The Three-City Tour of Love Parts One and Two
The relationship I have with Erin confuses a lot of people. They don't understand how we've managed to maintain ourselves for so long even though we're so far apart -- me in Louisiana, she in Pittsburgh. I won't lie -- it isn't easy. It sucks not to be able to see her every day, to go to a movie and wish she was in the seat next to me, to have good news to share (or bad news to lament) and to have to have the conversation over the telephone instead of face-to-face. It sucks. It's hard. And if I wasn't in the situation myself, I don't think I could understand how anyone could do it either. But the truth is, no matter how hard it is sometimes, the alternative -- to give up someone I love more than anything -- would be infinitely worse.
Plus, when you spend so much time apart, it makes times like last week, when we were together, all the more special. My old compadre Mike Bellamy and I had been planning another trip to a comic book convention for a long time -- the last time he and I travelled together was for 2002's Wizard World Chicago. Now that Wizard World has a Philly convention as well, this seemed to be perfect -- not only would we get to hit a con, but we would pick up Erin and take her with us. Mike's wife, Kim, would also be joining us, thereby allowing us to sit boy-girl-boy-girl at any restaurants along the way.
PART 1: The Journey
Kim, unfortunately, had to work the day we left (Wednesday, June 13), causing us to get a later start than we wanted. This wasn't a total loss, however, as it allowed Mike and I to get our comics for the week. Kim thought we were crazy. But by 3:57 p.m., we rode with the desert wind.
It was also at this point that I began jotting down interesting occurrences on our journey in my notebook. Upon seeing me write, Kim asked, "He does this every time?" Spoken like someone who's never taken a road trip before.
* 5:51 p.m. -- After much rain and traffic, we cross into Mississippi.
* 6:27 p.m. -- We see a motorcycle with a sidecar. My shock at seeing that sidecars still exist is mitigated by the realization that the driver has not one, but two children in the sidecar.
* 8:09 p.m. -- We enter Alabama. Kim laments that she forgot to bring along "The Sims" for her Nintendo DS, a machine which will prove to get her in trouble later.
* 9:10 -- Our first pit stop. Kim again laments, this time the fact that her cat is lonely at home.
* June 14, 2007, 1:31 a.m. -- We run across our first construction area somewhere in Tennessee. This is not surprising. Due to some sort of cosmic convergence, there is always construction when we drive.
* 2:47 a.m. -- Refill stop #2. Outside of Knoxville, Tenn., we fill the gas tank at a station that evidently cleans it bathrooms in the middle of the night and thus closes to the public. We get back into the car, legs pinched together, wishing the owner of the station hideous, festering boils leading to death.
* 5:46 a.m. -- For the second time in an hour, we pass through a tunnel with a lane closed. What's up with Virginia's subterranean transportation system?
* 7:20 a.m. -- Stopping for food, gas and other assorted sundries in Clarksburg, West Virginia, I decide without a doubt that this is the worst graffiti we have yet encountered on our trip. I have no idea exactly which minority group the author is prejudiced against, nor do I know what he intends to do with them. Public schools. Yeesh.
* 10:05 a.m. -- At a gas station in Pennsylvania, the old lady cashier finds out from Kim that we're all from Louisiana. After Kim says that she and Mike live near "the bayou," the woman asks her, "What's the real story? I know it's like a jungle. My son tells me you don't have roads and you take boats everywhere." I wish for the producers of the movies and television shows that have created this impression to contract the same festering boils as gas station owners that close their bathrooms at 2:47 a.m.
* 11:00 a.m. -- Finally heading into Pittsburgh, we drive past "Picasso Autobody." I don't know about you, but I don't think I want my car to look like Picasso worked on it.
*11:30 a.m. -- We finally meet up with Erin. All is suddenly right with the universe. Her mother is kind enough to take us to lunch before we begin on the next leg of our journey, the five-hour drive to Philadelphia, where the convention is held, and right across the state line to Gloucester City, New Jersey, where our actual hotel is. I don't take notes for a while. My attention is elsewhere.
