KOLCHAK PAPERS: Episode #1 THE RIPPER

Beatrice Colen talks to Darren McGavin during her second lunch of the day.

IMDB SUMMARY: Carl may be up against the original Jack the Ripper, a black-caped, bullet-resistant, super-human killer of women.

Aired: Sept 13, 1974.

Directed by Allen Baron Guest Cast: Beatrice Colen, Mickey Gilbert, Ken Lynch, Robert Collins

Written by Rudolph Borcher

The series does a lot for The Kolchak Mythology not the least of which is one of the greatest theme songs in the history of Television. In this first episode we establish Kolchak having settled in as a reporter for the INS news service in Chicago— we assume he gets the job because his old editor Tony Vincenzo (Oakland) is the bureau chief. We also get to meet his rival, harmless nemesis and fellow reporter Ron Updyke (Jack Grinnage) who is a kinder gentler uptight stickler who often butts heads with Carl. The INS Newsroom staff will become major players in what makes the show great.

THE INS Headquarters right next door to an elevated train.

Other co-workers include the mentioned but yet to be seen Miss Emily, who writes an advice column for the news service (although there will be some confusion coming as to what her job — and her name for that matter— actually is). After getting himself into some trouble Carl is tasked to take over the column during her vacation, something he is in way over his head on. In typical Carl fashion he solves this by stashing the huge pile of mail away to focus instead on the string of killings currently going on.

Carl can’t understand why his photos never come out — Mailboy thinks he should get a real camera.

Newsboy/Copyboy/Darkroom Film Developer billed only as “Mail Boy” who operates the bureau darkroom out of the mens room. The character here is played by Rob Berger but a similar character will appear in a later episode played by someone else.

The series separates itself from the two movies further by defining Carl’s personality— no home life, no interest in women, he’s driven only to uncover the truth, avoid dentist offices, and try his best to enjoy his favorite pastime - a pro baseball game. We also get the first appearance of the Yellow Mustang convertible Carl will drive throughout the series, always with the top down, a strange choice given this is Chicago and many of the episodes take place during the colder months. The show was actually filmed in Los Angeles and there is an occasional palm tree popping up to break the Chicago illusion, but we love Kolchak for all of these things so it’s easy to overlook.

Vincenzo and Kolchak debate story angles

Vincenzo is more clearly defined, he’s totally in charge of the bureau here and he’s become a very snazzy dresser which makes him even more interesting. He’s constantly going to be battling high blood pressure, ulcers and dieting all with Manny’s Deli only five floors below at the street level.

Our two main oddballs this time around are Beatrice Colen as a reporter friend from another paper named Jane Plumm, who is called fat, and it’s mentioned a couple of times, but it shows us how weight was seen through the eyes of the 70s, flash forward to today and Jane Plumm is pretty slim. Colen would play Lynda Carter’s comedy sidekick Etta Candy on the WONDER WOMAN TV Series the following year. She was also a regular on BARNEY MILLER and HAPPY DAYS.

Carl tries to get Ron Updyke to reveal some information.

Updyke has a fairly large role in this episode, tasked with covering the Ripper Killings while Carl is writing the advice column, Updyke is not cut out for it in the least and instead gets his story from another reporter who could stand to be in the same room as the murder victim.

The other oddball is a Massage Girl played by Mews Small who had appeared in many big budget films including ONE FLEW OVER THE COOKOO’S NEST and Woody Allen’s SLEEPER. She’ll become one of the Ripper’s victims and speaking of the Ripper, he’s got no lines, but he’s played with some menace by stunt man Mickey Gilbert.

Oddball Cameo by Clint Young, a veteran character actor, as a driver who hits The Ripper with his car.

Miss Eggenweiller (Ruth McDevitt) examines Carl’s credentials before letting him in her home.

One last part worth mentioning is the old lady who writes in to the Miss Emily column and ends up being connected to the killer. She’s played by veteran actress Ruth McDevitt who had been in Alfred Hithcock’s THE BIRDS as the shop owner at the beginning of that film. Here she’s billed only as Elderly Woman but in the show she’s called Miss Eggenweiller, who is surprised to get a response from Miss Emily’s paper— even more surprising is that McDevitt will JOIN the cast as Miss Emily herself in a few episodes.

