Nice to see BLACKWOOD prominently displayed among some real masterpieces at That’s Entertainment on Park Avenue in Worcester MA. I really loved working on that title.
Speaking of Star Trek...
Last week I wrote about Mister Spock being my desk buddy and I got a few questions as to which version of Star Trek is my favorite.
I am a strange person.
I only like The Original Series, or as we called it, STAR TREK.
And here’s a bigger admission— I’ve not seen all 79 episodes. I can only tell you the title of a handful, and I can tell you the ones I’ve seen I’ve liked. So how then am I fan?
The books.
In the 1970s before the advent of VHS you had books, and I had all of the Star Trek novels by James Blish, and I really enjoyed them. I still have them to this day. I love to read.
Today I tend to read hardcovers but that wasn’t an option back then, and I still have great affection for them. Here’s a bit further down the paperback bookshelf— The Shadow, Eightman, Doc Savage— and lots and lots of Star Trek.
The Rubber Suited Batmen.
I know to a generation Batman is a character wrapped in sleek black Rubber— starting with Michael Keaton and going all the way thirty five years later to that kid from that sparkly vampire movie. I find the rubber suit Batman no bueno. In fact I was walking around my studio looking for a black suit Batman among the hundreds of Batman items up here and could only find this one that someone gave me a few years ago. I don’t even know (or care) what version this is. But as far as I’m concerned Batman wears tights.
Sometimes apparently even Pink Tights (another give from a dear friend who is no longer with us).
Highly Illogical
Mister Spock is my drawing table co-pilot— sharp eyed readers will note its the “evil” Spock from the classic episode MIRROR MIRROR where Kirk, McCoy, Uhura and probably someone else get all mixed up in the transporter and end up in a parallel universe where the USS Enterprise is part of a conquering Empire. Spock saves the day on both sides as he always does. Even though I am much more like Captain Kirk, Spock is the guy I’d want to hang around with.
Why Are they Making a Red Batman Figure?
McFarlane Toys is the current toymaker who is producing a line of action figures based on the Adam West Classic TV Series— you’d think a nearly 60 year old property wouldn’t get much interest but they are going deep. Todd is a fan, so that helps. Recently they’ve released a Red-Suit variant of Batman with no explanation (and he has black mask and cape rather than blue) so I figured I’d step up and answer it.
It’s based on this vintage Italian BATMAN movie poster— talk about your deep dives!
This makes drinking tea more bearable....
Veronica got me this great mug featuring the classic DISNEY Character THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN— I don’t mix Tea Mugs with Coffee Mugs— so this one is a tea mug— it makes drinking the vile liquid that much more tolerable.
In truth, I don’t hate Tea— I hate broccoli. If we have another revolution I’m going to pitch throwing that into the Atlantic to declare our independence.
I’d like to pickup the tradition of my British ancestors and take tea everyday at 4pm. I’ve dropped down to one cup of coffee per day (sometimes I cheat and make an iced coffee on the hottest days) but I like the afternoon break. I also love the idea of tea sandwiches and cake— but then again I love sandwiches and cake.
I would never throw those in the Atlantic.
My two favorite things at the show, Veronica and the Batmobile.
ACE COMIC CON REPORT - Chicago Part 3
Revisiting some previous con reports…
Saturday is always the biggest day of a comic book convention and this one certainly was busy. We got back into the hall about 1015am after breakfast and it was in full swing. It should be noted that this wasn’t a typical comic book convention, the amount of comic book creators was small— and most of us D-listers were connected to the A List Celebrity guest list. Featured guests for the show were Brie Larson (who is an academy award winning actress who also plays Captain Marvel) Tom Holland who plays Spider-Man, Jake Gyllenhaal who was also in Spider-Man (I haven’t seen any of the Spider-Man movies so I don’t know who he was), Chris Hemsworth who is Thor and a bunch more actors all who are major players not to mention Kiernan Shipka who plays Sabrina Spellman on CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA and the primary reason we were invited.