PART 2: The Convention
Wizard World Philadelphia 2007 was held from June 15 through June 17. Mike, Kim and Erin each had a three-day pass, while I used my status as an editor at Comixtreme to get a press badge. I justified this by bringing with me a portable voice recorder, and throughout the weekend the four of us recorded sound bites commenting on the convention that I pieced together into a special edition of our 2 in 1 Showcase podcast. These conventions are great -- you get to shop, you have a front row seat for big announcements, you can hang out with other geeks and you meet the people who make the comics you love. And I'm fortunate enough to have a girlfriend who is ALSO into comics, and who came along willingly and not just to make me happy. Although she most certainly did do the latter.
After we stopped for breakfast at the sort of deliciously greasy diner you can only find in the city, we picked up our passes and then proceeded to stand in line for another hour before we got into the convention. Erin started playing with the camera about then, taking pictures of the four of us waiting to get into the show:
Me:
Erin:
Mike:
Kim:
You'll notice that Kim and Erin are both wearing "I Heart My Geek" shirts. These special edition collector's items were made by Kim's sister and proved to be of much amusement to Bob Wayne of DC Comics, who saw us at so many panels that weekend he must have suspected we were stalking him.
We spent most of that first day hitting a couple of DC panels, leading to one of the highlights of the day: when Bob Wayne asked for suggestions for future Showcase reprint editions, I suggested the Keith Giffen era of Justice League, which was met with much applause by the attendees, but which totally lost at least 75 percent of you reading this. Mike and I also got several autographs, including an issue of Batman drawn by Andy Kubert, but with a cover illustration inked by his father, comic book legend Joe Kubert. The elder Kubert would only be attending the convention on Saturday and it was our intention to get the comic autographed by them both. When we told Andy that's what we were doing, he only wanted to talk about his father after that, making him seem like a real class act.
We all also bought new shirts on Day One, which we wore on Day Two. I donned my Green Lantern colors, while Erin asked for a Joker t-shirt as part of her birthday present from me:
Mike and Kim, meanwhile, decided to sport dualing Bizarro t-shirts.
We also attended two more panels that day -- the DC Universe panel and the Vertigo Comics Panel, both of which (again) were hosted by Bob Wayne, who at this point could appear in our family photographs. (Those of you hoping for actual comic book news, look for this Wednesday's Everything But Imaginary column.) Both panels were cool, for different reasons. At the Vertigo panel, we got to see the trailer for the upcoming Stardust movie, which all four of us are quite excited about. At the DCU panel, we got the last two pins in DC's Countdown series. The way it worked was, you got two pins each for attending two different panels. If you had all four, you could go to the DC booth later and get an exclusive fifth pin. We each managed to complete our sets:
We got a few more autographs on Day Two, particularly comic book legends Joe Kubert, Jim Steranko and Carmine Infantino. For those of you who don't read comic books, imagine getting an autograph from Orson Welles, Frank Capra or Humphrey Bogart. As often happens at these conventions, my Uncle Joe sent me along with a few books to get signed and a request: get him an autographed picture of Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane on the classic Adventures of Superman TV show with George Reeves. Well, I got Joe his picture...
And I got THIS one for myself:
This marks the second time I've gotten my picture taken with a Lois Lane, and for the second time, I'm wearing a superhero T-Shirt other than Superman. For reference, here's the first picture, from Wizard World Dallas 2004, with Smallville's Erica Durance:
Actually, I just love posting that picture. Anyway, that's two Loises down, three to go. (Margot Kidder, Teri Hatcher, Kate Bosworth... I'm looking for ya.)
Another big thing at conventions is getting sketches from comic book pros. Some people have themes -- they always want the same character, or something like that. Others just want what they like.There's something tremendously cool about asking for a certain sketch and then watching as it is drawn. Erin, sweetly, got a sketch for me from Archie Comics artist Dan Parent:
For herself, she got what would be the first of several sketches of her favorite character, Harley Quinn. This one was done by an artist named Matt Dalton:
After we finished Day Two, Erin took us for dinner at a place that I will henceforth refer to as "Heaven in Philly." Geno's Steaks:
Geno's did not INVENT the Philly Cheesesteak, but then again, the Italians didn't invent spaghetti, either. They just turned it into a masterpiece. After consuming a Steak from Geno's, I not only have new respect for Cheese Whiz... I think this spot, the oasis in the desert, is the reason God invented the sandwich.