No girl friday this time around, but Jane Plumm sort of fills in that role here.

HOW’S THE MONSTER: Jack the Ripper— we don’t see him clearly, nice work!

Captain Warren address some reporters including Carl and Jane Plumm

HOW’S THE SEASONED COP/AUTHORITY FIGURE WHO HATES KOLCHAK?: Ken Lynch is Captain Warren. Warren was also the name of the inspector on the actual Ripper case, a nice little homage. He isn’t particulary memorable as far as Kolchak honcho’s go (some of them will have interesting sub plots themselves) but he’s passable and he’s better than Larry Linville from the first movie. Lynch was set to make a second appearance in the series but it was cancelled before that came together. Lynch was used to playing policemen, he was appearing as Sgt Grover on MCCLOUD.

Kolchak in the end battle against The Ripper— one of the things that makes Kolchak so great is he’s not perfect, he’s not confident and he’s often scared, although he’s got enough grit and determination to see him through most of these bizarre events.

Trivia Note: The House the Ripper lives in is The Munster’s House on the Universal Lot, also the house used in 1966’s GHOST AND MR CHICKEN.

Kolchak Excerpt (because the writing makes the show great);

Carl Kolchak: [Voiceover] Jane Plumm is fat. She talks a lot about water retention, big boned, but I have to believe the six or eight meals a day with snacks in-between to keep up her strength has a lot to do with it. And Plumm is a reporter however. We have mutual respect, mutual trust.

Jane Plumm: I don't trust you, Kolchak. You'd double-cross your own fairy godmother for a story.

Carl Kolchak: Why Jane, how can you say a thing like that? Now, you know me better than that.

NOTES: There might be an editing twist here; we get a scene where Ron Updyke, having been assigned to cover the murders by Vincenzo, comes stumbling into the newsroom distraught about the murder scene he just came from. In the interaction between he and Vincenzo and Carl he reveals that he never even saw the victim, he was just upset over what another reporter told him. Later in the episode we get a scene where Ron is walking bravely into a murder scene with wha appears to be some bravado, before stumbling and nearly falling onto the victim as the police examine the crime scene, causing him to run, sickened, out of the room. Could this scene have been meant to run before Ron comes back to the newsroom? He seems awful unaffected if this is his second murder scene of the evening.

KOLCHAK VICTIMS; It’s often cited that many of the victims in the series were sinners, while I don’t share that dour assessment of my favorite show, there are a few instances to back up the theory that the writers were lecturing bad behavior, as in all the partiers in the cruise ship episode become victims, etc, but like Carl I want some hard evidence so I’ll be going through each and every one of the victims each week so we can see if there’s any truth to this rumor.

Michelle Schiffner - Dancer. She’s not listed in the credits and the music is playing when Carl does his voice over so it’s tough to hear her name.  No age given, she has the distinction of being the first victim of the first “Monster of the week” in the Kolchak series.

Debbie Fielder 22, - Miss Physical Therapist Contenstant- we don’t get her occupation but she’s leaving a building marked Miss Physical Therapist Contenstants so we can assume she wasn’t the cleaning lady.

Laura Maresko 24, Masseuse.  She gets a name and a stuffed animal before she goes.

Masseuse - Massuese.   This victim doesn’t even get the honor of getting a name or backstory like many of the other victims get.  She also gets a speaking role (unusual for many victims) and she gets a screen credit as Marya Small who would later go on to be known as Mews Small and have a career as a character actor. She is killed in the massage parlor she works in just a few feet from a witness.

Jane Plumm - Reporter.   Rare case of one of the oddball supporting characters becoming a murder victim.   Jane was also a friend of Carl’s who he seems genuinely concerned about, another first. It’s rare for these murders to hit close to home.

KOLCHAK RATING:

4.5 HATS. It’s a good solid episode with some genuine chills. One of the best episodes of the series. The end battle with The Ripper is suitably scary.Next Up: Kolchak takes on a Zombie and Scatman Crothers!

