Sept 17, 2005
We went to straight to bed, once we found our hotel, then got up, showered, packed for our trip home (so we could leave straight from the con), and headed back to the con. We made even less money the second day than our pathetic first day!
We saw Mark Waid at breakfast, and good ol’ Elizabeth sidled up and said, “Oh, Hi, Mark,” and visited with him for a quick moment before we headed to the con.
As we came in, there was John Romita, sketching as fast as he could for a benefit auction, so we finally got to say hello. He was so sweet, and said his schedule is way too busy for additional work right now, but he still gave us his contact info. I was elated to get it from him. We talked a little about music, since I teach guitar. He plays organ, and said if he could have been a musician, he never would have gotten into comics. I had brought a hardcover of Spider-Man for him to sign. I wanted to bring two, because how do you decide if you want the one that has only his first two Spidey-issues, featuring Green Goblin, or the next volume, that was all his art. My backpack was so heavy, I couldn’t bring them both.
Elizabeth went over and talked to Michael Lark, and let him know we were sad not to hook up with him last night. He said, when I told him about dinner with Dick Ayers, he wasn’t sure if it was an invitation. Elizabeth said, “Michael, you’re always invited.” He said he saw Dick walking to the con this morning, and wanted to introduce himself, but didn’t want to look like one of those shy fanboys. E offered to take him over and introduce him, but he declined. Isn’t it funny how intimidated we get to meet the ones we adore?
I went to say good morning at Mart Nodell’s booth. He’s such a cute, sweet guy. I found out he’s from Florida, and we’re looking forward to seeing him in February at Orlando’s Mega-Con.
While I was visiting, Walter Simonson had stopped over to say good morning. When I was working up the courage to introduce myself he took off.
E had told Michael he should come out to the West Coast Cons to hang out with us, and he told her that if we could all hang out together, he would. When I went over to see him, I reminded him that years ago I’d found his email online, not long after Batman: Nine Lives came out. I had written him and told him how awesome his film noir was. I assumed he was fifty or sixty, because who else would be into film noir?
I saw he had pages out, on his table, of a Spider-Man/Hulk battle. I wasn’t aware of it; it had just come out. It looked gorgeous to me.
He said he’s taking over the Daredevil books when Maleev leaves. I told him he’ll do great on any of the noir characters, and he said, he does it like Toth, and just takes whatever character he’s assigned, and makes them noir. Then he said, when Marvel wanted to put him on Captain America, he told the writer, I can’t imagine doing Captain America unless it’s during World War II, and the writer said, okay, and came up with a story. What fun.
He brought up the pin-up again, and sounded like he still wanted to do it. Somehow robots got brought up, and I told him no one’s done a giant robot monster yet, and he got so excited, he said that’s exactly what he’s going to do. Said he’s got a couple commissions and he’ll do a robot too, and he’s really looking forward to it.
Adam Hughes was at the con, once again mobbed and basically unapproachable. I tried a new approach. While Adam was visiting with his huge line of fans, I went up to his girlfriend, and told her about my project. I had spoken with her at San Diego. She seemed impressed with my book, like she was familiar with all the pin-up artists involved. I asked if he ever had time for a commission for something like this, and she convinced me that he’s been busier now that ever. His work schedule is really heavy. He’s got a top-secret new project in the works for DC, that could keep his schedule full for over a year. But in addition, he’s got a heavy convention schedule. This year they did fifteen shows, and as a result he’s been unable to finish all the work he needs to do. They were going to try to cut back to one or less conventions per month, to make time for this new, significant and high-profile, but top-secret-for-now DC project.
It was fun visiting with her. Enough so that I tried the same “get to the artist through the significant other” technique with Walt Simonson, who was mobbed every day.
At one point, I saw his line was short, but I soon learned it was because he was going to lunch, and the line was capped. He went to lunch with Michael Avon Oeming. Finally Louise came back from lunch, but Walter remained AWOL. I introduced myself to her, and she was quite pleasant.
Walter got back, and immediately had a crowd, and so I decided Louise was my in. I told her I wanted to show her my stuff, and she took her time and looked through all of it. She asked why Kirby-style giant monsters. I never did get a chance to talk to Walter, but I got his and Louise’s emails from Louise. Walter, she said, continues to be very busy, but it won’t hurt to check in every now and then.
We thought we wouldn’t have to leave the con until 4:30 to catch our flight. The con ended at 5pm, so we thought we would catch most of it. I had gotten directions online that said the airport was fifteen minutes away. Even though our flight wasn’t until 7pm, the car rental warned us that the airport is really busy Sunday evenings, and recommended getting there three hours in advance.
As I’m learning I just seem to fuck up anything to do with reservations or scheduling, this trip was no exception. The directions I had gotten were not for the airport we were flying out of. Our airport was actually an hour away, but only if there was no traffic or accidents. The moment I realized this idiotic error, we rushingly packed at 3pm and left the con by 3:30. As we bustled by, Matt Wagner saw us and shouted, “Chris, Elizabeth, are you guys leaving?” I was really touched that he called out to us to say goodbye. We quickly said our goodbyes to everyone else and headed to the airport.
We assumed the car rental dealer was full of shit, and just didn’t want to get sued for idiots who miss their flights. But it turns out, that airport was a nightmare. We hit no traffic on the drive, and got to the airport right on schedule, at 4:30, checked the car in without a delay, and caught an immediate shuttle to the terminal, and were check in quickly. But the security check was a madhouse. It took us an hour to get through. The line looped back and forth across the airport, blocking exits, blocking everyone’s check-in areas, winding snake-like up to the scanners. We watched a ton of people running with their bags, complaining their flights left, or lamenting all their missed flights. Amazing. I’m so relieved and shocked we caught our plane.