City treats us very well, they fly us out, they provide us a hotel room, they provide us meals all weekend and they set up a very nice “green room” off the show floor which is constantly stocked with healthy snacks, coffee, tea and other beverages. They bring us in the day before the show starts and they fly us out the day after so we aren’t rushing to or from the convention center at all.

When you arrive at the convention on the first day to get your badges it can be difficult to figure out your classification, a Guest Badge is the highest rank at the show— you get treated like royalty and as soon as the volunteers realize you are getting a Guest Badge rather than a Pro Badge (given out for free to industry professionals) or an Artists Alley Badge they make sure you’re well taken care of. You’re assigned a handler who will help you to get to and from your various signings and panel appearances and they will even run out and get something for you if you need it.

All right, back to some behind the scenes intel; You’ll need to set up your table before the show opens, although I know many artists who just show up midway through a con to setup— I think this is rude, especially if the con has paid to bring you out. I like to arrive about 90 mins before the show opens, it doesn’t take that long to get your table arranged.

During the show you’ll be looking for things to do, one option is to offer hand drawn original art commissions. At the Portland Show I was thrilled that each and every commission I took was something I was happy to draw. A lot of Batmen, almost as many Sabrina’s and an Old Man Logan here and there. I even had a Frankenstein commission which is my favorite character of all time.

I often sketch while waiting for commission orders to come in, and I did this and then put it for sale online and sold it within a few minutes.

Commissions can be simple sketches or they can be very complex. I like to do tiers; 10 min, 30 min and 90 min sketches. The longer the time spent the more detail that can be worked in.

In between you’ll be signing copies of comics people bring— some creators charge for their signature. I’m against it. I’m told at a convention in India you’ll be signing endlessly and they’ll be buying little else, so in that case I’d consider charging a $1 or $2 to make my time worthwhile. It’s not the worst thing because a lot of the fans take your signed book and just flip it for a profit.

Now for the folks that pay for tables at Artists Alley— I’ve never done that. I’ve only done shows that gave me a table in the days before they went a step further and covered all of my expenses. I don’t like the idea of paying and all I can offer for advice is offer to do a sketch or something for the con organizers or donate a piece to whatever charity auction they’re running (most of them do one) to avoid paying a table fee. You’d be surprised at how many are happy to comp your table.

Doing these shows you’re going to want to resist the temptation to do more of these commissions than you can handle— simply because the money is good. I restrict only to what I can get done over the course of the show, which means Sunday morning I’m usually closed for commissions and wrapping up the ones I have. This past RCCC I did pretty well and was able to knock off a quick couple on Sunday— you’re also going to want to make sure you get up and walk around every 60 mins or so— sitting too long is very bad.

Stay hydrated— drink plenty of water and get some rest. Resist the temptation to go to the all night parties that a lot of artists and publishers attend. I know one creator who stays out until dawn and then struggles through the show— and he looks it!

Convention Report: TERRIFICON July 2022 Mohegan Sun CT

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!

Convention Report Jet City Tacoma Washington, Part V: The Return

I hate connecting flights but this one was in Salt Lake City which is one of the most beautiful airports in the world. It was the only choice unless we wanted to leave at 7am which would have meant rising at 4am— I wasn’t about it so I decided to suffer through the layover in one of the most beautiful airports in the world.

We called a LYFT at 11 and we were at the airport by 11:30— thankful again for TSA PreCheck we avoided a HUGE security line and were at our gate and waiting for our flight with time to spare. SLC is a nice airport with a lot of restaurants (Logan should follow suit). We had about 40 minutes to kill so we grabbed a quick sandwich at a nearby cafe. The flight boarded on time and we jammed into our seats for the short 90 minute jump to SLC.


I don’t understand why people stand at the gate like there is a mad rush— the seats are reserved after all. Veronica had a good point that now that airlines charge for checked bags people are carrying on more stuff and they want to make sure they get bin space.

We were scheduled to arrive in Boston at 11:59pm and the next Logan Express bus that would take us to Framingham (where our car was parked) would be at 1:15am— after that no buses until morning— so we would have some time to kill once we landed.

The flight back was mostly unremarkable but it was still unpleasant. The plane touched down and got us to the gate at 11:51pm we made our way to baggage claim and I started a conversation with a guy when Veronica yelled my name and pointed out the window— Logan Express was sitting right there. I looked to the baggage carousal and lo and behold there was our bag! I grabbed it and ran outside and we made it on the 12am bus! Woo hoo! Someone was looking out for us.

We made it home by 1:30 and made ourselves a couple of egg sandwiches before turning in. In a few weeks I’ll be re-running more convention recaps.

Convention Report Jet City Tacoma Washington, Part IV: The Show Wraps

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