Bond Tuesdays...THUNDERBALL (1965)

After making the perfect James Bond film the producers knew they had big shoes to fill— so they went bigger, they went all in, and for the most part it pays off. Third appearance of America’s answer to 007 in the form of Felix Leiter played by a third actor— they can’t seem to settle on a Felix. THUNDERBALL is GOLDFINGER with a bigger budget but it also sort of loses its way and two of the three Bond girls look so much alike that I mix them up. But if you want to show someone a Bond film and you want it to be even more action oriented than GOLDFINGER this is your choice. Connery’s last great Bond film.

BOND will return in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE

• BOND: Connery is as good in this one as he was in the last one, so he’s perfect. *****

• VILLAIN: Largo is a Spectre villain, he’s pretty good. ****

• THEME SONG: Tom Jones kills this one. *****

• HENCHMAN: We’re told how sinister Vargas is, we even get a glimpse of it, but when it comes time to fight he loses in a half second. ***
  OVERALL BOND RATING: 9.2

KOLCHAK PAPERS: THE NIGHT STRANGLER TV Movie (1973)

That’s WIZARD OF OZ’s witch Margaret Hamilton in a cameo above.

Here’s the summary from Basement Rejects: Carl Kolchak is trying to get his life back together and set himself up as a reporter in Seattle.  Hooked up with his old editor Tony (Simon Oakland), Kolchak finds himself on hot on the heels of another supernatural story.  Killings are occurring in Seattle, and they seem to fit a pattern stretching back for almost a hundred years.  Kolchak with the help of a woman named Louise Harper (Jo Ann Pflug) must capture the killer before the cycle ends…and a murderer continues to live forever.

Written by Richard Matheson and directed by Dan Curtis, The Night Strangler was a made-for-TV movie follow-up to the 1972 TV Movie The Night Stalker (which introduced the Carl Kolchak character) and premiered on ABC on January 16, 1973.

ITEM- McGavin is back as Carl Kolchak so is Simon Oakland as his editor Tony Vincenzo, re-united after apparently going their separate ways at the end of the previous movie only to be reunited in a bar in Seattle. Vincenzo gets Carl a job with the newspaper he’s landed at, although he certainly seems to regret it immediately.

Kolchak’s look is closer to what we’ll get in the series as he’s in his blue/grey seersucker suit and white shoes/sneakers.

ITEM- It’s nowhere near as good as the original and it’s got one too many similarities to the original to be unique but we have to remember that this was back in the day before VHS or DVD when people hadn’t seen Carl and Company for a whole year so a lot of that can be forgiven.

Authorities in Seattle trying to decide to throw Carl out of town or into jail.

It’s still a very good movie, it goes on a bit too long, but there is enough in it to give it a thumbs up because it still hits on some of the elements that make Kolchak entertaining including a good amount of Oddball characters;

Jo An Pflug (right) with Nina Wayne as Kolchak’s Gal Fridays

ITEM- They’re moving away from the romance aspect we saw in the first film (thankfully) and beginning the advent of the Kolchak Gal— a female character who helps Carl to various extent which will carry through the series going forward. Jo An Pflug, who was a pretty big TV actress in the 70s is exotic dancer Louise Harper. A part time college student Harper is able to connect Carl to people who know some of Seattle’s dark secrets; namely an underground city formed after the Great Fire of the previous century when the new city streets were built one to two stories higher.

A co worker of Pflug’s is fellow dancer and seemingly airheaded Nina Wayne as Charisma Beauty— she serves little purpose in the story other than to agree with much of what Harper is telling Carl, but one bit that adds to the oddball nature is Beauty’s “friend” Wilma, who appears to be a 200lb former German wrestler who also acts as her bodyguard.

Wilma has little use for Carl or men in general.

Charisma seems oblivious to Wilma’s interest in her and there are a few scenes where Wilma clearly wants to break Carl in half.

ITEM- Longtime character actor Wally Cox, best remembered for being the voice of UNDERDOG, plays bookish historian Titus Berry who is convinced the killer is a 17th Century Alchemest who has uncovered the secret of eternal life which involves using human blood to create an Elixer of Life.

