Stan Lee for Pope?
Last Saturday I took to the train to NYC for comic con. It was very, very early, but I just couldn't sleep on the train. I was too excited. I noticed four teenagers on the train who also seemed to be going to comic con--three girls and one guy. I am not sure how I feel about that. Mostly relieved I guess, since "back in my day" I didn't have to compete with tons of attractive and "cool" looking females as a comic book chick. Indeed, I was surprised how many woman/girls were at comic con. I don't know if it's the movies or manga or if more females are actually reading comics... Anyway, back to the train--the woman who sat next to us spent the trip on her rosary, leading Scott to ponder the two pilgrimages that where going on that day. Hundreds, if not thousands, of catholics were coming from Long Island and around the country to see the Pope in NYC at the same time that hundreds, if not thousands, of comic book fans where going to NYC to see a variety of comic greats. The first person we were going to see was Stan Lee himself. Now for those of you who don't know who Stan Lee is--despite his numerous cameos in various Marvel movies and Mall Rats--he was editor and chief of Marvel for a really long time and created (or helped create) most of the classic Marvel characters like Spiderman, the original X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and the Hulk (more I'm sure, but you get my point).
Anyway, we met up with Brian and two of his friends at Penn Station and walked to the Javis Center where we stood on a very long line for what seemed like a very long time. Luckily a great number of people where dressed as various comic book, manga and other science fiction/fantasy characters, so there was something to pass the time. (Amusing moment--Scott was literally unable to speak for a few seconds after one Poison Ivy walked passed. lol) The level of excitement was high, people where throwing things into the crowd, and there was a Stan Lee sighting. Finally we began to move. Then we discovered that we had been standing in line for the vendor floor and would have to go to a completely different area to hear the presentations!!! Luckily everyone else seemed to have made the same mistake, and we were able to get seats to here Stan speak. It was the biggest room and still there were a lot of people standing. And while I won't say it was an actual religious experience, when he said "excelsior" I got chills.
I also got to see Mike Mignolia (Hellboy) and Orson Scott Card as well as some other people who's names I forget. Card was an excellent lecturer. I've been a fan of his books for a long time and Brian had told me what a good job he did with Ultimate Iron Man (which I was inspired to buy in trade paperback form). Apparently it had been unveiled earlier that Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow would be turned into comics by Marvel (they'll be running parallel to each other--sometimes with the same scene being shown at the same time from the different character's point of view). He also talked a bit about an Ender's Game movie, which he'll have a lot of control with. But in general he just talked and was amazing. He reminded me of some of my favorite professors --everything he said was interesting, whether it was on topic or not, and I felt like I could have listened to him for hours and hours without getting bored. (Obviously I'm a bit crazy with the whole loving lectures, but everyone I was with did agree that Card was really interesting.)
We spent more money than we meant too on the vendor floor, but all of it was on comics and we got several things we'd been looking for. It was really awesome to see Brian. We both promised to try to get together soon. Luckily we're both slackers about that kind of thing, so we never hold it against each other when it doesn't happen. Though hopefully when we move to Brooklyn we'll actually do it once or twice.
Speaking of moving... Scott is definitely going to Pratt. We have no idea where we'll be living, except that we're going to try to be near Pratt (the Brooklyn campus). I'm pretty excited. I might keep my job here for a while and stay at my parents for a couple of days a week. We'll see what happens. I'm toying with the idea of going to massage school (which is something I've toyed with, on and off, for about ten years now). There are a number of schools in the city, and a massage license from NYS will transfer without problem to most other states (the advantage to having such a picky state *grin*). So if anyone wants to see Montauk again, visit me this summer because this fall we'll be gone!!
Anyway, we met up with Brian and two of his friends at Penn Station and walked to the Javis Center where we stood on a very long line for what seemed like a very long time. Luckily a great number of people where dressed as various comic book, manga and other science fiction/fantasy characters, so there was something to pass the time. (Amusing moment--Scott was literally unable to speak for a few seconds after one Poison Ivy walked passed. lol) The level of excitement was high, people where throwing things into the crowd, and there was a Stan Lee sighting. Finally we began to move. Then we discovered that we had been standing in line for the vendor floor and would have to go to a completely different area to hear the presentations!!! Luckily everyone else seemed to have made the same mistake, and we were able to get seats to here Stan speak. It was the biggest room and still there were a lot of people standing. And while I won't say it was an actual religious experience, when he said "excelsior" I got chills.
I also got to see Mike Mignolia (Hellboy) and Orson Scott Card as well as some other people who's names I forget. Card was an excellent lecturer. I've been a fan of his books for a long time and Brian had told me what a good job he did with Ultimate Iron Man (which I was inspired to buy in trade paperback form). Apparently it had been unveiled earlier that Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow would be turned into comics by Marvel (they'll be running parallel to each other--sometimes with the same scene being shown at the same time from the different character's point of view). He also talked a bit about an Ender's Game movie, which he'll have a lot of control with. But in general he just talked and was amazing. He reminded me of some of my favorite professors --everything he said was interesting, whether it was on topic or not, and I felt like I could have listened to him for hours and hours without getting bored. (Obviously I'm a bit crazy with the whole loving lectures, but everyone I was with did agree that Card was really interesting.)
We spent more money than we meant too on the vendor floor, but all of it was on comics and we got several things we'd been looking for. It was really awesome to see Brian. We both promised to try to get together soon. Luckily we're both slackers about that kind of thing, so we never hold it against each other when it doesn't happen. Though hopefully when we move to Brooklyn we'll actually do it once or twice.
Speaking of moving... Scott is definitely going to Pratt. We have no idea where we'll be living, except that we're going to try to be near Pratt (the Brooklyn campus). I'm pretty excited. I might keep my job here for a while and stay at my parents for a couple of days a week. We'll see what happens. I'm toying with the idea of going to massage school (which is something I've toyed with, on and off, for about ten years now). There are a number of schools in the city, and a massage license from NYS will transfer without problem to most other states (the advantage to having such a picky state *grin*). So if anyone wants to see Montauk again, visit me this summer because this fall we'll be gone!!