Editor’s note: This is my first official “diary” entry, as opposed to the “memoirs” which were reminisced up until this point. This was hand-written on our flight back from the trip, with pen and paper.
Elizabeth and I went to Bristol Con this year in England, and then we popped over to London for a couple days and Paris for a few days. Despite receiving a TON of money from our tax return, the trip still managed to set us back about a month’s pay. Not just the money it cost to fly over, stay in hotels, feed ourselves, etc. Also, I’m self-employed, and only get paid if I’m at the local music store giving private guitar lessons, so being on vacation cost me my paycheck for the ten days we were gone. We tried, after that con, to be more selective about what comics conventions we would schedule next. We would have liked to have hit a few more (SPX and MOCCA we’ve been dying to do), but we decided we’d better stay home for awhile and save up again.
However, some friends of ours in Alexandria just had a baby, so that was in the backs of our heads. I consulted a “comic book conventions” listings website which I’ve found very helpful, http://www.comicbookconventions.com/conventions.htm, and found the Baltimore Con, which was about an hour from them. When I went to the con’s site, I saw Dick Ayers was scheduled as a guest, and the more I thought about it, the more I REALLY wanted to go out and see him. E and I decided it would be a good trip, and we scheduled it, after emailing Dick to make sure he would be attending.
I also emailed Michael Kaluta, who had recently NOT been to a number of conventions that he was listed for, and who I’d been trying to see again for some time. Once he cancelled an appearance due to illness, once he declined due to a heavy workload. For this one, he informed me he would not be appearing either, and he had told the con to remove his name from their guest list, which they soon did.
I was excited to see John Romita listed as well, as his line was so long at the only West Coast appearance I knew of, I didn’t try to meet him at all. A few days before we left for the con, I checked the website again, and was pleasantly excited that Michael Lark had just been added to the bill. I emailed him that I was looking forward to seeing him.
At this time, Mick Foley, professional wrestler extraordinaire, had also just been announced for a quick, three-hour signing, and I realized I would be willing to wait in line to meet him as well as John Romita this year.
Other people listed were Matt Wagner, who always seems so friendly, and who promptly returned my email that he would be there. Walter Simonson and his wife Louise, who JH Williams III had introduced me to in San Diego 2004. At that time, he had said his schedule was so full, he didn’t have time for commissions, and he didn’t give me any contact info, so I thought this would be a good time to try again.
There were a number of artists I hadn’t yet met who I was excited about. Tim Truman, Jim Starlin, and Howard Chaykin (who I’d kind of met, and had felt awkward and intimidated by).
I also found out my Diamond Distributors representative would be there, and let him know I was looking forward to finally meeting him, after a year and a half of phone calls and emails getting Tabloia on the shelves.
The reason I was so excited to see Dick is that I hadn’t seen him since San Diego 2002, which was when we first met. I had tried to hook up with him for the Big Apple Con of 2004, but Dick had a conflict with the schedule and a heavy workload to complete, and ended up not making it. I was anxious to see him again, bring some comics for him to sign, and get some of my pages he inked signed (he signed a few of the stories but not all of them, for some reason), get a photo of us together, and hopefully have dinner together with his wife, Lindy, or breakfast, or a drink after the con, or coffee, or any time he had to spare that he was willing to spend with me.
We had left Thursday night on a red-eye flight, slept as best as we could, sitting up in a plane for five hours, arrived in Washington DC at 6:30 am, rented a car, and got out to our friends by 8:30 am, at which point we ate, then took about a four hour nap. We visited, and headed to the con the next morning, leaving at 8 am. The con opened at 10 am.