Equal parts Jack the Ripper, Vampire Lore and Dorian Grey the killer is mostly kept in the shadows when he needs to be threatening but Richard Dean Anderson, who would go on to play THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN’s boss Oscar Goldman has a very speaky part during the film’s climax which actually works against the monster nature of the character.

Other oddball guest stars include Al Lewis, Grandpa Munster himself, as a street person who might know a few things and veteran horror film actor John Carradine as the authority figure who runs the paper Carl now works for and is not happy with the direction of his story.

The movie would generate ratings that approached the mega success of the first one, so a third film was planned, but eventually that was scrapped in favor of going full on TV series for the 1974/1975 TV season.

KOLCHAK RATING: 2.5 - Carl is a little more the Carl we will come to know and love with the series, but this one drags a lot. The monster is not that interesting but there’s a good deal of spookiness in this one to make it worthwhile.

Promo for the new series.

NEXT UP: The Series Begins with Episode One featuring Jack the Ripper!

Bond Tuesdays...GOLDFINGER (1964)

Directed by Guy Hamilton starring Sean Connery, Honor Blackman and Gert Frobe. Released Jan 9, 1965 110mins.

This is it folks, this is THE James Bond film. It only took them three times to get the formula down. The fashion, the Aston Martin car, Honor Blackman as one of the best and strongest Bond women in the series, and Auric Goldfinger is the bondest of all Bond Villains;

With Bond strapped to a table and Goldfinger using a laser weapon straight towards him he asks:

“Do You expect me to talk, Goldfinger?”

“No Mr Bond, I expect you to die.”

Connery is finally comfortable in the role and this is the one that all other Bond’s should be measured against. It’s got it all.

This BOND adventure cements in my mind why Bond is a character of the 60s— the fashion, the skinny ties, the Cold War at its hottest, this was the time to be a spy.

Shirley Eaton is the backup Bond girl who ends up on the poster covered in gold. Tania Mallet is her sister who comes to seek revenge and ends up worse.

Shirley Bassey knocks the theme song out of the park and John Barry brings the rest of the score up to the same level.

Sadly, Jack Lord was replaced as Felix Leiter— a role he had originated in DR NO (1962) three years earlier (see trivia below). His replacement seemed ill-matched.

TRIVIA: Originally they were going to use a buzz saw in the laser scene (as was in the book) but the producers decided the threatening buzz saw was too old fashioned.

Orson Welles was the original choice for Goldfinger, but wanted too much money.

Bond creator Ian Fleming visited the set while the movie was filming but passed away before it’s release.

One of the favorite movies of director Federico Fellini who felt this kind of film is what cinema was supposed to be about.

Producers replaced Jack Lord with the uninspiring middle aged looking Cec Linder as Bond’s best friend, CIA Agent Felix Leiter because it was felt that Lord was overshadowing Connery when he played the part in DR NO (1962)

This movie was so popular that theaters took to 24 hour showings to meet demand.

BOND will return in THUNDERBALL.

• BOND: Sean Connery is James Bond

• VILLAIN: Gert Frobe is dubbed as Goldfinger which adds something to his off manner. *****

• THEME SONG: by Shirley Bassey. *****

• HENCHMAN: OddJob kills people with his hat. *****
  OVERALL BOND RATING: 10.0

KOLCHAK PAPERS: The Night Stalker TV Movie (1972)

THE NIGHT STALKER Jan 11th 1972

Starring Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland, Carol Lynley, Ralph Meeker, Claude Akins Written by Richard Mathesan.

Here’s the IMDB Summary; Carl Kolchak is a newspaper reporter with an abrasive personality that has gotten him fired ten times from various big-city papers. Now he's reduced to reporting for a relatively small-time paper in Las Vegas. It's here he gets the story of his life. But will the local sheriff, or the D.A., or even his own boss, let him print it? He has an ally in the FBI agent (Ralph Meeker) brought in to investigate this strange case. It seems someone is biting the necks of young girls and draining their blood. Can this killer with supernormal powers really be a 70-year-old Romanian millionaire? Can he really be a vampire? And can an aging reporter do anything to stop him?

