Heroes Con

It sucks to have a story to tell and even know how you're going to tell it but yet still be stuck, mentally, in a place where you just don't feel like putting the required time and effort into actually WRITING. That's happening to me now.

HeroesCon was awesome. Easily the best show I've ever been to despite the fact that I spent very little. Relatively. And not including parking. And admission. I could have bought some pretty sweet stuff for the $45 total I spent in parking and admission. Mostly, I could have bought a beautiful copy of Fantastic Four 55... nice purple cover... Silver Surfer shows up again for the first time since his first appearance in FF 48. (which I DO have. :)) And, damn, it was nice. $40 was a steal. But, alas. I decided I should eat the rest of the week.

I currently have five computers on my desk... all of them are on and working. Two of them are Compaqs tho. One of the two is going to get trashed. I hate Compaq.

Oh, and Dustin Edge is making some very very sweet music. I am not. I am reading comics. And attending conventions. So we're back to that again. Allison came with me on Saturday. I was excited to, not only have her along, but also to attend a seemingly amazing panel featuring Gene Colan and Marv Wolfman. At least those are the only two that I thought I really cared about. Roy Thomas, Nick Cardy, [I forgot!!], and Howard Chaykin were also all there, but I didn't think I cared. It turns out (and it should have been obvious) that Roy Thomas has some amazing stories. Being the EIC of Marvel Comics immediately after Stan Lee will do that to you. He was also very verbose... which was fine b/c it, to some extent kept Nick Cardy from going too far off on the tangent of super-heroes in tights needing to go to the bathroom while flying through space...

Gene Colan, who I thought I really wanted to see remained rather quiet through most of the panel although we did get some interesting points about style and mood in art as well as some background regarding HIS influences and the leniency he had while working with Stan's scripts on little things like, you know, Daredevil. Hearing and seeing Marv Wolfman talk was also extremely enlightening. I had no idea that THAT was Marv Wolfman? He's just this guy. This older (but not yet Old) guy. Who was very well spoken; who, unlike Gene, didn't even like horror movies, and who was as nice as could possibly be.

But the big surprise was Howard Chaykin. I'd been given his Blackhawk and The Shadow books back in, like, 8th grade by the guy at the comic store. But I didn't really get it. Howard left comics before I ever really got in, so I never really paid him much attention. (American Flagg TOTALLY passed me by) Howard was a huge fan of Nick Cardy when he was reading comics (as Marv was a huge Gene Colan fan), and it was really neat to see the back-and-forth between creator and fan/creator. But it turns out that Howard Chaykin is an extremely bright human being with much to say about... well... just about everything. Especially jazz and crime friction.

I wish I could tell you I took away more FACTS from this panel. Like how Roy Thomas got Frank Brunner to draw Dr. Strange. Or how Tom Strong, with Alan Moore writing, might have been the best comic published so far this century. Or how Gene Colan found most of his influence in early horror movies. But I can't really. It was just extremely fun watching and listening to people who do, professionally, something that I would love but couldn't do in a million years. After, I thanked each and Gene Colan asked me if I would take him down to his booth to do signings. Wait. GENE COLAN asked ME if I would take him down to his booth to do signings. And I totally screwed it up. I walked too fast and talked too fast and didn't exactly know where he was going, but we got close, and I let him go instead of taking him ALL THE WAY TO THE FREAKING BOOTH. God, I suck. I didn't even say anything. IDIOT. Gene freakin' Colan...

Blah. The rest of the day went by... bought a lot of $0.50 stuff and desperately tried to find American Flagg #1. To no avail. Went over and talked to Howard briefly anyway, and I really like what I perceive to be his outlook on... stuff. Just about all stuff. (I bought the AF Hardcover from Dynamic Forces as soon as I got home) Also managed to get my Tomb of Dracula #1 signed by Gene and Marv. I know, I know... No Marv until #7, but I couldn't find Roy Thomas, and, really, it was Marv's book. I'm happy to have his name on it.

A quick run to the Heroes store in search of AF #1 proved fruitless as well, but we grabbed dinner and headed back for the art auction. Where I paid for parking. Again. It was packed inside. And tons of comics creators just hanging out with nobodys like myself. It was rad, and there were some beautiful pieces there. Even though the mic initially didn't work and everyone was far too loud... we'll blame that on the alcohol. It was still very fun. And an Adam Hughes painting of Sue Storm went for over $4000. Wow. I went home empty handed. But satisfied.

That was Day 1.
Day 2... I'm alone. By choice. Which may or may not have been wise. But I picked up a few more $0.50 books before the day really started and then tried, unsuccessfully, to figure out what the hell happened to the Mike Ploog signing... I had my Marvel Spotlight #'s 2 and 5, and I really wanted his hand on them. Dammit. Time passed. I went upstairs to wait on what I had really wanted to see all along. Gene Colan and Marv Wolfman talking about Tomb of Dracula. Did I mention that I really like ToD? The doors, however, were locked fast, so my early arrival no longer guaranteed a front row seat. Gene and Marv showed... doors still locked... but their presence got the keys up there pretty quick-like. The question-answer session was really great with Marv delving into his what made him WANT to do ToD, the experience of working with Gene, his respect for Gene as an artist, and the way he felt he planned out the ToD stories. Gene put forth the antecdote about how he got the ToD assignment (which was promised to Bill Everette... he simply sent samples to Stan who called him the next day... that was that). We also got to hear more about the things that Gene took from movies. Mostly shadowplay and the effect of weather on style and mood. Gene seemed very focused on the mood of his art.

I should stop trying to recount so much in a step-by-step fashion. Needless to say, that panel was awesome. Unfortunately, I couldn't hang around much after this one as there was a Howard Chaykin interview to attend immediately following. And this, despite my lack of love for crime fiction just cemented my opinion of what a cool and intelligent person Howard is. And I am now very much looking forward to his new book "Century." Even though it's being published in Italy first.

This sucks. I'm not finished. But I have to be. For now. Maybe I'll come back and edit all the crap out of here later.