Awwwww! Geek Out!

So, yesterday was the first Wizard Con in LA in a long time. It had been 10 years since I had been to what passes for a real comic con and I went for the exact same reason I went a decade ago: to complete my Cerebus collection. I had all copies save one (a later issue, like 292) but we had some workers in the office late last year and they accidentally tossed out a pile of comics. I think the total number lost was 10 and they are mid issues, 72-81 or something like that, so I'm not all that concerned, I figure they would be easy to replace. turns out, not at a comic con. NOBODY stocks this book anymore, I'm going to have to use ebay or something. So, when I heard that there was going to be a con up here, I figured I might as well attend. I had nothing else to do and it had been years since I really, truly GEEKED out. And, since it's 10 minutes away from our house, the motorcycle ride was swift. AND I don't have to pay for parking when I take the bike. Bonus. I got there about 12:30, paid my ridiculous entry fee (as I said, had I not been searching for something in particular I doubt I would have gone). As luck would have it it turned out to be a very interesting day indeed.

First off, Brian Michael Bendis, author of the only comic I actually read now, Powers, was there, signing, so I grabbed an issue I needed and stood on line.

I am 40.

I stood on line for 70 minutes to get an autograph from a short, fat, bald comic writer.

And it was totally worth it. "Hey, Brian, I just want to thank you for publishing a letter I wrote." "Ha ha, no problem", he laughed as he took my issue. "Yeah, except that since it was an anniversary present for my wife, she took it and put it in a scrapbook." This is true. I wrote a letter, basically TO my wife, to Brian in the hopes that it would get published and that it would get into the issue that would coincide with our anniversary. It got in one month later, but since the anniversary was our first and was paper, it was totally apropos. This exchange got a great chuckle. And I got my replacement issue signed. Then I dropped a couple names. See, I have an agenda. First I told him about Throttle Back Sparky's CD and how Amanda Connor and Jimmy Palmiotti gave us the rights to "The Pro" for use on the cover. This impressed him, hopefully enough that he will listen to it and give it some review in the back of Powers. To add just a touch of credibility I mentioned that I was friends with the creators of "Very Vicky". It took a moment, but then the memory of that book washed over him like a sea of recognition mixed with joy. "Oh, yeah! The young girl, martinis, the rat pack....He was married to...." "Jana", I replied. "They're still together, they have a pair of twins." "Great, yeah, I remember them. Nice guy. Tell them I said hi." So, job done. Gave him the CD, dropped three names. Shook my hand 4 times furing the exchange.
What I won't do for a review.

Next stop: Artists Alley.
So, my search for Cerebus being a bust and time running out til Kevin Smith(!!!) I headed over to Amanda Connor's table. Dropped the CD in front of her. "Wow, I've never signed one of these before....Oh, wait, are you????" She was all too happy to sign them. One for me and a special one for Iden, whose birthday it was that night. But I kept missing Jimmy. Oh, well. Off to Kevin. .









The hall holds 1500. 1300 showed up. And Kevin came out. Basically, it's the same as you see on the DVD, An Evening with Kevin Smith. It's all Q&A and there's a ton of T&A, ATM, BJ, etc,humor. Now, I had a question and I raised my hand but the problem with a format like this is you can't really pay attention to the answer Kevin is giving because you are preoccupied with figuring out just when the right time would be to raise your hand and maybe just maybe get called on. Of course, he spent the first 5 questions answering from one side of the auditorium.
Why, "of course"? Because he would look at the person who asked the last question while he was asking and, when he was done, just move on to the next hand he saw. Until, he finally saw me. And he pointed to me.
And then some other guy stood up.
I lost my chance. And my question was so smart and pithy....

"What do you think of the new Superman movie?" This is a question????? Duh. Um.....okay. But Kevin, genius speaker that he is, managed to turn a boring question into sublime story. It twisted and turned and traveled down a road that ended with Brian Singer being a great director and the X-Men films were great and the reason they were great was because they were ABOUT something. About fitting in, not fitting in..... My favorite moment was when Smith said you can exchange the word "Mutant" with "Gay" and it totally works. Now that I think about it, the X-Men WAS the gayest superhero movie ever made (next to The 1994 Fantastic Four which just seemed to star actors acting gay and which i just got at the con) and for that reason alone Superman should be terrific. Note: I think you can replace the word "Grinch" in the Jim Carrey Movie with the word "Jew" and get a great result. After all, those perfect nosed little aryan children are perfect foils for the soon-to-be-rehabilitated jew, The Grinch. Try it. It's fun at parties. Make it a drinking game. Then it was my turn. Actually I accidentally stole another person's turn but who cared? It was quid pro quo! And my question woul spark interesting debate! "So, in an Evening with Kevin Smith you spoke about the meeting with Jon Peters and how Peters said for his new Superman, 'No suit, the suit is gay' and no flying. I was wondering if you would care to comment on 'Smallville'." Awesome. Here it was. The funniest story in Evening is the story about Jon Peters and his criteria about Superman. No 'gay' suit. No flying. And we all laughed. And then Smallville comes around and he doesn't wear a suit. He didn't fly for 6 years. Okay. Brace yourself. Here comes the answer. "I have never seen 'Smallville'. Mewes keeps trying to get me to watch it because 'Dude, Clark and Lex are FRIENDS!', but I haven't gotten around to it. Alas. I am not so pithy. It did spark an interesting story about how Mewes was obsessed with "Murder She Wrote" for a while, but that's about it. After another story about what a jerk Timothy Olyphant is (and he seems like a jerk, so it's great to have the validation) I left. I had about 30 minutes left and i needed to get Palmiotti's autograph. So, I did. We chatted about rock music and how hard it is. And I got my autographed copy for Iden's birthday. Yippee. But, no Cerebus. I have to get them online. All told. Nice geek out day. Coming soon......The World's Greatest Candy Bar