The TV Movie was the highest rated of all time, which led to a sequel the following year.
Produced by Dan Curtis, who brought us DARK SHADOWS a few years earlier, it’s equal parts THE FRONT PAGE and DRACULA.

Darren McGavin, who plays Carl, was 50 when he starred in this, which is refreshing. It gives him a seasoned flair and they never would have done this today. McGavin played Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer in a late 50s TV series and Ralph Meeker, who plays the FBI agent, also played Hammer in the outstanding 1955 Robert Altman movie KISS ME DEADLY.

McGavin was approached to play the character after a literary agent had brought Jeff Rice’s unpublished novel, THE KOLCHAK PAPERS to producer Curtis thinking it would make for a good TV Movie. McGavin plays the role nearly the same way he approached the Mike Hammer character. Like Hammer, Carl narrated his adventures to the viewers usually starting with a post climax setting with him reviewing the story for publication.

Regular KOLCHAK viewers are yelling “yuck” over this rare bit of romance in a Kolchak adventure- McGavin with Lyndley.

Kolchak is confident both in his reporting and with his girlfriend played here by Carol Lynley as Gail Foster. Lynley would play the lounge singer in the big budget POSEIDON ADVENTURE the same year. The TV Series which would follow would push against the idea of Kolchak romances and we all can say thanks for that.

The film established a few elements that would later become part of the Kolchak mythos when it was developed as a series. In Rice’s novel Kolchak wears loud Hawaiian shirts, but McGavin balked at the idea and chose instead Kolchak’s fashion sense which consisted of cheap seersucker suits.

But there’s clearly more of Mike Hammer than Carl Kolchak in this as evidenced by the romance and Carl’s hard drinking habit;

Carl Kolchak drinking beer in a polo shirt?? What madness is this?

The bottom line of this movie in comparison to the show that will follow is that Kolchak is far less likable here than he will be in the series. He’s cantankerous in the show as he is here but he verges on outright arrogance too and that makes him far less interesting.

Oddball Characters

Much of the charm of KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER is the secondary cast that would appear in various episodes, including some well known character actors of the time, and that format is lightly started here with this first movie;

Vincenzo’s appearance in this introduction is odd in that he’s dressed very casually throughout the movie.

Simon Oakland makes his debut as Carl’s overworked boss, Tony Vincenzo, who is always getting Kolchak out of trouble while trying desperately to keep his blood pressure down.

The Vampire stealing from a blood bank— creepy and brilliant!

As the vampire, Barry Atwater is intimidating and menacing, far from the usual charm we usually see with such characters. Atwater made a career out of playing tough characters and he passed away just a few years after this came out.

Producer Dan Curtis had made a name for himself with another vampire, namely Barnabas Collins from DARK SHADOWS, but unlike Collins, this vampire is not played in a sympathetic manner, rather he’s presented as a brute unspeaking monster.

Elisha Cook Jr, who was The Fat Man’s bodyguard in 1941’s THE MALTESE FALCON starring Humphrey Bogart makes an appearance here. Cook would also appear in 1978’s SALEM’S LOT which fits into the Kolchak universe in many ways.

There’s also a doctor informant but he’s way too normal for what will be the established lore.

Kolchak would always be at odds with the authorities in these stories, many of them fighting against his desire to get to the truth at the expense of general panic and here we have several Las Vegas city leaders up against him.

City leaders argue about whether to throw Carl out of town or throw him in jail.

Larry Linville appears as a smug condescending doctor who would be Kolchak’s foil if Atkins wasn’t in it. Linville went on to play the same type of character in an episode of the TV Series which will be known as KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER as well as a regular on MASH as Major Frank Burns.

Claude Akins is the Sheriff who wants to run Carl out of town. Akins was an imposing actor with little range but he’s effective in the roles he takes on. The next year he would be playing a killer gorilla general in BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES. Akins would go on to many roles in TV and B Movies over a long career.

As mentioned above Ralph Meeker is an FBI Agent and friend to Carl (a rarity) who works with the city bosses.

HOW’S THE MONSTER: Vampire looks great!

HOW’S THE SEASONED COP (OR AUTHORITY FIGURE) WHO HATES KOLCHAK: Claude Akins is not a fan of Carl.

