Friday:
We leave the house a little late (about 2 PM) since Krystal wanted to do some "One Day Only" X-Mas shopping...in Bradford...which is about an hour away!
Once on the road to Ohio, nothing really eventful happened. Nice day, nice weather, kids fighting...HEY!...it's a 5 hour drive!!!!
Get to the hotel, it's frickin' cold, but they got an indoor pool and jacuzzi, only $69.00 for the night, and it's 10 minutes from the con! WOO HOO!!!!!
Saturday:
Up at 6:30 AM...the kids are swimming by 8, after breakfast, showers, and hair/makeup adjustments (THE GIRLS...NOT ME!!!) we're out the door by 9:45.
10 o'clock we arrive, find a space right in front of the main lobby, and we're in............line that is! And a big one!!!!
As I come in, Beau Smith walks by and I start busting his balls...and he starts right back! Beau is one of the coolest people in the biz! After about half an hour, we make the turn and can make out the ticket booth. On the side are tables with freebie stuff. Krystal says "Hon...what's the name of that book Kel's doing? With the action figures?" I say "S.K.U.M.M." She says..."Well why didn't he send you any posters?!?" Hey!!!! There's a stack of 'em at two tables!!! We grab 10 or so. The girls are grabbing all the fake tattoos and promo cards!
Finally in the door and I see Charles Brownstein of the CBLDF. He looks like he doesn't want to be there. After browsing the various small press booths, I pick up a free copy of "Fade from Blue #1" by Second2Some Studios. A very nice B&W book with great looking art by Scott Dalrymple. Haven't read it yet, but it dies look good! Krystal and the girls are checking out other stuff and then we mosey up to George Broderick and Chris Yambar's table. I know those guys, and always buy something from them...and this time it's their premier of "el Mucho Grande" and all the money goes to the Diabetes Foundation. George says it's a minimum of $2 dollars donation. I give him a fiver. We also buy some "I Dream of Jeannie" books from them (Paige & Beth each pick one) and then I buy a new book from Mike Bocianowski (Chuck: The Ugly American) called "YETS: An ancient story about adventure and friendship." It's an all-ages book that looks pretty good, and the girls seemed into it...so why not!
Paige then starts yelling "JOXER!!!!!" as Ted Raimi walks by. He looks at her and smiles and waves. She was too slow to get a picture.
**Aside: The girls each now have their own cameras, and took their own pics at the con. I can't wait to see what they took pics of!!! And I'll post them to my site!"**
Bethany is overwhelmed because she's so small, and there's hundreds of people shoved into these small aisles. We see Jeff Smith, but his line is too long. He's one of Paige's favorites! I start scoping out the layout, where everyone is at, and make a note to stay out of the dealers room, as it is so full, cramped, and hot! ( I abide that note too!). Krystal and Beth then go one way for their own adventures, Paige and I head off in the other direction.
Paige and I go over to the Future Comics booth. I get a bunch of stuff signed by Dick Giordano and then Bob Layton. I talk to Bob a bit, and as I'm walking away, realize I forgot to have him sign my copies of Heroes. I give them to Paige and tell her to get in line (two people!) and just say that "...my dad forgot about these." As she's coming back, I hear Bob calling "Excuse me little girl!" Here she walked away with my two books, and 4 of somebody else's by mistake. She looked like she was ready to cry. One of the Future guys then came over and gave her a free issue, and we talked a bit. Nice people (I've met Bob before and we dealt a bit when he with Valiant.) and I hope they make it to Pitt!
We then see Mark Millar's line. It's HUGE! I have two books of his. I say forget it!
We walk around some more, chit chat with some people, get some other stuff signed, and I see Len Wein and Marv Wolfman. I get in line, and when I get to Marv, I just have to ask "So...Is your being here the reason John Byrne missed his first MOC in years?" He looks at me, smiles a big smile and says "I sure hope so!" We then chat about dealings with JB, and I must say I have a new-found respect for the man!
We then go into the Artists room and I chat with David Mack and Angel Medina, and I get some stuff signed by Roger Stern. I don't want to sound paranoid, or make myself out as more then I am, but I swear the guy was trying to blow me off. You see, he's a good friend of Byrne's, and is on that mess-board...and I asked for two books to be signed "To Glenn" and he did take a look at my "comicsGB.com" t-shirt. He was pretty stand-offish to me. Again, maybe it was just his way, or he was having a bad morning.
We then get in line for P. Craig Russell, and Paige is impressed as he's doing a sketch. As he is signing my books, the fire alarms and automated warning start going off. Nobody is leaving or anything, so things just keep moving along, as he signs, and everyone stays in lines. After about 5 minutes, MOC staff start coming in and telling everyone they must leave the building. Darryl Banks is like "You mean they really want us to leave?!?"
So I find Krystal & Beth, and we proceed to the parking lot and the warmth of our van (since it's now around 12, 20 degrees, and snowing!). We sit and eat some snacks, and watch as the fire trucks come racing in, and the firemen disperse through the hotel. After about half an hour or so, people start filing back in.
We go back in, sit at the bar, and get some drinks, waiting for things to return to normal.
