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Aug 26, 2013 - 03:43 PM |
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ComiConn 2013 |
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This weekend I got to meet two of my childhood heroes. The first is comic artist Mark Bagley, who was one of two Spider-Man artists I idolized growing up (the other was Sal Buschema). I was hoping to get a sketch but he was a bit too pricey. However, a signed $20 print meant that he didn't have to tire himself out with another commission and was thankful enough to get a picture with me. I look nonplussed but I'm pretty sure I was just trying not to vomit.
The second was J.M. DeMatteis, the writer behind Kraven's Last Hunt and (my favorite Spider-Man story ever) The Child Within - which was also part of the first Spider-Man comic I ever read. Unlike the artists that were taking up huge lines around the room, J.M. was sitting by himself and looking like, I kid you not, a depressed Larry David: an empty table aside from a Macbook and a sigh in his shoulders. I nervously introduced myself (afraid of going totally bonkers and fanboy at him) and thanked him emphatically for his run on Spectacular Spider-Man to which he replied with immense relief that it was his favorite thing he's ever written and so happy to talk about it. Luckily, I was able to chew his ear for 20 minutes - he pulled me aside and told me to sit when others were coming up to have stuff signed and we talked about writing and Stephen King and practically everything you can think of that can be covered in under half an hour. He said I should sign up for his writing workshop and I'm giving it serious thought, though the cynic in me says that he made the offer less because I impressed him and more because it has a $400 fee.
Christ I photograph badly.
Anyway, the other guys I got to meet are unfortunately unpictured but...
I bumped into Bob Camp, who is a long, long time animation guy and was co-creator of Ren & Stimpy. We have one or two mutual friends (well, they're more his friends than mine, I just know those people via Facebook) and he was happy to talk about anything other than John K or his time on R&S. He was doing doodles and selling cell art but he was waaaaaaay too pricey. He was a bit of an angry old guy but we got on well enough.
Then I ran into Michael Jan Freeman - whos written a metric-shit-tonne of Star Trek books and comics over the years - and a person who I won't name at the moment, but he was someone whos name I recognized but had little experience with his writing. Anyway, since they weren't artists, you could get a good conversation with them for as long as you wanted and we talked about problematic Hollywood actors (like how Sly Stallone wanted art redone on all the Judge Dredd comic adaptations because he didn't like how his mouth was drawn) before we landed on the topic of Harlan Ellison. Well, the guy I won't name tore Harlan a huge asshole for all sorts of good reasons - they'd written together in the past and Harlan had shit on him professionally - and Unnamed Guy and I went back and forth like an old couple, much to the amusement of some of the other people walking around.
Actor John Wesley Shipp was there (Dawson's Dad from Dawson's Creek!) and I wish I had snuck by to ask him about working with Mark Hamill on The Flash but by noon I was exhausted as fuck.
Then I went out and literally got drunk from 5 pm until 6 am with a bunch of really hot girls.
Then I talked to Andrew WK on the phone.
So, yeah, this was all pretty choice.
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