KOLCHAK RATING 3.5 - It’s very good and it establishes a lot of what we like about the series but it lacks enough oddball characters and Kolchak himself is a bit too irritating, plus the love interest? Yuck.

Next up: The Second TV Movie

CONVENTION REPORT - SOUTH CAROLINA COMIC CON - SCCC Part Two

Andy, our driver, raced us over to our hotel got us checked in and gave us our badges. He also promised to help take care of the luggage mishap. The hotel provided us with a full compliment of toiletries to get us through the day.

Saturday morning we were up early in the same clothes as the night before— I had a quick breakfast in the hotel restaurant and we were driven over to the show— sons #2 and #3 were down for the show as buyers so they had dropped off our banner and some comics for us— we got the tables set up and got a notification that our bag had arrived at the airport— our show driver raced over and got it and all was right in the world.

Saturday was the busiest day— we saw quite a few old friends and made some new ones.

Daniel showing off an extremely rare MORTAR MAN #1- my first published work!

One of the highlights for me was Daniel coming by with a copy of MORTAR MAN #1— my first published work. His collection focuses on finding the first things pro’s ever worked on and then geting them signed— I LOVE this idea! He was a great guy to boot with some terrific stories.

Commission for Jon— one of our regulars

I was happy to see Jon back at the show— I meant to get a pic with him again this year— we took one last year— he’s a great guy who is very supportive of our work and he’s super nice— even above and beyond the South Carolina norm— which is saying something!

Us with Jon from last year!

South Carolina Comic Con is also a great BUYING show— and I picked up a few great books including one I had my eye on the second I walked in the door…

One of my favorite dealers is Ritchie at Bedrock City Comics— he always brings the goods. Now I’m what’s known as a wall shopper— that means I basically scan the wall you’ve set up rather than flip through the boxes— because most of the books I’d ever be interested in would not go into the boxes. Lucky for me son’s #2 and #3 were there and were not afraid to go through those boxes and they found me some real gems (more in a minute), but when I first walked in there was a book I’d been looking for all year— it’s in the upper left of his wall—can you see it?

Actually TWO books— a BATMAN #2 and a BATMAN #3 - from Summer and Fall of 1940— I poured over both— I love both covers very much. Ritchie had a #2 last year in lesser condition— this time around this new copy, which had just walked into his shop, was looking very pretty. The #3 I have a soft spot for but I got one years ago as an extreme bargain and sold it— so it’s hard to consider paying the going rate this time around. Which one, which one? I would think it over. I’ll show you the decision after I go through a couple of other books I found.

NYOKA THE JUNGLE GIRL was another Bedrock City Comic find— this one WAS in the boxes— and it’s important because its a photo gorilla cover and the gorilla in question is my all time favorite Hollywood Gorilla suit— the Ray Corrigan/Steve Calvert suit. I know, it’s the dopiest thing about me that I can recognize this suit— but it’s the one that was in such great B-Classics as THE GORILLA (1939), STRANGE CASE OF DR RX (1942), the wild serial THE MONSTER AND THE APE (1945) and in countless THREE STOOGES shorts. I’ve never seen him on the cover of a comic book but if I’d known this existed it would have been on my grail list— and it’s in nice condition too!

CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES #110— by this time Captain Marvel was crushing all others in the sales department— because his comics focused on FUN AND ADVENTURE (hey! That’s the slogan we’re using for ME-GRAPHICNOVELS.COM— go check it out).

Covers like this one are why I love the Golden Age— they weren’t afraid to have some fun— here we have Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent going for a walk and discovering a costume shop renting their costumes! I guarantee you nothing inside this issue had anything to do with the cover— and Bruce Wayne likely sent his attorneys after the shop for copyright infringement as soon as they were done suing the tailor that sold him a plaid green suit!

So what about the BATMAN #2 or #3?

It’s a restored copy but I don’t mind, because it’s gorgeous, and Ritchie gave me a good deal. We worked the show and then headed out to dinner at a rooftop restaurant with good friends and sons #2 and #3.