All right so the show would attract a lot of folks who like celebrities, now I’m not trying to sound like an elitist but I probably will anyway— I don’t know any of these people— I’ve only seen one half an episode of the Sabrina show, but I’ve not seen any of the Marvel Movies in full other than Civil War which I thought was fun and Guardians of the Galaxy— but I’m also terrible with names and connecting people to things so we were not the audience for a show like this— the question would be were there any comic fans attending?
Well, as I mentioned last time the show did a special edition Sabrina Comic Book so that made our table especially popular.
Saturday night we had reservations at Gibsons again but Veronica had a headache and Gibsons can be loud (especially on a Saturday) so I cancelled them and we ended up at the Embassy Suites bar where they have complimentary cocktails for guests. An advil and a Gin and Tonic later and she was feeling better. I had a Vodka Tonic and a Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken for dinner— she had vegetables and the last 1/4 of my salad. With all this travel I’ve been eating at the hotel bar at least one night and I have to say each of these hotels has really upped their game— the salad was exceptional, and I really enjoyed. it.
Sunday was our biggest “commitment” day of the weekend, we were doing a panel on the main stage, which looks like this;
Basically its a stage with stools and then two massive TVs which project your image as you talk— no pressure or anything there— the 1000+ attendees are just another element to it.
We did the panel with two other artists, who are both amazing, Erin Lefler and Brianna Garcia— Erin works for LucasArts doing Star Wars art and Brianna works for Nikelodeon — the panel was fun and the moderator was on her game so she kept things light and moving along.
The interview production team setting up for our 15 minutes of fame at our table.
At 1:30 we did an interview with the ACE Camera and Video Team— I have to say all of the Ace folks were really exceptional, from Stephen Shamus who came over to welcome us and bring us a pile of the Sabrina comic they had printed up just for the event to Alex the guest co ordinator, Frank, Jeff and Phil from the Media branch right down to the handlers everyone did a great job. The interview was fun and light weight and it was shortly after that we had our last “commitment” which was a meet and greet and photo shoot with Kiernan Shipka who plays Sabrina on the Netflix Show.
Now people pay big bucks and wait in a ridiculous line— I’m talking 4-500 people in line— but they raced us around back and to the front of the line inside the curtained area (sorry to everyone we cut but PR is a priority) where we waited for a few minutes before Kiernan came in— she seemed genuinely excited that we draw the comic book version of her character and she was super nice to us.
By the time we were done with that it was nearly the end of the show— we went back to our table, signed a few more books and started to say our goodbyes, I snuck over to get a picture with the Batmobile and the owner was kind enough to take a bunch of pictures— I looked up and was happy to see Veronica decided to come along (she told me to go alone at first) so we got some pictures together with it.
With the show over we broke down our table and brought our stuff back to the hotel. Our flight home wasn’t until Monday so we had Sunday night to celebrate a successful show. We started the night at the hotel bar where we each had two cocktails, then back over to Gibsons for a nice meal where we also had cocktails and the manager floated our bar tab. Jared Brown is the Manager of Gibsons and he’s a helluva guy. He told me I was a class act, but man it’s not hard to be one when you’re with a guy like him.
From Gibsons we decided to do a bit of Rosemont so we went over to King’s Entertainment and shot some pool, then we wandered around a bit and decided to bar hop a few of the better hotels (actually all of the hotels in Rosemont are top notch). We started at ALOFT which is a modern European style hotel— then the Hyatt which is probably the five star hotel with a really nice bar— from there we went over to the Hilton— the night was getting chilly and they had a huge fireplace so it was nice to warm up and have a few more cocktails, our bartender Ricardo was excellent. From there we headed back to the Embassy Suites where we ended our night. Yes it was a lot of cocktails but we can both hold our liquor pretty well, you’d never know we were a bit tipsy.
Monday morning we had breakfast then jumped on the hotel shuttle to the airport where we had a short wait for our plane to board and we arrived back in Boston a few minutes early. Landing in Boston at 4pm we walked outside and virtually stepped onto the Logan Express back to Framingham. We went over to Zaftigs for dinner but it was closed because it was Columbus Day— Minado next door wouldn’t open for another hour so we decided to get a walk in, check out World Market and then hit Harry’s on our way back where I had an amazing Corned Beef on Rye.
A great convention, great company and a great trip!