And in one of those cases of cosmic coincidence, as we were arriving to order our Steaks, who did we see leaving Geno's? Comic Book Legend Joe Kubert. Unfortunately, I just saw him in time to see him getting into his car (a damn nice car too) and driving off, so you'll have to take my word for it. But it was cool.
Day Three of a convention is the day when things wind down. Dealers are trying to sell off as much of their merchandize as possible so they don't have to cart it home, and you can make some really good deals. I dove into the quarter bins while Erin began going through the half-priced trade paperbacks (her preferred method of reading comic books). Before we even got into the building, though, we were approached by a group of grad students who asked us to fill out a personality survey as part of some sort of study course
There is now scientific evidence out there that comic book readers are a bunch of neurotic messes. And we're a part of that. Awesome.
Erin got a few more sketches as well, including two more Harleys. She got this "zombie-fied" version of Harley drawn by Christopher Uminga:
And this GREAT one by Dennis Budd:
She got two other sketches by Budd too: a Joker...
And this one of a character she tells me is becoming one of her favorites, Power Girl:
And finally, this cute Batman by artist Laura Klein:
Then she met the people behind the comic book Sullengrey, who made her an offer she couldn't refuse. For one low price, she got four issues of the comic book, a CD of music inspired by the comic, AND a sketch of herself as a zombie! So here, for your viewing pleasure, is what the love of my life will look like if I don't manage to protect her with a cricket bat after the inevitable Zombie Apocalypse begins:
The final highlight of the day -- and the convention -- came courtesy of Kim. A bit tired, a bit weary, she looked for a place to take a load off and relax with her appliance of choice: her Nintendo DS. However, the spot she chose was a bit... dubious.
After she'd spent a few minutes Tetrising, the Playstation Guys rushed out, pointed at the sign and began taking pictures of her. To their credit, they were really nice about it. They teased her about it, but they were never mean and seemed to think the whole situation was as funny as everyone else did.
And sadly, the convention ended, leaving me with a bunch of pictures I don't really have stories to go with. So to wrap up the first part of this chronicle of my week with Erin, here are some random images from around the convention:
This set of images comes to us courtesy of the Delaware Valley Lego Users Club, a group of people I now refer to as "Awesome in a Box." They created an entire comic book city out of Lego, including...
Four Freedoms Plaza (one-time headquarters of the Fantastic Four):
The streets of Gotham City:
The graveyard home of The Spirit:
And my personal favorite... MEANWHILE... AT THE HALL OF JUSTICE...
This artist spent all three days of the convention working on an enormous chalk drawing to go along with the movie Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Here it is in various stages of completion:
We spotted DC Comics editor Mike Carlin (in the Green Lantern jersey) having a clandestine conversation with Burt Ward, TV's Robin. Coincidence? You decide.
As always, there were a ton of costumers. This guy spent WAY too much time on his...
Erin got captured by Boba Fett...
...twice.
I, on the other hand, was captured by Soundwave.
We bartered for droids with these two.
Darth Vader wasn't the only Sith on the convention floor.
Erin got to meet Jack Sparrow. She will henceforth use this picture in retaliation whenever I feel the need to post my Erica Durance photo.
When Erin asked this little guy if she could take his picture, he immediately struck a pose. It was adorable.
We found Waldo.
And finally, we found out that, since the disappointment of his third film, Spider-Man has kinda let himself go.
There was a Jedi Training Academy at the con too.
Erin even managed to snag brief videos of the Jedi in action! And thus ends the visual tour of our convention. That was only the beginning, though -- we still had four more days before Mike, Kim and I went home. And you'll hear all about that in the NEXT part of this little memoir.
Click to view