Sunday was here before you knew it and while the show was much slower we still did some good business— they invited us back for next year and we couldn’t say YES fast enough— my favorite show of the year and one of the many reasons is because its when we can meetup with our very good friend Devin Smith and his wonderful family (you can see a link to Devin’s business over there on the right).

Not only are they great peeps, Devin is also the model for our big hero KRATOS over at me-graphicnovels.com — here he is as an upcoming action figure….

Next year we vowed to come in a day earlier so we can all have dinner and catch up— but I’m planning a trip to the Atlanta area so we can spend some time together, and his daughter is becoming quite an artist on her own!

We had an early morning flight out on Monday— at 415am we stepped into the lobby and sure enough, there was our driver ready to get us over there.

The flights back were very easy— and let me tell you folks I can’t sleep on a plane but I can sleep on a plane in First Class because you have a lot more room and PEACE and QUIET! First class is completely worth it fellas and gals, completely worth it.

That was SCCC— can’t wait until next year!

Convention Report - SOUTH CAROLINA COMIC CON - SCCC Part I

South Carolina Comic Con— or SCCC for you hepcats— is held each year in Greenville South Carolina, and if you want to visit a medium city that is absolutely beautiful and free of all the nonsense that places like Portland Oregon are over-run with then check out Greenville. We’re actually looking at houses down there we liked it so much.

Mother Nature played a funny trick on us and buried us with a small but painful snowstorm on the Wednesday/Thursday before the show, which meant we flew down Friday afternoon and ended up landing in Greenville at Midnight. Rob and Michele the promoters are possibly the greatest people on the Earth— I love them both. They worked very hard to make our travel as easy as possible. Flying out of Worcester (which we had just done twice to Orlando) was out of the question because we’d have to have TWO connecting flights to do it— so we opted for Boston/Logan which is actually an easy 40 minute ride for us— but its when you get there that things go South— they have intensive security and bomb sniffing dogs and since my trunk often has recently transported large firearms there is more often than not gun powder residue that them there dogs go crazy for— so it makes for an extended check in.

Instead we opted to leave the car at Logan Express and take the bus in from Framingham— normally a really easy experience, this time around the bus was PACKED and there were several people yapping away on their phones which just adds to the fun.

Bus arrived at Logan and we made it through security (TSA Precheck) in no time— Veronica got pulled out of line— and I laughed at her, but it turned out it was my dop-kit that had an old timey razor in it that caused her to get flagged— so I stepped in and explained the situation and soon we were on our way.

We flew American Airlines First Class to Reagan in Washington, which is a very short flight but they still managed to make us some coffee and take good care of us.

We had a pretty long layover at Reagan so we grabbed a bite to eat and enjoyed ourselves while we waited— but the flight which was set to take off at 10:15pm kept getting delayed and then moved from gate to gate. I should have been more concerned but I fly a fair amount and seldom have a problem. That was about to change.

After a while they finally settled on a plane and a gate and we landed in Greenville at Midnight— which was about on time. We got down to baggage claim and while Veronica waited I ran a quick errand— she texted me and said “We aren’t getting our bag.” To which I replied “ha.”

As I walked back to baggage claim I noticed a person in an American Airlines vest standing in the middle of a circle of my fellow passengers— this didn’t look good.

Turns out— when they switched planes they forgot to get the bags off. So NOBODY had their luggage. THIS is why people travel with everything they own as they get on a plane. I’m a carry a single briefcase on kind of guy— but if this happens to you enough I can see why you become one of THEM.

That meant that we had no clothes, but just as bad we had no art to sell at the show, and no art supplies to do commissions— so we’d essentially be sitting there looking blank.

The AA Worker was no help— not only did they not apologize, they didn’t seem to care. The bags would be there “tomorrow” around 4pm they said, we can just come back for them. There was one guy there that was 75 miles away— I don’t think I would have been too happy.

Since I misssed the initial conversation I pretty much stood there in disbelief and then decided we’d just figure it out. The con would certainly help us out however they could and we needed to find our ride outside— the show sets up car service for us to and from the airport and to and from the hotel to the show— this is all the guests so it’s a lot of work for them, and we certainly appreciate it.

Part Two Tomorrow.