We split again, with Paige and I going to find Sergio Aragagones. As we're in line, Paige wants to know if she can get him to do a sketch for her. I say (and two people in line as well) that he doesn't do sketches anymore (since he did some that wound up on eBay a few hours after) but she can always ask. As we're waiting, she's looking at some original art from EC Comics?Mad Magazine legend Al Feldstein. She asks me why something is a certain way in the painting. I tell her I don't know, and to ask the artist. She does, and he explains it to her, and after says "I guess I didn't do too good of job of it then, if I have to explain it!" He was pretty cool, and we chatted a bit then, and he gave me his card and email. When we get to Sergio, Paige asks for a sketch. He looks at me and I say "It's for her, really! I told her you don't normally do them." He says to her "What's your name." She tells him and he then says "Well...I'll do one for Paige!" She must have thanked him 20 times!
We then meet up with Krys and Beth, and the girls get caricatures of themselves from Thom Zahler Studios...
We then hit William Messner Loebs, and I told Krys we really have to buy something from him, since they lost their home and have had it really bad. The girls each pick one of the same prints, with Bill numbering them #1 and #2 and signing them to the girls on the back.
Later, as I'm talking to Beau Smith, Krystal takes some books and goes to get them signed for me.
**Signed books Tip #1: I always use Post-It notes, to mark who signs what, and attach it to the books. It leaves no marks on the covers, it comes of easily when done, and it helps Krystal know what's what.**
She comes back and says we'll have to hit up Kyle Hotz later, as he's out getting stoned. Yes, that's what his friend at his table told Krystal, when she asked him if he was Kyle!
I then talk to D.J. Coffman about his Monkey Man strips on MoviePoopShoot.com, get his two comics, and he then gives me a free ashcan for his next comic, "Ape-Dude!" Pretty cool stuff! He then does my only sketch book drawing of the weekend...Monkey Man in my Sketchbook.
We then head over to Paul Jenkins table. he's talking of th eparty the night before, and how every time he went to get a Guiness, they told him they were gone...but he always found one. Someone said "You must know somebody." and he replied..." I know God, and he's a Guinness man!" I'm second in line now, and he says he has to go to the Mid-Ohio Squares game, as he's on the panel. He also says that if you get picked to play, always pick him, as he's never gotten any right! So we all head over to check it out, since he and Mark Evanier are the only ones I reallly need to hit for sigs then.
Krystal puts in my name and hers. The game is like Hollywood Squares, and they draw two people to go against each other, just like the show. The panel was Jenkins, Wolfman, Len Wein, Tony Isabella, Wm. Messner-Loebs, Bob Ingersoll, Roger Stern, and Rich Koslowski. Pretty cool game, lots of fun, and hard comic trivia. Well...the last pair picked was some older guy...and Krystal! And they rigged the drawing, since they wanted a woman! It came down to her having two ways to win, with the guy picking Bob Ingersoll over Jenkins to block. He got it, so Krys had Jenkins for the win. But Jenkins threw a curve, as he "phoned a friend" to help him (Ingersoll). I was trying to signal her to agree, but she figured Ingersoll had been right most of the game, so she went with the answer supplied to Jenkins, and won! Paul said that this was the only time he got any right (he had one earlier in the game) and the first time he gave someone the win. Winners got to pick from a box of junk, mostly Superhero Luggage tags or Todd Toys. She picked a Dark Raider Dark Ages Spawn fig. They gave out runner up prizes, just like the game show too...Turtle Wax, Rice-A-Roni, and other wacky stuff!
So we then went back to wait for Jenkins to come back to his table. After standing there for 45 minutes, I walked around a bit more and find Rich Koslowski. I get my 3 Geeks signed and buy his great book "THREE FINGERS." I highly recommend it!!! I walk some more, until finally deciding to leave (as it's now almost 5). When I find Krystal, she's telling me she found Kel's book! I thought it she meant SKUMM, and said it can't be Kel's yet (because of the posters). She takes me to the Digital Webbing booth! Okay...I see!!! And I buy all 5 issues!!!! WOO HOO!!!
Then Jenkins walks by. I stop him and he says he's going back to his table now! WOO HOO!!!! he signs my stuff, we talk about JoeyDaQ, and I come away (after meeting Jenkins for the first time) thinking that he's a pretty cool guy!!!
We finally decide to leave, and my only regrets were not ever finding Evanier (although I passed his three times on the floor!) and not getting to meet anyone from the Figma.com boards (Tom, Matt, Scatch, etc...).
We go out and it's snowing pretty good. We go three exits and decide to stop and eat, and see it it's just a squall. An hour later, it's even worse, traffic sucks, and it's really bad!! So we head back to the hotel we stayed at, get another room, take the girls swimming, and sleep in until 8 AM. Then it's on the road with a nice sunny day and clear roads, a 5 hour drive with the kids fighting, and Krystal sleeping since she has to work tonite!
So all in all a pretty good trip! The girls enjoyed themselves tremendously (and each bought (and got signed ) Powerpuff Girl Comics, Nickelodeon magazines, and assorted small press and other stuff (as mentioned before). They actually bought more comics and got more art than I did!
I just hope that MOC moves to a convention center or something. The hotel layout is too small for it, as big as it is. It was an improvement from the last hotel (when I was down in 1998) but still...it's needs more room.
Hope I didn't bore you all too much! It wasn't Pitt-Con....but then....there really is only one convention I totally enjoy...and it IS Pitt-Con!!!
